September 9 On May 29th I attended a real estate seminar advertised in the Sacramento Bee for a lease to own program administered by Ron Russell, and Summer Hills Real Estate. This program was promoted as a lease to own program, a program that dictated a participant enroll in for two years before the seller would finance the buyer purchasing the property. On June 1 I advanced to Ronald E. Russell a sum of $2900.00. This amount was to cover the first months lease payment, and the security deposit. This amount was to also cover the required down payment and closing costs at the time the loan would eventually be made by the seller (seller financing) to cover the purchase of the home. This $2900.00 was paid at the time of signing the agreement to get on the first-come, first-served list being created by the seller. Ron Russell seller stipulated he would purchase homes for resale to his buyers. He also mentioned he had a number of homes in inventory for sale. It turns out he had neither the funds, nor investors to purchase the homes, nor did he have any homes for sale in his inventory, or plans to purchase any. Upon learning this, I wrote to Ron Russell requesting the return of my deposit. I have been emailing, phoning and visiting Ron ever since, at least once a week, in an attempt to get my deposit returned to me. Each time I am told a new version of the same story. For instance, he would assert that he had investors who would soon be injecting cash into his organization, or a list of homes for purchase from HUD would soon be available for him to purchase homes at a 50% discount from market value. His continued assertions that any day now he would have my funds available for refund, are what has kept me from taking action against Ron to date. Ron Russell claimed he would be purchasing homes from HUDs inventory at a 40% to 50% discount from market value due to his being involved with a non-profit whom had access to a list of HUD homes for sale at a discount. These purchased HUD homes would then be used for his awaiting home buyers, and investors. Whereupon he would then have the funds available to refund the deposit monies he owes to his clients. Ron Russell also claims to be involved with a non-profit charity, Haven of Hope, and claims this is how he has access to HUD properties at a discount that he will sell to his buyers. However, I contacted Haven of Hope and they have never heard of Ron Russell, or Summer Hills Real Estate. After three months of hearing this, and not receiving even a payment from Ron Russell towards the amount owed to me, I decided to take action. I am not alone in this, I have read the accounts of 4 others who have fallen victim to Ron Russells scam, and have heard there are many more out there. So far Sue Best, Sheryl Taylor, and Darrien Rakestraw have also filed a complaint against Ron Russell in the last few months. Ron Russells latest story is to say that if anyone tries to take him to the DRE, or court, or to the DA, he will simply file bankruptcy, and re-emerge to do the same business under another name. He tells me his brother and nephew are both real estate brokers and he will just use their license to do the same thing. He claims that if I try to pursue him with the DRE and claim misrepresentation, that I was only doing business with his holding company, and it doesnt have a license, and that he is not required to keep trust fund accounting, nor is he required to give anyone their money back. He claims that if he did give anyone their money back, it was just out of his desire to reward them for going along with his time frame to get repaid. It seems to me he should have always had the deposit funds readily available for refund. The deposit funds should have been kept in a separate account, a trust account, far away from any funds used for operating expenses, or investment purposes. The conversion of these funds has resulted in frustration and humiliation from persons like myself who trusted this real estate broker and have since regretted it, as this person has stolen our money.
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