Like the housing industry, real estate “guru” Mark Bosworth is in crash mode

Bosworth says the Department of Real Estate has a personal vendetta against him, that Commissioner Wercinski is using the Home America case to make a name for himself.

"Whoever did that, it was at Ben's instruction," Bosworth claims.

Magelsen denies it, of course, and the jury in his lawsuit didn't believe that explanation, either.

In the Martha Mow case, Bosworth admitted he signed the widow's name on a deed that he then used to sell the property himself. As Judge Katz noted in his recent ruling, Bosworth had "signed [Mow's] name and had it notarized as if she were present."

Bosworth's excuse is that he made a stupid mistake.

At the time, he says, he thought that because Mow had given him power of attorney and wanted him to sell the property (Mow denies both claims), he was legally allowed to sign her name.

No power of attorney from Mow has ever been presented in the case. Bosworth says that is because she stole the file declaring power of attorney while working at Home America for several weeks after her husband died.

But even if any of that happened, it's incredible that the real estate "guru" didn't know that even with power of attorney, you can't legally sign someone's name without noting what is going on. The person with the power of attorney is supposed to sign the owner's name to the document, then sign his or her name with an abbreviated note: "POA."

Bosworth should have known that because that's the way he used power of attorney granted him by client Brian Schofield of Utah in a home sale in 2003. That was more than two years before he signed Mow's name on her property's deed without noting the supposed power-of-attorney privilege.

Bosworth issues a lot of blanket denials:

• He knew nothing about Russell's alleged burglaries and knew nothing of any maintenance fraud or other misdealings at Home America or at his other companies.

• When he was busted by speed-enforcement cameras for driving 110 miles per hour on Loop 101, his brother had "possibly" been driving at the time.

• The changing market is responsible for any losses incurred by his investors.

• His creditors won't be out even one dime — even if he loses the appeal of the Magelsen verdict — because he'll pay back 100 percent of what he owes, even if it takes years.

Bosworth says he has many satisfied customers, and provides a list of some of them to New Times.

But when two people on the list are contacted, the endorsements are short of glowing.

James Telaroli, a former business partner of Bosworth's, says he managed to make "a few hundred thousand" dollars on about 15 rental homes he had purchased through Bosworth's companies.

But that was only because he was one of the few investors savvy enough to sell the properties in 2005 and 2006, at the height of the real estate boom.

Salvador Deluna says he had just gone through a "terrible divorce and had terrible credit" when he moved to Arizona from California in 2001 and found Bosworth through an ad.

"Over a handshake and showing him my pay stub, he handed me a house," says Deluna, who owns a small advertising firm in Litchfield Park.

It's an inspiring tale — until Deluna is probed for more details. He says Bosworth handled a "no-qualifying lease-purchase" agreement for him, which gave him some tax benefits on the sale. The down payment was actually $5,000, plus a pickup truck that was worth about $5,000. He doesn't recall the monthly rent he paid but says it was relatively low.

Deluna did not purchase the house but sold his interest in the home a year later to a friend, who took over the payments. His friend paid him $2,000, he says.

When asked if that means he lost $3,000 and a pickup truck on the deal, Deluna claims New Times is trying to spin the story negatively.

"I didn't lose any money," Deluna repeats a couple of times. But when confronted with the math, he says that — no matter what anybody may be saying about Mark Bosworth — he feels the purchase did him a world of good.

It showed creditors he could make payments, he says, and that enabled him to buy a larger home the following year.

"My experience with [Mark Bosworth] has been very positive, and I've never had any problems with him," Deluna says.

Bosworth is frustrated with the media attention he received after the Magelsen verdict. He says stories about his situation have been sensational and inaccurate.

But he certainly hasn't gotten a raw deal from the Arizona Republic, where he spent about a million dollars annually on advertising during recent years, his former employees say. GoRenter.com places large color ads in the Republic's real estate classified section each Sunday, as well as other ads.