Evening star., 1925-10-24

| are paying for it. Mr.. Rose is not
| willing to make such statements with
| out absolute proof. II. II. Richardson
of Jacksonville, who is realtor and a
dealer In Florida real estate for 40
years, declares in the first place that
it must be made plain that those who
| get bambooZled are stung by out
| siders, not Florida real estate men.
But he believes in broadcasting the
news that there are misrepresenta-
tions in order that those contemplating
| investing down here will take pains to
make them through proper channels.
AS a delegate to the last meeting of the
! National Association of Real Estate
Boards, he endeavored to spread the
gospel there of before you invest
| investigate" He preached this doc
trine with particular reference to
Florida real estate. and in doing this
incurred the opposition of some Flor
ida realtors who felt that to do it would
be to give the State black eye, and to
do 1t without definite proof of cases
where people have bought on misrepre-
sentation would be unfair. Mr. Rich.
ardson's contention is that losses in
| Florida real estate are many, but they
are largely the fault of carelessness on
the part of the investor. He is care.
full to differentiate between real estate
men who have either come to Florida
and joined the mad selling rush here,
those who operate in other cities with.
out any Florida connections. and the
established Florida real estate firms
or the latter he has only praise.
Was Victim in 1884.
Mr.. Richardson's case is interesting.
because he was made the victim of a
Florida deal back in 1884. In that
year he organized colony of English.
men In London to come to Florida.
They bought land for $25 an acre, and
when they got here found it had been
bought for them at 81 an acre. Some
of the members of the colony imme.
dlately turned around, and went back
| to England, cursing Florida with each
beat of the propeller. Mr.. Richardson
stayed here. He still has his original
| property, and it is worth many more
times what he paid for it.
Mr.. Richardson showed me the ad.
| vertisement of a large company which
has opened operations around Jack.
sonville. The advertisement-half a
page, in a New York newspaper-made
statements which he said were ridicu
| lous on their face. He said he had
investigated them and succeeded in
having Jacksonville papers decline to
accept the company's advertisements
Mr.. Roses contention will be that
such a case should be reported to the
license board and nothing said about
| 1t until the truth or falsity of the
charges are proved. Whether 1t has
been l do not know.
The Florida State DEVELOPMENT
Board plans to spend some S45, 900
within the next few months in adver-
tising designed purely at warning the
| prospective purchaser Of real estate in
the State. Cities themselves in Flor
| ida are doing the same thing, allotting
a certain percentage of their booster
advertising to warning the investor 10
look before he leaps. Better business
bureaus are being organized through
out the state. Prospective purchasers
of Florida real estate are being urged
to consult their chambers of commerce
or their better business bureaus before
| buying. As far as Florida and Florida
real estate men are concerned, they
seem to be doing everything in their
power to prevent fraud and misrepre-
sentation.
All Sorts of Statesmen.
But one of the difficulties faced down
here is that real estate men have come
from every part of the country and
gone into business. Their statesmen
are either statesmen from other States
or else men who never sold real estate
before in their lives. One man who
argued with me for an hour to get me
n Int
man in machine shop. He told me
SO himself. Another had been selling
hardware until he came down here
and went into the real estate business
himself. The latter was the man who
told me over cup of coffee in res
taurant that he had bought a piece of
property on Lake Okeechobee and on
investigation found it was under
water. So he promptly sold it to some
body else at a profit.
Mr.. Rose contends that such stories
should not. be published until they
have been verified. Very probably, he
said, the man was lying. don't know
whether he was or not. 1t was one of
scores of stories, and as the man re-
lated it with such earnestness / pass
it along without vouching for its
truth.
With 10000 real estate men here,
there are bound to be many who are
failures in other cities or who have
climbed on board the band wagon to
get what they can and while they can.
The man who buys from them, of
course, takes his chances Some of
them know nothing about the first
principles Of real estate. They make
the most absurd arguments as Selling
talk" One man wanted to sell me
building lot as home on the strength
of the fact that it would be right by
railroad. A hospital or sanitarium
seems to be choice selling argu-
ment. It would not surprise me- to