Melrick Equity Partners Erik Barlow rip off, flyby night, credit card fraud, Alpharetta, Georgia/ Internet based Nationwide

Hey Dave thanks for emailing me about this buddy.  You are right Chris is kicking your butt...lol... just by a little bit thou.  You both are doing awesome and i spoke with you AM today and you are at 5 deals in the pipeline as of this morning... Keep it up man.  

After reading this report from "Charles" and the response that Dave gave I wasn't even going to respond but I think it is important to have a response from someone in management.  There is a very big difference between facts and opinions.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion but to get on the internet and a especially a site like this one and report so much info that is indeed false, slander and misleading is pathetic.

The most interesting part is that we don't now and have never had an AR named Charles that lives in the Boston Area.  As you can see on the screen shot I provided we only have 1 AR named Charles and he lives and works in Arizona.  I find it very interesting that someone would provide so called facts (mostly opinions) about the company and myself yet do it under what seems to be false pretense.  We have 4 AR's in Massachusetts, not one name is Charles.

 However to address your report "Charles", again like I said everyone is entitled to their own opinions but facts are facts and yours are wrong on so many levels.  Allow me to address them...

• "Charles" states that "Job was to find and pass on leads of homeowners who are in distress and wish to sell their home at a slight discount."
  • FACT:  We absolutely do not train our AR's to contact homeowners in distress.  That is not and has never been apart of our training for them.  Which leads me to believe that "Charles" either didn't complete the training with us or something else is going on with this report... Maybe our competition is behind it.
•  "Charles" states that "Training was supposed to be a couple of hours with follow up support. On the training call the following saturday Erik was not prepared, off topic, and didnt really telll us much that we didnt already know."
  • FACT: This is your opinion that you are entitled to however I will say that If (and that is a big If) you were on that training then you were one of 17 people including Dave who attending that training and we had not I complaint as a matter of fact we had people thanking me for not cancelling the training (due to me not just being sick but having the FLU) and complimenting us on the training.  
  • MOST IMPORTANTLY we have had many of the AR's that started the same time you say you got hired  and went thru the exact same training you did and the Q & A session you did that are literally killing it and knocking it out the park.
• "Charles" states in the title... FLy by Night/ Internet Based/ Nationwide
  • FACT: FALSE /FALSE /FALSE
  • You mentioned the company was new.. You are correct and completely off base at the same time... FYI, It is common practice in the Real Estate Investment Industry to have multiple LLC's or companies when you invest in different markets or use different investing strategies.  For example we have a completely separate company that is strictly used to purchase and rehab properties, we have another company that we strictly raise capital through.  I don't expect you to know that but that is really Real Estate Investing 101... Some Investor create new LLC's for ever property they purchase... we don't take it that far.Internet Based and Nationwide are also NOT True.  We are based in Alpharetta, GA like you stated and we have a second operations office in Roswell, GA.  How can a company that buys and sell Real Estate be internet based.... Think about it...LOL.  As far as Nationwide.. we are not nationwide we focus in 10 markets which is very far from nationwide, maybe one day we will get there.
    • Melrick Equity Partners (M.E.P) was created for the sole purpose of working with Acquisition Reps (AR's)... prior to creating M.E.P our AR's got paid 25% (still more than what the Avg. AR's make with other companies).  Management decided that we wanted to do something that is NOT done in our Industry and really take care of our AR's so we bumped up their split to 50% and formed a new company that just focuses on AR's deals.  The whole reason the word "Partners" is in the name is because since we pay our AR's 50% they are essentially partners with us in the deal & we like to look at them that way.
• "Charles" states in the title... "Credit Card Fraud"
  • FACT: Are you kidding me... I will admit I do take that a little more serious than the rest of the false statements that you have made... since that is a legal matter.  You have already stated in you post that you paid for the BG Check... So where is the fraud.  You where hired, signed a contact and paid for the BG check through a secured payment gateway online.  There is no way for the company to even have access to your CC information.  So again I ask where is the fraud?
  • FACT: What I find very interesting is that "Charles" has not mentioned that he had a choice to work with us in the capacity of a Jr. Acquisition Rep which is like a property scout and we would still require him to have a BG Check but the company would pay for it.  However he elected to come on as an Acq Rep because they get paid a higher split of the deal than Jr. AR's (Property Scouts)
• "Charles" states "... so consumers beware"
  • FACT: You (nor any other AR) are NOT a consumer with us.  You are not a client, you did not hire us to do a service for you.  You sent in a resume to apply for a independent contract sales position in which just like almost any company in our industry requires you to get a background check before we officially bring you on board. 

