Is there a Scam Here?

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Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 1:23 pm

I know this may have little to do with scam BAITING, but bear with me. I"m relying on the accumulated experience of the assembled to help me understand what MAY (or may NOT) be going on here.

My mother in law is selling her property. My father in law recently passed and she has spent an innumerable amount of time (and money) cleaning out the trash and getting together the many items left over in preparation of the sale of the place and subsequent auction. She plans to sell it all and move in with my sister in law, so she will need nothing of the stuff left over and there is a lot of it. After the sale of the property, there will be an auction. Ok, so we're talking the tools and accumulations of someone who owned 40 acres of land, 3 houses, 2 garages and a huge barn. there are tools, old equipment, and even a truck and two BIG lawn mowers (one of them a John Deere - which she has offered to me, but I digress....)

So, she's listed the property for sale. She's had many people come by. This last week a couple comes by and says that they will pay her the asking price for the property but ONLY so long as she also sells them all the stuff she has accumulated for the auction as part of the deal. They ask her to come up with a price for that stuff.

Bells are going off in my head, but I cannot actually see what may be the scam here. Bad check? Funny money? Any one know of any scam related to this type of deal?

419Eater is my life Joined: 23 Apr 2007 Posts: 377

Doesnt sound too dodgy to me, I've heard of similar things happening, think about it, if they are buying a place that will need all that stuff (or most of it) it would be handy for them to get it all at once, it might also be handier to your mother in law to sell it all in one go!

I dont think there is a scam there as long as she isnt selling it all too cheap.

HTH

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 1:33 pm

Unless it's a private sale without involvement of any lawyer/real estate agent and she's in the habit of signing bad contracts without reading them... no, there's no apparent scam there. There are a lot of people who would just as soon not spend the time and money to accumulate the 40 acres worth of stuff and would rather not take a chance on stuff being bid up at the auction. Such offers are actually quite common when farms near me go on sale.

Most real estate sale contracts cover the eventuality that the buyer can't actually fork over the money. Make sure hers does, too, and you won't have much to worry about. So long as there's a clause that none of the stuff leaves the property and nothing changes hands legally until the sale is final (meaning the money has been confirmed), you should be covered.

Western Union · Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 1:37 pm

I don�t think it�s that unusual for people to offer to buy the contents along with the property. It saves them furnishing the place from scratch and would save your mother in law the hassle of the auction.

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 2:14 pm

Mr Fishe wrote:

I don�t think it�s that unusual for people to offer to buy the contents along with the property. It saves them furnishing the place from scratch and would save your mother in law the hassle of the auction.

We're not talking about just furnishings in the house, we're also talking about nearly 100 years worth of JUNK collected by both my father in law and HIS parents. This is the part which makes me wonder.

I really do appreciate all your input! I knew I'd get a good response on this.

THANKs!!

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 2:46 pm

Marvin, the one thing I have to add is that the prospective buyers may be counting on your mother-in-law's inability to accurately value the extra items. Some "junk" may have value to collectors, etc. so it might be worthwhile to investigate the value of anything that might have a value.

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 101

i think its a safe deal as long as its handled through her realator/lawyer. if you say its all junk then what would a scammer care...the property is your main concern

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 4:18 pm

A good advise is to contact someone who can properly value the stuff.

And as a last resort ask the buyers why they want all the items. Tere may be a very good explination. Just do not call it junk or the price may go down!

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 4:30 pm

Marvin,

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the U.S. the money will be held in escrow until the "check" clears and only then will the title be transferred making it almost impossible to scam your mom. I guess the only question is what is the "junk" worth. Can you blame the buyer for trying to get a good deal. Thats not scamming thats "shopping"

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 4:33 pm

I don't see an obvious scam. The only issue would be those discussed above. Get a good real estate lawyer to draw up the contract. As for the stuff/junk there are property appraisers out there that will tell you what it is worth. Might be worth the peace of mind to have that done to make sure there is not something in there worth $$$ that you are essentially giving away.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 07 Sep 2006 Posts: 15

How about you get the junk appraised to work on a good asking price, or at least try to find out how much other items like that are going for? You might be suprised how much it is worth............

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 5:59 pm

One person's junk can turn out to be someone else's very expensive antique. There are people who go from auction to auction, just buying dollar boxes of random "junk", then clean up what's valuable and resell for a nice profit.

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 6:08 pm

mrsbean wrote:

One person's junk can turn out to be someone else's very expensive antique. There are people who go from auction to auction, just buying dollar boxes of random "junk", then clean up what's valuable and resell for a nice profit.

yeah....that's my wife.....

I think I will suggest she get an appraisal, but she's out in RURAL (and I do mean RURAL) arkansas. (It's so rural, it doesn't even get the capital A...it's so rural they have NO Cell service, NO internet and only ONE TV station and that's ABC.....)