Would-Be Homebuyer Gets Boot After Paying Rent-Skimming Middleman $6K Upfront, Monthly Payments In Rent To Own Deal; Title Owner Also Left Holding Bag

In El Paso, Texas, KFOX-TV Channel 14 reports:

• Leticia Ornelas said she's been buying a house for two years only to find out none of her payments ever made it to the mortgage company. Now she's been kicked out of the home and she’s suing the man who supposedly sold her the home, Lorenzo Trujillo.(1)
• Signs that were targeted towards people with bad credit are what first got Ornelas’ attention. She said she and Trujillo had a plan to fix her credit while buying a Horizon City home; $6,000 down, $695 a month.
• Once she was approved for a bank loan, a man named Erick Martinez came to her door and told her the house was his and it was under foreclosure. Ornelas had to move out. "I was scared like, what do you mean I'm not buying this house?” Ornelas said. “They told me even the owner wasn't given the payments at all and that's why this house was up for an action."
• Trujillo spoke with KFOX14 today. He admits that Ornelas’ payments never went to the mortgage company. "We came to an agreement and told her if she’s unhappy, we can buy this house back from her,” said Trujillo.
• Ornelas is suing Trujillo in small claims court. She doesn’t understand how Trujillo can buy the house back from her when he never sold it to her in the first place.
• Martinez also has a lawsuit against Trujillo. Martinez said he didn’t realize that no payments had been made to the mortgage company. Martinez originally hired Trujillo to sell the house for him.

Source: Woman Says She Bought A House But Seller Never Paid Mortgage (Woman Sues To Get Money Back After, She Says, She Was Scammed).

(1) This isn't the first time a Lorenzo Trujillo has made the news for involvement in a dubious real estate deal. See August 5, 2009: KFOX-TV Channel 14: Woman Shocked To Find People Living In Her El Paso Home:

• A former El Paso woman says people are living in her Lower Valley home that she never sold. Tammy Diaz asked a real estate investor to help her sell this home more than two years ago. Diaz moved to Corpus Christi, and almost never heard from him again.
  Diaz in 2007 faced a separation from her husband and impending foreclosure on her home. So she reached out for help.
• "He made it seem like everything was real perfect, he was going to be able to sell our house for us," said Diaz.
• Diaz is talking about Lorenzo Trujillo. Diaz was under the impression that Trujillo was going to sell her home in 45 days, but two years later, she said she had gotten no news from Trujillo.