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you can post your information on http://www.infocostarica.com in the forums section — think it is the “living in Costa Rica” section; if not, it’s in the “travel” section. I saw the above post this morning, but I don’t want to get involved or be the messenger for anything considering that Paragon’s buffoon lawyer once threatened me with a lawsuit for posting an article.
you didn’t read my post correctly. please read it again — i said that i saw that post on another form and copied it and pasted it here and the part i copied is in quotes. it’s not me, i assure you because i would never in a bazillion years give anyone that kind of money before i saw what i was buying, but there are plenty of people who have including the guy who wrote that post. if you want to connect with him, you can go to http://www.infocostarica.com and you will see the paragon properties thread on the home page. you could post there and hope he sees it. i already checked and the person going by JonMichael did not leave any contact information on his profile page.
Maravilla, These types of “business” dealings are one of the oldest in the book. I’ll relate one that happened to me. I invested in a motion picture once. I was in the video business at the time, and we would have gotten first rights on rentals, plus a theater cut and residuals. The movie, which I won’t name, was a part III version of a successful movie. It had already been filmed during the making of part II, and was in the can for a couple of years. In fact, the lead actor I believe now lives in CR. No, it’s not Mel. Anyway, It was a kind of a had to do it deal. I sent this guy my money, not all that much, but I’m sure a lot of other people did too. I was always in contact with him, and it seemed like we were getting close to buying the rights.
Well, after about a year, he couldn’t raise the $3 million or so to buy it. This was in the early 1990s, when 3 mil was still a fairly good sum. So after about a year I got my money back, all fair and square…Except, no interest! I don’t think the money was sitting in a no interest bearing account all that time. So, somebody profited on the float.
The movie was bought by someone and finally released in the theaters and video. And it did make some money. I don’t even know if I was scammed or not. I just know I lost interest on my money for about a year.Too good to be true deals usually are just that. Before you part with your money, you must investigate thoroughly to see what it is you are buying, and from whom you are buying it.
I’ve been taken a few times. Every screwing was a learning experience. The key is to learn from your mistakes, and don’t take the attitude it can’t happen to you.
Two worthwhile places to start your complaint:
1) US Postal Inspection Service
3400 Lakeside Drive 6th Floor
Miramar, Fl. 33027
Ph. (877) 876-24552) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
16320 NW 2nd Avenue
North Miami Beach, Fl. 33169
Ph. (305) 944-9101These agencies have a little more stroke than your local BBB
Someone suggested that I post the comment I made on the infocostarica forum here, but I see someone else has already copied and pasted it here for me. So the same offer goes here … let me know if you have failed to receive your deposit back, or feel you have been misled or defrauded by Paragon and I’ll pass your name and information to my attorney to add to the class action suit we are currently putting together. So I don’t get slammed with emails, please post your email address to me at my snail mail address and I’ll contact you:
Jon Michael
2888 Rush Branch Road
Bradfordsville, KY 40009 USAJonMichael, I’m not worried about spam, etc., at this address: scottej14@gmail.com. In any event, I’ll send the particulars of my case–still no refund after seven months–to you by snail mail. Thanks.
I started looking for land about 3.5 years ago and often found Paragon ads on line. There advertising style and web site turned me off so I never investigated further. So they have been at this for sometime now. I was just wondering if any of there projects are complete and I only refer to infrastructure; paved roads, water and electric to each lot. They have certainly had enough time, I bought a lot in a similar situation in Playa Hermosa and even with delays they completed the project in less than two years, water, electric, gatehouse and pavers on all the roads. So any of there many listed projects finished?
After approximately 4 years it does not appear as though they have a completed sub division or project. If you look at their website you can see they over 10 projects and none are complete. Obviously some of the projects started more recently. There are still artist renditions of model homes.
It has been more than a thousand times on this website and it bears repeating “People buying property in Costa Rica should buy property only from experienced developers who have a track record of completing their projects”
That’s what I thought…you would think they would have focused on the completion of one project IE; all the roads, water and electric and then say hey look what we did, we followed through, silenced our critics. Listen everyone has to start somewhere and get a track record and in some cases I am willing to take a shot with someone starting out and help them build a track record. But this group seems more interested in collecting deposits more than anything else…this is about quantity not quality. That’s to bad for Costa Rica and I suspect many of the buyers are thinking they are going to get rich off this, but selling an undeveloped lot may prove difficult without a sales force cold calling and e mailing millions of potential buyers.
I would imagine it would be extremely difficult to sell a lot in one of these developments. If a project is 3-4 years old and still doesn’t have roads, water, electricity ect… who would want to buy it? What would any one pay for it? I agree that if I were a start up company I would complete one project, to the best of my ability, then use the completed project to help promote and sell my other projects.
Not difficult at all when you can say whatever you want.
“Don’t forget that when it’s completed, the new highway leads right past our property.”
“When the new international airport is finished, it will be minutes away from your land.”
“Our attorneys are telling us – and this is confidential – that Hilton Hotels has bought more land close by and we’re expecting the announcement any day now.”
“Didn’t you know that Mel Gibson bought land near here?” And …
“Steve Case, one of the founders of AOL has a $800 million project near here.”
“Can you imagine what will happen to the value of your land when the rest of the world knows all about this and they start hunting for land in Costa Rica?”
“These are just some the reasons we’ve been forced to raise our prices again but if you get on board now before the end of INSERT DATE HERE we can reserve the land for you at the lower price. Should I send the papers to you or address them to both you and your wife?”
Great movie!! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104348/
They’re pandering to peoples’ greed; works every time. I particularly like the TV ads for land in Costa Rica that say, “What if you’d bought property in Malibu (as an example) back in the 50’s. . .” (can’t remember which company uses THAT line), but it’s all about selling people the dream of becoming rich from a relatively small investment. It’s the same principal as people giving thousands of dollars to some scam artist in Nigeria on the promise that they will get millions for their efforts. And people fall for it!
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