Calvin Musselman & Dawnell Musselman (Team Musselman) of  Golden Spike Realty, Sunset Utah REALTOR®

A Consumer Fraud Victim Complaint Review & Opinion

Would you buy that house if you knew you would not get the front yard, side yard, detached garage or half your driveway? The seller had subdivided the lot and then refused to pay taxes on it so it went to the County for unpaid taxes. The seller and agent kept that fact secret and would not disclose it to the buyer. Not even that the sale did NOT include the detached garage the seller built and used next to it? I doubt if anyone would, and certainly NOT for over $300,000! (This photo was taken after the buyer completely changed off the flimsy aluminum and partial red brick siding, installed larger new windows and added a cement & covered porch with a bedroom bump out before she learned of the house subdivision and lost the parcel.)

Consumer Financial Protection Advocacy Utah has never seen in reviewing consumer victim complaints a more egregious, aggressive, and intentional effort to deceive a homebuyer into purchasing a property (it was an out-of-state single senior, a new mother by the adoption of her grandchildren, and with her life savings). So many known material issues and facts undisclosed or lied about directly by the real estate agents and in their state-required real estate disclosure and sales documents!

Clearly, without any doubt, it is our opinion that the real estate agents Calvin Musselman and Dawnell Musselman aka Team Musselman (husband and wife real estate agent sales team) of Golden Spike Realty, knew each of the following items on this list of material or major problems with their family home and that they were required by law to tell the buyer honest answers and disclose them to her. She asked Dawnell Musselman the right questions but got lies for answers.

The Musselman Team knew they had a duty, to be honest, and disclose these material issues in this sale to the victim, they knew the seriousness and depth that each of these issues would cause this out of state senior buyer, who could not have discovered these issues on her own. They took advantage of her situation coming out of state to rescue and give her grandchildren a new start in an area far away from the trauma they had experienced all their lives.  (This was Dawnell’s family home that her grandmother and uncle had owned together over 30 years, and her other uncle had built.) This property had been in their family a generation even before the home was built. Dawnell was very close to these members of her family and the house was sold so that her Uncle could move next to her mom in West Haven, and near this real estate agent so the family could all live near each other she told the buyer. The victim buyer asked her directly about the paint markings on the lane and street (they were for the street removal, but Dawnell did not answered honestly that they were for the street removal that occurred just a couple weeks after the close of escrow, and that is what the markings were for), the inclusion of the detached garage in the sale,  the legality of the over the garage rental with property zoning, and got lies for answers, etc…

Consumer Financial Protection Advocates Utah opinion is that this Team Musselman committed fraud in hiding these devastating issues and lying about them to the buyer. Bill Gepdhart has reported that Cal Musselman is a former President of the Utah Association of Realtors, and also former President of the Northern Wasatch Association of Realtors. It is especially outrageous because Cal Musselman has been an example to other Utah Realtors that they can get away with dishonesty and poor ethics, even fraud in home sales to buyers to net these very large financial rewards in these large sales commissions. Utah has some of the toughest real estate agent protection laws in the country–protecting their high commissions. and shortening periods for liability for dishonesty and other disclosures favoring the business interests of Realtors over the devastating damages to consumers.

Internet newcomers present a challenge to Realtors’ traditional ability to charge 6 percent commissions on the sale of every home–now worth upwards of $10,000 per sale in most of the country and the Utah Legislature has stopped them effectively with new “minimum-service bills pose a direct challenge to the discount brokers. ” More than 22 people make their living in real estate also serve as members of the Utah legislature.

Our current Utah Governor, Gary Herbert has been a Realtor and Cal Musselman is one of those real estate agent legislators. State Senate leader Stuart Adams, Adams Company, a Real Estate, Construction, and Development Firm. And our Utah legislature house speaker is Brad Wilson, President, and CEO of Destination Homes, a residential home builder in Utah.  Clearly, with our highest ranking state leaders and a large percentage of our state senate and house legislators work in real estate, or real estate development and pass laws to protect their income interests OVER the interests to protect consumer home buyers. In fact, Utah laws governing disclosures and fraud are very light compared to much stronger legislation in other states. We should hold Real Estate Agents accountable for intentional dishonesty when they are deceptive in home sales to buyers like in this case, just so they can keep a sale from falling out of escrow, so they can get high commissions that average around $10,000 per home sale.

