Sometimes if it quacks like a duck, and flies like a duck, it's a duck. But who really knows. Over the last couple of weeks, I contacted Joe Seigel from his listing in the Scottsman Guide. He gave relatively desirable terms on a loan in Arizona on vacant land. I did due diligence to check him out. He was already listed here. He owns no property in his name I can find in the county he works. He does not seem to be licensed, although he said since he was the direct lender/investor he did not have to be. I could not find a recorded deed/transaction in the county he works in.
He asked my client for $3,500 FOR HIS ATTORNEY to write a commitment letter. When I asked if it was binding based on information provided checking out, he said "NO." I said how do I know you can do what you say? He said his attorney would provide that after we paid the fee and the attorney wrote the letter. I said, "$3,500 for an attorney to write a letter... Does it take him 3 hours?" He said no, it's just the fee. I said well, then, if we are paying the attorney, does the attorney have a fiduciary obligation to me or my client? He said no, we'd have to sign something to that affect. I asked if I could see what we would be signing BEFORE we sent the $3,500 dollars. Again, NO. I asked if I could speak with his attorney to see what the actual cost to write a letter is... He said, NO. I asked if he could provide me with 5 properties I could see recorded deeds in favor of his company on. Guess what he said..."NO".
For someone who wants $3,500 and then 14K more to hop on an airplane and fly to arizona from Colorado, he sure didn't answer any questions or make me feel warm and fuzzy.in fact, he wouldn't even give me his e-mail address. Go figure. Between that and his past as reported here, I'm going to continue to be careful.
I am just thinking now that if something flies like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it very well might be a duck. I have not been ripped off yet... But I'm still looking for a good lender who wants to do a loan on vacant land in AZ.
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