All Forum Posts by: Joshua Mayo

@Jay Hinrichs

It will all play out in the impending months, I'll keep this topic updated with all the happenings and such. Thanks for bringing some activity to this thread Jay

@Jay Hinrichs

The personal credit rounds are apart of the program for people (like myself) who don't have impressive personal credit. However, the crux of the program is the business credit rounds, and that's the part I'm willing to pay for. The way I see it, I can either roll up my sleeves and learn how to obtain a large amount of business credit for myself, or I can hire someone who has the expertise already. I would prefer the latter to try and maximize the results.

@Jay Hinrichs  

Hi Jay,

I failed to mention this in my post above, but I do not plan to use the personal cards for business.

It’s almost been a solid month since my last, time for an update!

February 9, 2019 - My last post back on January 16 was me waiting to receive my social security replacement card from the social security administration. I received it and quickly sent it to F&G.

Danyelle introduced me and my wife to Michael Richard who was my Account Specialist, the one in charge of building my personal credit. My personal credit round began on January 21. My wife’s round of personal credit started about 2 weeks after mine. On January 21, the day my personal round started, I immediately began receiving notifications from Credit Karma (I have the app on my phone) about several banks checking my credit score. This let me know that F&G had begun applying on my behalf. I received 6 new personal cards in total, I will list them out here plus the final limits that F&G was able to negotiate:

Capital One Quicksilver - $2,000

American Express Everyday - $6,000

Wells Fargo Platinum Visa - $2,500

Bank of the Ozarks - $7,000

Chase Freedom Unlimited - $7,900

SunTrust Cash Rewards - $8,5000

So in total F&G obtained $33,900 in personal credit for me. My credit scores have already been rising as a result. This is exactly what needs to happen in order for us to receive even more business credit. When this process first began, I was sitting at a 706/704 credit score (TransUnion/Equifax), how I’m at a 726/725. I imagine it will easily get to 750+ in a month or two.

Okay, now let’s talk about my wife’s personal credit round which didn’t turn out so well.

Unfortunately, my wife did not have much established credit prior to this process, mainly because every purchase we made day-to-day was on my Citi card which is under my name and my credit. So even though her credit score is decent, sitting at about a 700, her round of personal credit was just completed a few days ago and the results weren’t pretty. Here is her list of credit cards with final limits:

Citi Double Cash – DECLINED

Capital One Quicksilver – DECLINED

Wells Fargo Platinum Visa – DECLINED

American Express Everyday – $1,000

Bank of the Ozarks – DECLINED

Flagstar – DECLINED

I would like to reiterate an important fact that my wife has barely any established credit, and so this should not be a negative strike against F&G.

However, we are a team, and since my personal credit round went so well, this benefits both of us regardless of how poorly her round went.

So, what is next? When do the business credit rounds begin?

This is the question you are probably wondering and it’s a question that I don’t have an answer to right now. I will reach out to Michael my Account Specialist this coming week to follow up with Courtney’s personal round and to see what the next steps are. I think that there will be a waiting period to allow my credit to increase a little before F&G begins applying for business credit, but I will keep you posted!

Remember, message me if you have any questions, I’ll be more than glad to try and answer them!

My wife and I have been doing a lot of research over the past few months and reached out to Ohio Cashflow after seeing their presence here on BiggerPockets then doing some more research on them (Youtube videos, website info, etc). After looking at several other turnkey companies, we felt really good about Ohio Cashflow and the Dingo's no BS attitude. I reached out to them early this year to let them know about our interest once we got our funds in place. They don't work with everyone because sometimes the chemistry is not right between both parties, this is highly respectable in my books because it shows they aren't only looking out for their own interest but also the investors. All of that to say - we are excited to get our funding in place and begin our property investing journey with *fingers crosses* Ohio Cashflow. We are optimistic. More to come!

I tried updating my post from above, but it doesn't include the formatting, so I will just create new posts anytime I have an update.

January 11, 2019 – My wife and I had our initial consultation call today. We spoke with Zac Ricci. The call lasted about 15 minutes, it was fairly straightforward. Zac talked to us about our goals and how F&G fit into the picture. He gave us a rundown on how long the process would take and the various steps along the way. As mentioned earlier in the month when speaking with Marty at F&G, we will first be doing some personal credit building, this is estimated to take about 6 months but will help us to obtain more business credit. The 6 extra months come at no additional costs.

It is important to note that F&G requires you to have certain documents emailed to them such as; a valid driver’s license with your current address, social security card, and proof of your address. I am noting this because neither my wife or I had current addresses on our driver licenses, and I lost my social security card a long time ago.

January 16, 2019 – I have been corresponding back and forth with Danyelle Roller, a Client Relations Specialist at F&G and an assistant to Zac Ricci, for about a week now regarding all of the needed documentation. We spent this past week going to the DMV to update our licenses and also ordering a new SS card for myself. Danyelle has been very responsive, and it has been a pleasure working with her so far.

