Almost There...

     You can  probably see the direction this is heading, but there is one more element of the story that I need to explain before we get to the court part.  It has to do with another property... one Ken REALLY did not want to buy, but finally relented under a heartless barrage of pestering from Kooki.  It seems that while Kooki was talking to the finance company guys about repossessed properties, she discovered one right down the road from her own home.  She decided it would be perfect for her daughter.  Unfortunately, no one in Kooki's family had any collateral or a good enough credit rating to get a loan to purchase it from the finance company.  So Kooki called Ken with another of her "perfect" plans.  Ken could buy the property for them and hold a mortgage on it.  They would pay payments to him each month until the daughter could get a loan to refinance the property, using the property itself as collateral for the loan.  (I know... it made me roll my eyes too.)

     The first time Kooki mentioned it, Ken flatly refused.  Said he didn't think it would be a good idea.  Kooki, in her typical relentless fashion, was NOT going to be that easily deterred.  Thus began an absolute siege in which Kooki would call and/or drop by the house at least three times and sometimes up to six times a day, trying to change Ken's mind.  The woman would NOT leave Ken alone.  Her actions were enough to make a healthy man raise his hands and beg for mercy.  Please understand that over the course of his illness, when Kooki was badgering him so, Ken endured having to be fed through a tube, two major surgeries, three different rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, shingles and too many other minor procedures to even count.  He was sick, he was exhausted, and he was scared about the possibility of having to leave his family before he was ready.  THIS was the man that Kooki pounded relentlessly to get what she wanted. 

     I was in the room with Ken, listening to his side of ANOTHER phone conversation with Kooki, on the day that he finally relented and agreed to purchase the property for them.  I heard him tell her "NO" four different times before he told her he'd draw up the papers for them to sign.  When he hung up, I asked him why he changed his mind after all this time.  He looked at me with sad, exhausted eyes and said, "It will be alright, honey.  They have promised to refinance it as soon as the deed is recorded in her daughter's name."  I don't think he really believed it himself... I know I didn't.  He just said "yes" because he felt like it was the only way he would get any peace. 

     So, Ken gave Kooki the money to purchase the property for her daughter from the finance company.  Ken filed a security deed against the property and gave Kooki an amortization schedule showing the payment information and told her that he expected her daughter to get the thing refinanced RIGHT AWAY, like they had promised.  Kooki assured Ken they would and the daughter started paying mortgage payments to Ken.  I have to say that she was pretty good about keeping the mortgage up to date, but that is probably only because they knew that Ken held that security deed and could take the property back if they didn't pay.  But, of course, one month turned into two, and two into several, and no attempt was made by any of them to refinance the property.  There was always an excuse... "her baby was sick... her husband lost his job... they were called out of town unexpectedly...".  Lie after lie after LIE!  It became painfully obvious that Kooki and her family had no intention of refinancing and probably never intended to do so in the first place.  

     This situation weighed pretty heavily on Ken's mind there at the end.  The week he died, when we should have been able to spend every single moment holding, loving and saying good-bye to each other, he had to waste some of the precious minutes he had left talking bout that woman and how she had scammed him.  He said, "Don't pay Kooki any of the money I owe her until they get that property refinanced and pay you back."   I told him I wouldn't.

     After Ken died and after I finally convinced Kooki that I would NOT be buying any more rental properties through her, I guess she realized that her "gravy train" had come to an end.  So now, instead of calling about properties to buy, she started calling about the money she said Ken owed her from the deals they had already done.  She said, "I know you are going to do me right.  Ken always told me that I didn't have to worry about you not treating me right!  He said you were the most honest and truthful person he had ever met!" At that moment, I absolutely wanted to choke the woman.  I KNOW how my husband felt about me.  I didn't need her telling me how much he trusted me and how he knew I would try and do the right thing in every situation. HOW DARE SHE use my dead husband's words to try to get me to do what SHE wanted?!  

