How to Spot the Difference
Upfront Fees. Large upfront fees in the amount of $5,000 that will be “credited back to you at closing” are a red flag. There’s no need for a fee that high and typically those deals never close leaving you out a chunk of money. Appropriate upfront fees that cover costs like application fees and search fees, up to about $200, are a fair upfront cost and not likely a scam. For example, at Builders Trust Capital, we don’t charge application fees but may ask for a portion of the attorney’s fees upfront when dealing with a complex loan.
Generalized Labeling. Scammers will hit you with a big upfront fee with little to no detail about what that money is for. Be careful of any fees that are not clearly labeled for you to be able to do your due diligence.
Guaranteed Approval. When you’re being solicited by a lender, remember that all credible lenders follow certain guidelines to protect their risk. So, if a lender tells you “we don’t need to run a credit check” or “they can guarantee approval” with an exact rate, ie 5% or less. Run!
Legitimate lenders do not immediately guarantee approval. There is an underwriting process that takes place before offering a term sheet. Even then that is subject to verification before final terms are given. If a lender tells you he can guarantee approval before certain verifications, they are, most likely, a scammer.
Prepayment. Scammers will ask for prepaid credit cards or for you to Venmo them money in advance for due diligence fees. They usually ask for $1,000 or more and then they suddenly disappear.
Lack of Address. Always do your research on a lender by checking their website, social media, online reviews, etc. Their website should be secure with “https”, the s is for “secure” at the beginning of their domain or a 🔒 to the left of their URL. Most scammers don’t have a website, making it very difficult to track them down. Additionally, check that they also have a physical address listed on their website that you can check on Google Maps. Be aware of PO Box addresses.
Recommendations. When you do business with anyone in your real estate investing company, you probably look for online recommendations and reviews first. This is an easy way to spot and avoid a scammer – they won’t have any reviews or, if they do, they won’t be good. Aside from reviews on their website, check Google My Business Listings, Facebook Reviews, Yelp, etc to locate independent reviews they couldn’t have written themselves.
Pressure. Most scammers want to get your money and disappear as fast as they can. They don’t want to give you time to do any research on them. Legitimate lenders want to work fast to get you approved, but will never pressure you to act immediately since there are certain documents and application reviews that need to be completed first.
Bad Credit. All lenders heavily weigh their decision to lend to a customer on their credit rating. It’s the most accurate way to tell if the borrower will pay back the loan. Since it’s the lender’s responsibility to manage their risk, not checking credit or accepting a low credit score without large trade-offs to leverage is something a true lender wouldn’t do.
Properly vetting our borrowers is not only beneficial to a lender, but it also ensures the borrower isn’t getting involved in a deal that isn’t a good fit for them. At Builders Trust Capital, as investors ourselves, we work with our clients and through proper vetting and full transparency can give the best terms possible and the greatest chance of success in their investment.
