Who owns home? Newman case tied up in courts

By SUSAN HERENDEEN
sherendeen@modbee.com

last updated: April 21, 2008 06:39:26 AM

Carlos Gonzales and Ernestina Valladarez thought they were buying a home in summer 2002, when they gave a real estate agent $22,481 and moved into a three- bedroom, two-bathroom house on a corner lot in Newman.

More than five years later, Gonzales and Valladarez claim they were cheated by that agent, who took monthly payments from them to cover the home's mortgage, but later filed a lawsuit seeking to evict them.

After a three-day trial in November 2006, a Stanislaus County Superior Court jury said Gonzales and Valladarez didn't have to move out, and the couple prevailed again this March, when the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno upheld that verdict.

The victory is not enough to forestall foreclosure, because Gonzales and Valladarez don't hold title to the home at 2143 Orchard Creek Drive. So the legal battle continues, and the main allegation of a convoluted case, that the real estate agent defrauded the couple, remains on the horizon.

In the meantime, nobody is paying for the home.

The working-class couple -- who gave the home a paint job, then added a sunroom and covered patio -- fear they may find themselves out on the street.

"This is the only thing we've got, our house," Valladarez said.

And the real estate agent -- who crafted a purchase agreement for Gonzales but sold the home to her husband, then to her son -- said Gonzales and his wife are just tenants who repeatedly refused to take back their down payment.

"It was supposed to be an easy eviction, but it turned out to be something totally different," said Erica Burdg of Modesto, who worked for American Security Financial in 2002 and now works for PMZ Real Estate.

It all began May 18, 2002, when Gonzales signed an agreement to purchase the home for $155,000.

He was on disability from his job as a laborer but said he had more than $40,000 in the bank, saw the housing market heating up and thought he could protect his family's future by putting some equity into a home.

According to Gonzales and Va-lladarez, Burdg told them they would not qualify for a loan unless her creditworthy husband, David Burdg, co-signed the application. The couple believed this was a stopgap measure and planned to take over the mortgage once Gonzales was back on the job.

That never happened, and Gonzales, who speaks Spanish, is still out of work.

$22,481 to agent's account

Valladarez, who speaks English, said she wondered why a real estate agent would do such a favor, but was reassured when Erica Burdg told her she wanted to generate $8,000 in commissions by leveraging her husband's credit to sell the house.

Erica Burdg said the couple refuses to see that the deal was off because Gonzales did not get a loan.

Six weeks after Gonzales signed the purchase agreement, Valladarez drew a cashier's check for $22,481, made out to Chicago Title. She said Erica Burdg told her to get a check made out to David Burdg instead. The second check was deposited into the Burdgs' bank account July 5, 2002, court records show.

David Burdg purchased the home, with the deed transferring July 19, 2002.

During the next year, Gonzales and Valladarez made monthly payments of $1,283 to the lender, Aegis Wholesale Corp. From August 2003 to April 2005, Gonzales and Valladarez made monthly payments to David Burdg, according to court records.

In April 2005, a bank statement arrived at the home, showing that Erica and David Burdg had refinanced the home, dropping the monthly mortgage payments to $946.

Valladarez said she and Erica Burdg argued during a phone call that ended when both sides promised to hire lawyers.

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