Foreclosures, near-North Minneapolis, Via Star-Tribune Foreclosure Map
It’s getting hard to keep up with the now daily real-estate-is-going-to-hell in-handbasket data stream, but we wanted to point out a couple of stats from some of the recent coverage that had us pausing mid-read.
For instance, from the Pioneer Press, on North Minneapolis, which as you can see from the map above, is Ground Zero for the Twin Cities foreclosure problem:
In the Jordan area of North Minneapolis, banks are repossessing homes at a rate of about 200 per half-square mile — the highest rate in the Twin Cities
And this, from the Strib, detailing an FBI raid of perhaps the biggest fraud-for-profit outfit yet:
"The affidavit indicates that about 150 north Minneapolis properties foreclosed on in one six-month period earlier this year passed through TJ Waconia’s hands.
That’s one in every five foreclosed properties in that area in that period,…"
Just jaw-dropping stuff.
More Trouble in Sight [Pioneer Press]
FBI Names Two in Latest Mortgage Fraud Case [Strib]
Update: Commenter John Hoff went all Columbo and posted at least a partial list of properties that passed through TJ Waconia and are now in foreclosure. Nice work there.
One thing to keep in mind is that these properties aren’t by definition damaged goods – as always there is a market value for any property – its just that the history of values on these properties will have very little to do with reality, since they were inflated for fraudulent purposes.
Of course, these fraudulent sales distort the market, because they become comparable (albeit inflated) sales for legitmate transactions. Because of the sheer volume of properties involved, it is highly likely that many legit buyers in north paid more than the true market value. This is where mortgage fraud hurts everybody.
Related posts:
Equal Housing Lender |
{ 93 comments… read them below or add one }
Where can somebody get a list of all the TJ Waconia properties involved in this indictment?
It would save a lot of effort to have a list instead of having to check every property for “TJ Waconia” being listed on the sellers. Furthermore, it is likely straw people were used, and even if the properties were research the names “TJ Waconia” and “Thomas Balko” and Jonathan Helgason may not appear.
Anybody got a list like that?
OK, so I actually came up with a partial list myself, and here’s how I did it. I watched the television news story about the TJ Waconia indictments, and when it was showing a document on the screen with a list of houses, I froze the screen and got as many of the addresses as possible:
1000 Upton Ave. N.
1012 39th Ave. N.
1124 5th St. N.
1207 Knox Ave. N.
1430 5th St. N.
1505 Russel Ave. N.
1526 Upton Ave. N.
1625 Irving Ave. N.
1631 Washington Ave. N.
1643 Sheridan Ave. N.
1643 Upton Ave. N.
1651 Sheridan Ave. N.
1706 Vincent Ave. N.
1710 Queen Ave. N.
2315 Jackson St. NE
But does anybody else know of a complete list of the properties where mortgage fraud is actually alleged in the recent indictment? I looked at the sales history of these properties and guess what? It doesn’t ALWAYS say “T.J. Waconia” on the history. So just looking for “T.J. Waconia” isn’t good enough.
I might sit and compile a list of names that appear over and over on these properties. I might, if I have time. It’s hard to tell if anybody is reading this blog. I’m new to this blog but very interested in this subject and looking for a good deal on a house on the North Side.
Also, I spoke to some of the nice North Side neighborhood people who spent years compiling information about suspicious flipping practices. Word is this indictment is the tip of the iceberg, and more indictments are coming in regard to many more properties.
Stay tuned, huh?
OK, so I checked the history of all the properties from the “partial indictment list” and even made a phone call or two. Here’s what I found out:
Ronnie C. Franklin’s name is OMNIPRESENT on these listings as the rental contact person. He appears either every time or very nearly every time. Finding Ronnie C. Franklin’s name is a good way to make sure you didn’t type in the wrong address and this really is one of the T.J. Waconia houses. So his name is a red flag for, well, whatever.
And Ronnie actually picks up his phone, even today! He is listed at [redacted], at 3101 Old Hwy 8, #101, Roseville MN 55113. Ronnie said he was “just the contact person” that T.J. Waconia would list. He says he knows nothing, nothing.
Check out the following interesting transactions for the following properties.
2315 Jackson Street Southeast:
On March 30, 1999, sold by “Nguye, Hinh/Bryan to Huong Ngoc Hoang, for $96,000.
On March 12, 2001, sold by Hoang to Jose Illisaca for $130,000.
On June 14, 2002, Sold by Illisaca to John C. Stenroos for $210,000. So the price MORE THAN DOUBLED in two years, gaining more than $100K.
And the transactions are like that on these houses, over and over. Unless somebody has serious objections, I am going to keep tossing this information on this thread.
[ed. note: The owners of record in allegedly fraudulent transactions are very often dupes or victims. So we can't necessarily assume anything based on who the owners of record are, or were]
Transactions for T.J. Waconia house at 1710 Queen Ave. North.
