Michael and Shanney Can't Figure Out How to Swindle a Builder Out of A House!

As I reported earlier, the Osborns need a place to live as they have been booted from their leased Fullerton house for non payment of rent. Now their problem is how to get a home for free. Well they concocted some sort of scheme that was abruptly abandoned. What that scheme was exactly and why they abandoned it, I do not know but here's what happened.

They retained a real estate broker from the Beverly Hills offices of Coldwell Banker and convinced him that they were in the immediate market for a high priced home. Eventually they take their two babies with them to view a newly built home in the toney Brentwood section of Los Angeles, that is being offered by the builder, and they make an all cash offer of $2.85 million with a 15 day escrow. On the counter, they sign off on an offer sheet at $2.9 million. Then they disappear. The builder doesn't hear from them. The broker doesn't hear from them. They don't return phone calls. That's when the builder found this website and called me. Now both the builder and the broker want to know why the Osborns would possibly play this game.

Here's what I think they had in mind.

Michael probably thought he had a sucker on the hook for some money, maybe as much as $100K. Maybe he thought he could parlay that money into a ruse to get him into the house with a minimal payment and have the builder wait for the money. I can imagine him saying something like, "Here's the first $100K (in escrow), and the rest will be wired in a couple of days but in the meantime, let me have the keys so I can start some work on the house." After a couple of days, the stories would have started to pour in on why the rest of the money had not shown up. Many of us are familiar with these stories:

"The wire transfer got screwed up because the numbers were wrong..."
"The money I'm waiting for is late in arriving..."
"I'm looking into it and will get back to you tommorrow..."
"I don't know why the transfer didn't arrive at the escrow company, let me look into it..."
"My baby was sick and I didn't have time today but I will get it done tomorrow..."
"I'm walking across the parking lot into the bank right now..."
"I have a certified check and will drop it off tomorrow..."
"I sent someone over with the certified check. I don't know why they are not there..."
etc.
etc.
etc.

So the Osborns would have squatted on the house and the builder would have had to go through the court system to get them out all the while not even having access to the money in escrow. That money would have to be returned to the Osborns when the deal fell out of escrow. In the meantime, the builder probably jumps through hoops for six months to get Bonnie and Clyde out of the house.

Of course Michael needed the house as a showpiece to convince his next victims that he was well off. That's how he cons people. He uses a high life to exhibit his "success". The house he rented but did not pay for in Bel-Aire, the fancy hotel rooms in New York and Beverly Hills (that he owes in excess of $100K), the posh offices in Fullerton, etc., etc.

Why did they abandon this scheme? Who knows, but my guess is that the seed money didn't come through. All you have to do is look at the hit count on my website to see that the world is becoming more aware of this con man.



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