     Time went on, and the calls continued.  Kooki always worded it in ways that made it sound like she had my best interest at heart.  "I know," she said, "how hard it is for you, having to deal with all of Ken's business stuff.  I am just trying to take some of the pressure off of you by trying to figure out a way you can go ahead and get my stuff out of the way."  (HUH?!  She's trying to take pressure off of me by calling constantly and pressuring me to do something else?!)  Each time she called, I always reminded her of two things:                1) refinancing her daughter's property, and 2) deeding that other property over into my name.  As usual, she "promised" to take care of both, and as usual, she did not.

     The next time Kooki called, she had the "perfect solution" for both of us.  I could add up all of the amounts that Ken owed her and subtract that amount from the balance of her daughter's mortgage loan and she would arrange to pay me the difference if I would release the security deed on her daughter's property.  (Hmmm...  sounds strangely like a little bit of extortion to me.)  I told her no... I had promised Ken I wouldn't pay her a penny until they paid off the mortgage loan.  And technically, I really didn't owe her any money because her agreement with Ken stated she would get paid at the conclusion of each lease agreement.  So far, not one of the rent-to-own agreements she arranged had worked out.  How could I owe her money on agreements that were null and void?

     Now, just as she had done with Ken, Kooki mounted an all-out campaign to pester me into submission.  She began calling constantly, dropping by at all hours of the night and day, hammering at me about her latest idea.  Had I been in a better and stronger place in my life right then, I probably would have had her arrested for harassment and filed a restraining order against her.  But I was grieving the loss of my sweet Ken.  I was trying to figure out how I was going to raise our children without him.  I was exhausted from two straight years of fighting as hard as I could to help keep him alive.  And I was as hurt and heart-broken as I had ever been, facing the reality that my sweetheart was gone.  In a word, I was VULNERABLE.  And I needed peace.  I knew for a fact that until I dealt with Kooki once and for all, there would be no peace.  She had proved that over and over with Ken.  I knew I would have to break my promise to Ken if I was going to be able to get rid of Kooki.  That broke my heart too.  But I cried out to Ken and told him that I just needed to be able to concentrate on our boys and rebuilding our family now that he was gone.  I begged his forgiveness for not being able to keep my promise.  I decided to go along with Kooki's idea.  (I'm sorry, Baby... to preserve my sanity so I could be the Mama our boys needed, I really didn't feel like I had any other choice.  Please forgive me.)

     The next time Kooki called, I told her I would go along with her idea, but she had to bring me cash or a cashier's check for the balance of the loan after I subtracted what Ken owed her.  If she showed up with a personal check, the deal was OFF.  I could hear the glee in her voice as she agreed.  I told her to give me a week with NO PHONE CALLS AND NO VISITS to get the amounts figured and the paperwork ready.  She agreed, and for the one and ONLY time since I have known her, she was true to her word.  I didn't hear from her again.

     Since none of the "tenants" in the agreements she had arranged lasted until the property was paid for, the only way I could figure how much Ken owed her was to take the tax value, subtract it from the purchase price, and give her whatever percentage Ken had agreed to give her of what was left.  It was complicated, a lot of work, and very time consuming.  (Time that I should have been able to spend with Jesse and Benjamin, but couldn't because I was having to deal with a CRAZY woman.)  I listed every property, how much Ken paid for it, what the tax value was, the difference, and Kooki's percentage.  I even included "finder's fees" of $1,000 each for three trailers Kooki said she helped Ken buy that he had moved onto his properties.  There was no paperwork on those trailers, but Ken had purchased and moved them during the time he and Kooki were doing business together and she knew all the particulars about each trailer, so I included those fees as well.  I called Kooki and told her what the balance would be and asked her not to call me until she was ready to pay it off.  About a week later, she said she had made the arrangements and was ready to come over and settle things.  I gave her a day and time to come over.  In the meantime, I typed up a paper for Kooki to sign stating that she had been "Paid in Full" for whatever monies she felt Ken owed her at his death and that she had NO FURTHER CLAIM to any of the properties she and Ken purchased together.

