All Forum Posts by: Troy Whitney

Thank you Magin - I really appreciate your willingness to work this out with me.  Sherman Bridge, thumbs up for being flexible!!

I do not recommend Sherman Bridge.

I originally borrowed $150,000 from them. They charge massive fees on the original loan. They charge 12%. If you autopay using your checking account (rather than mailing in a check), they charge you $30/month, to use ACH!!! I asked them to close out half the loan as I wasn't going to use the construction funds. My loan balance is $75,000 now. For a three month extension, they say they would charge me 2%, not on the $75,000 but on the entire $150,000. I will pay off the loan now even though it will inconvenience me. I hope they go out of business.

I cannot stand this company. Yes I know they are hard money, but I am not asking to borrow $150,000 again. I want to borrow $75,000, and they would charge me a renewal fee associated with double that amount. It will inconvenience me, but I will pay off the loan because I don't like being ripped off.

I do not recommend Sherman Bridge

I cannot stand this company. Yes I know they are hard money, but I am not asking to borrow $150,000 again. I want to borrow $75,000, and they are charging me fees associated with double that amount. It will inconvenience me, but I will pay off the loan because I don't like being ripped off.

I originally borrowed $150,000 from them. They charge massive fees on the original loan. They charge 12%. If you autopay using your checking account (rather than mailing in a check), they charge you $30/month, to use ACH!!! I asked them to close out half the loan as I wasn't going to use the construction funds. My loan balance is $75,000 now. For a three month extension, they say they would charge me 2%, not on the $75,000 but on the entire $150,000.  I will pay off the loan now even though it will inconvenience me.  I hope they go out of business.  

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I do not recommend Sherman Bridge.

I originally borrowed $150,000 from them. They charge massive fees on the original loan.  They charge 12%.  If you autopay using your checking account (rather than mailing in a check), they charge you $30/month, to use ACH!!! I asked them to close out half the loan as I wasn't going to use the construction funds. My loan balance is $75,000 now. For a three month extension, they say they would charge me 2%, not on the $75,000 but on the entire $150,000.   

I cannot stand this company.   Yes I know they are hard money, but I am not asking to borrow $150,000 again.  I want to borrow $75,000, and they are charging me fees associated with double that amount.   It will inconvenience me, but I will pay off the loan because I don't like being ripped off. 

Sherman Bridge is incredibly unethical.  I had a horrible experience with them.  Do not use them.

LOL Mike. I bought for cash flow off the MLS and the market in parts of Philly skyrocketed in a couple of years. I got lucky. Though I will say when I initially looked at Philly - it seemed like one heck of a deal, especially South Philly - so close to Center City but in many cases an eighth of the price. I wish I'd bought more in those areas - they've been the least hassle and given me the most bang for buck.

As a side note, all that said I don't want to be too hard on Philly.  In spite of my frustrations with the city government, it's actually been a great place to invest for me.  Two of my properties that I bought in 2014 have doubled in value since I bought them, and I'm seeing a lot of cool things happening to that market.  It appears that a lot of money is moving into Philly.  It's a strong rental market, and even emerging as a minor tech hub.  A lot of people are moving there from NYC and other places.   Almost all of the neighborhoods I've invested in there are going very strong (S. Philly, Brewerytown, Germantown, Mt. Airy and Olde Kensington. are all doing fantastic with strong rents and rising values).    It would be even better if the city government would get itself together. 

Mike- Ask any landlord and they will tell you that Philly is just cracking down on everything in an over the top fashion.  But I never broke the law with regard to the lead violations and they were still sending me violation notices.  And that's just one example.  Oh and they wanted to knock down a building that I was trying to purchase through sherrif's sale, and seemed dead-set on it, even though I had just gotten legal control over the building and had contractors in place to make it safe, almost as though the demo contractor had a special relationship with the powers that be. I got notice they were going to bulldoze it one day after I bought it, even though I thought I was doing what I was supposed to do, and had been in constant communication with them.  If you couple stories like this with the fact that it's such a poorly run municipality, you get a lot of frustration on the part of landlords.   I even had a government rep tell me on the phone that yes everyone knows that Philly's government has lots of problems.  I just feel like a lot of times it's an "us -vs- them" when it comes to city authorities (with the business community being the bad guys). It's frustrating if all you are honestly trying to do is do the right thing.  It's like if a cop gives you a ticket for going 1 mph over the speed limit.  Sure - I guess they can but why would they?  Or even giving you a ticket when it was the guy in front of you speeding.  At some point it feels like harassment.   

Anyway - I respect your opinions on this - I'm sure Airbnb has some fault here too.   I honestly don't care that much about it.   With stuff going on in politics and the world at large, any concerns I have about this would take a back seat to about a million other things.  I will definitely use their service if I ever have any properties that it would make sense for.  That's my personal view.

Mike, I think people are too quick to resort to litigation.  It's a horrible problem.  I'm skeptical that this will solve anything.  Maybe this lawsuit isn't coming from hotels, but the pressure being put on cities to restrict airbnb certainly is.  I think landlords need to be more careful about selecting their tenants.  Tenants can do all sorts of bad things.  This is just one of them, but I don't need to go looking for a scapegoat.    

As a total aside -I have no sympathy for the cities that constantly engage in overreach.  I've dealt with too much of it in Philly.  I bought a building in University City and we got a cleanout permit.  There was tons of garbage stacked up next to the building.  My contractor picked the garbage up and put it in  bags and stacked them neatly in the same place, and the city fined me for it because there were bags there.  Not only did the fine me, but the inspector went by there every day for a week.  I didn't find out until weeks later.  We were getting ready to have stuff hauled away.  It was on my property, not on the sidewalk.  They sent me the fines all at once.  How does this even make sense?  I've gotten fines for properties I don't even own anymore.  I've gotten multiple lead violation notices when I had a lead free license, long after I informed them multiple times that I was in compliance and sent them the paperwork.  I know Philly isn't the only city with problems like this. I understand this is Philly, but I have no sympathy for cities saying owners aren't following the rules when they don't even follow their own rules.    A lot of municipalities are a joke - they are horribly run and should focus their efforts on cleaning up their own problems first, and I know Philly isn't the only city with major operational problems.  I think that airbnb adds value to cities and it's a good thing.  You and I aren't going to agree.   Maybe I don't have all the facts, but I suspect you don't either.  

David - I agree that if a tenant is breaking the terms of the lease agreement they have with you, that is between you and the tenant.  I mean, if your tenant advertised in the local paper to sublet the rental property without your agreement, would that be the newspaper's fault or the tenant's?   I honestly think that Airbnb is filling a need that is there.  It's great in places like New York where it costs like $500 a night for a closet-sized hotel room.  Why shouldn't people be able to use that service and how is it bad for landlords?  It's a discussion that landlords need to have with tenants if it looks like it might be an issue.  All of my rentals are in Philly, which isn't the greatest market for Airbnb.  But if I had properties in Manhattan, or San Fran or Seattle, I'd definitely have an agreement in place with them, and more likely I'd be the one using Airbnb rather than longer-term tenants.  Seems that in general, this is of potential benefit to landlords.   And it's not like it's hard to check and see if your property is being advertised on Airbnb.  I don't understand all of the anger against this company.  It's giving people more options.  I suspect that what's driving the lawsuits are the hotel chains, and I think it's crazy that I can't rent my own property out to whoever I want, unless it violates specific covenants for say a condo association.

...Just my two cents