This letter is a WARNING for those who are considering doing business with Corporate Services & Associates and Douglas Burnett. It is based on personal experience with same from March 23 to January 23.
Through Doug Burnett's repeated calling suggesting I use his services, I reluctantly signed up with him on March 23 by giving him $5000.00 on two credit cards. I thought I was getting my real estate investing business set up as a C-Corp in Nevada, and my 2007 taxes done, and would be given great real estate investing deals for highly profits and that he would handle all the details as I was a newbie investor.
I was strongly considering getting out of real estate investing. But with Doug's coaxing that he would handle the details and make me a lot of money with his real estate investing deals I decided to get involved.
Doug Burnett did NOT do the following:
1. Set up my real estate investing business as a C-Corp in Nevada
2. Do my 2007 taxes he said he would do them in January
3. Bring great real estate investing deals for highly profits.
What Doug Burnett did do:
1. He sent several e-mails with some information about incorporating and C-Corps in Nevada. Value to me near worthless could get in library with some research.
2. He called me a lot to get me involved and to take my money (total time approximately 80 hours). This was a big waste of time! He talked about other deals he was involved in with pro athletes and his desire to do Section 8 housing in the Detroit area. These other deals never came about for me.
3. Doug Burnett brought me one deal near mid May in Michigan. He signed the initial papers with another investor, and me and the realtor. Later the other investor dropped out and early July he got rid of the realtor to save giving her the commission so there would be more money in the deal for us.
Initially he said the house was worth easily $900,000 and in a good market could go for $1,200, 000. Later when an appraisal was done it was valued at $725,000. We initially offered the seller $600,000 and later Doug was able to get it reduced to $580,000.
Doug lined up financing for the deal by including my wife's salary while knowing my wife did not want to be involved with any of my real estate investing. And with my $28,000 salary I could not get a $580,000 loan. So if it would have been handled correctly the deal would never have gotten off the ground from Day 1.
Doug did have a conditional clause stating that if I could not get financing that the deal would be null and void which I took advantage of. I was concerned that if the loan would have gone through that Doug would have used the property for his purposes without making payments out of his pocket. He said there was going to be enough equity in it and an account set up so he could use the account money for a year to make the payments. After that period the house might go into foreclosure and my credit would be ruined. Notice: Doug is not the buyer and it would not affect his credit rating if the deal went through! I was not willing to take that chance!
Doug did convince me through repeated phone calls talking about all the real estate deals and all the money I would make that he was trustworthy. He used other people in 3-way and 4-way calls talking about the deals. So I mistakenly and naively gave him a credit card with a credit limit of $12,500 in June. Big Mistake!
First thing he wanted me to pay his $640 cell phone bill. And then give him $6500 for an Inbound Call Center. Doug was in a big hurry to get this Inbound Call Center going and he wanted me to invest $75,000 in it and he said I would be able to get back five times my investment within a year. Doug said I could easily make $200,000 in 2008 with the real estate deals and Inbound Call Center investment.
But Doug did NOT pay me back even a penny for all the money I gave him! Doug wanted me to get more credit - $75,000 to $100,000 he said I should be able to get this business credit with my 800 credit score.
The credit company only gave me $15,000 credit which I gave to Doug for the earnest money on the Michigan property. It never went to an attorney or Title company or escrow account. Doug kept the $15,000 until I did a dispute with the credit company and told them I thought Doug Burnett is a scam artist!
Doug had the audacity in October after the deal fell through to dispute that the $15,000 was for his services and not for earnest money which I clearly had PayPal documentation for!
In July he became unavailable by phone for two-weeks. I called his cell phone many times and he did not return the calls. It was at this point that I was becoming concerned about Doug's legitimacy. I was asking him when I was going to get money from him to make the credit card payment and I needed money to help pay for my property taxes coming due soon.
When he did call me he said he would give me $5000 or $10,000 soon and he never did pay me anything. Promises but no money! When the first credit card bill came due I asked him to make a minimum payment of $200 which he said he would do I should just invoice him which I did and he never made any payment to that credit card after many attempts to get him to pay. He said he was having problems with his e-mail account.
He did wrack up the credit card I gave him to almost a $13,000 balance in less than two-weeks ($500 over the credit limit)! I was left having to make credit card payments while Doug Burnett paid $0! He used it to buy many things including limousine service in the Detroit area.
The seller's attorney saw Doug getting driven by the limo driver and for some reason thought it was me. I know this from the email the seller's attorney sent me when the deal fell through due to not being able to be financed
I have been informed by Mr. T. That he does not qualify for the loan required to purchase the seller's residence. I have been informed by Mr. T. That Mr. Burnett indicated to the mortgage broker in Ann Arbor, that Mr. T. Had income of $85,000.00 per year when in fact that is nowhere near the truth.
Accordingly, Mr. T. Will not come anywhere near qualifying for this loan. I would like to know how a buyer that cannot qualify for a loan arrives at the seller's residence in a chauffeur driver limousine and how, what are supposed to be professional, educated people that surround the buyer, can allow so many people to expend so much wasted time. How can a mortgage broker be so involved with not only with the buyer, but with the financial adviser (Mr. Burnett) and myself, and not know the annual income of a Buyer he has pre-qualified?
How can a financial adviser, Mr. Burnett, so badly misrepresent to everyone in this transaction so many details and ignore so many promises of Offers, discussions with the Buyer, other Brokers, and this attorney.
In my opinion, Mr. Burnett, you are the single reason for the most inept, misrepresented handling of a transaction I have seen in 35 years as both an attorney and licensed real estate Broker.
That includes your misrepresentation to me that you and Mr. T. Were partners and that countless Offers would be forthcoming, your misrepresentation to the mortgage broker that Mr. T. Had income of $85,000 per year, your misrepresentation to the realtor that your were on your way to her office with a deposit check, and whatever your representations were to Mr. T. To induce him to give you $15,000.00 for a down payment on this deal that never made it's way to an escrow agent or back to Mr. T.
This does not include other monies that have been given to you by Mr. T. Without repayment. I would like to know if you knew what Mr. T.'s real annual income was, because Mr. T.indicates you did.
Lastly, Mr. T., you get the award for being naive. How could you trust a person, Mr. Burnett that you never met?
Lastly, you all should all apologize to the sellers for there aggravation and the fact that this house has been off the prime market time for almost an entire summer.
In summary, I would suggest anyone considering investing any money with Douglas Burnett and/or Corporate Services & Associates to think twice and read this letter carefully you have been WARNED! If Doug tells you that he will use your high credit score RUN THE OTHER WAY!
There is a good chance he will take your money and give you nothing in return while you get to dispute it through the credit card company or make payments to your credit card company if you don't dispute it within their time limit.
One of my credit cards, would not allow the dispute because it was after two-months when I figured out Douglas Burnett was a scam artist. I lost $2,000 for the lateness in filing a dispute due to not realizing he was a scam artist until mid July.
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