;
  • Report:  #361198

Complaint Review: The Real Estate Advocate - RE Experts - Jeff Guthrie - Englewood Colorado

Reported By:
- Metropolitan Market, New York,
Submitted:
Updated:

The Real Estate Advocate - RE Experts - Jeff Guthrie
8310 South Valley Hwy. Suite 220 Englewood, 80112 Colorado, U.S.A.
Phone:
720-381-3737
Web:
N/A
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
This company is profiteering from the slow real estate market by targeting real estate agents with big promises for referral clients and lead generation in exchange for a $3500-$3950 entry/set up fee for a service that is worthless.

Here's the scam: The agent gets a phone call asking if they will accept a referral client, which any agent will certainly accept. They are instructed to call a number later that day for a conference call about the "client." No such client exists; the conference call is a sales pitch for becoming part of their network. Jeff Guthrie, ostensibly the owner, conducts the conference call and makes sure to drop the name of established companies like housevalues and zillow in the pitch. The angle is that the agent was handpicked to be part of the network and that they are getting in on the ground floor of something big, which will refer them tons of real estate clients from their powerful internet presence.

According to his website, "The Real Estate Advocate was founded by Jeff & Patsy Guthrie in response to a negative experience they had when buying a home...Jeff and Patsy knew that if they were going to find their dream home - at the best price and best terms then they needed to be represented by a top-notch Real Estate Professional the REexpert... After going to many, many real estate referral web sites, the Guthrie's realized that the real estate agents that these sites recommended were NOT great agents (they were sub-par or average at best). After doing some research, the Guthrie's learned that virtually all of these real estate referral organizations would take ANY agent who signed up for their program - and who agreed to pay them for their referral services. "

Ironically, The Real Estate Advocate won't accept any agent unless they pay for entry as well- $3500 or two installments of $1950. A survey of those in the program in our metropolitan area shows their experience level to vary from newly licensed to experienced, making Guthrie's program utterly no different from those he decries on his website.

After the conference call, various pressure tactics are employed by the follow up staff on agents who are intrigued by the pitch. The fee buys exclusivity for certain zip codes, pays for the supposed elaborate setup of the internet sites (which are actually quite sparse, simple templates a 10th grader with a basic HTML skill could create for 20 bucks), and of course, the promise of more business than the agent can handle in spite of the tough housing market.

Thereafter, agents get a "newsletter" email encouraging them to spend even more money to accelerate their results with pay per click services.

5 months after being contacted by Mr. Guthrie's staff (no one has been able to reach Guthrie himself), none of the agents in our market area have gotten so much as one lead or referral from this expensive program, and none of the websites they paid dearly for are anywhere near the top of the google search.

The area agents therefore call shenanigans on Jeff Guthrie, The Real Estate Advocate, and RE Experts for this deceptive subterfuge.

Krp8dm

Metropolitan Market, New York

U.S.A.


13 Updates & Rebuttals

whistleblowin2014

Alabama,
Jeff Guthrie

#2Consumer Comment

Thu, April 10, 2014

  I currently know the whereabouts of Jeff and Patsy Guthrie. They are currently "hiding" in Kansas. They do not have their name on any real property and are living with a "friend". I can be contacted at. They left Colorado after pulling another real estate scam there and practically being ran out of town.

  It seriously bothers me that these two continue to run around and rip off honest hard working people.

 


Realtor

Littleton,
Colorado,
U.S.A.
REExpert Scam

#3Consumer Comment

Sat, April 04, 2009

I was one of the original REExperts. Mr. Guthrie came to me to rent one of my homes. He told the fantastic real estate opportunity he was starting. He dropped a lot of big real estate names as previously mentioned. It all sounded great. Once it started. It was a lot of money per month. I did get leads from the program, at a cost of $2500 per month. Mr. Guthrie came to me several times to be an investor. I started to get leery of Mr. Guthrie. He wanted me to find him a rental property that he could rent to own. A million and half dollar property. He wanted me to front his first 3 months of rent in return for me getting a commission when he eventually purchased the property. This was the final straw for me. The man always had some new scam he wanted money for.


Anon

Denver,
Colorado,
U.S.A.
Tara Holbert Dikos is not to blame, these accusations are ludacris and without merit

#4UPDATE EX-employee responds

Thu, March 26, 2009

Tara Dikos has a heart of gold...she was a pleasure to work with and worked relentlessly for the agents and the company. Why anyone would write these things of her I do not know. I worked with Tara just over 1 year, and of all people at the company she was the one who wanted to see the company succeed most...the only thing I fault her with is not leaving the company soone. Anyone who truly worked for REA would not say these things about her...first of all, she did not work in the sales department, and I can not phathom her saying anything like you suggest. I recall her slamming the sales department on many occassions for their unethical behavior, including myself who tried to sale a territory that had already been sold. In the end the company failed because there was no competence or leadership at the helm. To lash out at the very people who worked day and night, far beyond what was expected of them, well that's just suspicious. You also posted as an ex-employee and an REexpert on another site, again suspicious. AND to attack Tara, of all people at the company, well those of us who truly did work there know the truth, and I for one felt like she was one of the few people there who actually cared about the agents. She believed in the company, and she fought hard to make it work, but the buck doesn't stop with her...I will not point fingers in a blog- those at fault know who they are, but I could not read these lies about a young woman I have only the utmost respect for. I wish her nothing but the best in her life and hope I will be lucky enough to work with her again. Use your time more constructively than writing lies in an attempt to ruin someone's character. Perhaps you are feeling guilty and trying to place blame on others in order to take blame off of yourself?


Jdcruz

Highlands Ranch,
Colorado,
U.S.A.
Tara Holbert Dikos is to Blame for the collapse of The Real Estate Advocate.

#5UPDATE EX-employee responds

Thu, February 19, 2009

I used to work for this company. worked there for seven months. Tara Dikos ran the inside operations of this company. When I came to work there she taught us to lie and to say anything we needed to say to get the money. Tara and Leanne Hodgson Stole tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting people who were promised the world but delivered nothing. He famous motto was: "If the merit of our offering is not what they expect, create it for them and get that dough". I've seen her lie for the company constantly. She is a very good manipulator. Now that the company is gone, the only one driving big cars in town are Jeff and Tara Dikos. It's a crime. and should be stopped.


Brad Kuhns

Melbourne,
Florida,
U.S.A.
Misinformation about me as an investor.

