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Report: #737773

Complaint Review: Econohomes, LLC - Austin Texas

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  • Reported By: Ex-employee of Econohomes — Austin Texas United States of America
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  • Econohomes, LLC 1901 Braker Lane Austin, Texas United States of America

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I am an ex-employee of Econohomes, LLC and would like to let people know what really goes on there and how they operate.

NOTE: You may see rebuttals from Kim Jones and Dan Novotny.  These people make thousands of dollars per month for referring people to Econohomes and do not actually buy anything themselves. They scour the internet looking for potential buyers and just send the names in for a referral fee. They also come to this website and others advocating for them so they can keep getting paid. Econohomes also hires web image/reputation consultants to try to erase any bad publicity about them on-line. So beware of anyone defending them on this site or any other.

Usurious Lending Practices: Econohomes offers financing to buyers.  It is under the guise of "Investor" loans.  They knowingly provide these loans to people who intend to occupy them as a primary residence.  The people that take these loans are typically not savvy investors and a lot of times uneducated working class people.  Econohomes and the greed machine they are happily take advantage of these people so they can sell another run down house to a hapless victim and keep paying ridiculous returns of 40-50% to their investors. 

They sell these homes without even having the deed.  They call it a "trailing deed" which is not a legal term. They actually invented the term and boast about it.  Many of the homes also have liens and judgments on them.  They offer you a title search through a national company called Pro Title. These reports are very unreliable and many times do not show things that pull up on other company's reports.  A lot of times they may know something that is wrong with the property or the title and withhold the info.  A co-worker of mine even received an email from the manager (Jon Shipley) clearly stating not to tell a customer about a $100,000 lien tied to the property.  Could that be construed as deceptive? 

Ignorant Staff: All of the deceptive practices that go on at Econohomes are handed from the top down (Namely Ed Sumner: Ex-Countrywide Loans scum - the main driver of greed at the company) None of the employees have any real estate experience and have no idea what a deed or title is. They just tell customers what they are told by management in order to make the sale.

Note to Econohomes Investors: You are most likely involved in a Ponzi Scheme by now. Econohomes has to keep buying hundreds of properties to keep up with the returns they promised you.  The problem is that they can only sell the good ones and keep piling up an inventory of worthless properties.  I can not be sure what they are claiming is the value of these "assets" but if marked to market they have no value because of the liens, condition, back taxes, etc.  So, if I were you, I would take my money and run because their system is unsustainable. and someone is going to get stuck holding the bag.  They are buying the worst inventory that the banks cannot sell and then sell what they can. Now they are holding the worst of the worst of the worst. Who wants that?

All I can say is BUYER BEWARE - Make sure you know what you are doing - DO NOT BUY ANYTHING WITHOUT A DEED and DO NOT SIGN their contract.  You pretty much waive any rights you have and take all responsibility and liability for what could be attached to that property.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 06/07/2011 08:48 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/econohomes-llc/austin-texas-78758/econohomes-llc-visio-capital-scam-usurious-lending-deceptive-practices-austin-texas-737773. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
3Consumer
2Employee/Owner

#5 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Owner of the Company

AUTHOR: Owner of the Company - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, September 30, 2015

What is very interesting about this rebuttal is that it was NOT from the original filer. This posting just goes to show that anyone can file a similar report. Look up Hogan v. Econohomes or any of the 20 or so bankruptcy cases to see this company is a sham, swindeling money from hard working Americans. 

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#4 General Comment

Comments from reading the angry employee of Econohomes.

AUTHOR: dhcklbrry - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, January 17, 2013

I am a Real Estate Agent that represented a Buyer  who was interested in a home that was owned by Econohomes. I talk to a person at Econohomes who informed me of some of the terms of the sale and sent me a contract of theirs to read. They wanted to charge my Buyer a $995.00 fee for a quick claim deed! That is expensive! So I told him that we will pay for our own title company and get a proper title search done plus title insurance. He told me that they will charge my Buyer $1445.00 I asked him for what and all he said was I can't break down the $1445.00 for you, our standard fee is $995 + $450 = $1445 if you want to do a full close! I said so your going to charge my Buyer $1445.00 to use our own title company, thats crazy! Our title company will do a full search on the title and with title insurance it is not even going to cost $600.00 in the price range were in. Which is about $35000.00. Plus the contract itself is full of red flags! The contract wants the Buyer to waive all their consumer rights in all states! WOW, the contract wants Buyers to be responsible for any leins or defects or mortgages etc. etc... that might be found on the title, so Econohomes is not responsible for anything. I have done lots of foreclosure from banks for my Investors and homes sold by HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, not once was any of my Buyers charge a huge fee for using a title company of their choice. As a matter of fact the Seller will pay for the title work if you use their title company and give you a clear title. Warranty Deed. Also if the Buyer wants to use their own title company thats ok, they just have to pay for their own title work which usually runs around $600.00 but they don't charge you a huge fee like Econohomes does. Plus there are plenty of homes that are foreclsoures from banks for sale. Econohomes is not doing anything special for the public. Your local realtor can show you plenty of homes for sale that are forclosures. I recomended to my Buyer not to do business with Econohomes. Everything on the contract was geared to Econohomes not taking any responsibility according to the contract and dumping everything on the Buyer! I never seen a contract like that! Ever! I do say Buyer Beware! Also I agree with the ex employee, some of the things he said were things that I was highly suspicous of after reading the contract!

