Check-out the following:- The Age Newspaper Melbourne Ron's staying positive about the negative Lawrence Money and Suzanne Carbone April 10, 2008 MORE exciting news on property: the Cross Country ParkTrent outfit has hit the Melbourne airwaves with a jingle-jangle radio campaign offering lucky Melbournians "hand-picked" real estate bargains all over the place. Odd though, their website says they want to flog you "positive cash flow" properties, but when Diary phoned, someone named Paula said: "Most of our properties are negatively geared because you get more tax breaks." What the website doesn't mention is ParkTrent director Ron Malcolm Cross's recent bad luck. Ron Cross was given a right old roasting by the NSW Supreme Court's Justice Cooper in a defamation case that ran for six weeks. Cross had sued the Brisbane Courier-Mail for claiming he sold overpriced Gold Coast property, but the beak found in the paper's favour: "This was clearly a case where (Cross) offered to mum and dad investors a property which was exorbitantly overpriced." Cross was left looking at $1 million in costs. So how come he is down here in Melbourne now, offering his glistening property baubles on Melbourne radio?

And by-the-way, don't let Parktrent tell you they operate in New Zealand. ParkTrent Investments NZ was struck off the New Zealand Companies Register in 2002. Many people will live outside the area in which their investment is located and never know that they could have done a lot better with their investment. They may think a gross profit of $100,000 is good but they could have missed-out on a gross profit of $200,000 or more. Easily. Just remember that it takes almost no intelligence to buy property. Any fool can sign a contract on the day, especially when a property expert is telling them that "historically property is a wonderful investment". These property ?so-called' experts have lots of great sounding clichs to encourage you to buy. They'll tell you that it's "time in the market" not "timing in the market" that's important and that the sooner you get in the better off you'll be. Garbage; Timing is one of the most important factors when investing in real estate, but what's more important is the price you pay. Price is very important - as is the location. The golden rule (which you break at your dire peril) is to NOT take advice from an adviser who is selling you the property. And it's astonishing how thousands of investors break this golden rule. Get independent advice (before you sign anything with Parktrent, and do your homework first) and make it subject to finance also and if you want to make the best property investment possible, and then start off by also making one of the best pre-purchase investments - an independent valuation (don't let anyone tell you the bank will do it for you). It'll be the best few hundred dollars you could ever spend. But whatever you do, beware of any or all of the big three signs of a sub prime investment. A big advertising campaign, a slick seminar or a 'personal consultation from this company'. There is no respect for anyone only the greediness of his company for your money.

You might also like to read this also: - scam' by Boss Cost Thousands Illawarra Mercury Saturday December 9, 2006 By PAUL McINERNEY A NSW Supreme Court judge has found that a former prominent Wollongong businessman is a "scam merchant." In a 129-page judgment, Acting Justice Harvey Cooper found Ron Cross had ripped off Wollongong-based employees by failing to contribute to their superannuation. He had also improperly diverted funds before one of his companies, Park Trent Investments, went into liquidation in 2003. In addition, Justice Cooper found Cross had "ripped off mum and dad investors by selling them Queensland investment properties at exorbitant prices". Justice Cooper made the findings on Wednesday after hearing six weeks of evidence during a defamation action brought by Cross against Queensland Newspapers. Cross sued the Courier Mail after it published two articles in 2003 linking him with a property marketing company which was targeting investors from interstate, flying them to the Gold Coast and selling them overpriced properties. Cross told the court the articles had left him shattered, tarnished his character and ruined his business reputation. Evidence was given to the court regarding the failure of two Wollongong-based companies owned by Cross, which went into voluntary liquidation with debts of more than $2 million in March 2003. These included thousands of dollars worth of employee superannuation entitlements. The court heard that Cross bought back Park Trent Investments Pty Ltd and Everest Marketing Company Pty Ltd for $250,000 each following agreement with creditors. It was told Throsby MP Jennie George used parliamentary privilege a few months later to accuse Cross and his daughter Rene of breaking the law and showing contempt by failing to provide proper entitlements to 140 company workers. "The fact is that by failing to pay superannuation for his employees, by failing to pass on the PAYE tax deducted from employees to the Australian Taxation Office, by diverting funds from Park Trent Investments which should have gone to the liquidator for the benefit of creditors, the plaintiff was involved in dishonest conduct which had the effect of ripping off his employees, ripping off the liquidator and ripping off the creditors," Justice Harvey concluded. "The fact that moneys were diverted from Park Trent Investments into other companies was not revealed to Mr Cvitanovic (the liquidator), who described this conduct, correctly in my view regardless of the motivation, as a breach of duty as a director and as a form of larceny," he said. Attempts yesterday by the Mercury to contact Ron Cross for comment were unsuccessful, but he was reported to be considering an appeal to the judgment.

And here is another one. The Courier-Mail newspaper August 17, 2010 Court told Ron Cross real estate firm pocketed commission on inflated unit prices A GOLD Coast property marketing firm allegedly pocketed a commission on the inflated purchase price of units sold to investors, a court was told yesterday. ParkTrent and its then-subsidiary Cross Country Realty used a free seminar and a cheap flight to Queensland to encourage Melbourne investor Robert Weir and his wife to buy a Robina property in 2002, the Southport Magistrates Court was told. But the court was told Robert Weir's bank rejected his first loan application after determining the Lakeside on Varsity unit was worth $20,000 less than the $260,000 purchase price. Crown counsel Andrew Preston told the court that this information was central to the "role and control" of company founder and chief executive Ron Cross. It was indicative of the amounts of commission paid but not disclosed to buyers, he said. Cross Country, Ron Cross and his daughter Kellie Cross each face 38 charges of failing to properly disclose commissions from developers and collectively face a maximum fine of more than $530,000. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. A proposed deal with the Office of Fair Trading to reduce the number of charges to five each collapsed last week in preliminary hearings. In cross-examination, Michael Byrne, QC, acting for Ron Cross, had Weir acknowledge that ParkTrent was "a professionally run organisation". Yet Weir said the process of reviewing disclosure documents in the office of lawyer Donald Dickie was rushed and over within an hour. "They were going through things very quickly," he told the court. Asked by Mr Preston if he knew who the developer's consultants were, Weir said no. Developer Thomas Van Asperen said his company Baycrown had retained ParkTrent and Cross Country as marketers and real estate agents since 2001. Documents submitted to the court by Mr Preston showed that Baycrown paid a $25,000 commission on sales of units in a Nerang development. The money included a standard agent's rate, with the remaining amount for ParkTrent and Cross Country, the court was told. The trial before Magistrate Michael Hogan continues.

Now, tell me that you would like to deal with Parktrent?