What would you do?

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Hi fellow sushi-ian (SK!)😛

The only thing with sending a letter to the editor of a paper, is without proof (it’s just a strong suspicion right now collaberated with BBB’s complaints) it can be looked at as libel or slander…I believe it’s libel when one writes something that is potentially false about another. So, rather than cause that type of stir, I’d rather bring my allegation to an entity that could, if it felt the need, remove their license to sell real estate. I hope that wouldn’t happen, but if they are swindling people out of money – then they shouldn’t be allowed to hold a real estate license.:o
 
Turn 'em in to the BBB, and ask for your application fee back. If you don’t get it, call the real estate lawyer friend and have HIM talk to them–through the court if necessary.
 
Eliza10 said:
kage’s advice might be the best. It depends on how much free-time you have to pursue justice in this case. It might take a whole lot of time to get anywhere. Is this how God wants you to spend your time right now? Carve out a little space of quiet time with Him everyday and you’ll get a feel. Think of your vocation, and how this fits in with it or interferes with it. Think about your peace. Can you pursue this without it upsetting your peace? God wants you to have peace, because He meets you there. So be jealous of your peace.
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Oh that’s good! Where have you been all my life? 😃

God Bless.
 
Did you each have to pay an application fee?

I thought married couples only had to pay one fee?
 
hasikelee said:
Did you each have to pay an application fee?

I thought married couples only had to pay one fee?
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Yes, two separate fees for each adult. The townhome we are now going to rent (which is actually better) only cost us one collective fee of $50 for the application. I’m not disputing the app fee…I just have a hunch that the owner of the home never saw our application. I’m starting to think my credit was not even run, either. Reason being, that I subscribe to a monthly credit report, which sends me an update, showing me who ran my credit, and this was last Thursday, it was supposedly ran, and the credit report has not shown any updates as anyone ‘new’ running my credit. Interesting.

Another interesting twist is that they are not only still showing this rental on another website, but the leasing agent’s name has changed. It’s not the original person I dealt with, but a new person…

So…call me nuts…call me crazy…I asked one of my friends to inquire about the rental and if he could tour the home. (the same home we toured last week) And if the company comes back to him stating that they will be glad to show it to him, I’m calling the board of realtors, because then I will have concrete proof that what they are doing is exactly as I suspected. Either they rented the place and are just collecting fees from unsuspecting applicants (what a racket, eh?) OR they just took as many apps as possible, and the owner never saw my app. Either way, I am believing that deceptive practices are at play. I already placed my complaint with the BBB…we shall see if they recover any of my app fee.🤷

Thanks for listening. I actually am calm over it all, and prayed about it last night for God to give me a sign if I should let it go, or pursue. And, for the sake of others–if they are doing things that are wrong like this, I think they should be required to stop.
 
You know I think I would call the person in charge at this real estate firm and explain what went down and give him/her a chance to make it right. It doesn’t seem like it would go anywhere from what you are describing, but if you let him/her know that you intend to go to the BBB, you might get some answers and your application fee back.
 
HouseArrest said:
You know I think I would call the person in charge at this real estate firm and explain what went down and give him/her a chance to make it right. It doesn’t seem like it would go anywhere from what you are describing, but if you let him/her know that you intend to go to the BBB, you might get some answers and your application fee back.
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Hi HA;

I would if I thought it would help…I think that’s where the problem lies…probably the owners tell these people to do this. Granted it’s all in hunch phase right now, but I will find out tomorrow after my friend (coworker) lets me know if he received a reply from them about touring the same house, that supposedly has been rented. (that we toured)

On the BBB (I’m learning quite a bit over this lol)…there is a section that lets the public know if something has been resolved, and out of all the many cases of complaints, they only resolved two. So, I don’t think they care, sadly! 🤷
 
Don’t bother with the BBB. It hasn’t helped anyone else who has complained. Go straight to the Department of Real Estate, but before you do, call the Real Estate office and kindly ask for your money back and tell them you felt they were doing nothing more than a bait and switch looking for potential buyers. Make sure you let them know you will be filing a complaint with the DRE. Yes you could let it go, but you might be helping some poor unsuspecting soul by following through on this.

Now, in regards to the house you currently live in, most lenders would have loved for you to stay in that house and pay them rent, especially in the kind of market we are in. Heck, they might have even sold you the house at a good price and with pretty good terms. If your not locked into a new lease yet, you might just give them a call. A local Title office can get you the Lender’s information.
 
RichT said:
Don’t bother with the BBB. It hasn’t helped anyone else who has complained. Go straight to the Department of Real Estate, but before you do, call the Real Estate office and kindly ask for your money back and tell them you felt they were doing nothing more than a bait and switch looking for potential buyers. Make sure you let them know you will be filing a complaint with the DRE. Yes you could let it go, but you might be helping some poor unsuspecting soul by following through on this.

Thanks for your comments Rich! I actually sent an email to one of the local managers (this is a small operation) (and he was also the person listed on the internet listing for the house, and politely explained what I felt, and he claimed that he doesn’t deal with the credit apps, etc…I wrote ‘you knew I was only interested in that home, not in inventory that didn’t match where my family and I want to live,’ etc…and he basically said…‘sorry, I can’t help and good luck.’ I was like…wow. Not only does this seem unethical, but they are unprofessional.

