Offers To Buy Properties Cause Residents Concern
Advice: Check Property Values Before Signing Anything
By Amy Polk

Residents are being told by county officials to be cautious when dealing with unsolicited offers to buy their property, and to make sure they have an attorney review such transactions. The cautions are in response to out-of-state letters offering to buy local properties that some residents say are way below market price.

The St. Ignace News has been contacted by several people in December and January out of concern for vulnerable property owners, particularly elderly people, who have received letters from Asset Holding, LLC of Scottsdale, Arizona, offering to purchase their property for amounts much less than their market value. In some cases, the letters also contain descriptions for property the resident does not own.

The offers reported by citizens to the Chippewa and Mackinac equalization departments and The St. Ignace News range from $150 per lot or acre to $350. Neil W. Hill of St. Ignace said his 96-year-old grandmother received a $450 offer for a property he suspects is her house, prompting his concern. Margaret Patrick of Cedarville was another who was concerned about longtime residents and property owners like her father. Some older residents, they say, have owned their property for so long, they might not know the current value. Property owners can check the assessed value of their homes with the city or township assessor or the county equalization director. State Equalized Value (SEV) seen on tax statements is usually about half the true cash value.

The property descriptions used by Asset Holding are public information and can be obtained online, or by purchasing a county's property tax identification labeling program, said Mr. Hill, who is a land surveyor.

The letters include a purchase agreement that the property owner can sign and return.

Regardless of the price offered, Chippewa County Equalization Director Sharon Kennedy advises residents, "If you plan to sell property, talk to an attorney or trusted real estate agent, and never, never do anything to do with property without legal advice."

Mackinac County Equalization Director Jim Fenlon concurs with her advice. He added that Mackinac County has not received any requests to transfer titles to Asset Holding, so it seems people are not responding to the company's unsolicited mail offers to buy their property. The Chippewa County Register of Deeds also has no requests to transfer any property titles to Asset Holding.

No one contacted for this story has followed up on the offers, but Michigan State Police offices in Chippewa and Mackinac counties have not received any complaints. State Police District Lieutenant Wally Heimalla of the Negaunee Post who is in charge of the Upper Peninsula State Police detectives, said the Mackinac and Chippewa county letters were the first he has heard of.

"Until we get a victim, it won't be something we would deal with, and the victim would have to contact us," he said.

A victim, he said, would be someone who responds to an offer to sell property but does not get paid, or "if the transaction never takes place."

Letters asking to buy property have been mailed to Eastern Upper Peninsula residents since the fall of 2007.

The information packets contain a letter from Asset Holding offering to purchase the addressee's property "as referenced in the enclosed Purchase Agreement." The letter also claims the company has "successfully purchased more than 10,000 properties over the past several years," and is digitally signed with an illegible signature identified only as the "Vice President of Acquisitions."

The purchase agreement on the second page of the packet gives the purchase offer and all or a portion of the property's legal description. One or more properties are described, and some of the descriptions are partial or incorrect. One Chippewa County man who received one of these letters alerted Mrs. Kennedy because he received an offer on property he did not even own. Some of the data Mrs. Kennedy has seen in Asset Holding's letters is outdated and incorrect, suggesting it came from an old record.