MD woman falls victim to growing real estate scam

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Mar 4, 2005 by Kathleen Johnston Jarboe

If you're going to do a deal where you're going to lease back, make sure to go to a settlement agent. Don't just do a deal in your living room. Make sure you're actually selling, said Frank Stickle, president of American Mortgage Assistance Inc. in Falls Church, Va. Stickle counsels financially troubled homeowners.

What now?

Cheeks now resides in a two-bedroom apartment in Landover. It's cramped even though she rushed to give away two sets of bedroom furniture before the move. She was kicked out of her townhouse just days after Christmas.

Even this past December as she stared at her document puzzle, she knew that eviction was a possibility.

This is what [the investor] does. He preys on people he thinks is vulnerable, she said. If I die tomorrow, I'll still be fighting. Somebody somewhere is going to hear my cry and help me.

She sat with her legs crossed, sucking a cigarette. She questioned what her gullibility meant about her.

Before moving to Capitol Heights, she lived in the projects for more than two decades. She wanted something better for her three boys - a quiet neighborhood, a nearby recreation center, distance from the drugs and gun violence of Clay Terrace NE in Washington, D.C.

I saved up all my little monies, she said. After three years, she had enough for a small down payment and closing costs. Then the mother and grandmother who once lived off welfare rolls bought her first home.

It is a lot of painful memories, Cheeks said. To see how far I came. - But then on the other hand to ask myself if this is still another failure?

At this point, her husband Anthony uttered what for him is one of the few sure things he knew about the events that happened to them.

She is not a failure because she has not looked at all she's accomplished, Anthony Cheeks said. I hope she knows I'm proud of her no matter what happens.

HOME PRICES SOARING

Home values increased throughout Maryland last year. Here's just how much.

Anne Arundel: 7.4 percent

Baltimore City: 36 percent

Baltimore County: 17.3 percent

Calvert: 20.9 percent

Carroll: 13.5 percent

Charles: 37 percent

Frederick: 26.9 percent

Harford: 22.5 percent

Howard: 22 percent

Montgomery: 15 percent

Prince George's: 27.4 percent

Saint Mary's: 32.3 percent

Source: Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.