Cleaning up the worst industry for scams and ripoffs - real estate

Back in 2012, Tanya Cheng’s finances weren’t doing great. Despite having the better part of a decade’s experience in investment banking and derivatives, she lost a good deal in the stock market – “I bought all the right things, but didn’t sell when I should,” she says. To recoup her losses, Tanya decided to get into real estate.

What she found was a world of shady deals, ripoffs, scams, and outright lies. Nobody trusted anyone – and for good reason. She visited 12 countries within one year to take a look at properties and became more convinced that the entire international real estate industry was in need of a drastic clean up.

“I was shocked to find out that international realtors would provide misleading info or overcharge expats in Hong Kong, and how Chinese agents do the same to Chinese buyers,” she says. “It’s not just buyers that don’t trust real estate agents: the agents don’t even trust each other.”

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