Houses of Cards: ‘This Isn’t The End’ of Our Homebuilder Coverage, Writer Promises

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Bella Vita homebuilder

Note: All week, CandysDirt.com has been taking a closer look at the legal travails of Bella Vita Custom Homes, and the trail of dissatisfied customers, subcontractors and investors they left in the wake of their bankruptcy. You can keep up with the entire series here.

I have a document on my computer that changes every day. For a while, it was changing every hour.

In that document, I have lists of people who have lost money to Bella Vita Custom Homes. I have a secondary list of people who have lost money (or peace of mind and money) from other homebuilders in the are in similar fashion.

Even now, as I am winding up the first installment of this series, every time I interview a new family or person, they give me two or three more people who were left — at the very least — less than satisfied with their experience with the building company the Clem family owns.

We may never know what caused Bella Vita and its owners to apparently fail to satisfy their customers, to fulfill their contractual obligations. They wouldn’t respond to requests for comment. I’d dearly love to be able to tell their side of the story.

In the absence of explanation, we are left with questions and facts gathered piecemeal to form a picture — albeit a murky one in places.  I am still getting documents, social media posts, interviews, phone calls, and emails, each one giving another tidbit to be verified and run down, or becoming confirmation of a tip I had already been given about the homebuilder.

Some may shrug off these folks because they were building luxury homes with initial deposits bigger than the purchase cost of the average home. Maybe the tale of an NFL Hall of Famer and his family losing $700,000 doesn’t gin up much sympathy to you. But I’m here to tell you, the money doesn’t matter.

I mean, of course, the money matters in the sense that they’re out a whole lot of it — all of these people.

But every single family I interviewed used the same phrase — “dream home.” Whether it is $150,000 or $3 million, a home is a lot of money — and a lot of dreams. And since there are no licensing requirements, no tests to take, to become a homebuilder in Texas, this can happen to anyone who ever has occasion to hire a contractor, period.

These homes were dreams. The people who trusted Bella Vita to build their homes thought about what their families would look like in the living room, spending a Saturday afternoon together. They imagined decorating Christmas trees and hanging stockings, and could see themselves doling out candy as they greeted trick-or-treaters.

They envisioned tucking their children in bed at night in bedrooms decorated especially for them. They looked forward to hosting cookouts with friends in the backyard, watching the sun disappear behind the roofs of their neighbors as they chatted.

Parents could see themselves bringing home their first child, basked in the dappled sunlight filtering in through the windows of the nursery.

And that was taken from them.

This isn’t just about money. This is about security.  Families wonder if they will lose their home because of liens placed on them by subcontractors who are also victims — they didn’t get paid. Some wonder about how safely their home is constructed.

Subcontractors — some of whom are family-owned, small operations — are faced with the decision to either make life harder for another family, or place their own families in jeopardy because of the loss of income.

I’ve tried to be the dispassionate reporter of fact. But I’ll be honest — interviewing this many people and hearing and seeing the tears, the anger, the sadness and frustration involved in building a dream only to have a nightmare instead does touch your heart.

I hear the frustrated subcontractors who didn’t get paid by the homebuilder or had to fight for payment. The investors I talked to, who trusted the Clems, are hardworking people who sought to increase their nest eggs.

I hear Scott Barton, who has the incredible bad luck of also having a business named Bella Vita Custom Homes. Barton’s company is in Colorado Springs, Colo., and so far, he says, people are satisfied when he explains he isn’t affiliated with the bankrupt company in Texas owned by the Clem family.

I called him Tuesday after noticing that stories about the Texas homebuilder’s legal woes were crowding out references to his thriving Colorado business. Adding to the confusion is the fact that both Bella Vita Custom Homes build (or built) luxury, multi-million dollar abodes.

“I’ve gotten three or four messages on Facebook — people asking for a punch list or something, and one lady that asked me if I stole all those people’s money,” Barton said. “People have inquired — obviously, once I explained they understood.”

“I’ve noticed an increase in traffic on my page recently, too.”

Barton said several things set him apart from his legally challenged Lone Star doppelganger, including his reputation. Barton’s work has won several awards, and he lives in the home that won the People’s Choice award in the 2015 Parade of Homes in his area.

“I incorporated in 2007, and they incorporated in 2010,” he added. “I’m actually licensed here and had to take a test and everything. I get the impression they weren’t?

I informed him that Texas has no such licensure requirements for contractors or homebuilders. “My manicurist has more licensure requirements than the guy I might hire to build my house,” I explained.

Barton paused for a second.  “That’s crazy,” he said. “And the banks? How were they not inspecting before releasing more funds? I have to do that, too.”

“I feel terrible for those people. I wish I could help them — but I’m obviously too far away,” he added.

I hear Jennifer Williamson, who emailed me shortly after my first story ran Monday.

“We were also screwed by Bella Vita and the Clems,” she wrote. “We worked with the remodel side and are happy to tell you our story if you wish. We were luckier than many of the folks but still out a lot of time, money, and sanity!”

We met at a North Dallas La Madeline Wednesday. Over coffee and tea, she told me about her family’s experience with Bella Vita Custom Homes and the Clem family.