Dawnell’s seller, her uncle was a very unsophisticated seller. He was a retired senior a former woodworker from Hill Air Force military base and had lived in this home in Layton, Utah for about 35 years. He did not have any experience in buying and selling homes, real estate law, and sales and ethics in disclosure requirements. He looked to Dawnell for complete guidance in what to do and what to say to buyers and for her to write up all the paperwork.  The victim said at different times she had noticed Dawnell “shush” him to keep him from talking about the property and thought that was odd. She said they appeared to come and go in the same car and appeared very close, even driving to doctor appointments together.

The victim said she would have never bought the home if any one of these lies about non disclosed major issues had been told the truth about, let alone all of these serious issues had been properly disclosed to her!

Dawnell Musselman didn’t tell the truth about even one of these items on the list below and coached the seller not to tell either and thus saved a very large sales commission windfall because they were successful in hiding all these listed material issues and facts from the buyer.

Cal Musselman and Dawnell Musselman of  Golden Spike Realty knew that this unique old property had all these issues and if they disclosed them that most likely the house would not sell, or would drop out of escrow if buyers knew these issues beforehand, and that would cause them to lose a $10,000 plus real estate sales commission.

So in our opinion, after reading all the agent and buyer correspondence, victim’s experience report, and sales documents that these realtors had a duty to disclose and did NOT disclose any of these following items they knew in this list and in fact, making sure the required disclosure forms were completely empty of any of these required disclosures by the seller.

By law and professional ethics, the following should have been answered honestly to their victim, especially their knowing that the victim was an all-cash buyer from out of state not familiar with the area and could not have discovered these items on her own, or out of the area realtor or Danwnell’s choice of the title company that she had a close relationship with, and was under their control. The very expensive and thorough home inspector the victim had hired had no reason to suspect any of these issues and did not report them either as home inspections don’t include additional parcel or street information or these other issues. Only someone with knowledge and history in the house and the area as Team Musselman and seller and neighbors had known each of these major 6 issues, such as all issues with the street address being moved soon after the close of escrow,  having had letters sent to the Seller about the new freeway, etc…

Cal Musselman & Dawnell Musselman Did NOT Tell the Truth

or Disclose Any of These Required Material Issues in 2014 Family Home Sale:

1. That within one month of the escrow closing street work would begin to remove her street and move it in another location next to Highway 89 causing increased noise from Highway 89 substantially, do the removal of landscaping and topography that had buffered the noise before the sale took place.
2. That the detached garage next to the home and used by the seller was not owned by the seller and did not come with the home. Because his family had subdivided the property into two parcels, and his mother had lost that parcel to Davis County when she had not paid property taxes on it.
3. That the County claimed ownership of the parcel that contained the front yards, most of the driveways and side yard, and could be auctioned off and render the home without required city setbacks to be legal and marketable. (We have letters from the County documenting all that and the tax and subdivision notices.)
4. That the seller had received notice from UDOT and their representative firms of Highway 89 planned expansion and noise increases. That it was to become a planned freeway with the addition of more lanes. (We have a copy of a letter where UDOT stated they gave Bill Posell the notice.)
5. That the sellers granny unit above the garage was illegally rented not to Zoning requirements to a couple, but that the lease continued after the sale other several months)
6. That the Weber Basin Project installed a large man-size (six-foot high and six-foot-wide aqueduct runs several feet under the property and near the foundation of the home and could wipe it out in an earthquake or if it became otherwise deteriorated or damaged.) The victim learned about this problem after trying to work with Davis County to keep them from auctioning off her front & side yard and garage. It took 3 years as she had to start all over again with two new county commissioners. Two weeks after she was finally permitted to buy part of the property back from Davis County to make her home whole and legal, Weber Water Conservancy District flagged her yard and threatened to require her to demolish the detached garage building that she just had bought from Davis County. She has been forced into an agreement with them where she can keep the building until she sells the property, and she must demolish it before it can be sold or transferred to a new buyer.   

Cal Musselman Complaint No Disclosure of aqueduct on the property next to home.

The fraud victim (we don’t publish victim names here to protect the innocent, but names are available on upon request to appropriate agencies to help settle grievances), has provided us with over eight documents to substantiate all of her claims of fraud by Team Musselman.

We believe the victim would have prevailed in a court case if the discovery period had not been shortened to only 36 months. (The victim did not discover that Dawnell Musselman’s family had subdivided the home parcel that the victim had purchased through her, and that Dawnell’s family had let that parcel with the front and side yard to the house go to Davis County for non-payment of real estate taxes until this 36 month period had expired and a neighbor informed her by letter two weeks after the 36 month period.