I am still waiting for my new SS card to arrive in the mail, this could take another week. However, Danyelle has informed me today that my wife’s application has been submitted to F&G’s Applications Department for final review. I assume that by next week at the latest they will have begun working on improving her personal credit.

Hello all!

After two months of thorough research, my wife and I decided to take the leap into using Fund & Grow to fund our first rental property investment. We decided to use Fund & Grow (F&G) over other similar companies like Midwest Corporate Credit (MCC) because F&G charges less for their services. We will pay a $3,500 upfront fee to get started with F&G which is cheap compared to the 10% fee that MCC would charge on the total amount of business credit that they obtained for you. For example, if MCC obtained $100,000 worth of business credit for you, the total fee would amount to $10,000 based on the 10% fee.

I was inspired by several other BiggerPocket users who have posted similar case studies, so I wanted to add more value by posting my own case study of F&G in an attempt to inform and inspire anyone else who reads this and is hesitant or just starting out. I will try to be as detailed as possible about all of my interactions with the company, and if all goes well, I will post a separate case study about my first investment property and the turnkey company that we decide to use. Let’s get started!

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December 31, 2018 - I signed up to get “pre-qualified” by F&G via Clayton Morris’ website, Morris Invest, so that I could get a $500 off coupon. I only went through the Morris Invest website to get this discount.

SIDENOTE: I personally would never use Morris Invest to buy investment properties because of the countless horror stories I’ve read about the company here on BiggerPockets and various YouTube videos. I will include a few below, but I implore you to do your own research. A simple “morris invest reviews” Google search will give you an abundance of information that will save you thousands, possibly tens of thousands of dollars in the long run.

Scary BiggerPockets Case Study About Morris Invest: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/92/topics/392727-morris-invest-case-study-20

Another Scary BiggerPockets Case Study About Morris Invest: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/562268-turnkey-nightmare-with-morris-invest-indianapolis

Scary video of a Morris Invest property that was sold to an investor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0jXyRHrbYo

Another Scary video of a Morris Invest property that was sold to an investor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_txQfbuEARA

BACK ON TOPIC: After signing up for the pre-qualification I received an automated email from F&G. The email said that one of their consultants would be reaching out to me shortly to get started, but if I wanted to I could call them using the number provided in the email. I wasted no time and dialed the number. Marty answered. He said that he was on the phone with someone else and asked if he could call me back to which I obliged.

He quickly called back within 2 minutes and began explaining to me in a nutshell what F&G could do for me. He immediately tried to sign me up for the program. I didn’t feel comfortable giving him my credit card so soon - the process seemed a little rushed. I told him I was going to give it a few days to talk it over with my spouse who also happens to be my partner in this (F&G allows you to do the program with a partner at no extra cost). He seemed content with that and sent me an email with some information and his personal line. I would like to add that Marty was very pleasant to speak with. Tomorrow is New Year’s Day, so I will have to wait until the following day to call him.

January 2, 2019 – Welcome to 2019 everyone! Around 11:25 am EST, Marty gave me a call, but I missed it, so he left a voicemail asking if I was ready to sign up for the program. I am ready, so I gave him a call back. After about 20 minutes of personable and enjoyable conversation, Marty got me signed up. The total after the $500 discount was $3,497. I am thrilled with my initial interaction with F&G, at least Marty, he was pleasant to speak with and optimistic about my journey. Of course, there is the inclination to be cynical and say that Marty was just being nice to get a sale to meet some quota, but my intuition expected otherwise.

Here are the key takeaways from today’s call:

• F&G will start by building both me and my wife’s personal credit before getting us business credit to increase the amount of business credit we will be able to obtain. This will take approximately 6 months. My credit score is at a 706, and my wife is at a 690.
• F&G will work with us for 18 months total. 6 months of personal credit building, then 12 months of business credit. We do not have to pay any additional costs for the extra 6 months, which is nice.
• When working with F&G, you do have to sign a power of attorney form. If you aren’t familiar with what this is, it’s a written authorization to represent or act on another's behalf in private affairs, business, or some other legal matter. This may be a little unsettling for some. For me, I don’t mind doing this. You have to make that choice for yourself. They do give you the option with the click of a button to REVOKE the power of attorney at any point during the process if you want.

I received an email to register my account with F&G. Once I signed into the dashboard, there was a video that explains the next steps in the process. You can actually view the unlisted video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=77&v=P3siQvQttUQ

I scheduled my first call with my wife as an attendee for Friday, January 11 at 11:00 am EST which is about a week away. Looking forward to the initial call! I should note that F&G has a large influx of clientele, so you may have to wait upwards of 1-2 weeks before your initial consultation call. If I would have known this, I would have signed on to the program earlier. But now you know! Next update in a week after my first call.

Wow, am I glad to did my research before buying from MI... BP has been absolutely INVALUABLE during the process of purchasing my first rental. Thank you for everyone who has posted and provided expert advice. I've been on BP for a while now but have always just been a reader, this is only my first time actually posting to say thanks!

Joshua