I have been contacted by Ferin Caffrey of FSC Endeavors LLC about buying my home. She was really nice and it sounds like a good offer. Everything I've found online about this company looks good but I'm worried that it's too good to be true. Has anyone done business with Ferin Caffrey?
FSC Endeavors is the latest (as of today) manifestation of a company that enters into a rent-to-own contract with you, then subleases to someone else. During that time they claim to look for a buyer for your home.
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Bob
1/24/2015 12:47:59 am
What really happens is they quickly find a tenant using a craigslist ad and charge them a substantial deposit. The downpayment on your hose comes from this deposit. The tenant pays rent to FSC Endeavors, but you will never see any of that money.
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Chuck
1/24/2015 12:51:36 am
One of the things FSC Endeavors does is create blogs like this one that look like some kind of legitimate Q&A forum but in reality this is a free blog on weebly.com. Then they post "comments" that really all come from the person who created the blog, just like these comments I'm writing now. All the comments are glowing testimonials of how wonderful it is to do business with FSC Endeavors. The reason for doing this is to seed the search engines with positive references in case somebody tries to do any research on the company.
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Mike
1/24/2015 02:18:54 am
You can often take the date of the testimonial and figure out when the transaction took place. If it says it took only a month to find a buyer so the seller was able to sit back and enjoy Christmas without any worries, then the original contact with Helen must've been no later than mid-November. Often these dates will be BEFORE Helen's company was founded (which you can find by searching for the LLC in the Florida Department of State website).
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Dave
1/24/2015 12:54:24 am
These fake testimonials will all be posted within moments of each other, just like these are here. (Check the date/time on the posts.) Think about it: Imagine asking a question on some online forum about a particular real estate company in your city. Would you expect to get four or five responses within a matter of minutes? All from people who have done business with this little real estate investment company? And all the experiences were positive? Use your common sense, people.
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Earl
1/24/2015 12:57:53 am
That's right, Dave. And one of the other things you'll notice are common themes that run through these comments no matter where you find them on the Web: (1) "Ferin" (or whatever name she's going by today) is "really nice" and "low pressure". (2) She found a tenant right away. (3) All payments have been on-time. (4) The person told her brother, sister, uncle, friend, etc. and they also had a positive experience. (5) Working with "Ferin" allowed the homeowner to relax and quit worrying about selling their home. They enjoyed the holiday, vacation, retirement, etc. because they had no worries.
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Earl
1/24/2015 01:25:57 am
I left out (6) the writer either is a Realtor, is a financial advisor, or knows one of those and has run the contract past them and it looks good.
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Frank
1/24/2015 01:00:56 am
As Alex said, FSC Endeavors LLC is just the latest manifestation of this person. Here are some other of her companies you can look up: RF Holdings, Flat Stone Capital, Redfield Holdings, Mary Jones Projects Inc., JEP Genesis LLC, KACW Investments Inc., In Faith Properties Inc., Dun and King Investments, and Jubilee Property Ventures. All of these companies are owned and operated by the same person, who today is calling herself "Ferin".
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George
1/24/2015 01:11:24 am
Hey Frank, don't forget to search for Ferin's other names: JJ Pierce, JJ Pearce, Julie Bell, Mary Jones, Helen Joanne Pearce, Joanne Helen Pearce, Joanne Pearce, Neleha K. Dun ("Neleha" is "(a)Helen" backwards), Jules Scott, and Faith Stuart. Her husband is Matthew (Matt) Eric Pearce or Eric Pearce. And you left out FS Capital LLC in your list of companies.
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Kevin
1/24/2015 01:24:28 am
It should be noted that there is no person in the world named "Ferin Caffrey". Do your own search. The only place you'll find that name is in her own blogs, websites, and online forums. She doesn't exist in any of the online white pages or people-search sites.
Harold
1/24/2015 01:13:00 am
When "Ferin" calls, it will be from a number with caller ID blocked. Most companies don't mind if you know their phone number. FSC Endeavors doesn't want you to know how to reach them for some reason.
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Inigo
1/24/2015 01:17:07 am
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. While researching "Ferin" and her companies, always do a Web search for her address. You won't often see it on her websites, but you can find it by doing a corporation search at the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations website. Her address (such as the one she uses for FSC Endeavors LLC) will be a UPS Store or some similar location. UPS Stores have mailboxes you can rent. It makes it look like the address is an office building instead of a PO box, but it's really just a box at a UPS Store. If you look up the address on Google, use "street view" to see the actual building. There will NOT be a sign on the building that says "FSC Endeavors LLC". :-)
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Joe
1/24/2015 01:22:00 am
Helen (sorry, "Ferin") seldom interacts directly with her critics but when she does, her first tactic will be to go right to accusations of "slander". She will say that she has consulted with her lawyer and that she has a slam-dunk case and that the blog post or comment should be removed so the writer can avoid a lawsuit. A search of Florida court documents will reveal dozens of cases of people suing HER, but zero slander suits. This is just an attempt to quiet her critics.
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Larry
1/24/2015 01:28:52 am
Helen's escapades are documented at http://bit.ly/flatstonecapital in a series of blog articles.
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Jason
1/24/2015 01:31:14 am
Wow, you guys have given me a lot to think about. I didn't think when I created this weebly site that I'd get so many comments from so many different people with such great advice about doing business with Ferin. I'm going to check out the articles at http://bit.ly/flatstonecapital before I make a decision.
Great stuff, awesome team of posters...except Jason. I will be giving regular updates on www.craigr.com as I progress towards shutting this scam operation down.