I have been meaning to add my experience from this company Torcana to this website for quite some time. As this company is still in operation, I feel it important to describe my experience with them below.
In 2010, whilst considering a US property investment from outside the US, we discovered a company called ‘Torcana’, an Irish registered company with offices in Florida, describing themselves as ‘distressed Florida property specialists’ targeting ‘foreclosed and distressed property from banks and developers’ who are often ’reluctant owners of property that they want to dispose of quickly’.
They claimed to have discovered a ‘special niche’ in the market and that their specialty was ‘bringing you high quality, heavily discounted, tenanted investments’ from their expertise in ‘targeting distressed developers directly and negotiating bulk discounts on high quality pre-tenanted properties’
Reassuringly, Torcana also stated that they ‘work with professional and licensed experts’, having built up a network of contacts in the distressed market with the ‘main players’, thereby enabling them to source excellent and attractive deals for investors and, because they are actually based in Florida, they have employees working on the ground that are able to get a true picture of the market and carry out required due diligence to their required ‘high standards’.
They also claimed to work with locally registered realtors to ensure well priced, quality investment properties for their valued clients, as in their archived newsletters on their website. They also state that because buying property is one of the ‘most important financial decisions a person has to make’ they ‘take that responsibility very seriously indeed’ (Dec 2011 Newsletter) advising that ‘buyers should tread carefully and invest conservatively’ (Daily Telegraph Newspaper, March 2011).
In addition to the above Colin Murphy, Torcana director/owner, presents himself as an expert on financial matters by continually advising on the global economy, stock market shares as well as regularly quoting and displaying statistical graphs on the Florida housing market. His archived newsletters include headlines such as ‘Making Sense of the Global Economy’ (July 2010), ‘What’s In Store For The US Property Market’ (Jan 2011) and ‘Thoughts On The US Downgrade’ (Aug 2011), as well as producing 20 page glossy reports, which include guidance on ‘purchasing discounted property in Florida’. Despite this, he appears to have no professional credentials in either finance or economics.
In early 2010, we enquired about two Florida communities offering 6-8% net yields. We asked many general questions in phone conversations with those at Torcana, including Colin Murphy and David Shaw, over the course of a few months and also received emails with property listings and prices.
When we queried the price of some other sales going through online on Zillow, we were told these were much lower ‘short sales’ and not ones that we nor the general public had access to and were assured that the real market prices were in the high $70k’s and over $100k for the two bedroom condos and what good value these discounted distressed properties now were. They also assured us they were working with a local realtor (Jim Bals) who had full access to the condo market to confirm this.
Given this ‘professional’ explanation from Torcana, it was clear that if we wanted a Florida condo, we had to focus on a one bedroom condo, as that was all we could afford with that return, so rather than make a rush decision, we decided it prudent that one of us should fly from Europe to Florida, despite the additional expense, to meet with the local licensed realtor who could be show a range of condos in two specific Florida communities.
Unusually, Torcana had a policy that, prior to even viewing the properties, we had to pay a deposit in advance to secure any property. Although we were told these deposits were refundable it seemed as this was their way of locking investors, as, according to their online listing particulars, their standard practice is to request a $2,500 increasing to $5,000 initial deposit on condos (see ‘past listings’ on their website for more details or ‘Torcana past listings archive search on google’ then under individual details ‘buying process’).
I travelled to Florida after reluctantly paying a deposit to Torcana and met their local licensed realtor, Jim Bals. Torcana had made it clear to us that we did not need our own realtor, as Jim Bals would be representing both the buyer and seller and taking care of any transaction.
Mr. Bals works at ‘Vida Real Estate Services’ Orlando FL (their website at the time was vida-realestate-services.com). This website description for Mr Bals stated ’………His knowledge and understanding of the Central Florida Real Estate Market is valuable in assisting buyers and sellers with their real estate needs. His professional approach with clients makes the Real Estate process clear and pleasurable. Jim is a State of Florida Licensed Real Estate Broker and a member of The National and Orlando Association of Realtors...’
