These are my personal images and photos that show the beauty of the view from Deer Ridge Mountain Resort and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cobbly Nob and the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area.
Just click the Play button to watch - or click Big Picture to see a much larger slide show on a dedicated page here at DeerRidgeOwners.com.
Deer Ridge Litigation Fund
Do you, as an owner at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, believe we are ALL entitled to have access and be able to copy the books and records of our Homeowner's Association?
So, do I.
But, apparently, Employee Joe Thomas and President Luther Parker and the Board disagree - and are doing all they can to block access, publication and candid discussion of the Asinine Assessment, special deals and favored treatment - at the expense of all Owners.
What ARE they so afraid of us finding out?
Maybe it has to do with the HUGE $10,000 overcharge for my HOA Fees, special assessments, water and cable TV bill - which, in my personal opinion, is due to fraudulent intent or at least gross negligence by the Deer Ridge Board of Directors and / or General Manager Joe Thomas. Please see the posts for details.
We have no choice but to file a lawsuit against GGRC and RML in order to finally, once and for all, make it clear that OWNERS do have a right to all the information about our property and our investment at Deer Ridge.
If you have thoughts and ideas and suggestions, please post them here on this blog.
If you have any clout with the Board, convince them to stop the charade - and let the owners have the information that all owners own!
If you want to help cover the legal costs to get us the right to see the bids for $50,000 for nuts and bolts - and the other background documents for the $353,500 Asinine Assessment, please click on the Donate Button below.
With enough in donations, we can hire BOTH an attorney AND a forensic accountant for the whole process through the Court in Sevier County to make absolutely certain we win EVERY point - and never have to fight Employee Joe and the Board on this stuff again.
Even a $100 contribution will help show that you are in favor of an open and FULLY transparent homeowners' association at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort!
Thanks so much to those of you who have already contributed!
GENERAL DISCLAIMER FOR ALL PAGES AND POSTS AND EVERYTHING ELSE I DO OR SAY REGARDING DEER RIDGE AND ANY AND ALL RELATED PARTIES:
Note: The following, and the information on any and all other posts and pages by me about General Manager Joe Thomas, GGRC, RML and /or the Board of Directors and its members, or any related topics, are my personal opinions based on my ongoing investigation into the actions and inactions of the GGRC and RML Board of Directors and / or Joe Thomas, General Manager.
While I believe these allegations to be true based on my objective analysis, these opinions remain as only allegations until I, or others, prove things in court.
My goal is to offer all owners all the information and evidence that I have available so that everyone can reach their own conclusions.
Please note the obvious:
Everything I ever say or write in person, via emails, or on my blog, about Deer Ridge or any and all related entities and organizations or any and all affiliated personnel or owners, is strictly my own personal opinion of course - based, in part, from my owning a unit at Deer Ridge for over five years - and on my own personal history.
That history includes earning a Presidential MBA degree, being awarded a Bachelor of Science, With Honors, in Engineering Physics from UT, working for NASA as a rocket scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center, 30 years of CEO experience directly employing and managing many hundreds of people at multiple companies I personally started and operated (including one that I took public), 15 years experience buying and selling over $100 million of property and managing more than 45,000 rental units - AND being able to read and do four-function arithmetic.
Legalese - And Powered Wig - Off
----------------------------
Welcome to All Deer Ridge Owners
Welcome to all owners of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort condos in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
My goal is to help all Deer Ridge owners to have a voice in the management and operation of your property.
Click on the TITLES of any of the following subjects to read the whole posting - and see the comments made by your co-owners. You can also type any term into the below search box, or any word or term in the search cloud.
Click the big image at the top of the page to return to the front page at any time.
.
Investment Analysis For A Rental Condo At Deer Ridge
Will you really lose $40,000 cash if you buy a rental condo at Deer Ridge and use Ridge Management Ltd?
As an owner-occupied home, Deer Ridge is an incredible value with THE best view in the Smokies and great amenities.
However, several owners and would-be owners of Deer Ridge condos have asked me if these units are a good rental property investment or not. To help answer that question
objectively, I had to analyze the real moving parts of buying and owning here.
Get my complete, detailed investment analysis based on buying a rental condo unit at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
It shows what you MUST do to make money when you buy a rental unit at Deer Ridge.