Ronnie C. Franklin, contact person.
Current taxpayer: Michele Lowrey, 29578 Nathan Ave. Lindstrom Minn.
Sales history as follows:
April 28, 1995, Northside Redevel Cncl Inc. sold it to “Stringfellow Km” (sic) for $75,600.
On October 1, 2001, Stringfellow Kimberly (sic) sold to Home Funding Corp for $84,185.
On November 16, 2001 (just two weeks later!) Home Funding Corp sold the house to Preston Hoopes for $147,000. Look at that price just in just six weeks!
On April 8, 2002, Preston Hoopes sold it to Ryan C. Moffett for $152,000. That appears to be the last sale, even though the owner is now listed as Michele Lowrey. It was noted as boarded on December 1, 2006.
Transactions for T.J. Waconia house at 1706 Vincent Ave. N.
Good ol’ Ronnie C. Franklin, contact person.
Note the yearly values, as follows:
2002, $73,000.
2003, $116,000.
2004, $122,000
2005, $141,000
2006, $143,000
2007 $119,000.
March 28, 2003 sold by Grohs Construction, Inc. to Michael L. Betzler for $135,00.
September 15, 2005, Betzler to TJ Waconia for $157,000.
Transactions for TJ Waconia house at 1505 Russell Ave. N.
Valuations:
2001, $97,000
2002, $106,800
2003, $126,900
2004, $144,200
2005, $160,600
2006, $161,400
2007, $133,400
Good old Ronnie C. Franklin, rental history contact person.
Sold October 7, 2005, Larry T. Williams to TJ Waconia. $157,500.
Sold February 17, 2006, TJ Waconia to Tamara Pletan, $209,000.
If you were watching the indictment,[ed. note: to date, there has been no indictment, These individuals, Helgason and Balko, have only been named as targets of an FBI investigation] you know Johnathon E. Helgason was named, along with Thomas J. Balko.
But here’s an interesting name listed as the owner for 1124 5th St. NE: Jon E. Helgason. Also listed as the taxpayer:
Amy Helgason, 1124 5th St. NE Minneapolis, MN.
Please note that 1124 5th St. NE is one of the OTHER addresses on my partial list.
OK, so what happens if you look at 1124 5th St. NE?
There is no sales history listed, but once again good old Ronnie C. Franklin is the rental contact person.
Here is the property valuation history:
2001, $84,500.
2002, $98,000.
2003, $109,500.
2004, $119,500.
2005, $122,600.
2006, $129,500.
2007, $121,200.
Wow, real estate really is a great investment.
OK, here is a name that turns up more than once with TJ Waconia houses from my partial list:
Chris J. Anderson is the taxpayer listed at 1526 Upton Ave. N.
He is also listed as the taxpayer at 1651 Sheridan Ave. N.
Anderson’s address, however, is 6680 Lotus Tr. Chanhassen, MN 55317.
Good old Ronnie C. Franklin is the rental contact person for 1651 Sheridan Ave. N. That property was listed at $63,000 in 2001. By 2005, listed at $119,00.
But then it began to lose value! In 2006, $117,000. In 2007, $101,900.
When the property was worth the most–in 2005–it was sold by “Robert E. Jenkins” to TJ Waconia. The price? A whopping $148,900.
OK, remember that name “Tamera Pleten?”
There’s another “Pleten” who shows up in the transactions for 1643 Upton Ave. N.
(Once again, good ol’ Ronnie C. Franklin listed as the rental contact person)
This property was worth a mere $29,900 in 1985.
It was worth $109,000 in 2000 when sold by “Victorsen Jim/Rohanda” to Xiong Yia Lee Chia”
Then sold by Yia Xiong Et Al in 2002 for $132,000, to Pao Ge Xiong.
Xiong sold it to TJ Waconia in 2006 for $159,000. That was in February.
Two months later, in April of 2006, TJ Waconia sold it to MICHAEL PLETEN (there’s that Pleten name again) for $218,000.
However, the valuation history was as follows:
1999, $72,400.
2000, $92,500.
2001, $108,000.
2002, $122,000
2003, $125,500
2004, $147,000
2005, $169,700
2006, $163,700
2007, $156,300
History of 1625 Irving Ave. N., a TJ Waconia house from my “partial list.”
Good old Ronnie C. Franklin, rental history contact person.
Valuation of the house as follows:
1998, $39,500
1999, $41,200
2000, $48,000
2001, $66,500
2002, $75,300
2003, $91,200
2004, $115,100
2005, $131,800
2006, $153,000
2007, $127,000
Now compare with the sales history.
September 25, 2000, sold by “Kuhn Anna M/Richard” to “Thao Chue Xiong” for $93,000.