“When we first started with our project, we just wanted to add on a master bedroom and update,” Williamson explained. She and her husband, Shelby, eventually decided on a complete remodel of the lower floor, and a second-floor addition to their Dallas home.

After Bella Vita’s remodel division was recommended to them, the Williamsons began talking to Jason Bailey, who they were told was the president of that division.

“They wouldn’t do little remodels — if you just wanted to remodel your kitchen, they weren’t who you needed,” she said. “But we were having a massive remodel of the first story, and adding a second story.”

The family moved two doors down from their house, into a rental. “We could watch things happening every day,” Williamson said. “And our bank was really good about coming out and checking on things, too.”

The Williamsons were brought sheets regularly that detailed subcontractors had been paid, signed by a company representative. “The bank accepted them, and I thought they were lien releases,” she said.

The work seemed to be chugging along just fine for a while. “It seems like Jason Bailey brought his own subs with him, maybe, when he came to Bella Vita,” she said.

But then things started to go awry. “He quit the remodel — and the company — in May 2016,” she said, adding that about that time she was apprised that subcontractors were not getting paid by the homebuilder.  “That’s when I found out that the sheets of paper are not true lien releases.”

“I reached out to Tracey (Clem) and said, ‘What is going on? I want to know about liens on my house,’” Williamson said. When Tracey Clem said she didn’t know about any unpaid subcontractors, Williamson’s requests were simple.

“I said, ‘Ok, I need all the unpaid bills, my new contact (at the company) and a schedule for moving forward. I’ll need it by Thursday,’” she said. “Thursday comes and goes, of course.”

“We kept talking to Andy (Clem) and the project manager. Curt Dubose was assigned to us as our new contact,” she explained.

“We sat down with them two or three times to make a timeline of when the house was gonna be done, but they never did a damn thing,” Williamson said.

In the end, Williamson said, they had a house that was 75 percent finished, and $25,000 in true liens to pay and another $15,000 worth of work done by people who missed the deadline to file a lien. “I know of another $30,000 who didn’t get paid by them,” she said, “but they never filed anything.”

“We’ll never see our money, that’s that,” Williamson said. The family obtained a release from Bella Vita, and managed the rest of the project themselves.

“We were lucky, and I know it,” she said. “Fortunately my parents were in a position to help us, and another builder helped connect us with some good subcontractors, even though we couldn’t afford to hire him.”

“I just want something to be done,” she said. “I don’t want contractors to be able to just go into business under a new name.”

Williamson gave me something at our meeting, however, that I don’t think either one of us realized would then occupy most of my Thursday. 

It was a letter sent to investors, subcontractors, vendors and customers in July 2016, and what happened when I tried to verify it was truly odd — and in my career, I’ve pushed cows off of freeways, written about the penny stock market, and wrapped my cell phone in aluminum foil to make an interview subject happy.

I know odd.

In July 2016, Andy Clem told people and companies hammering his door for money or completed jobs that he was getting a cash infusion from LaSalle Nova Capital Markets of Chicago. He shared a letter with them via email saying as much, on LaSalle letterhead — or what I presume is LaSalle letterhead. You can see it on the right. (Note: this note has been removed at the request of LaSalle.)

“Andy kept giving us different days every time we’d ask when the funding was happening,” Williamson recalled. “I got sick of hearing it, so I called the number on the letter.”

“I asked, ‘Is this legit?’” she said. “He (the man who answered) said, ‘Yes, it’s legit.’”

So then Williamson said she asked the voice at the other end for a timeline for funding the homebuilder, “because Andy kept giving new days every time you asked.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Williamson said the voice told her, adding that he didn’t know about the money being used to pay unpaid bills. “He thought it was for investing in new homes.”

“And Andy was clearly pissed off that I called this guy,” she added.

An email sent to Andy Clem went unanswered.

So bright and early Thursday morning, I began looking into the letter in an attempt to both authenticate it and to try to determine if the $5 million in funding ever transpired.

The answer?

I have no idea. Still. But let me give you a rundown of my day.

First, I began by calling the same number Williamson called. I left a message there, but curiously, the outgoing message did not identify the number as belonging to LaSalle. I looked up the company and found its website and the email address for one of the alleged signatories — Gray Sheldon.

Two emails to Sheldon and two more to other email addresses on the company’s website proved unfruitful. So then I called some of the numbers listed on the website for satellite offices. None had outgoing voicemail messages, and a few had full mailboxes.

I then called the toll-free number on the website. A female receptionist answered with the company name. I asked to speak to Gray Sheldon. “Sure!” she said. “May I transfer you?”

I agreed, but I’ll admit I was curious what the alternative to transferring me was. Upon being transferred to what was presumably Sheldon’s phone, voicemail picked up. Again, no outgoing message that would identify the owner of the phone number. I left a message.

Not long after, a very puzzled man named John left me a voicemail message, saying that he had gotten a voicemail from me, but he didn’t know why he kept getting voicemails asking about Bella Vita Custom Homes and letters because he had never heard of them. He’s also not in the banking or homebuilding industry.