#6Consumer Comment

Sat, October 11, 2008

Hi Karen, I am sorry that you paid your money like other realtors and didn't get anything for it. Unfortunately I can't do anything for you and I'm not liable for anything. I have never been an investor for the Real Estate Advocate. It was close but thankfully the more due dilligence that I did the more I didn't want to be involved with this organization. I like you, initially was going to invest as an Reexpert for $5000. I sent Jeff $2500. As I was going to send the other $2500 to Jeff (thank the lord that I didn't) they offered me an opportunity to be one of the elite 40 investors for $25,000. It sounded interesting and I asked them to send me the contract. There were several things about the contract that I didn't like and I didn't think they could do what they claimed with these websites organically because of lack of content. As I asked more questions, I realized that if I was going to invest $2500 per month in ppc, I would spend it on my own website. The president called me because I had sent the paperwork in but didn't forward my check. He wasn't very happy with my decision. In the next 24hrs the president was fired. I spoke with him and he suggested I should read the paperwork carefully. That was to many red flags going up for me to spend $25,000 as an investment. I also decided that I didn't want to be an Reexpert either. Because Jeff changed the program during my due diligence,I was able to ask for a refund of my $2500. After 3 months, plenty of emails and over 10 phone calls, I finally rec'd my money back. I only rec'd it because he made the claim about a refund to anyone that didn't like the change in the program on a nationwide teleconference call. No one was more shocked than me that my name was at the top of the list of investors. I have never been an investor in the Real Estate Advocate or an Reexpert for the Real Estate Advocate. Close but thankfully it didn't happen. I sent Leanne an email today. She emailed this back to me. Brad: I'm so sorry that you've been involved with this. The person that sent this out is a disgruntled former consultant that wants to put REexperts down. At this time, he may succeed. My number is 720-381-3745 if you'd like to discuss this. Thanks, Leanne I called but her voice mailbox was full. If I hear anything from her I will keep you all updated.If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 321-243-234 I am sorry that I can't help all of you. I wish you good luck in trying to recapture your money. I was very close to sharing your pain. Best regards, Brad Kuhns, P.A.


Gill Turner

Highlands Ranch,
Colorado,
U.S.A.
Get your money back. Here's how!!

#7UPDATE EX-employee responds

Sun, September 28, 2008

As all you have been told, but have forgotten, REEXPERT is an LLC with "over 40 investors". That means that not only does the CEO of this company owes you money, each one of these investors has an equal responsibility of liability too. Jeff might be the face, but all of these people has their hand out collecting money each time a sale is made. I don't know the names of these investors but I know one. Mike Mendoza of Sonoran Living. Heck he is the companies poster child. If anyone knows the list of Investors in this company please post them here. You want to turn up the heat on this man to get him to refund money quick? Start making demand for payment calls to his investors. I assure you if you do this you will ALL have your money back within a month. CALL MIKE MENDOZA @ 1 480 706 7234 AND DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE REFUND. Many of you are talking about calling the ATTY General and SEC, and FTC. That's fine. A couple hundred of you start calling MIKE and demanding payment, watch and see how fast you get it. This is a squeeky wheel gets the oil people. How badly do you want your money? Jeff and Mike Mendoza and his investors has pocketed MILLIONS of your dollars and now all of the Investors are just sitting back and allowing Guthrie to take the blame and justifiably so. But this isn't about assigning blame. This is about creating enough pressure ON the people who HAVE the money to pay you. Believe me when I tell you, were any of these investors subject to the type of scrutiny that you are putting on REEXPERT They would pony up fast and get away from this public nightmare as quickly as possible. Jeff can dodge and run. That's what con men do. Once his Investors gets a taste of THEIR poor judgement, money will suddenly appear and they will pay off this debt and then THEY can deal with this guy. By allowing REEXPERT to set the timing and the terms, you risk losing everything. So do it. A couple hundred of you call Mike Mendoza Monday morning and as the Investors are revealed, call them too. Remember; they are as responsible as Jeff Guthrie. You will laugh at how quickly your money is delivered to you. Think about it. As a business person who owned a piece of this nightmare. Wouldn't you simply want it to go away in light speed time? You would have to; because it threatens your core business and your reputation. Can any of these people risk that? Make the calls. Call more than once and see what happens.


Krp8dm

Briarcliff Manor,
New York,
U.S.A.
The RE Expert Real Estate Advocate Jeff GFuthrie "Pay per click" scam

