Its Pretty Clear Michigan Wing Nut Ted Visner Is A Squatter With Serious Psychiatric Issues

Last week, a video of Self-Proclaimed De Jure Sheriff of Isabella County, Michigan, Ted Visner, began circulating on the internet. Various Tea Party groups and Michigan Militia movements (yes, they are still around) began passing it around.  

Ted Visner promises an armed standoff with law enforcement when they come to evict him his property.

Ted Visner claims he is being illegally evicted from his home. Visner is promising an epic gun battle between him and various Michigan Law Enforcement Agencies. Visner has a ten-year history of anger management issues and a cache of weapons.

Visner’s fantasy scenario ends with him martyring himself in a “Bundy Ranch shootout.” 

Visner believes this will trigger a revolution. A revolution that will overthrow the corrupt tyranny of the U.S. government, the state of Michigan and Isabella County. 

Ted Visner Is A Wannabe Matlock

Ted Visner became a fixture in mid-Michigan back in 2010 after accusing the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department of illegally evicting him and his “wife” Kathy Ann Smith (there is no record they were ever married).

Visner claims they bought the property with an alleged land contract from a Sheriff’s Department employee. The Isabella County Register of Deeds has no record of a Land Contract in either Visner’s name or in the name of Kathy Smith.

The news website, The Inquistr states that it was a verbal land contract. However, when Visner’s litigation ended over the matter in 2012, Smith forfeited any and all rights back to the Seller. This would indicate the seller was not in active foreclosure in 2010 as Visner claims. Had she been in foreclosure ownership would have reverted back to the seller’s lender.

Ted Visner then began making mass conspiracy claims after being evicted. He began claiming everyone in Isabella County was out to get him. He also has repeatedly accused Judge Paul Chamberlain of being a terrorist after Chamberlain dismissed Visner’s suit.

Visner refused to sit for a deposition in the case and refused to show up for court. Visner then began authoring several tirades on his blog about the Michigan Court of Appeals after they refused to hear his appeal.

Ted Visner Runs For Sheriff And Applies For A CCW

During the two years his pro-se litigation against the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department was pending, Ted Visner renounced recognition of the Isabella County government and the Michigan Legislature and began performing Buford T. Pusser cosplay around Isabella County while he campaigned for Sheriff. 

In 2013, Visner applied for a concealed weapons permit to carry a handgun. He claimed he needed protection from the tyranny of corrupt government officials and law enforcement from Isabella County.

Ted Visner’s request for a CCW permit was denied. It’s apparent why Visner was denied a permit after you watch the video he posted to Youtube of him getting belligerent at the hearing. It also appears that several members of the Gun Board had read his rants about the Zionist infiltration of our society and the federal government, conspiracy theories about how Israeli Intelligence was behind 9/11 and other anti-anti-semitic conspiracy theories. 

Ted Visner’s Lady Love’s Children are Taken Away Because Of Visner’s Craziness

According to his blog, Ted Visner began dating a woman with three children named Danielle Austin in 2014. In December 2014, after moving in with Ted Visner, Austin’s children were taken away from her because according to a Youtube posting by Ted Visner of a conversation between Austin and a social worker from the Michigan Department of Human Services, Ted Visner was a violent person. Visner attached the following comment to the video:

Isabella County Officials “and police” declare Ted Visner “Not Appropriate” and a violent person with the potential for some great violence instructing Dani Austin that she needs to choose between a roof over her head and her own children… an active hostage situation being carried out by officials in Isabella County.

Ted Visner And His Girlfriend Squatting In His Ex-Girlfriend’s House

Visner and Danielle Austin were living in Visner’s ex-girlfriends’ house when it went to Sheriff’s Sale on 11/13/2014.

He freely admits he and his “wife” Kathy Smith had not made a mortgage payment in six years. Yet, he held to his whacked out theory that his enemies in the Isabella County government are behind the eviction.

The story Ted Visne is telling militia groups and the media is a filled with bullshit. Ted Visner also fails to understand (or doesn’t want to hear it) that he lacks any legal standing to challenge the foreclosure and/or the eviction. He is not on the deed of the property or the mortgage (see below).

Isabella County Register of Deeds has no record of Ted Visner owning any properties in the county in the past 25 years. So essentially, Ted Visner and Danielle Austin are nothing more than squatters.

Smith Warranty Deed

Kathy Smith Buys The House In 2007

On May 15, 2007, Kathy A. Smith closed on a construction loan for $175,000 from Countrywide Home Loans. This loan was used to pay off a $127,991 FHA mortgage taken out on 5/21/2004.

Countrywide Financial was acquired by Bank of America four months after Smith closed on the loan.

Visner claims on his blog:

Also take notice that any alleged mortgage given by Kathy Smith with regard to the property described in the notice below is nonexistent and NO foreclosure sale on this property is possible absent fraud.

Below is a copy of the mortgage in the name of Kathy A. Smith and signed by Kathy A. Smith on file with the Register of Deeds in Isabella County. Ted Visner claims this document does not exist.

Ted Visner Has No Standing To Challenge Kathy Smith’s Foreclosure

The mortgage made out to Kathy A. Smith, not Kathy A. Smith, Married Woman.

