I think this is ok in GQ… might not be as defined as a specific answer type question but is certainly not a poll. But if the mods feel that it needs to be moved, please do so.
I was contacted by this company because I have a building lot that is for sale and has been for a while. They offered just over my asking price which is closer to the true current market value than my price.
I don’t feel that this is too good to be true, I just find it very… timely? lucky? a blessing? I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth but I’ve been around long enough to have been bent over a time or two and want to avoid it if I can. I did a brief 'net search and really didn’t find anything pro or con.
So, I turn to the SDMB and ask if any Dopers know of anyone who has dealt with 21st Century before or have had a friend or family member with experience with this company.
Per whois search, the domain was seemingly first registered in the end of June. It’s weird that a company that claims to have been in business for years would only get on the good ol’ WWW in June of this year.
Oh, and check the disclaimer on their website. It looks like they charge sellers about $1K for getting them together with a prospective buyer. Any guesses on whether or not the buyers are real?
I am a commercial real estate agent, and have been for over 24 years.
Here is what they say -
The interesting part is that it sounds like (I’m guessing) they get paid for just making the contact. Whether the deal goes to closure or not is not their issue.
This is IMO borderline practicing real estate without a license. They are skirting being licensed because they are not “technically” acting as brokers, and representing clients, but a “referer”. Referers that have a website offering property people pay to advertise on.
IMO this will be able to go on until somebody, at some point, thinks they got royally boned in a transaction and sues the pants off everyone involved. It’ll be interesting to see if the court agrees with the notion that they have no representative duty to anyone in these transactions.
I talked to Mike Kennedy today and it looks like he wants 1500 bucks for a marketing fee before I get any paperwork and that puts me on edge normally when someone buys the property closing costs are paid by the buyer. His response to that was would to just float it on a credit card ,and by the time you have to make a payment the deal will be closed . this to me sounds like a con artist so to anyone else out there I would have to say buyer beware. However, this thing could be legit but it really doesn’t sound like it. and as far as I’m concerned unless he just wants to send me a check and take the closing costs out of the purchase price the deal is off I was suggest you guys do the same thing my fellow lake royal people oh yeah i almost forgot he even said that he would add the closing cost back into the deal when i told him i was backing out then he came up with his software auto deleting me if i didnt pay him at least 500 dollars really suspicious.
I don’t know how things are done in your jurisdiction, but in my area, it’s common for serious buyers to attach a check to their offer sheet. For example, when I bid on my house, I paper-clipped a check for a thousand dollars to the offer. The money went into the broker’s escrow account and was credited against my deposit which I put down once we agreed on a price. If the deal had fallen through, the money would have been refunded to me. Attaching a check to the offer shows that you are serious and not just screwing around.
So I would be tempted to insist that they put money up, even if it’s only a couple hundred dollars, in order to show they are serious and not just wasting your time. If it’s some kind of scam, they surely will not put up money.
I don’t think it really matters . . . what’s their “guarantee” worth? I can’t think of any legitimate reason why the seller would have to put money up in advance, since any such fee can just come out of the proceeds at closing.
A good rule of thumb is that “stranger” + “business proposal which requires an advance fee in exchange for a large cash payoff” = SCAM. My guess is that this rule applies here.