We met Blake Roarke in 2004 when he was going to help us refinance our home. We consider ourselves intelligent business savvy people but we were no match for this individual.
Blake went to work on us immediately. He lured us in by telling us he could refinance our house quickly (we wanted to get it done because we were getting a grant to fix up our house and we wouldn't be able to refinance for cash out for ten years) for cash out. Legitimate brokers had told us it wasn't worth it for us to do it b/c we would basically be paying the same amount we were and for the money it would cost there wouldn't be an advantage. Blake assured us that they weren't as savvy as he was and we believed him. At this point we started making the arrangements to refinance our home with him.
Then he told us about a couple he had met (I know you're all cringing right now) who were having some financial problems and he had a great idea. He suggested we buy their home for one year and they would pay all the closing costs, the property insurance, taxes and utilities. These people only wanted to keep their home but needed to pay down debt and the cash out would allow them to do that and our credit rating would make their house payment reasonable enough for them to stay in their home. They had three kids and she was seven months pregnant with their fourth. They had both been at their same jobs for over ten years blah, blah, blah. We kept looking at their track record and never even questioned Blake's. All of a sudden Blake was working on this almost full time and the refinancing for our home kept getting set back. The appraisal was done and we went through with the sale... No problem.
Then we went to the closing for our home loan and nothing was what it was suppose to be. There were so many inconsistencies between what were promised and what was delivered. No cash out, nothing paid off and in the end, our payment was higher by $200/month.By this time we were so tied into this man that we barely even recognized it was happening when it did. It was if we had temporarily checked out of reality.
Reality made it's way back with a crash. We discovered our mortgage payment was $200 more a month and a month after our "renter's" first payment they bounced their check. We were freaking out and started calling Blake who had left town (big surprise). He did leave us one message saying to quit calling him so much. It has been an absolute nightmare ever since then and we keep peeling back the layers only to find more horror. We decided we were going to sell the property only to find the appraisal was so inflated that we are upside down to the tune of $60,000. We even offered to give the house to the bank and they said no way (it seemed like a good idea to us). We had some professionals look at our loan paperwork and it is layered in lies and mis-representations of our financial position etc. Blake said the house we bought for these people was our residence and that we had been renting our home for a couple years for $2200/month. I wish. He represented the buyer and seller so he made about $35,000.
We have talked numerous times to the Attorney General but they are limited in their abilities to represent individuals so we have to work with the Dept. Of Commerce. Problem: we have to first determine if we could get in trouble because we signed these papers and could be deemed legally responsible. Worst case scenario, we go after Blake and have the tables turned on us.
I am hoping by posting this two things will happen: 1) Anyone who reads this will avoid having this happen. 2) If anyone has encountered Blake Roarke and had something happen with him, they would contact us.
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