Here is a scam from Jennifer Oliver President of Alltimate Property Management. She buys properties and quick claims them to investors at 10 times their value.
(5/5/16)- "I took a chance with them. I knew the guy and figured it's a licensed broker. How could I go wrong? Well, I went wrong."
A deal, that Florida resident David Merkatz says is now costing him more than $100,000.
"So I guess, uh, you know, I was a victim of a scam," Merkatz said.
In December, Merkatz received an inheritance from his mother. His plan: invest in real estate. That's when Merkatz says he was approached by a longtime friend, Adi Asraf, about investing in homes here in Mid Michigan.
"He had four or five properties left in a batch that he bought in a foreclosure. And, he would rent out two of them for me and flip the other for a substantial profit. And the price of the four properties was $105,000 and that to renovate two of them would cost me another $15,000. So a total of $120,000," Merkatz said.
Merkatz says Asraf got him in touch with Jennifer Oliver, a licensed broker and property manager with Alltimate Property in Flint. Merkatz tells us the company began sending him information on the four homes. Thinking it's a great deal, Merkatz sent them a check. After a few months went by, Merkatz says he got nervous.
"March 1st, I called them I said, 'Listen, I've got $120,000 in these properties and I haven't received any rent, you're not renting them. The other two are sitting there.' 'Don't worry, you know, we're a little behind a couple of weeks behind.' Well, I let it go to like the third week of March, now I'm getting concerned," Merkatz said.
Merkatz got in touch with another broker in Flint who checked out the homes for him. What Merkatz says he heard next left him in shock.
"He said two of them were trashed. They'll need about $10,000 each in work. The other two, were rentable. They weren't in great shape, but they were rentable. But he said that's not the problem you have. He said they bought these properties for a total of $15,200 for all four at auction and they just quickly claimed them over to you. And he said today's value on all four of them, you'd be lucky if you could get $22,000, and that would be a high end value. So, he said basically you've got scammed for about $100,000 because they're not worth it," Merkatz said.
Merkatz says he immediately filed a police report and contacted Michigan's Attorney General's Office. Attorney Chris Christenson specializes in real estate and says he's noticing property schemes happening across the state.
