@Jay Hinrichs - we did get about 8" at our place - but we've got friends in the mountains who are still trying to dig out! Per your recommendations, here were the red flags for me:
1) Lender saw me on an STR FB page and private messaged me. Not totally unusual - even some of my regular lenders frequent the same pages. Still, not the best intro.
2) He sent a .pdf rate & terms sheet. About 4 pages of "loan products" - all with AMAzing terms like no points and .5 (yes, half a percent) interest on certain loan products. Some non-DSCR loan products with no income verification and no credit score required. Even our hard money lenders require these.
3) The .pdf was very "busy" I guess you'd say. Lots of graphics - way too many. Hard to describe but imagine a very busy piece of stationary with colorful shapes and starbursts that then had text printed over it. Hard to read and simply just unprofessional. What legitimate lender does that?
4) Finally set up a call only because I was shopping for a particular type of loan they claimed to have. When the guy (named Dane) answered he sounded muffled and hard to hear. I could hear a lot of commotion in the background. I kept telling him I couldn't hear him. After a minute or so of this he said 'so are we going to do this deal or not?' We hadn't discussed anything! I just simply kept telling him the reception was terrible and I couldn't hear him. At that point I just said 'no, we're not' and hung up.
Apparently they're making the rounds as confirmed by others on this thread. I'm glad no one has admitted to being duped because as, you've said Jay, it's clearly a scam. I've learned to be very cautious when vetting new lenders. We've worked with some terrible ones and some that are just ok. Fortunately, we do have some awesome lenders that we work with. But sometimes you do have to shop around a bit. Good thing we have a forum to go to to confirm our suspicions - good or bad!