June 6, 2003, sold by “Chue Xiong Thao” (sic) to Kou Vang for $135,000.
June 01, 2005, sold by Kou Vang to TJ Waconia for $161,000.
History of 1430 5th St. NE, a TJ Waconia house from my partial list.
Owner and taxpayer listed as Jon E. Helgason. (Now under[investigation by the FBI], though as “Jonathon.”)
Good old Ronnie C. Franklin listed as the rental history contact person, as always.
Sold July 20, 2005 by Kao Yang to TJ Waconia, Inc. for $142,000.
Compare with the valuation history:
1999, $40,200.
2000, $46,800.
2001, $65,000.
2002, $78,800.
2003, $93,400.
2004, $107,200.
2005, $119,700.
2006, $151,700.
2007, $101,900.
Kao Yang is listed at 3207 O’Henry Road, Brooklyn Center, MN 55429.
Yeah, whatever.
News breaking this morning of more mortgage fraud by Universal Mortgage in Brooklyn Park. It would be great if there were a list of properties out in the public so anybody looking at houses would know if the property they are considering is caught up in this latest mortgage fraud scandal.
Thanks, Alex, for the comparsion to Columbo, but when it came to the “mystery night lineup” of Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan and Wife, I was always a McCloud…hanging on the helicopter skid with true desperate innovation, refusing to let go until I had accomplished my mission.
What interests me is how the mortgage fraud may make clean title problematic. I’d love to see more info and discussion about that. The minute I hear there was fraud with the mortgage, I have to wonder what impact that will have on the title and on the cost of title insurance.
To put it another way: sure, every buyer HAS title insurance. Just like most folks have auto collision insurance. But who the heck wants to be put in a position of actually having to USE that insurance?
Further update on TJ Waconia properties.
Another name that appears more than once is Michael J. Moulton of 333 8th Ave. N. Hopkins Mn 55343.
Moultan is the owner and taxpayer for 1643 Sheridan Ave. N. Minneapolis. He was also the buyer for 1000 Upton Ave. N. (Good old Ronnie C. Franklin, rental contact person for that property)
Here is some sales history for 1000 Upton Avenue:
September 25, 1998, Antonia V. Carter sold it to Glenn L. Manty for $57,000.
On October 7, 2005, Glen did pretty good for himself, selling it to Michael Mouton for $163,500…much more than double the price.
The usual pattern is reflected in the valuation:
1999, $45,900.
2000, $52,200.
2001, $74,500.
2002, $82,100.
2003, $96,100.
2004, $116,400.
2005, $131,000.
2006, $136,000.
2007, $107,500.
There seems to some kind of a pattern between the rising price, the precise time period the valuation was rising, even the ratio of valuation to final selling price. It’s like these folks sat down and figured out how much they could get away with, using some kind of formula or ratio.
It may not be sharp or exact…they probably rounded or fudged a bit. But the numbers create a pattern, and it’s a pretty constant pattern during a fairly-defined period of time.
I am sorry if I am appearing to be ignorant on the matter but my question is…..
When a property is located in an area that has experienced a 200% + appreciation in the past seven years, why is it considered fraud when selling a property that has appreciated?
For example: If a person bought a house in July of 2003 for $150,000 and had to sell it eight months later due to a job transfer, for $185,000…. How is that fraud? Who the owner sells the house to is not relevant.
Thank you.
To follow up the question I just posted, I have a personal example to share.
I live in Dallas and in June of 2006 I bought a house for $168,000 (had an after repair value of $234,000 but I bought at a discount because of disrepair condition).
Six months later, I sold it for $253,000 and it was supported because of the quality materials and improvements that were added.
To the novice it would appear I made $85,000 on a house in an area with less than 4% annual appreciation. Is that Fraud?
Whats not mentioned is the costs involved…
Property taxes, closing costs (twice), labor, materials, monthly holding costs, utilities and interest I had to pay on the money borrowed to renovate it.
In the end, I profited less than $5,000 and there was nothing fraudulent involved.
I am eager to get feedback on my two posts.
Thank you.
Jim –
Material improvements to a property to increase its value is not on any level fraud. Nor is selling real estate at a profit. Nobody has a problem with that.
I think you are missing the point here a little bit – the properties we are discussing were artificially inflated, using rigged appraisals and straw buyers for the express purpose of stealing money from a lender.
Nobody is calling legitimate appreciation, or taking a distressed property, improving it, then selling it at a profit fraud.
Hope that clears things up for you.
To the Editor:
Your point is accurate and well taken. On the homepage of my business website, I have the notice posted to help prevent real estate fraud by reporting it. I go on to give the contact information for the FBI locally.
With all due respect, all I am suggesting is when you look at the examples given with the Twin Cities issue, I think its not fair to convict anyone before there is a conviction.
If I or any of the investors I work with were to have our names broadcast as they have in the Twin Cities, only to find we were inncocent afterall… Well our careers would be over.
