Complaint Review: Ken Michaels

Ken Michaels is host of the Mortgage Makeovers real estate talk show. Consumers visiting the KenMichaelsShow.com website will be told that Ken Michaels is a "national consumer advocate", who protects consumers from unscrupulous lenders and lending practices".  Really?  In my opinion, it is Ken Michaels who is unscrupulous and consumers need to be protected from him!

Mr. Michaels charged me a total of $7,200.00 in refundable advance fees for negotiating a refinance and for buying down the interest rate.  But I have since learned from the California Bureau of Real Estate that Mr. Ken Strem Michaels' license #01011122 is NBA, which is a non-working status.  He cannot legally perform any act for which a real estate license is required.  It is also my understanding that anyone negotiating mortgage loans must qualify and register with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System, however I found no record for Mr. Michaels in the NMLS.

August 2014 he claimed to have a contact with my current mortgage company so he said he could arrange a 30-year, 4% fixed rate refinance for me.  He said the total cost would be a refundable $3,700.00 advance fee - which he instructed me to deposit into his bank account.  He said it would take about 90 days for the loan to close.  In our email exchange he confirmed the terms and he promised the upfront fees would be returned immediately if the loan did not happen.

Then in November, 2014 he claimed his contact with my mortgage company said I could buy down the interest rate 1%, for another refundable $3,500.00 upfront fee, which again he said must be deposited directly into his bank account. He confirmed everything, including the $7,200.00 he was now holding for us would be refunded if the deal did not work out.

We paid him a total of $7,200 and gave him over nine months to complete the refinance - but nothing ever happened. We have no evidence that he did anything at all.  I know now that all fees must be disclosed on a Good Faith Estimate, which he did not provide. We never received the refinance loan, and our mortgage company had no contact with him.

We cancelled with Mr. Michaels on 6/1/2015.  He promised numerous times he would be returning the upfront fees we paid him.  He said he had to get our refund back from the "investor" and blamed them for the delay in getting our money back. He later claimed that half our money had been sent to us - three different times!  But we received nothing!

I sent a Demand Letter to Ken Michaels for the $7,200.00 he owes.  He did not reply.  Instead his attorney sent a letter telling me to cease all contact with Mr. Michaels, and to provide proof that I paid him any monies.  He also demanded that I cease and desist from publishing any derogatory statments about Ken Michaels.  I sent the proof that his attorney asked for, which his office received on September 27, 2015.  As of today's date I still have not received any response from either Mr. Michaels or his attorney.