Every Dollar You Pay For Deer Ridge Is The WRONG Amount!
Please read the various posts here on this Deer Ridge Owners Blog - and see my evidence and analysis which I believe shows conclusively that EVERY dollar of HOA Fees, EVERY dollar EVERY special assessment, EVERY water bill and cable TV sent out for YEARS to ALL Deer Ridge Owners has been wrong!
In many cases at least ONE THIRD of ALL owners have been GROSSLY overcharged. My calculations show that I have been overcharged more than TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS in the past 50 months I've owned at Deer Ridge.
The Board has been WRONGLY and arbitrarily ignoring the requirements of the Master Deed and the Bylaws for YEARS.
If my analysis is correct, the Board has zero choice. They MUST abide by the Master Deed Percentages.
But they haven’t.
However, if the Board knowingly ignored the clear directives of the Master Deed and the Bylaws when allocating costs to various unit types, and overcharging certain unit types on a regular basis, my opinion is that the Board and Joe Thomas may have acted fraudulently.
If they have not been fraudulent, then they have been, at the very least, grossly negligent.
Read the various blog postings - and judge for yourself.
Comments Welcome From All Visitors
You are welcome to leave your comments on the various posts on the blog. You no longer have to be registered to comment. (Even regular contributors had trouble remembering their log on passwords!)
Note that SPAM blockers are in place - and all comments require approval to be visible.
So, let's hear from you on these topics!
To view the comments, you need to click on the post topic to see the entire post and the comments.
"We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert." — J. Robert Oppenheimer. This includes the Board of Directors of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.
The New Deer Ridge Owners Site – Please Post Comments and Suggestions On Blog Here
Hi all,
I am in the process of changing this site for Deer Ridge Owners so that it is a blog instead of a static web page. That way, all owners who register will be able to make comments and discuss issues – and have a voice that I hope will finally be noticed by the Board.
Note that everything posted here will be available for all to see – including all one billion folks on the Internet!
Bear with me as I learn this blog thing and continue to tweak and tune things to improve the appearance and usability for all owners.
Please post your comments and suggestions for the blog here under this post.
Thanks!
Robert
PS: All the old pages are still available – will provide a link to them once I figure out how.
Comments anyone?
6 comments to The New Deer Ridge Owners Site – Please Post Comments and Suggestions On Blog Here
The more informed all 84 owners are the stronger we (Deer Ridge) becomes; therefore, the best long and short term decisions come forward with less errors. The path to that is openness and transparacy. That is all. If there are no problems i cannot for the life of me understand why not let the documents speak for themself? Please encourage the board/Joe to do so. Open up the books. What’s the big deal?
I am glad you are posting Jim. I truly am. I hope this is a light at the end of a dark tunnel of board/committee silence. Silence can breed mis-interpretation which none of us need. I know you care about Deer Ridge, as i do. Anyone that owns here cares. I care enough to look and report for water leaks when i walk the road or under units, or copper leaving the grounds, or the latest lights out on E ramp which i reported first, or anything i see that doesn’t appear right. I have not done anything as grand as Robert or yourself. I thank BOTH OF YOU for your valuable time. Your time is priceless. I just live here, that is all. Some are here so little and have no clue as to what goes on, but want to know. Thanks Robert for this site. We all need to be treated equally and equally informed as well in all our applications here at the Ridge.
Life is good! Enjoy your stay here and take some time to relax. It truly is a wonderful place to live.
With openness and clarity, like our incredible view on crisp and clear fall day, it will only get better!
Great to hear from you…and thanks for your posting. More postings by you are certainly welcome.
In answer to your response:
One of my disclaimers on that posting was, “Now, bear in mind, all we know is that those nights were marked, “Unavailable” for rental. Maybe they are going to be used by the owner, maybe used by friends of the owner…we can’t tell from just the reservations systems.” I also pretty clearly stated, “We say that the only thing certain about the unit above us is that we don’t know ANYTHING for sure…Is this a fluke? Is it a one-time aberration? We can’t be sure. Do the Board and Committee members even know this is going on with their units? Who knows?”
That seems pretty clear to me – on all levels for which you seemed concerned – with disclaimers galore and no slander or defamation of character in sight.
