Shady "Property Manager" Taking Advantage of Out of State Owners?

[Darrin Wesenberg]

Hey all, I wasn't sure where to post this. Got a hairy situation...

I'm a licensed agent here in Ohio, and recently started looking into a local abandoned property for a friend. I used public records to figure out the owners are an elderly couple living in Georgia. The property taxes have been paid on time through their mortgage lender and are current.  I used every possible "person locator" online and found their Georgia address but no valid phone #. I sent a postcard to their Georgia address but no reply.  I saw they owned another property here in town, and that property actually had a name and phone # listed for a local rental contact person from 2010.  I contacted the number, expecting it to be disconnected, but the woman actually answered. I very nicely told her I was interested in this abandoned property, and saw her name was on the owners' other property, and asked if she might have contact information for the owners. She immediately got extremely defensive and wouldn't really talk or answer any of my questions. She told me that tenants were going to be moving in soon (which I knew was a lie--this property has been vacant too long for someone to be "moving in soon").  She finally very abruptly ended the call with something to the effect that she is buying the property, and they have a recorded land contract. I noted the fact that she said "recorded", as in with the county recorder.  I didn't believe a word this woman said and knew something fishy was going on.  I searched for a land contract on this property on the county recorder site and unsurprisingly found nothing.

I googled her name and found a local newspaper article about a property she owned burning down and she didn't address it nor could be reached for comment. She owns a couple rentals in "less than desirable" areas of town, meanwhile living in a mansion in a nice suburb.

I know this lady is up to no good. My hunch is that she's collecting some sort of property management fee from this couple, and/or telling them it's rented for X and only sending them Y amount that she's collecting from some other property--basically she's figured out some way to profit off this couple. They probably have no idea this place has fallen into such disrepair since they're old and live many states away. I also noticed it was listed on the MLS like 3 different times from about 2005-2009, so they tried selling it in the past.

So I'd like some advice as to what I should do next?  Do I call an attorney? The police?  The real estate commission?  My friend still wants to buy the property so I just want to find the owners and make sure this lady isn't taking advantage of them!

[Neal Collins]

The great garage sale of humanity. Before you go off raising an army, I would do a little more research. It still shocks me the kind of people you meet on a regular basis that own property. People truly dance to the beat of their own drum, and sometimes, having properties fall into disrepair all the while telling themselves they have a plan for the property, is a popular tune. Even people on the brink of foreclosure can be in denial and resort to putting their heads in the sand.

At this point you're lacking any solid facts and it may not be best going around accusing a property manager of ripping someone off. We met a property owner once who purchased a property back in 1990 with the intent of moving into it with his wife. They separated sometime after and the place stayed vacant for twenty-five years. Naturally the place fell into disrepair. He did, however, have a property manager whose sole responsibility was to make sure the grass was cut and that no one was breaking in. So to that effect the PM carried out their responsibility to the letter.

My suggestion would be to do a more comprehensive telephone number search for the owners. Googling and white pages just doesn't cut it. There are paid services for that kind of information and it blows my mind that some investors are too cheap to buy a $10 in depth search when it could lead to a much greater reward later.