On Friday, August 29, 2014 9:02:16 AM UTC-4, Pico Rico wrote:


You do realize that the company offering the gift certificates is not

even a realty company, don't you?



I believe they are licensed brokers, perhaps not actively engaged in the

real estate game other than their "scam".



What makes you think they are licensed? I didn't see anything on the website
that says they are. If they are, I would think that would be a big thing they
would mention to add credibility. Seems like that would be a real pain to
do across the
whole country. Also, if they are brokers and need to be licensed as such,
then what about the folks they are hiring, like Micky's friend? Micky's
friend, who's doing the selling isn't licensed. I doubt
they are licensed, what I see is a broker referral service. How that is
treated would probably vary among different state regulators and laws.





it would be the "scamming" company that would come after you, and they very

well may. To collect a fee, and to keep others in line.


I agree that if you agreed to the deal, received the givt certificates,
then didn't use one of their referal brokers, then the company has a
legitimate claim against you. But it's not for some astronomical
amount. What their damages would be is whatever referal fee they would
have gotten from one of the realtors for the referral. No reason to
believe that's much. I would guess it might be $500, $1000 tops.
What do you think any realty firm would pay for a referal?
So, yes, they could sue you for that, whether they would when you're
located somewhere across the country, I tend to doubt that.

The biggest flaws I see in all this a

1 - No mention of what exactly the gift certificates are. That no
clear examples are even given is a red flag. They could turn out to
be something with little value to you. Also those certificates are not
handed out upfront, apparently you get some each year for four or five
years.

2 - You don't know what realty firms they would have participating say
5 years from, when you do want to sell your house. If I knew that a
couple of the respected local firms would be the choice, then I would
consider the deal. That you don't know what the situation will be years
down the road is a big problem.








nop, the "scamming company" would come after you.


I agree it's actually the company that would have the case, for their
referal fee. I doubt they are going to come after you in court, when
they don't even have a presence in your state. And if they did, they
don't have some $10K lawsuit, it's probably not worth pursuing.







There are a lot of reasons to not do this.



no kidding!



I just don't see living in fear

that they are going to lean your house from day one being one of them. As

soon as folks found out that a lien was being placed on their property,

all

hell would rain down on this company.



If they don't record the contract against your house, they are fools.

Exactly WHEN they get hell rained down on them remains to be seen.

It's not even clear to me that they have anything that could be recorded
here in NJ. Why don't you just go ask them the question and then you'll
know.

Also, if you're worried about lawsuits so much, you might want to stop
throwing around the term "scamming company". So far, I see reasons why
I wouldn't participate. I've listed them. But nothing that I've seen so
far rises anywhere near the level of a scam.