All Forum Posts by: Kevin Griffin

Dave - Don't see a message from you; better use the email address from my website.  gryphonrealestateinvestments.com

Unless I'm missing something here.

Dave Blackman - Something doesn't sound right.  The comps that you mentioned being between $65K and $100K are for new places; and from the sound of it, this place isn't new.  Do you know the age of this place?  And 1200sf isn't all that big, especially for $90K.  That's getting near the top of the range for mobiles.  There may be no problem here, but unless this place is new, very large, and has a bundle of amenities, I'd be suspicious.  Just reading that $90K figure raised a red flag for me.  It bothers me enough to suggest that if you have any problems with the agent, to please contact me, as I live in Vero; and I will go take a look at this place for you.  Actually, maybe you should get a second opinion anyway.  If you would like me to check it out, go to: gryphonrealestateinvestments.com for my email address, let me know that you want me to check it out and I'll get it done.

Aaron - David is asking you this question, because the scammers out there very often ask for money upfront for a variety of reasons; anyone of which they are hoping you don't know about and will be too embarrassed to admit you don't know, and just send the money to them because you don't want to admit your ignorance, and are desperate to find a loan to make a deal happen.  Don't fall for it.  There is no reason, period; for a legitimate lender to ask for money up front.  Points and other legitimate fees can be tacked on the loan, and do not need to be paid up front.  Another way to root out scammers is that they are too fly-by-night, cheap, or both, to pay for an email address that uses their web address in it; so they typically have gmail addresses.  Just make sure you do some research about how to vet lenders properly, and do the work, before signing on the dotted line.

Cory - Do your due diligence, there are all kinds of private money lenders scamming people out there. If a lender resists giving you the information you need to vet them (they know exactly what this information is), or they ask for money up front (should never happen for any reason), be on your way. You'll eventually find someone through proper vetting, or a referral. REIAs are a good place to find both hard money and private money lenders that have lent to the REIA members. Just take the time necessary to find out that they are legit. At the beginning of your investing career, a bad loan could possibly put you out of business for good. And a legitimate lender will never give you any grief over you checking them out; they understand what and why you are doing it, and have nothing to be worried about.

Rich - Some good advice here.  Looks like you may be ignoring the (12) month loan term though.  Give yourself the leeway in case something happens and you need the extra time.  Like Ken said: I'd make the loan for 12 months and pay it back early. You'll look like a star.  Always need to have that cushion just in case.

Gunter,

Have you had any luck with finding any deals here in Vero Beach? Not sure if you meant a distressed/foreclosure/off market kind of deal, or something on the MLS. If not, I may be able to help you. I have use of Realty Trac, and of course living in Vero, I can drive to locations too. If you would like to talk, let me know. Being a fairly knowledgeable, but new investor, I'm looking for private money on an asset-based deal; of which I have a number of them lined up, but like to get my financial ducks in a row before buying them for rehab. Perhaps we can scratch each other's backs.

Respectfully,

K.F. (Jack) Griffin

Gryphon Real Estate Investments

David Beard - Right on the button.  "Seeing an ad pop up on BP immediately infers a connection if not endorsement, since we tend to think of BP as a community with something of a trust factor, not just a faceless broadcasting network.", explains how the majority of members on BP feel about the community.  Giving them the benefit of the doubt by saying: "I agree that it's a strange phenomenon of the new marketing age.", simply gets them off the hook in your mind evidently.  I think that if they are willing to take AdWords revenue knowing that some of the advertisers are scammers, they need to start losing paid members in a big way; and the sooner the community starts to collapse and force them to act ethically, the better for all the members who count on them to provide the ethics and honesty we all need to vet various people and organizations in order to weed out the scammers, so honest people can do business together.

Steve - If you will go back and re-read my post, you'll see that I said nothing about contacting any of the leads.  I said that out of the (10) leads provided, (5) were not vacant.  I physically went to all (10) properties to check on vacancy.  I won't say here how I found out if the properties were vacant, as Dunlap might use the information to spin an excuse as to why his system is accurate, when it clearly is not.  His verification process (which I invited him to share here on this forum, and he didn't bother to reply), is junk.  My guess would be that he pays some poor schmuck to use up his gas money and put lots of miles on his vehicle doing as many as possible in a day, by simply going to the door and knocking on it.  If he gets an answer, the home is not vacant.  Since he refuses to tell us what his verification process is, I think that that should be a first clue as to how he conducts business.  Can't argue with those who have had a good experience with him, but you can't simply ignore all the poor experiences on various sites telling about poor experiences either.  I always say: Buyer Beware

Karen Alexander - I'm also looking for that investor friendly title company in Vero that will do double closings, if you wouldn't mind giving them another referral.  Thank you

Dave Anish - Do you happen to know of any clubs in Indian River or St. Lucie counties? I'm finding that I will have to travel too far south, just to find out the club isn't what I expected.  I love that Shark Tank idea for getting deals funded.  I've got a great one I'm looking to fund right now.  Doesn't seem to be very much going on in Indian River County. Thanks for any help you can provide.

K.F. (Jack) Griffin

Gryphon Real Estate Investments