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Have been weighing that up Jay, the alternative is substantially lowering the rent to get some tenants into the units and then use that cash to pay off the other renovations
Just an updated on the My US Property front, still heard nothing from Mr. Andrew Allan since the email he sent just after the 730 report. Regarding Youngstown property, which was the four units, I have renovated two but been struggling to rent them out. It has been slow. The plan was to rent those to out and use the funds to renovate the other two.
I have still boarded up the Detroit property until further notice and have been trying to change the title over into my name, which it wasn’t for some time, and that has been a bit of a headache trying to pay for the title transfer through the Detroit Finance department.
So I guess things have stagnated somewhat. It would be great to get the Youngstown property rented out which would fund renovating the other units and also Detroit but it has been on the market for at least a month and no bites.
Thanks for all the feedback and encouragement over the past 18 months
Thanks for the encouragement Joel, yeah obviously I was very naive, as is Mr. Allan from My USA Property for that matter, and I have not finished following him up as of yet. I know more than a few on this forum have had bad experiences, not just yourself. Continuing on from the last post I put up about Mr. Allan' s miss dealings I am now up to December last year, where things really hit the fan. I was concerned because the supposed renovations that were meant to happen with both properties. One of the property managers Andrew Allan found, Ronnie Williams ran off with six months rent and disappeared, of course Andrew didn’t take responsibility for this, although I paid him to find a reliable property manager.
December 10
Hi Gavin,
Been a tough week and had a personal issue to attend too. I have sent a very strong demanding email to the guys in Detroit and if I don’t have an answer by Tuesday I am filing a formal complaint with the State of Michigan. I am over getting the blame for there unprofessional work. Its not fraud I think they are just lazy people. The property is there and you own it and fraud would mean the property is not in your name. The Detroit guys came highly recommenened by one of my contacts over here.
I have sent another email to Alan Applegate for an update on Youngstown as I have 2 investors interested in buying the units and I want to make sure they are good to go. I am as frustrated as you are Gavin as I keep hitting brick walls with people. I want these all done and dusted as soon as possible for you and me. Do you think I have made any money from these transactions? I didn’t go into business for this that’s for sure. Honestly if I had the money I would just buy them and somehow sort them out but everything I make goes into my business.
Sorry for your frustration, anger towards me but everyday I am trying to resolve this issue and I am not gaining anything from it that’s for sure!
Andrew Allan.
After I posted my frustration on this site Emma was good enough to help me source the properties, as I never received much paperwork regarding ownership. After searching we realised that the title of the Detroit Property was never actually transferred into my name. This caused a real headache and meant that I had to pay an additional $200 to get the title transferred into my name. This is what Andrew Allan emailed me on December 17th
Hi Gavin,
I have left 2 messages and sent another demanding email to Jeremy in Detroit today. The paperwork I have on another laptop which I will get into tonight and pull it up. The property was transferred into an LLC that was created for you not your personal name. I will get on top of this. I have demanded Jeremy the wholesaler in Detroit who is the person that was the one that co-ordinated everything. I have held back having you contact him as he is difficult to get a hold of but if I don’t get a response by tomorrow at the latest I will give you his mobile number. I am furious about this and I have told him that your going to take every avenue to get this matter resolved.
In regards to youngstown I have sent a follow up email to Alan for an update as I need photos for the Investors that are interested in buying the place. Been on top of these all day and I have not been this frustrated.
As for the money I did not receive it for the Detroit property only for the Youngstown property which I have evidence that it was transferred to the title company. The Detroit money was sent directly to the Detroit Title company not me. We will get to the bottom of this!
Andrew
Unfortunately Mr. Allan never did get to the bottom of this. Through Emma's help and also Marty Stone who Jeremy Laws got me onto, they really helped me out. Marty Stone actually helped set me up with some reliable Property Managers. Of course it is unfortunate that I didn't meet these people much earlier!
Good to be on the new revamped website.
My situation now is better than what it was last year, as I now have a property manager running the Youngstown property and will hopefully have two units rented out soon. I have pumped another $6000 into renovations as the money I gave Andrew Allan was never used for renovations. I have no idea what happened there and he is not responding to my emails now, after seeing the story on him by the 730 Report in April.
The Detroit property is a white elephant. I spent $1500 to fix some pipes and board it up with the help of a property manager I found through some other help. I will have to follow that up, but won't renovate it until the other properties are bringing in cash.
I have had a lot of help from Jeremy and Emma who have been on this site, as well as some of their associates which have been terrific.
I would agree that sourcing some people on this forum is a good start
I was stunned when I lived in Osaka for a few years at how small some of these places actually were. I mean a one person unit can basically fit one person, with a tiny bathroom and cooking facilities and if you roll out your futon on the floor all the space is taken up. Consequently when I came back to Melbourne to live and was looking for an investment property, the one bedroom properties seemed huge by comparison.