Call me a Robin Hood for real estate investors, maybe. Look at the “Reality” TV shows on Flipping. The truth of the matter is, there is not much truth involved at all in those. Yet the media portrays that.
Regards,
Jim Watkins
A fair point Jim, though I don’t think anyone is broadcasting any names here and making ANY Assertions about involvement, guilt, or innocence. John Hoff is just pulling together a list of property owners, which are a matter of public record, and looking for patterns.
I would remind everybody to consider the source here. This is NOT a newspaper or traditional press outlet, these are basically anonymous internet comments, so your mileage may vary. Also, in fraudulent transactions, the property owners listed are sometimes straw buyers who have been victimized by the orchestrators of these types of schemes, so we can’t make any value judgments based on anyone’s having owned a property that has passed through TJ Waconia – Lets be VERY clear on that point, and we need to be careful about making any assumptions based only on publicly available data.
One of the great things about a blog is that the original post is, more often than not, just the start of the conversation, and we rely of commenters like yourself to continue to add color, and different points of view to each and every issue. So thank you for taking the time, and stick around.
Tom Balko also owns Absolute Appraisals which must be one of the ways he was able to pull this off. He also owned a title company and property management company under different names as well.
I may not be the smartest fellow in the world but, it sure looks like personal and business names have been mentioned.
I would be interested to know if Slander and/or Libel charges could be brought against an individual after wrongfully accusing someone who had been implicated or even charged with a crime but, was later found innocent?
ageekygirl: Can I ask if you know for a fact that the person you named was the appraiser for the properties in question?
Also, do you know for a fact that it was his title company that handled the closings?
What is wrong with a title company, appraisal company and property management company having different names?
I intend to follow this story and offer reasonable explanations for the two men being accused since it appears the public has engaged in a witch hunt against them.
Further, this is exactly what the FBI is for. To investigate and find facts. So far, I have seen very few facts other than some real estate investors bought and sold houses.
I was on CraigsList a while back and stumbled upon a post in the Real Estate Services section that I couldn’t believe.
Here is the URL that was posted:
http://www.fakepaycheckstubs.com/
I don’t know if the service that site offers is actually offering a fraudulent product but… I hope the FBI see’s this thread and investigates that site. Afterall, thats what they do best.
Jim,
TJ Waconia/TJ Holdings/ TJ Land Trust has been proven guilty in our case. We received judment on November 15, 2007 in Scott County MN. The problem now is they claim there is no money, etc. to pay us back. We are still working on the Fraud portion of the case and hope to be back in court in February. The problem is Jon Helgason has now filed for protection from testifying….why would you do this if you were innocent??
Jim can I ask do yo uhave a personal stake in this case?
What is still needed? Looks like people have a lot on these guys
Jane: No, I do not have any personal stake with them or their companies. Nor do I have any business stake.
The reason I am saying what I have thus far is because I teach distressed real estate in Dallas and one of the classes I teach is about Flipping.
What is my point?
The term Flipping, is a popular term but its luster is fading fast. Why? Mainly because the media can take anything real estate related and toss the Flipping word on top of it and away they go.
Want an example?
Last year, a Louisiana church, donated a house to a Hurricane Katrina victim. However, that person SOLD the house for $110,000 + or – and never once lived in the house, yet took the money when they sold it.
The media called it a Flipping scam.
This industry is getting one black eye after another. In my opinion, we all get lumped together because of a few bad apples.
I decided to say what I have here because I did a search for Fraud and this story and comments caught my attention.
You say that people have a “lot” on these guys. So I have said that from what I know (reading online), I haven’t seen anything that warrants two investors being crucified in public while neither of them have even been arrested (that I could find).
Terese:
You appear to be speaking as a matter of fact. If that is true, I would be curious to know what happened? What type of case? Charges filed against anyone? Rental dispute? Investment dispute?
Jim — why don’t you come clean and tell eveybody on this blog the big reason you have a “vested” interest is because you grew up with Tom Balko and you went to high school with him.
Does it really matter if he went to school with them or not? I have looked far enough into it myself and if anything is wrong they FBI will figure it out. I actually would say only thing Jim did is put the public info online which can be found by anyone. I just find it interesting to hear the personal stories and I am just waiting to form my final opinion of what happened. nevermind…you obviously know the situation I assume you are saying Jim was an invester…regardless if he wass or wasnt if something was done the wrong way that is the real story not who is blaiming who for what. This whole situation is a shame
Nevermind:
“Come clean?” With what? As I stated before, I don’t have a business or personal stake in the matter. Not that I owe you an explanation but, I encourage you to research to your hearts content. You will not find my name or any of my business names, linked to any of thier real estate transactions.
