The Williams Family
Donation protected
Warning this is very long but it has to be said....
If anyone knows the Williams family they know they are good hardworking people who selflessly devote their time to their kids, the kids sports, family and their endless amount of friends. They honestly don't know a stranger and with everyone they meet they have a positive impact on their life. With that being said, this family has been taken advantage of. Their good hearts put a lot of trust into a man that has now stolen from them. I am putting this out here because I know many people want to help. they have been displaced from a home for almost a year now and they have building legal fees that have put stress on them.
I am sharing this story from the social media post the Williams sent out yesterday:
After careful thought and consideration to all of whom are impacted by this post, my family and I have decided it is finally time to share our story. I was hesitant because I am embarrassed and ashamed that this happened to me and two because I really hoped this person would do the right thing. That didn’t happen and we are tired of being the silent victims. All the while this person is living his life unscathed with nobody the wiser to what a horrible thing he has done.
This is hard for me to write because I am a very proud man. I never thought something like this could/would ever happen to me, let alone from someone I considered a friend. Some of you know me and Steph sold our house in Aug last year and were excited about our new home. Unfortunately, the contract fell through, so we decided to wait for the right opportunity. Weeks turned into months without finding the right home for our family.
Well, in January we learned from friends of some acreage for sale that was perfect for us. Also, Steph had known of a respected builder in the area named Hardy Built Homes. Additionally, we were friends with his brother Jeremy Hardy. We have known Jeremy Hardy & his wife Nicky for at least 15 years. He used to be best friends with my cousin as well as Best Man in his wedding. Stephanie went to High School with both. We reached out to him and discussed building a new house on the property with Hardy Built Homes. He said they would love to build our home.
Jeremy told me that he handles the title work/loans with his company YM properties and his brother builds the houses; they were a team. It sounded even better, a one stop shop for everything. We have a realtor who is a close friend that we trust and wanted to use for the process but Jeremy convinced us that we did not need to use him. Why use him and pay more money when he(Jeremy) takes care of everything. Everything sounded too good to be true. First red flag.
We started the process and came to a mutual verbal agreement to build us our forever home. We never met with his brother Matt or scheduled any home tours of Hardy Built homes that were completed. We never met with Jeremy to sign any paperwork at a legitimate business. We never got a business address or phone number for the Title Company or YM properties. (More Red Flags) He did however invite us to his home to go over plans and answer any questions we had before we got started. All our hard work over the years was turning into something special. I was going to be able to give my wife and kid’s the home they have always wanted and deserved. We did not know the process. We trusted our friend who had been in this business to teach and protect us from the pitfalls of home building. We didn’t research as well as we should have. I was just so excited for us to finally catch a break that I didn’t catch the red flags.
Once we sent over our list of must haves, Jeremy needed our down payment to start everything. We sold our home so we had a substantial amount of money in savings from that sale, basically our life savings. The way he worded it to us was that we had to fund our own escrow/earnest money account so we could get the loan/process/plans started as they were a small company and didn’t cover the building fees. That way in case we were to back out at some point during the process the bank wasn’t out any money. It came out of our 20% (again more red Flags) down payment. He was a friend, and Hardy Built Homes has been a trusted builder for years. Why did I have to worry? Why would someone we know lie to us? I didn’t do enough research on the one person that was handling everything. Jeremy caught us at a very vulnerable time in our lives. We had been living with family for 8-10 months far away from our jobs and our kids’ school. We were tired and ready to take the next step. Our excitement and fatigue may have clouded our judgement.
He intentionally came into our lives with the intent of ruining it for his own personal gain and we willingly handed over multiple cashier’s checks. We later found out through our bank that these checks were deposited at a Regions bank into his own personal account. Not in a Title company and or YM properties.
Anytime we asked for an update he would have an excuse. Anytime we would text or call, it would be days before he would respond, if at all and we would have to follow up again. He would always say we were getting close with getting back the rendering of the plans and then we would not hear from him for days. We would always have to reach out to him. He had our money and we didn’t even have plans for a house yet. NOTHING had been done in 2 months! I just had a bad feeling, but I kept shrugging it off since this was a process I had never done before. I even started looking things up and asking other friend’s questions and everything seemed to sound legit but that gut feeling wouldn't go away.
I finally started looking on Hardy Built homes Facebook page and ended up messaging them. The Owners Matt Hardy & his wife Ashley reached out to me immediately to tell me Jeremy had nothing to do with their business and I needed to contact the authorities right away. He said he did not talk to his brother any longer. My heart sank. I turned white and about passed out. Matt and Ashley have been amazing thru this process and they legitimately have a great business. We only wish things would have been different so we could have had Matt build our home because he is very talented and his homes are beautiful!! His brother however is not a part of that business and never has been. Matt has offered his help because they are just as sick about this as we are. We were not the first people to contact Matt and Ashley asking about Jeremy. They even put a disclaimer on their Facebook paging warning people of his own brother!!
