Genesis Rei reviews and complaints

I'm late to this forum but lost almost $40k to these crooks and haven't been able to get traction in a lawsuit. Does anyone have an update on Genesis REI or James Graham?

Thank you.

Kimberly, this is entirely true. I own the yahoo group genesis_rei_investors where I have representatives from collection agencies, rochester business journal, and the western ny law enforcement folks there. Please join the group so that we can organize collectively. Previously everyone was on their own.
Winston

James Grahams is a irresponsible crook. sold us a property and misrepresented the property and i cannot get ahold of anyone. we lost pretty much over $100k

My husband and I have had dubious dealings with Genesis REI as well. Add us to the list! We feel pretty hopeless about ever seeing our $16, 000 again. I urge people to call The Rochester Housing Council at [protected] and ask to speak with a counselor. Tell your story...briefly. I did today & they are interested in investigating this issue that has been occurring in Rochester. Don't hesitate and call today. Let's at least get this guy out of business.

All,
Please join yahoo groups "Genesis REI investors". I am posting updates there and gathering people's issues to either close down James or keep him accountable to his words.
Winston

I too was taken by James Graham and the promise of making money. I put a lot of trust in the guy because of his Bible preaching and knowledge of the business which I knew little of. He seemed to have a lot of contacts in the area and even sat me down with a couple of folks on the city council which added to his credibility. Because of this I trusted him and his reports and evaluations of the properties that I bought. I should have hired my own home inspector, it would have helped in my negotiations when purchasing. I became suspicious about his operations after doing some math in my head while waiting for my rent checks to come in. In the end I figure he still has over $30, 000 on rents and security deposits. He had a lot of employees, I didn't think he would be able to successfully run that kind and size of operation with the fees he was charging. It became more apparent that I was right on the money when the rent checks were getting slower in coming until they stopped. I still own the properties and have rehabilitated them. I've also learned a lot about renting property in the inner city and have a new property manager, "Ricole Realty". They are great and the communication could not be better.
I hope to be part of any class action effort against him. I believe there is great opportunity in the area because the risk vs. reward is good. But the key to it all is still to have a property manager that you can trust. I now get my rents within the same month they are collected and have new leases that give me more power when it comes time to evict. If there is a God I think he was the one who hooked me up with this property manager.
Aloha,
Brian

I have filed a lawsuit against Genesis and of course, James Graham did not show hence I have a default judgement against him.

There are a few judgements against him totalling $360, 000. The state also filed that his company did not provide worker's comp. For a company that believes in God, it is amazing that he did not care to take care of his employees if they are injured.

Also another judgement is from Australia which is so funny.

I am asking Rochester Business Journal if they can run a story because what is happening to people there and investors is so fraudulent, worse than the Madoff scheme which people are still being scammed.

CONSUMER BEWARE James Grahm and his company have also done me in. He has stolen over $70, 000 dollars of my hard earned money by selling me severely over inflated priced rental buildings that turned out to be in catastrophic condition after the tenants he and his lousy management team placed in there. I have since forclosed on the two buildings (one being a four family and the other being a two family) after sending him tens of thousands of dollars to repiar the buildings and thus being able to put better quality tenants in place to rent, he ended up pocketing my money with minimal to almost no repairs being completed! I am currently filing a lawsuit against him and his company ALSO MY ATTOURNEY HAS ENCOURAGED ME, AND I ENCOURAGE ALL OTHERS TO FILE A COMPLANIT WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BEREAU OF ROCHESTER, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE (NY. STATE ATTOURNEY) AND THEY WILL LAUNCH A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO HIM AND HIS COMPANY. THE WEBSITE IS "WWW.OAG.STATE.NY.US" CLICK ON THE CONSUMER FRAUD TAB AND THEN FILL OUT THE FORM AND SEND IT IN. THE MORE OF US THAT DO THIS THE MORE LIKELY HE WILL BE SHUT DOWN AND PROSECUTED. This Jame Grahm preached half the blible to me in the year and half I delt with him he is a criminal in every sense. It's our turn to get this sicko i ask for u to do you part and file with state general attounrey as I am.

This SOB James is a real slick one. he used the name of the Lord to unload properties on ususpectiog out-of-town buyers. They sold me junk properties, overpriced, and half, tenanted. They then promised to buy them back, yet have not. They are currently trying to stick me with taxes and utilities on a house that they bought back from me. James refuses to give me the closing documents from this sale. He is a fraud, just a chain-snatchin negro posing as a buppie.

I've also worked with Genesis since 2005... there's been some ups and some downs but in the end they always helped take care of me.

Initially I had some problems with vacancies in my properties, but I do know that they increased their staff exponentially to help with that.

Eventually, I just couldn't hold on anymore, and needed the money back here at home, so made the decision to sell. When I contacted Genesis for assistance they offered to buy it back, at the same price i paid for it, over a couple of years which I happilly accepted. They closed on the property and now I collect a mortgage payment every month, and the property is out of my name.

Like I said, some ups and downs but overall they always acted with great integrity, were responsive to my needs, and did the right thing whenever they could.

