My Realty Deal Custom Search Services BEWARE: "My Realty Deal" is offering a product that doesn't exist. They have "Phantom Properties"! Los Angeles, California

Here is the deal on this company and how I found out the negatives on the supposed services they offer.

I am a real estate investor and purchase properties throughout southern California.  I am always scouring the FSBO sites as well as CraigsList for potential properties homeowners are looking to get rid of.

I found a few ads that mention "Take Over Payments" or "Lease To Own". My specific ad that I was looking at was labeled, "$2170 / 4br-4ba - House for Lease / Takeover Mortgage.

I called the number on the CraigsList ad and essentially this is what they told me:

You take over payments on a house, move in, deed is transferred to you through a Quit Claim Deed.  Your payment goes directly to the bank and all you need to come in with is a 1st month worth of rent.  There is no qualifying or credit checks.  A lease agreement is written up with an agent and the seller is out of the house.  Sounds too good to be true no?  So, I told them I would think about it, wanted to check out their site and I hung up. Here is where the detective work began...

From what I found out online and through more CraigsList ads, My Realty Deal does not post the actual street address number, just the street name.  In this case, I did a title search under the street name and the city the stated the property was in.  Since it gives you the square footage and bedrooms and baths, I looked at all the properties on that street that had that size square footage.  There was ONLY ONE.  I did a title search to see who owned it and it looked like it had just been released from a trustee sale foreclosure (release of lis pendence).  I drove by the house, spoke to the homeowner and he had no idea what I was talking about and said that he had never put his house up for a lease option or to sell it.  INTERESTING.

So, I call "My Realty Deal" back, ask them again how their program works, get a few conflicting bits of information on how the process works and then proceed to ask about this particular property.  They say they can't give me the address unless I pay the $189 service fee to get a list of ALL the properties as well as the addresses.  The guy I am speaking to says that it looks like this property is still available and that he has everything on it open.  I ask him again for the address but he says he can't tell me unless I pay first.  I ask him if he has the address in from of him and he says that he does.

SO, with anticipation, I give him the complete address and ask him if this is the property he has opened.  There is a brief pause and he says that it is indeed that property.

I then tell him that I physically went to the property, spoke to the homeowner and that the homeowner was completely clueless about what was going on and told me that he had finished doing a loan modification with the lender but was in no way looking to sell the property, lease it out and had never offered for a third party company to offer it for lease.  He was quite quiet and then stated that this was probably a property that was being offered from the bank.  I asked to speak to the owner of the company and was immediately hung up on.

I attempted to call one more time, got another person on the phone (it sounds like a "boiler room" sort of place) and after speaking to him was hung up on as well.

Most people would not have the wherewithal, time or understanding on how to find out which properties they are marketing.  Fortunately, this is what I do and I am glad that I am able to post this warning about this company as it is definitely a SCAM and that what they are offering is to take your money and hope that you don't cause a scene.  With it being only $189 for a year of service, I am sure there are many people who never say anything.

DO NOT BUY THEIR SERVICES IF YOU DON"T WANT TO LOSE YOUR MONEY!