Contact 2: More Problems With Bellington Realty

Last week Contact 2 told you about a couple caught in the middle of a real estate nightmare.

[CarolynBF]

How is this legal? Signed contracts? Title insurance? Where did the money go? The news report didn't address any of these important issues.

[Tom Scott]

Mike Litz is the owner of Bellington. This is how he does business. I see jail time in his future!

[jocelyn taylor]

this is where the bank should cut these people a deal - cause at this point and time the bank is not going to sell anyway ....

[HOME OWNERSHIP]

At this stage of the DEPRESSION nothing suprises me. Wait about another year and you will see how EVER THING WORKS in this world. So far no one has pushed the first diamiano in the chain of events.Just HOPE & PRAY NO ONE DOES!!!!

[County Crusader]

I dated a girl years ago whos dad worked for bellington realty. They had plenty of money and seemed kind of shady. I knew nothing about the company at the time, but the more stories coming out about bellington realty, I am not surprised they ended in corruption.

[Good Luck]

My friend works at Bellington Realty and said this is just the beginning. They are strapped for cash and took huge loans against all of their properties. Now the owner might head for the hills with the money. Good luck!

[ANOTHER VICTIM]

I bought my house 2 years ago from Bellington. I live in St Louis Co. and have also put alot of work in my house (painting, new furnance, new ac, new windows, etc). Regions bank says that thay are starting foreclosure proceedings this week and are going to stagger the properties doing only a few at a time. Bellington has not contacted them at all and therefore is not trying to work anything out with them. Also they say it will only take 21 days for them to foreclose. What is Regions Bank going to do with 50 empty properties-they say the fact that Bellington defaulted will not have influence on them making a loan with us. And if your credit score is below 620 they will not touch you.

When I bought my home I told my children this was their home, what do i tell them now?

[ANOTHER VICTIM]

what i don't understand, is why the bank isn't willing to work something out with us? We being the people that have been paying bellington faithfully for years. Obviously if we haven't yet refinanced then we can't, but if we have been making our payments for years faithfully and in most cases paying much more (2or3 times) more than a traditional loan would cost us haven't we already proven ourself worthy of a loan??

[CarolynBF]

I still don't understand. Were people "renting to own" from Bellington Realty? Was this supposed to be a deal for people who couldn't qualify for traditional financing?

[ANOTHER VICTIM]

Please note the most important thing right now is all of us victims getting the right info. There is now a facebook page: Bellington Victims or email [e-mail] where we can speak or post info that is needed. We are all in this together, we are not alone, regions told me there were 50 of us with their bank and i am sure many others will follow.

[MaryJo]

We have a similar story. We were sold a house two years ago. A year after we lived there -- we were served papers for a lawsuit. Our house had two liens and in middle of litigation. The subcontractors were sueing the builder. We weren't the first owners. We of course - have an attorney. We are sueing the title company which gave us a clean title even though the leins were public record since 2005. We also found out that the day before our closing Regions faxed over instructions to the title company - First American to remove lines 10-14 of the Commitment of Title. These four items listed the liens. Sounds like Regions need to make good on a few transactions and loans. We can't refinance now -- our lives are on hold

[ANOTHER VICTIM]

CarolynBF wrote:

I still don't understand. Were people "renting to own" from Bellington Realty? Was this supposed to be a deal for people who couldn't qualify for traditional financing?

Both. They rented/leased property and they sold property. They wouls only sell to you if you allowed them to owner finance for the first 6 months. When I first bought from them I had a preapproval, when my 6 months was up the lending rules had changed and I was not eligible for regular financing and now 2 1/2yrs later the rules are just getting stricter and the banks are getting tighter with lending. I would assume this is the case with all the "owners" of bellington. They sold us houses, with super high interest rates and gave us interest only loans so even though we have been payin high monthly payments (mine was $700 for a $80,000 loan) we now owe more than we did when we originally bought the house. And to top it off they do not report to any of the credit bureaus so all the payments we have been making have done nothing to help our credit.

