Equistream?

Question

Has anybody ever heard of a company called Equistream?

http://equistream.com/

Sultan Taskin · Answer

One word!!! SCAM! Don't do business with them! I lost $118,000 ++++ with kingdom first, Equistream, BHPH and all the different company names with Kent Davis and Roger Salam. Lost promise! I asked for my money back and I have not received it yet! All I want is my money back!!! It Was my life savings!!! I gave them end of September to receive the full amount. I'll inform All of you if I receive it!

Mike Foley · Answer

I would highly recommend NOT doing business with this company speaking from experience.

Account Closed · Answer

I just went to a presentation also Apparently they have a great relationship with assets managers and buy blocks of homes and set up packages for investors. The end result you end up with a portfolio of homes which Equistream markets to a buy here pay here program. The new owners need down money ,usually about $1500,  and also money to fix up the homes . They start out selling the homes with financing for the investor at about a 40% mark-up and will negotiate downwards to maybe 25%. I asked about Dodd-Frank and the answer was of course use a mlo or dont exceed your 3 per year limit Kent Davis started the business and they have bought over 300 homes. The catch is the investor does not have to do any repairs and the buyer gets sweat equity and a home under market rent until they are able to purchase . I have met an investor who is taking a flyer on them Has anyone  else invested or can provide more info?

John Costigan · Answer

I bought 5 properties from them they sold 0 I sold 4 so far and the properties are extreme trash.  First one was falling off the foundation and I brought a buyer who wanted to level it.  The last one I still have is a property that was used commercially as a bar and gas station that unknown to me may have environmental problems. Needless to say I will not invest with them again.

Mike Foley · Answer

@Julia Shevchenko  I sold one at a loss and am trying to unload the other a year later.

Mike Foley · Answer

The properties were absolute garbage that I purchased.  And the ones I purchased were better than some of the ones I passed on.  I made the mistake of not going to seem them in person and inspect them.  I had BPOs done but they were not not done by anyone competent.  Properties needed lots of work just to be inhabitable.  Equistream was no help in the process and I never engaged them to sell the properties.  I have no idea how their business model works on these types of properties.

Tom Cyr · Answer

I was performing due diligence with Equistream to get a pool of deeds for them to load with buyer/borrowers.  I met the company in the spring and the owner/family seems pretty honest. There must be 5 or 6 family members who run the company.  All nice people in my dealings.  But I ran into inability on their end to answer some advanced tax questions.

Since they sell deeds to an investor, and then manage individual property sales soon-after to an end buyer in an installment sale, the investor is really a "dealer" in the eyes of the IRS and is responsible for taxes on the entire markup, even though the money has not yet been received.  I haven't heard of any "investors" claiming short term capital gains on their tax return and paying the taxes on the entire pool.  The amount could be enormous.  Of course, penalties and interest in addition to paying a professional to defend one in the event of an audit would add to the misery.  Most of their "investors" they referred me to for visiting with are not full time professionals and are unaware of the financial danger they may be in.

I never could get anyone in the company to comment on their method of property transfer or that they may be creating ticking timebombs in peoples' portfolios.   After a while, no one would return my phone calls or emails.  I think they discovered that even after many years, they may have a problem that they would prefer just to sweep under the rug.  It's been crickets for two months.   They might be able to restructure the transactions using lease options instead of contract for deed but I haven't heard any response to that suggestion that I passed on from industry experts.

Michael RIstau · Answer

@Mike Foley  Any update here?  Did you get active in handling the sales yourself?

Julia Shevchenko · Answer

The reason I ask @mikefoley, is because a big investor and i are recognising that there are many people that bought underperforming properties from Equistream and cant bring them up. So we are looking into taking them off your hands in bulk.  What cities are your properties in?

Paul Williams · Answer

@Mike Foley, Can you elaborate? Save the rest of us from trouble! Tell us how it went.

Equistream?

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