Jeff Skrenes Takes His Shots & Fails To Back It

On September 30, 2010, Ed Kohler of "The Deets" Blog wrote an artice that prompted me to submit a comment. Here is the link to that article: http://www.thedeets.com/2010/09/30/a-trickle-up-effect-of-mortgage-fraud/

The Hawthorne Housing Director made a comment that was not so much in response to the article rather it was more of an attempt to discredit me and slam me in the process.
I have copied the first comment I submitted as well as Jeff's slam comments. I submitted a response to Jeff in which I provided a link to the proof that supported my comments as well as asked Jeff to back up his opinions. As of today, Jeff has pulled a "John Hoff" by not responding after tossing some rather direct, baseless opinions.

This is common for Jeff, John Hoff and pals however. They subscribe to the theory of, "Do as I say... Not as I do!"

Maybe one of these days Jeff Skrenes will back up his slanderous opinions. More likely though, he will continue on rambling about in his ways, just like his mentor, John Hoff.
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Jim Watkins September 30, 2010 4:01 pm



While the content would appear to make sense, the fact of the matter is that the mortgage fraud you are referencing does not have near the impact on today’s market in NoMi and the current tax values should have next to nothing to do with TJ Waconia’s former properties there.

On the tax values: The last property TJ Waconia owned in Minneapolis changed ownership in 2007. The County has updated the tax values for all of their former properties from 2006 thru 2009 and will be updating again in a few months for the year 2010.


I might also point out that the City of Minneapolis ended up buying the majority of the 162 former TJ Waconia houses as part of their settlement with SunTrust Mortgage. SunTrust actually owned most of the houses at the time the city filed their publicized civil suit against TJ Waconia and they were not notified about the suit. The judge ruled for the city to get control of those houses and the city planned to have them managed by Gary Hansen. Problem was… The lawyers for the city did not have title pulled on the houses and assumed TJ waconia still owned them based off the County website. If the title was pulled, it would have shown that SunTrust actually owned them after they foreclosed and the redemption period had expired as well.


SunTrust counter sued the city as a result and the judge reversed his previous order and the city ended up having to buy a lot of those houses from SunTrust as part of the settlement.
The city over-paid for the houses when they bought them as they were only discounted 10% to 15%. The majority were bought at a 12% discount.
Since the city owns a lot of the houses you are talking about, I am sure the County did all they could to get the tax values down as far as they could get them since the city wouldn’t want to have to carry the property taxes at higher values.
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Jeff Skrenes October 1, 2010 8:00 am


As usual, Jim Watkins, who doesn’t live in Minneapolis and is a self-proclaimed friend of the TJ Waconia mortgage fraudsters, is wrong on just about every point he thinks he’s making.


Let’s take another mortgage fraud case as an example of why his last sentence makes no sense. We’ll look at 409 31st Ave N, a property owned by Vicki Cox-Maxwell, wife of convicted felon Larry Maxwell.
http://www16.co.hennepin.mn.us/pins/pidresult.jsp?pid=1002924320020
The last sale is listed as $177,000 although that’s not entirely accurate. That’s the outstanding amount on the mortgage at the time the Maxwells’ fraudulent empire crashed around them and it went through foreclosure. Don’t be fooled by the assessed value of $19,500. This sorry excuse of a structure will be demolished any day now at a cost of about $15-20,000. The lot isn’t even worth the demolition cost. If the city were doing what Watkins thinks they are in terms of driving down property values, then the assessed value here would be closer to $7,500.
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Jim Watkins October 2, 2010 3:48 pm


Jeff,


What is your basis for saying I am wrong on every point I make? To put it another way, can you offer something other than a “he’s wrong” opinion?


I am not wrong that the city was forced to buy 48 of those houses as part of the settlement with SunTrust at a mere 10% discount. Here is the link to the proof. (Page 29, A,B,C & D) http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/archives/proceedings/2008/20081010-proceedings.pdf

Is it your opinion that the city of Minneapolis is not against paying higher property taxes on those houses??? Why wouldn’t the city want the tax values to be lower if they are having to pay the taxes? Seriously.


You mention another fraud case but, frankly how can you make comparisons on the 48 city owned houses with any other house in north Minneapolis, regardless of who owns them?


For every house that was linked to any fraud case, one can also compare other houses in the immediate area that were not involved in any fraud case and the figures would be consistent with those that were linked to fraud.


The entire country suffered a major real estate crash. Fraud was only a part of the reason for the crash. Loose lending is the main reason behind the crash.


Finally, Can you offer a reason you felt the need to point out what my relationship was with TJ Waconia other than to bash or attack my credibility?


It would be the same tactic if I were to say your points are not valid and go on to offer your personal and business relationship with individuals who are involved in a number of unethical activities in addition to being seriously late with paying their taxes. Its the same thing and that is what you are trying to do.


Rather than dismiss my points based on who I know, I ask that you dismiss them with facts. Where I live is not relevent at all. If your point was accurate, then it would be fair to say that all the values of houses in a given area are not accurate because, the lenders and other experts don’t live in the area that was involved in a real estate transaction there. Its crazy.