Unusual proposal to sell my house

hello house seller,,,,,,,,read your post,,,,,change your estate agent,.......age uk has a free half hour with solicetors. on certain days,,,,,get in touch with them and ask them to tell you about it,.....they will tell you where the solicitor is.....you ring them and they will give you an appointment. actually my appointment lasted well over half hour and never cost me a penny......they will give you lots of advice and help you. there is a lot of scams about,,,i would steer clear of this one, seems too complicated for me,.........you just want something with no complications and straight forward, some houses are slow in selling,,,,but dont believe all these people say to you. sometimes when your older ,,,,people think we are stupid.......stay on the ball my love,,,,,,,,go see this free solicitor for free advice,.......age uk are very good, they help out in many ways,....keep us posted, angiebaby,x

From what I can understand from the information gleaned on the internet the scams revolve more around defrauding the mortgage lenders by artificially inflating the value of the property and using what they
call a straw buyer to get the mortgage, pay a couple of instalments then default. The scammer gets part of the inflated price in cash from the mortgage. The property is then reclaimed with the mortgage lenders loosing money. I found a video clip from the FBI giving out the warning and asking the public to give information if they are aware of this happening. I reiterate I have no evidence that this is what is happening in my situation. As seniors we need to be on our guard.

I can see how the scheme would appeal to people with a strong gambling streak, or are desperate but do have somewhere else to live. But it's hugely worrying to think what could happen to people without your good sense.

Well done, hope all goes well.

Well done Houseseller on your findings I hope you go on to find a good Agent and buyer without any problems,as shysal says keeping your name will remind everyone of who you are.

Well researched Houseseller, now you can steer well clear! I hope you will stay on GN and join in the fun (usually). Your user name will still be suitable until you have sold your property, and even afterwards it will help us to remember who you are.

Hi thought you all might be interested in this. I found out the name of this person and googled him. He specialises in Property Flipping, which in itself is legal but he also teaches people how to go about it. I found cases where people have been prosecuted by conducting a scam around it. Not saying this person is trying a scam but I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

petra a favourite word of mine, sadly I feel that I have to use it a lot too.

GillT57. Shysters. Love that word. I seem to use it a lot about a lot of people.

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I am glad you are listening to the unanimous advice on her, and I would give you one more bit......sack your estate agent and get another one. Basically you have called his bluff and he is admitting that he was trying to pull one over on you. Why on earth would you trust him to look after your interests in the so called normal sale? estate agents are not hard to find. I am glad you find this forum helpful and supportive, and you will find a wonderful cross section of life experience and expertise on here. Now, dont take this the wrong way, but why are you still dealing with this agent and why are you stringing them along to see what happens? No good will come of it. A house with a plot with outline planning permission is always saleable and you dont have to deal with these shysters.

Um, I don't actually know either.... maybe you're stuck with it! I know you can have a different name if you register on your local GN forum.

Hi, don't know how to change it.

Hello Houseseller - I put my oar in early on - I haven't read the whole thread properly but I am glad it is resolved - I just wanted to ask if you are going to keep your GN name as Houseseller !?

Once again than you all so much for your support I feel as though I have joined an extended family.

Faye thanks for confirming that; I haven't had any personal experience of buying or selling property in Australia, but have relatives and their extended families who have and I had never heard of it.

Houseseller I have sold many properties in Australia and it is not common practice. I am very glad that you were suspicious enough to get other opinions.

The only time I have ever had trouble in Australia at settlement was when we let the buyers take possession before the money exchanged hands. They wanted a retaining wall pulled down and removed from the property and were threatening to stop settlement which was only hours away. I am not sure if they could legally do that and our conveyancer should have advised us against letting them start moving in before settlement was completed.

Good luck houseseller - I hope it all works out well for you

Good luck, too!

Sounds like you asked exactly the right amount of questions Houseseller . My fingers are crossed for you.

Not at all, I am glad for the fantastic response I got. It's one thing for a couple of people to say not to do something but when it is over 40 it needs to be taken notice of. I feel that my gut feeling that it was wrong has been confirmed.

houseseller I hope you did not think I was being rude about your capacity to make a decision by my remarks. It sounds a bit patronising when I think about it now.

I did ask a lot of questions and said I would put their written proposals to my solicitor. I have just had a call from agent that indicates that they are looking to purchase in the normal way so I assume I asked too many questions. Waiting to hear how much the offer is. Also I had another developer viewing today who may be interested so please keep fingers crossed for me.

I come back to my original comment. Never do anything on the recommendation of an estate agent without getting legal advice and letting a solicitor (not one recommended by the estate agent, but one you find independently) see all the details.

Indeed a good way of testing the bona fides of the people suggesting the scheme is to say that you will want full details of the scheme to be looked over by your solicitor.