A woman says she handed over a substantial amount of money toward the purchase of two South Carolina condos, visited the properties multiple times and even stayed in one of them.
Then her daughter started digging.
According to a report filed with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, the woman said she believed she was buying two condominiums at the Royal Garden Resort in Garden City, South Carolina, from someone she’d known for several years.
The two had originally met about four years ago and crossed paths again in June 2025. During that encounter, the prospective seller allegedly said she had inherited two South Carolina condos and was looking to sell them.
The buyer told deputies she traveled to South Carolina in October to look at the properties and ultimately visited the condos on at least three occasions. She said she even stayed in one during one of those trips.
What followed was a complicated series of financial agreements.
According to documents the woman provided to deputies, a bill of sale and promissory notes were drawn up as money changed hands in connection with the proposed purchase. She also produced a receipt for a $10,000 cashier’s check dated July 17.
The woman told deputies the seller had also asked her for loans against the condo purchase, allegedly claiming she was expecting $4 million from the sale of two other condominiums but needed money to pay probate expenses first.
A closing was eventually scheduled for July 21 and later pushed back to August 8.
That’s when the buyer’s daughter apparently decided to do some homework.
According to the sheriff’s report, the daughter researched the purported seller and allegedly discovered a potentially devastating problem:
The woman they were dealing with did not actually own the two South Carolina condos she was allegedly trying to sell.
The buyer subsequently went to the Sheriff’s Office and provided deputies with copies of the agreements, promissory notes and other paperwork.
She also produced a check reportedly written by the alleged seller to repay a portion of the money. The buyer told deputies she had not attempted to cash it.
She said she also has numerous text messages concerning the transactions and planned to forward them to investigators.
No arrest had been reported at the time the initial report was completed, and the allegations have not been proven in court.
The case remains open and has been forwarded to Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office investigators.
