Investor · Rockford, IL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 220 votes
After listening to the Clayton Morris podcast (EP115 with Mike Banks) about the company Fund & Grow, I became intrigued with the idea of using business credit cards to buy rental properties using the BRRRR method. The whole concept seemed too good to be true, so I hopped on BiggerPockets to see what people were saying about Fund & Grow. I always find great content here, and more often than not I find the answer to my question before I even need to post and ask about it. However, with Fund & Grow, I didn't find much. (If anyone knows of a discussion about Fund & Grow that I didn't find please link me to it) There are a few discussions where people were considering using Fund & Grow to finance a deal, but none that I saw that went all the way through the process and used the funds to find a deal.
That being said, I decided to start this discussion post and share my experience with the company from day 1 till I refinance and hopefully complete the BRRRR method.
For anyone not familiar with Fund & Grow, they are a company started by Ari Page that helps you establish business lines of credit for the purpose of creating working capital for small businesses. In my case, I will be using the line of credit to buy properties in Rockford, IL and rehab them into rental properties.
Phase 1:
Currently I have enrolled with Fund & Grow and completed my initial consultation. This cost $3,000 for their service of negotiating and securing the business credit cards. I spent 1 hr on the phone with a very friendly consultant and discussed my plans for the business credit and established a sole proprietorship for both my wife and I. This allows the business lines of credit to not affect my personal credit score. The first push for business credit will begin next week, and I should have access to an anticipated 60k by the following week. My wife is not currently receiving accounts yet until a more established credit history can be created for her. We are currently lining up several refinancing options with banks in the area so that they are aware of what we intend to do. Currently we are being told that we can refinance the properties we buy with cash after 6 months. This is key for us, because we intend to buy and hold these properties and do not want to get stuck after the initial 12 months of 0% interest expires on our business credit cards.
Phase 2 is going to be actually receiving the cash into our account and making our cash purchase. I tried for brevity sake to not go into the entire Fund & Grow concept in my initial post, but if anyone has any questions, comments, or concerns I'd love to discuss them.
I used a similar system to receive roughly $40,000 in credit cards at 0% for a 12 month period. The company I used took 10% upfront and then helped me liquidate everything so I had usable funds fairly quick. I was able to do a flip with the funding I received and pay back all the money before my interest free period ran out. It was expensive, but the flip more than covered everything and I was able to get in the game. I would do it all over again if I had to.
I was looking for a way to expand my real estate investing. So far, my experience with Fund&Grow has been great!! Jason Alonso helped me achieve a total of $61,500 of business credit in the first round and I am looking forward to my next batch!! Jason was super motivated, responsive, and really drove the process.
I am very pleased with Fund and Grow. I am looking forward to our relationship with each other. My business has been able to position itself much better in our market thanks to the $24,000 in business credit that Brandon Kroon negotiated on our behalf, just in the first round. The second round will push us into the market with force. Their help has been VERY valuable.
So if i convert into cash instead of using the card, would it still be at 0%? Also how would i make monthly payments on these cards? For example, if i use a chase credit card, do i have to create an account with them to make payments? Do these credit cards have annual fees? Lastly after a year to renew, (if i chose to pay the service again) do they close my credit cards and get new ones so i can continue to get it at 0%? Any input would help thanks!!!
Veronica Purdy (Loan Specialist) was amazing, and very knowledgeable walking me through the process. Veronica introduces herself, and requested copies of a few financial documents by email prior to a phone appointment. On the phone a few more questions are asked, and then a strategy is suggested to optimize a loan approval. Very relaxed and easy process.
So if i convert into cash instead of using the card, would it still be at 0%? Also how would i make monthly payments on these cards? For example, if i use a chase credit card, do i have to create an account with them to make payments? Do these credit cards have annual fees? Lastly after a year to renew, (if i chose to pay the service again) do they close my credit cards and get new ones so i can continue to get it at 0%? Any input would help thanks!!!
There are costs associated to turn card into cash and most of time there are costs associated to transfer a balance from one account to another.
