In January of 2003 I purchased a Mobile Home with Land package from Southern Energy / 5 Star Properties in Summerville, SC for $103,000 with no money down.
My inital problem with Southern Energy / 5 Star was that promised repairs to the Mobile Home were never completed. Prior to the sale many repairs to the Mobile Home were promised to be made.
In Feb of 2004 I discovered after consultations with a couple of local Realator's that the original appraisal for the land-home package from Southern Energy / 5 Star Properties was inflated by $40,000+ and that the actual market value was approximately $70,000 and NOT the $116,000 as stated by Southern Energy / 5 Star. This is an unrecoverable negative equity.
Given that South Carolina has little, if any, real Consumer Protection my only real option is to file Bankruptcy at this point. If I had the resources I most certainly would have filed suit against Southern Energy / 5 Star Properties for their deception & fraud.
I'm not the only one who has had problems with Southern Energy / 5 Star either. A couple of my neighbors I know of have also been ripped off by this company as well.
From what I've been able to determine Southern Energy / 5 Star Properties rips off a bunch of comsumers then close's up shop only to re-open under a new name to continue their scam. The name may change but management doesn't. The apparent leader of this scam is a gentleman named Scott McGillis.