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There site has had no updates in over a month, any info on the progress. There web site said they would have units available to be rented out December 2006.
As they say “Buyer Beware!”
We have been very successful with 50+ rental properties in the US and good friends of ours asked us for our opinion on this project and the people behind it. We visited dozens of websites, read the proforma, saw some disturbing data about the people behind it and recommended our friends to avoid this project at all costs.
1. Trevor Chilton was the President of 629900 Saskatchewan Ltd in Canada and if you do a Google search for “629900 Saskatchewan Ltd” you will find:
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:GPcwWeIx0vIJ:www.sfsc.gov.sk.ca/ssc/files/enforcementorders/2003_enf/temporary/chiltontrevoredward(temp)apr17-03.pdf+629900+SASKATCHEWAN+LTD&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2 where it says: “WHEREAS it has been represented to the Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission, Securities Division (the “Commission”) by the staff of the Commission that 629900 Saskatchewan Ltd.and Trevor Edward Chilton(collectively the “Respondents”), have engaged in the trading of securities in Saskatchewan in contravention of The Securities Act, 1988, S.S. 1988, c. S-42.2 (the “Act”)”
2. Go to the http://ftp.sfsc.gov.sk.ca/ssc/enforcementorders.shtml which is the Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission in Canada and search for “629900 Saskatchewan Ltd” and/or “Trevor Edward Chilton” and you will see “cease trading orders:”
July 30, 1996. Temporary Order
Aug 14, 1996. Extending Order
Apr 17, 2003. Temporary Order
May 1, 2003. Extending OrderYou will see that the “Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission has not received a request from the respondents for a hearing pursuant to the terms of the Temporary Order.”
Some people would suggest that Trevor Chilton fled to Costa Rica because he doesn’t want to face the music with the Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission.
3. On the Garden of Dreams website at http://www.gardensofdreamscostarica.com/prop/3/index.html it says that Trevor Chilton “Owned and operated Freedom Foundations Inc. marketing to and educating clients on offshore financial services including investments, tax planning programs, asset protection Strategies”
4. At mail-archive.com/public-list@neither.org/msg01648.html you will see the people that he was associated with at ‘Freedom Foundations Inc’ are not happy with Trevor Chilton at all.
5. At mail-archive.com/public-list@neither.org/msg01591/Update_05-03-01_629900SC.doc you will see a letter that says:
(Please use http://www. in front of those two URLs – for some reason this forum, is screwing up the URL)
a. “A full funds check was done and background check on both myself and Mr. Chilton, with the results indicating that Mr. Chilton was not the owner of said funds and could never participate because of his criminal record and present fraudulent dealings.”
b. “The returns for 629900 Saskatchewan Ltd. are 50% per month net and will be paid around March 15, 2001.”
c. “This subject of fees is very interesting as Trevor now claims that all these fees raised through the sale of shares by 629900 Saskatchewan Ltd. are his exclusively and do not belong to the company. This is the reason of course why he can claim total innocence when it comes to buying 2 cars and repairing a third, buying a snowmobile, buying a sailboat and paying into his home, plus all expenses unaccounted for to the company. Quite simply this is hogwash and he has abused the corporate fund for his own end.”
d. “I was able to determine that Trevor was filtering the funds through another company instead of 629900 Saskatchewan Ltd. and that is why we never saw any more funds for use in the programs. This company he used is owned by Orest Rusnik and converts RRSP funds for investment. Chilton made a fee agreement here to extract as much as 15% from each client, thus tripling his take per client. He also made a deal to take a percentage (we think 25%) of the profits, off the top, for his personal pocket. Not bad if you can get away with it. He used various means such as fraud, deception, manipulation and even theft to accomplish his task last fall.”
e. “Please accept this report and stop mixing Trevor’s garbage reporting with the truth.”
5. Trevor Chilton has no experience in building anything anywhere.
6. The actual project. For reference materials, we looked at their advertisement at http://www.viviun.com/AD-62362/ plus the full project proforma at http://www.gardensofdreamscostarica.com/projectproforma.html and various postings about the founder Trevor Chilton
a. For example in the http://www.viviun.com/AD-62362/ advertisement is says:
a1. “Management fee is 30% of the revenue while in rental pool.” Isn’t that extremely high?
a2. “Owner cannot manage their unit’s rental.”
A3. “Owners can only occupy units 30% of the time under ICT Condo-tel construction…”
A4. “Owners must book their time through reservations like any paying customers.” Which means that “if” we are lucky, we might be able to rent our own home “if” it’s available.7. In their ‘Corporate Commandments’ at http://www.gardensofdreamscostarica.com/mission.html It says: “All owners will receive an equal share of rental income per unit irrelevant to who they are or how many units they may happen to own.”
