COFFEYVILLE, KS — A family facing mounting medical bills finds themselves caught in a complex real estate situation that has left them unable to access desperately needed cash for more than a year.
Patrick Wicks and his mother Jennifer Moody purchased a small house in Coffeyville, Kansas. In 2024, they hoped to quickly sell it to help pay for medical expenses for Moody's daughter, Jaylee.
"We've been dealing with his little sister having medical issues that have progressively gotten worse," Moody said.
Jaylee is autistic and has faced serious health complications from COVID-19, including losing her ability to eat by mouth. The family is traveling to Boston in last August for treatment through a long COVID treatment program that accepted Jaylee as a patient.
WATCH: Family left in limbo after real estate deal stalls for over a year
Last year, when the family decided to pursue a quick cash sale of their Kansas property to help cover Jaylee's medical expenses they contacted NEO Property Buyers, a Tulsa-based company, and signed an agreement to sell the house for $12,000.
"It's been well over a year, and still, we have not received no payments," Moody said.
The situation became more complicated when Social Security recently contacted Moody, claiming her daughter's disability benefits were being reduced because records showed the house had been sold to NEO Property Buyers. But that wasn't all.
"They said I needed to repay back Social Security for the last two years," Moody explained.
An investigation by 2 News Oklahoma revealed several issues with the transaction to sell the house at 915 Colorado Street in Coffeyville, Kansas.
NEO Property Buyers did not return our attept to contact it by phone. A check of the company's listed address in Tulsa revealed it goes a location providing temporary business spaces.
Records at the Montgomery County, Kansas Register of Deeds office show NEO Property Buyers filed an affidavit indicating its intention to buy the property. This filing caused the county treasurer's office to send the 2024 tax bill to NEO instead of the actual owners Patrick Wick and Jennifer Moody, creating confusion about the property's ownership.
"The tax system that we have printed out taxes for the buyer rather than the owner," said Jonathan Booe, Montgomery County Administrator. He acknowledged the mistake points to a need for better information sharing between county departments.
Oklahoma Real Estate Commission Chief Investigator Riece Baker reviewed the contract and found several red flags.
- NEO Property Buyers and its representative Luke Wilson are not licensed for real estate in Oklahoma.
- Baker noted a license is not required to buy or sell your own property.
She pointed out the contract between NEO Property Buyers LLC and Wick and Moody wasn't a standard Oklahoma buyer-seller agreement. She recommends anyone doing a real estate deal in Oklahoma use the state's standard form found on the Commission's website.
Baker pointed out that in the contract Wicks and Moody signed with NEO Property Buyers LLC, "There was an addendum or an affidavit that basically was signing over power of attorney to these buyers," Baker said. "It's not normal."
Baker also noted the contract language was "overly complicated" and included references to assigning the deal to third parties — language typical consumers wouldn't understand.
She also found NEO Property Buyers LLC is listed as an inactive business with the Oklahoma Secretary of State, meaning they haven't filed required paperwork to legally operate under that name in Oklahoma.
So for now, the family remains in limbo, unsure if they are able to sell their property to help pay for Jaylee's medical bills until the power of attorney they signed over to NEO Property Buyers is revoked.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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