I could humor you by saying, I do know who Tom Balko is and what I do know about him is that he is a stand-up person who (to my knowledge) would never knowingly “wrong” anyone.
My continued point is, I find it unfair (no matter who it is) that someone can have their name, business, etc., portrayed to the public that they are a big criminal. Yet, not one arrest. I knew Tom to be an honest person and am eager to see if the FBI finds any illegal activity.
I have a question for you though…
I think it is reasonable to assume that YOU also know Tom AND ME! Granted, I am very visible on the internet & search engines, which could reveal where we went to high school. However, the reason I say you also know both of us is you stated “You grew up with Tom Balko.”
So unless you “come clean” with us, I might suggest you go back to commenting on your sports blogs and have a nice day.
Jane Doe:
Two things….
1- What public info did I put online with this? Maybe I am reading your comment the wrong way?
2- I appreciate your objective comments and I am happy to see that you also have respect for the FBI (and others involved in the investigation) and agree that they will find wrongdoing if there is wrongdoing to be found. That said, I can only hope that none of us will find ourselves in a public situation where we are Guilty until proven Innocent.
Does anyone have any idea how ling this FBI investigation is supposed to take?
You know why Jim Watkins is protecting Tom Balko? He was involved back in 2002-2003. He is worried the FBI will look into him. TJ waconia, if you dig deeper will find that many of the properties were friends and family properties that they inflated. The names you see over and over are straw buyes that they sold their paper dream to. Look into Gayle Claus, Jon Helgason’s personal processor, any appraiser through absolute or Sam Ashkar, a personal friend of Joh Helgason.
These guys have ruined a lot of lifes in the name of greed.
Jim you know they did illegal things, and obviously took it to a whole new level after you left town.
Jim, you also know Tom was removed, personally by many banks for inflated appraisals. He would hire people to then do them that he signed off on.
Also, look into the title company Jon and Tom owned. This goes way deeper than you think. I hope the FBI nails them to the wall.
[ed. note: we are going to leave this comment up, and give Jim a chance to respond, but lets all be careful about leveling accusations of involvement here, unless we can show some actual proof. Again, consider the source - this comment may very well be gospel, or it could be utter nonsense by someone with an axe to grind. This is the internet, after all]
Best comment stream ever. Just great, great stuff all. New post pointing out this great thread on the main page.
The point about straw buyers being dupes in this case is a good one – they almost always are victims, rather than co-conspirators.
Fanning the flames a little: Somebody should try a search at the secretary of states website for businesses registered to the TJ Waconia Address in Roseville. Look for anything with TJ in the name at a Roseville Address matching TJ Waconia’s. These guys had MANY businesses, it appears.
Also, can anyone drop some info on a loan officer that may have been involved that we have on very good authority has fled to South Africa?
Inquiring minds, don’t you know…
The above commment can and will be substantiated in court. Jim’s name along with the above and proof of their invovlvement have been passed on to the FBI.
Jim was a petty player really. A pawn of Toms, like many of the people who are going to be hurt by this. He did learn his craft from them.
If you go way back to the 90′s you will see Jon had a similiar problem in North Minneapolis. His, then company, was barred from doing business there.
Another thing being left out of all this, is Jon Helgason is the realtor of record on every transaction. Interesting really when you consider every purchase that was made, Jon personally was making 2.7 percent on. I bet many of his “client” straw buyers were not even aware of this.
And of course Tom had a hand in every appraisal. And yes Jim, this can be substantiated and you know it.
I would have no knowledge of a run away loan officer. I did notice that Tom’s wife Jill recently bought a home in Maple Grove in her name only. I would keep an eye on these two. Leaving is not beyond them.
This could have been, and should have been stopped a long time ago.
I would love to know if there is any kind of movement, underground or not, to look in to civil action against these people. This has class action suit written all over it. I saw a comment that they claim they have no money. They sure still own a lot of real estate, in their name I might add, that has value.
It’s time to give it back to the people who were taken advantage of.
I would love to know if class action is out there or help out to see it happen.
We have a civil case against Jon Helgason, Tom Balko and their MANY companies. We have won one judgement for breach of contract and will to nail them to the wall with fraud. It will be the last thing we do to make sure that Jon and Tom end up with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
If anyone here thinks they are innocent until proven guilty, you should read the affidavit from the FBI. When the FBI raided their offices, they even took pictures looking for “known associates”. Trust me when I tell you they will go to prision for a VERY long time. I just hope we are able to get them first before they are arrested.
I cannot even express to you how they have devasted lives. Not to mention neighborhoods where HONEST people were trying to have a dream of owning a home and building equity, not have their value destroyed because they are living on a block of TJ Waconia foreclosed homes.
Jon and Tom are villians of the worst kind!
They just kept taking money from one LLC and spinning another hoping that they would be protected and not have to pay the money back to investors and “interim buyers”. But what they might not be aware of is that there are Forensic Accountants that will find what they did with all the money.
