Comments on: REIT Retreat: Investors Find Problems In Non-Listed REITs

By: Curious

Curious — Wed, 25 May 2011 14:23:43 +0000

As a registered financial representative, I apologize on behalf of our industry. Please know that the majority of representatives do not engage in this type of hanky-panky. A woman recently entrusted me with her finances. One of the investments her previous representative recommended and she now owns is Wells REIT II. From what I can glean from the press coverage and the annual statements from Wells, it is a lousy investment to say the least. Unless I am mistaken, it isn’t quite as a bad as a Ponzi scheme, a la Bernie Madoff. But it is something that was definitely not created with the investors’ best interests at heart. My only advice to her is to sell at a loss when the next time window for redemptions opens. Again, my apologies on behalf of our industry.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:16:34 +0000

My wife worked for the advisor that recommended the Wells REIT as safe. We were not told how illiquid it was. We investigated the penalty for early withdrawal two years ago and discovered it was about 15%. We left it alone. I read this article and advised my wife to call Wells again. 40% withdrawal penalty. They told her they had upped it a few months ago. Apparently they are having some problems with people wanting their money. I will never invest in REIT or TIC again. They are scams to remove money from people who actually work for a living. Financial advisers are only in the business for themselves. They don’t have your best interests in mind. They have no conscience which enables them to lose your money, say so sorry, then ask you for more of your hard earned cash so they can earn more fees and commissions. I am done with them.

By: Jerry Tingle

Jerry Tingle — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:43:36 +0000

An Alabama Investment Advisor, Allen Taylor, is listed on Sterling Trusts Quarterly Statements and is the Advisor who sold me on the Behringer Harvard REIT 1.

I have come to the conclusion that all of the people who work for these organizations and advisors and customer service people are crooks like Bernard Madoff. Before the real estate market dropped I gave orders to opt out and reinvest that money. The replies that I received was that I was making a mistake, that I would be penalized 10%, and about every excuse they could think of.

In my mind, there is no doubt that this crooked scheme was set up to steal investors money. I read the statements some of the people have made and it is clear they have been irrepairably injured. We need to get Attorney Generals involved so that these schemes can be uncovered and the ones responsible charged, convicted and incarcerated.

By: ROD

ROD — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:42:59 +0000

My investor advisor recomended this investment to because of the 6% interested they paid, he never disclose of course all the conscuences of withdrawing your money. For several years I reivested my interest payments until I had little over $350,000 In April of 08 I was lucky enough to get out of this investment but with a penalty cost of 10%

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 23:55:51 +0000

And Wells REIT II continues to buy properties. More fees for them, no money for us.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:39:15 +0000

I work for a financial advisory firm who deals with non-traded REITs. The notice you received was not from Wells Real Estate Funds, but from a third party company who is trying to take advantage of illiquidity and get you (and other shareholders) to sell at an extremely discounted price ($3.00/share). Our clients also received this notice. If you look closely it was sent from a company besides Wells. Your advisor told you to ignore this because you should not sell your shares to this company for this insulting price, unless you are absolutely desperate for the money and are willing to take 30% of what you paid. I will say that your advisor should have taken the time to explain this letter to you as it does alarm many of Wells investors. Note: a similar letter went out to Inland investors around the same time. Hope this helps.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:25:10 +0000

I just retired. When I ask my so called “financial advisor” about liquiditating these so called IRAs that he’d put my money in, I discovered they were nothing but REITs. I wondered why he switched brokerage firms in 2004 and suddenly he was feverously moving my poor performing stocks and annuities around. Now I know. My fault for not asking hard questions. I went from having no REITs to owning $110,000 worth. He now acts like the cat who swallowed the canary. All three REITs have cancelled their liquidation policies. They basically say they’ll return your money if you die.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:20:24 +0000

I just got my statement from well real estate investment trust II. It says I have 4300 shares worth 43,000. They want to pay me 3.00 per share. I am out 30,000. My broker says to do nothing. Whats the scoop. Am I out the 30G.

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:14:03 +0000

Couldn’t agree with you more. Non-traded REITs were created for one reason. Sydicators and brokers wanted a high fee, high commission product that could enrich them both. Since investors got wise to limited partnerships, they switched to non-traded REITs.

By: Andras

Andras — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:23:42 +0000

I am 85 years old. I asked my financial advisor–may he burn in Hell forever–to invest my pension fund in low risk accessible products with short
maturity terms. He sold me Cole Credit II, Inland American and Athena II. All turned out to be high risk, illiquid products not appropiate to sell them to elderly retired people. He also sold me two products, of his boss’s Sherwood and WFG Holdsings, also high risk securies. A few months later both were stolen by his boss, the owner of Morgan Peabody LLT. With those gone, the monthly yield of remaining products was not enough to sustain our house hold. We cannot not pay our bills, loan and mortgage instalments. Since June 2009 I try to get back monies from Cole an Inland American. My requests were rejected. What can I do? We will soon our home, while Jonathan keeps on recruiting new victims by free lunches. Isn’t
there a way to stop him?