Police are issuing a stern warning to would-be homeowners to be on guard against unscrupulous real estate agents who are taking advantage of more and more people – particularly single mothers.<\/p>\n
“Commercial crime is a growing concern because more people feel that they can get away with it,” Police spokesman Assistant Superintendent Hulan Hanna said. Police say they have arrested a 37-year-old man of Yamacraw Beach Estates and plan to charge him before the courts tomorrow for stealing “by reason of service.”<\/P><\/p>\n
It is alleged that the man received more than $25,000 as down payments for properties in various sections of New Providence, but the deals never materialized. Some of the property – police say – were sold up to three times before. The man was charged on similar counts almost two years ago.<\/P><\/p>\n
Police reported 158 similar cases for the first six months of the year.<\/P><\/p>\n
But there are more serious “rip-off” agents out there who are raking in huge sums of money, according to police reports.<\/P><\/p>\n
According to Assistant Superintendent of Police Drexel Cartwright, who heads the Commercial Crime Unit, such crimes have increased “tremendously” in New Providence in the last two years.<\/P><\/p>\n
“We have had a whole lot of matters involving real estate schemes, and upon investigations persons were convicted for claiming to be real estate agents,” Mr. Cartwright said.<\/P><\/p>\n
He said some culprits have office locations, but are really not conducted any legitimate business.<\/P><\/p>\n
“This is an ongoing business for some people,” he said. “It is like a rip-off scheme on poor people.”<\/P><\/p>\n
Maude Rolle, a 30-year-old single mother of two, knows the feeling of being ripped-off all too well.
\n\uffa0\uffa0
\n“I sacrificed for months and months to earn enough money for a down payment on a home,” Ms. Rolle said. “After being turned around so many times by banks and realtors, I found someone who offered me a good deal, one I thought was good.” She said the man had what she thought was a legitimate company staffed by several workers. He told her that she qualified for a two-bedroom home with a $3,000 down payment.<\/P><\/p>\n
“The man provided me with an application and a receipt after I paid him,” she recalls. “Since then I waited for months for a response. After no response, I decided to call the police to investigate the matter and have them located the man.”<\/P><\/p>\n
Police found who they believe the culprit. He is out on bail.<\/P><\/p>\n
There are ways that people could avoid falling prey to such scams, said David Morley, president of the Bahamas Real Estate Association.<\/P><\/p>\n
Potential homeowners should always ensure that their realtor is licenses before turning over money, Mr. Morley said.<\/P><\/p>\n
“If Bahamians want to invest their money with someone who is holding out to be a realtor but is not licensed they are taking a tremendous risk,” he said.<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Morley’s association has been running ads warning against bogus agents.<\/P><\/p>\n
“It is sad that individuals have been able to conduct real estate transactions without having to give evidence that he or she is a licensed realtor,” he said.<\/P><\/p>\n
Police say that are also concerned that phony building contractors are also taking advantage of people seeking to have their own homes built.<\/P><\/p>\n
“There are fraudulent matters and stealing going on and in that regard, services of the officers of the Commercial Crimes Unit have become increasingly important,” police spokesman Hanna said.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241449,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239625\/revisions\/241449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}