And speaking of Interim Buyers, if you look they NEVER sold any of their houses on the open market for a fair market price. They only sold homes to trusting friends and family, even Jon’s Mother!
Check out the article in the Star and Tribune today on Balko and his dance studio. http://www.startribune.com.
Nice guy….
Thank you terese for the heads up on dancers edge. wow.
They need to freeze his accounts now.
Also, where is Mr. Wadkins? Care to comment on this great guy that would never hurt anybody? Jim, you out there?
I didn’t think so.
Terese, How do you get a hold of that affidavit?
Do we know these guys won’t run? It looks like from the star tribune article on the dance shoppe, that is exactly what is about to happen.
To those of you who posted comments, still haven’t answered the few questions I asked you and fail to leave your name or a valid email address…. I am here.
I will post my response to the above posts.
I have not been online in two days to read any of this. I am stunned and disgusted that a dirty finger is being pointed in my direction. What you are saying about me is Libel. You obviously worked for Tom or Jon at some point. I am glad my name has been submitted to the FBI. I am only too happy to report everything I know.
I will comment further later tonight.
“The above commment can and will be substantiated in court. Jim’s name along with the above and proof of their invovlvement have been passed on to the FBI.”
Jim was a petty player really. A pawn of Toms, like many of the people who are going to be hurt by this. He did learn his craft from them.”
My reply:
You say I am worried that the FBI will look into me? Why? For the record, I am not worried about it. You accuse me of knowing so much yet you stop short of actually accusing me of anything.
What surprises me is the fact that the person who wrote this, “TheTruth” has now offered several names and accused many of wrongdoing YET… refuses to identify themselves. You have no credibility and are way off base with what you claim about me.
What “Craft” did I learn? My real estate career is not similar to anything mentioned in this blog.
You say I was a “Petty player?”
That is Libel. For all I know, you could be an ex-girlfriend, out to scorn. You offer nothing more than opinion. In fact, my name only came up here because I identified myself. People with something to hide, generally don’t identify themselves. Who are you again?
My resume speaks for itself as I even encourage the public to report questionable activity to authorities. All the while… I make my name, website and email address very visible with any comment I make.
“Also, where is Mr. Wadkins? Care to comment on this great guy that would never hurt anybody? Jim, you out there?”
Yes. I am here. Did you know my last name is Watkins? Not Wadkins.
Jim,
Maybe you should stop drinking the kool aid? Jon and Tom are absolute scumbags! Maybe you should do your homework before you speak and say these two are innocent. They are as gulity as the day is long…..this is not slander, it is FACT!
I have given you my true name…ask your scumbag buddies who I am.
Tell me…why have they filed for protection from civil depositions if they are so innocent?? Why would they not want to tell their side of the story??
HELGASON and BALKO are scumbags…..so go ahead and use your legal terms of slander and libel…what a joke! You think after what they have done to destroy lives a judge is going to care what is said about them by victims on a website??
Here is hoping the FBI arrests them on Christmas!
Jon and Tom are lucky we do not post their home address’ so the good people of the North Minneapolis Community don’t picket their expensive homes.
Answers,
The affidavit is public….you might be able to request it from the MN attorney generals website. Truly a facinating read! By the way….it is extremely difficult for the FBI to get a search and seizure warrant unless they have an extremely strong case. Innocent??…I think not!
Hoping all of us victims have justice.
Kind Regards,
Terese
Terese:
Your entire rant of a reply does not address what I asked.
When I mentioned Slander and Libel, I was clearly referring to ME!
I don’t see how offering another view point is protecting someone.
You are entitled to an opinion on anyone.
I had asked that any implied involvement with me, be backed up with fact. To say “you told me who you are, just ask my buddies”… is wrong. I don’t know who you are nor do you know who any of my buddies are.
I would guess that you suffered some sort of loss that you are claiming to be someone else’s fault and are out for your own justice. All I wanted was some sort of basis for implying what you have about me.
As for Tom, Jon and others who have had their names brought into question… I will let the proper authorities do their work and if I can help… I will.
Your blatant comments (and others who have commented) and accusations, suggest a lack of respect for the justice system and due process.
“They are as gulity as the day is long…..this is not slander, it is FACT!”
It makes me wonder what “fact” is in your world. I must have missed the trial where the verdict was handed down…. And I am talking about THIS blog thread topic. Not something separate.
funny how the guitly always profess, innocent until proven guilty.
As for an address Terese, it’s easy. Look up Tom’s appraisal company on the commerce department site and then plug that address into the hennepin county tax site. Open to the public.
How those poor people in maple grove are not sitting out side his home.
or maybe he is hiding in maple grove with his wife jill. that house appeared occupied, unlike the rogers home.
“funny how the guitly always profess, innocent until proven guilty.”