Mr. Bals drove myself to the two communities and discussed details regarding the areas including safety, the number of units available, tenancy and market value(notably, he re-iterated the Torcana valuation) as well as comparisons of these to other condos and communities. As a Floridian he said he had good local knowledge and seemed helpful in answering questions. He told me that the communities were popular, an excellent buy for the area and really good value; highly discounted (from the developer), sought after and that we would be pleased with my purchase in either community.
I eventually chose the Unit at a community in Maitland and offered a lower $75k than was being asked and it was confirmed that the developer had agreed to this price. The property was sold ‘as is’ and there were no special terms offered. Bals agreed that this was an excellent choice, having already described this property developer as eager to sell and essentially 'distressed' which we later found out was not at all true, quite the opposite.
There were problems with the air conditioning unit on its last legs, a bad tenant and an unhelpful property management company, all ‘professionally’ provided by Torcana as part of the sale. These were sorted out by oursleves, as other than the initial introduction from Torcana (who confirmed their sales fee was covered by the property developer to them directly), they offered no other assistance or value, even with these early initial problems.
A few months after our purchase, we noticed that Zillow was then showing a value in the mid 40k’s (despite us having paid $75k for it!). Our concern was such that we queried the value of our one bedroom condo with Torcana only to be told in emails that this was due to some short sales going through distorting the overall picture.
A few years later, in 2015, we decided to sell the property. The taxes on the property had almost doubled since purchase and, even with a slightly higher rental income, it was not providing the return as promised.
After reading about the strong market over the past five years in Florida, we were shocked and disappointed to learn that our property was now only being given a valuation, and suggested offer price of what we bought it for back in 2010, of $75k. It was clear that, after commissions and closing costs, this would leave us with a loss.
When we queried this with our selling realtor and property manager, he confirmed that there was another condo on the market for $79,000 and that his interested buyer was reluctant to even pay that as she had ‘picked up two condos in 2010 for a price in the high $30k’s’.
At this revelation alarm bells started ringing. We thought there had to be a mistake in what he was advising about the price and timing of these transactions, but he provided us with enough solid data from the MLS to show that he was right and we had been sold our condo at a grossly over-inflated price of over twice the then market price.
Our realtor couldn’t understand how we had paid so much for our condo and sent us all the 2010 prices for comparison showing all the open market sales and when we explained about the Torcana ‘distressed sale’ directly to us from the developer and that we had viewed and bought through a local, licensed Florida realtor, he was quite shocked.
The MLS (the Multiple Listing Service only accessible by licensed US realtors) detail he sent through showed a staggering 44 open market sales for 2010 (a very liquid market in this community), with one bedroom condos selling around $38k and two bedroom condos around $54k. Our purchase, along with two others, were very likely sold by Torcana as they were the highest by an absolute mile. One of these other listings was sold to a firm in Dublin, Ireland of all places, (2 beds for $103k).
Obviously we are shocked and angry to now see how much we had paid way over the odds for our one bedroom condo from this 'distresed' developer with the use of a licensed realtor and the deceptive sales pitch proffered by Torcana to expedite this.
Our current realtor confirmed that as a valued overseas cash buyer at that time, we could have easily bought TWO condos for $75k, not one. That the price we paid for our one-bedroom condo was much higher than even the two-bedroom condos on sale at that time for $54k.
With the benefit of hindsight, and had we been advised by honest professionals (as we thought we were at the time!) we would have now had two properties that would have more than doubled in value and had yields of 14% (not 7%) over five years that would have provided us with double the income we actually received during this time (from 2010 to 2015).
Had we known the genuine prices and yields, it would have made such a difference to the investment decisions made at that point. We would have bought in a range of communities in Florida. This deception led to us receiving far less income, no capital gains and in a far more financially stressful situation.
