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The Deland Home Fire Sale
After depleting nearly all of the cash assets from the Elizabeth McGuinness estate via risky house-flipping real estate deals and Alzheimer's victims-chasing attorneys, the last remaining asset in Liz's trust was the home at 503 North Clara Avenue in Deland, Florida.How NOT to Flip a House - From $189,000 to $92,500 Six Months or Less This home was put in Kerry P. Burtis' name as trustee on July 23, 2008, the same day Liz signed the one hundred page revised "Revocable Trust Agreement" authored by attorney Eden Rose Brown at $350.00 per hour, which dedicated the majority of her assets and property to her favorite nephew, Kerry P. Burtis, and forgave a $160,000 "verbal agreement" loan made to him two years prior. Kerry put the home on the market for $189,000 in 2009 after he convinced Liz to abandon her son and his family in Florida to move to Salem, Oregon, to live with him "babysit his kids". He had placed it on an online international realty property listing service, called "FindIRE.com".
One month later it was still not listed with a legitimate real estate agent and attorney P. Freeman Green wrote to assure us that, "Kerry is working hard to sell the home, and appreciates your patience". In March, Kerry told the beneficiaries that: "I listed the Deland home with the Orlando Realty agency today and we've set the sale price at $139,900. The agent advised that the best way to improve saleability and market value would be to replace the sod and do some basic landscaping." This seemed like a good idea, since the photo he initially posted looked like a tenement slum in a sandlot. On April 2, 2010, Kerry wrote to the beneficiaries to say that: "After consulting with the real estate agents in Deland regarding Liz's house, we feel it would be in everyone's best interest to lower the listing price at this time from the initial $139,000 to a new listing price of $119,900."
"Kerry wants to have a fire sale on his Deland home - he has already received far more than his share of estate distributions and will receive NOTHING from the sale of his Florida property. The sooner he gets rids of that house and throws a few dollars in the direction of the beneficiaries, the better off he will be. He would just as soon close out this Trust as soon as possible and leave for another trip to his time share property in Hawaii." Next the house was listed on Realtor.com with another agent, this time at West Volusia Properties, and finally on May 3rd - almost four months after the family meeting - Kerry replaced the junkyard photo of the Deland home with one featuring new sod. Certainly the new photo and the landscaping improvements would increase the market value of Liz's house!
"We should be receiving an offer sometime today on the Deland house for $90,000 "As Is." The real estate agent has felt all along that, in today's market and in its present condition, the house is worth around $100,000 and is suggesting that we might want to counter as high as $99,990." The real estate agent who had "felt all along" that "the house is worth around $100,000" then forwarded a list of comparable properties which she used to lower her estimated market value of the Deland house to $80,153. Kerry, You might want to share this information. Sold Price - $80,000; 3 beds, 2 baths; 1347 sq. ft.; built 1957; sold February 2010 Sold Price - $95,000; 4 beds, 2 baths; 1670 sq ft.; built 1925; sold January 2010 Sold Price - 90,000; 4 beds, 2 baths; 1469 sq. ft.; built 1941; sold May 2010 Sold Price - 99,900; 2beds, 2 baths, 2 car garage; 1887 sq. ft.; built 1947; sold April 2010 The average selling price per sq. ft. is $57.62 At that sq. footage price 503 N. Clara would sell for $80,153. Here is how the buyer explained his offer of $90,000 for a house that was listed with West Volusia Properties at $119,000: I still have a interest in the property but with the amount of work that is needed to update the house we are not going to be able to move off the offer price. I have placed a verbal offer on a property near the beach, but if a agreement could be reached I would consider moving forward on your property. The counter price of 99,990.00 is respectful but, please find below my calculated expenses of needed updates:
Kitchen project $ 15,000.00 low end - $ 45,000.00 high end Low end updates = $ 33,500.00 High end updates = $ 86,000.00 Avg Updates on project $ 60,000.00 split with home owner = $ 30,000.00 therefore my offer of 90,000.00 or 119,000.00 minus the 30,000.00 = 90,000.00 This was a novel approach - the BUYER would establish the sale price of a home based on the remodeling and improvments he MIGHT do, should he choose to purchase the property. It was good enough for Kerry and after some hard-nosed negotiations, he sealed the deal at $92,500. Suggestions that he have a new appraisal done before selling Liz's home for $30,000 less than it was listed at were ignored, as always. In an e-mail exchange with West Volusia Properties owner Maggi Hall in which I explained the negotiations and my dissatisfaction with the sale price, she commented that: Well heck! I had made friends with the lovely lady who lived there even sending flowers when she got sick. I was surprised I did not get the listing. It should have sold at about $135k. I had no idea about all that but thanks so much for sharing it with me. Since I am basically an authority on historic restoration the house was terrific. All it needed was that awful paneling down in the living room!!!!! Terrific bones with a strong history!!! Drats! m
Maggi Hall, Broker We tried to imagine how this closing scene in Elizabeth McGuinness' life story might be scripted and filmed, and guessed it might go something like this: 
(The camera pans in from an exterior view of his $325,000 home in Salem to show Kerry in his bedroom wearing brightly flowered swim trunks and enthusiastically packing his luggage, as Gloria watches their two daughters jump up and down with excitement. The announcer asks):
"Hey, Kerry! After a decade of flipping houses in three states and making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits, you just sold Liz's home in Deland for $30,000 LESS than it's appraised value! What are you going to do now?"
(Kerry replies with a grin from ear to ear, saying:)
"I'm going to Hawaii!"
(Fade to black...)
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Kerry informed beneficiaries at the January 24, 2010, family meeting that he had had the house professionally appaised at $122,000 and the beneficiaries agreed that Kerry should go ahead and try to sell the home.
On April 6, 2010, the Deland home showed up on a listing with 
Just two weeks later on May 18, 2010, Kerry announced that: