T5shortblock
Well-known member
Hey guys,
a family member has been called by a French company called Immovente Direct International, website: http://www.immoventedirect.com/
person calling supposedly calls small business owners across the province of Quebec to see if they are interested in selling their business to French investors.
In my family member's case, the interest was there and a French woman called Sevrine Sbeghen said she would come visit the property the following week (sight unseen, first red flag) and take pictures and document as she has an interested prospective buyer in that field of work wanting to move to Quebec. She would be doing this at the cost of the prospective buyer and flying in from France (second red flag)
The meeting occurred the following week and the family member was accompanied by trusted friends and the lady in question was very professional, I found her on facebook and asked the family member if the facebook picutre was the same person that they met and the family member confirmed it was the case, so at that's sort of positive. link to FB profile. https://www.facebook.com/severine.sbeghen
Where I find it really odd is that after the meeting was done the fee structure was discussed, and instead of a traditional commission if the business/property sells, the payment is demanded up front before anything is shared with the prospective buyer. And they then tell them it will be re-reimbursed if the property sells. (2 more red flags there, up front payment and reimbursed if it sells??) is this normal for commercial sales?
The family member wanted my advice before signing anything so here we are. It smells fishy to me, I called their Montreal office today to see what was up, it's supposedly just a virtual secretary and the person could not share much, and seemed shaky in his answers, I was posing as the nefew of someone interested in selling my business through them, that I had just found them online. They mention they only deal with sellers that don't have an real estate agent, and they would not discuss the commission fee structure with me directly, they wanted details about the business first. I told them to call my uncle John (wink wink, that will be me) back tomorrow morning.
thoughts?
a family member has been called by a French company called Immovente Direct International, website: http://www.immoventedirect.com/
person calling supposedly calls small business owners across the province of Quebec to see if they are interested in selling their business to French investors.
In my family member's case, the interest was there and a French woman called Sevrine Sbeghen said she would come visit the property the following week (sight unseen, first red flag) and take pictures and document as she has an interested prospective buyer in that field of work wanting to move to Quebec. She would be doing this at the cost of the prospective buyer and flying in from France (second red flag)
The meeting occurred the following week and the family member was accompanied by trusted friends and the lady in question was very professional, I found her on facebook and asked the family member if the facebook picutre was the same person that they met and the family member confirmed it was the case, so at that's sort of positive. link to FB profile. https://www.facebook.com/severine.sbeghen
Where I find it really odd is that after the meeting was done the fee structure was discussed, and instead of a traditional commission if the business/property sells, the payment is demanded up front before anything is shared with the prospective buyer. And they then tell them it will be re-reimbursed if the property sells. (2 more red flags there, up front payment and reimbursed if it sells??) is this normal for commercial sales?
The family member wanted my advice before signing anything so here we are. It smells fishy to me, I called their Montreal office today to see what was up, it's supposedly just a virtual secretary and the person could not share much, and seemed shaky in his answers, I was posing as the nefew of someone interested in selling my business through them, that I had just found them online. They mention they only deal with sellers that don't have an real estate agent, and they would not discuss the commission fee structure with me directly, they wanted details about the business first. I told them to call my uncle John (wink wink, that will be me) back tomorrow morning.
thoughts?