What we asked for is an easy to produce analysis of ALL RML rented units be included in each month’s statement.
That way, ALL RML folks would have total transparency. This would be a trivial analysis to program into the reservations system software that would automatically generate the full report for the whole property once a month – with that one printout showing all units – included with the rental checks each owner receives every month.
Don’t owners deserve that level of transparency – especially when it is so easy – and there’s so much money involved?
The documents I am asking for are really the underlying documents you, yourself, so perfectly recommended to the Board regarding the assessment for $353,500. If you look at my posting titled “Assessment Information Request – An Open Letter To Joe Thomas And The Board” you see that I respectfully requested the documents tied to the request for so much money.
In that posting, I even quote you from your report to the Board:
“On any major project, a set of written specifications as to exactly what is wanted should be included with the Request For Proposal. Reference to it should be made in any contract. Requirements for the contractor to clean up behind himself should be included and enforced. Acceptance tests or inspections should be performed by a member of staff prior to final payment of invoices or statements.”
Bravo, Jim!
As I say in that posting, “In my opinion, Jim Hinchee, Building and Grounds Committee Chairman does a GREAT job in that role. I completely agree with the statement he made in his recent report to the Board.”
Many of us want to see those underlying documents – especially for ones that have a singular line item: “Nuts and Bolts – “$50,000.” Instead of Joe and the Board having to provide dozens of concerned owners with this information, I even offer a simple solution: give the info to me and I post it on my blog for all to see – and even give everyone, including the Board and Joe, a forum for open and transparent discussion.
Instead, Joe smugly says “No copies of ANYTHING.” Even though ALL owners deserve to have access to every document so they can analyze them at their leisure – without Joe looking over your shoulder while you try to read and understand complex documents. Not to mention, that Joe’s approach conveniently negates most owners who are not local from even viewing them.
As to your contributions, I, for one, very much appreciate the CCTV system you designed and installed along with your other many efforts. With both of us long time ham radio enthusiasts, I applaud how your technical skill sets have greatly helped this property and it is noticed and appreciated! My skill sets are more business oriented than technical – although I did finally get Comcast to fix the Internet feed problem to all of Deer Ridge – after getting them out to the property 11 times in July and August to finally replace some flawed equipment.
Since you asked that I “bring you up to speed on my personal contributions for the benefit of all the Owners and/or Guests of Deer Ridge”, I would probably include the following items that quickly come to mind:
= My Deer Ridge Owners Blog gives all owners an open forum for discussing what is really happening at our property. Any owner, including Board members and even Joe Thomas, can register and participate.
= My comprehensive business plan on the pavilion probably kept the Board from going totally wild – and probably saved Deer Ridge Owners over $60,000. It is too bad that the Board violated the Master Deed and Bylaws by still spending $80,000 that I wasn’t able to stop since they were unwilling to release Deer Ridge documents to Deer Ridge Owners – but more about that in an upcoming major post at the blog.
= My suggestions to the Board four years ago that: no pooling of income and expenses for RML, reduction of the management fee from 45% to 40%, individualized accounting for each owner, no more “excise tax” where owners were charged a “tax” if they wanted to use their own unit during “prime time”, etc. – were finally implement virtually identical to my recommendations – even though it took the Board an extra year or two to get there after my posting those very suggestions to my Deer Ridge Owners site.
= The most recent personal contribution I have made has to do with clearly identifying last week that at least 30 owners representing 36% of ALL units at Deer Ridge have already been overcharged by AT LEAST $300,000 as a result of either gross incompetence, gross negligence and/or fraud by Joe Thomas and the Board of Directors. Please see my various postings at the Blog for details. The upshot of this is that THIRTY current owners have had their rights, and their checkbooks, abused. Untold numbers of prior owners of Deer Ridge units were also abused. THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS is a lot of money – and those 30 owners deserve to get their money back – and then some. And, if Joe Thomas and / or any Board members ever knew they were suppose to follow the Master Deed Percentages – and instead chose other approaches on purpose, then it is fraud. I don’t yet know whether it is criminal fraud or just civil fraud – but either way, I am delighted to have been able to uncover this ongoing misappropriation against 36% of our owners. I am still waiting for Luther Parker and Joe Thomas to respond to this issue – and provide me the documents I have requested. For some reason, they have been totally mute on this issue.