[bellington victims]

I have set up a Facebook page where we can all communicate with one another. Please visit us at Bellington Victims on facebook. Any info that is available to help the other victims should be posted here. There is also an email address [e-mail] this is for us to help one another.

[bellington victims]

MaryJo wrote:

We have a similar story. We were sold a house two years ago. A year after we lived there -- we were served papers for a lawsuit. Our house had two liens and in middle of litigation. The subcontractors were sueing the builder. We weren't the first owners. We of course - have an attorney. We are sueing the title company which gave us a clean title even though the leins were public record since 2005. We also found out that the day before our closing Regions faxed over instructions to the title company - First American to remove lines 10-14 of the Commitment of Title. These four items listed the liens. Sounds like Regions need to make good on a few transactions and loans. We can't refinance now -- our lives are on hold

was this through bellington or a different company?

[Former Tenant]

We rented an apartment from Bellington and we were never so glad for our lease to end. The windows were cold and drafty, numerous pest infestations they wouldn't take care of and we left the apt in much cleaner shape than when the keys were first handed to us. We should have known better after seeing the property condition compared to how nice their office was at the lease signing. Getting our refund took forever and after much frustration between voice mails, repeated calls and replies of it's coming, please be patient, we're looking into it, so and so is handling that and it would be a different person every week. Finally someone explained there were financial issues. Glad Bellington is busted but worried about the victims involved in this.

[Ex-Bellington Employee]

I worked for this company for several years. The owner does not care about any one who rents from them, or any living being aside from himself. He is a slum lord and a millionaire who only cares about making money. Tenants are warm bodies that bring in revenue. Revenue that Bellington/18 Investments/Anacott/Treadstone Properties/etc. do not pay their loans with. Bellington does what are called "wrap around loans" they own the loans and the tenants make payments directly to them, only they don't turn around pay the banks. They also defraud investors with false property information and cost projection. This owner is a man who sleeps with employees in his office. This company is a poor excuse for a business. I can only hope Michael Litz will be held accountable for his actions. But unfortunately, when you're that rich, you can usually weasle your way out of any responsibility by knowing the right people and hiring the right lawyers. Good Luck Michael!

[Another Ex Employee]

Besides not paying back loans, Bellington/Eighteen/Anacott/Fl ow Partnership/Treadstone/Bell 232/Bell Scott/Bell Clayshirt/Peak Investments/Clayton Forum Partnership/McKnight Mann/S & P Properties/etc. do not pay any taxes.

When I left Bellington, they owed millions of dollars in past due real estate taxes in St. Louis County and City alone.

[Tom Scott]

Michael Litz thinks he is a real estate mastermind. How funny is that. He needs to quit running around the office with his pants down and focus on his failing business!

[bellington victims]

Ex-Bellington Employee wrote:

I worked for this company for several years. The owner does not care about any one who rents from them, or any living being aside from himself. He is a slum lord and a millionaire who only cares about making money. Tenants are warm bodies that bring in revenue. Revenue that Bellington/18 Investments/Anacott/Treadstone Properties/etc. do not pay their loans with. Bellington does what are called "wrap around loans" they own the loans and the tenants make payments directly to them, only they don't turn around pay the banks. They also defraud investors with false property information and cost projection. This owner is a man who sleeps with employees in his office. This company is a poor excuse for a business. I can only hope Michael Litz will be held accountable for his actions. But unfortunately, when you're that rich, you can usually weasle your way out of any responsibility by knowing the right people and hiring the right lawyers. Good Luck Michael!

You know the FBI is getting involved, I am sure they would be happy to hear from you.

[bellington victims]

Another Ex Employee wrote:

Besides not paying back loans, Bellington/Eighteen/Anacott/Fl ow Partnership/Treadstone/Bell 232/Bell Scott/Bell Clayshirt/Peak Investments/Clayton Forum Partnership/McKnight Mann/S & P Properties/etc. do not pay any taxes.
When I left Bellington, they owed millions of dollars in past due real estate taxes in St. Louis County and City alone.

how do you get away with not paying taxes. as an ex employee i am sure the fbi would love to talk to you. they are getting involved in this