Outlawed contracts from MV Realty creating financial nightmares for some Nevadans

When a local real estate agent told Las Vegas resident Terry Arnold she could make a quick $1,500 back in 2022 by having her property assessed by an outside company, she didn’t think much of it.

Two people showed up at her house, asked her to sign a document and then handed over a check for the money. Arnold said she thought nothing of it until May when she tried to secure a loan for her business.

“The bank called and told me there was a cloud on the title (a lien) on my home, and that’s when the nightmare started,” she said.

Turns out Arnold is one of about 800 homeowners in Nevada, according to the Nevada Land Title Association, who are still under contract with Florida-based MV Realty. With the promise of an upfront payment, MV Realty entices homeowners to sign a contract that’s really a 40-year agreement to use the company as the listing agency for their home. Homeowners are then forced to pay to cancel the contract and have it removed from the title, which usually costs around 3 percent of the home’s value.

The practice was outlawed in Nevada in 2023, but the law failed to void existing agreements.

‘It’s been a financial nightmare’

Arnold, a widow, said she had no idea she was basically signing a 40-year exclusive listing with the company and feels “duped” by the whole ordeal. Arnold said she has been going back and forth with MV Realty via email for months and is now staring down the prospect of paying at least $17,000 to have the lien removed.

“I feel like a prisoner in my own home. It’s been a financial nightmare. My credit score has gone down,” she said. “I’m not trying to sell my house. I’m just trying to get a business loan. My frustration level is through the roof, so I would like to bring attention to this company and their tactics. And my goal is to reach those 800 people so they don’t have to go through this nightmare like I have to.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reached out to MV Realty’s legal department via email but did not receive a response. Arnold shared email exchanges she had with the company. She reached out to MV Realty to say she did not know she was signing a 40-year agreement and should be let out of the contract in good faith. She also pointed out the practice has since been outlawed in Nevada.

“Please note that there has been no ruling in Nevada that renders MV Realty’s agreements void,” reads an email from MV Realty to Arnold. “We are aware of the statute you reference …, but those filings do not invalidate your agreement, nor do they affect MV Realty’s rights under it. Importantly, MV has not waived any of its contractual rights, and your agreement remains in effect unless satisfied or terminated in accordance with its terms.”

Nevada Assemblymember Heidi Kasama, who was the author of the bill that outlawed these predatory practices, said hundreds of homeowners are still in the same situation as Arnold, some of whom may not even know they have a decades-long exclusive listing agreement with MV Realty.

Kasama said that back in 2022, when she was the managing broker for Berkshire Hathaway Home Services’ Summerlin office, she noticed something odd coming up with some of her agents in the area.

“This came to our attention because some of our agents were closing on properties,” she said. “And when they were closing on properties, there was this additional lien on the property.”

Then Kasama said she put together a case file of what was happening and sent it to Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office thinking it was a consumer protection issue for the state, but she said she did not hear back from them for months — when she had already headed up for the legislative session and had a draft bill drawn up.

In an email to the Review Journal, Ford’s office said it has received complaints about MV Realty. It declined to provide further comment.

MV Realty recently settled a multistate lawsuit with such states as Florida, Georgia and California in which the Florida-based company was in some cases forced to pay homeowners back and fully release them from their liens.

Kasama argues that the AG’s office should investigate the matter, given how many homeowners may still be affected, and there may be other companies that carried out the same agreements with residents in the state.

“I passed the bill, which banned 40-year listings going forward. We had what we thought was proper legal language to make the current liens on the properties null and void,” she said. “And I’ve had other constituents reach out to me asking for help, and it’s just so sad because I think that the Legislative Counsel Bureau (a state agency that provides research and legal advice) ruled that the language we passed in the bill was probably not strong enough to release the previous liens that had been recorded.”

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.