#8Author of original report

Sun, September 28, 2008

To Curtis, who says that the system works just fine: 1. To be told, after we invest $3500 that we have to spend more money on a PPC campaign is absurd. 2. If you are doing OK, sorry, but the program is being discontinued. Guthrie has circulated the following, rambling, incoherent diatribe email to announce he is taking his scam offline: --------------- It has been some time since you all have heard from me, and as many of you have noticed, our business is undergoing another period of change. Some of that change has resulted in additional frustration and confusion, and I want to take a few minutes of your time to let you know, to the best of my ability, what is happening and how the company intends to address current challenges. I have spent the better part of the last 20 years involved in the sale and marketing of residential real estate. This experience has brought me into contact with some of the top producers in the real estate market, and allowed me to witness first-hand the keys to their success even in market downturns. Common attributes that all of these individuals possess is a single-minded dedication to their clients that filters through every team member, and relevant expertise to make the dream of home ownership, the American dream, a reality for so many of their customers. Many of those top producers became the seed investors in the business now known as REexpert, dba the Real Estate Advocate. My initial concept for this business was to harness the power of the internet to connect real estate buyers with the very best professionals in their market, realtors that we knew were ready to deliver customer-centric expertise and service at the highest levels of the profession. Our revenue model was tilted toward referral fees, so that we would succeed only when our partners succeeded. A free trial for realtors in several different markets showed great promise, and I was approached by several major players interested in the concept. But I was not satisfied. At that time, I engaged outside IT vendors, including i2 Communications, to develop what I thought would be a template and back office platform to capture the market with niche or specialty web-sites that would quickly and organically rise to the top of the search engines in their respective markets. By employing economies of scale, and conveying a consistent brand message supported by the excellence of our Experts, our cost to deliver those landing pages was expected to be far less than the cost to a realtor going it alone, with far greater returns. Within six months of forming the business, we had signed up more than thirty investor or platinum partners and more than 100 strategic alliance partners or Experts. Against my better judgment, we launched in the summer of 2007. Again, the early results were promising, but depended entirely too much on the use of pay-per-click services to drive traffic, at a cost to the realtors of several thousand dollars per month. The pages we had paid i2 to develop were too thin to perform well organically. With the real estate market dropping into the worst slump most of us have ever seen, we could not in good conscience go forward with what we thought was a less than efficient service. Your marketing dollars are too precious. In the fall of 2007, we began a total revamping of the IT platform in conjunction a new partner, Tony Pugh and his company Smart Zone. Although Tony was a neophyte in real estate matters, we regarded him as a visionary in articulating the possibilities of social networking as applied to our existing concept and customer base. Tony toiled for several months, without a contract in place but still being paid, helping us to define and promote the networking concept. Many of you to signed-up for our revised program, which involved a very competitive set-up fee and no monthly commitments. Unfortunately, like the IT vendor that came before, Tony was more talk than accomplishment, and by early February, after we had paid him more than $100,000, he was demanding additional money for a platform that was already late and still unfinished. When Tony did not get what he wanted, he took what we had developed while working together and has tried, in fits and starts, to use it competitively against us. He is still looking for money he thinks we owe him, and has resorted to smearing us in the market and fostering dissent among our partners. During the period we were working with Tony, I turned my attention to another marketing tool, IVM, which most of you have now had an opportunity to see and which will soon be available to all Experts. In February, I returned to REexpert long enough to install what I thought was a team of professional managers, and to reinstate i2 to pick up where Tony had left off. By June of this year, we determined that i2 was again late and simply did not have the skills needed to complete the full platform, and we began to develop that function internally. The issue is not that we have failed to deliver on our contracts with you. Every realtor that has paid the set-up fee has received exactly what we promised and more. But we have not, until recently, met our own expectations on the usefulness of the web-sites, and we have frustrated many of you who have been counting on the system to generate quality leads, quickly, in a depressed market. For that I am embarrassed and sorry. In reading this, it is probably all too clear that I placed far too much confidence in technology experts who were unable to deliver on time what we paid handsomely to create. I have learned that a few weeks away must mean something different to these developers than it does to you and me. The good news is that we are receiving a growing number of testimonials from Experts who have embraced the system, learned how to work with it, and are generating real activity from qualified buyers. Many of those realtors believe that our company, as imperfect as it has been, has saved their careers in these tough times. When it comes to operations, I have long realized that my management skills are less than perfect. I am most comfortable in the creative arena. The concept of REexpert as a consumer advocate resonated with you, because it resonated with me as the best way to meet a difficult market with a truly valuable service. IVM is another example of my efforts, and its initial positive reception, from you and others in the market, has been gratifying. I have tried to address my shortcomings by surrounding myself with others that could manage the business to both your benefit and mine as the founder and largest stakeholder. No fewer than five individuals have sat in the president's seat at my company and remained there until your complaints, or some crisis, have brought me back into a more active role. When I have returned to the business, I have always found it in worse shape than it was when I departed, with processes still not in place, accounting issues unresolved, and bills not paid. The most recent example was an outside consultant named Charles Johnson, who in less than a month drove off most of my best staff, like Tara Dikos. When I refused to simply give him the business for nothing as he demanded, he failed to process transactions, wrote checks with my signature forged, shut down essential systems such as phone and internet, and departed with a server that held all of our critical information. We are pursuing these issues through appropriate channels, but we suspect that Mr. Johnson may be working in concert with others to continue in the effort to steal the business or move it to a new company. Since he has our server and customer data, I would not be surprised if you heard from him or someone acting on his behalf. Mr. Johnson is not our only critic. You may be familiar with a realtor named Donald Leske or visited a blog that he is running. He may also be soliciting you to join with him in some type of lawsuit against the company. Although we believe that any claims would be unwarranted, we will leave it up to you to decide what your rights and potential remedies might be. In making that decision, however, there are some facts you should know about Mr. Leske. Earlier this year, he was a vocal critic of the business. Rather than exchanging accusations with him, we invited him out to our offices to review our operations and check on the site development and plans. When he went home, with nourging from us, he drafted a ringing endorsement, which he allowed us to share with those of you involved in the business at the time. Several months after he left, just as many of the developments he witnessed were coming on line, he apparently became disillusioned again and contacted us with what we regarded as a blatant piece of blackmail-pay me $10,000 for a domain name, or I will go negative again. We refused. For the sake of completeness, we have posted the string of Don's e-mails and prior endorsement on our website, and you can make up your own mind. Please understand that I am not denying responsibility for the company's performance to date. We have experienced delays and direction changes that would cause anyone counting on the company to wonder whether their involvement would ever pay off. I was the one who chose my managers and developers poorly, and it has created an uneven experience for you and financial distress for the business. And I have come to the painful conclusion that these missteps have caused irretrievable damage to the REexpert brand. They have also deferred for too long the receipt of referral fees, which were the essence of our revenue model. For those Experts actively working the system, they and the company are starting to see returns, but too many others are sitting back and waiting for the technology alone to deliver results that we are convinced will come over time but not soon enough to make sense for either of us. Many of my friends and advisors, in looking at the hurdles we still must cross, have counseled that I simply close the business down and walk away. After all, we have taken no more than a non-refundable set-up fee, have delivered the web-sites and landing pages promised, and have the right to terminate our contracts on thirty days' notice. But this concept has been in my blood for far too long, and we have come too far to end on a sour note. I have decided to take the concept back to its roots, which will require rebranding and converting to a new revenue model for those Experts interested in participating. Effective immediately, and perhaps through early next week, we are taking the system off-line while we assess the damage of recent activities and introduce the new contract terms. All of the Experts choosing to continue will be assigned to a new company that will focus all of its energies on serving you and the consumer, and will charge a monthly fee to ensure that we have the resources to drive the results you deserve. Some of you may decide not to move over to the new business, and we understand that decision. Rather than insisting on our contract terms, however, we are committed to making that exit as palatable as possible. If and when the new company resells your territory, and in no event more than 24 months down the road, it will pay REexpert a fee equal to 100% of your initial set-up fee, and RExpert will in turn provide you with a full refund of the only moneys we received from you, with interest. Until you receive that refund, you will be able to use the IVM magazine with your clients and prospects at no charge. We hope that you will decide to try the new brand and new terms, but if you don't, know that we plan to be in this business a long time and want to part company as friends. This is not an effort to run away from our commitments, but to keep them, and to give those Experts who continue with us both better tools and a better brand. For those of you choosing to walk away, although we can't guarantee it and legally don't owe it, our plan is to get you your money back. When the transaction occurs with the new company, it will be transparent, every penny will be accounted for, and all of the assets that could otherwise be available to provide this voluntary refund will stay within reach. Look for a video e-mail from me by week's end announcing more details on this transition, followed by a call from our customer care staff to explain the options in more detail. As always, I am grateful for the trust you have placed in our company, and promise you that I will work tirelessly to ensure that we not only survive this market and our own growing pains, but emerge in a stronger position. ------------------ Translation: "I mismanaged and ignored my company, allowed disinterested and alienated creeps to ruin it, and now that I have collected $7 million in entry fees I am taking my ball and going home. Oh, and even though the whole thing was crapping the sheets for the past 6 months, I was selling the thing like it was sliced bread up until 2 weeks ago. I'm going to invent a new scam to bilk you some more, but if you see the light I'll give you a refund...as soon as there is peace in the middle east"


Krp8dm

Briarcliff Manor,
New York,
U.S.A.
The RE Expert Real Estate Advocate Jeff GFuthrie "Pay per click" scam