This was mainly because we had already been subject to another fraudulent investment also through TORCANA in Europe, in which we lost all our funds in a green solar project. After extensive research into that one over many months, speaking directly with the indivudals involved, this was a complex fraud in which Toranca, in our view, played a large and deceptive role.
It is clear that Torcana, and Jim Bals as a registered Florida realtor, lied to us on the phone, in emails and also in person. The developers must have been over the moon with their relationship with Torcana and Bals, which enabled them to sell at double the market prices at the time, whilst the commissions on both sides must have been huge.
Torcana primarily rely on selling to overseas investors and ‘out of state’ Americans, who are in the main unfamiliar with the local markets, so beware!
Distressed property is defined as ‘ Real property that suffers a reduction in its market price because of pressures operating on the owner, such as threatened foreclosure’ (financial dictionary).
Unfortuantely this was not a distressed property by any means and the developer turned out to be a huge, multi-million company with '16,000 properties in 60 communities' under their management. On further extensive research, this was also the case for other communities in Florida offered by Torcana at this time. None of the developers seemed to be 'distressed'.
In addition to these highly overpriced condos coming from large developers, Colin Murphy, Director of Torcana, has made several references to ‘the competition’ and warned investors to ‘stay away from gimmicks’ in his regular newsletters to investors.
Typically he warns of low priced properties of $35k-$50k with 14% yields (which ironically is exactly the price range and yield we could have genuinely got at this community had we bought in an honest market) having made previous statements such as:
‘It's a bit like buying a second hand car because it looks nice...while the subject headings on our promotions might not be as flashy as some of our competitors (14% yields..) our aim is to sell properties with a steady income stream and genuine resale potential. It might sound boring but it can be very profitable in the long run’ (property wire.com article Feb 2012)
And..
‘..if you move down the food chain and source properties in lower income neighborhoods in the $35,000 - $50,000 price range….they look like unbelievable bargains……….appearances can be very deceptive…..they will generate highly irregular income……..as for capital appreciation? Forget it. You would do well to sell a property in this community for the same price you bought it for in 5 years time………Because Torcana would like to continue doing business with you in 3, 5 and 7 years time, we refuse point blank to move down the food chain. (Blog June 2011)
‘One of my chief concerns (and gripes) right now is that there are respected companies out there promoting properties for $35,000 - $50,000 in neighborhoods that are just one or two steps up from the ghettos………. (Blog June 2011)
In the Torcana website ‘past listings’ it showed 2015 condos in our Florida community offered at $112,000, whilst the real market was offering units at $79,000 up from $38,000 five years ago, according to our realtor. As the 2015 market caught up to the their 2010/11 prices, I believe they could no longer sell at double the market value to overseas investors, adding $30k-40k to the sales price and still make it attractive since the yield offered would be minimal.
So, as purporting to offer high yields and attractive early capital gains were their strongest marketing points, in 2013 they started to make statements such as ‘With the supply of distressed homes running extremely low…….we are finally launching new build products in Florida’ (Property Investor Today Article March 2013). There are similar articles in which Torcana pats themselves on the back for finding such bargains for investors in Florida and even receive an award from OPP for his sales in North America (Overseas Property Professionals).
So, Torcana have now moved on to flipping properties in Florida, stating in 2015 that ‘Tampa Florida properties that sell within 24hrs and rent in less than 2 wks…our research has led us to a seam of gold…… we purchase them directly from banks, distressed sellers and wholesalers…we promote them as rent ready homes and sell them at below market value prices of $70,000-$100,000.’ (May 2015 report on Torcana blog).
Torcana have previously stated that their main buyers were ‘Irish’ up until 2014 when they then stated ‘…..More than half of Torcana’s revenue comes from US investors buying in their homeland. Many are ‘out of state’ so our knowledge of the neighborhoods is far better than theirs….’ (July 2014 article) Opp.com.
Given that their investors now include a number of out of state US investors, we just want you to be aware of the background, the way in which this company is presenting itself and operating.
