Lee Partee of Naranza Parters (formerly Key Capital Partners and other business names) collected over $30,000 in fees from our investment group for three (3) properties: a rehab refi and 2 purchases. Like the others who have posted, he also issued to us LOIs for all 3 properties and then followed up with Commitment Letters for all 3 properties. Unfortunately, also like the other posters, he never funded the loans and did not refund our money.
He has a classic and successful con job going on right now due to today's banking and funding problems throughout the country. He knows most people are forced to seek out non-conventional funding in today's market for their projects. He also is fully aware that the closing timeframes are much longer than unsual these days (at least at the time he ripped us off, which was at the beginning of the economy crash). Therefore, he could string you along for months before you give up on expecting a close. With his residential mortgage background, he knows all the buzz words and terminology to be believable - a true professional con man. He also knows Ohio doesn't really regulate commercial brokers and lenders. Therefore, he believes he free to do as he pleases, including rip people off. I know he know this because he told me (with the exception of the "rip off" part as he wouldn't dare to admit that) when I threatened to report him to the license board.
Trust me when I say we tried to get our money back.in our efforts to get our money back, we tried to be sweet and nice; appeal to his morality with our pleas of hardship; be firm; be tough; be threatening; and even tried begging, all to no avail. Most of my begging took place while I was at my mom's hospital bedside everyday for two months as she was fighting for her life. She lost her battle. Still, he wasn't moved and could care less.
Although he collected $30,000, he cost us a significant amount more of money. When he told us the first or second time that we would close in a few weeks, we allowed our deposit money for $100,000 ($50,000 for each purchase property) to go "hard". We lost that money when we could not fund. We also were putting money into the rehab refi project to cover its deficit. Again, that money and property to foreclosure were lost because he did not fund. You see... He tells you every day that the close will happen within a few days. I was able to quote to my husband each day what he could expect to hear: He didn't answer his phone until around 10:30 am, EST. At that time, he was traveling to the office and would call us when he got to the office, around 12:00 pm, EST. Between 12:00 to around 4:00 pm, EST you couldn't reach him. At around 4:00 he would tell you he was in meetings all day with his funders to finalize things, but he was too tired and had to go home. He would say he would work on completing the finishing touches and call us after his dinner, around 9:00, EST. Of course, he would not call, but instead text us to say he will call us with the details in the morning. And then the cycle would start again. This or some version of this would go on for months. We continued to believe him due to the advice of our commercial broker and attorney who believed in today's market, that was the norm or better than the norm. I'm giving some of these details because I'm sure they may sound familiar to those who are trying to check him out.
We lost all of our money, properties and credit as a result of Lee's lies. Now, we have to spend more money to answer lawsuits that are being brought against us by the other investors who lost their money. I'm not too concerned because they were fully aware of what was going on and were involved in the decisions for the loans. However, this is the last thing we have time to deal with as we try to rebuild our lives.
Don't believe Lee or any of his partners in crime: Les Saunders and Charles Saunders, and the others listed on his website. They are all cons who should be stopped! (What is FoxBusiness' problem?) Also, beware of others out there who are ripping people off with this type of scam due to the economy. He's not the only one. However, he is a bad one!
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