#9Author of original report

Sun, September 28, 2008

To Curtis, who says that the system works just fine: 1. To be told, after we invest $3500 that we have to spend more money on a PPC campaign is absurd. 2. If you are doing OK, sorry, but the program is being discontinued. Guthrie has circulated the following, rambling, incoherent diatribe email to announce he is taking his scam offline: --------------- It has been some time since you all have heard from me, and as many of you have noticed, our business is undergoing another period of change. Some of that change has resulted in additional frustration and confusion, and I want to take a few minutes of your time to let you know, to the best of my ability, what is happening and how the company intends to address current challenges. I have spent the better part of the last 20 years involved in the sale and marketing of residential real estate. This experience has brought me into contact with some of the top producers in the real estate market, and allowed me to witness first-hand the keys to their success even in market downturns. Common attributes that all of these individuals possess is a single-minded dedication to their clients that filters through every team member, and relevant expertise to make the dream of home ownership, the American dream, a reality for so many of their customers. Many of those top producers became the seed investors in the business now known as REexpert, dba the Real Estate Advocate. My initial concept for this business was to harness the power of the internet to connect real estate buyers with the very best professionals in their market, realtors that we knew were ready to deliver customer-centric expertise and service at the highest levels of the profession. Our revenue model was tilted toward referral fees, so that we would succeed only when our partners succeeded. A free trial for realtors in several different markets showed great promise, and I was approached by several major players interested in the concept. But I was not satisfied. At that time, I engaged outside IT vendors, including i2 Communications, to develop what I thought would be a template and back office platform to capture the market with niche or specialty web-sites that would quickly and organically rise to the top of the search engines in their respective markets. By employing economies of scale, and conveying a consistent brand message supported by the excellence of our Experts, our cost to deliver those landing pages was expected to be far less than the cost to a realtor going it alone, with far greater returns. Within six months of forming the business, we had signed up more than thirty investor or platinum partners and more than 100 strategic alliance partners or Experts. Against my better judgment, we launched in the summer of 2007. Again, the early results were promising, but depended entirely too much on the use of pay-per-click services to drive traffic, at a cost to the realtors of several thousand dollars per month. The pages we had paid i2 to develop were too thin to perform well organically. With the real estate market dropping into the worst slump most of us have ever seen, we could not in good conscience go forward with what we thought was a less than efficient service. Your marketing dollars are too precious. In the fall of 2007, we began a total revamping of the IT platform in conjunction a new partner, Tony Pugh and his company Smart Zone. Although Tony was a neophyte in real estate matters, we regarded him as a visionary in articulating the possibilities of social networking as applied to our existing concept and customer base. Tony toiled for several months, without a contract in place but still being paid, helping us to define and promote the networking concept. Many of you to signed-up for our revised program, which involved a very competitive set-up fee and no monthly commitments. Unfortunately, like the IT vendor that came before, Tony was more talk than accomplishment, and by early February, after we had paid him more than $100,000, he was demanding additional money for a platform that was already late and still unfinished. When Tony did not get what he wanted, he took what we had developed while working together and has tried, in fits and starts, to use it competitively against us. He is still looking for money he thinks we owe him, and has resorted to smearing us in the market and fostering dissent among our partners. During the period we were working with Tony, I turned my attention to another marketing tool, IVM, which most of you have now had an opportunity to see and which will soon be available to all Experts. In February, I returned to REexpert long enough to install what I thought was a team of professional managers, and to reinstate i2 to pick up where Tony had left off. By June of this year, we determined that i2 was again late and simply did not have the skills needed to complete the full platform, and we began to develop that function internally. The issue is not that we have failed to deliver on our contracts with you. Every realtor that has paid the set-up fee has received exactly what we promised and more. But we have not, until recently, met our own expectations on the usefulness of the web-sites, and we have frustrated many of you who have been counting on the system to generate quality leads, quickly, in a depressed market. For that I am embarrassed and sorry. In reading this, it is probably all too clear that I placed far too much confidence in technology experts who were unable to deliver on time what we paid handsomely to create. I have learned that a few weeks away must mean something different to these developers than it does to you and me. The good news is that we are receiving a growing number of testimonials from Experts who have embraced the system, learned how to work with it, and are generating real activity from qualified buyers. Many of those realtors believe that our company, as imperfect as it has been, has saved their careers in these tough times. When it comes to operations, I have long realized that my management skills are less than perfect. I am most comfortable in the creative arena. The concept of REexpert as a consumer advocate resonated with you, because it resonated with me as the best way to meet a difficult market with a truly valuable service. IVM is another example of my efforts, and its initial positive reception, from you and others in the market, has been gratifying. I have tried to address my shortcomings by surrounding myself with others that could manage the business to both your benefit and mine as the founder and largest stakeholder. No fewer than five individuals have sat in the president's seat at my company and remained there until your complaints, or some crisis, have brought me back into a more active role. When I have returned to the business, I have always found it in worse shape than it was when I departed, with processes still not in place, accounting issues unresolved, and bills not paid. The most recent example was an outside consultant named Charles Johnson, who in less than a month drove off most of my best staff, like Tara Dikos. When I refused to simply give him the business for nothing as he demanded, he failed to process transactions, wrote checks with my signature forged, shut down essential systems such as phone and internet, and departed with a server that held all of our critical information. We are pursuing these issues through appropriate channels, but we suspect that Mr. Johnson may be working in concert with others to continue in the effort to steal the business or move it to a new company. Since he has our server and customer data, I would not be surprised if you heard from him or someone acting on his behalf. Mr. Johnson is not our only critic. You may be familiar with a realtor named Donald Leske or visited a blog that he is running. He may also be soliciting you to join with him in some type of lawsuit against the company. Although we believe that any claims would be unwarranted, we will leave it up to you to decide what your rights and potential remedies might be. In making that decision, however, there are some facts you should know about Mr. Leske. Earlier this year, he was a vocal critic of the business. Rather than exchanging accusations with him, we invited him out to our offices to review our operations and check on the site development and plans. When he went home, with nourging from us, he drafted a ringing endorsement, which he allowed us to share with those of you involved in the business at the time. Several months after he left, just as many of the developments he witnessed were coming on line, he apparently became disillusioned again and contacted us with what we regarded as a blatant piece of blackmail-pay me $10,000 for a domain name, or I will go negative again. We refused. For the sake of completeness, we have posted the string of Don's e-mails and prior endorsement on our website, and you can make up your own mind. Please understand that I am not denying responsibility for the company's performance to date. We have experienced delays and direction changes that would cause anyone counting on the company to wonder whether their involvement would ever pay off. I was the one who chose my managers and developers poorly, and it has created an uneven experience for you and financial distress for the business. And I have come to the painful conclusion that these missteps have caused irretrievable damage to the REexpert brand. They have also deferred for too long the receipt of referral fees, which were the essence of our revenue model. For those Experts actively working the system, they and the company are starting to see returns, but too many others are sitting back and waiting for the technology alone to deliver results that we are convinced will come over time but not soon enough to make sense for either of us. Many of my friends and advisors, in looking at the hurdles we still must cross, have counseled that I simply close the business down and walk away. After all, we have taken no more than a non-refundable set-up fee, have delivered the web-sites and landing pages promised, and have the right to terminate our contracts on thirty days' notice. But this concept has been in my blood for far too long, and we have come too far to end on a sour note. I have decided to take the concept back to its roots, which will require rebranding and converting to a new revenue model for those Experts interested in participating. Effective immediately, and perhaps through early next week, we are taking the system off-line while we assess the damage of recent activities and introduce the new contract terms. All of the Experts choosing to continue will be assigned to a new company that will focus all of its energies on serving you and the consumer, and will charge a monthly fee to ensure that we have the resources to drive the results you deserve. Some of you may decide not to move over to the new business, and we understand that decision. Rather than insisting on our contract terms, however, we are committed to making that exit as palatable as possible. If and when the new company resells your territory, and in no event more than 24 months down the road, it will pay REexpert a fee equal to 100% of your initial set-up fee, and RExpert will in turn provide you with a full refund of the only moneys we received from you, with interest. Until you receive that refund, you will be able to use the IVM magazine with your clients and prospects at no charge. We hope that you will decide to try the new brand and new terms, but if you don't, know that we plan to be in this business a long time and want to part company as friends. This is not an effort to run away from our commitments, but to keep them, and to give those Experts who continue with us both better tools and a better brand. For those of you choosing to walk away, although we can't guarantee it and legally don't owe it, our plan is to get you your money back. When the transaction occurs with the new company, it will be transparent, every penny will be accounted for, and all of the assets that could otherwise be available to provide this voluntary refund will stay within reach. Look for a video e-mail from me by week's end announcing more details on this transition, followed by a call from our customer care staff to explain the options in more detail. As always, I am grateful for the trust you have placed in our company, and promise you that I will work tirelessly to ensure that we not only survive this market and our own growing pains, but emerge in a stronger position. ------------------ Translation: "I mismanaged and ignored my company, allowed disinterested and alienated creeps to ruin it, and now that I have collected $7 million in entry fees I am taking my ball and going home. Oh, and even though the whole thing was crapping the sheets for the past 6 months, I was selling the thing like it was sliced bread up until 2 weeks ago. I'm going to invent a new scam to bilk you some more, but if you see the light I'll give you a refund...as soon as there is peace in the middle east"


