All Forum Posts by: Lucy Ahl

The continuing saga finally ended last night at 5:00 pm. Nick Raimondi, who claims to be a managing partner at Insula Capital/Atlantic Holdings, after we were working with the seller and our lawyers, got our LLC, jumped through all the hoops they wanted us to, only to sit down at the table yesterday at the lawyers office to yet another stipulation. Here is the money trail. The house was $200,000, negotiated down to $190,000 with a $10,000 EM.

Our funding letter states cash deal, up to $300,000 to be considered cash deal, no appraisal necessary (if you want to see a copy, will be more than happy to share so you know I'm not lying.)

Closing was for 15 days because it was a cash deal. Get to the table, find out it's not a cash deal that the terms have changed to a mortgagee. And they are requiring an appraisal. We get the appraisal the same day, send it over. Monday morning, Nick claims it isn't attached to the email so I send it over to him. Then he tells me he can't use it and wants to know why we got the appraisal. Then another round with the appraisal because apparently it was missing how much the house would be worth after the reno. 

Then the following Friday, the twenty day marker, they are requiring another $25,000 and they are only funding $179,000 of the deal and of the $65,000 in SOW (low bid) only $40,000 will be funded and on a draw. 

Seller gets mad says will not sell house to us any longer and will be keeping the $10,000 in EM.

25 day marker: Go back to the table because now we are still wanting to do the deal, well, I don't want to, but the other two partners want to save it. Last minute, Insula states can't fund to a partnership or individual, needs LLC or Corporation. In the state of GA we can get an LLC in 48 hours, we do this. Nick is promising this is the last thing we need.

30 day marker: Yesterday, at lawyers office for 4 hours, deal is supposed to go through because we now have everything they have requested. Low and behold, now they want us to put down another $40,000; the seller wants another $5,000 added to EM and seller's agent wants their commission of $4,000.

Do the math: 190,000 + 15,000 + 25,000 + 4,000 + 4,000 (our agent) + 40,000 = $278,000 for a fixer upper. SOW = $65,000 plus for work to be done = $343,000. Comps in the area are ranging from $325, 350, 375,000. A grand total of $7,000 would have been made on this deal. Split between 3 partners. It's so funny that no one but me saw the writing on the wall before we even got the funding letter. No one would listen to me. This is the third house they screwed us out of. The first two was because they wouldn't produce the funding letter so another bidder got the house, and now this one where they ended up going all the way to the table and then, nothing. 

A letter is going out the GA Board of Realtors to warn other real estate agents if their buyers are in bed with Insula, to head for the door. I'm even willing to attend their networking meetings to recount the nightmare we just woke up from. Insula is nothing but a bunch of thugs, who promise things they can't produce. They lie and they commit fraud. 

I won't stop until they can no longer do business in the State of GA. If it means writing a hundred letters to AG's, State representatives and our governor, I will. And I know I'm not the only one this has happened to. I've read their reviews and others have been through this nightmare too. 

We weren't looking to make a fortune. We wanted to fix up houses and re-sell them for a small profit. RESEARCH YOUR INVESTORS WITH A FINE TOOTH COMB. DO TO THEM, WHAT THEY DO TO YOU. I refuse to kiss anyone's behind again. 

 I agree with you! I’m the type who does lots of research but my job was to find the house, get it inspected, and have a contractor come in & give estimates. The partner who found the investor lied to me. Said it was one of his tax clients & would not give me their name. It wasn’t until I ask the realtor to send me a copy of the funding letter did I find out it was a lender, Insula Capital. Of course, that was after we missed the closing date. The letter stated it was a cash deal up to $300,000 which is why the decision to close in 15 days was implemented. Once we missed the closing date, the seller wasn’t happy & demanded the EM of $10,0000 be released to him & put the house back on the market.

We ended up with an extension only because we had been in a state of emergency and the lender had 8 more days to come thru & they failed us! It was one thing after another. The last thing was we were a partnership & they would only lend to a corp. or LLC. Nothing like waiting til the very last day to inform us! It's been a nightmare working with these people. I feel they committed fraud by telling us it was a cash deal, had $300,000 in funds, & when I saw the contract it stated we were only getting 179,000 on a 190,000 escrow & the SOW estimate came in at $65,000 and they'd only fund $40,000 of that!
So now, I’m the one who put up the EM and lost 10,000 on the deal. I’m not sure where to go from here or what, if any recourse can be made to recoup my money.

My take is you get what you pay for & low interest is not worth the crap we had to ho thru and in the end, they didn’t come thru but will brag how they close hundreds of deals a month.well, they didn’t close this one!

 I know that. But the ‘investors’ funding letter in black & white says ‘this offer is considered cash’ & it’s signed by Nick Raimondi of Insula Capital Group, a private lender for Real Estate Investments. So, you tell me, would you have considered this transaction as cash?

If we hadn’t been fraudulently lead to believe it was a cash deal, we would have not said it was a cash deal and I wouldn't be out $10,000 of EM and a realtor threatening to sue me for their lost commission.

I have 25 years in this business and have never experienced the out in out lies this company has continuously regurgitated to us, knowing all along the deal wasn’t going to go thru. 