Torcana Reviews
I have been meaning to add my experience from this company Torcana to this website for quite some time. As this company is still in operation, I feel it important to describe my experience with them below.
In 2010, whilst considering a US property investment from outside the US, we discovered a company called ‘Torcana’, an Irish registered company with offices in Florida, describing themselves as ‘distressed Florida property specialists’ targeting ‘foreclosed and distressed property from banks and developers’ who are often ’reluctant owners of property that they want to dispose of quickly’.
They claimed to have discovered a ‘special niche’ in the market and that their specialty was ‘bringing you high quality, heavily discounted, tenanted investments’ from their expertise in ‘targeting distressed developers directly and negotiating bulk discounts on high quality pre-tenanted properties’
Reassuringly, Torcana also stated that they ‘work with professional and licensed experts’, having built up a network of contacts in the distressed market with the ‘main players’, thereby enabling them to source excellent and attractive deals for investors and, because they are actually based in Florida, they have employees working on the ground that are able to get a true picture of the market and carry out required due diligence to their required ‘high standards’.
They also claimed to work with locally registered realtors to ensure well priced, quality investment properties for their valued clients, as in their archived newsletters on their website. They also state that because buying property is one of the ‘most important financial decisions a person has to make’ they ‘take that responsibility very seriously indeed’ (Dec 2011 Newsletter) advising that ‘buyers should tread carefully and invest conservatively’ (Daily Telegraph Newspaper, March 2011).
In addition to the above Colin Murphy, Torcana director/owner, presents himself as an expert on financial matters by continually advising on the global economy, stock market shares as well as regularly quoting and displaying statistical graphs on the Florida housing market. His archived newsletters include headlines such as ‘Making Sense of the Global Economy’ (July 2010), ‘What’s In Store For The US Property Market’ (Jan 2011) and ‘Thoughts On The US Downgrade’ (Aug 2011), as well as producing 20 page glossy reports, which include guidance on ‘purchasing discounted property in Florida’. Despite this, he appears to have no professional credentials in either finance or economics.
In early 2010, we enquired about two Florida communities offering 6-8% net yields. We asked many general questions in phone conversations with those at Torcana, including Colin Murphy and David Shaw, over the course of a few months and also received emails with property listings and prices.
When we queried the price of some other sales going through online on Zillow, we were told these were much lower ‘short sales’ and not ones that we nor the general public had access to and were assured that the real market prices were in the high $70k’s and over $100k for the two bedroom condos and what good value these discounted distressed properties now were. They also assured us they were working with a local realtor (Jim Bals) who had full access to the condo market to confirm this.
Given this ‘professional’ explanation from Torcana, it was clear that if we wanted a Florida condo, we had to focus on a one bedroom condo, as that was all we could afford with that return, so rather than make a rush decision, we decided it prudent that one of us should fly from Europe to Florida, despite the additional expense, to meet with the local licensed realtor who could be show a range of condos in two specific Florida communities.
Unusually, Torcana had a policy that, prior to even viewing the properties, we had to pay a deposit in advance to secure any property. Although we were told these deposits were refundable it seemed as this was their way of locking investors, as, according to their online listing particulars, their standard practice is to request a $2,500 increasing to $5,000 initial deposit on condos (see ‘past listings’ on their website for more details or ‘Torcana past listings archive search on google’ then under individual details ‘buying process’).
I travelled to Florida after reluctantly paying a deposit to Torcana and met their local licensed realtor, Jim Bals. Torcana had made it clear to us that we did not need our own realtor, as Jim Bals would be representing both the buyer and seller and taking care of any transaction.
Mr. Bals works at ‘Vida Real Estate Services’ Orlando FL (their website at the time was vida-realestate-services.com). This website description for Mr Bals stated ’………His knowledge and understanding of the Central Florida Real Estate Market is valuable in assisting buyers and sellers with their real estate needs. His professional approach with clients makes the Real Estate process clear and pleasurable. Jim is a State of Florida Licensed Real Estate Broker and a member of The National and Orlando Association of Realtors...’