We reached out to Jeremy to let him know what we found out and we threatened to go to the police. He denied any problems and was shocked his brother would say these things. He’s our friend and he wouldn’t scam us he said. Our money was safe. We were still frantic though and asked for a statement showing where our money was being held, a business number to talk to someone at the title company or even an address of his business called YM properties. He STILL has never produced these things! He did eventually send over a word document that he typed up himself showing our “statement”. He had no urgency to get anything done knowing that we were scared and needed hard evidence that his business was legit. We finally had enough and told him we just wanted to cancel the process and get our money back and move on with our lives. Well here we are 4 months later, and we are still getting lied to about everything. His attempt to manipulate us is unbelievable! I think he almost believes his own lies. He still claims that the Title Company has our money, and this is all part of the process.
We have given Jeremy every opportunity to prove that he is legitimate. Sadly, he is not, and our money is gone.
We have since contacted Jefferson county Sheriff’s office to investigate. The Sheriff’s office attempted contact but failed to reach him. They tried calling and even stopped by his home multiple times and he never responded.
He has forced our hand to take legal action. We have followed all the legal steps to start a civil suit against him as well as working with Jefferson County on criminal charges. The Prosecutor’s office has let us know they have found enough evidence to file charges against him. He now has a warrant out for his arrest for a class C Felony charge and he will hopefully serve some time if he doesn’t return our money. We feel like justice will be served eventually to Jeremiah Hardy and the Jefferson County Prosecutors office will do everything in their power to make that happen.
We are not sure if we will ever see our money again but remain hopeful. Only God knows where the money is and why he did this. We know he was arrested on 5/7/19 in St Louis County and booked for possession of a controlled substance after stealing a few hundred bucks out of his employer’s cash register.
The pain and agony that we have suffered over these past few months has been torture and I have often referred to it as the darkest time in my life. I cannot look my wife and kids in the face without wanting to cry. I really don’t sleep anymore, just lay awake thinking about this mess. I feel like a complete failure to them.
We have finally come to grips that we must move forward and we are working on Plan B.
I am posting this horrible story of my life, so others stay clear of this monster and others like him. Please feel free to share our story.
I have also included the post from Jefferson County Sheriff's office confirming this, as well as the Casenet link.
https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchDockets.do
If anyone knows the Williams family they know they are good hardworking people who selflessly devote their time to their kids, the kids sports, family and their endless amount of friends. They honestly don't know a stranger and with everyone they meet they have a positive impact on their life. With that being said, this family has been taken advantage of. Their good hearts put a lot of trust into a man that has now stolen from them. I am putting this out here because I know many people want to help. they have been displaced from a home for almost a year now and they have building legal fees that have put stress on them.
I am sharing this story from the social media post the Williams sent out yesterday:
After careful thought and consideration to all of whom are impacted by this post, my family and I have decided it is finally time to share our story. I was hesitant because I am embarrassed and ashamed that this happened to me and two because I really hoped this person would do the right thing. That didn’t happen and we are tired of being the silent victims. All the while this person is living his life unscathed with nobody the wiser to what a horrible thing he has done.
This is hard for me to write because I am a very proud man. I never thought something like this could/would ever happen to me, let alone from someone I considered a friend. Some of you know me and Steph sold our house in Aug last year and were excited about our new home. Unfortunately, the contract fell through, so we decided to wait for the right opportunity. Weeks turned into months without finding the right home for our family.
Well, in January we learned from friends of some acreage for sale that was perfect for us. Also, Steph had known of a respected builder in the area named Hardy Built Homes. Additionally, we were friends with his brother Jeremy Hardy. We have known Jeremy Hardy & his wife Nicky for at least 15 years. He used to be best friends with my cousin as well as Best Man in his wedding. Stephanie went to High School with both. We reached out to him and discussed building a new house on the property with Hardy Built Homes. He said they would love to build our home.
Jeremy told me that he handles the title work/loans with his company YM properties and his brother builds the houses; they were a team. It sounded even better, a one stop shop for everything. We have a realtor who is a close friend that we trust and wanted to use for the process but Jeremy convinced us that we did not need to use him. Why use him and pay more money when he(Jeremy) takes care of everything. Everything sounded too good to be true. First red flag.
We started the process and came to a mutual verbal agreement to build us our forever home. We never met with his brother Matt or scheduled any home tours of Hardy Built homes that were completed. We never met with Jeremy to sign any paperwork at a legitimate business. We never got a business address or phone number for the Title Company or YM properties. (More Red Flags) He did however invite us to his home to go over plans and answer any questions we had before we got started. All our hard work over the years was turning into something special. I was going to be able to give my wife and kid’s the home they have always wanted and deserved. We did not know the process. We trusted our friend who had been in this business to teach and protect us from the pitfalls of home building. We didn’t research as well as we should have. I was just so excited for us to finally catch a break that I didn’t catch the red flags.
