Who is Amanda Zachman? Florida sues ‘Big Brother’ alum and her realty company for swindling homeowners
DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA: ‘Big Brother’ alum Amanda Zachman, who formerly went by the last name Zuckerman, is at the center of a housing scandal. The reality star turned realty broker and her company have reportedly been sued by the state of Florida for exploiting homeowners. As per reports, Zachman’s company MV Reality has been swindling thousands of unsuspecting homeowners across Florida and many other states in the US by promising quick cash.
According to kiro7.com, Attorney General of Florida Ashley Moody has filed a lawsuit against MV Realty for tricking their clients into signing deals that grant the company 40-year liens attached to their homes or lawsuits demanding thousands of dollars. Discussing the deceptive scheme, Moody stated, “For a company to prey on unsuspecting homeowners in a way that locks them into a 40-year obligation designed to siphon away equity from the property is disgraceful.” Moody’s lawsuit also specifically singles out founder Amanda Zachman.
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Who is Amanda Zachman?
According to reports, Amanda Zachman is an entrepreneur, real estate broker, and business leader with over 13 years of industry experience in real estate. Zachman was also a houseguest on the popular reality TV series ‘Big Brother’ in Season 15. She gained popularity for her romance with fellow housemate McCrae Olson.
Zachman is the founder and executive director of MV Realty, a real estate brokerage firm in Delray Beach, Florida. According to Zachman’s LinkedIn profile, MV reality is a “new age real estate brokerage created by seasoned, technologically savvy, real estate professionals to meet the needs of the modern broker, buyer, and seller.” Zachman hails from a family of successful real estate agents.
According to Medium, she pursued musical theater for a few years but then, had a quarter-life crisis and decided to choose a more stable career. Zachman received her real estate license in California and started at Coldwell Banker, where her mother and grandmother worked. She sold her first house for $1 million. Zachman founded MV Realty in 2014 and currently has more than 500 agents working for her across America.
In 2018, the former reality star launched the Homeowner Benefit Program (HBP). HBP offers homeowners a cash incentive of up to $5,000 (a percentage of their home’s estimated value) in exchange for a 40-year agreement to use MV Realty as their listing agent for six months if and when they decide to sell their home. But this very program has landed Zachman in trouble with Florida authorities.
The loopholes in the HPB contract have resulted in many unsuspecting homeowners being wrongfully sued by MV reality for “breaking clauses.” According to Kiro7, when a disabled Navy veteran Ira Dorin, who had signed a contract with the company, opted to use a different realtor a year later, the company sued him for violating his contract. Dorin said he paid MV Realty more than $9,000 to avoid holding up his sale. The company made even more than the realtors who handled the sale. Dorin is not the only one, many of the company’s clients who signed MV Realty contracts are also elderly. Several expressed that they suffer from medical issues that limit their understanding of what they are signing.
Another instance occurred in Charlotte when Patricia Bandy told WSOC-TV that MV Realty offered her $900 after she went online looking for a short-term loan. She said she read the contract but didn’t realize it would last 40 years. Bandy initially tried to sell her house with MV Realty to abide by the contract. Brandy noted, “For 11 days, I contacted the realtor that I was assigned. I continuously asked for them to come out and do pictures or tell me what to do.” Her decision to hire another realtor resulted in a lawsuit from MV Realty demanding she pays a 3% penalty. “It was $14,000 and some change,” she said, adding, “It’s an incredible amount of money, especially when you’re middle-class working America.”
The lawsuit also highlights that Zachman’s company harasses clients with repeated calls and overflowing voice messages, even to those who have applied for a DND request. In response, the company claimed, “We do not cold call and only reach out to prospects who have opted-in to receive information from us via our website or a partner website.”
In their written statement, MV Reality claimed, “The agreement is very clear and is in plain English.” It added, “Any filing is specifically limited to protecting MV Realty’s rights under its agreement. It has no adverse effect on homeowners. The filing is not only accurately described in the agreement, but for the avoidance of any doubt, the filing itself is signed by the homeowner, and that document they signed is what is recorded with the county.”
After the lawsuit, MV Realty updated its website to include clear disclosures about the Homeowner Benefit Program at the top of the page. The site now clarifies the Homeowner Benefit Agreement is “not a loan,” and it does not lien property but “file a memorandum … to serve public notice of the homeowner’s obligations.”