If you read but 1 page, let it be "BIG Worries Ahead!"
"The sales reps sold us all a phoney bill of goods from day one!" (I can't reveal who made this direct quote but it's someone in a high position who definitely knows!)
"Walden Woods South lied!"
"Our dream is lost!"
"I know. So is our money!"
Families Warned:
Dealing with Walden Woods management (CRF) was nearly impossible for the three years I've lived here (I'm one of the pioneers - the fifth house here). And they showed their true colors by stalling endlessly, declaring bankruptcy, stalling us some more, then cutting and running away from their responsibility to us.
Suddenly residents received phone calls from a man identifying himself as being from an entity calling itself "New World Communities" and telling us that the man who is the CEO of Nobility Homes paid CRF to become their 'general partner' (as an individual, not as Nobility Homes) and from now on he will be managing the park under his umbrella corporation Northwest Communities and that from now on he will be collecting the rent. Then he actually asked for access to bank accounts so he could automatically deduct the monthly lot rent from our accounts. No way!
When reality of this takeover hit, one usually calm resident said: "That's it! We'll never get out of here! We'll never sell our house! We'll all die here!"
A little background about the relationship between Nobility Homes and CRF:
CRF were cowards from the start. They misrepresented the homes and the community, took our money and failed to live up to their obligations then refused to deal honestly with the residents who were clamoring for what they paid for and what they continue to pay their rents for. Then after three years of malfeasance they tried to cut and run. They suddenly and without prior warning handed control over to the CEO of Nobility Homes (Terry Trexler), in what appears to me, on the face of it at least, to be a rather incestuous arrangement.
From the beginning Nobility/Prestige Homes had the exclusive right to sell the homes they manufactured to CRF who in turn resold them to be located in Walden Woods South. That arrangement still stands - you will have no choice of home builder when you buy here. Now it appears that Terry Trexler bailed CRF out. Not out of their $61 Million bankruptcy, but they allege to have taken over (or wiggled out of) CRF's Walden Woods South indebtedness to Wells Fargo Bank. So this park is now assured to have the cookie-cutter look of a typical mobile home/trailer park. If you want to read more about CRF's bankruptcy refer to the August 6, 2010 edition of The Ledger, a Polk County Florida newspaper. The article is on page C6.
And residents report being told that the new management is bringing in a crew of aggressive salesmen to fill this park. Crowding is bad for you - there's already more than 400 families allowed to use our facilities, add to that our 225 (when full), meaning there will be more than 2000 people using and deprecating our facilities built for about 20% of that. Our swimming pool (inoperative much of the time) holds only 19 people standing upright looking like soldiers at attention. They can't swim in any real sense, they just marinate, then they get out and are replaced by the next 19. And the tiny hot tub works so few days of the year it's pointless to even discuss it.
A background check on Nobility Homes yielded some very interesting info. There's six pages of complaints about them on www.RipoffReport.com. Just go to that website and enter "Nobility Homes" in the search box to read it for yourself.
If the three years I've lived here is any measuring stick, when park management says aggressive salesmen I can only picture the worst type of oily-hair types with perpetual toothy smiles saying just about anything to skin vulnerable seniors alive and relieve them of their life savings.
So, now the highway entry sign reads: Walden Woods, a Solstice 55+ Lifestyle Community. "Solstice" is an unknown entity... who the heck are they, anyway?
And after an advertising respite CRF is back. In the monthly AARP Bulletin they are now running small black & white ads. And despite trumpeting the change in management their ads are using the contact 'crfinflorida.com' - using all lower case in a very small unassuming black & white ad as if trying to slither in under the radar.
The upshot of the CRF-Nobility-Trexler-New World Solstice Communities, etc., etc., etc. is that it's a smoke screen behind which CRF is still lurking. CRF says it's no longer "managing" this insane asylum but all that really happened is that someone new is collecting the rent. CRF is still very much in charge so don't be fooled. And remember that a skunk by any other name still smells like a skunk!
Management Cut & Run - They Actually Abandoned us!