You forgot to mention lender/investor. Unless you are using your own money, then you shouldn't have a problem, however, if you are enlisting an investor or a lending company, and there are plenty to choose from, don't go with the ones who do the lowest interest. We lost multiple houses from the 'investment' company not providing the funding letter. One the one house they did provide the funding letter it read, "cash purchase, no appraisal necessary, up to $300,000" on day of close (did a 15 day close because it was a cash deal) lender came back and said, where's the appraisal? Then it went down hill from there. Changed the cash deal to a mortgagee, would only fund $179,000 of the $190,000 (appraisal came in at $202,000) for cost of house, and then wouldn't fund to a partnership, only an LLC or corporation. Not to mention our SOW (from a contractor) $65,000 and now they will only fund $40,000 for rehab. All last minute, each day they needed something else.

Now, seller refuses to extend closing date, will walk away with our EM and put the house back on the market using our appraisal and inspection reports we paid for. Research, research, research and then research some more. 

Do not use Insula Capital Group AKA Atlantic Capital Holdings out of NY. We are in GA. Down right fraudulent dealings.

Good information. Also, stay away from Insula Capital AKA Atlantic Capital Holdings out of New York (Long Island) I didn't lose $200,000 but lost $10,000 plus on a deal they gave us a funding letter for $300,000 cash for a flip we were purchasing. Last minute they changed the deal to a mortgagee loan and cut the SOW from $65,000 to $40,000. Then stated couldn't fund to a partnership only an LLC or Corp. Seller has decided to walk with our EM and put the house back on the market. Refuses to extend the 15 day escrow which we did because we were told it was a cash deal. How do these people sleep at night?

Wow! It looks amazing. I'm currently into a nightmare of a flip and haven't even started the work. My nightmare is with the lender (who was supposed to be an individual investor) but found out after the fact (partners didn't share information.) Funding letter stated 'cash deal up to $300,000 so they scheduled the closing for 15 days. When funds didn't come through because the lender stated last minute they couldn't fund to a partnership only an LLC or Corporation, the seller refuses to extend the closing date and wants to relist the house. Of course, he gets to keep the $10,000 in earnest money now and if the lender does fund in 2 days, the new listing will require another $10,000 and he wants full asking price. I say we dump the deal but the other 2 partners want go ahead with it even though the lender has now cut our SOW budget from $65,000 to $40,000.

A true nightmare for a first flip. I like the idea if the deal goes through to re-sell to another investor to get our money out of it and let him deal with mold issue, the leaking plumbing, and the leaky roof. This was also a probate house, and sat empty for 2 years. I get the sellers frustration but we're being put through the ringer by the lender and I just can't jump any higher.  Lesson learned.

 One of my partners found them via his neighbor he claims, however he hasn’t been forthcoming about several things so I can’t say for sure. I had no idea who we were working with as I was lead to believe it was one of his clients from his tax business. When I got suspicious, I asked my realtor to send me a copy of the funding letter which was on letterhead & had the name & phone number of Insula

I do believe two of the partners went with them due to the low interest fees. I was kept out of that loop which I’m finding problematic in itself.

I personally did not give the lender any money. My $10,000 went to the EM for the sale. We also paid for an inspection on the house & 2 appraisal fees.

I called Nick to ask questions and he didn’t like the questions I was asking so called my partner and told him I needed to back off or they’d cancel the deal!

Insula Capital group out of New York. I believe they were recommended to by a neighbor of one of our partners. When they started screwing with us last week about appraisals and then having to give them an ‘after reno’ price for the house when they had no idea what we were doing the house to increase its value, I did mention to the partners I thought we’d been scammed. I placed multiple  calls to them and they said if I called again they’d drop the deal! So I allowed the other two to deal with them and stayed quiet. Their legal department had our paperwork and continued to call our legal department to explain the instructions! They also go by Atlantic Capitol Group. Joe Edwards is managing partner & we’ve been working with Nick Raiamondi. First time I called their number, he answered with ‘hello?’ Rather than how a professional would answer.

This Insula Capital Group is a lender who is full of ****! Our deal just fell through at the eleventh hour. We gave them everything they asked for and at the last minute said, 'oh, we don't fund to LLC or partnerships, only to corporations' Are you f'n kidding me? They knew all along this was an LLC, every single paperwork sent to them was under the LLC.

Not only did we lose our $10,000 in earnest money, we will now be sued by the sellers agent for their commission and our agent doesn't get squat. 

I am getting an attorney and will sue them for whatever I can get away with. Fraud will be at the top of the list. You can't tell me they didn't know. They knew from day one. and yet they strung us along until there was no chance for us to recover any money. They even had us do another appraisal (2 of them) And no, there was nothing wrong with the house with the exception of cosmetic and the chance to make a little money. Purchase price was $190 and after rehab $375 selling price. Our budget for reno was $65,000, 2 month turnaround. 

I'm spitting nails right now cause these guys are fraudsters. NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THEM! NEVER. YOU WILL REGRET IT. They aren't up front about anything and most of the time they drop the ball. This is not an acceptable way to do business.

Tell me oh infinite ones, is this the way lenders do business?? Us naive flippers need to know.