They worked hard, saved their money, then abandoned Ohio for the warm embrace of the sunshine state, building their dream house on the water in the community of Punta Gorda, about 20 miles southwest of Fort Meyers. Victor, a former smoker, is now disabled and suffers from emphazema. But in spite of living on a fixed income, their house was paid for. They had achieved the great American Dream, and looked forward to their twilight years.
Today, they are struggling to maintain a $512,000 mortgage and risk losing their home if they can't stop the financial bloodletting. It has nothing to do with Victor's health.
This is a story about scam artists, and confusing paperwork, and people who live on the opposite end of the country - California - who confuse well-meaning people with rapid-fire paperwork and don't return calls.
The trouble was an investment that went terribly wrong.
"I'm somewhat entrepreneurial," says Janis. "And a few years ago I found this business opportunity on the Internet." The 'opportunity' was aimed at free-and-clear homeowners looking to make their equity work for them. "And at a lovely convention in Cancun, we met this lovely man, who said that if we invested in his company, he could make a lot of money for us."
The man was also from Florida - which happens to be where Janis' mother lived also. The man went to see her too, and convinced the woman to surrender her life savings to him for investment purposes. After all, if it was good enough for her daughter, it must be good enough for mom.
But it was all a scam, and the FBI, according to Janis Noland, is now investigating. As Janis tells it, proportional interest from their investment would be deposited directly into their bank account, with the remainder re-invested to further grow the original principal. It sounded good. "And you could track your money on the computer, just like a bank," Janis says. "He told me to never print off anything. I didn't need to. Of course, I did anyway...."
Just as well, as it wasn't long before the money stopped coming.
"We drove up to his office and it was closed - he was nowhere to be found." Subsequent conversations with the FBI, according to Janis, confirmed that the entire venture was a scam, "and we have $712,000 in promissory notes that are worthless," adds Victor. It's an amount, which represents their investment, that of Janis' mother, and interest accrued.
All gone.
To survive, the Nolands needed to re-finance - which they did through a broker in California. "They found us," Janis says. A pop-up ad on the Internet advertised that mortgage rates were down, and attractive. Janis filled out the contact form, and before long was inundated with forms and legal documents that constituted a flurry of activity at closing. "It was sign this, fax this back...there was no time to read them," Victor says.
That was a year ago. Their initial mortgage of $495,000 has somehow grown to $512,000 in 12 months. "We keep making payments, but the loan is going up, not down," Janis says. They estimate, based on a recent market appraisal, that they have $215,000 equity remaining in their home. "But the market is soft down here and houses aren't selling," Janis says. "And while the mortgage keeps going up, our equity keeps going down."
"We are in danger of losing our home," Victor says ruefully. Their American Dream, dashed.
A call by Victor to World Savings Bank, which financed their mortgage, afforded sympathy but little help. They agreed that the terms of the loan were undesirable, but that it was the responsibility of the broker to "clean it up." The broker in question is listed as a member in good standing on the Better Business Bureau web site and has a satisfactory record, so it's possible the Nolan's may not have understood what they were signing. Not having the opportunity to deal with someone face to face, and the speed of the final transaction, did not help matters. Still, calls to the broker in California have not been returned, Victor says, and the Nolan's are trying to refinance again, also with an on-line broker.
There have been no fewer than 42 enquiries into the Noland's credit history by mortgage and refinance brokers since January of this year alone. The Nolands gave verbal consent to four, and contractual consent to only one.
Their credit history is in shambles, they are deep into debt, and facing certain financial ruin. They are currently seeking legal assistance.