Vacant land fraud is becoming a regular occurrence right here in Deltona, Florida. Don’t think it can happen to you? Do you think it’s happening JUST in Deltona? Think again! Today I’ll be sharing one of the methods criminals use as well as an actual, real-life fraudulent sale that I experienced. Then I’ll give a practical way that you may be able to help protect yourself against this type of fraud. It’s my hope that this information can help you to avoid becoming a victim of vacant land fraud.

It’s important to note that I am not an attorney and I do not provide legal advice in any way. I’m Chuck Shaver, and I’m a local Realtor® that has, unfortunately, too much experience with this type of real estate fraud. I’m sure that there are other ways people are being scammed that I don’t know of. If you believe you’ve been a victim of fraud, you should contact your local police immediately.

So, let’s jump right into how they did it. Well, they started with an email telling me that they wanted to sell their property. When I called them, the conversation was very short, but they asked how much I could sell the property for in a very short time frame. They indicated that they were looking to make another investment and wanted out of their land. Sellers come with all sorts of personalities and baggage, so no alarms were going off here. The alleged seller was pleasant and responsive, so I sent him the documents to get the property on the market after I viewed and walked the property in Deltona. He promptly signed the documents, and the property was listed.

Within a few days we had a cash buyer for the property, and we proceeded towards closing. Still-no alarms. The seller indicated that he was in Europe for a couple weeks, which again, is nothing out of the ordinary. Then, a couple days prior to closing there was some sort of issue with the notary, I don’t recall exactly what it was, but there was a delay of a day or so, so that they could line up a new notary. However, they got everything worked out and it closed and everyone was happy. Fast forward about a month or so, and I’m sitting in my living room with my family at around 8 o’clock and get a phone call from the buyer and we started with small talk. He then noted that he was online looking for more properties and he saw that HIS property was listed for sale on the market. My heart sunk. My 1^st question was WHICH website did he see it on. You see, some websites have a whole lot of unreliable information. He indicated that it was on realtor.com, which I personally consider reliable, along with several other sites, so I opened up my laptop and saw that it was, in fact, for sale. Of course, I contacted the other Realtor that had it listed. We initially suspected that the OTHER Realtor had been scammed as she was over an hour away from the property and it didn’t make sense that someone would list a property with an out-of-area Realtor®. After much discussion with the title company and a conversation with the local police over the next couple weeks, it was determined that it was me, and the buyer, that had been scammed (well, the buyer was the REAL victim). It turns out that the notary was one that never existed, or was bogus, I don’t really know.

After a couple months the buyer was able to recover his money, or at least most of it, because of the title policy he received with the purchase of the property. You might say that he was made whole, but during this time he spent a good bit of time making plans to build a home, he ordered trusses, and had other expenses, which were unrecoverable as they weren’t part of the purchase price. Since this event, I’ve received other, similar emails seeking my services and other local Realtors have as well. One of them, being familiar with my story, shared his information with me and it was almost verbatim of what happened with my situation.

I recently had one similar “seller” reach out to me and they were a bit more convincing. However, something still smelled amiss. So I reached out to the manager at a title company that I’ve worked with for years who did some research and they were actually able to connect with the REAL seller on the phone, who noted that they were NOT selling their property. It was that SMELL in this case, that saved me. It was just a few days later that I saw that same property hit the market. Of course, I called the Realtor® and she quickly removed the listing and was grateful that I notified her. I’ve now seen a few of these cases that have all been in Deltona, but I’m almost certain that they’re happening throughout the Orlando area, the state of Florida, and I’m betting they’re happening all across the US.

So, what can YOU do? They aren’t reaching out to the REAL property owners, but to Realtors. Well, if it were me, I’d be setting up a search on some websites, looking for property on YOUR street in YOUR town. Yes, you might be getting some extra emails that mean nothing to you, except maybe helping you to understand the value of your property. But you might be glad you did when you get an email notification with YOUR property as the one being sold! If that happens, reach out to the listing Realtor® immediately, and consider contacting the local authorities to determine if you’re a potential victim of vacant land fraud.

If you’re a local Realtor®, if you don’t have a verbal conversation with a potential seller, give it the SMELL test. I DID speak with them, and I was STILL impacted. Maybe reach out to a title company and ask them to do some homework on your behalf. Obviously, not everyone is a crook, but whenever I’ve questioned legitimate sellers, and had them jump through a few hoops for verification of legitimacy, they’ve always been just fine with that.

If you’ve been a victim, send me a message about what happened to you so that YOU can help prevent it from happening to others. If you have land here in Deltona, or anywhere else here in Central Florida, let me know how I might be able to help. Thanks for watching and I’ll see ya’ soon!

Published on July 25. 2023 / Tags: Deltoan, florida, Land fraud, Land scams, vacant land / no comments.