Our city Code Enforcer got us!!!!!!!!!!!!);

Robert, just like he lied to meet you I would try to be very careful and lay low for the next couple of weeks. I would not be surprised if you get a call from the SEC. I wish you the best of luck but I would speak with an attorney to see what is the correct way to advertise, use other people's money, assignment of contract, etc...
I called a realtor last month which works for Keller Williams and I was interviewing him to see if he wanted to be in my real estate team and he told me that his company is working on getting this assignment and wholesaling under control. He didn't want to deal with me once I told him that I was studying Dean Graziosi's system. He told me that the real estate board is working on making all this illegal because we are stealing money from realtors. We are doing realtor work without being license. This realtor is located in new jersey. Good Luck!!
Raymond

that is very interesting because Keller/Williams is known for being investor-friendly. i'm going to contact Wendy Patton, a KW broker and investor up in MI and see what she has to say about it. thanks for the update.

Linda, in new jersey and pennsylvania I have found Keller Williams to be the worse when it comes to working with real estate investors. I have better luck with the smaller no name realtors. Please keep us updated.
Thanks in advance
Raymond

Guess it is not good to meet up with people for the signs right away. SEC? I don't understand why they would be coming in when you explained everything, but it is likely they will call. Seems like they would just fine you for the signs.

I had a similar issue using the term "Investment" when I was choosing a name for my LLC. If I wanted to have that particular word or any variation of it in my name I had to have a banking license or the SEC would jump all over me for investing without proper licensing. So I changed my LLC name, it would have cost me over $500 just to get a banking license. It would be great if they kept track of the actual banking institutions the way they keep track of us

My best advice to you would be to find a investor friendly attorney. You might have to call other investors to see who they are using for council. Then if you get another call or vist form these gentle men trying to push around their authority, tell them to speak to your attorney.

You might have to interview a few attorneys till you find one that understands all the ins and outs of investing. But the peace of mind will be worth it. I am a Real Estate Agent in Connecticut and have found most Brokes/Agents and some Attorneys aren't investor friendly.

Gettting advice from an attorney will also let you know what is allowable with no grey areas.

HTH
Teena

if i were you i would get an attorney on my side right away. that way if you need him/her you would have had plenty of time to explain what you are doing. i would be so furious if this happen to me. i am going to go in to great detail about this with my attorney so he will understand what we are doing.

seems like every facet of investing we are trying to dodge a bullet from some idiot.

WALT

What advice did they give you about doing ir legally?

Logically speaking, I don't see any reason for a fine unless your sign(s) was posted in a prohibited area. Laws differ state to state. The question remains whether or not you have a legal right to post/advertise RE business without a license? I don't see why not in as much as the financial aspect of any/all transaction(s)is handled via transacational funding. I suggest you speak with a lawyer and see what they have to say about it. Notably, am a little curious about your meet with officials from the DA office in the "parking lot" etc. Isn't that somewhat strange that representatives of that status would meet in a parking lot, request an upfront fee ($100), with instructions to pay the balance within a later time frame? Don't seem legal to me at all ... just be careful with who you deal with. Did you request any type of identification? How do you know you were dealing with government officials? You be surprise what length a scammer will go to get your money. Just food for thought! Keep the DG fam posted.
Hugh

Something does not seem right. The DA in the parking lot sounded strange, but taharka may be right that they are just posing. Even so, you should call and find out if they are ligit. If they are a lawyer sounds the way to go.

Jean, wow, I agree they let the big guys do whatever they want and we have to bail them out to get duped on again. And anytime we try to make a dollar as the little guy we get the book thrown at us!

Let me start by saying:
I am not a lawyer (and I don't play one on TV ) but this sounds like an entrapment case to me that is similar to one I had against me years ago. The outcome was the judge balled out the officer who cited me in open court.
You can check but if the code enforcement officer did not identify himself as such and he said (and you can prove it with a recording or texted version of his message) that he was an investor, I would have my attorney up the city's butt so far that he could smell my shoes. You can check your local laws but I think all that the officer could legally do was to remove your signs or call the number on the signs to inform you that you were breaking the law. What sounds illegal is what the officer did.

I would really like to know the outcome. Please keep us posted.

