Mega Gripe

I found a nice mobile home listed on Propertique's web site in October and got in touch with Brian Kothman who runs Propertique. He showed me the place and had me sign a lease and give first mont's rent and a "move-in" fee and told me we could do a lease to own. I paid rent for November, and December and contacted him about the lease to own. He sent me some paperwork on a rent with option and said to get in touch with him to change the lease to reflect the new payment. When I did he said he was 'working with the finance company'. When I got my first water bill I found out that there was an outstanding bill prior to my moving in which would result in a lein on the property if not paid. I called him on it and he said he was coming into town to pay it. The day he came to town I put out January's rent. He came and picked it up and not 10 minutes later a woman came and left a note on my door telling me not to give any more money to Brian, that the real owner was going to foreclose on the person who was really buying the home and I had to contact her asap. My employer,(a national healthcare company) has a fund from which $1050 was sent towards the 'down payment' this check was cashed by Brian. I found out that the real owner lives in Michigan and had not received any money since October on this home. All the money I paid Brian and none went to the real owner. Brian was supposed to send the money back to the company in January....none yet seen. Now Propertique's web site is offline. Good for other people but not for me. Lucky the real owner is willing to sell me the property. Now we are pursuing all legal routes (including a police investigation) to recover the money that Brian walked off with. Brian is arrogant and pushy, even after I called him on the fake sale he still insisted the sale was still in the works right after I had gotten off the phone with the real owner who told me not to have any more dealings with Brian. Please Google this company, Brian and his partner Staci Watkins before having any dealings with him.