The neighbor had informed the victim 36 months and 2 weeks from the purchase date stating that the victim homeowner did not have the area in her driveways and front and side yards that the selling agent (Dawnell Musselman) and the seller (Dawnell’s uncle) had shown the victim as the property she was buying. The victim had asked them to do a walk with the agent and seller around the perimeter of the entire property. They did so and walked at the end of the driveways and around the detached garage and was not honest about that part of the property not being sold with the home building and back yard. When the victim met with the Davis County Property Manager to see if the neighbor’s information was correct, he told the victim that she could no longer maintain her front yard flower beds and other parts of the yards what she had believed was her property or use the garage as the seller had maintained it left in very well maintained condition. He also provided her a map that indicated to her that the house did not have the required setbacks for her city so that the home met current codes and could be marketable in the future. The Property Manager said he was going to proceed and sell the excess property parcel the County-owned at an auction to the highest bidder and told the victim he would be sending a notice to her very wealthy neighbor to bid on it that had sent her the letter.  In fear of not being able to outbid her wealthy neighbor for the area she believed she needed to make her property whole again, legal and marketable and being told by lawyers that she could not sue the Realtor’s “Team Musselman” because the short 36-month discovery window had elapsed that the legislature had enacted, it sent the victim in a deep downhill health spiral of poor health with the escalation due to stress of her diabetes condition and difficult depression.

The victim contacted Cal & Dawnell Musselman real estate broker at Golden Spike Realty Bob Hill to notify him of the fraud and false disclosure signed papers but the broker used intimidation efforts to scare the victim by threatening to call the police on her for contacting him. Hard to believe, but we have in our complaint file those scary real estate broker threatening e-mails. Eventually, Bob Hill stated that he would investigate it, but he never did, not took any action or followed through upon requests of the victim.

The victim was an out of state single grandmother that had been through eight difficult years in an effort to rescue her granddaughters from meth addict and criminal parents. Before purchasing this home from Team Musselman, she had been required as a foster parent for the state to hide the girls in a series of motels over several months to protect them from kidnapping while state child protective services could arrange to proceed for her adoption of them.

It was the victim’s intention to move the girls out of state to a safe place where the children could escape the many terrorizing experiences they had and selected an area here in Utah to be near supportive family for them to begin to heal. The victim had been very throughout as she should be, even questioning real estate agents in an e-mail she provided us why the real estate disclosure form was signed but completely void of any disclosure items which is unusual as the victim experienced California home sale disclosures that usually contain agent and seller items about the house that needed to be disclosed to buyers. The victim bought title insurance but later learned later that title insurance companies are required to disclose certain things when loans are involved, but didn’t in her case because it was an all-cash sale from her retirement savings. The victim and her granddaughters just wanted to settle down in a stress-free place where they could heal from the last several traumatic years they had experienced, the realtors were aware of them escaping all this trauma, and yet still hid all these major issues to take advantage of their out of state situation and inability to know these location issues in the sale of this house to them.

Unfortunately, legislation has been passed to remove and reduce REALTOR® penalties for ethics violations and fraud to the degree that there is very little incentive for sales agents to stay honest and follow the laws to disclose issues against the tempting large sales commissions that average over $10,000 per home sale. One of the most powerful lobby organizations in the state of Utah, the RPAC.  In fact, the UTAH ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS has given over $2,5oo,000 to Utah Legislator Campaigns (and $20,100 to Calvin Musselman for his 2018 & 2020 political campaigns.)* It is very sad to learn that the non-real estate agent candidate opponent doesn’t receive this high influx of cash for their campaign so they have a more fair and even chance in an election.

The victim has asked us to state here that it would be trespassing should Calvin Musselman or Dawnell Musselman or their real estate broker Bob Hill or others working for them show up at her home to scare or threaten her to remove her complaint.

She asked that we let them know she will call the police if she sees them drive into the driveways and approach her at her home. She is a high risk for COVID and as a single senior parent with severe diabetes, she doesn’t want her girls to orphaned a second time before they even become teens. If the Musselman team wants to work with the victim to resolve this complaint before further actions are taken, they can contact the victim by letter or e-mail only.

This complaint clearly indicates the reasoning and need that certain real estate frauds and deceptions should NOT be exempt by law and should NOT enjoy such a brief period of discovery that protect the real estate agents like Cal & Dawnell Musselman that know the facts, but refuse to be honest with buyers as required, because of the incentive to fraud consumers with sales commissions that are very high averaging at about $10,000 per home sale.

It is the Consumer Financial Protection Advocacy Utah intention to help this victim as much as it is possible and advocate for her with the Utah State legislature, the Division of Real Estate, and the Utah Association of Realtors with her complaint in the next several months.

