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    I was perusing my normal list of blogs today and noticed something funny.  It seemed that there were a peculiar amount of new blogs started touting how someone just sold their home and were thanking such and such company for help.  These posts were all new and all written in a similar style.  I thought it was the start of a viral marketing campaign and was interested to see how far it had gone so I started digging.  The fact that it seemed like a viral marketing campaign for a Real Estate Investment firm made it more interesting.

    Being one who likes to do research I noticed that these blogs entries were for three different companies.  In Faith Properties, KACW Investments and WH Investments.  They thanked two different people, Helen Pearce and Joanne Pearce, sometimes referring to the same person from different companies.  To me it seemed there were two people with the same last name working for the same company that was doing business as three entities.  This peaked my interest even more.  

    Digging a little further I can see why Joanne Pearce, Helen Pearce, or shall we say Helen Joanne Pearce would start a viral marketing campaign.  Most of what I have read online has listed their horrible dealings with a woman.  I haven't read much that has had anything to do with Matthew Pearce other than he is a partner in the company.  The woman's full name is Helen Joanne Pearce and usually goes by the name Joanne Pearce.  Occasionally I have seen sites that quote emails from her where there was the name Helen Pearce listed.  No matter which way it is, they are the same woman.

    As for KACW Investments, the company has a few complaints with the BBB and also on ripoffreport.com.  From what I've been able to gather this company originated as Way Home Investments (not to be confused with The Way Home Investors).  It looks like the company then went on to become KACW Investments.  After the complaints started to surface on the Internet about KACW Investments the company changed their name to In Faith Properties.  Apparently the third entity, WH Investments is a the most recent enterprise.  The companies appeared to have originated in Texas and migrated to Florida.  There is a WH Investments that resides in Michigan and I am unsure if they are related to Helen Joanne Pearce or Matthew Pearce.

    Joanne Pearce has also done a good job of responding to the complaints on ripoffreport.com.  From reading the posts on ripoffreport.com it appears there were also posts on Craigslist regarding the companies.  Anyone who has used Craigslist knows they only keep posts for a certain period of time before they are expunged from the system.  As for the posts on both places, there were threats of legal action against the posters of the information.  Helen Joanne Pearce or one of her designees apparently scours the Internet looking for information posted about her company.  The postings and responses almost seem like a soap-opera of real estate transactions.  It's a good read if you have the time.  Links to the reports are listed at the end of this entry.

    With knowledge of the Internet, a viral campaign on blogs would be a good thing.  It could help dilute the search results for anyone trying to Google any of the names of people or companies involved.  It's also a good advertising campaign. all the blog posts are telling what a wonderful experience the people had with WH Investments/KACW Investments/In Faith Properties/Way Home Investments.  Should anyone be suspicious?  I'll let you decide that on your own by telling you what I've seen.

On July 19th, there was:

• Jennyiscool over at blog.com posted about working with Helen Joanne Pearce at KACW Investments and said how good her experience was.  Jennyiscool never posted prior to this one single blog post.
• Georgia77 at blogster.com also wrote about her experience with KACW Investments but she has posted again.  She had one other post linking to a poverty website.
• Ladysnicker who resides at livejournal.com also had a wonderful experience with Joanne Pearce from KACW Investments.  ladysnicker never made another post

July 20th Haroldl posted to soulcast.com that Helen Joanne Pearce from KACW Investments was terrific.

July 23rd had 2 postings:

• trudie at blogsome.com talks of her good experience with Joanne Pearce at In Faith Properties.
• DukeJames at wordpress.com talks of his good experiences with Joanne Pearce at WH Investments.  DukeJames also posted one other time about the big fish he caught.

July 26th shows a post from Josieh84 at vox.com who had a great experience with joanne Pearce at WH Investments.

July 27th was the last I found so far.  Jude at blogspot.com who writes of his positive exzperience with Joanne Pearce at WH Investments.

Link to Ripoffreport.com for KACW Investments (opens in new window)

Link to Ripoffreport.com for In Faith Properties (opens in new window)

Link to Ripoffreport.com for WH Investments (opens in new window)

Link to Ripoffreport.com for way Home Investments (opens in new window)

    I am sure that as Google crawls the various blog sites we will be seeing quite a few more posting of people who have had wonderful experiences with these companies.  I'll update posts as I see new things.  If you have anything to say, feel free to post a comment to this post or email me via the Contact page.

     All I can say is that if any of these accusations are true, it's what gives honest Real Estate Investors a bad name.  Remember to always research the company and individuals you intend to do business with.

web log for us – those that fully research those that we do business with

    When the tenant initially signed the lease last month he was planning on moving in on 8/1/07.   After signing the lease and giving the deposit he called back asking if he could move in earlier.  Since he gave me the deposit as a cashiers check and he and I use the same bank I was able to deposit and have it in my account the next business day.  First month's rent was paid.

