Posted by Cochise on December 23, 2008 at 11:31:39:
"Kirchmeyer & Associates,
Owners of the firm, James A. Kirchmeyer and Thomas J. Kirchmeyer, SRA, have more than 40 years of combined appraisal experience and are actively involved with the Appraisal Institute. . ." (http://www.kirchmeyer.com/index.asp?pid=1)
"Appraisers,
Greeting and happy holidays to you. As you know, Zaio's acquisition of the assets of my companies did not turn out as all had expected, and several months ago, I reached an agreement to reacquire them and discharged millions of dollars of debt owed to me by the company. We will continue to provide services as in the past as Real Info and Kirchmeyer & Associates, and continue to be a pioneer in the real estate and appraisal industry. We are committed to you, as appraisers, and guarantee payment of fees.
Unfortunately, as you know, several months ago Zaio shut down its US operations. While they continue to collect money and liquidate their assets, I confirmed in a call with Zaio today that they will most likely not be in a position to make payments to anyone until after the New Year, and even then, it will be for pennies on the dollar.
Despite my endless energies and efforts into making Zaio a successful venture, the company did not stay open in the US... Rather than Zaio closing its operation with dignity, it has come to my attention (in a letter from Chuck Kraus) that they are notifying appraisers that the reason they are not being paid is because I have asserted some type of invalid security interest in the assets. Now is not the time to be confrontational. It wastes what assets remain with the company. This development is unfortunate. I am the largest shareholder of the corporation, and am owed a great deal of money from the company. I wanted with great passion for this enterprise to succeed. As such, like any lien holder, I have in the past filed UCC protection on the assets. Last week, Zaio auctioned off their assets.. I could have stopped the sale, but I signed off on the auction proceeding, because I wanted to make sure they raised money and were able to pay appraisers. In spite of the revenue raised, they tell me today that regardless of the UCC filings, no payments are forthcoming before the holidays.
I remain committed to helping protect your fees, and just today offered to waive my VALID security interest, provided Zaio put in writing that they would pay appraisers what is owed to them. They rejected my proposal. I even offered to waive my security interest if they assigned us the accounts payable that is assumed uncollectable; this way we would work to collect on them and pay the appraisers if we were able to collect. This offer was rejected as well. I have argued that the appraisers were directly responsible for the income that Zaio, Inc. received and should be in a higher class than simply unsecured creditors. Chuck Krause disagrees. Unfortunately, I fear we are all being used as pawns.
I will continue to try and get Zaio's cooperation in paying each and every one of you as much as possible. Hopefully, cooler minds will prevail.
Rest assured, I have not and never will do anything that stands in the way of our mutually beneficial business relationship and continue to fight for all appraisers to get the monies that are rightfully theirs.
James A. Kirchmeyer
CEO
Kirchmeyer & Associates, Inc./Real Info, Inc.
40 Gardenville Pkwy., Ste. 100
Buffalo, NY 14224
jakirch@real-info.com