A prominent Texas land developer with ties to Colony Ridge admitted that he profits off selling to unqualified foreign buyers, which could include illegal immigrants, an email obtained by The Daily Wire reveals.
Scot Campbell, the former head of the Texas Land Developers Association, made the comments in response to The Daily Wire’s initial investigation into Colony Ridge, a 60-square mile development north of Houston that’s become infamous for attracting illegal aliens to a once-quiet Texas town through its marketing and financial schemes.
“We will not be able to sell our developments if each of our buyers have to have [social security numbers], and we have to qualify each buyer as to the buyer’s ability to repay,” wrote Campbell, who also runs the owner-financing company SRC Land.
“It will kill our industry and will make our future resale of foreclosed lots worth a lot less … because we will all be fighting over a few qualified buyers.” Campbell was writing in response to The Daily Wire’s investigation into Colony Ridge, which highlighted that the development encouraged potential buyers to “own land in the United States.”
Obtained by The Daily Wire
Campbell seemingly went on to confirm The Daily Wire’s report that the marketing tactics used by Colony Ridge had attracted large numbers of illegal aliens, writing, “it was President Biden that opened the flood gates and allowed millions of people in without identification and no jobs.”
Just months after admitting his business model relies on selling to foreigners and unqualified buyers, the Justice Department and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hit Colony Ridge with a lawsuit alleging that the development and its loan operations took advantage of a language barrier to churn unqualified borrowers through a cycle of foreclosure.
The suit was followed by a similar lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who charged that Colony Ridge “targets foreign born and Hispanic consumers with limited or no access to credit with promises of cheap, ready to build land and financing without proof of income.”
Campbell characterized The Daily Wire story as an attack on the seller-finance industry, which allows the seller of a property to offer loans directly to buyers without the use of a bank, oftentimes at a significantly higher interest rate than a usual mortgage. He encouraged the Texas Land Developers Association (TLDA), a professional trade union that lobbies in support of the same type of seller-finance schemes, to counter the story.
Scot Campbell’s daughter, Gayle Campbell, is a TLDA member who performed work on behalf of Colony Ridge via her company Loan Originator Services LLC, which processed loans for the development.
Both Loan Originator Services and Gayle Campbell were named in the Justice Department-CFPB suit, which alleged that the company “fails to assess borrower’s ability to repay and does not request proof of income or liabilities from borrowers.” Campbell and her company were later dismissed from the suit, with the judge saying there was no evidence that she was directly involved in the same discriminatory “reverse redlining” practices that Colony Ridge stands accused of.
Gayle Campbell is not the only link between Colony Ridge and the TLDA. One recipient of Campbell’s emails was Chuck Rice, a Texas lobbyist who raked in anywhere from $78,360 to $196,579 from Colony Ridge, another $68,360 to $171,579 from Colony Ridge lawyer Brent Lane, and anywhere from $551,310 to $1.1 million from the TLDA, his biggest client. He received anywhere from $5 to $141,619 from SR Campbell Properties Inc., owned by Scot Campbell.
Scot Campbell told The Daily Wire that his comments about foreign buyers did not necessarily refer to illegal aliens.
“The U.S. real estate industry relies on foreign investment, and Texas is third in the nation for foreign buyers of real estate,” Campbell claimed.
He also told The Daily Wire that foreclosures are unprofitable for owner-financed companies.
“Uneducated onlookers are under the very false impression that foreclosing on owner-financed properties is a good business model. It is not, at least not for me or anyone else I know. Our business model is based entirely on keeping buyers on the property, and trying to never have to foreclose.”
But the CFPB says Colony Ridge foreclosed on 30 percent of lots within three years of their sale, “repurchasing and reselling them, often at higher prices.”
Campbell went on to highlight the regulatory differences between different types of sales, stating that “land sales do not require a buyer to submit documents proving that the borrower would qualify for a bank loan on a house.”
The controversy surrounding Colony Ridge has prompted State Rep. Janis Holt, whose district contains the development, to introduce legislation that would assist the state government in tracking land sales. The legislation, House Bill 2159, could be used to identify the foreign buyers in Colony Ridge and similar developments, with Holt saying that it would “bring transparency to all property sales, including properties bought with cash.”
Numerous illegal aliens have been caught living in Colony Ridge, including one human smuggler who federal agents say was involved in a “mass casualty event” when a tractor trailer full of migrants crashed, killing more than 50 people. The man, a Guatemalan national, purchased at least four Colony Ridge properties before he was apprehended in a joint operation by the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Two illegal alien murder suspects who lived in Colony Ridge were arrested earlier this year. One of the men, described by authorities as a “fugitive murder suspect wanted by Interpol,” had already been deported from the United States twice before establishing a residence in Colony Ridge.
Those two arrests came after a teen was allegedly abducted at gunpoint inside the development and was shot at as he fled his captors.
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