Curious if anyone has done any work with Oscar Ladino over at Investar Capital Group in Hackensack, NJ ? 

They offer wholesale properties to investors, lending, rehab, and selling.  As an investor you can select one, all, or any of those services.  They focus on distressed homes in Bergen County, NJ.

Considering leveraging their wholesaling and rehab services to help get me off the group in my Real Estate investing journey. As I currently work full-time and am having a very hard time finding properties in my area on the MLS or auction sites which would turn enough equity for the effort. Also have no experience in construction and therefore lack the confidence to make an estimate on those costs when evaluating properties. Thinking about using a company like this to help navigate those areas until I gain some experience.

@Matt Aquino I haven't but I would be interested to learn more about his wholesale properties as I have a few projects going right now but I know that most will be on the market in the next 2-3 months. 

@jonathan boyle 

Sure. Reach out to them. Here is the website.

https://investarcapitalgroup.com/

They brought me into their office in Hackensack. Explained their approach, how they add value, and some past projects. Asked for a proof of funds. And then start sending what they have on wholesale via email. 

@Matt Aquino I just completed a project with Oscar and I strongly caution you against working with him. He is well meaning but his team is basically incompetent. Our project had numerous serious mistakes that required everything to be ripped out and started anew in addition to terrible communication throughout. He would let me know items had been completed only for me to find that they had not been when I went to the property. His first sub that was in charge of the property just stopped working at some point and a new one had to be brought on. Overall the project was months late and was not properly inspected even up until the sale closing. 

If you just want to purchase a contract on an REO from him that's one thing, though he also messed that first step up and didn't submit paperwork to our lawyer for the closing. I strongly caution against using his team for construction and project management.

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Originally posted by @Cameron Hastings :

@Matt Aquino I just completed a project with Oscar and I strongly caution you against working with him. He is well meaning but his team is basically incompetent. Our project had numerous serious mistakes that required everything to be ripped out and started anew in addition to terrible communication throughout. He would let me know items had been completed only for me to find that they had not been when I went to the property. His first sub that was in charge of the property just stopped working at some point and a new one had to be brought on. Overall the project was months late and was not properly inspected even up until the sale closing. 

If you just want to purchase a contract on an REO from him that's one thing, though he also messed that first step up and didn't submit paperwork to our lawyer for the closing. I strongly caution against using his team for construction and project management.

Unfortunate to hear about your experience with them.

I met with Oscar and a few other people in their office to hear about their business and operations. Although it sounded good and they had an organized presentation, didn't feel 100% right.

I ended up doing a little bit more research on some of their projects and heard about some suspect end products (i.e cheap product, things not done right, etc.) That research + my gut feeling after the meeting led to me avoiding moving further with Investar. Also I found it strange that although I asked to get an email stream of upcoming deals, they never did that.

@Cameron Hastings

Message me and Let me know if you find other investing alternatives or if you want to partner up in some regard. I still have yet to get my feet wet in the RE investing "game" but am eager to do so.