= There are other ways I believe I have personally and positively contributed to Deer Ridge, but I hope that the above shows some of the major ways I have already helped owners at Deer Ridge. It’s hard to quantify even the above – especially with no books and records yet – but my hope is that my total financial contribution to all owners of Deer Ridge may exceed at least HALF A MILLION DOLLARS – and maybe as much as ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Since we are already over ONE THIRD MILLION – I am at least getting close.
With regard to my requests for documents being “worthless and a waste of time…” I would think the above pretty clearly shows that my requests are, in fact, pivotally important to the way money from ALL owners is handled at Deer Ridge – and is a LOT more than just “finger pointing.”
With regard to your walkaround suggestion when you are here – great idea!
Another couple of owners and I had planned on walking the whole property with my digital camcorder so that we could generate a video of all the things that need $353,500 to fix. Your participation would be GREAT – that way, you can show us where there is all that wood that needs to be replaced – and exactly where the $50,000 worth of “nuts and bolts” are located.
We’ve all already walked the property and for the life of us, we can’t seem to find the need for $50,000 worth.
What I would like to do, with your permission, is video you while you take all of us on a tour of the entire property. I would then be happy to post that full video on my blog for all owners to view! What a GREAT way to inform all owners at the same time with video – and your narration that would help clarify the need for all $353,500.
Please let me know if you want to help us with that video tour – and we will postpone doing it until we could have your invaluable help.
Jim, you and I share a common goal – to benefit the owners of Deer Ridge. I do hope that you now see that, in spite of what you may have been told, my goals are the same as yours – even if the methodology is different.
Have read with great interest the One Bedroom Loft rental analysis piece on ‘your’ Deer Ridge Owners website.
Really enjoyed your pointing out how much my unit, A302, was being “rented” (for 25 days) in October, based on occupancy data from the RML on-line reservations system.
Let’s add some information that you did not ask me for, prior to putting your so-called research out there for all the world to see.
Betty and I are going to be at DR October 11 -18 (7 nights) enjoying the serenity. It is time for a mental recharge and what better place is there?
I have given my friend Marla free use of my unit during October 24 – 30 (7 nights) for her honeymoon with Matt.
A gift to begin the first week of her married life in a breathtakingly beautiful setting with nice amenities.
Subtracting those 14 days of ‘personal use’ of my unit from the 25, yields an actual 11 days rented in October. Seven units were rented more than mine, two less. This works out to 35% of the available nights with my unit being rented, or 11% below your calculated average of October booked One Bedroom Lofts.
Or put another way, a 46 percent Error Rate in your calculations.
In September, my card playing and golf buddy Elmer spent a free week with his wife Barb. In August, Betty’s two great-grandchildren and granddaughter Kelly visited. As many other 1BRL units were available for rent, those owners get the income and thus benefit by my unit being occupied by my personal guests.
Should the sport of Jumping To Conclusions ever be made an Olympic event, I feel certain you will be up on the podium at some point for at least a silver medal.
It is my understanding you are asking for large numbers of GGRC records and documents to analyze, both as a power play and to search for evidence of wrong doing. If your analysis of those records are performed in the same manner as you did for mine, the results will certainly be worthless and a major waste of time on the part of Deer Ridge paid employees.
During my upcoming visit, I invite you to walk with me on a Building and Grounds type tour of the property. I can show you the infrastructure items such as the Closed Circuit TV system I designed and helped install for safety and security, the C Building electrical installation Betty and I rehabilitated at no cost to owners and so on. At the same time you can bring me up to speed on your personal contributions for the benefit of all the Owners and/or Guests of Deer Ridge.
By the way, are any of those legal forms you have available for download on your site, usable for Slander or Defamation of Character lawsuits in Tennessee?
Check out our new Deer Ridge Owners webcam for the current view from our balcony!
Just click the photo for the most recent update. Updated every 5 minutes.
Top 10 Cam Award!
Our new Cobbly Nob TN site was just chosen as an Earthcam Top 10 Webcam!
All of this in just our first two weeks of operation - and before we install our new wide angle, high definition lens! Stay tuned for even better images!
