# Anyone investing in Walton's "land-banking" deals?



## Quotealex (Aug 1, 2010)

From my understanding, they pool investors money to buy big chunk of lands in Canada and in the USA, sit on it for years, resell it to developper at a huge profit and redistribute the profit to the initial investors.

Has anyone invested in Walton? if so, please share your views in this company or other similar companies that do "land-banking"


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Hmm, I donate to the Nature Conservancy, which pools money to buy big chunks of lands in Canada and protects them from development. The returns are priceless, one of the best investments I can think of. ;-)


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## MoreMiles (Apr 20, 2011)

brad said:


> Hmm, I donate to the Nature Conservancy, which pools money to buy big chunks of lands in Canada and protects them from development. The returns are priceless, one of the best investments I can think of. ;-)


If everyone thinks like you, then humans will still be living in caves and ride on animal-pulled carriages.

Luckily, some people have moved up on the Darwinian evolution scale. 

Good luck with your tree-hugging all-naturel lifestyle.


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## Mall Guy (Sep 14, 2011)

MoreMiles said:


> If everyone thinks like you, then humans will still be living in caves and ride on animal-pulled carriages.
> 
> Luckily, some people have moved up on the Darwinian evolution scale.
> 
> Good luck with your tree-hugging all-naturel lifestyle.


Little uncalled for IMHO :rolleyes2:


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## Mall Guy (Sep 14, 2011)

brad said:


> Hmm, I donate to the Nature Conservancy, which pools money to buy big chunks of lands in Canada and protects them from development. The returns are priceless, one of the best investments I can think of. ;-)


Kudos !!! :encouragement:


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

MoreMiles said:


> If everyone thinks like you, then humans will still be living in caves and ride on animal-pulled carriages.
> 
> Luckily, some people have moved up on the Darwinian evolution scale.
> 
> Good luck with your tree-hugging all-naturel lifestyle.


Load of crap and indeed uncalled for.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

My bet is someday, someone will notice the value of the land these conservancies are sitting on and will somehow manage to take over them and sell the land at a huge profit...people, of course, will be up in arms about it, but someone will walk away rich....


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Hey, I'm the one whose comment was uncalled for, I was just providing a provocative alternative perspective but didn't mean to derail the entire thread. Sorry to the OP!

As for "taking over" the land owned by conservancies, that would be pretty difficult due to all the deed restrictions. But in many cases that land isn't really developable anyway, especially the wetlands.


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

brad said:


> Hmm, I donate to the Nature Conservancy, which pools money to buy big chunks of lands in Canada and protects them from development. The returns are priceless, one of the best investments I can think of. ;-)


Ok, this is really uncalled for.... and glad you are getting great returns out of it, good for you ;-)


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

brad said:


> ... As for "taking over" the land owned by conservancies, that would be pretty difficult due to all the deed restrictions. But in many cases that land isn't really developable anyway, especially the wetlands.


Maybe ... but having listened to old timers indicate that whole sub-divisions were once considered "unsuitable for development" due to flood plane issues, where surprise - the houses now there have flooding issues - it might not stay that way.


Cheers


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Where there is money, and corruption, a way will be found. Laws have often been changed for the sake of money.


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## Feruk (Aug 15, 2012)

I'm kinda curious on this topic as well. So far nothing but spam replies though... (mine included I guess). Anyone actually invest with Walton?


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

There's a pretty long thread on the Financial Webring Forum on this topic: http://www.financialwebring.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=105756

One of my best, favourite threads ever, actually.


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## Mall Guy (Sep 14, 2011)

. . . so, I guess its "good night John-Boy" on this forum anyways . . . wonder what Walton Mountain is worth today ???


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## nobleea (Oct 11, 2013)

I've never invested in Walton's and can't comment on that. But their developments are legit, they advertise them on the radio here often (the residential developments, not the land bank stuff). Edmonton.


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## Mike Ashley (Dec 6, 2013)

*Walton's Land-Banking Deals*



Quotealex said:


> From my understanding, they pool investors money to buy big chunk of lands in Canada and in the USA, sit on it for years, resell it to developper at a huge profit and redistribute the profit to the initial investors.
> 
> Has anyone invested in Walton? if so, please share your views in this company or other similar companies that do "land-banking"


Hi Quotealex, 

I have some knowledge about Walton and can share it with you. My thoughts below can be considered by investors for land banking.

Walton is not only operating in Canada but also has offices in Asia. 

*What I Understand*
Walton will pool investors' money together and they will make an offer for parcels of land that are zoned for development. These land can be zoned for residential development which translates into having houses built in the longer term. The company will coordinate and work with government agencies to obtain the other necessary approvals and sell it to developers at a higher price. They add value by obtaining the necessary approvals. 

*Your Ownership*
The huge piece of land that the company bought will be sub-divided into many smaller parels of lands or units. As an individual investor, we can buy 1 or more units. 

*Some Promises *
Some years back, Walton has announced that no investor that wait out their recommended holding period i.e. period before selling to developers have lost any money.

