Before I signed on with Loomis, I had to consider the worst case scenario, and whether or not I was willing to face such a consequence. I knew that the most vulnerable time would be if the business fell apart within the first two years. And so — it has.
After my April Update I had both concerns and hopes. Through May and June things actually looked up just a bit. The mortgages did get paid (late as always), and I received the assurance payments. Even started seeing some of my NARA money returned — well beyond the contracted 90 days in which all of it was supposed to be returned.
Thought that the July mortgages were paid — but, it appears, either they weren’t or were paid with bad checks. August and September mortgage payments were also not paid but we were having weekly status calls with assurances that all would be made good before the end of September.
Yesterday we had the latest status call and not even a mention about the alleged new income stream that was going to make our payments. Worse yet, Loomis is now refusing to pay mortgages at all. We have to pay them and wait for reimbursements from them. From a company that’s not even paying it’s employees nor returning any of the NARAS funds.
I won’t even try to get into the reasons given. I don’t understand them all, and I don’t want to put out anything I don’t know to be true. What is true is that Loomis is supposed to be paying my mortgages and isn’t. My emails to the few folks I know that are remaining as Loomis employees, including Lee Loomis himself — stating that I don’t have the ability to pay this mortgages and wait for reimbursement have gone unanswered.
What will I do? At this moment, I have no clue.
Even Poorer Dad
September 24, 2008 at 11:16 am
Sorry to hear all that has happened to you. The country is in such a bad way , we do not know what is going to happen next. Hang in there.
September 24, 2008 at 11:28 am
I feel your pain. This is not what we signed up for, but what is is. I am also a member who will learn from this experience and grow. I will work to the best of my ability to extricate myself from the mortgage obligations. In the end however I will probably hand keys over to Bank that holds the mortgage on both of my properties, unless someone on this forum has a better idea.
September 25, 2008 at 6:12 pm
The Sacramento Bee published a story about Lee Loomis at around 10 AM this morning. You can find it by searching Google News. It gives details regarding the IRS and FBI seizing records from Loomis Wealth and from Loomis personally on August 26th.
September 26, 2008 at 9:58 am
I am very sorry to hear about Loomis ending up this way. I’m hoping that all will end up as well as can be expected, knowing that this current economy has yet to hit bottom. At least it will be a learning experience, not that it makes up for all the other “stuff” that goes along with it.
September 26, 2008 at 10:08 pm
It seems that the desire for profits bu the unwillingness to be exposed to risks is the problem here.
September 28, 2008 at 12:28 pm
http://www.corp.ca.gov/ENF/pdf/2008/LoomisWealth_dr.pdf
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1267186.html
Perhaps there will be a class action suit you can take part in?
I feel for you and your credit rating is probably shot full of holes from this scam. Hope you can recoup a little of your investment at some point and time.
September 28, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Sorry to hear it. Thanks for posting even through the pain.
September 29, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I’m really sorry for all your loss. Also for everyone that got involved in this “scheme”.
I just this “old” news article at Sacbee. You all probably already know/heard about this by now.
http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/015643.html
May God help us all!
October 1, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Really sorry to read of the failing of this company, and the many ordenary investors who will loose money over this.
As Dan above says treat it as a learning experience and move on, the idea that ordenary people can amass wealth is still valid so do not loose sight of those dreams there other ways,
Best of luck ( read make your own luck)
Ric
October 6, 2008 at 4:25 pm
This is really unbelievable to me based on the pitches I got from Lee and the team.
Maybe you’ve already pursued the thoughts noted below, but for what it is worth:
I never ended up seeing their lease/option contract, but I would be all over your tenants (assuming you still have tenants in your investment properties), insisting that they make their monthly payments directly to you instead of Loomis or the Property Mgmt Company.
If Loomis isn’t paying, your contract with them should be voided, and since you own the property, the tenants payments are owed to you (!), not them.
If the tenants aren’t paying, then unfortunately, the homeowner is left with cleaning up the mess and trying to get it re-rented/leased.
I did have this conversation with them – that in the case that “Loomis failed”, then they admitted, yes, you (the homeowner), will have a mess on your hands. They hedged with the fact that, you should have a 20% equity cushion based on the Loomis model, but in this market, that might already be gone…
Best of luck to you – I was really hoping that Loomis was as good as they said they were.
October 28, 2008 at 9:44 am
You were told by other people that this was a bad idea. Unfortunately, your family is reaping what you sowed with your greed.
October 28, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Does anyone out there know how to contact Lee Loomis? We were his marketing firm. He owes us a money and looking for a way to contact him.
October 30, 2008 at 7:32 pm
What a horrible thing to say! Does it make you feel better to sit in your ivory tower in judgement of others? You’ve never made a mistake? You’ve never trusted someone you shouldn’t have? Have some compassion for gods sake!! You don’t understand a mans desire to provide for his family, to make their lives secure into the future? To provide education and retirement security? That makes him greedy? Really?And did you miss the posts where he talked about living within a budget? About being more financially responsible? The measure to which you use, will be used to you. Remember that, Ivory Tower dweller.
October 30, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Hi Noreen,
If you want more from the “we told him so” crowed — they’ve gathered here: http://forums.delphiforums.com/nomoredebt/messages?msg=15257.1
They are a bunch of folks who can’t stand open discussion — very insecure moderators.
They are cheering because they couldn’t stand to have someone disagree with them — and I turned out to be wrong. Well, the business venture failed — but that doesn’t mean every issue we ever disagreed on has been vindicated in their favor.
And yet — they cheer — which says more about them than about me.
Me — I took a calculated risk — I had worthy advisers — and I lost. But I knew full well what was at stake and accepted that if the worst happened, we’d be able to handle it.
And we will. It’s not fun, but we are handling it. We’ll be ok.
Poor Dad
October 31, 2008 at 10:25 am
Poor Dad,
I read some of the posts, and ouch. You are right, it says more about them than you.
I can’t stand judgemental people who sit around like vultures waiting to pick apart a carcass. The “I told you so” crowd. I guess it makes them feel smart or better when disaster strikes and they can laugh safely from their point of judgement.
If it had worked, would they admit they were wrong? No, they would have said you got lucky.
You hoped for the best, and prepared for the worst…that is all anyone can do with anything.
Peace
Noreen
November 22, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Sorry I haven’t been keeping up with the pain others are feeling through the economic downturn. My investment vehicle has been 401k, IRA, and solid blue chip stocks. And yet the downturn has taken away years of conservative growth. The lesson is that no investment strategy is a sure thing. I can only hope that it truly is possible to create wealth without a prerequisite love for money.
You might have to update your blog subtitle, but the journey to wealth will continue.