     Kooki arrived at the appointed time, along with some man I had never seen before.  I knew it was NOT her husband.  She introduced him as her new "business partner" and said that he would be paying me what was left owing on her daughter's property, so when I released the security deed, it would need to be into his name.  At that point, I didn't care if BOZO the Clown paid off the loan, as long as it was in cash or cashier's check and as long as I never had to deal with Kooki again.  I showed Kooki the property list (Tuck this away for later... this list will make another appearance before this whole pitiful story is done.), explained how I had figured the amounts, and asked if she agreed with my figures.  She seemed about to wet herself to get this "deal" concluded, so she nodded vigorously and said over and over, "Yes, I believe this is right!  Ken said you would do me right, and I always believed him!"  (GRRRR!  There she goes again, using my husband's words to get what she wants.  I don't believe I have EVER met anyone quite as heartless as Kooki.)  The man gave me a cashier's check (I called the bank while they were standing there to make sure it was real.), I signed the papers to release the security deed into his name, and I had Kooki sign the paper that said she had been paid in full and had no further claims to any of the properties.  I asked Kooki if she wanted me to make copies of the documents for her files.  She replied that she "never kept up with stuff like that".  They left and I felt a tremendous wave of relief come over me.  Unfortunately, that relief would prove to be short-lived.  Later that week, it occurred to me that in all my concentration over settling the issues over Kooki's daughter's property, I had completely forgotten that Kooki STILL had not deeded over the other property, the one in progress when Ken died, into my name.  I STILL was not through with Kooki.

      

    

  

Here's the Deal... (Part 2)

               Okay, so Ken finally agreed to Kooki’s deal, and together, they started purchasing properties.  Some were just mobile homes and Ken had them moved to his parks.  Others, he purchased the land as well as the home.  Kooki started finding people who agreed to purchase the properties on a rent-to-own basis.  As I mentioned in the last post, the “tenants” were mostly Kooki’s friends and family members.  Once they moved in, most of them became very sporadic with their rent payments and eventually stopped paying rent entirely, bolstering my belief that Kooki was scamming Ken from day one.  I think out of the 6 to 10 properties Kooki found “tenants” for, only one ever got anywhere close to paying for the property entirely.  And I finally ended up letting them have it for a much lower price because I was tired of worrying about whether or not they would continue paying like they should.  So, instead of being money-making properties that would help support our family, they basically became “money-pits” because I ended up having to file evictions to get the tenants out of the properties.  And of course, once they were served with eviction papers, they generally always trashed the trailer before they left, causing me to have to pay more money to rehab them before I could rent them again.  (Even now, it makes my head hurt.)

               The sicker Ken got, the less he was able to oversee the properties, so a lot of stuff fell through the cracks there at the end.  My sole focus was caring for my dying husband… the last thing I wanted to have to deal with was the rental properties.  Ken had been able to finish the paperwork and have deeds and titles transferred on all of the properties except one before he died.  He and Kooki were in the middle of this transaction during his last week alive.  Ken had given Kooki the money and she had purchased the property from the finance company.  Unfortunately, on the day of Ken’s death, the deed was still in Kooki’s name. 

               Ken had not been dead a whole 24 hours when Kooki began calling the house to talk to me about “the paperwork” associated with this last deal.  It seems that she had someone willing to pay a deposit and sign a lease agreement, but Ken had always provided the documents needed to complete those transactions.  So, instead of giving me a minute to breathe, Kooki started blowing up my phone (I always wanted to be able to use that expression… that is exactly what it felt like) to try and talk to me.  My Mama was at the house to help me make arrangements and take care of Jesse and Benjamin, so she was answering the phone for me.  After about the third call from Kooki, Mama said to her, “You DO realize that her HUSBAND JUST DIED, don’t you?”  Kooki said that she did know that, but she only needed to talk to me for a minute.  Mama didn’t let her talk to me…  God bless my Mama. 