Once we sent over our list of must haves, Jeremy needed our down payment to start everything. We sold our home so we had a substantial amount of money in savings from that sale, basically our life savings. The way he worded it to us was that we had to fund our own escrow/earnest money account so we could get the loan/process/plans started as they were a small company and didn’t cover the building fees. That way in case we were to back out at some point during the process the bank wasn’t out any money. It came out of our 20% (again more red Flags) down payment. He was a friend, and Hardy Built Homes has been a trusted builder for years. Why did I have to worry? Why would someone we know lie to us? I didn’t do enough research on the one person that was handling everything. Jeremy caught us at a very vulnerable time in our lives. We had been living with family for 8-10 months far away from our jobs and our kids’ school. We were tired and ready to take the next step. Our excitement and fatigue may have clouded our judgement.
He intentionally came into our lives with the intent of ruining it for his own personal gain and we willingly handed over multiple cashier’s checks. We later found out through our bank that these checks were deposited at a Regions bank into his own personal account. Not in a Title company and or YM properties.
Anytime we asked for an update he would have an excuse. Anytime we would text or call, it would be days before he would respond, if at all and we would have to follow up again. He would always say we were getting close with getting back the rendering of the plans and then we would not hear from him for days. We would always have to reach out to him. He had our money and we didn’t even have plans for a house yet. NOTHING had been done in 2 months! I just had a bad feeling, but I kept shrugging it off since this was a process I had never done before. I even started looking things up and asking other friend’s questions and everything seemed to sound legit but that gut feeling wouldn't go away.
I finally started looking on Hardy Built homes Facebook page and ended up messaging them. The Owners Matt Hardy & his wife Ashley reached out to me immediately to tell me Jeremy had nothing to do with their business and I needed to contact the authorities right away. He said he did not talk to his brother any longer. My heart sank. I turned white and about passed out. Matt and Ashley have been amazing thru this process and they legitimately have a great business. We only wish things would have been different so we could have had Matt build our home because he is very talented and his homes are beautiful!! His brother however is not a part of that business and never has been. Matt has offered his help because they are just as sick about this as we are. We were not the first people to contact Matt and Ashley asking about Jeremy. They even put a disclaimer on their Facebook paging warning people of his own brother!!
We reached out to Jeremy to let him know what we found out and we threatened to go to the police. He denied any problems and was shocked his brother would say these things. He’s our friend and he wouldn’t scam us he said. Our money was safe. We were still frantic though and asked for a statement showing where our money was being held, a business number to talk to someone at the title company or even an address of his business called YM properties. He STILL has never produced these things! He did eventually send over a word document that he typed up himself showing our “statement”. He had no urgency to get anything done knowing that we were scared and needed hard evidence that his business was legit. We finally had enough and told him we just wanted to cancel the process and get our money back and move on with our lives. Well here we are 4 months later, and we are still getting lied to about everything. His attempt to manipulate us is unbelievable! I think he almost believes his own lies. He still claims that the Title Company has our money, and this is all part of the process.
We have given Jeremy every opportunity to prove that he is legitimate. Sadly, he is not, and our money is gone.
We have since contacted Jefferson county Sheriff’s office to investigate. The Sheriff’s office attempted contact but failed to reach him. They tried calling and even stopped by his home multiple times and he never responded.
He has forced our hand to take legal action. We have followed all the legal steps to start a civil suit against him as well as working with Jefferson County on criminal charges. The Prosecutor’s office has let us know they have found enough evidence to file charges against him. He now has a warrant out for his arrest for a class C Felony charge and he will hopefully serve some time if he doesn’t return our money. We feel like justice will be served eventually to Jeremiah Hardy and the Jefferson County Prosecutors office will do everything in their power to make that happen.
We are not sure if we will ever see our money again but remain hopeful. Only God knows where the money is and why he did this. We know he was arrested on 5/7/19 in St Louis County and booked for possession of a controlled substance after stealing a few hundred bucks out of his employer’s cash register.
The pain and agony that we have suffered over these past few months has been torture and I have often referred to it as the darkest time in my life. I cannot look my wife and kids in the face without wanting to cry. I really don’t sleep anymore, just lay awake thinking about this mess. I feel like a complete failure to them.
We have finally come to grips that we must move forward and we are working on Plan B.
I am posting this horrible story of my life, so others stay clear of this monster and others like him. Please feel free to share our story.
I have also included the post from Jefferson County Sheriff's office confirming this, as well as the Casenet link.
https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchDockets.do
Organizer and beneficiary
Christy Otto Jaycox
Organizer
Kirkwood, MO
Marshall Williams
Beneficiary