Andy Sager
DG's AndyS
CFIC member

Of course you should dig into this and find out what the heck is going on. It just doesn't sound right at all. I would call the city and find out the codes, etc.

You can check the fine amount in the municipal code to see if it was legit. What did he tell your regarding how to do it legally?

It would be great if an administrator or coach would weigh in on this, including Raymond's post about a realtor not wanting to work with DG students. I had a similar comment from a REmax agent in Chicago.

Robert,
So sorry to hear that. This is the very reason you should start out with the SEC and follow there rules in advertising and Investment money. There is a course on this. Yes get your self a lawyer perferibaly one that deals in SEC laws and rules. Following is the link following are some links one is the course that helps you deal with the sec laws and one is the SEC site. You can still do this just follow the laws and you will be just fine.

http://www.privatelendingmadeeasy.com/

http://www.sec.gov/

They call it "entrapment." But you're not dealing with cops, so get yourself a lawyer! For a city administrator to LIE in the course of doing his duty is usually considered FRAUD and abuse of office, and it shouldn't take more than a phone call to end his career over this. For the DA to be in on it is unethical at best, and illegal at worst. HIS career may be in jeopardy over this also. They will only get away with this if you don't strike back!

Unfortunately, what's far more likely is that these 2 knuckleheads were clowns hired by a competitor to scare you out of putting up bandit signs. Did they show you ID when you met them? Did you call the offices they claimed to come from to confirm their ID's?

I can tie a cardboard box to my back, put a motorcycle helmet on, and tell people I'm an astronaut, but that doesn't make it true. On a related note, you're not representing yourself as a bank or a lender, so the SEC has ZERO jurisdiction over you and/or this "incident."

If your sign blows away in the wind and hits a car and they get in a wreck, you might be liable, right? I say that is possible. Anybody want to weigh in on that thought? Just another thing that since your number is on the signs, might they come after you. And about the wind, we have enough strong winds here that it is possible??? Btw, my signs seem to stay up for months, so it is not that I am putting them up during high winds! Oh and about the ph no. It might be impossible to not be traced in some way when it comes to someone wanting to sue due to a wreck, don't you thinK?

wow- what the city employee did was very sneaky! and doesn't the DA have better things to do than to sit in a parking lot waiting for an investor??!! is that where tax money is going to??!!

I would have never told them anything about your investing techniques... it's none of their business; if they want to sue/fine you for handling people's money, let them do it and have them prove it!

It's all pretty pathetic! Don't let them intimidate you! Break the rules, but don't break the law!

wishing you luck!

I recently got a $50 fine for bandit signs too. And was told the next time it would be $50 per sign. It was a notice in the mail from the city that stated all this.

Needless to say, I won't quit. My next batch of signs will have a google voice number linked to a prepaid cell phone. I guess we also need to be careful about who we meet now too...

What really gets me is I see signs advertising that they take junk cars ALL THE TIME! And of course election signs. The notice I got specifically said that I broke some "plastic sign" law. Some of the advertisements I see are like laminated paper with a sticky back that are posted onto street signs so maybe they technically don't fit under the same law...?

Glen

...if using bandit signs are illegal where you are at; put them somewhere else and/or do other advertising. Don't be so narrow minded to believe you know best. If it's illegal, why go the trouble to hide behind a google phone number and a prepaid phone; it's still illegal.

BTW, it's not entrapment when you make the first move (putting up an illegal sign)

BTW, securities laws are broken everyday by private mortgage money investors so it is an area that they think they can get some traction. Sometimes the SEC gets involved because of the interstate method it is advertised; sometimes it is merely a state problem.

BTW, a lot of wholesalers are conducting their business illegally by the manner in which they construct the fee.

All of this is, of course, my opinion as I am not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice.

i'm one who won't be using bandit signs for a variety of reasons, but code enforcement is definitely one of them. why take the chance? why break the law? i'm curious what you mean about wholesalers "conducting their business illegally by the manner in which they construct the fee". would you elaborate more, maybe PM me on that. thanks.

Sorry to hear about your problem, I hope it's NOT scammers.
I'm sorry but doesn't Donald Trump buy and sell real estate every day as an investor?? I don't think he has a license!. Find out what works and go with it best of luck to you

The reason people "hide" behind google voice, magic jack etc, is so they have a phone # for their business! and can separate personal and business calls.
I don't have my personal checking account tied to my business and I don't want my personal phone# tied to it either.