               Later that week, I can’t remember if it was before or after Ken’s funeral, Kooki showed up at my front door.  When Mama answered the door, Kooki said that she had been a “friend” of Ken’s and that she was there to “offer her condolences”.  Well, Mama, not knowing who she really was, let her in.  The second Kooki saw me, she started yammering about the papers she needed to rent that property.  Said if I could just get them ready for her real quick, she’d be on her way.  Now, you have to understand, I was still in a fog… not much was making sense at that point.  I do remember, though, feeling absolutely incredulous at her nerve.  I told her that Ken had always taken care of preparing the lease agreements and I had no idea what “paperwork” she was talking about.  I think I said something to the effect that I had more important issues to deal with right then and I would call her when I had a chance to sort through things and see how Ken had handled them.  She kept on standing there, waiting.  She mentioned, again, that she had someone wanting to put down a deposit and sign an agreement.  I don’t remember if it was me or Mama, but one of us told her that she would NOT be getting any documents from me on that day.  Mama ended up kind of nudging her out the door and shutting it in her face.

 Even the flowers Kooki sent for Ken’s funeral became a point of hurtful frustration for me.  You see, Kooki’s husband had the same name as the sheriff of Catoosa County.  Instead of signing the card “Rodney & Kooki (again, names changed to protect me from the STUPID), she signed it “Mr. & Mrs. Rodney Ballmen and family”.  So, I had to spend numerous moments during Ken’s visitation explaining to people that NO, Ken did NOT know the sheriff personally and NO the flowers were NOT from the sheriff’s department.  SIGH… couldn’t even grieve for my husband in peace for a few minutes without having to talk about that woman!    

               I was hoping that Kooki would leave me alone for a while, but she was more persistent than that.  Since she couldn’t convince me to get the paperwork done for her, she started calling Ken’s daddy and telling him how much she needed it.  So, Ken’s daddy started calling and telling me that Kooki needed “them papers”.  I told him the same thing I had told Kooki.  I also told him that if she called again, he should tell her to STOP CALLING and that I would figure out the paperwork when I was good and ready.  But, in Kooki’s relentless fashion, she convinced Ken’s daddy that if I didn’t get her the documents soon, the deal would fall through and the property would sit empty.  In all honesty, I did not give one flying flip if the property sat empty from then ‘til judgment day, but this poor man was very upset over Ken’s death, and Kooki’s pestering was upsetting him more, so I told him I would do something “soon”.

               A little while later (I can’t remember just when, but I am thinking it was the same week of Ken’s funeral), I pulled out the folders Ken had kept on all of the properties he had purchased through Kooki’s “deal”.  I found the lease agreement he used on the computer, and the amounts that should be listed for purchase price and monthly rent.  But as I was getting the lease agreement ready, I noticed that the warranty deed from the finance company was in Kooki’s name, not Ken’s.  She had not deeded it over into Ken’s name before he died.  I went ahead and prepared the lease agreement.  I called Kooki and told her that it was ready, but that she still needed to deed that property over.  Since Ken had died, she would need to deed it into my name.  She said, "I know, I know, and I am going to do that RIGHT AWAY."  She went on babbling about how Ken had been her "best buddy" and that she would never do anything hurtful to his family.  I remember standing there clenching my fists, with tears pouring down my face, thinking to myself, "No, you were NOT 'best buddies' with Ken.  You were 'best buddies' with Ken's wallet!"

