Through a myriad of companies, the duo has acquired scores of houses in the Tampa Bay and Jacksonville areas for as little as $10 apiece. They got some at foreclosure auctions, others directly from desperate homeowners like Tarsha Santiago of Gibsonton.

“She said they knocked on her door more than once, and she was facing a number of things that were weighing on her mind plus facing foreclosure,” said lawyer Pamela Jo Hatley, who later represented Santiago. “They kept coming by and telling her they could help her with an attorney, they would help her avoid foreclosure, she could stay in her home and they talked her into doing this deal with them.”

In exchange for a few hundred dollars, Santiago deeded her four-bedroom, two-bath house to a company connected to the Chanceys. Read more: