My Lease 2 Own

My lease 2 own and its affiliated partners are a rip off and a scam that needs to be recognized. We moved into a home from My lease 2 own in March of 2014. We had to put a huge down payment down as well as first months rent, deposits, and other misc. fees. We were charged higher than average rent for a home in the area. Repairs to the home were never completed by the landlord (My lease 2 own). They charge you all the necessary fees as if you were the homeowner but your not. It's a huge gimmick to get you to put all this money out upfront so they can make the money in the long run when your unable to transfer it to your name or have unforeseen personal issues that arise. We had to move out of state by the first of October 2014 due to job relocation. We contacted my lease 2 own about 6 weeks prior to see our options. [redacted] the realtor for My lease 2 own, had said that we would lose all of our initial down payment and all other fees associated. I mentioned to her during that conversation that there must be someway to get some of our money back. (Not expecting it all, but we invested in the 1st month almost $10,000.00) I said, if the house was purchased for $122,500.00 and we put almost $10,000.00 down, the house should be able to be sold for more than what's currently owed. Especially if the housing market has increased the last few months. She said she would talk to [redacted] and get back to me. A few days later she sent me an email stating that she would have an answer the next few days but it sounds promising. About 5 days later another email came through that [redacted] wouldn't return from a trip for about 5 days. Approx. 4 days after he was suppose to return we get an email from [redacted] that she talked to [redacted] and there was nothing they could do, after previously stating that there was hope we could get something back. I then called My lease 2 own directly to talk to [redacted] but he was out on another trip again. Left a message with [redacted] the office manager to have him call me. He called me approx. 4 days later. Our conversation was the same as I told [redacted], That we don't understand how the house was purchased for $122,500.00 and with $10,000.00 down from us, how we couldn't get any money returned due to the circumstances. I also told him verbally that we needed to be out by the 1st of Oct. He said the problem we have is time because we only have been in the house approx. 7 months. He presumed to say that we needed to get the house appraised. He sent out an appraiser to the house, who was only there for 5 minutes, took a few pictures and left. I never did hear back from anyone at My lease 2 own regarding the appraisal.Desired SettlementReturn of some initial depositBusiness Response This entire situation is quite unfortunate but our company has done nothing to break the agreement that was made. It was the client's decision to move out of state just 6 months after signing a 4 year option to purchase this home in Nevada. What we do requires a serious commitment by both parties and their rash decision has now harmed both parties. Despite the slanderous remarks made by the client, they have not indicated anything done on our part to violate the agreement between us and we are extremely offended by these comments that are clearly made from emotion rather than fact. On August 20, 2014, the client contacted our company regarding their possible job relocation. He inquired about the money he had deposited with us and to see if there was any way to cancel his agreement and get back some money. It is understood that any money put into an option to purchase is only refundable if you purchase the property. On 8/24/2014 we offered to research the current value of the home and possibly return any overage after netting out the sale of the property. (This would have been as a courtesy only). We were able to determine an approximate value of the home through MLS, based on the recent sold properties which were comparable. We estimated the value to be approx. $129,000. When we totaled the expenses incurred in purchasing the home, obtaining financing and then adding the selling costs, we will lose money selling this property so there is nothing available to return. This information was given to the client on September 10, 2014. The client refused to believe our valuation so we obtained a professional appraisal of the property on September 19, 2014 and received on September 24, 2014. The appraised value was $127,000. On September 25, 2014 an email with a copy of the appraisal was sent to the client for his review. We informed him at that time that it would not be possible to return any funds as we will take a loss on this property selling it.The property has been sitting vacant (negative cash flow) since the client left (without notice) and will continue to sit vacant while we schedule cleaning and repairs for its eventual sale. We estimate our losses due to the client breaching contract, abandoning the property and leaving it in unsalable condition to be over $20,000.