We bought a house from Genesis back in 2005. We are in Australia, and a few years ago, James came to Australia to encourage people to invest in western NY to be cash flow positive. We never met him but knew someone who went to the meeting, and said he came across as honest and ethical, and with their emphasis on Christian values we trusted Genesis to do the right thing by us. We have a list of complaints so long that I can't even remember them all off by heart, but to cut a long story short, the house was rented for 6 months, and as we were always paid two or three months late, we didn't worry when our rent stopped coming. It was not until several months later when we learned that the tenant had left because they were unwilling or unable to pay bills. Genesis didn't bother telling us, and by then it was winter so it was too hard to rent for a few months. We were sick of never receiving replies until we had sent emails with larger and larger font each time. We had issues with insurance, Genesis had not paid us the correct rent when it was rented, they never passed on receipts, just told us we owed for this or that, and when we told them we wanted to sell, they weren't much help either. Finally, and this is 2 years since it has been empty, we are in the process of selling through another agent for half of what we paid for it. After paying out all the costs involved in selling (and these are many) there will be hardly anything (if at all) left for us. James Graham is a greedy crook who is good at making promises but does not deliver, AND NEVER RETURNS EMAILS OR PHONE CALLS. We did get to speak to him a couple of times after much pushing, and he was very charming on the phone, but said he was completely unaware of all our issues (even though we had sent him many, many, many emails. He said after all this that we could contact him at any time and gave us his cell phone number. He has never returned our calls since.

I am writing this as a former tenant of a Genesis managed proprety. They are nothing short of slumlords. Major repairs never started, no heat due to an ancient, unworking furnace and many other complaints. To top everything off the unit upstairs was rented out to teenaged drug dealers, Genesis was well aware of the situation and did nothing to correct matters, even as the other tenants began destroying the property at 114 Young st. My email is ccrawsh@gmail.com. Genesis REI is truly an evil company

All,
Please join yahoo groups "Genesis REI investors". I've created this for all the people who invested in Genesis REI and James.
Previously we all thought we were victimized individually, but now it is apparent that this has been done to all his investors. I will be posting up developments on James and his company on this website and current state of lawsuits and pending legal actions against him.
Winston

In my eighteen years of owning rental property in the Buffalo area I have never encountered a more unscrupulous company than Genesis REI. The owner Mr. James Graham brings the word schister to new heights.
I am on the other side of the fence in my dealings with them. I sold two buildings to them and they immediately assigned them to a buyer. Since I was holding the mortgage for a short time I visited the properties regularly. Within months I watched the decline of the buildings due to Genesis poor manangement. I was receiving calls from my former tenants begging me to fix things for them. When I informed them I was no longer the owner they slowly began moving out. In February I visited the empty building only to find the pipes had broken and the water was everywhere. I called James Graham and he told he would have maintanence take care of it. He never did and it became a $4000.00 plumbing job.
I now have the buildings back and do nothing but pour money into them trying to fix what Genesis allowed to happen. I have taken them to court and won but collecting will be another thing. I have other law suits in the works but doubt I will ever get my money back.
I urge anyone who has had dealings with James Graham and Genesis to contact the attorney Generals offfice. What they practice is criminal and needs to be stopped.

Genesis also manage one of our properties and have proven themselves to be totally incompetent - bordering on criminal.

Several months ago we recieved an e-mail advising that Genesis would no longer be managing our property in two weeks time. This was the first we had heard of it - although they claimed to have notified us months earlier they had not. I initiated a transfer and was then told that they had made an error and would be retaining management of our property!

We have not recieved a statement since February 08 - it is now October O8. They did not pay any of our taxes which were in arrears and subject to additional fees when we found out and paid them ourselves.
They do not answer their phones or return calls - they have only returned e-mails when I threatened legal action and even then they were extremey evasive and did not address my concerns.

One of our tenants left a lower unit about 8 months ago now. I was forced to hire a PI to have a look at the house on my behalf. He spoke with another tenant and was told the lower units are now over run with mice and up to 100 garbage bags have been left in the basement. She has not seen anyone from Genesis visit the property for two years. I was assured that an inspection would be carried out when the lower tenant left.

The remaining tenant went to Genesis and complained the water had been cut off (due to Genesis failing to pay the taxes). Genesis told her to pay the bill herself and not to worry about the rent.

We are currently in the process of changing managers. I am not expecting Genesis to provide a smooth transition.

I am aware that there are many others in the same position. Genesis are allegedly in the process of winding down their property management services. They are apparently involved in the buying and selling of houses using the new name of "Alpha Genesis." I would strongly warn anyone even remotely considering buying property off these guys to avoid them all together. They are nothing but bloody crooks.

If anyone has been in a similar situation and managed to get their money back please let me know how you did it.

Genesis apparently is showing a pattern of fraud. I know of 5 other investors and testimonials who are in the same position. What is even more disgraceful is them using the name of God in luring unsuspecting investors.
All my issues are concrete issues and have been documented including:
1. Non-receipt of rental payments.
2. Holding monies.
3. All financial records being held by them.
Please feel free to contact me for those who have been caught in the same situation.

agree with second person

This person is obviously disgruntled over something stupid. I wish he would resolve his issues before making acccusations of Malicious Slander against a good company. I find that they try to do their best, and have done their best in the transition of their property management. Such transitions affect a lot of people, but I would rather make sure the money is accurately transferred as well.

Sorry for your impatience.