Hoping to earn $50,000 in three years to help pay for their son's college education, an Iowa couple joined what was described as a risk-free housing investment program run by a Springfield company -- only to find their lives in financial ruins two years later.
"From excellent credit to bankruptcy, you can't imagine the stress," said Tammy Speidel of Bettendorf, Iowa.
The lives of the couple -- and other investors in Greenleaf Company of Springfield -- have been unraveled by Greenleaf's failure to get enough occupants into the homes it had persuaded the investors to purchase during the housing boom.
Whatever money it receives these days from paying occupants, Greenleaf uses to keep itself afloat -- rather than remitting the money to investors who own the homes so those people could meet their own mortgage obligations.
Some investors have seen their homes foreclosed on, and occupants often have little clue their homes are being lost to foreclosure.
Greenleaf is blaming the mess on a soured economy, and company officials have been telling investors and others for months that help is on the way, although they declined to provide specifics. read more
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