What I find very interesting is that "Charles" has not mentioned that he had a choice to work with us in the capacity of a Jr. Acquisition Rep which is like a property scout and we would still require him to have a BG Check but the company would pay for it.  However he elected to come on as an Acq Rep because they get paid a higher split of the deal than Jr. AR's (Property Scouts)

The funny thing is you reported us on a site that itself... 

• Has an an "F" Rating with the BBB... the worst rating possible
• Has been called on ABC Investigations, Fox news and other media outlets an "Illegial Extortion Company"
• Literally has Rip Off Reports on their own company...lol

There are reports on this site against companies like Amazon, Ebay, Bank of America, Chase & Facebook So I guess we are in good company.

To Sum it all up: The more I respond to this report the more I realize it is all opinions and emotions... Not an ounce of Facts.  The reality is the only thing you really said in this report is that YOU felt the training wasn't good, the support wasn't there and in your words "Since then, approx. 3 weeks,  I have not had any communication with the company..." yet if you are telling the truth and were hired by us... you have my direct phone number, the office number, my email, your Acquisition Manager's direct number and their email.  So how is it that I nor any Acq Mgr. has heard of a "Charles from Boston" or for that matter received a call from any AR making these accusations.  So you felt all this and didn't pick up the phone and call me or your AM... Interesting

Lets take one last look at FACTS... you went through all the EXACT very same training as Reps that started with you... they are doing deals and you are not... (you can see a screen shot of our CRM that shows.. 27 deals under contract we have moving thru the pripeline towards closing - EVERY LAST ONE from our AR's)  Then you have never contacted me or your AM (based on the name "Charles" from Boston) and blame us for you not being successful with us.  I talk to multiple AR's everyday via phone and email supporting them.  My grandmother when I was a child told me something we all have heard before "Erik be careful who you point your finger at and blame because 3 fingers are pointing back at YOU.  The bottom line "Charles" or (whoever you really are... lol) this is a performance based position and it sounds like you just didn't perform and then instead of requesting help you just gave up.

Which at the end of the day is the saddest thing about this whole report... Whoever you are I truly wish you the best of luck. 

I am not going to call Charles a liar.  All I can say is based on MY Experience I have to disagree with almost everything he is saying.  I have found Melrick Equity Partners, my Acquisition Manager & Erik Barlow (Director of Acquisitions) to be nothing but professional.  

Based on the timeline Charles is stating it sounds like we started around the same time (end of Feb begining of March).  I went through the training on the Saturday after I was hired I will admit it was at times hard to hear Erik however he told us he was under the weather but didn't what to cancel the training.  

Overall I thought the training was very good, when I had questions after, either my AM (Acq Manager) answered them or Erik answered them direct... whenever I called him he was available to help or he would refer me to my AM to get a specfic question answered about one of my deals.

Like Charles I was a litle concerned with having to pay for a BG Check luckly one of my college buddies was an Acquisition Rep for a different company and he confirmed what Erik told me which is almost any company you work with in the Real estate Industry as an Independent Contractor will require you to get a BG Check and pay for it.... Realtors have to do it, Loan officers and even Acq. Rep with other companies.  My buddies company didn't charge him but they only paid him like 15% of the deal.  When I told him I was getting a 50% split of all the profit on all my deals he thought I was joking...after speaking with Erik and realizing it was real, he left his company and is an AR with Melrick and is rocking and rolling.

Again I can't call Charles a liar I don't know him, but I will say that I have been with the company roughly the same amount of time and I have already closed my first deal and made $4,327.89... ONE DEAL.  I have  4 others moving through the process getting closer to closing.  My buddy is kicking my butt and has like 8 deals moving thru the pipeline get close to closing and he has ben with the company less time then I have.

In closing I think it is sad that wesites like this exsist and allow people to post with out some sort of checks and balances I mean come on buddy as I look back at your article title you use the term "credit card Fraud" yet mention nothing about credit card fraud in your post as a matter of fact you admit to paying for the BG check, your complaint is that the training wasn't good and that you were not supported.  LOL... That is not credit card fraud that is at best MAYBE lack of communication on the companis part or maybe on yours you say there has been no communication from them in the last 3 weeks... yet you have Erik's direct line and you have the companies number which is on the site.  I can tell you neither I nor my buddy has had any communication issues from the company.  We are excited to be AR's with them.  However I think I will email Erik tonight just in case he hasn't seen this so he can address it himself.  

I also answered an ad on Craigslist for an Acquisition Rep to make up to $85K or more per year by earning 50% commissions for following up on leads through closing for a real estate investment company.  I listened to the initial conference call immediately but had a few questions afterwards and they responded vaguely to them.

When I asked some additional general questions they didn't respond to me once I didn't sign up and pay for their $97.50 background check.

I checked online and saw that the company just incorporated in GA on 2/28/2015.  It made me wonder and after seeing this report pretty much confirms my suspicions.