Commercial Lending Capital reviews and complaints

Have you heard the news that CLC is a scam company? We have. In fact, I think all of us in this industry have had these claims leveled at us lately.

Yes, we’ve felt the impact of Complaints Board. A site that can allege that CLC is responsible for the downward trend of the economy. That we’re the monsters behind depreciating property values, a decline in overall business revenues, that we have thousands of appraisers who are willing to risk imprisonment and huge fines to ‘doctor’ appraisals for us, or that we never fund loans. Yet amazingly enough, we’re apparently not the only ones.

Sites like Complaints Board make business owners cringe, and are prime contributors to the demise of the economy. Sites that have no moderators to verify valid email addresses, content of the ‘complaints’, the validity of the accusations, etc. are sweeping over the internet. We've counted at least 6 upstarts in the past 12 months including one more by the owner of Complaints Board. Anyone can log on with a fake email address and accuse their neighbor of being a pedophile, their Boss of being an adulterer, or the mailman of being a Terrorist. They get to remain anonymous, and you become the victim. No means of retaliation, no resolution, the damage is already done. In many cases the victim will never even have the opportunity to confront their accuser, as now these sites hide behind privileges and rights of website administrators, and go to great measures to keep the identities of their contributors confidential. It doesn’t seem like a society I want to be a part of anymore. One that abolishes my Sixth Amendment right, “The Confrontation Clause”, as long as my accuser or “witnesses” are shielded behind the internet.
You have to wonder how may individuals have been effected by recent smear campaigns. It seems like the number of random complaints are growing on a daily basis. A quick search on Complaints Board today yielded some pretty interesting results. Come to find out, according to Complaints Board, thousands of recognizable nationwide companies in the finance industry are all in cahoots. We’re all scam-artists, all out to make a quick buck, and all out to hurt the consumer. Just read them – you’ll see. Apparently all of these companies are scam artists:

Quicken/Rock Financial: According to a recent complaint on Complaints Board, Quicken hires appraisers from Cooperative Appraisal to ‘devalue’ homes purposely. Yes, that’s right. A woman alleges that Quicken hired an appraiser who incompetently appraised her home. In a rural area, with limited comparisons, this woman alleges that a $300 appraisal, (paid to the appraiser – not Quicken) had numerous errors. She estimated her home value at $215, 000 - $230, 000. The appraiser assessed the value at $170, 000. Mind you the appraisal was done in 2008, so we’re talking in the midst of the decline of property values.

It gets better. The property is in Reeseville, Wisconsin. The population? 690 in 2008. The average household income? $43, 000. The average value for a detached home? $123, 500. This is per city-data.com. So at $300 for the appraisal, and 30 seconds of research that confirm the value was probably pretty accurate, where’s the motive or the “scam”? But how many uneducated people do you think will read this complaint and believe it? How many will never do the research I did to validate the content? How many will just assume its accuracy because it’s posted on the internet?

RFJ Financial: Several posts against this company. A consumer actually alleges this company “STOLE” $32, 000 from him. Why? Because he signed loan documents that said he had a prepayment penalty, and he didn’t realize it. So let’s get this straight… This company stole $32, 000 from this gentleman because HE didn’t read his loan documents, and clearly wanted to refinance within the terms of the prepayment penalty, and somehow that was someone else’s fault? Why didn’t he read what he was signing?

JP Morgan Chase: Too many to even list here. The best one being a man who alleges JP Morgan rips people off for $400 to purchase bogus appraisals. (You have to wonder what the world’s coming to when JP Morgan has to conspire with appraisers to make $400.)

North American Home Loans: Consumer alleges they went 3 months without supplying conditions – such as stating what the use of their cash out would be. Complained that after all their delays their rate went from 6.0% to 6.25%. This is odd? How? If you don’t provide conditions that allow your lender to close your loan, you WILL be impacted by any changes in rate in the marketplace. How does this not make sense? Because it takes a consumer 6 months to supply conditions, your lender is supposed to incur a loss of interest due to market changes? Consumer then complained about $2, 000 in closing costs. (Sounds pretty reasonable!)

Indymac (OneWest): Consumer blames Indymac for possible foreclosure. Attempted to do a loan modification, with the stated terms of the modification contingent upon approval. Consumer states he and his wife pay off all of their credit cards anticipating the modification will be successful, and then hold Indymac responsible when they deny the request when OneWest assumes control.

So apparently a consumer can count their chickens before they hatch, and hold Indymac responsible for being incapable of paying their mortgage payment. It must also be Indymac’s fault that they have a mortgage payment they can’t afford?

These are just a few. They go on and on and on. So which ones do you believe, and which ones do you dismiss? How do you arm yourself with the right tools to know who can help you, and who can’t? YOU VERIFY FACTS! Has anyone ever alleged CLC “stole” their money? Absolutely! In fact, as property values continue to depreciate, (and according to an article written in CoStar in January, will continue to depreciate 2-6% through 2012) every time a property value comes in lower than a borrower anticipates, they want to sue us now. Then the allegations start coming that your company never funds loans. I guess it only makes sense that when the BBB, Attorney General, local authorities, Department of Real Estate and all other applicable governing agents won’t act on a consumer complaint without merit, their last resort is to start making unmerited accusations on a website that’s completely unmonitored.

So is CLC one of the scam companies? You be the judge. Here’s some key facts about CLC, and other things you should know about commercial lending:

1. Unlike most lenders, you WILL be required to provide adequate documentation for CLC to make a loan decision. No “quotes”, no “guessing”, no “pie in the sky” figures. Some Brokers hate us because they don’t want to do the extra work, but we simply believe it’s best to send those guys on their way. If you want an accurate answer, you’ll be required to provide us with adequate documentation to allow us to make an informed loan decision. Period.

