Dream Home Program Turns Into a Nightmare
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If it sounds too good to be true…
Those are words that folks who invested in Metropolitan Grapevine’s Metro Dream Home mortgage payment scheme will hear their sleep. An intricate plan to where the homeowner paid for their home and invested in Grapevine’s program with the understanding that the lending company would pay their mortgage payments.
What investigators are now calling a Ponzi scheme has now collapsed and the homeowners are out their investment and are stuck with homes that they bought at an inflated price and many are facing foreclosure.
The Maryland securities commissioner shut down Grapevine’s operations last year, put the company into receivership and liquidated its assets. A Maryland court found that more than 1,000 people had invested about $50 million in Grapevine programs, which promised to pay home and auto loans on their behalf. At its end, Grapevine had debts as high as $200 million to $300 million and assets of just $2 million, according to state documents.
Grapevine’s plan, hatched during the real estate boom, when prices did nothing but rise, set its participants up for foreclosure. It was an invitation-only network spread among family and friends. All they needed was a good credit rating and a lack of healthy skepticism.
They worked with participating real estate agents to buy their “dream homes” at inflated prices but with no down payments. Ten to 15 percent of the home’s sale price would go straight into Grapevine’s coffers, along with other lump-sum investments. It was supposed to have been invested. With the returns, Grapevine promised to make their mortgage payments (and some participants’ car payments) and retire the debts in just a few years. via washingtonpost.com.
It probably is a really good time to buy real estate - monthly payments are about equal to market rents ...
The part about the inventory is right on but in my area they are mostly low end and beat up ...
I worked for this man, he is a great con man and has done this in more than States then ...
You're right. If you come from Central Jersey (as the Boss and I do), you go to Florida at some ...
Maybe it was kryptonite...
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By Mike ...
I couldn't agree more.
The newspaper has always "stuck" it to the real estate agent with rates that were much higher ...
By the way, homeowners trying to get short sale approval should be aware that lenders are comparing the initial loan ...
Ouch! Thankfully I haven't come across anything like that yet. We normally don't have situations like that in ...
well, the guy was here illegally.
serves him right. 
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