LOL… well I do have to laugh at most of you with this. All of a sudden, I am now guilty? A few replies from now and I bet someone manages to implicate Santa or the Easter Bunny as “Players.”
To Sam:
I live in Texas. I have no business ties with Minnesota. I never felt a need to go to the trouble you listed, in order to find out who someone is. I asked, yes. But if I actually “Had” to know who everyone is… I would let someone else find out for me.
“or maybe he is hiding in maple grove with his wife jill. that house appeared occupied, unlike the rogers home.”
You have got to be kidding? You actually stake out people’s houses? Why on earth would you feel the need to do something like that?
I do have just one question for Terese:
She has stated as “fact” that she knows the names of those involved (even though the FBI has just begun to investigate), the role or business relationship they had with the two being investigated, the level of involvement people had and details of the numerous businesses and how they tied them all together to pull off this master plan. (I am leaving a lot of her accusations out so I can get to the question.)
Let’s say, (and I stress that I am not claiming innocence or guilt on anyones behalf) that she is 100% correct with what she has said about everyone (Again, this is a hypothetical scenario) and what they have (suppposedly) done…
My question is…. According to you, this has been going on for several years (at least back to 2003 as stated) now.
So… If you had information, to the level you claim… Then WHY didn’t you blow your whistle, turn everyone in and make all of these statements back then?
It’s easy to jump on a bandwagon and preach when it’s popular.
Might I suggest once again, that we just stop the bantering and let others do their jobs?
Did my little ol’ list and comments set that whole thing off? My oh my!
I should give some insight into how this started. I was (still am) hoping to get a bargain on the North Side, and it was my hope that properties involved in mortgage fraud might be “damaged goods” and available at rock bottom prices. Whether that hope is misplaced I have yet to determine, and I have to wonder if there might be a “title insurance meltdown” to follow the “mortgage meltdown.”
I mean, if there has been fraud with the property, how do you know ugly problems won’t come up with the title? Like I said on another thread: title insurance is like collision insurance. Nice to have, but would you really want to put yourself in a situation where you KNOW you’d have to use it?
So I was hoping to get a list of the properties involved in the investigation/indictment. (And thanks for the corrections, by the way, Mr. Webmaster. There’s a huge distinction between “under FBI investigation” versus under indictment.” It’s kind of like “not indicted…quite yet”)
Anyway, I got that “partial list” by literally doing a “freeze frame” of the television news report where they held up the document briefly, and I looked up those properties using the city and county web pages where you can punch in an address and get all kinds of sales and valuation information.
I also called the neighborhood association on the North Side which had provided that list to the authorities and (it appears) to the television reporter.
But I was hoping to get a more complete list, which is why I called the neighborhood association people. But they told me in so many words they weren’t sharing the “TJ Waconia” list.
However, I was also told…emphatically… that the TJ Waconia list represented only the “tip of the iceberg” and more indictments should be expected for mortgage fraud on the North Side.
Lately I’ve been trying to find homes on the MLS list that are in my price range…every time I research one of these foreclosures (and I always do my research) I see the same exact pattern in the valuation. There are enormous jumps in value around the same time periods.
Also I’ve talked to more than one real estate agent for the sellers and some of them will go so far as to say, without mincing words, there was some kind of scam going on with this or that property. And I’m not talking about “TJ Waconia” properties, either, but other properties.
I guess this is the result of loosening up standards in hopes of creating an “ownership society,” to use George Bush’s phrase. Now, on the North Side, BEHOLD THE OWNERSHIP SOCIETY. It’s like, “That’s MY copper pipe because it’s in MY TRUCK.”
Oh, by the way…the justice system can do it’s job but people like opinion writers and bloggers also have a job. And ordinary citizens have a right to their opinion. If I’m in a room where jury selection is taking place, I’ll be happy to keep my opinion in check so I don’t interfere with the justice system.
However, if I see a pattern of suspicious transactions taking place right in front of me, I reserve the right to comment about it. In fact, I might do a little more of that in the very near future.
Here’s an odd development. I can no longer pull up information about the properties on my list from the city website. Every time I punch in one of the addresses, this is what comes up:
—
PropertyInfo Application Error
Server was unable to process request. –> Exception of type COM_Share.AppException was thrown.
Please contact 612-673-3367 (between 8 and 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday)
—
I can, however, still get information off the county website for those properties. It’s not clear to me whether this is some quirky computer thing or whether there is a deliberate effort to block the release of information (including phone numbers, etc. of individuals associated with the properties) from getting out in public.
And, again, I fully acknowledge the distinction between investigation versus indictment.
However, as part of the TJ Waconia INVESTIGATION the FBI filed sworn affidavits which contained allegations of fraud and those accusations have been made public.
