Property spruiker Rick Otton seeks buyer for $3.5 million Bondi Beach house

Property spruiker Rick Otton has put his Bondi Beach semi up for sale less than two weeks after he was slugged with a record $18 million fine for misleading investors about how they could make money buying and selling real estate.

The penalty was the highest ever imposed by the Federal Court for breaches of the Australian Consumer Law and includes a $12 million fine against Mr Otton’s training business We Buy Houses and $6 million against him personally.

Mr Otton was also banned from managing corporations for 10 years in Australia, and he and We Buy Houses were permanently restrained from further involvement in the real estate industry.

A December 15 auction and a guide of $3.2 million to $3.5 million has been set for the four-bedroom house Otton owns on Roscoe Street by Di Baker, of Di Baker Prestige Properties.

The property has been renovated throughout since Otton bought it in 2007 for $1.6 million.

Records show it is the only NSW property held in Otton’s name.

Otton’s We Buy Houses taught real estate investment strategies through free seminars, boot camps and mentoring programs that claimed people could buy a house for $1 without the need for a deposit, bank loan or real estate experience, or using little or none of their own money.

But in 2015 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission started proceedings against We Buy Houses and Mr Otton after an investigation by NSW Fair Trading.

“We Buy Houses and Mr Otton peddled false hope to people simply looking to get a foothold in the housing market or invest money in real estate for their future,” said ACCC chair Rod Sims.

“The record penalties imposed against both We Buy Houses and Mr Otton reflect their egregious conduct.”

The Federal Court ruled in favour of the ACCC last August and Justice Gleeson said in her judgment these boot camps and mentoring programs were an expensive waste of time.

The bulk of We Buy Houses’ $20 million revenue between 2011 and 2014 was generated from conducting these training programs.