All Forum Posts by: Richard Gaston

My main concern though is this a scammer, I mean it's an answer to my prayers and all where I can get funding to help in my business endeavor. I can make the money to pay it back, did it before can do it again. Just needed someone to give me a bootstrap loan for a leg up. @Bob E. if there IS an EXCESS amount then that tells me this is not a legit deal, I will send the Bank Draft back and cancel the loan, I have heard of the bogus check scams where a person was expecting XAmount and got more then they were expecting whereas the person sending the check said "Oops, my mistake, just go ahead and cash the check and send us the excess amount and keep the rest? And it winds up costing the person a lot of money as well as hurting their credit status, because the check was bogus to begin with and the banks want their money back. Bank Drafts (just in case some of the younger people are looking confused, lol, they are Cashier Checks purchased from the bank directly. I had to say that because I work at a 7-Eleven and I hear it all the time about cigarettes, where the customer are asking for a pack of Marlburo Lights, the young cashier looks confused and trying to find a Pack of Cigarettes that says Marlburo Lights, when they are now Marlburo Gold. Sorry bad analogy but its about the same, A name what us older generation calls some items has now been changed to another name lol) are a little safer bet then a check, but not by much. When I take it to a bank, I am sure they can tell if its bogus or not. Banks are now using watermarks in their Cashier Checks which can not be forged, to insure safety to the persons buying (as well as recieving) them. And I am sorry if my posts are a tad long :) ok wordy. Like someone posted in here, Bigger Pockets, about PML's one needs to get to know them build trust etc, this person who says he is Angel Investor didn't get to know me (and Visa Versa) so yes I am concerned, very concerned. And on that note I am going to stop before I wind up writing a book, plus I am having problems breathing again (Allergies) and need to call my pharmacy to see if I can get a refill of my meds (Inhaler) so I will keep everyone up to date as it comes along if that is alright? Gawd I hate Allergies lol...

@Bill Gulley I would love to deal with known lenders but with my credit score the way it is the only lenders I would be able to deal with are HML's and/or PML's. Seeing I was looking for a loan to help with the business I went to Angel Investors as a best bet option.

@Jeff Rabinowitz I forgot about that seeing the Loan is for the business, what I do with the money whether I purchase a vehicle or a house is on me, and seeing its an out of country lender I don't think D-F Applies, only to the lenders here in the US, am I correct?

Update: Still waiting on the email from the Angel Investors group, but I did get an email from the gentleman. He said he will send me a Bank Draft, I expected that seeing Cheques have the account numbers on them great for scammers to get ahold of so good safe bet, no Account numbers. Second he asked me for a copy of my ID which I have no problem (also expected it, no business worth its weight don't ask for an ID to prove that you're who you say you are), its suspended lol (Traffic fines, being paid on right now). IF he does send me a bank draft, I am going to play it safe, just in case, instead of putting it in my Bank Account I am going to create another Account, more like an Escrow Account after the bank checks it out then let it sit, to make sure its not a forgery. In the mean time I will be still checking it out, I am still dubious about it

To everyone here, seeing I was at an Angel Investment site and put in an ad requesting a business loan, and he said he was an Angel Investor I just sent a PM to the admin's of the site to see if they are a legit Angel Investment Group and if they actually help people like me. Will know more when they send me an email back.

@Bob E. I finally was able to locate not only the person who sent me the email but the company. They are located in the UK, not Africa and the person who sent me the email is also listed as one of the Principals there, so far it is legit as far as I can see but I am still doing due diligence, got a friend there in the UK and asked him to see if its Legit, getting a birds eye so to speak, on the ground seeing I am getting info over the internet, and from what I have read there is nothing negative about them. I just can not see a company in the UK who does Investments, willing to send me $175K just because I asked for assistance at an Angel Investment site, mostly I was asking for was a business loan to help out with the business. It takes money to make money and I was going to use the money to finance my business with needed supplies, equipment and tools. But as I said above he offered to help on RE Deals so I just threw him a number, did not think I would get approved seeing my FICO score is 580, not that great but still a little borderline fair, but I am still working on it. Getting a lot of the negative reports knocked off my Credit Report seeing that they are really old.

@Bill Gulley if he don't want to do the PL he can always buy low and sell low (a little higher for a profit margin). For instance, I am working on closing a deal right now, its a real fixer. The seller is really highly motivated so I can really get a good deal. Close the deal but instead of going to a HML or a PL to get a loan to fix the place up as well as purchase the house, I was thinking of just flipping the contract at a little higher rate then what I negotiated, find a title company (or a RE Attorney) that can do double closings, do the final closing with both and walk away with a nice profit margin, without having to do any fixing. And the purchasing Investor will have a nice profit margin as well when he sells to the end buyer after all the repairs are done so it will be a win-win-win deal. Everybody wins.

oh and an update to that last post, I also put the ball in their court. Seeing he said I was approved, I sent him an email saying I am not comfortable giving my Bank Account Information over the internet seeing about internet scammers and all, but said I can take a Cheque or a Bank Draft which I can then put in Escrow. Lets see what he says.

OK, did a search on the individual Alexander Dittmair and found out he is the Director with Phoenix Capital Limited, Investment Manager. Here is the kicker, the company is based in London, UK. Ok is overseas investment companies subject to Dodd-Frank?

@Bob E. @Joel Owens and @Jean Bolger ; thanks for the quick response. I agree with all of you on that. Bob, I was suprised as to that, I know the basic of what I am told of the condition of the house, I am guessing about $50,000 to $60,000 in repairs if that says anything. I figured if I got approved for that amount that the budget would be really tight to fix the house, but at least the profit margin would be decent, not enough to get rich on but decent enough. And like what we both said, if it sounds to good to be true, it normally is. And that would be something new for a Phishing scam.

Joel, I am still waiting for the ball to drop, I am still trying to figure out how they figured in the 5%, my math and theirs don't add up.

Jean, that is what concerns me. Even I think it sounds dodgy, one the application was a very basic app, my name, ssn, address, how much of the loan, and how long to pay it back. As I said earlier I just asked for approximately 65% to 75% of the ARV seeing when I fix it up then sell it pay back the loan plus interest, closing costs etc. So when I saw the application, and not a mulitple page app I was suprise to say the least, but I did fill it out. As I said I was testing the waters, but when I saw where I had to put my SSN in I was a little suprised seeing most Hard Money Lenders loan on the house not the applicant, just not all the way suprised though (I somewhat expected it as well). What really got me suprised is the fact that there is no place to put in any information about the house, even I don't have all the facts or pics of the house, yet. I mean yes the loan can help out if I decide to buy the house outright and do a fix and flip but before I even considered the loan I was considering on flipping the contract, but my GC flaked out on me when I really needed him the most, to get me some numbers on what the actual repairs would cost, then I was going to figure in the ARV after doing some comps on the house, seeing that its now zoned as a multi-family unit I figured I could get anywhere from $220,000 to $250,000 on it from the numbers I got when I did a search in the Bremerton, WA area more then likely $230K after all the repairs are done including Landscaping. So I figured I should go ahead and fill out the basic app, I expected a more detailed application later as well as questions on the property and requests for pictures of the house etc, I did not expect an email saying I was approved for the $175,000 plus 5% interest. It caught me off guard to say the least. I have dealt with Loan Officers and Brokers and normally Loans take a bit longer then this.

@Account Closed I would like to thank you as well. I had posted a question in a seperate forum here about an Angel Investor and without even asking I had just done what you said, about how to figure in my profit on a Loan that I am supposedly approved for. I have been approved for a loan that I set at 65% to 75% ARV even though the guy said I can get a 100% LTV I didn't want that, if I did a 100% LTV then I wouldn't make a decent profit margin :)