So while that may not be an “indictment” in the strictly legal justice system sense, (not yet, watch the clock or calendar) it appears to be very much a damning MORAL indictment, or an indictment “in the eyes of the public.”
But I’ll say this much in defense of TJ Waconia: the very people who gathered the info and shopped it around to the FBI are the same ones saying “TJ Waconia is only the tip of the iceberg.”
JIM WATKINS AND TOM BALKO ARE INDEED LINKED AND HERE IS THE PROOF.
I tried doing a search for “Jim Watkins” and “Tom Balko” just to see what I could turn up about how these two might be linked.
It appears that a Jim Watkins (who sometimes signs his whole name on posts) comments on a forum called “bigger pockets dot com.” You can find this rather easily by just plugging “Tom Balko” and “Jim Watkins” into Google.
That may be how the other poster found the link between a “Jim Watkins” and “Tom Balko.”
The other poster might not even be involved, but could have found the info and tossed it on the thread to make the thread hot.
Anyway, a certain Jim Watkins uses the name “thedfwmentor” and joined the bigger pockets forum on 23 Feb 2006. As of today, Jim Watkins had 78 posts and lists his location as Dallas/Ft. Worth.
On Sunday, March 5, 2006, a poster named “takleberry” provided the contact info for a couple of “investment clubs” in Minnesota.
At that point, Jim Watkins chimed in with the following:
“The site isn’t updated but I grew up with one of the site owners. He is now into the hundreds as far as properties he & the other site owner have. Tom Balko is the one I grew up with but I also worked with Jon for over eight months as their Operations Manager.”
At that point, Jim Watkins provides the following URL for “Eric.”
http://investorswarehouse.net/index.htm
Later Jim says,
“The other owner of that website I listed, owns Complete Mortgage in New Brighton. His name is Jon Helgason. Not sure of the number off the top of my head but look it up and tell him Jim in Texas told you to give him a call.”
He signs, “Jim Watkins” and provides the following website:
http://www.dfwmentor.com
So there are your pretty hard and firm links between Jim Watkins, Tom Balko, and Jon Helgason.
But please don’t call me “Columbo.” My ten-year-old son could have punched those two names into Google to see what would turn up. I just got lucky.
But, Jim, I didn’t mean to cause offense and I wish to make it VERY clear there is no legal indictment yet, though a rather damning moral indictment and certainly indictment in the eyes of the public of your buddy buddies Balko and Helgason.
What can you tell us about the other names I mentioned that keep turning up on the properties? Do you know Ronnie? Ronnie seems like such a “stand up guy” as you might put it.
I tried the link to “investor’s warehouse” and the site appears to be barely on life support. It sort of exists, but nothing much is there.
The word “images” is there, but no images. I’ve never seen a site stripped so bare.
However, here is information I turned up about the entity known as “investor’s warehouse” under the name “Tom Balko.”
Investor’s Warehouse
3101 Old Highway 8 Suite 203
Roseville, MN 55113
USA
Website: http://www.investorswarehouse.net
Phone: (651) 287-3400
Fax: (651) 203-3443
This profile was automatically generated using information found on the Internet.
Summary
Industry: Real Estate
Investor’s Warehouse was founded in 2002 to assist real estate investors in finding quality inventory at the best price possible. Investor’s Warehouse provides discounted property inventory to investors and investment groups.
Properties that Investor’s Warehouse specializes in include:
Single Family Homes
New and pre-construction homes, town-homes and condos.
Turnkey properties
Condo conversion developments
What does investor’s warehouse mean by “full service real estate”?
Many people that want to invest in real estate are reluctant because they believe it is too complicated. Others may associate real estate investing directly with being a landlord or a rehab specialist, which isn’t for everyone. These are false stigmas about the business. We start by providing the inventory, procuring the deal, offering services in all aspects of the process, and finally providing an exit and re-investment strategy.
[Needful paragraph break, HERE]
Investor’s Warehouse also works hand in hand with lease option candidates, meaning that your property has a potential buyer living in the unit when the time comes for you to sell and re-invest. Investor’s Warehouse ensures a deliverable deal that is ready to execute in the timeliest fashion possible.
With our management and leasing components in place, the investor can now focus on the financial benefits of real estate investing.
Thus it appears that in that one post, Jim Watkins was telling an individual to get involved with Tom Balko. It makes sense Jim Watkins would defend Tom Balko and worry about “business names” being mentioned since Jim Watkins (or SOMEBODY with the name “Jim Watkins”) is so intimately linked to Tom Balko.
Now, if you look at Jim Watkins’ website, well, it is very much up and running and full of a lot of great information about Jim Watkins and all of his dealings in real estate.
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All I want is a super cheap house on the North Side. Somebody get THAT for me, and I might just keep my fingers off the keyboard. No promises, but I might! That’s the only reason I got interested in this stuff in the first place but, damn it’s interesting!