Why is there so many land purchase scams in WEST TEXAS? (El Paso: for sale, real estate)

[kalfur]

I was searching a land sales site for Texas Land for sale. I instantly noticed dirt cheap land in West Texas. It really sounds good when you think of the cost of living in the city. A peaceful setting where there's plenty of privacy and a great place to get away from it all. Then, I noticed a side ad that said don't purchase land in West Texas until you read this. I looked into the ad and came up with a scam that had been exposed by the Fed's about land sales in West Texas. It was about duplicated sales of contracts and wrong information on just about everything. Is there anyone who know more about the land sales and is there any legal real land West in Texas that I can trust?

[Lyndarn]

Originally Posted by kalfur

I was searching a land sales site for Texas Land for sale. I instantly noticed dirt cheap land in West Texas. It really sounds good when you think of the cost of living in the city. A peaceful setting where there's plenty of privacy and a great place to get away from it all. Then, I noticed a side ad that said don't purchase land in West Texas until you read this. I looked into the ad and came up with a scam that had been exposed by the Fed's about land sales in West Texas. It was about duplicated sales of contracts and wrong information on just about everything. Is there anyone who know more about the land sales and is there any legal real land West in Texas that I can trust?

Yep..This has been going on for decades..this link kind of describes how they do it..and Yes..It's always online scams..You will never find local listings for same property with a similar description..without losing their realtor's licence....So Shady is a nice word...and this goes back to 2006~~
Old-fashioned land scams go high-tech - USATODAY.com

•West Texas. Land there is plentiful, but not always hospitable. Arid acreage in Jeff Davis, Hudspeth and Culberson counties has been auctioned online to some unsuspecting buyers.

"Much of the property was advertised with photos showing things like running water, green trees and green grass — things that simply don't exist in that particular location," Medley says.

A few more ~

Sunset Ranches. LLC - Sunset Ranches scam, Review 91747 | Complaints Board

this company advertises in the Pennysaver, City Paper, and online websites. For a number of years, they have offered cheap deals on 20 acre "ranches" in El Paso, Texas. The realty is that the land is "scrubland". Brandi Grissom, reporter for El Paso Times wrote an expose story about the Texas Attorney General, a Judge, et. al failed efforts to stop the land deal scams because a man commited suicide, people have lost their life savings, and the landscape in Sierra Blanca and Van Horn is dotted with old trailers, half buillt shacks, etc. from those who were ceated into this scam. When consumers default on the monthly payments, Sunset Ranches forecloses and takes back the properties. I canceled my contract with them within the seven day period after sigg the contract. This because of finding online that it was a scam. They simply sent me a package with a land plat saying I was owner of 60 acres for 40 acres price. (I fell for that!) It is sadi that what they are doing is barely "legal", but legal none the less. This makes no sense if they misrepresent what their "product" is. Hudspeth County or the State of Texas should assume a more aggressive effort to stop this scam. They get to send tax bills to thousand of duped consumers.
HELP THERE SHOULD BE SOME JUSTICE...

FBI: Permian Basin real estate scam totaled $45M
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

FBI: Permian Basin real estate scam totaled $45M - MRT.com: Crime

And the list goes on~~ This is and has always been an age old scam...So best advice..Do your homework..do not rely on seller's word..research and do local investigations.. You ( OP) are very lucky you caught that little link in the ad..because you could have very well been bilked like so many!!

[Restrain]

Contact a licensed real estate agent. You have scammers who buy the land, then sell it to unsuspecting people. Often has no water, no electricity available, and access is questionable at best. There is land available but you need knowledgable people who will be straight with you. Get a Buyer's Agent who will work for YOU, not the seller.

[kalfur]

Originally Posted by Restrain

Contact a licensed real estate agent. You have scammers who buy the land, then sell it to unsuspecting people. Often has no water, no electricity available, and access is questionable at best. There is land available but you need knowledgable people who will be straight with you. Get a Buyer's Agent who will work for YOU, not the seller.

I think buy now it's hard to find a real estate agent that is honest. It makes buying a home very difficult. In fact I did get a straight answer from an agent before that honesty is a bonus. They will not be straight to tell you the house is haunted and that 11 people were burned in the basement. So, in my opinion you are on your own duped or not.

[kalfur]

Originally Posted by Lyndarn

Yep..This has been going on for decades..this link kind of describes how they do it..and Yes..It's always online scams..You will never find local listings for same property with a similar description..without losing their realtor's licence....So Shady is a nice word...and this goes back to 2006~~
Old-fashioned land scams go high-tech - USATODAY.com



A few more ~

Sunset Ranches. LLC - Sunset Ranches scam, Review 91747 | Complaints Board



FBI: Permian Basin real estate scam totaled $45M
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

FBI: Permian Basin real estate scam totaled $45M - MRT.com: Crime

And the list goes on~~ This is and has always been an age old scam...So best advice..Do your homework..do not rely on seller's word..research and do local investigations.. You ( OP) are very lucky you caught that little link in the ad..because you could have very well been bilked like so many!!