I signed up for F&G (Fund &Grow) and I had an amazing experience that didn’t result in much funding due to personal reasons I’ll explain later but let me start at the beginning so like u all I’ve been doing research on F&G and I fell in the love with using business cc to find my real estate projects my only concern was cashing out but after seeking advice on the best ways to do that I also got a solution o planned to use for that too which will also come later
I spoke to a rep in March of 2017 but didn’t pull the trigger until August 2018...first if you have any cc that has not been seasoned for 6 or more months they will tell u to wait the 6 months seasoning period which I was not informed about until after I paid the $3500 fee for myself and husband to get funded however they knew I’d have to wait that time out prior cause they had a copy of my credit report prior to me paying I started with them at 760 therefor I couldn’t start the funding process until December
My husband had 5 ccreporting on his personalcredit report no business credit his score was 740 two he had got about 7 months in his name credit limit of $1k on one and $3k on the other he then was an authorized user on the other 3 cards highest balance card being $8750. They also said bc heonly had two cards where he was primary he would need to develop his personal credit report with more cards in his name with him bn the primary so he had to start with a round of personal cc first at no extra charge they would apply for about 4 cc under his personal credit and once approved he’s have to wait the six month seasoning period to move forward with the business credit the initially applied for
Chase – 0% Intro APR for the first 15 billing cycles on Purchases and balance transfers – Declined
Capital One – 0% intro APR for 15 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers – Declined
Flagstar – 0% introductory APR for the first 15 billing cycles on purchases and for balances transferred within 465 days from account opening – $1000
Discover – 0% intro APR for 14 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers – DECLINED
Wells Fargo – 0% Intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 billing cycles. After that your variable APR will be 15.99% to 26.99%. Balance transfers made within 120 days qualify for the intro rate and fee – Pending
Of course I was not happy with the results at the time but after attempting to negotiate the cards that declined him were saying he had too many inquiries which was our fault bc before going with fund grow we tried to get 0% cc on our own without having to pay $3500
While going through this proces we found out that our religion which is Islam forbids the signing of contracts that involve interest rather up front future etc as the mere signing of the contract means u are agreeing to the interest see here if you’d like proof https://twitter.com/1MMeducation/status/953270714265632769
Therefore we contacted our agents as I was just about to get started bc my seasoning period was just about over and explain we could no longer go forward with the process due to religious reasons we DID NOT ask for a refund bc it was no fault of theirs however after a day or two I woke to an email from the director explaining that they normally wouldn’t refund it but she extended a refund with small cancellation fee as we had only started the actual process within the 60 day cancel period that I didn’t even knowthey had needless to say we we’re ecstatic and super grateful as our whole business model was to use 0% intersert cards and refi through a shariah complaint mortgage company and pay the cards off before the interest hit our back up plan was to grasshop the balance to another 0% interst cc if the project went beyond the 0% period if we were not able to put a mortgagae on the house worst case we’d sell the house.
To pull the cash from the cards my business credit consultant investor etc gave me this idea he does it for clients all the time he said
Here’s how we planned to go about it
Create two completely separate businesses completely different names address phone numbers etc.
open up business bank accts for those businesses at two separate banks
Create a business PayPal acct attached to those bank Accts
Have business ABC write up a contract for let’s say a consultant job and bill via PayPal business XYZ for x amount of dollars (as u are able to PayPal much larger sums under a business acct with PayPal)
business XYZ receiving the bill pays the bill to business ABC PayPal acct with their cc from fund grow
Once the monies post to the business ABC PayPal acct he cashed it out to his business bank acct withdraw the funds and distribute amongst necessary parties (best of u do this with a trusted business partner spouse etc other than that someone may charge u for the service)
Now for tax purposes business XYZ request a refund and the release of monies back from business ABC to business XYZ will clear business ABC from any tax liability
Also we were going to use the cycling business credit which is to use one cc to pay the monthly bill on the other cc to keep our out of pocket cost low while the project was under way check out that concept here https://youtu.be/o13-tPEOhX0
If it wasn’t for my religious commitment I’d definite keep going with Fund grow the numbers my husband was getting wasn’t great but I understood the circumstances surrounding his situation I do believe I would have came out better and they also do three rounds of funding.
So if i convert into cash instead of using the card, would it still be at 0%? Also how would i make monthly payments on these cards? For example, if i use a chase credit card, do i have to create an account with them to make payments? Do these credit cards have annual fees? Lastly after a year to renew, (if i chose to pay the service again) do they close my credit cards and get new ones so i can continue to get it at 0%? Any input would help thanks!!!
