Real estate investment firm gets into foreclosure market

Posted by Kansas RealEstateRama

July 13, 2007

Meyer Organization owner says he works to help homeowners in foreclosure save their credit

Troy Meyer has been watching the dramatic increase in the number of home foreclosures in the Northland and elsewhere.

He lives in Platte County and is the owner of the Meyer Organization, a real estate investment firm. Foreclosures offer him an opportunity to invest in real estate, but he said it also provided an opportunity for homeowners in foreclosure to avoid a foreclosure on their records and protect their credit ratings.

Meyer specializes in short-sale purchases. In other words, he strikes an agreement with the homeowner to buy the property in foreclosure by negotiating with the lender.

The process allows the lender to remove the property from its books, keeps the homeowners from having a foreclosure on their records, and allows the property to be purchased and rehabilitated if necessary. It is then resold or rented.

“I send out about 100 letters a week to homeowners in foreclosure,” Meyer said. “Of those, I get about 10 phone calls, and of the 10, I actually work about three or four”

He said he questioned the homeowners about whether they had exhausted every opportunity, including talking with the lender, to avoid foreclosure.

“We negotiate with the lender to postpone the foreclosure date and then negotiate to buy the property for less than what is owed,” Meyer said. “If we strike a deal, I invest what is needed to fix up the property and put it on the market. I can’t sell it back to the original owner. That would be mortgage fraud.”

Meyer has a master’s degree in management from Baker University and worked for the Kansas City Police Department for 20 years. There he worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Part of his job was to supervise the financial investigations section, which probed mortgage fraud.

“By the time I talk to homeowners, they are under a lot of pressure,” he said. “They worry about what all this will do to their credit. A lot of it is through no fault of their own. Some have lost jobs, some have expensive medical bills, and others have been stuck with adjustable-rate mortgages and suddenly see their payments go up 75 percent.”

“I think homeowners caught in that situation have to be careful,” said Mario Usera, president of Clay County Savings Bank. “Sometimes in desperation, they sign papers that have nothing to do with the issue. And I wonder what happens if a homeowner has some equity. What happens to that?”

Meyer said he could not legally give money back to the homeowner.

“If I were to give a homeowner money on the backside, it would fringe on fraud,” he said.

Meyer said he had bought 22 houses in foreclosure in 2006, but already had purchased 25 this year and would easily more than double the number from 2006.

Meyer scoffed at perceptions he and those who worked in his field were opportunists.

“The real estate investment field is one of opportunities,” he said. “What I do is help some people get out of a bad situation.”

By: Gene Hanson, KC Community News

Business Editor Gene Hanson can be reached at 389-6638 or ghanson@npgco.com.

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