Fatty, back when my sister was a broker in Portland, Maine, she had a friend who was desperate to buy a small residential apartment building. My sister offered to work with him but he balked at her fee. So he decided to answer an ad for a FSBO. The guy selling had all the right answers, lived in the building, said he had inherited the building from an aunt, etc. His background info checked out. He demanded a sizable deposit, which my sister's friend paid, it was a "hot" market and this friend had already lost out on several properties by taking too much time to ponder the purchase.
Everything went well, the title work, the appraisal, the loan and whatnot. Then the big day for the closing and the poor buyer discovered that in fact the real owner was in Florida and the person posing as the owner, using his name, selling the building, was in fact, a tenant who, by this time, was out of the state with the buyer's deposit.
I don't mean to alarm you but you need to go down to the bank, in person and talk with the bank manager. It could wind up being a far worse fraud than you can imagine. You should put a stop on the check and give them what info you have on the guy. It could just be a simple case of the guy being as asshole but it could also be a case of attempted check/bank fraud or even identity theft. You've left yourself wide open here if you gave him financial statements and bank documents, as well as a check with your signature.
The world is full of scam artists. You meet a lot of them in FSBO. |