    I met him and gave him the keys.  I also gave him a bill for the early move in for 18 days of rent.  The formula I use to pro-rate rental payments is:

• Monthly Rate * 12 = Yearly Rate
• Yearly Rate\365 = Daily Rate
• Daily Rate * number of days = Balance

    Anyway, all went well and since he had paid the first month's rent prior to moving in I told him he had 30 days to pay the partial month.  I was pleasantly surprised when I returned from my CISSP Boot Camp to find a check in the mail.  

    The check was for more than he owed to me.  He called me after I returned to say he lost the paperwork that listed how much I owed him but he believed the check he wrote covered it.  Needless to say he owes me $57.00 less for September's rent as he overpaid for the 18 extra days.

web log for us – those that look for the best tenants possible for their properties

    In my purchase of my new home and the 2nd rental unit (House #1) I have been more anxious about financial matters than usual.  I've had the feeling of waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me.  I wasn't sure why I had this feeling as I am not usually a worrier and I never go into something blindly.  

    Before the purchase I took into acount all factors that I could think of and was absolutely sure that it was finallcially doable.  We would not be "house poor", we would still be able to afford the rental properties as they are profitable.  Between the salaries brought into the home we would still be able to live comfortably and still plan for future purchases and retirement.  

    With all the i's dotted and t's crossed I wasn't quite sure why I was so nervous about the move.  I kept attributing it to the great amount of change I've had recently.  One of the major ones was taking a new position at work.  I've stayed with the same company and same management within my company but I have moved to a different position.  I left all those that I've made relationships with the past 6 years and have begun to build new relationships.  I kept thinking that it must be that which was causing my anxiousness.

    After reading one of Clifford's recent posts, "Expanding World", over at Changing my Direction I realized exactly what is was.  I have made a clear move from the hundreds to the thousands.  If you read his post you'll see his reasoning of the progression of monetary needs.  Until this point I had been flirting with the thousands.  I was into the thousands, but just barely.  I am currently well into the thousands and I believe that is what has been making me anxious.  Realizing where the fear is coming from has helped me start to move past it.  Manny kudos to Clifford for this inspiring post.  I'll have to send him an email to let him know about it.

    Well, the CISSP boot camp was one heck of an experience.  For anyone thinking of taking the Boot camp I can't stress enough to make sure you prepare beforehand.  Read at least the Passport or Exam Cram book to get a feel for the material.  the course is good, but if you do not have an understanding of the material prior to entering the boot camp you have a huge mountain to climb.  This is not one of those MCSE Boot Camps where you can go in with a basic understanding and get your paper MCSE.  

    For the test, it is an exhaustive experience.  250 multiple choice questions in a 6 hour period.  I consider myself adept at taking tests.  I believe the last time I failed a test was probably in High School.  So through college and my professional examinations I have gone through unscathed.  Even with the good test taking ability I have the CISSP exam was a trying experience.  I had to leave the room twice because I got physically nervous and anxious during the examination.

    The bulk of the examination is of the choose the best answer variety.  The only problem is that many of the answers fit the situation provided in the questions very well.  Take into account the questions that gave 4 wrong answers and you had to choose the one which was the least wrong and you can understand how difficult it is.  There was a small percentage of questions which could be answered simply from memorization.  Encryption formulas, codes of ethics, etc make up the basic items that you can answer from simple memorization.

    In the class of 20 people, 5 were there to refresh because they had failed the examination once.  That left 75% of the class who were there for the first time.  It will be interesting to see how many of the class have passed the CISSP exam.  

    Talking with some of the others who took the exam, we realized that no one coming out had an indication if they did well.  The questions and answers were so obscure that we will all be waiting the 14 days to get the results to know if we passed.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me!

    I just wanted to drop a line in to say Hi to everyone and show I am surviving my CISSP Boot Camp here in Virginia.  We're obviously going over quite a lot of material in a very short amount of time.  These past 2 days we've covered 3 of the 10 Domains.  I now have Information Security and Risk Management, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, and Cryptography under my belt.  

    I'm getting conflicting feelings about if I know the material or not.  I'm scoring horribly on the questions in between the chapters.  However if I go to CCCure.org and take one of the CISSP practice test there I am scoring in the 100% range.  I'm not sure which one is a more accurate representation of the 6 hour test I will be taking.  If anyone out there has any ideas or suggestions please post a comment or send me a message via the Contact page.

    I take the exam on Sunday.  Wish me luck! 

    Once I have completed the course I'll post some of my notes and study materials (non-copyrighted of course) for you to peruse in case you're interested.