*Any Concerns*
I have concerns about financial viability, and the ill-liquid structure of the investment. 

In the UK, there have been issues with land-banking companies that have went bust or bankrupt. They operate in UK and also sells in Asia. Audited Financial Statements from Walton is unavailable. This means we do not know if they are making profits as a company. Well, we will be concern, given that we do not want to invest in a lost-making company that may be going bankrupt soon. 

We can invest from thousands to tens of thousands into land banking, and will need to wait out the holding period. This period can easily be between 5 to more than 10 years. There is no transparent secondary market to sell this instrument, though Walton had promised that finding a buyer in their portfolio is very possible. 

*Conclusion*
I am not advocating to invest or not to invest in Walton. I hope my thoughts can help investors understand land banking better and stimulate critical thinking for investment in this instrument. 

I hope my comments helps consideration. Cheers.

Mike Ashley


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

This looks like a company that is skilled at helping investors with their excess funds.


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## Feruk (Aug 15, 2012)

MoneyGal said:


> There's a pretty long thread on the Financial Webring Forum on this topic: http://www.financialwebring.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=105756


Wow, after reading that thread I'd never invest in land banking.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

That thread was like reading a thriller novel. And it made me re-watch Glengarry Glen Ross, which is never a bad thing.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

It was just excellent. If you read other threads by the same OP, you will discover that CRA came after him for the donation fraud as well. Also recommended by the same guys! More excellent reading.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Wow what a great thread that was posted above. My impressions:

1. for the first several pages, kombat seemed to think that because he had title to the land and that the company told him he would make 15%, that the $80000 he spent on it is an asset. It's not. The land cost the scammer $2.5M and parcelled most of it off to numerous suckers like kombat for $8M. They've made their money, they're good. kombat and the other 454 or so "investors" will be on the hook for a very long time to get their money back. It might happen but not for several decades. But then later pages in the thread suggest S&B wanted to buy out many unit holders. The land did apparently increase in value over the time of the thread but consider that if kombat had of invested the money in GICs since 2007 he would be way ahead now. At this point he'll be grateful for any scraps he gets after the legal people have done their bit. What a mess.

2. a valuable lesson was learned and it turned kombat into a skeptic. here's the key bits:_ "One thing that disappoints me about this whole experience is that it's turned me into a very jaded, skeptical, distrustful person. I now view everyone in the finance industry as slimy scamming scumbags, trying to get their hands on my money. It's possible this attitude will prevent me from capitalizing on legitimate opportunities in the future, and I don't like being a cynical, distrustful person. But apparently, the alternative is too expensive. Such is life, I guess. Nice people get taken advantage of, so the only way to protect yourself is to become a distrustful cynic."_ Sadly, that is the approach you need to take to protect yourself in this day and age. Too bad the OP had to shell out so much money to learn this. 

3. I love this response on page 8: _"I've just read through this thread. Interesting to say the least. You sound like an intelligent and candic guy. If I can offer my take on this situation, you let yourself be talked into these situations and exercise a high amount of willful blindness because you dearly want it to be true. You want to make high returns. Higher than a prudent investor could expect in this yield environment. Therefore, even if your gut is sounding alarms, you silence it and rationalize your participation in the schemes. There is an inevitable reality, though, and that is that you are taking on way too much risk and therefore ending up with severe losses of capital rather than a high return. I would strongly advice that you rethink your propensity to get duped in by promises of high returns. Think of them as very likely to result in an important loss of capital. Stop reaching."_

4. Let that excellent thread serve as a cautionary tale to all young couples thinking of putting their money into any of these "investment clubs". Hopefully they will read these threads but even if they do, if you read the original kombat posts you will notice that he was very defensive of the whole scheme for the first little while until CRA denied the ponzi scheme 4:1 charity receipts 2-3 years after kombat filed his taxes in 2007. So even if anyone is lurking here and reading these threads, the possibility of making 15% PA may be too strong to resist. See point 3 above.

5. it's a sad statement of our general lack of financial literacy that these types of scams continue to work


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

But! nice men in suits were selling them and there were a lot of them and they were all nice! 

He actually says things like that in the thread. I just went and re-read most of the thread and need to wipe away tears of joy at how great that thread is.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Yep I know. But remember that description is not so different from the people that manage to hook so many young people onto MFs via bank "financial advisor". It seems clear that young 20-somethings are a target market for these nice men in suits across the financial industry. Too bad our society doesn't do a better job of educating our youth to prepare them for such things. If the govt was doing its job (instead of simply pandering to vote banks to keep getting elected) they would focus on teaching financial literacy in schools, so that young people know how to recognize crap like this. I mean, we teach 6 year olds not to talk to strangers and to run to an adult if approached. Surely by the time someone reaches the age of 16 they should be teachable on recognizing pitfalls in deeper financial topics such as this. Between that and some of the rhetoric from previous generations about financial topics, it is not totally surprising to see stuff like this happening. I'm just not sure I'm prepared to blame each victim. But yes, I certainly agree it's a great thead. It reads like a good novel or soap opera story.


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