responded to a craigslist ad for a position as an RE Acquisition rep. Job was to find and pass on leads of homeowners who are in distress and wish to sell their home at a slight discount. Ad promised training, support, and proffessionalism. After an exchange of emails I was invited to a conference call to learn more about the company a few days later. In the interim I did some research on the internet of Erik Barlow who responded to my emails. Nothing found as the name of the company was never revealed until the conference call. On the call everyone was muted and Mr. Erik Barlow gave a presentation about the company. His 2 main points were that if you were on the call you were hired if you want the job and that there would be a $97 background check you would have to pay for as a condition of having the position. The name od the company was finally revealed and I did some further internet. The company was incorporated that morning, the day after the call, in the state of Georgia. Training was supposed to be a couple of hours with follow up support. On the training call the following saturday Erik was not prepared, off topic, and didnt really telll us much that we didnt already know. Training was non existent. A follow up was scheduled for Q&A and I was left even more confused as his answers to questions was rambling and incoherent. Since then, approx. 3 weeks, I have not had any communication with the company but they do have the $97 they charged for the background check. I had hesitation in working for this company but concluded $97 wont make or break me. My fears have been realized. I have seen their ads on different sites in different cities so consumers beware.
In Summary: Melrick Equity and Erik Barlow - Highly unprofessional, unprepared, do not deliver on promises, unethical behavior, no training.
Erik
Alpharetta,#2UPDATE Employee ..inside information
Tue, April 21, 2015
Hey Dave thanks for emailing me about this buddy. You are right Chris is kicking your butt...lol... just by a little bit thou. You both are doing awesome and i spoke with you AM today and you are at 5 deals in the pipeline as of this morning... Keep it up man.
After reading this report from "Charles" and the response that Dave gave I wasn't even going to respond but I think it is important to have a response from someone in management. There is a very big difference between facts and opinions. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but to get on the internet and a especially a site like this one and report so much info that is indeed false, slander and misleading is pathetic.
The most interesting part is that we don't now and have never had an AR named Charles that lives in the Boston Area. As you can see on the screen shot I provided we only have 1 AR named Charles and he lives and works in Arizona. I find it very interesting that someone would provide so called facts (mostly opinions) about the company and myself yet do it under what seems to be false pretense. We have 4 AR's in Massachusetts, not one name is Charles.
However to address your report "Charles", again like I said everyone is entitled to their own opinions but facts are facts and yours are wrong on so many levels. Allow me to address them...
What I find very interesting is that "Charles" has not mentioned that he had a choice to work with us in the capacity of a Jr. Acquisition Rep which is like a property scout and we would still require him to have a BG Check but the company would pay for it. However he elected to come on as an Acq Rep because they get paid a higher split of the deal than Jr. AR's (Property Scouts)
The funny thing is you reported us on a site that itself...
There are reports on this site against companies like Amazon, Ebay, Bank of America, Chase & Facebook So I guess we are in good company.
To Sum it all up: The more I respond to this report the more I realize it is all opinions and emotions... Not an ounce of Facts. The reality is the only thing you really said in this report is that YOU felt the training wasn't good, the support wasn't there and in your words "Since then, approx. 3 weeks, I have not had any communication with the company..." yet if you are telling the truth and were hired by us... you have my direct phone number, the office number, my email, your Acquisition Manager's direct number and their email. So how is it that I nor any Acq Mgr. has heard of a "Charles from Boston" or for that matter received a call from any AR making these accusations. So you felt all this and didn't pick up the phone and call me or your AM... Interesting
Lets take one last look at FACTS... you went through all the EXACT very same training as Reps that started with you... they are doing deals and you are not... (you can see a screen shot of our CRM that shows.. 27 deals under contract we have moving thru the pripeline towards closing - EVERY LAST ONE from our AR's) Then you have never contacted me or your AM (based on the name "Charles" from Boston) and blame us for you not being successful with us. I talk to multiple AR's everyday via phone and email supporting them. My grandmother when I was a child told me something we all have heard before "Erik be careful who you point your finger at and blame because 3 fingers are pointing back at YOU. The bottom line "Charles" or (whoever you really are... lol) this is a performance based position and it sounds like you just didn't perform and then instead of requesting help you just gave up.
Which at the end of the day is the saddest thing about this whole report... Whoever you are I truly wish you the best of luck.
Dave
San Diego,#3Consumer Comment
Tue, April 21, 2015
I am not going to call Charles a liar. All I can say is based on MY Experience I have to disagree with almost everything he is saying. I have found Melrick Equity Partners, my Acquisition Manager & Erik Barlow (Director of Acquisitions) to be nothing but professional.
Based on the timeline Charles is stating it sounds like we started around the same time (end of Feb begining of March). I went through the training on the Saturday after I was hired I will admit it was at times hard to hear Erik however he told us he was under the weather but didn't what to cancel the training.
Overall I thought the training was very good, when I had questions after, either my AM (Acq Manager) answered them or Erik answered them direct... whenever I called him he was available to help or he would refer me to my AM to get a specfic question answered about one of my deals.
Like Charles I was a litle concerned with having to pay for a BG Check luckly one of my college buddies was an Acquisition Rep for a different company and he confirmed what Erik told me which is almost any company you work with in the Real estate Industry as an Independent Contractor will require you to get a BG Check and pay for it.... Realtors have to do it, Loan officers and even Acq. Rep with other companies. My buddies company didn't charge him but they only paid him like 15% of the deal. When I told him I was getting a 50% split of all the profit on all my deals he thought I was joking...after speaking with Erik and realizing it was real, he left his company and is an AR with Melrick and is rocking and rolling.
Again I can't call Charles a liar I don't know him, but I will say that I have been with the company roughly the same amount of time and I have already closed my first deal and made $4,327.89... ONE DEAL. I have 4 others moving through the process getting closer to closing. My buddy is kicking my butt and has like 8 deals moving thru the pipeline get close to closing and he has ben with the company less time then I have.
In closing I think it is sad that wesites like this exsist and allow people to post with out some sort of checks and balances I mean come on buddy as I look back at your article title you use the term "credit card Fraud" yet mention nothing about credit card fraud in your post as a matter of fact you admit to paying for the BG check, your complaint is that the training wasn't good and that you were not supported. LOL... That is not credit card fraud that is at best MAYBE lack of communication on the companis part or maybe on yours you say there has been no communication from them in the last 3 weeks... yet you have Erik's direct line and you have the companies number which is on the site. I can tell you neither I nor my buddy has had any communication issues from the company. We are excited to be AR's with them. However I think I will email Erik tonight just in case he hasn't seen this so he can address it himself.
Bmac
Tampa,#4Consumer Comment
Mon, April 06, 2015
I also answered an ad on Craigslist for an Acquisition Rep to make up to $85K or more per year by earning 50% commissions for following up on leads through closing for a real estate investment company. I listened to the initial conference call immediately but had a few questions afterwards and they responded vaguely to them.
When I asked some additional general questions they didn't respond to me once I didn't sign up and pay for their $97.50 background check.
I checked online and saw that the company just incorporated in GA on 2/28/2015. It made me wonder and after seeing this report pretty much confirms my suspicions.