Now, in regards to the house you currently live in, most lenders would have loved for you to stay in that house and pay them rent, especially in the kind of market we are in. Heck, they might have even sold you the house at a good price and with pretty good terms. If your not locked into a new lease yet, you might just give them a call. A local Title office can get you the Lender’s information.
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Yes, this is a whole other story. Ugh, I sometimes wonder if Florida has more than the average sheister. :o But the owner of this home hooked up with a crooked realtor, who said to me that he plans on buying the home (and he represents the owner?) So this poor man (the owner who is nearing 70) will probably go bankrupt, because this realtor talked him into three OTHER HOMES that he had foreclosed on him, and this is heading in that direction…but, the realtor wants to put it on the market to what? Make a higher commission if he can.😦 Can you believe these situations? I took a step back the other day and said…‘nope, this isn’t someone else’s life…it’s mine.’ 😊 hahaha I have to laugh, otherwise I’d cry about it all. My husband and I are fine, we have decided to rent for another year or so and save to have a nice downpayment…and buy an eco friendly home…I would love that! 🙂 But, I’m saddened for the owner of this home, who is working with someone who doesn’t have his best interests at heart, and actually lamented the other day to me about it all. He sees it, but I guess he is afraid to fire this realtor, seriously. The realtor then had the nerve to turn around and ask me and my husband if he could show us other homes in the neighborhood. I truly would be a very busy person if I spent my whole day reporting realtors in Florida! 😛 (But I took the time to look up the laws on this type of thing, and it’s known as ‘steering,’ when a realtor pressures his/her client to purchase a home, knowing that he/she might not be financially able to support it)😦 My husband has expressed interest in reporting HIM. Ugh, but as I said, this could turn into a fulltime job.

Nah, I’ll pass. I think I have exceeded my meetings with shady people these days.😦
 
No, the owners are WORSE than their employees from my experience in this thing.

I own property and it costs about $10-20 to run credit. Period.

The owners are behind it – complaining to them will get you nowhere. It’s how they make mo’ money. ESPECIALLY on all the poor folks who have bad credit. :mad:
 
KCtheMommy said:
No, the owners are WORSE than their employees from my experience in this thing.

I own property and it costs about $10-20 to run credit. Period.

The owners are behind it – complaining to them will get you nowhere. It’s how they make mo’ money. ESPECIALLY on all the poor folks who have bad credit. :mad:
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yeah it’s really sad, KC. That’s the thing…$70 is well, $70…hey, but it could have bought us a nice dinner out as a family! Who wants to throw it out, ya know? But money is not the motivation at this point-I want other people to not have to be duped. (and people who might be budgeted and $70 would be a lot to lose)
 
The BBB is just the tip of the iceberg! I don’t know what the equivalent is in Florida, but here in Texas, anyone dealing so shadily needs to be immediately reported to the Texas Real Estate Commission. This “agent” could lose his license if he’s in the habit of handling applicants this way. If he led you to believe you were the only applicant, knowing there were others in line, took your money, and hid out for a few days, he acted illegaly.

I would also consider writing a letter to the editor of the local paper/s, and in the future it’s probably best only to submit applications in person. The fields of real estate and property management attract a lot of bottom-feeders who get away with murder by presuming on the good will of people like you.
 
thanks for your reply surfin…always nice hearing from you.🙂

I really thought we would be buying this year…we are in a financial position to do so, but we don’t feel we have enough saved…so in essence, the townhome will work for us, so we can work towards that.

But here is a question…on their site, it states that they have been in business for 27 years…are accredited with the Florida Bd of Realtors, National Board of Realtors, and the list goes on and on. But, everything I find on the internet points to negative comments…not just what I discovered on the BBB about them. I found some obscure real estate message board sites, where consumers were complaining about this company there too!

At the risk of becoming obessed…I am going to head off to bed…and will post back what my coworker friend finds out by posing as a prospective applicant…to see if they will ‘show’ him the home, also.

But…what do you make of all their supposed accredidations?
 
whatevergirl said:
thanks for your reply surfin…always nice hearing from you.🙂

I really thought we would be buying this year…we are in a financial position to do so, but we don’t feel we have enough saved…so in essence, the townhome will work for us, so we can work towards that.

But here is a question…on their site, it states that they have been in business for 27 years…are accredited with the Florida Bd of Realtors, National Board of Realtors, and the list goes on and on. But, everything I find on the internet points to negative comments…not just what I discovered on the BBB about them. I found some obscure real estate message board sites, where consumers were complaining about this company there too!

At the risk of becoming obessed…I am going to head off to bed…and will post back what my coworker friend finds out by posing as a prospective applicant…to see if they will ‘show’ him the home, also.

But…what do you make of all their supposed accredidations?
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If nobody has yet contacted the NBR and filed formal complaints about their dealings (lots of folks think the BBB is some sort of disciplinary agency and don’t look any further) then they may well hold a supposed good standing with the board. From what I know of the organization (my father has been a successful broker for over 30 years) they don’t police individual agents or offices. There are far too many for them to do that. Instead, they rely on consumers to inform them of any misdeeds. Too often agents get away with downright criminal activity simply because the authorities haven’t been tipped off.

Sorry you’ve had this nasty experience, whatevergirl. But you’ll find that right place and you’ll be glad you ended up there instead of the other one.
 
whatevergirl said:
Hi HA;

I would if I thought it would help…I think that’s where the problem lies…probably the owners tell these people to do this. Granted it’s all in hunch phase right now, but I will find out tomorrow after my friend (coworker) lets me know if he received a reply from them about touring the same house, that supposedly has been rented. (that we toured)

On the BBB (I’m learning quite a bit over this lol)…there is a section that lets the public know if something has been resolved, and out of all the many cases of complaints, they only resolved two. So, I don’t think they care, sadly! 🤷
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Oh, bummer. I thought maybe it had a chance of being able to be worked out without you having to go through all that…
 
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