“I thought I’d let you know because whoever you’re trying to call is probably going to miss your deadline,” he concluded.

So I called the toll-free number back. “Hi, it’s Bethany Erickson again,” I said with my best Julia Sugarbaker smile in my voice. “The number you transferred me to – well, I left a voicemail. But a very nice man named John just called me back to let me know that I called him, and he was quite confused about my request because he doesn’t work for you.”

Long pause. “Oh, that’s weird,” the receptionist said. I agreed. “I can transfer you to his voicemail if you like. He’s not in today.”

“Um, I’ve already talked to John once today, thanks,” I said. “Can you just tell him to check his email?”

“Oh, no! I meant his office voicemail,” she said. I agreed and left a message. So far, I’m surprised as you, dear reader, that I’ve not gotten a return call.

Now, that was mildly bemusing and a little daffy, but it gets weirder. I began to check the addresses of the places on the letter and the website. Of all the addresses, I could only verify one – the River Point Tower address in Chicago listed on the website. When I asked if they had been a tenant before July 2016, when the letter was sent, I was informed that the building was not open in July.

The rest include a Greenwich, Conn., office park that does not list LaSalle as a tenant; the office complex in Rye Brook, NY, which says “they are terminated;” the Chicago address on the letter, which management confirms they are no longer officing at; and the Olympia Fields, Ill. office, where the phone number is disconnected.

Property management companies Regus and Ballantyne Business Center, who were called about the New York office on Broadway listed on the letter and the Charlotte, N.C., address listed on the website, respectively, declined to confirm or deny LaSalle was a tenant.

Even weirder (but probably explainable, right?) is the fact that I can’t find hide nor hair of a Gray Sheldon or Joseph LaSalle. No social media presence, no LinkedIn, no photos of a golf tournament or a charity ball with the wives. Not one thing.

I did find a LaSalle Capital, though. And the fact that this firm offices in the same West Madison Ave. office building in Chicago that LaSalle Nova Capital Markets listed on the letter had my curiosity piqued.

So I called. The person on the other end said they get their mail sometimes, but she just hands it back to the letter carrier. “But we are not affiliated with them in any way,” she said.

What I do know is this: LaSalle Bank Corp. was purchased in 2007 by Bank of America and absorbed. The only part of LBC that didn’t go to Bank of America apparently was its investment arm – which went to Bank of Nova Scotia (now Scotiabank). That could be where the Nova in LaSalle Nova Capital Markets comes from, but without being able to talk to any of the principals, I do not know.

Representatives of Bank of America confirmed that there is no link between LaSalle Nova Capital Markets and Bank of America.

So much of this story is mysterious and unfinished. I feel that I owe the people that have reached out to me and trusted me with their frustrations to try to get to the bottom of it. The responsibility of living up to the trust so many placed in me when I offered to tell their stories isn’t lost on me.

So this is my promise, and CandysDirt.com’s promise as well: I am not done. This isn’t the end. People have already come to me about other homebuilders and contractors, and I’m already beginning new spreadsheets and new folders. I’m also certain that the story of Bella Vita Custom Homes and the Clem family is not finished, either.

I am talking to contractors, legislators, and city council members about what can be done to protect consumers and subcontractors, and that story will be shared soon, too.

Building a new home always comes with a bit of a headache. But I believe it doesn’t have to involve heartache as well.

(Bethany Erickson has been researching Bella Vita Custom Homes and other builders in a months-long investigation that included uncovering at least 20 victims in the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone. Do you have a story to tell about your home building or renovation experience? Email [email protected].)

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Bethany Erickson lives in a 1961 Fox and Jacobs home with her husband, a second-grader, and Conrad Bain the dog. If she won the lottery, she'd by an E. Faye Jones home.
She's taken home a few awards for her writing, including a Gold award for Best Series at the 2018 National Association of Real Estate Editors journalism awards, a 2018 Hugh Aynesworth Award for Editorial Opinion from the Dallas Press Club, and a 2019 award from NAREE for a piece linking Medicaid expansion with housing insecurity.
She is a member of the Online News Association, the Education Writers Association, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and the Society of Professional Journalists.
She doesn't like lima beans or the word moist.

2 Comments

  1. G on April 8, 2017 at 10:15 pm

    Did you notice the signatures on the letter aren’t “real”? Same generic font for both. Even a form letter to be signed at most large companies would have a digital copy of a real signature, but anything legal would absolutely have a true signature.

  2. Andrea Skelton on December 21, 2017 at 2:36 pm

    I am part owner in a contracting company and the Clem’s are back to their shady business practices. They have taken over 16 months on a house that we are working on and they promised us two dry wall jobs if we discounted this current house. After realizing that they misrepresented themselves and the promise for the other jobs to get a discounted rate we froze production and went back to the Clem’s with a change order. The Clems aka Intelligent Designs has refused to pay us for work completed and pay our subs and is telling us we need to pay them WTF? We are filing a lawsuit against them. Please contact me if you would like details to add to this smear campaign I’d be happy to add to the grief and help fold their new endeavor led by shady business.

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