This is only the begining of my internet campaign to dismantle this fly by night, work from garage, internet real estate [business]. If you have begun a transaction with these bozos (Chris Stroud and his partner Don) get out now. If you don't, you quite possibly could lose your shirt. Here is my story... in early October I invested money with these clowns to rehab, rent and sell a property to another investor.
I purchased a distressed home from them for 18k and signed a contract for them to rehab it (approx 20k), place a renter, and sell to another investor for 59k... Great return on my investment right? Well if these were reputible investors it would have been. After I purchased the property, I never heard from them again... It was like pulling teeth to get information on the status of the rehab. Never responded to my emails, were frustrated when I called the office asking for updates and failed to answer simple questions like may I please have a copy of the deed. Well it was obvious why they were not responsive... They never recorded the deed in my name, not only that, they sold the property to someone else after they sold it to me, thus the property was sold TWICE!
I paid for the house and the rehab, they then sold it to another investor. Because they never deeded it over to me, they were able to use my cash to finance evrything then sell my house under their name, saving transfer costs etc. This wouldn't have been that big of a deal had they paid me when the house was sold, but they didn't.
Oh yeah, did I mention they rented the home out during this time and were keeping the rent for themselves? It gets better... After they rented the place, had it sold to someone else and were collecting rent, they told me I owed them $1500 for a busted pipe!!! What??? The house wasn't even deeded to me, you are pocketing my rent, and you were SUPPOSE to have rehabbed the place... That includes the plumbing... And don't they adverstise a 3 month warranty on their properties? Long story short, they kept making excuses why they wouldn't pay me for the sale of MY property, pay me rent from MY tenants, or return my emails and phone calls.
After I hired an attorney and threatened them with a law suit they offered my capital back if I signed a General Release. I just needed to get out and lock something in so I took my cash back and ran.
So in essence I funded their entire rehab project and they stand to make all the cash from the sale of the property... About 20K. Do not do business with these clowns. They will hold your cash randsome, keep rent from tenants in your home and try to double charge you for work they were suppose to do in the first place... CROOKS!
Oh yeah... One last thing... During the rehab I asked for "before" photos and an itemized list of the work they completed with photos when the rehab was completed.
The itemized list indicated they replaced the bathroom sink and vanity... Well guess what, the after photos of the bathroom had the vanity and sink as the before photos... They tried to charge me for work they didn't do.
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