Private Money Scam??

Question

Has anyone ever heard of United Loan Management Company out of Las Vegas, Nevada? A guy named Steven Wilson messaged me and told me he saw my post on here asking for funding for a house hack/flip. He said that he would fund my deal but has asked ZERO questions about the property. He asked me for information about me (but not my social security number) and has already "approved the loan". Is this a scam? It sounds too good to be true.

Yolanda Eiland · Answer

@John Dellinger Just a thought, United Loan Management Company out of Las Vegas, NV may be a legit company but Steven Wilson may not actually work for them. I would first do what @Jay Hinrichs advised and if they're not legit then keep moving. But if you find they are legit then contact them (Google their main number. Do not use the number Steven gave you) and inform them of your conversation with Steven Wilson. Good luck!

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

yup I googled them and they are a licensed consumer finance lender in OR WA CA NV and they have a big warning on the front of their website saying if anyone is claiming to be with their company and ask for one dime up front to call the AG in Oregon and the AG in the state you live in and file a complaint.. Yolanda good catch.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

well what do you think ???? I know what I think .. first off any Lender out of Vegas MUST be Licensed by the state and NMLS registered other wise they are illegal .. so run his name on the NMLS data base simply google it and put his name in.. here are things to look out for.1. rates to good to be true.. especially for someone who is beginning. 2. just like what you said too easy to approve u 3. bad grammar4. all approved just need 500.00 for app fee then suck more money out of u then go dark

Yolanda Eiland · Answer

@Jay Hinrichs glad you know the signs to look for. I feel so bad for those that hand over money to these people. @John Dellinger I'm glad you didn't wire him any money. @Caleb Heimsoth lol, good one

Caleb Heimsoth · Answer

@John Dellinger I got a message from a loan scammer yesterday. I wasted his time for a bit before I told him I know it’s a scam lol. He asked me what my credit score was, I told him 900. He said “that’s a good score”. Yes it is considering they only go to 850 lol.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

this is just the real estate version of the Nigerian prince scheme we have all seen over the years... they use BP Linkdin facebook to troll for those that ask for money then respond.. and believe me it works with not only newbies but real estate professionals as well.. some of the better scammers are pretty good at this.I suggest you watch this one episode on American Greed.. its was on Remmington financial.. and you can see how pervasive fake lenders are .. I had talked to these guys in 2010 or so.. and they were more sophisticated than a broken English BP scammer.. But they were simply to easy to approve my business model which was not just vanilla flip loan. ( keep in mind I have been a HML for decades so I know the industry plus I am NMLS licensed mortgage banker ) but anyway they were just too quick to say yup your approved send in 10k for due diligence to go to the next step.. I passed.. My dad showed me these fake lenders when I first got in the business in the 70s.. its been going on for years.. none of this is new.. whats new is the access they have to people via social media and internet.. ONLY do business when your starting out with reputable HML and one who is local who you can walk and in and talk to them in person.there are bigger players that are in multiple states. but NO one is in all 50.. these include.LendinghomeLendingoneLima oneVisio GensisAnchor Aloha Conventus and on and on and on.. there are plenty of legit lenders out there. but they don't back troll BP with broken English reps.. and if you have no experience and looking for your first loan your not going to get some super rates your going to pay the highest until you fill your experience bucket.

Dalton Dellinger · Answer

@Daniel H. Thank you for your advice. I too see Jay helping newbies like me on the forums all the time! Thanks Jay! I understand what you're saying about trying for an all-cash route as opposed to financing. However, I don't have access to that much liquid cash just yet. I do however have a HELOC and credit cards that could give me access to 50k plus. The thought of that much credit card debt scares me though lol. It's hard in this business first starting out but I know with persistence I will find funding and I will succeed! Thanks again everyone.

Daniel H. · Answer

Just wanted to add my two cents here as I did review a similar situation with @Jay Hinrichs a few months back. First, I would be curious to run some sort of scan on the forums and see exactly how many new investors Jay has been able to give this same advice and or guidance on scammer/lender type questions. Huge thank you for always fighting the good fight supporting everyone with great advice and feedback, no matter how many times you have to repeat it, it has to be in the thousands at this point. Second, @John Dellinger My partner and I put out calls for help on the forums for financing and did a ton of our own research and calling many of the great lenders listed above in Jay's list along with many local lenders in the markets we invest. The calls on the forums churned out many scammer type inbox messages, while the list Jay has above has some great companies, we spoke to many of them on our journey so far. Their products were great and could have worked in many of our current deals. However, it made my partner @Rico Nasol and I take a deeper look at our own personal liquidity and analyze the way we were thinking about approaching our first deals. Instead of trying to grab financing at the purchase phase of our deals (which was leading to only finding deals that meet only our minimum requirements if at all) we decided to go after deals with all cash where there was more value to be added and where cash could really give us a much better purchase price and resulted in the numbers we want (Cash on Cash / Cashflow). This approach has been working for us, however, I know it is not the road everyone can take. -Dan.

Dalton Dellinger · Answer

@Jay Hinrichs thank you so much for your insight. There have been multiple scammers message me like that. I will keep my options open to local HML. @Caleb Heimsoth I might still do that if he tried to get a hold of me today lol. Thank you guys so much!

Dalton Dellinger · Answer

@Jay Hinrichs @Yolanda Eiland thank you both for the research for me! He did have broken English, he was very pushy, and his account closed the day after I talked to him. I thought that was all very suspicious. I'm glad I asked you before I just wired him money!