LandCentral
Reviews and Complaints

Back in 2010, I was working at Godaddy.com in customer service. I took a phone call from a customer who said he was a FRIEND of the OWNER of LandCentral.com. We had some time while fixing website issues. He told me that that his friend makes more than $100k/month from running landcentral.com. Basically the way it works is the owner (either he or his employees) of Landcentral.com goes to county deed auction where a parcel of land is sold for $50-$200 or even less. Landcentral puts up the land for sale at 10-20 times the cost, but it is in effect a LAY-AWAY deal where customer makes monthly payments until paid in full and the deed is finally transferred. The kicker is that more than 70% of land goes back to Landcentral.com when the customer stops making payment and Landcental.com keeps their payment made thus far and resells the same inventory. That is the real secret sauce of the recipe.

The owner makes bucket load of money bc majority of time, same piece of land is being sold again and again, eventually when customer stops making payment (and later I found out there are valid reasons for this) and money keeps flowing in, while the many customers lose out, minus some customers who say they got a good piece of land. As to why customer stops making payment? The land being sold are junk plenty of times. I was curious and thought maybe I can buy some of these land for my retirement portfolio, so I went to Cochise County tax deed auction, the same auction that Landcental goes to buy their land. I bought some-24 parcels for $2100. I spoke to the planning and zoning official and it turns out plenty of the land that is sold is J-u-n-k and NOT BUILD-ABLE.

Some are landlocked, or too small to meet the requirement for county building construction code, not flat enough to build, or way out there with no support from county electricity, water or sewage. I ask the same official why the county even bothers selling these defective parcels. He smiled back and said nothing. Some counties are running a scam, as they make money again and again on these tax deed auctions, when land comes back to them as buyer stops making tax payment on defective parcels. I went to another county auction in New Mexico in the City of Los Lunas, hopping to find better parcels, and the County was running the same scam - game where the local government sells junk land for revenue, knowing well that it will come back into their inventory to resell again and again.

Landcentral is running a similar game as they profit from the same parcel over and over when buyer finds out their land is deficient and stops making payment. If you doubt my words, I dare you to email Landcentral, and ask how many of the 10, 000 land transactions they claim they have done involve the same parcels they sold. I bet you get no answer or confusing answers, as they sold the same land over and over. I felt sick as I stared at yet another example of a corrupt and unjust society - where gov and business work together to defraud citizens. Now going back to the conversation with the friend of the owner. He said he was the "BEST friend" of the owner of Landcental. So, there it is folks - that is the inside scoop from the horse's mouth.

Now some parcels sold by LC must be good since there are some customers giving positive reviews. How would you know if you got a good one? I suggest you check with LC bf buying whether they visited the land themselves. I kid you not, LC and many like minded businesses likely never performed site inspections or much research, and have little idea about the true condition of the land. Maybe some parcels are legit but don't count on it. Some of the land parcels on the website have legit looking photos, but due diligence calls for asking in writing whether those are the real photos of the land, as they often put up generic photos from elsewhere - you can read about this from other customer reviews. Why not make sure and get a piece of mind by asking LC to provide in writing, at least in email form that they conducted a site inspection and guaranteeing the condition.

Have you heard the saying - when something sounds too good to be true, it is because it is TOO good to be true. In my opinion based on research and the talk with the "Best Friend", Landcentral sells DREAM, not bona fide land parcels, much of the time. They should change their name from LandCentral.com to DreamCentral.com

FYI, Owner of LC says in response "I have never purchased a single property at the Cochise County tax auction." Wow, really? then why are there properties for sale on LC's website that lists properties in Cochise County as of 2/27/2017, and according to archive.org (organization that takes snapshot of websites over the years), LC's website sold parcels from Cochise County, as evidenced by: http://web.archive.org/web/20090627032438/http://www.landcentral.com/land-for-sale/arizona/cochise

The bottom line is LC promises the moon to the would be sucker buyers but their own TERMS & CONDITIONS ( http://www.landcentral.com/terms-conditions ) clearly states that:

--------- "Seller DOES NOT guarantee the suitability of property for any specific purpose and DOES NOT guarantee zoning" and further states

---------"Buyer(s) acknowledges having inspected the property and investigated its suitability for any given purpose prior to purchasing, including availability of access and utilities or LACK THEREOF, and hereby accepts the property AS-IS."

So the seller is guaranteeing diddly-squat, and the Buyer is assuming most of the risk. They are guaranteeing virtually nothing when it comes to legalese and actual terms in the contract, which is what you are stuck with. If the nuts and bolts in your head are still not rusty, I dare you to read the OBLIGATIONS section of LC's Terms & Conditions: http://www.landcentral.com/terms-conditions

They got you by the balls and some...don't they? If you ever have a disagreement with them, you don't have much to lean on.

What is laughable is that LC's website has a "FORECLOSURE land for sale" section on their website. It is another layer of a sophisticated con game, as it denotes that the parcels are such great deal and discounted as they are "foreclosure" properties. The parcels were lay-away deals to begin with, and when customers decided to stop making payments for obvious reasons, LC would "foreclose" on them and relist the parcel for another quick profit. How do you foreclose on properties that was a lay-away deal and never transferred title to begin with? If LC was being honest, the Foreclosure section on LC, s website should be relabeled as "Land for Sale as Another Customer Stops Making Payment".

Everything goes buttery smooth until you visit the land, as my co worker at Godaddy - Tedy Janice Newhall - found out after she purchased a parcel from LC. Of course the transaction is fast and smooth, when the seller buys land for a pennies on the dollar to resell to the dim witted folks who bought blindly. If the buyer has no time to visit the land, at least they can google a local real estate office located in the same county as the parcel and ask for a realtor opinion

Since the APN identifying the property is listed on the website, any potential buyer can ask a local realtor what the resell value of the property is. But plenty of people will buy the dream, then have a rude awakening, and complain to LC, and of course LC will kindly lower the interest rate or what not since their cost of obtaining the land was so tiny. It takes at most an hour of research to make phone calls, and peruse the internet, but many people will simply buy the DREAM.

There is a SUCKER born everyday, so I am SURE some of you will read this and STILL fall for the scam, as some of the same people voted for Hillary in 2016 will be talked into voting for Chelsea in coming years. Some of you will be surfing the web late at night with a bottle of beer in one hand and keyboard on the other, and fall for the scam after which you will tell wife/girlfriend what a genius you are for buying your DREAM land at a discount, whereas the only thing discounted is your IQ and your common sense. Go Chelsea for President 2020! Enjoy your "DREAM" land;-)

Well, however there is a silver lining to the experience? Landcentral sells dreams and hope and we all need dreams and hope. For about $2000, anyone of us can be a proud owner of piece of land from LC;hopefully it turns out to be a good one and not a junk, and with no back taxes. How do you survive the mundane existence of American middle class life with dwindling income and endless daily tasks we call our jobs? The answer may just be having hope in your heart; having a picture in your mind of a beautiful piece of land where you can build a log cabin next a beautiful river can be just the ticket for your mundane existence.

I did what I can to warn you guys so that you will exercise some caution and do your homework before buying. If it works out and some of you pick up a great piece of land, more power to you. We all need some hope, and a "DREAM Land" from LC may just be your ticket to hope and dream. Besides it can be a great conversation piece;-) And if you had the patience and diligence to read this far, through this long a** review - congratz; you probably are the type of person who usually doesn't fall prey to various scams our society has to offer everyday. Good luck out there consumers!