Krp8dm

Briarcliff Manor,
New York,
U.S.A.
The RE Expert Real Estate Advocate Jeff GFuthrie "Pay per click" scam

#10Author of original report

Sun, September 28, 2008

To Curtis, who says that the system works just fine: 1. To be told, after we invest $3500 that we have to spend more money on a PPC campaign is absurd. 2. If you are doing OK, sorry, but the program is being discontinued. Guthrie has circulated the following, rambling, incoherent diatribe email to announce he is taking his scam offline: --------------- It has been some time since you all have heard from me, and as many of you have noticed, our business is undergoing another period of change. Some of that change has resulted in additional frustration and confusion, and I want to take a few minutes of your time to let you know, to the best of my ability, what is happening and how the company intends to address current challenges. I have spent the better part of the last 20 years involved in the sale and marketing of residential real estate. This experience has brought me into contact with some of the top producers in the real estate market, and allowed me to witness first-hand the keys to their success even in market downturns. Common attributes that all of these individuals possess is a single-minded dedication to their clients that filters through every team member, and relevant expertise to make the dream of home ownership, the American dream, a reality for so many of their customers. Many of those top producers became the seed investors in the business now known as REexpert, dba the Real Estate Advocate. My initial concept for this business was to harness the power of the internet to connect real estate buyers with the very best professionals in their market, realtors that we knew were ready to deliver customer-centric expertise and service at the highest levels of the profession. Our revenue model was tilted toward referral fees, so that we would succeed only when our partners succeeded. A free trial for realtors in several different markets showed great promise, and I was approached by several major players interested in the concept. But I was not satisfied. At that time, I engaged outside IT vendors, including i2 Communications, to develop what I thought would be a template and back office platform to capture the market with niche or specialty web-sites that would quickly and organically rise to the top of the search engines in their respective markets. By employing economies of scale, and conveying a consistent brand message supported by the excellence of our Experts, our cost to deliver those landing pages was expected to be far less than the cost to a realtor going it alone, with far greater returns. Within six months of forming the business, we had signed up more than thirty investor or platinum partners and more than 100 strategic alliance partners or Experts. Against my better judgment, we launched in the summer of 2007. Again, the early results were promising, but depended entirely too much on the use of pay-per-click services to drive traffic, at a cost to the realtors of several thousand dollars per month. The pages we had paid i2 to develop were too thin to perform well organically. With the real estate market dropping into the worst slump most of us have ever seen, we could not in good conscience go forward with what we thought was a less than efficient service. Your marketing dollars are too precious. In the fall of 2007, we began a total revamping of the IT platform in conjunction a new partner, Tony Pugh and his company Smart Zone. Although Tony was a neophyte in real estate matters, we regarded him as a visionary in articulating the possibilities of social networking as applied to our existing concept and customer base. Tony toiled for several months, without a contract in place but still being paid, helping us to define and promote the networking concept. Many of you to signed-up for our revised program, which involved a very competitive set-up fee and no monthly commitments. Unfortunately, like the IT vendor that came before, Tony was more talk than accomplishment, and by early February, after we had paid him more than $100,000, he was demanding additional money for a platform that was already late and still unfinished. When Tony did not get what he wanted, he took what we had developed while working together and has tried, in fits and starts, to use it competitively against us. He is still looking for money he thinks we owe him, and has resorted to smearing us in the market and fostering dissent among our partners. During the period we were working with Tony, I turned my attention to another marketing tool, IVM, which most of you have now had an opportunity to see and which will soon be available to all Experts. In February, I returned to REexpert long enough to install what I thought was a team of professional managers, and to reinstate i2 to pick up where Tony had left off. By June of this year, we determined that i2 was again late and simply did not have the skills needed to complete the full platform, and we began to develop that function internally. The issue is not that we have failed to deliver on our contracts with you. Every realtor that has paid the set-up fee has received exactly what we promised and more. But we have not, until recently, met our own expectations on the usefulness of the web-sites, and we have frustrated many of you who have been counting on the system to generate quality leads, quickly, in a depressed market. For that I am embarrassed and sorry. In reading this, it is probably all too clear that I placed far too much confidence in technology experts who were unable to deliver on time what we paid handsomely to create. I have learned that a few weeks away must mean something different to these developers than it does to you and me. The good news is that we are receiving a growing number of testimonials from Experts who have embraced the system, learned how to work with it, and are generating real activity from qualified buyers. Many of those realtors believe that our company, as imperfect as it has been, has saved their careers in these tough times. When it comes to operations, I have long realized that my management skills are less than perfect. I am most comfortable in the creative arena. The concept of REexpert as a consumer advocate resonated with you, because it resonated with me as the best way to meet a difficult market with a truly valuable service. IVM is another example of my efforts, and its initial positive reception, from you and others in the market, has been gratifying. I have tried to address my shortcomings by surrounding myself with others that could manage the business to both your benefit and mine as the founder and largest stakeholder. No fewer than five individuals have sat in the president's seat at my company and remained there until your complaints, or some crisis, have brought me back into a more active role. When I have returned to the business, I have always found it in worse shape than it was when I departed, with processes still not in place, accounting issues unresolved, and bills not paid. The most recent example was an outside consultant named Charles Johnson, who in less than a month drove off most of my best staff, like Tara Dikos. When I refused to simply give him the business for nothing as he demanded, he failed to process transactions, wrote checks with my signature forged, shut down essential systems such as phone and internet, and departed with a server that held all of our critical information. We are pursuing these issues through appropriate channels, but we suspect that Mr. Johnson may be working in concert with others to continue in the effort to steal the business or move it to a new company. Since he has our server and customer data, I would not be surprised if you heard from him or someone acting on his behalf. Mr. Johnson is not our only critic. You may be familiar with a realtor named Donald Leske or visited a blog that he is running. He may also be soliciting you to join with him in some type of lawsuit against the company. Although we believe that any claims would be unwarranted, we will leave it up to you to decide what your rights and potential remedies might be. In making that decision, however, there are some facts you should know about Mr. Leske. Earlier this year, he was a vocal critic of the business. Rather than exchanging accusations with him, we invited him out to our offices to review our operations and check on the site development and plans. When he went home, with nourging from us, he drafted a ringing endorsement, which he allowed us to share with those of you involved in the business at the time. Several months after he left, just as many of the developments he witnessed were coming on line, he apparently became disillusioned again and contacted us with what we regarded as a blatant piece of blackmail-pay me $10,000 for a domain name, or I will go negative again. We refused. For the sake of completeness, we have posted the string of Don's e-mails and prior endorsement on our website, and you can make up your own mind. Please understand that I am not denying responsibility for the company's performance to date. We have experienced delays and direction changes that would cause anyone counting on the company to wonder whether their involvement would ever pay off. I was the one who chose my managers and developers poorly, and it has created an uneven experience for you and financial distress for the business. And I have come to the painful conclusion that these missteps have caused irretrievable damage to the REexpert brand. They have also deferred for too long the receipt of referral fees, which were the essence of our revenue model. For those Experts actively working the system, they and the company are starting to see returns, but too many others are sitting back and waiting for the technology alone to deliver results that we are convinced will come over time but not soon enough to make sense for either of us. Many of my friends and advisors, in looking at the hurdles we still must cross, have counseled that I simply close the business down and walk away. After all, we have taken no more than a non-refundable set-up fee, have delivered the web-sites and landing pages promised, and have the right to terminate our contracts on thirty days' notice. But this concept has been in my blood for far too long, and we have come too far to end on a sour note. I have decided to take the concept back to its roots, which will require rebranding and converting to a new revenue model for those Experts interested in participating. Effective immediately, and perhaps through early next week, we are taking the system off-line while we assess the damage of recent activities and introduce the new contract terms. All of the Experts choosing to continue will be assigned to a new company that will focus all of its energies on serving you and the consumer, and will charge a monthly fee to ensure that we have the resources to drive the results you deserve. Some of you may decide not to move over to the new business, and we understand that decision. Rather than insisting on our contract terms, however, we are committed to making that exit as palatable as possible. If and when the new company resells your territory, and in no event more than 24 months down the road, it will pay REexpert a fee equal to 100% of your initial set-up fee, and RExpert will in turn provide you with a full refund of the only moneys we received from you, with interest. Until you receive that refund, you will be able to use the IVM magazine with your clients and prospects at no charge. We hope that you will decide to try the new brand and new terms, but if you don't, know that we plan to be in this business a long time and want to part company as friends. This is not an effort to run away from our commitments, but to keep them, and to give those Experts who continue with us both better tools and a better brand. For those of you choosing to walk away, although we can't guarantee it and legally don't owe it, our plan is to get you your money back. When the transaction occurs with the new company, it will be transparent, every penny will be accounted for, and all of the assets that could otherwise be available to provide this voluntary refund will stay within reach. Look for a video e-mail from me by week's end announcing more details on this transition, followed by a call from our customer care staff to explain the options in more detail. As always, I am grateful for the trust you have placed in our company, and promise you that I will work tirelessly to ensure that we not only survive this market and our own growing pains, but emerge in a stronger position. ------------------ Translation: "I mismanaged and ignored my company, allowed disinterested and alienated creeps to ruin it, and now that I have collected $7 million in entry fees I am taking my ball and going home. Oh, and even though the whole thing was crapping the sheets for the past 6 months, I was selling the thing like it was sliced bread up until 2 weeks ago. I'm going to invent a new scam to bilk you some more, but if you see the light I'll give you a refund...as soon as there is peace in the middle east"