Anyway this was Andrew’s reply:
On 04/12/2011, at 5:32 AM, Andrew Allan wrote:
Hi Gavin,I have sent several email communication over the past few weeks. I am waiting on Alan Applegate to give me the green light that the Youngstown property is done and can be sold as I have 2 interested investors wanting it. I have sent emails but still nothing back. I am as frustrated as you are and I have personal money invested in the property. The Detroit property is being a difficult one because the wholesaler that sourced the property and rehabbed it wont return my calls or emails. I am on it almost everyday.
I want to get these sold as quickly as you do! I will make more calls Monday to get some answers. Please confirm if you receive this email?
In regards to the Detroit property being refurbished, it looks like by the pictures I had another property agent take, that they were either never finished or never done. Either way Andrew, once again, hired shody people to do the work and hence it was never completed. Consequently it wasn’t long before I went to media outlets to see if I could tell my story. ABC were the only source who showed interest, but they did run the story in April this year and since then I haven’t heard from Mr. Andrew Allan from My USA Property. Actually I am not sure if the company is still running under that name anymore.
I emailed Jon Faine, who is on ABC radio in the mornings who was happy to have me on the show, but I was advised by a producer from 730 Report not to do so until all the facts were collected, which ended up taking quite a long time.
It was also in December last year that I became a member of this forum and put the first of a series of posts about the miss dealings of My USA Property and the CEO Andrew Allan. I had had the misfortune of dealing with this person for two years and had found that much of what he said was hot air. Consequently I wanted to see if I could get some helping dealing with my properties from other sources. Andrew Allan gave me very little paperwork regarding purchasing the properties and there were other things I needed to deal with, not to say in the least land tax.
I also still needed both properties to be renovated and managed, things that Andrew Allan guaranteed he would do in a matter of months, but still hadn’t done two years after I had bought the properties. What a mistake on my behalf. Anyway things did start moving forward once I got the able assistance of some of the people on this forum, but there were still a few more shocks to be had first of all.
Anyway moving through the later months of last year, I continued to pester Andrew without getting much of a response. The classic line was that for my Youngstown units in Ohio, that he had ‘tenants who were interested’ once the renovations were done. As for the Detroit property, he conveniently never chose to really address that situation. This frustration lead to the email I sent below to him last year on December 1st;
From: Gavin Hicks
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2011 14:13:07 -0800 (PST)
To: Andrew Allan
Cc: , Alan Applegate , debra myus
Subject: Detroit and YoungstownAndrew,
Once again I’ve emailed you numerous times and have received no feedback. Your lack of communication is appauling, and I simply don’t buy the excuse that my emails don’t get to your account, as that never happens to anyone else I email people to. The last time I heard from you was over a month ago, despite emailing AT LEAST three times since then and receiving no response. The properties need to go and so I don’t have to deal with utter frustration and all the broken promises I was told about when I first became associated with this shody company. Your lack of ACTION has done nothing to disprove this theory
It appears that every time you say you are going to follow up with something you then simply disappear off the radar. I am still incurring penalities also for the St. Kilda property which I don’t have the money to pay the deposit for.
I have a simple list of questions tenants that need to be answered:
have moved into all the units and Youngstown? When will it be ready to sell?Can you please give me an update on the situation of the maintenance of the properties, the tenant situation and when they will be ready to sell. It obviously needs to be done ASAP and well before winter comes.
I have also heard nothing about what is going on with the DETROIT property, which is very concerning as I have pumped in $40,000 Is there a property manager there? I am needing to sell the properties as soon as possible as I am still incurring fees for not being able to come up with the deposit funds for my St. Kilda property.
Gavin
Anyway to continue on, (now that I have regular access to the internet after moving property). Andrew became harder to get in touch with. What irritated me was the fact that he actually set up permanent residence as you will read will read in the email below, in the US. I would have liked to have known how he got a working Visa as I know it is quite tough to obtain.
The email below he sent in mid-August last year
Hi Gavin,
As I have told you the Australian office is no longer and I have
everything ran out of the USA office as I am based here now. I have
mentioned this to you already and I cant have a meeting as I am not in
Australia I am in Orlando.You can either call my US office or best is email. I have not been
avoiding you I have been out of the office the past 2 weeks due to a very
personal loss in my family.I have sent emails to Alan in regards to Youngstown to follow up where its
at and only found out a few weeks ago about the damage to the property. I
have spent over $10,000 of my own money in there now and probably NO
chance of getting that back. He was speaking / negotiating with the church
to buy the property and I am still waiting on him to come back to me.In regards to Detroit I have the same guy that sourced the property (Jeremy Burgess) trying
to sell it and at least get your money back on that one but again its so
frustrating when the original property manager was a fraud and stuffed
everyone up.I will follow up Alan again today and get an answer!
Andrew
Thanks for the update Ziv, that’s interesting to read.
