An Education

I'm not proud and my ego is minimal. So, I have no issue admitting when there is something I don't know. And one thing I don't know a whole lot about is real estate, specifically the buying and selling of real estate. So I needed some lessons.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Tim Dudley of the Motley Auction House. He was the person in charge of the sale of St. Paul's College. And he's a pretty decent teacher about matters involving real estate sales.

Now, I'm going to outline for you all what I've learned, courtesy of Mr. Dudley.

The one thing I've learned is that one can look up a person's real estate license, just to make sure that the person who claims to be a real estate agent is legitimate.  Ironically, this is quite unlike Umar Johnson, who no one seems to really know who or what he is.

Anyway...go to the following URL and type in Dudley, Tim.

http://www.dpor.virginia.gov/LicenseLookup/

It looks as if he has a few licenses. However, there are two that show his affiliation with Motley's Auction House.

The second lesson is on closed bidding. What is a closed bid? According to Mr. Dudley, "a closed bid is when those who are bidding on a property write up an offer, put it in an envelope, seal it and send it to the seller of a property."

To be fair, Umar did, according to Mr. Dudley, make an offer. "But," Mr. Dudley says, "He had no deposit, no financing, and no date by which he could close the deal."

So, do you all remember when posted that he "may have won" the bid for St. Paul's College? Closed bids, sometimes also called sealed bids, are confidential. He could not and should not have said that because he didn't know.

"There was no way he could have known," says Mr. Dudley.

Remember this?

As far as financing the purchase of such a large property like St. Paul's College, of course, it stands to reason that one would have to have a high net worth to get a loan to purchase such a property. Not only would one have to have a high net worth, along with financing, Mr. Dudley says, "There were at least $12 million in repairs that needed to be done."

Remember, St. Paul's College is an old institution that had been sitting vacant for some time. There could have been asbestos and lead paint, in addition to other repairs dealing with plumbing, heating, and ventilation.

So where was Umar going to get $12 million dollars in order to pay for all the repair work that would have been needed in order to get the property up to code? GoFundMe and Paypal donations won't do it. Can Umar get financing for $12 million dollars in repairs? This is not likely, especially since Umar now owes back taxes and back child support.

Is there any real point in discussing the cost of running a school of that size and magnitude?

Lesson number three is when there is a property like St. Paul's College, a historic piece of property up for sale, a lot of scam artists come out of the woodwork, trying to pimp the name and the historic value of the property one way or another. To be fair, Umar Johnson is simply the most prominent one, not the only one. As a result, Motley's asks for "a $25,000 refundable deposit for those who say they want to view, and potentially buy, the property."

I suppose I can't blame Mr. Dudley and Motley's for that. After all, who want to keep wasting time dealing with nosy people and scam artists? Having to come up with $25,000 will discourage a bunch of nosey-rosies and scammers. Besides, serious people with the proper financial backing wouldn't mind putting up the $25,000.

Umar Johnson came to the St. Paul's College campus, with his film crew of students from VCU (I'm assuming that VCU is Virginia Commonwealth University) to film his sales video. Let's face it; Umar did a great sales pitch. Everything he said sounded wonderful.

"Umar put on quite a dog and pony show. He met employees of the college, the college president and I even took him to lunch," Mr. Dudley says.

Was the property sold to a developer, Mr. Dudley?

"No."

So Umar just flat-out lied to Roland Martin and to everyone who watched him.

The college has now been taken over by the State Pension Fund of Virginia.

Mr. Dudley told me, "The College didn't have any debt. However, they were supposed to pay into the employees' pension fund and they didn't. After about three years of attempting to sell the school, the State Pension Fund took it over in lieu of the missed payments."

So, even in this video linked here, starting at 16 minutes and 38 seconds and listen to about 18 minutes and 50 seconds, Umar Johnson lied again, making it seem as if the school was sold out from under him.

And, no surprises, he lied on "some white guy" at Motley's. Presumably, "some white guy" would be Mr. Dudley.

My goodness...

I am so sorry, Mr. Dudley and Motley's Auction House, which you all had to go through this with such a dishonest person.

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