It is more than outrageous that the Musselman Team thought they could just get away with this fraud and collect that big commission and dump all these major issues for this new single senior mother to manage. They never even attempted to work with the victim to help her resolve these issues or reimburse her the costs of getting back the land from the county and rebuilding a noise berm to cut the Highway 89 noise back down. Instead, they had their broker threaten her and scare her with police actions.

Even with so many realtors and land developers in the Utah State Legislature and their very wealthy strong lobby, we intend to show them this outrageous example of real estate fraud to try to get them to change the 36 month period for discovery that allows many realtors to get away with “legalized fraud” or fraud that a buyer cannot sue for damages and expenses to fix. We need to remove the incentive for real estate agents like Cal Musselman and Dawnell Musselman to keep other buyers in the dark and not disclose serious material issues in properties they list so they can earn big $10,000 plus sales commissions in the future. We need Utah to have the appropriate consumer protection laws in real estate sales that most other states have enacted to protect their consumers and citizens.

We have fount after careful review of all the documents mentioned in this complaint and referred to below that that Calvin Musselman and Dawnell Musselman of “Team Musselman” are in deep violation of the Realtor Code of Ethics Article 2 which says: “REALTORS® shall avoid exaggeration, misrepresentation, or concealment of pertinent facts relating to the property or the transaction. REALTORS® shall not, however, be obligated to discover latent defects in the property, to advise on matters outside the scope of their real estate license, or to disclose facts which are confidential under the scope of agency or non-agency relationships as defined by state law. ” 

We have also informed the victim that she can still file a complaint with the Utah State Division of Real Estate and the Utah Association of Realtors , Angie’s List, YELP  Yellow Pages, and the Better Business Bureau of Utah . Other related review pages to this one are https://calvinmusselman.org/  https://dawnellmusselman.org/  https://goldenspikerealtyreview.org/  https://goldenspikerealty.org/ https://goldenspikerealityreview.com/   As of 9/18/2020 we will be assisting her in these tasks in the next few weeks and updating this page with reports of their actions and any other new information about these efforts to seek justice for this victim.

VICTIM COMPLAINT REFERENCES & SOURCES

1 *FollowTheMoney.org Utah Association of Realtors Candidate Donation Lookup

2 “In How a town, a Romney and the Utah Legislature laid the groundwork for a land grab” We learn that Realtor & Part-time legislator Calvin Musselman sponsored and passed a bill  with “a provision slipped into a bill passed by the Legislature at the very end of the annual session that allows, under suspiciously specific circumstances, a town to annex a noncontiguous part of a neighboring county without having to get the approval of the county where the land sits.” This was done to specifically benefit Josh Romney, Mitt Romney’s son a real estate developer who obtained a large section of land in Park City to develop many offices, stores, and home developments to arrange zoning and other developer advantages.

3 Hideout Annexation On Hold While Judge Weighs Decision  

4 Real Power “few lobbies can match the Realtors for numbers, financial wherewithal–and effectiveness.”

5 Couple empty-handed after paying for list of foreclosed homes

6 Cal Musselman, former President of the Northern Wasatch Association of Realtors 

7 UDOT plans to rebuild the highway along a 9-mile stretch between Farmington and Interstate 84 in South Weber, transforming the road into a six-lane freeway-type facility.

8 Victim’s real estate purchase contract, disclosure statements, agent e-mails, and Davis County Property Management and Commissioner survey maps, and e-mails, Davis County land auction notices, UDOT confirmation letter they sent the seller a letter about the planned freeway and Weber Basin Water Conservancy District maps, e-mails, and photos.  As well as many other victim documents from the victim’s lawyer and others.

9 Prop 3 Medicare Expansion More Popular Than Their Legislators That Voted to Change It Out 

10 Better Utah Progress Report Calvin R Musselman Worst Overall F Grade 

11 Conflict of Interest Form at the State Legislature Canyon Country Inc, Eagle Land Properties, LLC.

12 KSL Investigates New Construction Laws, Campaign Contributions, Potential Conflicts Of Interest 

13  Business Records of Calvin Musselman: 

LEGEND CONSTRUCTION LLC 1798 W 5150 S Roy UT 84067

CDM ENTERPRISES, INC 4270 S 2800 W Roy UT 84067

CANYON COUNTRY ENTERPRISES, INC 4137 S 4100 W West Haven UT 84401

EAGLE LAND PROPERTIES, LLC 160 E Broadway Salt Lake City UT 84111

IMPORTANT COMPLAINT NOTICE

Contracts that prohibit honest reviews, or threaten legal action over them, harm people who rely on reviews when making their purchase decisions. But another group is also harmed when others try to squelch honest negative reviews: businesses that work hard to earn positive reviews.