Krp8dm

Briarcliff Manor,
New York,
U.S.A.
The RE Expert Real Estate Advocate Jeff GFuthrie "Pay per click" scam

#11Author of original report

Sun, September 28, 2008

To Curtis, who says that the system works just fine: 1. To be told, after we invest $3500 that we have to spend more money on a PPC campaign is absurd. 2. If you are doing OK, sorry, but the program is being discontinued. Guthrie has circulated the following, rambling, incoherent diatribe email to announce he is taking his scam offline: --------------- It has been some time since you all have heard from me, and as many of you have noticed, our business is undergoing another period of change. Some of that change has resulted in additional frustration and confusion, and I want to take a few minutes of your time to let you know, to the best of my ability, what is happening and how the company intends to address current challenges. I have spent the better part of the last 20 years involved in the sale and marketing of residential real estate. This experience has brought me into contact with some of the top producers in the real estate market, and allowed me to witness first-hand the keys to their success even in market downturns. Common attributes that all of these individuals possess is a single-minded dedication to their clients that filters through every team member, and relevant expertise to make the dream of home ownership, the American dream, a reality for so many of their customers. Many of those top producers became the seed investors in the business now known as REexpert, dba the Real Estate Advocate. My initial concept for this business was to harness the power of the internet to connect real estate buyers with the very best professionals in their market, realtors that we knew were ready to deliver customer-centric expertise and service at the highest levels of the profession. Our revenue model was tilted toward referral fees, so that we would succeed only when our partners succeeded. A free trial for realtors in several different markets showed great promise, and I was approached by several major players interested in the concept. But I was not satisfied. At that time, I engaged outside IT vendors, including i2 Communications, to develop what I thought would be a template and back office platform to capture the market with niche or specialty web-sites that would quickly and organically rise to the top of the search engines in their respective markets. By employing economies of scale, and conveying a consistent brand message supported by the excellence of our Experts, our cost to deliver those landing pages was expected to be far less than the cost to a realtor going it alone, with far greater returns. Within six months of forming the business, we had signed up more than thirty investor or platinum partners and more than 100 strategic alliance partners or Experts. Against my better judgment, we launched in the summer of 2007. Again, the early results were promising, but depended entirely too much on the use of pay-per-click services to drive traffic, at a cost to the realtors of several thousand dollars per month. The pages we had paid i2 to develop were too thin to perform well organically. With the real estate market dropping into the worst slump most of us have ever seen, we could not in good conscience go forward with what we thought was a less than efficient service. Your marketing dollars are too precious. In the fall of 2007, we began a total revamping of the IT platform in conjunction a new partner, Tony Pugh and his company Smart Zone. Although Tony was a neophyte in real estate matters, we regarded him as a visionary in articulating the possibilities of social networking as applied to our existing concept and customer base. Tony toiled for several months, without a contract in place but still being paid, helping us to define and promote the networking concept. Many of you to signed-up for our revised program, which involved a very competitive set-up fee and no monthly commitments. Unfortunately, like the IT vendor that came before, Tony was more talk than accomplishment, and by early February, after we had paid him more than $100,000, he was demanding additional money for a platform that was already late and still unfinished. When Tony did not get what he wanted, he took what we had developed while working together and has tried, in fits and starts, to use it competitively against us. He is still looking for money he thinks we owe him, and has resorted to smearing us in the market and fostering dissent among our partners. During the period we were working with Tony, I turned my attention to another marketing tool, IVM, which most of you have now had an opportunity to see and which will soon be available to all Experts. In February, I returned to REexpert long enough to install what I thought was a team of professional managers, and to reinstate i2 to pick up where Tony had left off. By June of this year, we determined that i2 was again late and simply did not have the skills needed to complete the full platform, and we began to develop that function internally. The issue is not that we have failed to deliver on our contracts with you. Every realtor that has paid the set-up fee has received exactly what we promised and more. But we have not, until recently, met our own expectations on the usefulness of the web-sites, and we have frustrated many of you who have been counting on the system to generate quality leads, quickly, in a depressed market. For that I am embarrassed and sorry. In reading this, it is probably all too clear that I placed far too much confidence in technology experts who were unable to deliver on time what we paid handsomely to create. I have learned that a few weeks away must mean something different to these developers than it does to you and me. The good news is that we are receiving a growing number of testimonials from Experts who have embraced the system, learned how to work with it, and are generating real activity from qualified buyers. Many of those realtors believe that our company, as imperfect as it has been, has saved their careers in these tough times. When it comes to operations, I have long realized that my management skills are less than perfect. I am most comfortable in the creative arena. The concept of REexpert as a consumer advocate resonated with you, because it resonated with me as the best way to meet a difficult market with a truly valuable service. IVM is another example of my efforts, and its initial positive reception, from you and others in the market, has been gratifying. I have tried to address my shortcomings by surrounding myself with others that could manage the