WARNING: Matt Motil of Cleveland, OH
TL;DR Matt Motil is a fraud. Do not invest with him.
Warning, this is a long post. My purpose here is to save some of you from the experience I now find myself in after providing a short-term loan to Matt Motil of Cleveland, OH. I was on his list to receive emails of lending opportunities. I had listened to this individual’s podcast several times, visited his website, googled him, and searched for him on BP to see if there was any negative information. Not finding anything negative, I decided to pursue this potential opportunity for passive real estate investing. This is the email I responded to:
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I then scheduled a call with Mr. Motil to discuss this opportunity. I had a delightful call with him. He explained that they use this money to improve property and then sell to another investor or refinance to pay lenders (people like me) back. I asked him, “Have you ever not paid anyone and forced them to take possession of a property.”
“Never,” he responded.
He then said, “What is the first thing you are going to do if this goes bad? You are going to get on online forums and talk about what a bad experience you had with me. That would not be very good business.”
RIGHT! Makes total sense! Look at this guy, he has a podcast, he has written a book, he has an online presence…he has to be legit, right?!? The mistake I made was not contacting a lawyer and doing my due diligence.
So, after being reassured I invested with him on October 30, providing a short-term loan of $80k. Interest payments would be $1,000 for six months, and at the end of the six-month period, I would also receive my principal back. This was my first foray into passive lending; It will also be my last.
I received the first interest payment in December, right on time: so far, so good. However, January’s payment was late so I sent an email as a gentle reminder. I received the following email back:
With the holiday and weekend everything was delayed. You should see it today or tomorrow at the latest. Please let me know when you see it.
Thanks
Matt
OK, understandable. So, I waited several days with nothing. I then sent several additional emails and left a voicemail on his company’s phone. I finally received this response.
I’m incredibly sorry for the communication. I’m sorry for the delay. No excuses but we will be making payment tomorrow. We had to pursue a property manager to get paid this month and I apologize for the delay it’s caused all around.
I’m sorry again for the communication. I know not being able to reach me made you nervous; as expected.
Thanks
Matt
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jan 10, 2021, at 11:43, Robin Hines wrote:>
You have no idea the amount of distress you have caused my family (additional stuff follows, but you get the drift).
Matt Motil |
No, I do understand and I am incredibly sorry. You are correct, this was supposed to be passive and it hasn’t been and that’s our fault. I will get us on track and back to expectations.
Thank you,
Matt
I did not receive a February or March payment, and in March he sent the following email to his investors.
First off, I appreciate your patience. I have talked with many of you, but wanted to send out an email to make sure everyone was on the same page.
Last August, we had banking and some tenant payment issues that put us in a challenging cash flow position. We worked through them and got everything on track by the end of the month and have been pretty smooth since then. That was the first and only time we had experienced a major issue in our systems and processes. We keep reserves for these kinds of things but they are not sitting in liquid cash.
The goal of private lending is passive income, and having to chase money isn’t passive. We had to track down our payment from our largest PM this month and this was not something we anticipated from a cash flow standpoint. When normal vacancy and tenant non-payment occur, we absorb that in the portfolio and payments continue regardless to pay commitments. When we do not get paid at all, and we aren’t ready for that, it puts us in a bind.
Things are moving along and we anticipate receiving our payment this week. We also initiated some funds movement on our side yesterday to cover things should we not get paid this week, I want payments scheduled so they continue.
We have internally been discussing bringing all property management in-house moving forward for about the past year. There’s a tipping point where it makes sense to use consultants and when it makes more sense to have staff. This situation here has told us it’s time to pull the trigger on hiring our own people and controlling more of the process and flow.
2020 was a year like no one expected or had ever experienced. I’m grateful we are here, alive, and kicking. I’m grateful for you and your patience.
Beyond the property management side, we are realizing that the way we have dealt with risk from a cash flow standpoint up to now isn’t going to work long-term as we navigate what ever we are calling what we are doing now. We will be working on building up a larger cash reserve that can be quickly accessed to keep these types of things from trickling down to the investor level.
Again, I apologize for the delay and the poor communication. I’m not a resolution guy, but I know that being a better communicator is my goal for this year.
They say acknowledgement is the first step in the road to recovery.
Thanks again for your patience.
Matt
So, again, I’m reassured. I then wait until the end of our agreement. Since I did not hear from him after our agreement was supposed to be over, on May 3rd I sent an email to him saying that if I did not hear from within 24 hours, that I would contact an attorney. I received no response and contacted an attorney two days later.
Here is what the attorney has found it. There are 2 mortgages listed for the property in addition to mine. He never filed my mortgage with the county. He also received a sum of $100,000 from another individual one month after our agreement (November 2020) on the same property. There are numerous civil suits that have been filed against his company and against him personally. The lawyer actually received another phone call today from another person who has been swindled out of their investment.
It amazes me that someone would right the responses he did, knowing that he is doing this to people.
I am now pursuing all legal options, but not sure if I’ll ever get my money back. So please, let this serve as a cautionary tale to all of you. It sucks being in this position.