Hi kim u can read my experience below
Monthly payments using the cycling cc method
To pull the cash from the cards
Here’s how we planned to go about it
Create two completely separate businesses completely different names address phone numbers etc.
open up business bank accts for those businesses at two separate banks
Create a business PayPal acct attached to those bank Accts
Have business ABC write up a contract for let’s say a consultant job and bill via PayPal business XYZ for x amount of dollars (as u are able to PayPal much larger sums under a business acct with PayPal)
business XYZ receiving the bill pays the bill to business ABC PayPal acct with their cc from fund grow
Once the monies post to the business ABC PayPal acct he cashed it out to his business bank acct withdraw the funds and distribute amongst necessary parties (best of u do this with a trusted business partner spouse etc other than that someone may charge u for the service)
Now for tax purposes business XYZ request a refund and the release of monies back from business ABC to business XYZ will clear business ABC from any tax liability
Wow great information!! Just was confused about the cashing out part but no worries. I read several ways to get cash like using plastiq(they wont allow you to do wire transfer especially to yourself or person to person) , venmo(cash app but limited) buy gold and sell cash for cash or even buying crypto and selling for cash but thats alot of fees which is a bad idea. Im at 720 and no debt at all. Have 3 credit cards all at $1000 limit and barely any inquires. Base on the information i gave you, what do you think i need to do or improve before even thinking about signing up? Thanks!!
Fund&Grow has been a fantastic experience and very easy to use. I appreciate how they handle everything and keep you posted on the status along with way.
Thanks to John Madison for his attention to detail and consistent communication during the process.
I would highly recommend this process for anyone with good credit and responsible money management skills to utilize this service to grow your business.
Can anyone clarify if these cards they have actually received are from mainstream banks ? The big 5 so to speak ?
Or is there some super special secret list of banks only these companies have access to ?
It’s easy to get a CLI on your existing accounts, it’s easy to see which banks you are prequalified for cards with
With a little research and timing you can build credit both personal and business yourself
The only part of this service they offer is they allude to getting you higher limits than you can get doing it yourself.....
My question is ....how ?
Your business and personal profiles are used to apply, so what magic dust do they sprinkle on your application that gets you $20k rather that $5k start limits ????
Can anyone clarify if these cards they have actually received are from mainstream banks ? The big 5 so to speak ?
Or is there some super special secret list of banks only these companies have access to ?
It’s easy to get a CLI on your existing accounts, it’s easy to see which banks you are prequalified for cards with
With a little research and timing you can build credit both personal and business yourself
The only part of this service they offer is they allude to getting you higher limits than you can get doing it yourself.....
My question is ....how ?
Your business and personal profiles are used to apply, so what magic dust do they sprinkle on your application that gets you $20k rather that $5k start limits ????
they know what credit agency each banks looks at, to make credit decisions. based on the info they apply to each bank that best fits your credit profile, remember they make money 4 different ways, 1st- credit line, 2nd-Credit Restoration, 3rd-commission/referral fee from credit issuer, 4th-from conferences or webinars you are invited to where they make a referral commission just like bigger pocket makes money from pro memberships. every speaker guest bring value to their products/offering so why no make extra money in the middle.
I signed up for Fund & Grow services and have completed my first round of funding. Brandon was my rep and he was extremely professional and kept me in the loop throughout the process. First round of applications resulted in several cards with total credit lines of 40K+. Some may have been able to do this on their own, but not me. The service is well worth the investment. Preparing for another round in the next month or so. Very satisfied customer.
Justin's post really says it all. I can definitely say they delivered as advertised. They have been very courteous and professional. I highly recommend Fund & Grow!
I just posted the following review for Fund&Grow and thought I would share it here also. I have only used my cards for payments to my contractor and partner via PayPal, store and material purchases, and balance transfers. So, I can't speak to using the cards to get cash.
First I would like to acknowledge my account specialist, Retrena Thomas. I worked with Retrena during my second round of funding with Fund&Grow. Retrena provided the optimal experience. Retrena is very competent, receptive and responsive. Being an entrepreneur myself, Retrena is the type of individual I would love to have on my team.