2. CLC will put a contract in front of you, outlining the terms of your loan approval. It’s all in black and white. You will never pay a cent for ANYTHING until you have gone through several pre-approval channels and CLC has had the opportunity to do a preliminary underwrite of your file.

3. Yes, you WILL be required to pay for all applicable 3rd party reports. Why? Because they’re expensive, and they’re your liability. CLC contracts some of the nation’s largest 3rd party companies to obtain bids and engage our assessors and appraisers. We follow an ethical bid process, and most of the time we won’t even know who the appraiser is. We use this process so there is never an opportunity to accuse the lender of ‘influencing’ property value.

Have you heard people say you should never pay an “upfront fee”, or that they’re illegal? Of course you have. Every time you turn on the news you hear about it. But what you aren’t realizing is that this is specific to the loan modification industry. There is no company in California or the nation that has any “advance fee agreement” issued by any state. They have, to date, not existed. You WILL, undoubtedly, be responsible for the reports required on your property. It would be like going to Bank of America and telling them to do your loan for free, and then telling them to pay for your appraisal while they’re at it. It’s not going to happen. If you’ve got a pre-existing relationship with your local bank, they may waive certain fees and agree to take them out at closing, but they have this luxury. They’ve got access to your accounts. Unaffiliated lenders do not, so they’re not going to extend you the same courtesy. And frankly, if your local bank is willing to offer you financing, take the deal. If they’re also making interest off of your business checking accounts, savings, or every time you order a new set of checks, naturally they’re going to have more negotiating power.

4. Yes, we do go one step above and beyond, and typically CLC will order a preliminary value of your property. What is this? It can be a Broker Price Opinion, it can be a limited summary appraisal, or we can simply retain a company like Costar to obtain comparison properties for us. Why do we do this? Because more than 50% of loans will fall apart the second the appraisal is returned. Most of the issues could have been resolved if the lender had a ‘sneak peek’ of what the appraiser was going to see when they got to the property. We can fix issues with vacancy, (you tell us it’s 100% occupied, but we find out it’s not) deferred maintenance, possible environmental issues, parcel/title issues, etc. If we don’t make the effort to catch these issues in advance, once the appraisal is done, it’s game over. You can’t keep shopping values or ordering appraisals until you get one you like.

5. Yes, commercial loans take longer to fund than residential loans. Simply because the appraisal process alone can take 4-6 weeks. You WILL play a major part in contributing to the loan process. The quicker you get us what we need, the quicker we can get to a closing! If you’re going to hate us because you’re looking for a conventional loan and need it to close in 2 weeks, go let someone else tell you pigs fly. (Bridge and/or private programs have much quicker funding times, albeit the associated costs and rates are much higher.)

6. No, you don’t get to engage CLC to process and underwrite a loan for you for 3 months, only for us to figure out you falsified documents, failed to provide conditions, or overstated property value. No, we won’t assume all of the expenses associated with the file. Why? Because time is expensive. Because the people that work on your loan files, (per DRE requirements) have to be hourly or salaried employees, and cannot be commissioned or independent contractors. Because we are your lender, NOT your self-appointed representative, and it’s merely our job to verify the information you supply to us when you apply for a loan. If you tell us your apartment building is 100% leased, and we find out it’s 50% vacant, that’s going to cause a problem. If you tell us you make $100, 000/year, and your tax returns tell us you only make $20, 000, that could cause a problem as well. This IS why you hire a Broker. Make sure someone is accurately checking the information you provide to the lender. This is, after all, why you are required to sign and date a loan application with all lenders – it’s validating that everything contained therein is accurate. We can only take your word for it.

7. Yes, a lender has a right to refuse your loan if something drastically changes. If there was a material misstatement, your credit scores drastically decline, your property value comes in grossly low, etc – odds are that you may not be eligible for the loan you applied for. Consumers have the misconception that once they sign on the dotted line it’s over and done with. You still have to hold-up your end of the bargain. So if you ever get to that point with CLC, or any other lender, is it “bait and switch”? No, it’s simply a situation where you’re not meeting the underwriting requirements that were mandated in your approval. So a lender has the option of cancelling your loan, or offering alternative solutions. It seems to make sense after going through the loan process you’d want someone to give you alternative options, rather then sending you on your merry way.

So the big question everyone has about lenders these days, and probably the only one that really matters. ARE YOU CLOSING LOANS? Check out a few that we’ve closed already this year, and you can also find more information about these and other properties on our website:

11093 Black Marble Way, CA (Do you know anyone else doing bowling alleys at 88.5% LTV’s at 6%?)
19043 International Boulevard, WA (88% LTV, Retail, 6%)
1574 E. Bellevue, CA (52.5% LTV, Retail, cash-out bridge loan)
[protected] East 10th Street, CA (45% LTV, strip mall, all cash-out)
1527 International Boulevard, CA (85% LTV, convenience store, cash-out)
703 South 3rd Street, CA (50% LTV, apartments, cash-out)

Before you choose to believe everything you read, do your OWN due-diligence. Pick up a phone, request more information, or do more research. If you can’t find any negative information about companies on reputable sites, odds are what you’re reading is bogus. If the complaints are posted by nonexistent companies, (we’ve been victims of that as well) odds are you’ve got a disgruntled ex-employee or competitor after you.

So if you’re ready to do your next commercial loan, we hope you pick up the phone and call us. We’d love to give you a list of references, tell you about our loan programs, or walk you through the loan process.

This company took an indefinite amount of time to figure out if they wanted to finance our business loan. When we approached them after 6 months of sumbitting all our documents, they said they were not able to do the loan and will keep our deposit of 15k for damages and ask for another 35k. That is riduculous, 50k for doing nothing! Please avoid this company - they are cheaters.