Which sounds like if I spend a lot of time and energy trying to rent out my home, every owner would benefit from my efforts NOT just me. Sounds like a welfare state and if I rent out my home, I expect to benefit from that personally, not everybody else.
8. At http://www.gardensofdreamscostarica.com/newsletter.html#Oct%2017 Trevor Chilton admits to basing his 65% occupancy rate by stating that: “Well when I went to ICT (Tourism Institute) and asked them about average occupancy rates they reported the average to be 64% so hence I rounded to the 65% figure to make the base for our calculations.” The Costa Rica Tourism agency is not considered by anyone to be an expert authority on ‘tourism’ never mind occupancy rates.
9. At http://www.gardensofdreamscostarica.com/newsletter.html#Oct%2017 he calls “Robert Kyosaki the author and best financial writer of our times.” Later in the same article he says the ” …the brilliant advice offered in “The Prophecy” by David Kyosaki.” Maybe they’re brothers?
The real name of that writer he is trying to refer to is Robert Kiyosaki and just because he wrote some best-selling books – which most sophisticated investors would consider laughable – does not mean he is the “best financial writer.” In fact some people believe him to be a “snake oil salesmen” as you can see at: http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html > but if Trevor Chilton believes that Robert Kiyosaki (correct spelling) offers “brilliant advice” that should give you a very clear idea of how UNsophisticated his investment advice is.
10. Trevor Chilton has a ‘Pledge of Accuracy and Truthfulness to Our Clients’ at http://www.gardensofdreamscostarica.com/pledge.html which says
“If at any time we provide you with false information in any way shape or form digitally or in print and you prove such to be the case, we will provide you completely free of charge three months of accommodation, a value of $12,000 USD”
So based on the fact that his advertisement at the Viviun site says that “Owners can only occupy units 30% of the time…” and at http://www.gardensofdreamscostarica.com/prop/5/index.html he says that “…you or family can occupy a unit for up to 35% of the year…”
So is it “up to 35% of the year” or, is it “Owners can only occupy units 30% of the time…”? There is a big difference between 30 & 35%
There are many places to buy real estate in Costa Rica, we have seen many experienced developers putting together good projects in Costa Rica. Why even consider something being built by a Canadian with A: No experience and B: A seriously dubious background?
“Buyer Beware!”
Wow, if that wasn’t a setup I don’t know what is. Lotus, you seem like a fairly intelligent person. You clearly have a high prophile on this forum and post interesting and informative info regularly. What happened here? With a response like this from whoever quonaroi is, I would have to say this was just a setup for a cheap, already beat to death swing at Jardines and Trevor. This info is old hat. Jardines is under construction now and doing quite well actually.
I’m not going to get caught in the crossfire here but if you really wanted to know what is happening over there why don’t you just ask them instead of asking this forum?
As Scott once stated himself, slander is a criminal offence not a civil one in Costa Rica.Ross
You’re right lotus,I apologize, I got caught up in the long BS diatribe of quonaroi and tied your name to it because of your question.
I have little doubt who quonari is but no way I’m going down that road. If your question is sincere just ask directly or go see for yourself. Pretty simple.Ross
“There site has had no updates in over a month, any info on the progress. There web site said they would have units available to be rented out December 2006.”
I don’t mean to sound rude, but perhaps you should re read my question, hence you will understand why I posted it here in the first place…pretty simple? I don’t live in C.R. but have some real estate interests there and this site is a great way to stay connected and get up dates on whats happening. I will be there most of December and look forward to seeing the progress of many current projects. Based on prices in the area I thought the Gardens was looking good. However upon reading this post and going back over there website I see this is a project for those looking for rental income and will limit your use and control of your unit. I was aware of them marketing this for investors seeking management, income etc…but thought that was up to the unit owners, so the fees and rules don’t work for me. I sincerely wish them success as any project that fails hurts everybody.
Yes, point taken. There is an update though on Nov19th in the Newsletter link on the web page specically about construction you may be interested in, or not.
FYI: I have been in Playa Hermosa/Jaco about two weeks. Mostly just relaxing, surfing etc…But we have also checked out all the new developements as well, and I have been by the Gardens project several times over the last two weeks. There is very, very little done, a small concrete structure that could have been built in a week…even on Tico time. And also there is no machinery at all on site, you would think for a project like this there would be some heavy equiptment around, no workers either. So Ross you came down on me pretty hard for asking a simple question and sort of accused me of a “set up” are you here in Jaco? For all the buyers sake I sincerely hope all is well, but time will tell…
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