EarthCam, Inc. is the global leader in providing webcam content, technology and services and ranks among the top 1% of all websites. EarthCam.com is the world’s favorite webcam network and the EarthCam Network cameras have been seen on top news shows, including CNN’s Headline News.
New YouTube Channel For Deer Ridge Owners!
Check out ALL of our videos on our new YouTube Channel for Deer Ridge Owners:
We already have videos that will walk you around the whole property and give you reviews from past guests and tourists. Find out what they REALLY have to say about Deer Ridge!
We are adding even more videos in the next few weeks - so check out our Deer Ridge Owners Channel often!
Update: Just added two new videos for a total of 20 videos so far! Check them out!
Owner Files $3 Million Lawsuit Against HOA, General Manager And Board Members
A homeowner in Gatlinburg, Tennessee has filed a $3 Million Lawsuit against his HOA, General Manager And All Individual Board Members at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.
In response to their meritless, retaliatory $1 Million defamation lawsuit against me, I have now filed a $3 Million lawsuit against Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, AKA Gatlinburg Golf and Racquet Club HOA and Joe Thomas, Luther Parker, Larry Ohm, Margie Duncan, David Barone and Tom Reise, all as individuals.
If you believe in free speech as much as we do, we need your help - no matter where in America you may live.
The Deer Ridge HOA board and individual board members have filed a $1 Million Lawsuit against me in their ongoing attempts to stop this blog and have its contents removed. Click Press Release for details.
This power clique wants to continue to block free speech on this property and to keep their illegitimate secrets hidden from other owners.
They are willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars of other owners' money on legal fees to keep themselves in power while they continue to break both Tennessee state law and Deer Ridge property law.
We need your help with the legal fees that will be required to force them to abide by the law - and insure that Deer Ridge Mountain Resort is entitled to free speech like the rest of America.
If you would like to join with others who believe in free speech and believe that all of the 305,000 Home Owner Associations across the nation should be protected from tyrannical boards that ignore the laws, please click the
Donate Button below.
Even a donation of just a few dollars would be very greatly appreciated as a way of showing that we have financial support from thousands of Americans for these important issues!
Thanks so much to all of those of you who have already contributed!
Please help us broadcast this Press Release to others you know who can spread the word. You are welcome to link to this site from Twitter, Facebook or other sites.
With your help we can fight and win this $1 Million lawsuit - and keep this blog active - and an inspiration and model for other HOA Abuse Blogs across the nation.
nd discuss issues – and have a voice that I hope will finally be noticed by the Board.
Jim,
The more informed all 84 owners are the stronger we (Deer Ridge) becomes; therefore, the best long and short term decisions come forward with less errors. The path to that is openness and transparacy. That is all. If there are no problems i cannot for the life of me understand why not let the documents speak for themself? Please encourage the board/Joe to do so. Open up the books. What’s the big deal?
I am glad you are posting Jim. I truly am. I hope this is a light at the end of a dark tunnel of board/committee silence. Silence can breed mis-interpretation which none of us need. I know you care about Deer Ridge, as i do. Anyone that owns here cares. I care enough to look and report for water leaks when i walk the road or under units, or copper leaving the grounds, or the latest lights out on E ramp which i reported first, or anything i see that doesn’t appear right. I have not done anything as grand as Robert or yourself. I thank BOTH OF YOU for your valuable time. Your time is priceless. I just live here, that is all. Some are here so little and have no clue as to what goes on, but want to know. Thanks Robert for this site. We all need to be treated equally and equally informed as well in all our applications here at the Ridge.
Life is good! Enjoy your stay here and take some time to relax. It truly is a wonderful place to live.
With openness and clarity, like our incredible view on crisp and clear fall day, it will only get better!
Jim,
Great to hear from you…and thanks for your posting. More postings by you are certainly welcome.
In answer to your response:
One of my disclaimers on that posting was, “Now, bear in mind, all we know is that those nights were marked, “Unavailable” for rental. Maybe they are going to be used by the owner, maybe used by friends of the owner…we can’t tell from just the reservations systems.” I also pretty clearly stated, “We say that the only thing certain about the unit above us is that we don’t know ANYTHING for sure…Is this a fluke? Is it a one-time aberration? We can’t be sure. Do the Board and Committee members even know this is going on with their units? Who knows?”
