FCC investigates MV Realty robocalls

Nov 17, 2023

Records of deeds on shelves at the Grand Traverse County Register of Deeds office at the Governmental Center in Traverse City.

TRAVERSE CITY — Federal regulators last week flagged MV Realty, a Florida-based real estate broker operating in dozens of states, including Michigan, for using robocalls to sell questionable listing contracts.

The Federal Communications Commission enforcement is the latest action against the company, which is accused in lawsuits filed by three state attorneys general, of using telemarketing to scam homeowners into signing 40-year listing agreements in exchange for small cash payments.

"Sending these junk calls to financially-stressed homeowners just to offer them deceptive products and services is unconscionable," FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a Jan. 24 statement.

One unnamed complainant, for example, told the FCC they’d received lengthy voicemails from the company three to five times a day for weeks.

FCC staff also on Jan. 24 issued a notice to U.S. phone companies requiring they block the calls after investigators found MV Realty representatives, between May 1 and Dec. 5, 2022, placed nearly 12 million calls to U.S. consumers whose numbers were on the national Do Not Call registry.

FCC spokesperson Will Wiquist said he did not have access to data on the number of these calls that were made to Michigan homeowners.

Local real estate experts have recently raised the alarm about the company and their 40-year listing contract, called the Homeowner Benefit Program, or the Homeowner Benefit Agreement.

Grand Traverse County Register of Deeds Peggy Haines, Elk Rapids Realtor Camille Campbell and Chris Lambert, a co-owner of a local title company, first alerted area homeowners about the agreements last spring, weeks prior to the FCC launching their investigation.

"We have not had a new filing recently and I think getting the word out might have helped with that," Haines said Tuesday.

The specifics of what MV Realty terms its Homeowner Benefit Agreement, or HBA, are this: In exchange for between $300 and $5,000, homeowners sign a contract stating if they decide to sell, MV Realty has the exclusive right to list their home on commission, generally 6 percent.

The HBA lasts 40 years and "runs with the land" — a property term meaning that if a homeowner dies during that period, their heirs must abide by the agreement.

Lambert of Northern Title Agency previously said a standard listing agreement from a licensed real estate agent in Michigan typically lasts three, six or 12 months.

MV Realty did not respond to a request for comment, although its representatives in June acknowledged the HBA was "novel" yet also legal.

"MV spends substantial time and resources to ensure that it always operates in a way that is consistent with the law," the company previously said in a statement provided to the Record-Eagle.

Other industry professionals also have taken note of the HBA.

For example, earlier this month, an Iowa-based company providing recording and data management software to about 30 counties in Michigan cautioned customers about MV Realty's telemarketing calls.

"MI ROD's (register of deeds), there is a new scam out there for you to be aware of," Scott Moore, vice-president of sales for Fidlar Technologies, said in a Jan. 11 email about MV Realty to more than two dozen Michigan-based register of deeds officeholders

"Here's the real kicker," Moore added. "Buried within the agreement is language that a lien will be filed against the property as security for MV Realty. As my ROD friends know, this clouds the title."

That is another real estate term that means it would create possible questions about a property's ownership.

Moore said Tuesday that Michigan's state statute requires county registers of deeds to record HBA documents if they meet standards and are submitted with the proper fee.

"Anecdotally, it seems they are getting more creative," Moore said of mortgage products and unusual, and sometimes questionable, offers to homeowners.

Attorneys general in Florida, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania last year filed suit against MV Realty, accusing the company of misleading homeowners with deceptive telephone sales pitches, and contract terms far outside the norm with details hidden in fine print.

A spokesperson for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office in December said the office had not received any complaints about the Florida broker, although, since that date, one local homeowner who declined to speak on the record said they’d signed an HBA and planned to contact the AG's office about the lein on their home.

Leadership of the Michigan Association of Register of Deeds previously expressed concern about details included in the HBA and Haines, who is a member, said she’d urged the organization to compile data on the number of HBA contracts that have been recorded in the state.

A survey was expected to be emailed to members this week, Haines said.

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