Mr. Bals drove myself to the two communities and discussed details regarding the areas including safety, the number of units available, tenancy and market value(notably, he re-iterated the Torcana valuation) as well as comparisons of these to other condos and communities. As a Floridian he said he had good local knowledge and seemed helpful in answering questions. He told me that the communities were popular, an excellent buy for the area and really good value; highly discounted (from the developer), sought after and that we would be pleased with my purchase in either community.
I eventually chose the Unit at a community in Maitland and offered a lower $75k than was being asked and it was confirmed that the developer had agreed to this price. The property was sold ‘as is’ and there were no special terms offered. Bals agreed that this was an excellent choice, having already described this property developer as eager to sell and essentially 'distressed' which we later found out was not at all true, quite the opposite.
There were problems with the air conditioning unit on its last legs, a bad tenant and an unhelpful property management company, all ‘professionally’ provided by Torcana as part of the sale. These were sorted out by oursleves, as other than the initial introduction from Torcana (who confirmed their sales fee was covered by the property developer to them directly), they offered no other assistance or value, even with these early initial problems.
A few months after our purchase, we noticed that Zillow was then showing a value in the mid 40k’s (despite us having paid $75k for it!). Our concern was such that we queried the value of our one bedroom condo with Torcana only to be told in emails that this was due to some short sales going through distorting the overall picture.
A few years later, in 2015, we decided to sell the property. The taxes on the property had almost doubled since purchase and, even with a slightly higher rental income, it was not providing the return as promised.
After reading about the strong market over the past five years in Florida, we were shocked and disappointed to learn that our property was now only being given a valuation, and suggested offer price of what we bought it for back in 2010, of $75k. It was clear that, after commissions and closing costs, this would leave us with a loss.
When we queried this with our selling realtor and property manager, he confirmed that there was another condo on the market for $79,000 and that his interested buyer was reluctant to even pay that as she had ‘picked up two condos in 2010 for a price in the high $30k’s’.
At this revelation alarm bells started ringing. We thought there had to be a mistake in what he was advising about the price and timing of these transactions, but he provided us with enough solid data from the MLS to show that he was right and we had been sold our condo at a grossly over-inflated price of over twice the then market price.
Our realtor couldn’t understand how we had paid so much for our condo and sent us all the 2010 prices for comparison showing all the open market sales and when we explained about the Torcana ‘distressed sale’ directly to us from the developer and that we had viewed and bought through a local, licensed Florida realtor, he was quite shocked.
The MLS (the Multiple Listing Service only accessible by licensed US realtors) detail he sent through showed a staggering 44 open market sales for 2010 (a very liquid market in this community), with one bedroom condos selling around $38k and two bedroom condos around $54k. Our purchase, along with two others, were very likely sold by Torcana as they were the highest by an absolute mile. One of these other listings was sold to a firm in Dublin, Ireland of all places, (2 beds for $103k).
Obviously we are shocked and angry to now see how much we had paid way over the odds for our one bedroom condo from this 'distresed' developer with the use of a licensed realtor and the deceptive sales pitch proffered by Torcana to expedite this.
Our current realtor confirmed that as a valued overseas cash buyer at that time, we could have easily bought TWO condos for $75k, not one. That the price we paid for our one-bedroom condo was much higher than even the two-bedroom condos on sale at that time for $54k.
With the benefit of hindsight, and had we been advised by honest professionals (as we thought we were at the time!) we would have now had two properties that would have more than doubled in value and had yields of 14% (not 7%) over five years that would have provided us with double the income we actually received during this time (from 2010 to 2015).
Had we known the genuine prices and yields, it would have made such a difference to the investment decisions made at that point. We would have bought in a range of communities in Florida. This deception led to us receiving far less income, no capital gains and in a far more financially stressful situation.