That seems pretty clear to me – on all levels for which you seemed concerned – with disclaimers galore and no slander or defamation of character in sight.
What we asked for is an easy to produce analysis of ALL RML rented units be included in each month’s statement.
That way, ALL RML folks would have total transparency. This would be a trivial analysis to program into the reservations system software that would automatically generate the full report for the whole property once a month – with that one printout showing all units – included with the rental checks each owner receives every month.
Don’t owners deserve that level of transparency – especially when it is so easy – and there’s so much money involved?
The documents I am asking for are really the underlying documents you, yourself, so perfectly recommended to the Board regarding the assessment for $353,500. If you look at my posting titled “Assessment Information Request – An Open Letter To Joe Thomas And The Board” you see that I respectfully requested the documents tied to the request for so much money.
In that posting, I even quote you from your report to the Board:
“On any major project, a set of written specifications as to exactly what is wanted should be included with the Request For Proposal. Reference to it should be made in any contract. Requirements for the contractor to clean up behind himself should be included and enforced. Acceptance tests or inspections should be performed by a member of staff prior to final payment of invoices or statements.”
Bravo, Jim!
As I say in that posting, “In my opinion, Jim Hinchee, Building and Grounds Committee Chairman does a GREAT job in that role. I completely agree with the statement he made in his recent report to the Board.”
Many of us want to see those underlying documents – especially for ones that have a singular line item: “Nuts and Bolts – “$50,000.” Instead of Joe and the Board having to provide dozens of concerned owners with this information, I even offer a simple solution: give the info to me and I post it on my blog for all to see – and even give everyone, including the Board and Joe, a forum for open and transparent discussion.
Instead, Joe smugly says “No copies of ANYTHING.” Even though ALL owners deserve to have access to every document so they can analyze them at their leisure – without Joe looking over your shoulder while you try to read and understand complex documents. Not to mention, that Joe’s approach conveniently negates most owners who are not local from even viewing them.
As to your contributions, I, for one, very much appreciate the CCTV system you designed and installed along with your other many efforts. With both of us long time ham radio enthusiasts, I applaud how your technical skill sets have greatly helped this property and it is noticed and appreciated! My skill sets are more business oriented than technical – although I did finally get Comcast to fix the Internet feed problem to all of Deer Ridge – after getting them out to the property 11 times in July and August to finally replace some flawed equipment.
Since you asked that I “bring you up to speed on my personal contributions for the benefit of all the Owners and/or Guests of Deer Ridge”, I would probably include the following items that quickly come to mind:
= My Deer Ridge Owners Blog gives all owners an open forum for discussing what is really happening at our property. Any owner, including Board members and even Joe Thomas, can register and participate.
= My comprehensive business plan on the pavilion probably kept the Board from going totally wild – and probably saved Deer Ridge Owners over $60,000. It is too bad that the Board violated the Master Deed and Bylaws by still spending $80,000 that I wasn’t able to stop since they were unwilling to release Deer Ridge documents to Deer Ridge Owners – but more about that in an upcoming major post at the blog.
= My suggestions to the Board four years ago that: no pooling of income and expenses for RML, reduction of the management fee from 45% to 40%, individualized accounting for each owner, no more “excise tax” where owners were charged a “tax” if they wanted to use their own unit during “prime time”, etc. – were finally implement virtually identical to my recommendations – even though it took the Board an extra year or two to get there after my posting those very suggestions to my Deer Ridge Owners site.
= The most recent personal contribution I have made has to do with clearly identifying last week that at least 30 owners representing 36% of ALL units at Deer Ridge have already been overcharged by AT LEAST $300,000 as a result of either gross incompetence, gross negligence and/or fraud by Joe Thomas and the Board of Directors. Please see my various postings at the Blog for details. The upshot of this is that THIRTY current owners have had their rights, and their checkbooks, abused. Untold numbers of prior owners of Deer Ridge units were also abused. THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS is a lot of money – and those 30 owners deserve to get their money back – and then some. And, if Joe Thomas and / or any Board members ever knew they were suppose to follow the Master Deed Percentages – and instead chose other approaches on purpose, then it is fraud. I don’t yet know whether it is criminal fraud or just civil fraud – but either way, I am delighted to have been able to uncover this ongoing misappropriation against 36% of our owners. I am still waiting for Luther Parker and Joe Thomas to respond to this issue – and provide me the documents I have requested. For some reason, they have been totally mute on this issue.
