Ozzie Jurock is in the news lately as buyers of leaky condo units around BC blame him for their money losing investments.
In a 2001 newspaper column, Jurock addressed “scams and shams,” saying, “Someone comes along and sings a seductive song and there it is. People simply hand over their money because they believe. All the victim has to do is make the judgment that the other person knows what he’s doing and is a good person who will take care of them.”
When real-estate markets heat up, “the marketers come out of the woodworks,” Jurock wrote. “You know, you go to a seminar and are told that in this city or that city in the United States, Europe or elsewhere, there is this great deal. While some of them are legitimate, caveat emptor [‘buyer beware’] . . . on the rest.”
Jurock’s media appearances had caught the attention of Shannon Stange of Vancouver, who owns an office-construction business.
“He was promoting himself as this real-estate guru,” said Stange, 43. “So I went to his ‘Real Estate Action Weekend’ then joined his ‘Real Estate Action Group.’”
Stange said he had “zero knowledge” about real-estate investment before he became involved with Jurock. “I was a total greenhorn,” Stange said.
In early 2007, Stange and a business partner bought six condos from Jurock for about $450,000, which included three condos in the Roosevelt Apartments and three others in Merritt.
“I said, ‘Let’s buy from Ozzie; he seems like an honest guy,’” Stange said.
The Merritt investment has also been a money-loser, but Stange blames himself for believing values there would rise. He and other buyers of the Roosevelt Apartments have done research and concluded that the condos weren’t worth what they paid, Stange said. Putting the $35,000 into their units for the repairs and selling them would still mean a loss, but a smaller one, Stange said.
Stange hadn’t travelled to look at any of the properties before buying, he said. “I believed in Ozzie too much to go out and do my own due diligence.”
Read the full article in The Province.