The Brunei government has had a tendency to give out land to their citizens in the past, but that country is much bigger than 40 km’s squared! lol
That’s one thing I found remarkable about the Japanese when I lived over there 10 years ago.. how bad their teeth were! Lol.
It is interesting to note Ziv, that despite promises from the previous Labour government here in Melbourne, Victoria, that the city would be expanding upwards rather than outwards, the NEW Liberal government this week announced that another six suburbs would be added to the outer areas of Melbourne with the possibility of them housing over 100,000 people!
This leads me to the question regarding Singapore; are there areas there which the government are looking to expanding, or are they simply looking to add more high rises to provide shelter for their folk and the many internationals?
Currently in the process of moving house, so have been a bit slack on the forum recently.
Anyway regarding the My USA Property fiasco II was up to around May last year with the company’s CEO Andrew Allan miss-dealings. Just to give you an idea of how stalling techniques can be used by some so called property experts like Mr. Allan here are three emails I got from him midway through last year. As you’ll notice despite his rhetoric no action towards getting the properties rented was actually done.
Late April
Hey Gavin,I have been away the past 2 days in Atlanta. I have a quote for the rehab
on Detroit so I can market that with the repairs required. IN relation to
Youngstown all I need is photos from the contractor and I have 4 investors
VERY interested in buying but I also know the church wants to buy the
property too. It really comes back to who will pay more. Anyway I hope to
have photos todayAndrew Allan
May
Hi Gavin,Yes I received a couple of external photos but waiting on the internals but I know they are still painting the inside now. I have sent it to a select few investors with some great interest. I just need the additional information that they want which the contractor should get to me this week then they will make a decision to buy. I am trying to get TOP dollar for you on this. In relation to Detroit I am yet to hear how they are progressing with the criminal investigation (regarding Property Manager Ronnie Williams) but I know it takes time as the system over here is SLOW. I will keep on trying.
Andrew Allan
Early June
Hi Gavin,It went to my junk mail for some reason and I didn¹t check that. I have
wired the funds for the renovations to Alan and I also have a buyer lined
up which I am working with on both your properties.Andrew Allan
Late June
Hi Gavin,Sorry I had a bad week last week being quiet sick with a tooth infection, almost sent me to hospital. Anyway I am sending the funds today as I have had money come in to finish off your Youngstown property and then re-sell. I have 2 very interested investors ready to go once works are done. In regards to Detroit they need about $4k to get it up to rentable stage. I am trying to get more quotes as well as sell it to a UK investor. There may be a loss on this but I am confident of getting your money back at least but I know there will be a profit on Youngstown.
Andrew Allan
Over the following six weeks there was very little correspondence from Andrew Allan, except for a few short paragraph emails, repeating what we had already talked about. Sigh. This was despite numerous phone calls and emails to My USA Property and also to Mr. Allan. When he did respond he conveniently focused more on the Youngstown Ohio property, as the Detroit property had been apparently evacuated and the property manager he sourced; Ronnie Williams, ran off with six months rent. I later found out through another property manager I hired later on, that there were people still living in the property up until early this year for free.
Alanls,
It sounds VERY similar to my experience with Andrew Allan, Jeremy Burgess and My USA Property. I had outstanding taxes too for a property I purchased in Detroit which did not have a title under my name. I am going after those two names above, I suggest you do with those people who misrepresented you too. Sooner or later if enough people kick up a fuss there will be better regulated processes put into place.Richard
Lol that’s something to do in future!
I actually thought Gumtree would be better regulated than what it was. I tried selling some bike wheels on it recently and got a number of very dodgy replies asking me to wire money to them first! Once I contacted Gumtree they told me to forward on the emails to investigate them. Thought their filtering system would be better. Anyway still sold the wheels.
Regarding renting I guess Gumtree would be effective, though I figure some dodgy potential clients may be searching through the real estate section too.
Thanks for the heads up. Would be best I guess to get on a first name basis with a US bank manager, so you WOULD recommend Wells Fargo? I became a client without a choice. Lol
I guess the only person who had the power was the professor handing out the grades too. Animal Farm, George Orwell “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”.
Unfortunately though Capitalism today essentially encourages people to want to get wealthy at the expense of others. I was part of the process…. and also a victim of it. Think about that also when you have a drink of coffee, purchase some jewelry are even when you buy clothing. People don’t think about that.
The only block for socialism to work effectively is people. I like film maker’s MIke Moore’s view that capitalism and socialism don’t work as they are outdated, and there needs to be a NEW alternative.
Had a lot of problems with Wells Fargo, after Wachovia Bank merged with them. I needed to skype them at least four times and post information on three separate occasions before I was able to get my money taken out of my "new" Wells Fargo account.
Are there any really reliable US banks around which cater for Overseas customers?
There's plenty of experts on this forum, depending on which country you're looking to buy in that is.
