Like others, I called a number on Craigslist about a home. I asked A LOT of quetions, and even called the guy - Shawn Banes Agent #2402 numerous times to see if the answers would be any different. I was calling his cell phone directly. He answered the phone regardless of day or time and was very polite. He provided an address to a home that was in the area we were interested in and we looked it up on Zillow, drove by, saw that it was empty but did not have a for sale sign in the yard. We looked around and thought that would be great. He explained the program as a "take-over-payments" type of Rent -to-own deal and that all of the homes were in Pre Foreclosure. He explained there was a one-time fee of $199 to cover a the access to the property listings and the title search once a property was found. He never indicated the program was a DIY program, rather appearing as if they would provide the services and help us find qualified properties and they would "set appointments for you to go take a look at the homes. Once you find the one you like, we will sit you down with the owner and the bank and negotiate a contract that will Deed the property to you once you agree to the terms. The terms are the initial mortgage instrument terms and payments. You simply pick up where the owner left off, continue making the payments as contracted, and then own the home after all payments are made. The bank negotiates all of this with you and is completely involved and knows what is going on so if you decide to refinance the home in a few years, and have made good payment history with them, they will most likely offer finacing to you based on your established credit by making payments on the home directly to them. Remember, the house is Deeded to you. The owner's credit will not suffer but they will still be on the mortgage until you refinance which is an option, not required. You will not need any money down, and there are no credit checks... just take over the existing payments." It took us 2 weeks to pay the fee to get started. When I finally was able to pay the fee, he called back from a blocked number and then gave the information needed to get online access and how to use the website. He provided the Customer Service number and steps to follow. But he never explained that we would have to do all the digging ourselves, and he also failed to mention that the homes on their so-called list were from 2011 and 2012... this is 2016. I know how to research properties in our area so I looked up a list of homes (54 of them showed up), and then researched 26 of them. Every single one of them had already been forclosed and auctioned. I called Shawn back and explained this and he stated he had never heard of such a thing... to call the Customer Service number and speak with the legal department and tell them the information is not matching up... yada yada yada. Clearly this company is built on scamming people out of their money with no recourse to get the money back. In their Terms and Agreements, it states to send a letter by UPS but to wait 90 days and provide proof that the information is incorrect and then they investigate. If they agree to refund the money, they keep 10% of the funds and then issue a check 30 days later...so it would take 120 days to even see if we are able to get a refund. That spells SCAM. Additionally, when I was asking the initial questions, the one thing they would not provide was the company name so I could research it beforehand. I should have taken that as my first clue that this was not legit and I was about to throw $199 out the window. When I asked about the "We are state regulated" as Shawn mentioned and described a couple of times, I asked specifically for who the regulating body was and the answer was "we are regulated to do business in California as a network and support to Real Estate investors" which means they probably have a buisness license, but they are not "regulated" by the Real Estate Commission or any other regulatory body. This company needs to be investigated for being a scam and the people who have been taken should receive a full refund. The company misrepresents their services with lies and half-truths, using swith-bait tactics; refuses to provide the company name prior to making payment; then denies any wrong-doing even with proof in black and white.