NC attorney general secures permanent ban of MV Realty in state
The state has permanently banned a real estate company that traded cash for 40-year rights to sell a home.
The N.C. Attorney General's Office said on Monday that it has obtained consent judgments permanently barring MV Realty from doing business in North Carolina.
The ruling is the latest legal step in a 2023 case involving the state's Justice Department.
Here's how MV Realty conducted business, according to previous legal documents and news releases from the N.C. Attorney General's Office:
MV Realty began doing business in N.C. in 2000, offering a Homeowner Benefit Agreement. The agreement was typically marketed to people facing financial hardships and in need of cash. MV Realty offered to provide cash payments, typically between $300 and $1,000, to homeowners.
In return, the homeowners agreed to use MV Realty to list their property if they decided to sell. The agreements were good for 40 years.
The agreement required homeowners to pay MV Realty a commission of 3% to 6% of the home's value - even if the home was sold without using MV Realty.
Typically, the signed contracts included a memorandum filed with the county that served as a lien on the property's title.
Under the consent judgments, MV Realty cannot enforce the agreements or collect any fees from North Carolina consumers who entered into the contracts. Individuals associated with the company are prohibited for 10 years from engaging in certain types of businesses in the state, including business involving consumer financial products, residential real estate, telemarketing and robocalling.
"This company gave homeowners a few hundred dollars and locked them in for 40 years," N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson said in a statement.
2,000 customers in state's largest regions
A review of MV Realty's lending practices found that in the state's four largest Multiple Listing Service areas - Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Greensboro-Winston-Salem and Asheville - more than 2,000 homeowners had signed agreements with the company since fall 2000.
The company also agreed to pay $1.32 million in restitution to consumers who paid MV Realty a fee to terminate the agreement.
"We voided every one of those contracts and shut the company down in North Carolina. Done."
In March 2024, MV Realty resumed some services in North Carolina after the Republican majority on the state Supreme Court granted the embattled company a temporary stay of a N.C. Business Court ruling that had halted its operations.
MV Realty was also determined to have made nearly 150,000 calls to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry and more than 340,000 robocalls to North Carolina residents.
The N.C. Justice Department successfully fought MV Realty's attempt to get a bankruptcy court in Florida to stop the North Carolina courts from holding the company accountable.
In January, the department won a motion for summary judgment holding the defendants jointly liable for unfair and deceptive trade practices and for violating state telemarketing and robocall laws.
If the defendants violate the terms of their judgments, they may be required to pay an additional $5.7 million in penalties.
Gov. Roy Cooper signed the Unfair Real Estate Agreements Act into law in 2023, which prohibits these long-term real estate service agreements.
Bankruptcy filing
MV Realty filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2023, as did each of its 33 state business subsidiaries, including the one in N.C.
For MV Realty of North Carolina LLC, it listed 1 to 40 creditors, assets of $1 million to $10 million, and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million.
In January 2024, MV Realty was banned from operating in North Carolina by the state Real Estate Commission.
The commission permanently revoked the licenses of MV Realty and Darryl Cook, a former broker-in-charge for MV. The commission charged the company with violating state license laws and rules.
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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 5:42 AM.