business to both your benefit and mine as the founder and largest stakeholder. No fewer than five individuals have sat in the president's seat at my company and remained there until your complaints, or some crisis, have brought me back into a more active role. When I have returned to the business, I have always found it in worse shape than it was when I departed, with processes still not in place, accounting issues unresolved, and bills not paid. The most recent example was an outside consultant named Charles Johnson, who in less than a month drove off most of my best staff, like Tara Dikos. When I refused to simply give him the business for nothing as he demanded, he failed to process transactions, wrote checks with my signature forged, shut down essential systems such as phone and internet, and departed with a server that held all of our critical information. We are pursuing these issues through appropriate channels, but we suspect that Mr. Johnson may be working in concert with others to continue in the effort to steal the business or move it to a new company. Since he has our server and customer data, I would not be surprised if you heard from him or someone acting on his behalf. Mr. Johnson is not our only critic. You may be familiar with a realtor named Donald Leske or visited a blog that he is running. He may also be soliciting you to join with him in some type of lawsuit against the company. Although we believe that any claims would be unwarranted, we will leave it up to you to decide what your rights and potential remedies might be. In making that decision, however, there are some facts you should know about Mr. Leske. Earlier this year, he was a vocal critic of the business. Rather than exchanging accusations with him, we invited him out to our offices to review our operations and check on the site development and plans. When he went home, with nourging from us, he drafted a ringing endorsement, which he allowed us to share with those of you involved in the business at the time. Several months after he left, just as many of the developments he witnessed were coming on line, he apparently became disillusioned again and contacted us with what we regarded as a blatant piece of blackmail-pay me $10,000 for a domain name, or I will go negative again. We refused. For the sake of completeness, we have posted the string of Don's e-mails and prior endorsement on our website, and you can make up your own mind. Please understand that I am not denying responsibility for the company's performance to date. We have experienced delays and direction changes that would cause anyone counting on the company to wonder whether their involvement would ever pay off. I was the one who chose my managers and developers poorly, and it has created an uneven experience for you and financial distress for the business. And I have come to the painful conclusion that these missteps have caused irretrievable damage to the REexpert brand. They have also deferred for too long the receipt of referral fees, which were the essence of our revenue model. For those Experts actively working the system, they and the company are starting to see returns, but too many others are sitting back and waiting for the technology alone to deliver results that we are convinced will come over time but not soon enough to make sense for either of us. Many of my friends and advisors, in looking at the hurdles we still must cross, have counseled that I simply close the business down and walk away. After all, we have taken no more than a non-refundable set-up fee, have delivered the web-sites and landing pages promised, and have the right to terminate our contracts on thirty days' notice. But this concept has been in my blood for far too long, and we have come too far to end on a sour note. I have decided to take the concept back to its roots, which will require rebranding and converting to a new revenue model for those Experts interested in participating. Effective immediately, and perhaps through early next week, we are taking the system off-line while we assess the damage of recent activities and introduce the new contract terms. All of the Experts choosing to continue will be assigned to a new company that will focus all of its energies on serving you and the consumer, and will charge a monthly fee to ensure that we have the resources to drive the results you deserve. Some of you may decide not to move over to the new business, and we understand that decision. Rather than insisting on our contract terms, however, we are committed to making that exit as palatable as possible. If and when the new company resells your territory, and in no event more than 24 months down the road, it will pay REexpert a fee equal to 100% of your initial set-up fee, and RExpert will in turn provide you with a full refund of the only moneys we received from you, with interest. Until you receive that refund, you will be able to use the IVM magazine with your clients and prospects at no charge. We hope that you will decide to try the new brand and new terms, but if you don't, know that we plan to be in this business a long time and want to part company as friends. This is not an effort to run away from our commitments, but to keep them, and to give those Experts who continue with us both better tools and a better brand. For those of you choosing to walk away, although we can't guarantee it and legally don't owe it, our plan is to get you your money back. When the transaction occurs with the new company, it will be transparent, every penny will be accounted for, and all of the assets that could otherwise be available to provide this voluntary refund will stay within reach. Look for a video e-mail from me by week's end announcing more details on this transition, followed by a call from our customer care staff to explain the options in more detail. As always, I am grateful for the trust you have placed in our company, and promise you that I will work tirelessly to ensure that we not only survive this market and our own growing pains, but emerge in a stronger position. ------------------ Translation: "I mismanaged and ignored my company, allowed disinterested and alienated creeps to ruin it, and now that I have collected $7 million in entry fees I am taking my ball and going home. Oh, and even though the whole thing was crapping the sheets for the past 6 months, I was selling the thing like it was sliced bread up until 2 weeks ago. I'm going to invent a new scam to bilk you some more, but if you see the light I'll give you a refund...as soon as there is peace in the middle east"


Gill Turner

Highlands Ranch,
Colorado,
U.S.A.
Sure; it IS a ripoff. A well calculated one.

