Flipper/Rehabber · Miami, FL · Member since 2016 · 102 posts · 12 votes
Jesse Gerads who is a PRO Member here on BiggerPockets is offering to loan Private Money at terms that appear too good to be true. Has anyone here in BP EVER borrowed from him? I'm now communicating with him via emails.
Issac, his name is under the lender tab on BP. He's listed as private lender. Does BP vet the folks that claim to be lenders?
<-- This guy received zero vetting prior to being allowed to put "lender" next to his name, so no there is no vetting that I'm aware of.
It could just be paid advertising to be on that list/tab, or there could be vetting for it, IDK.
However:
If the dude does more than X mortgages per year, he's supposed to be licensed or registered (I've never been anywhere near that threshold and was licensed before I did my first, so don't know what X is).
You can click on my profile, look at my email address, figure out my full name in about 3 seconds, and look me up on the NMLS Consumer Access website. From there you can see how long I've had my license, if I've ever had any disciplinary issues with the regulators, official consumer complaints, that sort of thing.
If he's licensed, or ever was licensed, it'll be the same thing for this fellow. A single ethics complaint could just mean an unhappy or unreasonable customer - hey, it happens. Anything resembling a pattern, run for the hills.
Same sort of thing for realtors. Takes like 5 seconds to see if any realtor has ever had any ethics complaints, lapses in licensing, etc. In California the relevant google search is "California BRE lookup" and it'll be the first result. I've actually done this when my "this feels sketchy" alarm went off, and found a guy pretending to be a real estate agent that had been kicked out of the industry and had his license permanently revoked a decade prior. I have no idea what I saved that homebuyer/borrower from, but I'm sure it wouldn't have been anything particularly nice.
You need to somehow block this supposed Lender from promoting his loans within BiggerPockets. I've spoken with this Jesse. It's an obvious SCAM. Stay away!!!
Does anyone know how we can send our concerns about this or other corrupt Members to BiggerPockets? Maybe there could be a Forum for this? Maybe there BP could create a Warning Section for these items.
What's the email address or posting address for BiggerPockets?
Hi Dan F, I've asked the same question, however, BP does state there are fraudulent people here and we should do our own due dilergence. I think what we are doing here is the best way. A search on this forum is easy enough to find out if anyone has used a particular lender. I know it's not full proof but it's a start.