Testimony — Daniel Coffey, RE/MAX Harbor Country, on HB 5152 and HB 5153 (June 11, 2026)

Summary

Email from Daniel Coffey to Dakota Soda, sent Thursday, June 11, 2026, with a copy to Thaddeus Hackworth, supporting HB 5152 and 5153. The writer states that the writer owned and operated RE/MAX harbor country for 40 years and has had licenses in Michigan and Indiana for 45 years. The email describes local “bad apples” who, it says, tell owners lies about their rights after foreclosure and then get a quit-claim deed to the property. It says whatever issues are caused by tardy recordings ought to be resolved rather than used as an excuse to do nothing, and asks legislators not to let technical problems stop the needed reforms.

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Full text

Dakota Soda

From:                              Daniel Coffey <dan@dancoffey.com>
Sent:                              Thursday, June 11, 2026 11:23 AM
To:                                Dakota Soda
Cc:                                Thaddeus Hackworth; Daniel Coffey
Subject:                           Support for the Proposals presented by Thaddeus Hackworth HB 5152 and 5153


Dear Legislators,

I apologize for the lateness of my comments.

I owned and operated RE/MAX harbor country for 40 years. I have had a licenses in Michigan and Indiana for 45
years. Represented at least a couple of thousand buyers and sellers in the past 45 years. Helped formulate and
pass legislation related to Land Division, Real Estate Agency, Critical Dunes, and Wetlands in Michigan.

I have had personal experience with a friend of mine who has been”taken” for $30,000 and is now paying a high
interest land contract to keep his property. And I personally know of other situations where the local “bad apples”
have, to my way of thinking, abused local owners of property foreclosed on by their banks. The situations are very
ugly. Lies are being told to owners at a time when they are panicked about losing their properties that actually
still have value (sometimes great value) for the owners. The owners are losing that value because they do not
know their rights and do not understand the foreclosure system.

The “bad apples” have worked their way into the court houses so they know about the foreclosure before the
property owners receive notice of the foreclosure. These “bad apples” arrive first to tell the owners all sorts of lies
about their rights and then get a quit-claim (used to be a warranty) deed of the property and continue to not pay o
the mortgage for months. These “bad apples” collect large profits from the ultimate sale of the properties. The
original owners usually get little or nothing of the profits that they possessed at the time of foreclosure. .

The local “bad apples” have bragged in writing about making $1,000,000 in profit from these abusive transactions
in one year.

I understand that there are supposed issues related to the way and timeliness of o icial county recordings that
have caused those representing title companies and registers of deeds to oppose the proposals in HB 5152 and
5153. .

That is very sad. And very irritating.

Whatever issues caused by tardy recordings ought to be resolved rather than used as an excuse to do nothing.

The foreclosure notice posted on the property and in the local newspaper does more damage to the property
owner than any register of deeds recordings related to the foreclosure can do. Why oppose recording things that
help and protect initial owners?

Bottom line, please do not let technical problems stop the needed reforms proposed by our legislators and
Thaddeus Hackworth.

It pains me, and it should pain you, to see people su er just because the system is not set up to make sure they
understand and exercise their rights. .


                                                           1
Fix the system!!!

Pass this legislation that provides protection for the people who need it. Do more to make the foreclosure
process easier for property owners to understand work their way through.

Thank you for your consideration of this matter,

Happy to o er more comments from myself, and others, in person in Lansing if we can help these bills and other
needed legislation pass.


Thanks,

Dan

Dan Coffey

RE/MAX Harbor Country
5888 Sawyer Rd.
Sawyer, MI 49125
e—dan@dancoffey.com
c---269 612 0505
o---269 469 5635 x 1
f---269 469 5648




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