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#3 Consumer Comment

Update

AUTHOR: Update - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, November 07, 2011

When I posted my May 29, 2011 and June 7, 2011 complaints about Econohomes, LLC, I was upset.  I should have not posted that Econohomes, LLC or any entity associated with Econohomes, LLC (including Visio Capital) is involved in a scam or usury or deceptive practices or a greed machine or any scheme to take advantage  of hapless victims.  I should not have accused Ed Scumner of being scum.  I should not have characterized Econohomes, LLC as being involved in a
Ponzi Scheme or Predatory Lending.  I made these posts while disgruntled about being fired by Econohomes.  I realize now that I should not have posted these opinions.  They are not supported by fact. Econohomes, LLC is a legitimate business, which makes every attempt to follow the law.  If I hurt anyone at Econohomes, I am sorry.  Please
disregard my posts.  They are incorrect.

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#2 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Update

AUTHOR: Update - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, November 02, 2011

When I posted my May 29, 2011 and June 7, 2011 complaints about Econohomes, LLC, I was upset.  I should have not posted that Econohomes, LLC or any entity associated with Econohomes, LLC (including Visio Capital) is involved in a scam or usury or deceptive practices or a greed machine or any scheme to take advantage  of hapless victims.  I should not have accused Ed Scumner of being scum.  I should not have characterized Econohomes, LLC as being involved in a Ponzi Scheme or Predatory Lending.  I made these posts while disgruntled about being fired by Econohomes.  I realize now that I should not have posted these opinions.  They are not supported by fact.  Econohomes, LLC is a legitimate business, which makes every attempt to follow the law.  If I hurt anyone at Econohomes, I am sorry.  Please disregard my posts.  They are incorrect.

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#1 Consumer Comment

Angry Ex Employee

AUTHOR: JBurns - (United States of America)

POSTED: Tuesday, June 07, 2011

I notice in your rip off report that you are an ex-employee of Econohomes.  Obviously you more than likely were let go, or left yourself due to your own non-performance and not being able to do what you were hired for.  So right away I realized that you were writing this post seeking revenge.  I cant help but notice throughout your report that you stress that anyone reading any rebuttals should not believe them, but should just take your word for what you are saying as truth (someone seeking revenge) even though your only goal is to hurt Econohomes and the individuals who work for them. 
Over the years I have invested in real estate and worked with real estate investors nationwide.  Econohomes offers a source for real estate investors as well as families wanting affordable housing to purchase property below the current market values.  Other similar sources for investors to buy similar property at may be your county run foreclosure sales, county tax deed sales and other privately run companies that buy in bulk and sell the properties individually to investors similar to Econohomes.  In purchasing from any of these sources, even the government it is up to the investor to do their due diligence. Even when you purchase property from the government, you are not assured that there are not outstanding liens on the property.  In most tax deed sales and tax foreclosures the only title you will get at closing is a quit claim deed. . .  Isnt this the same title you receive in closing a property with Econohomes?
Not only have you decided to attack Econohomes in your anger, but it appears that you are willing to attack anyone who works with them.  Even a privately owned national title company called Pro Title saying that they intentionally leave out liens and other encumbrances on their title reports that the buyers are paying for.  I guess it really is good that you did not post your name in this report, because if I owned that title company I would have you in court in no time.  You dont go online and slander people because you no longer have a job.
I have yet to know any of the investors that I work with that have used Econohomes financing program.  This has been by their choice, and the fact that they have the cash to pay for the properties up front. What you forgot to mentioned in your report that this financing program is only designed for interim financing (9 months) and not intended to be permanent financing.  Yes, should an investor decide to use this interim financing, they realize up front that it is what could be considered as a hard money loan.  Yet I am sure there are investors that will take out this interim financing to give them the time to refurbish the property and either resell it or refinance it after the work is completed.  This is not a loan that is forced on anyone, and in the past I have taken out hard money loans on property that I did not have the cash to purchase outright.  And I was able to make a very good profit from doing so, even after paying the higher than normal interest rate they charged.
Econohomes purchases in bulk.  That means that they must take all the property that is offered to them on the list of homes from the banks.  Some of these properties may be in great shape, others may be in need of major repairs.  They price them accordingly!  In buying in bulk packages they are able to purchase these properties at such a great price that even with their mark-up they are still able to sell them to us at prices well below the current market values.  And yes, I am sure they make a profit, thats the way successful businesses operate. 
In a summary, Econohomes runs a great operation, I will continue to buy form them and refer anyone I know to them that is looking for investment properties. 
They offer homes at below current market values that make it affordable not only to investors but to families as well. 
Yes you do have to do your due diligence, the same as you would have to with any real estate purchase, and everyone that I have talked with at Econohomes will tell you that.  Even when you buy form the government you will still need to do your due diligence, because they also offer the property as is, where is, with any liens or encumbrances that may be attached to it.
Econohomes helps families get into an affordable home of their own.  Econohomes helps investors by providing them a source of affordable homes that will offer a great return on their investments.
And I guess in ending I hope that find a source for your anger without slandering people you know nothing about and making false claims. 

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