Unless you are borrowing against a large commercial property, upfront fees are almost the perfect sign that you are dealing with a scammer, @Bryan Normal. You could stop right there, but I didn’t.
By Googling a few phrases on the website, it took just a couple of minutes to determine it's almost an exact copy of 365 Home Lending. The photos in the testimonials also appear in CryptoBanxaTrade (whatever that is). Looks like there could be more, but I quit there.
I hate to say it but the look of this website is eerily similar to the one a scammer created to spoof our company several years ago. I had reserved all combinations of .com, .org, .net, etc. but missed some. Unfortunately, some scammer didn’t and created a very professional website that included our exact company name, my exact name, our real home address, and what was probably a Google Voice phone number. This guy answered the phone as me, except I’m told he had a foreign accent. I don’t.
I found out about this after several victims skipped traced me and called my real home phone number. I won’t reveal publicly what I did to end it, but from just those who contacted me, it totaled a lot of money.
We are licensed through the state and with an LLC in good standing that you could look up. You could also look up Deeds-of-Trust that we really made. You could call some local real estate club owners and they might know and vouch for me. Ditto our borrowers. The problem is that unless you knew to mention the foreign accent, you'd think you just checked me out. Oh, and we use a P.O. Box and a cell phone. Not sure what that proves.
My point with all this is that verifying licensing, LLC's, and Mortgages/DOTs is the standard naïve advice you read here. It might confirm a legit company exists, which is good and something you should do, but in no way guarantees you are speaking to whom you think. Plus, I hope I'm scaring you.
Stay off the web when looking for a lender. Unless you have some rock-solid references, face-to-face is your safest bet, Bryan. Plus, there are many advantages to doing business with local lenders you can meet a local real estate club and with whom you can develop a relationship. No guarantees, but Scotsman Guide and The AAPL are also safer bets than a random website. (Full disclosure, we’re AAPL members.)
Once you figure out how to tell the scammers apart from the legit lenders using a website, would you please let me know?