I would politely say "see you in court". I would remove the signs, pay the fine and move on. He has no right to preach to you the laws etc. The DA "happens to be in the car"??? What part of Mayberry do you live in?!?!? If his job is code enforcement, tell me to remove the signs, and thats it. Does he work for the SEC? This has got to be a joke, are you sure those 2 guys did'nt go to the bar and laugh their butts off after all of this? Pull this kind of crap in Cleveland, you end up in the river...

To me it is obvious with California being 16 billion in debt that they are going to nickle and dime hard working folk to close that gap.

Bill, I think the issue became a problem when /if the officer posed as an investor to meet Robert. If he had put up an illegal sign, the officer should have done nothing more than report the infraction and or called the number to explain the infraction and remove the sign or make him come to get his sign.
In Robert's case, a sign with a number has no legal ties to him unless someone sees him putting up the sign. ANYONE could have put up that sign with his number. The officer, by responding the way he supposedly did, had Robert commit an illegal act (supposedly) by creating the meeting under false pretenses.
In my case, a wildlife officer asked me to leave a store and follow him to his vehicle. (I had a pet monkey on my shoulder at the time, on a leash.)While in the store, the officer told me I needed a permit for the monkey but I had already known that I didn't because I had him longer than the law was on the books. I explained the situation to the officer when he then asked me to follow him to his car. Once at the car, he told me that "In the store I didn't need the permit but in public, I did." He MADE me perform an illegal act by telling me to leave the store. That's entrapment. The Judge agreed and read him the riot act in open court. I believe the same thing has happened here.

But, Like you, I am not an attorney and am not giving out legal advice. I just see a lot of similarities between our 2 cases and suggest a lawyer be involved. It's important that we know what is legal and what isn't so code enforcement officers play by the same rules.

Just my opinion

Andy Sager
DG's AndyS
CFIC member

This doesn't sound right. We have signs all over in our area. But they don't stay up long.
But would find out too, if these guys were legit, asking for their ID shouldn't upset them. Or call the local police and ask if the DA normally meets people in parking lots.
Another question.
Tammy, so putting investor or investments on your business name, can make a difference?
I did learn a bit last year about the SEC and after reading all these posts, intend to check it out again.
This is a good forum and glad it got posted and brought to attention about being careful.
Will be following this to see what happens.
Sandi

We where thinking about and i think that these guys might of been trying to get us arrested or something because first of all the attorney took a picture of us accross the parking lot(this was before we knew who he was) and their is no NEED to bring a county attorney? right? Whats weird to is that when the attorney sat down he pulled out his folders and he had two pages and each of those pages had one of our business cards cliped on to them. He then asks us so when you say "We buy houses who are you refering to"? Thats when the whole "investing" conversation started.

the funny thing is that like Keith said theres A LOT of election bandit signs all over the city!! so im going to have to give him a call today!

Next time a "restricted" number and a person named "doug" with apperantly no name calls you dont MEET him! lol my partner took his call and told me about it. I was i dont know sounds weird.. but lets go for it. ha

The City code enforcer said "sorry i had to meet under false pretenses".

They both gave us cards and im reading the "attorney" one right now and it had the guys name and i guess he is an "investigator" for the district attorney of our county.. no wonder he was taking pics lol.

The thing is that even though we cant use bandit signs no more(which where our best way to generate leads) im not sure if i can even put ads online or on a local newspaper... since its considered an "investment"? not sure what to do): The investigator told me i need a license for investing and a business one too. Im going to have to call them back and ask what exactly is legal to do.

First of all I would not have said one word to these guys other than I will take down the signs and can I have your contact information. End of conversation period! TMI, TMI why??

Also, I was wondering, what if a dog pokes his eye out on one of my sign stakes will PETA come after me?

The SEC is very picky on how someone advertises for investment money. Example: You can not promise a return, you can not compare RE to say the stock market. You can not approach some one you do not know and ask for investment money. There are ways to do all of the above, you just have to know how!! Example: Putting an ad in craigs list and promising a certain return is highly illegal.

I'm not a lawyer either, just my opinion.

Michael Mangham
Mentoring/Team Building Nationwide
MD Home Acquisitions LLC