#12UPDATE EX-employee responds

Fri, September 26, 2008

I was an employee for this group almost a year ago. It's been so long that I hesitate to mention anything now but since a critical piece of this puzzle has now been revealed by someone else I'll speak my mind. The truth is this has always been a con. It's always have been a hustle despite all to the nice words and excuses from Jeff Guthrie. A little more on this in a minute... Shame on all of you for being so greedy and competitive that you would take any opportunity no matter how hairbrained, or do anything to get that leg up to crush your competition, that even now, after the cat has been put out of the bag you rumble amoungts yourselves, type a few blog entries, rattle a few cages and do everything possible other than acting. ACT! Some of you have been complaining for OVER a year and yet you do nothing. Why? You are complainiing about a measley $3500.00. Even the investors those people who paid 25K and more are just sitting around, tossing an angry email or phone call every now and then....nothing. Type a few more blogs. maybe it'll make you feel better. All it did was ruin the company name so now REEXPERT is going away to be replaced by the same group under a different name. He even said so in his blog to all of you. Are you so calloused as to allow this to happen under the disquise that you will get your money back in 24 months? Are you so stupid and desperate to believe that? There has got to be over 2000 people enrolled in this plan. Simple math tells me that it's close to 7 million dollars. Do you think this idiot is going to pay anyone 7 million dollars back? Even if it was one million, do you have confidence that it will get paid back? Of course not. He'll declare bankruptcy and be gone out of town. So you get sidetraked, believing that some meeting he's about to hold is going to allieviate all of your fears. The crazy part about it is you are actually waiting for this to happen. Do you know what Jeff is doing? He's closing accounts. Moving money and lawyering up. He's preparing to vacate REEXPERT (He even told you so) giving him enough time to actually pull this thing off. When that happens YOU WON'T HAVE A LEG TO STAND ON. IT'S OVER; YOUR MONEY GONE. With no legal recourse thank you. Yet the 1% of you that have done something with it the opportunity are confusing the 99% of you that got totally hosed. TOTALLY. "What do I do Gill?" Ok, I'll tell you. 1. Every single one of you who are an REEXPERT needs to contact their State Attorney General's office and file a complaint of fraud. Do it now, do it today. I'm about to give you proof. 2. Everyone of you who is a Realtor. Contact NAR and advise them of this fraud. Do it now, do it today. I'm about to give you proof. 3. Everyone of you who paid through Credit Card make a refund request based on fraud. Do it today. Not through the REEXPERT but through your credit card company. Do it now, do it today. Here is the proof Look at Leanne min's on page 7: http://www.dora.state.co.us/real-estate/Meetings/minutes/broker/CREC_Jan_2007_Minutes.pdf Motion carried. Leanne Hodgson- (Horribly obese by the way) The investigative report concerning a complaint filed by the Commission on its own motion against Leanne E. Hodgson, License #IA 40025768 was presented to the Commission with accompanying documentation and information supplied by Ms. Hodgson. It was moved and seconded by the Commission that reasonable grounds exist to refer the respondent to hearing for violations of the real estate licensing law and to send this matter through the expedited settlement process (ESP). The staff was also directed to incorporate these specific terms into the Commission approved ESP stipulation to be sent to Ms. Hodgson. a. On March 7, 2005, licensed Colorado Real Estate Broker Leanne Hodgson pled guilty to Theft $500 to $15,000, a Class 4 Felony, in violation of 18-4-401, C.R.S. Hodgson failed to notify the Commission of the guilty plea; and b. Ms. Hodgson admits that these facts constitute violation of 12-61-113(1)(m) and 12-61-113(1)(m.6), C.R.S.; and c. Ms. Hodgson shall pay a fine in the amount of $500; and d. Ms. Hodgson's real estate broker's license shall be publicly censured. Now let's see, who was the first managing broker of REEXPERTS? Leanne Hodgson. She had no broker's license. Yet you signed an agreement to send her 20% referrals on closed transactions didn't you? Jeff knew this. Certainly Leanne Knew this. Hell, I was a sales rep and I knew it. Don't be sheep people. Wake up. WAKE UP!!! All of these supposed executives and managers are leaving the place because of poor business practices, and the people that remain are criminals? Doesn't that tell you anything, anything about "poor Jeff Guthrie". It's all been a shell game. Every single word of it. Sit around if you want to. Believe me. Your window of opportunity is about to go away; and fast.


Realtor Broker -

Tacoma,
Washington,
U.S.A.
I paid this company $3,490 over 6 months ago - they Ripped me off too!

#13Consumer Suggestion

Fri, September 26, 2008

Here are some thoughts and facts. Over 1,000 real estate agents have paid Jeff Guthrie $3,490 each and up to $25,000 in some cases to join. I would be surprized to hear from more than just a few members who have received anything from this association and they most likely paid PPC campaigns etc... to make their own success. Here are some facts; REExpert/REAdvocate & Jeff Guthrie 1. Jeff is a self proclaimed non-expert in real estate. So why is he telling Realtors what WE need? He has played on our feelings toward fair play and wanting to help the public with real expert advice, by offering a system to supposedly offer the public only highly skilled agents who are trainedetc. You heard the pitch if you signed up. 2. Jeff has NEVER been a licensed agent and in fact claims to have been hurt by some real estate agent in the past, making it obvious that he feels for his own hurt feelings and those of the public more than Real Estate Agents feelings and needs, so he has shown that there is no love lost there. 3. He has been playing with this idea of how to offer better Realtor services to the public for a LONG time now, estimates are 5 years. That is a red flag. 4. It is unknown if he set up the program of telemarketing or one of his consultants, but it is Jeff who has been asking for huge sums of money from investors and other licensed agents, on record giving HUGE promises and making claims about the value of what he offered. The hype is a matter of record. 5. He never mentioned PPC, which requires substantial monthly expenditure, before I joined and that would have killed the deal for me and many others if I had known that. 6. He said that he had gathered around him some TOP webmasters and IT Tech professionals, but then has fired them all. Hired more and then fired them too, this has happened several times with lots of bodies left along the way. They were ALL bad right Jeff? Was it not mis-management on his part? I think so! 7. He has now sent out a very long letter, almost a dissertation, with a tirade of blame toward other people and some small acceptance of liability. He says he will be offering everyone who wants their money back a refund. Right, in your dreams. - He is hoping that there will be enough agents left over after the fall out who WILL PAY HIM MORE MONEY that he can use their money to pay back the rest of us who are demanding fair play and compensation. It is just more smoke and mirrors. You will be required to listen to at least 4 hours of his crying and moaning about the state of things, how his dream of a better tomorrow for us agents is still alive and how he plans to make it work. But be aware, in the end he will solicit your help and ask for MORE MONEY to bring about the NEW PLAN. I for one will not fall for it again! What may be best for Agents should only come from the mind of actual working agents or brokers who daily have been in this business for some time IMHO. How do you tell a mechanic how to fix a car if you have never fixed one? How do you tell a Lawyer how to prepare for and fight a case if you have had no training? This applies to every profession. Good luck and best wishes to all, just be vary careful what you spend your money on. Sometimes its just better to walk away and start over. Donald J. Leske II / Broker & Webmaster BCI PROPERTIES, LLC 11314 17th Ave. E. Tacoma, WA 98445 www.HomesandProperties.com


Curtiseehomes.com

Vancouver,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Advocate

#14Consumer Suggestion

Thu, September 25, 2008

It's unfortunate you're not satisfied with the compan'y performance. I was a bit skeptical, but liked the fact that my referal amount of only 20% would be waived until I regained my initial investment. i also knew it would take awhile for the network to be formed and productive to those that invested. Not receiving the results and following the lead of others; i decided to prime the pump with Pay per click. Probably the best decision made and now I'm working with far more leads than I have ever worked with in my 10 year career, on top of that; some of the highest dollar clients. Please if you don't have the money to invest;, don't, there are plenty of other ways to do your business. As far as broadcasting the negative of the company to the world, It's unfortunate that have more time to cast a dark cloud than sell and list homes. Who cares what Jeff Gutherie makes, our country is free to be capitalistic and there's nothing wrong with being an Entrprenuer. I'm making all I want from the deal I made and if it all folded tomorrow, I'd still be happy with all the leads I have accumulated. They have done everything they committed too, to me. It's working for me in Vancouver WA.

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