Beware of james bayfield!!! He is a con artist/scammer, he runs short sale seminars, tells you he will train you, says he'll hold the money and take care of everything, and then takes off with the money.
A friend of mine Ron, went to one of James Bayfields seminars a couple of years ago. He worked with James for a couple of years. He told me he was going to do a Real Estate deal with James, he knew him and trusted him and he was a good guy.
They asked me if I could co-sign a loan for them for a house in NJ. They would give me $5000.00. I was told they would take care of everything. Mortgage payments, insurance, fixing up the house, renting and selling it. It was a 3 family house, they were going to fix it and sell it. If they could not sell it, it could be rented for $4000.00/month to cover the $3000.00 per month rent.
I said ok, at closing I noticed I was the only one signing the papers. I asked what about co-signing and was told it would be better this way. Ron and James assured me everything would be ok. I've known Ron and his family for many years, and I trusted him, so I went along with it.
Everything seemed to be going well, Ron was at the house everyday with the workers remodeling the house. When the house was just about ready to be rented (all it needed was to be painted). Ron and James had a falling out about money. James told me he was going to have someone else finish the job and rent it out. I told him fine, whatever we can do, rent or sell works with me.
Ron had a real estate agent trying to sell the house. I asked Ron to go and check on the house. He told me the supplies in the house were stolen from the house, do I have the insurance. I told him, you were taking care of insurance. He told me James took care of the insurance. Well guess what, James never paid the insurance.
I kept calling James and Ron to find out the status of the house and was told everything was being taken care of.
James was paying the mortgage, but every month he paid it late. I would call him and beg him to pay it on time. He told me he had an arrangement with the bank (which was a lie). I asked him for the money for the mortgage payments and I would make them on time. He stopped returning my calls, he would only talk to me through his secretary. She told me he would continue to pay the mortgage until the house was fixed and rented. I asked who he hired to fininsh fixing the house and never got a straight answer.
Ron gave up, complaining James took all the money from the house. He handed me the keys and walked away.
When I went to the house, I was in a state of shock. The house was stripped of all the brand new electric wiring and plumbing that was put into the house. All the cabinets and appliances were taken. The house was destroyed and was an empty shell inside.
I called the insurance company and that is when I found out there was NO INSURANCE on the house. I panicked, I called James and Ron. No one would return my calls. Now the mortgage company started calling me because James stopped making mortgage payments.
I now have an empty shell in NJ and am expected to pay $3000/month for. I was finally able to get insurance on the house, but they will only cover structural damage and not mortgage payments. The biggest joke is that with all of the damage done to the house the insurance company claims it's only $30,000 worth of damage. I had 2 different contractors go they approximated $200-250,000 worth of damage. I'm still fighting this with the insurance company.
James still refuses to return any of my calls or emails. Ron told me James got about $100,000 from the short sale and took off with all the money that was suppose to go towards fixing the house to be sold or rented.
James claimed he made 6 months worth of mortgae payments, but the bank only has a record of 5 payments. When I asked for receipts of the mortgage payments he refuses to give them to me or the bank.
When I asked James where is all the money he got from the closing of the house, he told me he was just going to pay the mortgage for 6 months and the rest was for his fees.
I am stuck holding the bag, struggling with the mortgage company and insurance company.
Please do not fall for this scam!!!
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