Castanet

I feel sorry for this Vernon family who got duped.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/02/08/bc-renttoown.html

Not speaking about this company specifically as I have no knowledge of them outside of this article, but RTOs are mostly a huge scam. The players are hoping that they fall between the cracks of licensing as realtors and mortgage brokers. Let's hope that legislation soon puts all these guys out of business.

If she is technically not a tenant , and she is not paying rent , or planing on paying any rent , then I would just move right back into the house and throw her s**t out on the street.

gordon_as wrote:If she is technically not a tenant , and she is not paying rent , or planing on paying any rent , then I would just move right back into the house and throw her s**t out on the street.

Unfortunately that can lead to a very long and expensive court fight, let alone a physical confrontation if they're home. I know of one landlord who didn't get paid for a year and she waited until the whole family went out and went in with two handymen and removed all the toilets!

The legislation is already in place. I think the Real Estate Council of BC has jurisdiction.
I would note that he appears to be managing rentals (read the testimonials), brokering mortgages,
and acting as a realtor. He's a busy guy
I wonder if he maintains trust accounts?

callotto wrote:The legislation is already in place. I think the Real Estate Council of BC has jurisdiction.
I would note that he appears to be managing rentals (read the testimonials), brokering mortgages,
and acting as a realtor. He's a busy guy
I wonder if he maintains trust accounts?

Again, not speaking for this particular RTO dude, but for most of them... Yeah, he trusts his accounts with other people's money!

Rent-to-own is a scam. As a rule of thumb, anyone who has to buy a house on a rent-to-own basis should not be buying a house.

Glacier wrote:Rent-to-own is a scam. As a rule of thumb, anyone who has to buy a house on a rent-to-own basis should not be buying a house.

This

Glacier wrote:Rent-to-own is a scam. As a rule of thumb, anyone who has to buy a house on a rent-to-own basis should not be buying a house.

I think it's a failing of the realities of the market. People simply can't cough up a 10 to 20% down payment in this economy. They can barely make ends meet as it is. So they turn to RTOs to delude themselves that they own a house when in fact they're nothing more than renters who are paying higher than market rent.

If you've ever seen the website for Kelowna Home Deals, you'd know it was a scam right off the bat. Absolutely full of typos and bad spelling, as well as emotional manipulation and a complete lack of facts. And who on earth enters into a real estate agreement without sitting down with a lawyer first (let alone an "agent" who isn't even licensed)?? These people must have been desperate or just not very smart....

allisongray wrote:These people must have been desperate or just not very smart....

Well, they specifically target people with bad credit, untraceable income, short employment, and damage credit history...That's their clientèle.

I might add that sellers need to be really careful as well. Find a really good real estate lawyer to explain the implications of the agreement. These plans usually pop up in slow markets.

callotto wrote:I might add that sellers need to be really careful as well. Find a really good real estate lawyer to explain the implications of the agreement. These plans usually pop up in slow markets.

IMHO any good real estate lawyer would tell their clients to get their heads examined before getting involved in an RTO. They'd usually be better off selling quickly at a serious discount than getting embroiled in a mess like that.

Rent To Own (Lease To Own) in the Trucking world is known as the
"Never-Never Plan"

No different in Real Estate.

dirtybiker wrote:Rent To Own (Lease To Own) in the Trucking world is known as the
"Never-Never Plan"

No different in Real Estate.

Good one.

I bought my first house on rto, worked out good for me.
No problems.