This was mainly because we had already been subject to another fraudulent investment also through TORCANA in Europe, in which we lost all our funds in a green solar project. After extensive research into that one over many months, speaking directly with the indivudals involved, this was a complex fraud in which Toranca, in our view, played a large and deceptive role.
It is clear that Torcana, and Jim Bals as a registered Florida realtor, lied to us on the phone, in emails and also in person. The developers must have been over the moon with their relationship with Torcana and Bals, which enabled them to sell at double the market prices at the time, whilst the commissions on both sides must have been huge.
Torcana primarily rely on selling to overseas investors and ‘out of state’ Americans, who are in the main unfamiliar with the local markets, so beware!
Distressed property is defined as ‘ Real property that suffers a reduction in its market price because of pressures operating on the owner, such as threatened foreclosure’ (financial dictionary).
Unfortuantely this was not a distressed property by any means and the developer turned out to be a huge, multi-million company with '16,000 properties in 60 communities' under their management. On further extensive research, this was also the case for other communities in Florida offered by Torcana at this time. None of the developers seemed to be 'distressed'.
In addition to these highly overpriced condos coming from large developers, Colin Murphy, Director of Torcana, has made several references to ‘the competition’ and warned investors to ‘stay away from gimmicks’ in his regular newsletters to investors.
Typically he warns of low priced properties of $35k-$50k with 14% yields (which ironically is exactly the price range and yield we could have genuinely got at this community had we bought in an honest market) having made previous statements such as:
‘It's a bit like buying a second hand car because it looks nice...while the subject headings on our promotions might not be as flashy as some of our competitors (14% yields..) our aim is to sell properties with a steady income stream and genuine resale potential. It might sound boring but it can be very profitable in the long run’ (property wire.com article Feb 2012)
And..
‘..if you move down the food chain and source properties in lower income neighborhoods in the $35,000 - $50,000 price range….they look like unbelievable bargains……….appearances can be very deceptive…..they will generate highly irregular income……..as for capital appreciation? Forget it. You would do well to sell a property in this community for the same price you bought it for in 5 years time………Because Torcana would like to continue doing business with you in 3, 5 and 7 years time, we refuse point blank to move down the food chain. (Blog June 2011)
‘One of my chief concerns (and gripes) right now is that there are respected companies out there promoting properties for $35,000 - $50,000 in neighborhoods that are just one or two steps up from the ghettos………. (Blog June 2011)
In the Torcana website ‘past listings’ it showed 2015 condos in our Florida community offered at $112,000, whilst the real market was offering units at $79,000 up from $38,000 five years ago, according to our realtor. As the 2015 market caught up to the their 2010/11 prices, I believe they could no longer sell at double the market value to overseas investors, adding $30k-40k to the sales price and still make it attractive since the yield offered would be minimal.
So, as purporting to offer high yields and attractive early capital gains were their strongest marketing points, in 2013 they started to make statements such as ‘With the supply of distressed homes running extremely low…….we are finally launching new build products in Florida’ (Property Investor Today Article March 2013). There are similar articles in which Torcana pats themselves on the back for finding such bargains for investors in Florida and even receive an award from OPP for his sales in North America (Overseas Property Professionals).
So, Torcana have now moved on to flipping properties in Florida, stating in 2015 that ‘Tampa Florida properties that sell within 24hrs and rent in less than 2 wks…our research has led us to a seam of gold…… we purchase them directly from banks, distressed sellers and wholesalers…we promote them as rent ready homes and sell them at below market value prices of $70,000-$100,000.’ (May 2015 report on Torcana blog).
Torcana have previously stated that their main buyers were ‘Irish’ up until 2014 when they then stated ‘…..More than half of Torcana’s revenue comes from US investors buying in their homeland. Many are ‘out of state’ so our knowledge of the neighborhoods is far better than theirs….’ (July 2014 article) Opp.com.
Given that their investors now include a number of out of state US investors, we just want you to be aware of the background, the way in which this company is presenting itself and operating.