The "Something for Nothing" Mentality Makes Me Sick

[Corey Dutton]

Every day in the private money lending industry and in real estate investing, I see so many people that just want something for nothing. I like to call these people, the “something for nothing crew.” More and more it becomes evident that one of the biggest problems in our society is the mentality of “something for nothing.” Most people want to do the least amount of work, for the biggest possible gain. Maybe this is just a plague of human nature, but it’s very prevalent in my industry and in real estate investing in general.

Here are just two examples. The first example is the “joker broker” in the private money lending industry. These “joker brokers” all want something for nothing. These types are likely old mortgage brokers that have decided to start doing hard money loans on the side. They always create a long broker chain of 3-4 brokers, because none of them really know who the direct lenders are. They just send the loan to another broker, who sends it to another broker, who sends it to yet another broker. Then they all want to get paid an excessive amount of money for NOTHING. The other day I was approached by a broker to make a large loan of $5 MM. There were 3 brokers in that chain already behind the broker that brought us the deal. The best part? They wanted 2% of the loan amount ($100,000) for just giving us a name and a phone number. These are the types of brokers that I just want to tell to take a flying leap. This is a perfect example of wanting something for nothing.

Here’s another example. I received a loan request yesterday from an individual who wanted a loan. He got a property under contract for $440,000 that he said is worth $750,000. He told me it just needs some cleanup and minor repairs totaling $5,000 and he would be able to sell it for $750,000. But then he wants us to give him a loan for the whole purchase price, the repairs, the loan fees, and the closing costs without bringing in ANY cash of his own. When I told him he would need to bring in some of his own cash to close on the transaction, he got angry. “Don’t you realize what a great deal this is??!!” he shouted at me through the phone. Just to summarize, this individual wants us to put up all the money on this deal, take on all the risk, so he can make $300,000? What a joke.

Any other examples you would share of the “something for nothing” mentality. I’ll tell you what, this type of mentality just makes my blood boil…..