All Forum Posts by: Bobbe Erlinger

Thanks for reaching out @Jay Hinrichs.  We have a multitude of buyers that we work with that have  credit with us to purchase property.  Typically we will issue a Proof of Funds letter but often times (mainly in California) sellers want to see that the cash funds are actually available in a bank account rather than just a letter from us.  The bank statement is likely the liquid trust account that we have set up for that particular buyer so in the event they find a house they wanted to buy and the seller needed to make a decision quickly they could show they have liquid funds sitting with us to perform on their offer.  It's not unusual for some of our buyers to have that information readily available to provide to sellers such as yourself.

That said, anytime you get an offer that involves SBL please feel free to reach out to my office directly and I can validate the funds so that you are comfortable with the transaction.  In the Atlanta market Southern State Investments is one of the biggest guys we do a ton for so if the offer came from them I can assure you it was good, if it was someone else please PM me so I can dig into it.

@Thomas Richter @Account Closed

I think some additional clarification may be necessary on this thread.  I took over leadership of Sherman Bridge Lending a little over a year ago.  At which time we had several long term products in addition to our fix/flip programs.  The one that was being quoted to Mr. Richter was our Portfolio program, that program was a straight hard money 30 year program (no need to refinance).  The one that Mr. Faszholz is finding responses on was our Landlord program. The landlord program was a 90 day hard money loan that we refinanced into a conventional 30 year program effectively having two closings.

Unfortunately after my review of current programs at the time and the customer service challenges that were being created because of those programs, we retired them both and have since replaced them with more streamlined products.  Mr. Richter inquired at the time that we had made the announcement to our sales teams that the programs were being retired as a result of feed back from our clients however, we did honor previously quoted loans if the clients wanted to move forward as per Kurt's response.  At the time it was announced to our sales staff it was not communicated clearly as to existing clients that had been quoted so that is what created the confusion and for that I apologize.

In the year since, we have rolled out a new 30 year program.  We've launched several fix/flip programs that allow for up to 90% LTC financing (which is what Mr Faszholz is being quoted).  There is no pre-pay penalty on any of our fix/flip programs allowing for you to refinance with anyone you would like.

We have rolled out new client incentive programs where effectively over the first 3 fix/flip loans under the 90/10 program you can reduce your interest rate 1% each deal you do (if you start at 12% and by your 3rd your at 10%) in addition to a reduction in origination points each deal you do up to the 3rd.

We also have our purchase only model where you can financed up to 80% of the purchase only at a lower interest rate.

All in all we are a different company, under different management and would welcome the opportunity to earn your business.  

I wanted to close out this comment chain as being resolved.  Mr. Mongiello and I discussed at length the draw process and I explained the discrepancies between what he was asking for and what we were able to fund.

As draws are requested SBL utilizes the services of 3rd party inspectors to ensure any results are not influenced by anyone (kept arms length).  This is important to us as we want our customer to have confidence in our integrity.

We agreed that the work being done on the foundation should have been obvious to the inspector however the description of work just said foundation work and didn't indicate exactly what was being done so the inspector did not feel comfortable calling it done without a receipt to which we requested from Mr. Mongiello (this explained our ask for the receipt and the client then understood).

As the original rehab budget was not very detailed in the descriptions as a result of the above conversation we allowed Mr. Mongiello to re-do his budget giving more clarity and breaking things down to better assist the inspectors when they went to the property to ensure things were accurately reported as being completed.

In addition we have asked our 3rd party vender to remove the original inspector from the available list of inspectors to go to Mr. Mongiello's property.

Good Evening John! I'm happy to speak with you next week if you would like. I will review your file on Monday and have a discussion with your loan officer but I would also encourage you to review the initial 1 page loan disclosure you signed as well as final loan disclosure and loan escrow agreement signed at closing. All of these documents also detail how the draw system works. We detail it on 3 different occasions as I want every one of our customers to understand the loan and how it works before the deal is finalized.  Again, please call my office, your loan officer or our servicing department and they can put you in touch with me should you have any additional questions or concerns and we appreciate your business! 

Mr. Ariwodo,

I am happy to discuss the challenges that you have experienced, please call my office.  As of last check the repairs that you indicated you would be doing in your renovation budget had not been done but we are working with you to find another solution.  I understand that after closing things had to be changed on your end due to the city subsequently creating the domino effect that we are now dealing with but I can assure you we are doing everything we can to assist. 

Your home was valued when we did the initial loan based on what you told us would be done, as such this is the valuation that we base our loan on. 

When the items the property was appraised with are not done this could, not saying that it does, but could have a negative impact on the overall value of the asset thus changing the situation entirely.  This is the reason we need the recertification of value, nothing more.  Please understand that the changes made after funding of your loan were not a result of any negligence on behalf of Sherman Bridge but I can 100% understand the frustration and would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you.

Tony,

It was great speaking with you.  Should you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to let me know!

@Rebecca Chapa as a follow up, I will have the processor shoot you another update in the morning.  It was great speaking with you and glad we were able to get this worked out.  Again if you have any additional questions do not hesitate to reach back out to me!!

@Jay Hinrichs yes, certainly an odd situation as we are a lender not a property buyer. If you still have a copy of that I'd like to get my hands on it so I can try and track down where it may have came from. We do issue POF letter's to our clients that are out to buy property but they are in no way a copy of a trust account and are specific to the investor that has been prequalified with us.

@Jay Hinrichs.  I'd love the opportunity to speak with you about the rehab trust account situation that you spoke of above as we do not lend in Oregon so I'm not sure that the letter you received was truly from my office.  Please send me a personal message with your contact information when you have an opportunity.

Mrs. Chapa,

I attempted to reach you via phone a short time ago. Please give me a call back and I am happy to discuss your loan. I completely understand your frustration and am very sorry for the challenges you have encountered. I have reviewed your loan file and am confident that we can address any concerns that you have. As I understand it we have already committed to crediting the difference in your higher interest rate payment (in writing on 4/29) to show you that the delays in your financing will result in no financial benefit to SBL or additional cost to you. Please check your voicemail for my phone # and I look forward to speaking with you.