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).
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