Nor does it say Kathy A. Smith and Theodore Visner followed with Husband and Wife or Tenants in Common.

The post-construction modification to loan states Kathy A. Smith, A Single Woman.

Therefore, Ted Visner lacks any legal standing to fight the foreclosure and/or the eviction. 

Visner Mortgage

Kathy Smith’s Construction Loan

Let’s assume that Ted Visner does have the standing to fight this foreclosure. Ted Visner has other issues. It pretty apparent that Ted Visner took a right turn into the Twilight Zone of insanity in his life.

Ted Visner claims he fell behind due to:

Countrywide going out of business and the fraudulent conveyance of the mortgage from Countrywide to BOA”. 

He writes:

 Countrywide claimed to have sold our construction loan to Bank of America and also claimed that BOA would fund the remainder of our home’s completion. Instead, Countrywide sold our loan to BOA as a fully conventional and fully conforming loan rather than the partially funded construction loan that it was, leaving us holding the bag with a partial home that we could not sell, refinance, insure or finish.

This is not even remotely true.

When Bank of America legally acquired Countrywide Financial in 2007, Smith’s construction went with it.

It is highly unlikely that Bank of America altered the terms of the mortgage. Kathy Smith would have been required to sign something. In addition, Michigan law requires the modification to be filed with the Isabella County Register of Deeds.

Smith did sign a post-construction period modification in November of 2008.

The Mortgage Is Transferred From Bank of America To Ocwen

Bank of America did transfer the mortgage through the MERS system to one of their wholly owned servicing companies, BAC Home Loan Serving, LP on 8/18/2010.

Another mortgage assignment was filed by Randall S. Miller and Associates on 10/4/2010 reiterating the previous assignment filed by Fabrizio and Brook from 8/18/2010. 

On 11/7/2014, BAC Home Loan Servicing assigned the mortgage back to Bank of America because Bank of America was consolidating its divisions. They were also selling their servicing rights on the majority of the loans.   

Construction On Ted & Kathy’s Home Is Finished 

Ted Visner also writes that:

Loan modifications do not exist for construction loans and our home owner’s insurance shot up to over $7,000 per month making it instantly unavailable. With a partially completed home that we could not sell, refinance etc., we were also ineligible for any type of loan modification.

This is not entirely true. Countrywide allowed construction draws until construction was completed.

In this case, it appears Countrywide gave Smith an additional six months to complete construction.

The post-construction modification was filed on 11/18/2008 according to Isabella County. The modification was between “Kathy A. Smith, A Single Woman” and Countrywide Home Loans for $176,000. Countrywide required an Occupancy Permit to do a post-construction modification. This would also contradict what Ted Visner is telling online media. 

Sociopath Ted Visner Is Building A Bed and Breakfast For Battered Women

Visner also writes in his blog that the reason for the construction delays is because:

The home itself is over 8,860 square feet, (about the size of four average homes). Although this may sound (and would be) extravagant as a personal property, it’s intended finished use was to be that of a Bed and Breakfast style shelter for battered women and children.

A guy who was denied a CCW permit for being a sociopathic is building a shelter for battered women and children.

Ted Visner makes it sound like the B&B for battered women was Smith’s plan from day one. However, if this was true, he implicates Kathy Smith in a mortgage fraud scheme.

Ted Visner’s claim that he and Smith intended to build an 8,860 square foot multi-unit B&B means they misled Countrywide. Thewy tricked Countrywide into giving her a residential mortgage on a commercial project. There are also no records indicating Visner or Smith applied for a zoning change. It is also not possible to build an 8,860 square foot B&B for less than $53,000.  

This would contradict what he told the Inquistr: 

During the course of the events at the former house, Visner says he retreated to his current home and began building an 8,000 square foot house. That house is still under construction on 15 acres in Blanchard, Michigan. The East Walton Road home he was buying from Sweet, according to Visner, is just the back story, though many media outlets are portraying the two homes as one. Visner says the confusion by the media and others has been intentional.

Ted Visner And His Messianic Fantasies

This also brings up a plethora of issues for Ted Visner and his messianic fantasies of sheltering battered women from the dark forces of tyranny.

Let us assume Kathy Smith knew nothing about Visner’s messianic fantasies for turning the property into a haven for victims of domestic violence. How could Visner get building permits for a property he doesn’t legally own? 

You would think Tea Party groups and the Michigan Militia groups would be running to his side. Right? Nope. Fortunately, for these groups, they smelled bullshit and warned their affiliated groups not to get involved with Ted Visner. 

MFI-Miami Finds The Mortgage Visner says Doesn’t Exist

Visner claimed that documents such as the deed, mortgage, and other documents were unavailable. MFI-Miami retrieved the mortgage and warranty deed everyone is asking to see in under 10 minutes. 

The reason Ted Visner can’t retrieve a payment history from Bank of America is that his name is not on the mortgage. Federal privacy laws prohibit Bank of America or Ocwen from giving it to him.

In response, Ted Visner told the Morning Sun Newspaper:

This isn’t about the loan…this isn’t about default…this isn’t about making payments, not making payments. This is about what’s going on in our courts…to deprive Michigan homeowners of their property,