During my first round of funding I received a total 57k. The breakdown is 25k from FifthThrird, 25k from US Bank and 7k from Bank of America. The main issue for me came after my first round of funding when it was time to remove the inquiries from my credit report. The company that Fund&Grow referred to help with the removal of the inquiries, Kaydem Credit, was not able to remove the inquiries as planned. I was informed the inquiries don't affect your score after six months. So, it was six months before I began my second round of funding. Kaydem is separate from Fund&Grow, but they work in tandem so I wanted to mention this as it could impact your overall experience. Kaydem did make things right and provided a refund without any hassle, which tells me alot about their company. They said my experience was not common, and I have no reason to doubt that due the customer service they provided when the program didn't work for me. So, you may have a different result.
My second round of funding(November 2018), I received an additional 103.5k. The breakdown is 10.5k from Bank of America, 15k from Chase, 25k from PNC, 40.5k from American Express, and increase of 12.5k on my FifthThird card I received during my first round of funding.
After my first two rounds, I have received 160.5k. I'm not sure what impact my credit scores had on my funding, but at the beginning of the second round I believe my credit scores were 814, 820s, and 843. Fund&Grow has worked well for me to date.
I was reffered to Fund and Grow by one of my mentors called Bob Leonetti and soon after then I joined Fund and Grow couple of months later to get my credit repaired and to my surprise,all the negative reports and all other derogatory items were all deleted within 3 months. Amazing !! Apart from that, their customer service is just as excellent. They respond to your inquiries spontaneously and on time.This man called Anthony Ford who is the rep attached to my file is wonderful !! He was able to secure a total personal credit cards of $35,500 in just under 2 weeks. And that was from Top 3 banks. He is the "Go To" guy. Keep up the good job Anthony. Fund and Grow is fantastic !! Give them a try, No regrets
I am just getting started as a real estate investor. I have heard about Fund and Grow and decided to join their Business Credit Program. My business credit application started on December 5, 2018 with the help of my assigned Client Account Funding Specialist, JASON ALONSO. Jason was prompt and communicated in a timely manner. I am extremely pleased with results of the first round of funding. I was able to obtain $73,000 within 2 weeks. I am looking forward to the second round of funding. Jason was prompt and communicated in a timely manner.
Thank you Jason and the Fund and Grow team for providing a superior service !
I have personally enjoyed working with Danyelle Roller from Fund & Grow. She has made my initial steps to obtaining my first round of funding very simple and easy. She did an incredible job with keeping me updated on the details as well as what I should be doing throughout the process. I have had no reason to reach out to her because she has been so thorough with everything. Thanks again, Danyelle! :-)
So far, my experience with Fund&Grow has been great!! Anthony helped me achieve a total of $113,000and I am looking forward to my next batch!! Thank you Fund&Grow
Ms. Darrian Hunter is our Funding Coach and we have nothing but amazing interactions with her since our first phone call. She was very willing and open to answering all our concerns and questions. I really am pleased with the service that Fund and Grow provides, and this is before I have received any type of funding.
I had the pleasure to work with Anthony Ford as my consultant for Fund and Grow. He explained the entire process from filling out the forms to receiving cards and activating them. Within 30-40 days of initial contact we were able to get $90,500 on my initial batch. I was skeptical but took the leap of faith and when I started getting emails that I was approved for $15K, $25K, even $36K and in my company name, oh yeah it became real. Then Anthony worked his magic and got some of them approved for even more. Thats why they're the professionals. I can't wait to start Round 2 and 3, curios to see at the end of the year what they are capable of obtaining for me. I highly recommend Fund and Grow and I am so glad that my friend let me know about their services.
My experience with Fund & Grow was nothing short of amazing. Bianca Rivera was both highly responsive and tenacious in her pursuit to acquire the funding we needed for our business. Thanks to Bianca and the F&G team, we were able to acquire significantly more capital that we had thought possible. I would absolutely recommend Fund & Grow for your capital acquisition needs!!
During my negotiations Sabrina was always able to be reached by e-mail or phone. She was very diligent in acquiring me lots of capital and negotiating accordingly with the card companies I had past relationships with. She was very open to suggestions and a true pleasure to work with! Thanks Sabrina for all your time!