The above articles are exactly what was covered in the icon ad I clicked on. Thanks for the information links. When you see the same kind of ads for land sales today of the same area, they have "new access roads", "utilities near by" and newly established subdivisions. I personally think they can not sale the land because it is used for waste land. In fact the article talked about the trash from New York being dumped there and other places.

[joqua]

Originally Posted by Lyndarn

Yep..This has been going on for decades.....and this goes back to 2006~~

That this has been going on for decades is correct. All the way back to the 1950s. And to answer the question:

"Why are there so many land scams..."

Could it be because there is "a sucker born every minute?" Or the fact that there are so many gullible people thinking the price for acreage is such a bargain they can't resist - in spite of the fact that you get just what you pay for - or less.

Originally Posted by kalfur

In fact the article talked about the trash from New York being dumped there and other places.

In fact it was train tank cars filled with SEWAGE SLUDGE from NYC that was dumped on the desert area for a number of years. But that was confined to a single large tract of land that today is quite "lush" with the fertilized growth by comparison to abutting acreage.

[texasdiver]

Because people are too stupid to actually go look at the land before buying.

Drive out to say Pecos Texas and then from there pick some random county road and drive way further out into the country then look around and decide if you really want 20 acres of what you see. Because that is the sort of land people are selling. You couldn't pay me enough to live in town at someplace like Pecos, much less way further out in the country.

[kalfur]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Because people are too stupid to actually go look at the land before buying.

Drive out to say Pecos Texas and then from there pick some random county road and drive way further out into the country then look around and decide if you really want 20 acres of what you see. Because that is the sort of land people are selling. You couldn't pay me enough to live in town at someplace like Pecos, much less way further out in the country.

The population for Pecos county is 8,903 as of 2013. Which is still better than ghost towns that no one lives in at all. But, the fact of driving by established towns with people living there is one thing, but the illusion of thinking you bought a legal deed is another- 20 acres or 1 acre of land. It's the counties that seems to withhold the truth about the deeds and the land. So, maybe altogether it's a merged issue. I'm just speaking for people that have already purchased land and were duped one way or another. Just driving out there won't fix what's really going on with a long history of land sales in West Texas. Just saying-

[wxf848]

This has been going on for a long time, but we need to distinguish between scams and poorly considered purchases. There's a reason the land is so cheap; it's because it's nearly worthless land, and sometimes nothing but land. There may not be electric service, water, a road, a fence, or even a survey. In some cases your land is not marked off and you have to hire a surveyor to go out and find it for you, and then put up a fence, which is very expensive. A properly-platted area should have road easements, but sometimes the easements are unimproved so getting to your land requires cross-country driving.

If the seller makes no false claims and you end up with land that's nothing but dirt and rocks and isn't fenced or even marked and has no roads built to it, that isn't a scam; it's a bad decision on your part. However, many people who are accustomed to fenced-off lots, paved roads, and water and electric service would call it a scam, because they just assume those things exist everywhere. There are real scams out there, with overtly fraudulent representations or other devices to defraud buyers, but remember that many of the claims originate from people who weren't lied and got exactly what they paid for, but didn't know what they were buying. Make sure you get a concrete description of your exact lot, not a "representative" description of the area as a whole. Even better, visit the area before buying.

[kalfur]

Originally Posted by wxf848

This has been going on for a long time, but we need to distinguish between scams and poorly considered purchases. There's a reason the land is so cheap; it's because it's nearly worthless land, and sometimes nothing but land. There may not be electric service, water, a road, a fence, or even a survey. In some cases your land is not marked off and you have to hire a surveyor to go out and find it for you, and then put up a fence, which is very expensive. A properly-platted area should have road easements, but sometimes the easements are unimproved so getting to your land requires cross-country driving.

If the seller makes no false claims and you end up with land that's nothing but dirt and rocks and isn't fenced or even marked and has no roads built to it, that isn't a scam; it's a bad decision on your part. However, many people who are accustomed to fenced-off lots, paved roads, and water and electric service would call it a scam, because they just assume those things exist everywhere. There are real scams out there, with overtly fraudulent representations or other devices to defraud buyers, but remember that many of the claims originate from people who weren't lied and got exactly what they paid for, but didn't know what they were buying. Make sure you get a concrete description of your exact lot, not a "representative" description of the area as a whole. Even better, visit the area before buying.

The definition of a scam @ businessdictionary.com is - A fraudulent scheme performed by a dishonest individual, group, or company in an attempt to obtain money or something else of value.

I agree with you if the person understands they are getting the land as is , no water, no electricity or improvements what so ever. Some people may find that improving the land themselves is something they could do in the long run. But I think that if it's buildable land it's valuable vs. wetlands that you can not build on. However, if the land is being sold to more than one buyer such as collecting payments when they know it's already sold and charging for taxes - it's a scam running water or not.