Beware of Finance of America

[Amanda Williams]

Hello Fellow Investors,

Just wanted to put a word of caution out there about Finance of America Commercial. I recently was approved for a LOC of 2.5 million BUT quickly discovered they are selling a bag of goods that they don't deliver. The LOC was easily approved within 2 weeks -- albeit a lot of documentation was needed. I then proceeded with a new construction loan and was told that my closing date was easily doable. I sit here 6 WEEKS after they have received my application and they have not closed. There was NO communication at all after the LOC was issued. They just blew right past the original closing date with ZERO communication, I then voiced concerns, and was told I would get answers which never happened -- I then reached out to management and finally started to get some communication. Then there was the appraisal. I was contact by 3 different appraisers who had no idea what they were appraising -- which was a vacant lot and a yet to built new construction home. When the appraisal finally came in it was SIGNIFICANTLY lower than expected (and I have sold many of these homes already this year, so I have the value pretty dialed in). They used comps from 8 months ago!!! Additionally, get ready for the fees! They will sell you on the "lower rates & points" , but the fees make them as or more expensive than other HML's. Finally, I just canceled the loan and am not even interested in trying to utilize the LOC. They are not a good fit for any investor trying to scale their business -- you will lose deals as they drag their feet. If you are a new investor STAY AWAY! Luckily, I have other HML's that I use for construction financing and am already off to the races with them. The only reason I spent any time with FOAC was b/c of my business scaling this year and trying to increase the number of lenders I work with. Hopefully, this will save some of you from the headache!!

[Jeff He]

@Amanda Williams

Sorry to hear about your experience. To jump on the gripe train, I used FOA early in the year and they were incredibly slow in underwriting. We had to push back our closing date twice. The seller's agent, us, our agent, and even our loan officer were bombarding them with phone calls trying to get them to get their act together.