               The next day, Kooki came to the house, bringing with her, a tiny little “mousy” fella who seemed afraid to even speak above a whisper.  He was the “tenant” she had lined up to sign the lease agreement on that last property.  He paid his deposit and listened as I explained how much his monthly payment would be, where he should send his payments, and how the “lease with option to purchase” agreement worked.  He indicated that he understood everything I said, agreed to the terms and signed the lease agreement.  Before they left, I asked Kooki about the warranty deed she was supposed to have signed and brought with her that day.  She said, "Oh, I signed it and had it ready to bring, but completely forgot to bring it!  It’s laying on my kitchen counter at home.  I will run it back by later today.”  I have often wondered if Kooki really believed her own lies.  I also wondered if she REALLY thought for a minute that I believed them, because I DID NOT.  Kooki was one of those people who you always could tell when she was lying… if her mouth was moving, you could bet that she was lying.  And, of course, Kooki did not bring the warranty deed by that afternoon.

               The mousy little tenant (who just happened to be one of Kooki’s “oldest and dearest friends”) made one partial rent payment and I never heard from him again.  When I started trying to contact him, I received a call from a VERY irate woman who identified herself as his wife, wanting to know who the H*#& I was, what the H*#& property I was talking about and where the H*#& did her husband get the money to pay a deposit on it?!  Turns out, this guy was on disability income and his wife always got his check when it came and wouldn’t give him any of it.  I have always suspected that as a part of her scam, Kooki provided the deposit money and probably paid him a little something extra to go and sign the lease agreement.  And even after the man’s wife found him hiding in the trailer and bodily removed him and took him home, because he had a signed lease agreement, I still had to pay to go through the eviction process before I could even think about renting the property again.  (Do you see now, why I always HATED having to deal with the rental property business?)

               In the meantime, Kooki was STILL calling me.  I guess she figured that her “deal” with Ken would continue, with me.  She kept calling me to tell me about properties that I needed to go out and look at because she could negotiate a “real good deal” for it with the finance company guys.  She was calling Ken’s sister too.  Ken’s sister was supposed to be managing the properties for me.  (THAT is another sad story for another day.  She basically “managed” the properties to the point of almost being condemned by the county, and almost ruined a deal I had to sell the biggest of Ken’s properties.  Makes my stomach hurt to remember.)  Anyway, I think I finally had to have a total COME-APART on Kooki before she “got it” that I had no intentions of buying any more rental properties, from her, or anyone else!  Every time Kooki called, I reminded her about the warranty deed.  She always had an excuse, each one more ridiculous than the last, as to why she hadn’t brought it by yet (remember, she had already said that it was signed and ready, she just had to bring it to me).

WHEW!!  This post is getting longer and longer and I STILL haven’t gotten to the part about going to court.  I am sorry, but if I don’t explain the whole thing, it doesn’t make sense.  I guess I will stop for now and pick it up again in another post (or two, seeing as how it is taking me so long to get it all explained).          

              

                 

Here's The Deal ...

This story started way back in 2002 or 2003, so this is liable to be a loooooong post. If it gets too long, I guess I will break it into two posts. But, now that my part of it is over and done with, I need to write it all down and get it out of my system, so I can truly put it where it belongs… in the PAST.

Shortly after Ken was diagnosed with cancer, he got into a “business deal” with a woman I will refer to as “Kooki”. (I won’t use her real name, because I don’t want anyone to accuse me of slander. And, in all truthfulness, “Kooki” is a much nicer name than I feel she deserves! Besides, truth is an absolute defense against accusations of slander, so in this instance, I am safe.) Anyway, back to the story… Kooki was a woman Ken originally met because she was managing a property in which several of his rental trailers were located. She didn’t manage the property for long, because she was accused of taking money that didn’t belong to her. (That was the first bad sign.)

In the years between meeting Kooki and being diagnosed, Ken would run into her occasionally because they ran in the same circles. Kooki always had some kind of “deal” she wanted to rope Ken into. The woman could talk the paint right off a wall and she was relentless when she was trying to talk someone into something.

Ken was not usually the sort of man who was easily talked into things. In fact, he would think about things for such a very long time before finally deciding to do them, that many times it was too late and the opportunities had already passed. But, the cancer diagnosis scared him to death and he began to think that he had to quickly do something to “build up our income”. Now Ken had been in the rental property business since he was 16 years old, so to him, building up our income meant one thing – buy more rental properties.

Once Ken started earnestly looking for properties to buy, it didn’t take long for Kooki to show up. And, she said, she had the “perfect deal” for him. Here’s how it was supposed to work: Kooki knew a couple of guys who worked at a finance company that handled a lot of mobile home/land packages. That’s where you buy a new mobile home and the company will sell you a piece of land to put it on at the same time, so you can get the whole thing financed in one loan. Unfortunately, a great number of these deals fall through for lack of payment and the finance company has to repossess. The hard thing about trying to sell a used trailer is that it would have to be moved. Moving a trailer can be costly and generally always damages the trailer in some way, so not many people are willing to pay for a trailer and the cost of moving it too. Even the finance company does not want to have to pull a trailer that is already set up so they can resell the lot. It would be more beneficial if the finance company could find someone who would buy the trailer and lot “as is” for cash, to get it off their books. And that is where Kooki’s “deal” came in.

Kooki had the connection with the guys at the finance company, but no money to spend. Ken had money to spend, but no connections. So the “deal” would go like this… Kooki would find out from the finance company guys about a repossessed property they would sell for cash and give Ken all of the information about the property. Ken would go out to the property, look it over, and if he thought it looked good, he would give Kooki the money to buy it. Kooki would buy the property (with Ken’s money) from the finance company and would then deed it over into Ken’s name. Then, since Ken was busy with cancer treatments and various surgeries, Kooki said she would find someone to buy the property on a rent-to-own basis. At the end of the lease agreement, when the property was paid for, Ken would pay Kooki a certain percentage of the purchase price as a “finder’s fee”. After countless meetings and much discussion, Ken finally agreed to Kooki’s deal.

I know what you are thinking… sounds a little fishy, right? Well, it did to me too and I talked to Ken about it. It felt like a scam from the beginning because all of the “tenants” Kooki found for the new properties were either her friends or her family members. I told him that I didn’t trust Kooki and that I felt like she would do and/or say whatever she had to in order to convince him. I even told him that I got a strong vibration from Kooki that if Ken were to ever give her a second glance, she would gladly enter into a more personal and physical relationship with him even though they were both already married to other people. At this, Ken smiled and said, “Well, I think you are right about that”. Fortunately, he believed in the sanctity of our marriage and that sort of relationship, in Ken’s mind, was NOT a possibility.

Okay, I know what you are thinking, again… if Ken knew how I felt and was aware of the serious misgivings I had about Kooki, why did he go ahead and get into business with her?! You have to understand that Ken started his rental property business when he was just a teen-ager. He had been making his own decisions for a very long time before I came into the picture. As far as the business was concerned, we would discuss different issues, and I would give him my opinion. Ken would listen to my opinions and seriously take them into consideration. But ultimately, business related decisions always belonged to Ken. And in most instances, prior to him getting sick, his decisions had been sound and had benefited our family. So I trusted him to make those decisions.

Unfortunately, the cancer diagnosis, coupled with Kooki’s relentless pursuit of Ken’s money, created an atmosphere that, I believe, clouded Ken’s judgment and caused him to agree to things he never would have otherwise. In his mind, he was only trying to increase our income so that if the worst did happen, the boys and I would not have to give up the lifestyle to which we were accustomed. Had he lived, I am sure that every one of the properties Ken bought through Kooki would have paid for themselves and turned profits. And Ken never intended to die... he thought he would be here to handle things and make sure everything worked the way it should have. Sadly, Ken did not live to see the plan through.

You are probably wondering how this all landed me in court seven years after Ken died.  I am getting to that, but I needed to build the back story first.  I think, though, that I will stop here and tell the rest of the story in a separate post.  Stay tuned ...