Problems buying land??? Paragon

Check out the Paragon Properties thread below! Someone even posted pics of his ‘lot’ that he promptly requested his money back for. As far as my experience with Paragon goes…I wouldn’t give them a dime…and it is a good thing that you don’t have to pay for incoming calls, because I’d be broke by now…their selling tactics are second only to polite harassment…calls just about every nite for a week at the dinner hour, for example…”making sure I had the fedex envelope to send my 35000 dollar deposit” (sight unseen)….calling someone who is compensated to tell you good things about the property under the premise that the person lives there 6 months out of the year, only to find out that she just looked at the property a couple of months ago for the first time and nothing had been built yet at all…and you can read some more of the unsubstantiated claims Paragon Properties makes in the threads below……

This is a very nasty scam. I got the literature through the mail and it all seemed ok. What do I know what a real deed looks like etc. So I started my due diligence. . Apart from the all the usual crap you hear from tele sales men/woman, the first and most obvious thing is pay money up front, sight unseen to “reserve” your lot. They tell you that you must visit within 180 days etc. to “stand” on your own piece of land. I am going to CR in May and said I want to see the land before I buy it. Suddenly NO one would be available to meet with me if I hadn’t pre-paid. They would be too busy with people that had PAID, why would they see someone who hadn’t. Even “tagging along” wasn’t allowed. When I started digging deeper they tried to hit me with “Speak to the President of the company, Bill Gale”. I have no idea who Bill Gale is so do these people think I’m stupid to call a number they gave me to speak to someone I don’t know? YES. They think we are stupid. They gave me an “independent realtor” to talk to. Just so happens she’s on their payroll.
Just by going to CostaRica.com I started finding out everything I needed. Under the real estate tab it talks about the different things but one thing you need is the Folio Real. It is a number where you can search the title and see who owns the property, if it’s mortgaged, liens etc. When I asked my salesman for this number he had no idea what I was talking about. He asked me to call Neustein, their attorney for confirmation that everything was on the up and up. I would only trust an attorney I am paying, not someone elses. They evntually got back to me with a plot map that had a folio real number. The trouble is that it was for the entire piece of land. There are no sub-divisions, separate lots or anything. IT IS A CON. I got my own attorney in San Jose to start looking and when I told my salesman, he suddenly had to go. I have not heard from Paragon since. I don’t know anyone who would buy a piece of land or property without their own attornry. If you’re going to lay out $25,000-$35,000 isn’t it worth $200 for peace of mind? By the way, I had someone call from office to “inquire” about land in CR. They were directed to a different name than my salesman, but I could swear it was the same one.
If you search you can flights to CR for about $300 so it’s worth going before you buy. I almost forgot, I was told about the new international airport being built also but my attorney in San Jose said he knew nothing about it. Take care of yourselves and your money.