= There are other ways I believe I have personally and positively contributed to Deer Ridge, but I hope that the above shows some of the major ways I have already helped owners at Deer Ridge. It’s hard to quantify even the above – especially with no books and records yet – but my hope is that my total financial contribution to all owners of Deer Ridge may exceed at least HALF A MILLION DOLLARS – and maybe as much as ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Since we are already over ONE THIRD MILLION – I am at least getting close.
With regard to my requests for documents being “worthless and a waste of time…” I would think the above pretty clearly shows that my requests are, in fact, pivotally important to the way money from ALL owners is handled at Deer Ridge – and is a LOT more than just “finger pointing.”
With regard to your walkaround suggestion when you are here – great idea!
Another couple of owners and I had planned on walking the whole property with my digital camcorder so that we could generate a video of all the things that need $353,500 to fix. Your participation would be GREAT – that way, you can show us where there is all that wood that needs to be replaced – and exactly where the $50,000 worth of “nuts and bolts” are located.
We’ve all already walked the property and for the life of us, we can’t seem to find the need for $50,000 worth.
What I would like to do, with your permission, is video you while you take all of us on a tour of the entire property. I would then be happy to post that full video on my blog for all owners to view! What a GREAT way to inform all owners at the same time with video – and your narration that would help clarify the need for all $353,500.
Please let me know if you want to help us with that video tour – and we will postpone doing it until we could have your invaluable help.
Jim, you and I share a common goal – to benefit the owners of Deer Ridge. I do hope that you now see that, in spite of what you may have been told, my goals are the same as yours – even if the methodology is different.
Robert
My Dear Robert:
Have read with great interest the One Bedroom Loft rental analysis piece on ‘your’ Deer Ridge Owners website.
Really enjoyed your pointing out how much my unit, A302, was being “rented” (for 25 days) in October, based on occupancy data from the RML on-line reservations system.
Let’s add some information that you did not ask me for, prior to putting your so-called research out there for all the world to see.
Betty and I are going to be at DR October 11 -18 (7 nights) enjoying the serenity. It is time for a mental recharge and what better place is there?
I have given my friend Marla free use of my unit during October 24 – 30 (7 nights) for her honeymoon with Matt.
A gift to begin the first week of her married life in a breathtakingly beautiful setting with nice amenities.
Subtracting those 14 days of ‘personal use’ of my unit from the 25, yields an actual 11 days rented in October. Seven units were rented more than mine, two less. This works out to 35% of the available nights with my unit being rented, or 11% below your calculated average of October booked One Bedroom Lofts.
Or put another way, a 46 percent Error Rate in your calculations.
In September, my card playing and golf buddy Elmer spent a free week with his wife Barb. In August, Betty’s two great-grandchildren and granddaughter Kelly visited. As many other 1BRL units were available for rent, those owners get the income and thus benefit by my unit being occupied by my personal guests.
Should the sport of Jumping To Conclusions ever be made an Olympic event, I feel certain you will be up on the podium at some point for at least a silver medal.
It is my understanding you are asking for large numbers of GGRC records and documents to analyze, both as a power play and to search for evidence of wrong doing. If your analysis of those records are performed in the same manner as you did for mine, the results will certainly be worthless and a major waste of time on the part of Deer Ridge paid employees.
During my upcoming visit, I invite you to walk with me on a Building and Grounds type tour of the property. I can show you the infrastructure items such as the Closed Circuit TV system I designed and helped install for safety and security, the C Building electrical installation Betty and I rehabilitated at no cost to owners and so on. At the same time you can bring me up to speed on your personal contributions for the benefit of all the Owners and/or Guests of Deer Ridge.
By the way, are any of those legal forms you have available for download on your site, usable for Slander or Defamation of Character lawsuits in Tennessee?
Regards,
Jim Hinchee, Owner, A-302
Is there an itemized list of how it is Divided up ?
Michael you are so right. Hope to see more of your comments on the site.
What are the HOA fees used for at Deer Ridge $275 per month? Why not use this for the painting???