Based on my dealings with them, I don’t think that they are a legitimate company. Although they have a website at RogersFunds.com, they do not have a phone number. In addition, I have visited and contacted the addresses in Las Vegas and New York that they have listed on their website, and they have no offices at either location. Both of the companies that are actually located at those addresses have never heard of Rogers Funds nor have they ever leased space to them.
I submitted an application on their website to see if I would get a response from them and did. However, in order to submit an application, they want you to wire them $10,500 first.
Based on my due diligence of this company, my initial reaction would be that it is a sham company set up to entice consumers into thinking they can get a 100% LTV commercial loan. Then, the consumer wires $10,500 to them and never hears from them again. This is based on the company not publishing their phone number, and posting false addresses on their website. If you have any other information that would prove otherwise, please let me know.
I’ve never dealt or heard of that company, but you are wise to not wire them the money.
Legitimate lenders/brokers will not require money before they get started. And once a lender does issue a LOI they are very specific about what the needed funds will be for, such as appraisal, etc.
I have never heard of the group but you have noted enough to make me not want to know them. I agree with Patti’s advise and input. It would seem that there are enough red flags in your investigations to warrent major concern.
I would never even consider a company that charges $10,500 for an application. Legit or not. I actually ran across Rogers funds on the internet but never submitted anything.
One minor suggestion… Report them to the authorities. Let the authorities investigate and hopefully prosecute them before some more poor schlepps send them the 10.5k.
I closed couple deals with Rogers Funds. They didn’t charge me any application fees. The only fee I paid upfront was for appraisal and inspection after conditional approval. They are hard to reach via phone for some reason maybe because they are a private lender or very busy.
I know for a FACT that Rogers Funds LLC is a fraud.
1 - Their Las Vegas office does not exist. Their NY office is a virtual office (A rented desk).
2 - Their phone 702-951-3453 is a Las Vegas Area code
3 - Their Fax 801-217-5542 is a Utah area code.
4 - when you call them, they either dont pick up or it says lines are busy.
5 - There is no other phone number to be found anywhere on their paper work or website, “Rogers Fund LLC” is not listed anywhere.
6 - Roger Hogan is listed as the owner of www.rogersfunds.com
7 - the phone number associated with rogers funds is 516-403-1400 (Hicksville, NY). When you call that number you get two messages. Either “Thanks for calling leads unlimited. Leave a message” or there is a recorded message that is on a loop and it keeps repeating “hello…hello…hello…”
8 - Website domain (RogersFunds.com) was created in august 2005 - but they have been a multimillion dollar lender since 1999
9 - Their NY office is listed as in the empire state building. I called the company that is actually in 350 5th avenue, Suite 3304, New York, NY and they are a sub-leasing company but they have never heard of Rogers Funds LLC or do they any financial enity as a tennant.
10 - When i questioned my contact at Rogers Funds LLC (alias Linda Hogan), i was told that there processing center is in UTAH but isbeing moved to NY and thue thus the number change. I said gimme your NY processing address and i will visit. I never heard from them again.
11 - A Broker i also spoke to said the wanted him to wire $10K and he was going to send them a check but got wary once they said they dont want him mailing anything. Only Wire is ok. He looked up the bank acocunt (Bank of America) and it belonged to someone else.
12 - Their Web hosting company thats hosting their website also seems like a sham. Based in london with a Florida Phone.
This seems like a standard Nigerian type scam. Bottom line, collect as much info and fwd to authorities. Do Not send them any money. Its all really clever. They use pr and news releases to get up their in google and pretend to be a legit co.
Ok, Rogerfunds are 100% scammers and I will tell you how they are doing what they are doing.
Rogers Funds run the scam site detailing their great LTV% loans, asking $10,500 up front.
They take all of the mark’s identity info and establish an e-Bullion account with it.
They then fill out a bankwire form, give the mark the bankwire number and tell them to wire the funds to Goldfinger Coin & Bullion, e-Bullion’s funding processor.
The funds hit the bogus account Rogers Funds Roger Funds RogerFunds setup in the mark’s name and RF attempts to go through the GFCB’s diligence process without setting off any alarms.
Account is released from hold and RF attempts to make off with the funds.
RogersFunds Rogers Funds are flat out crooks and hopefully will go down. If anyone reads this, please pass this on. They’re trying to flood the web with bogus press releases in an attempt to push down any threads on their fraud activities.
Excuse any repeated references to the different iterations of RF. I’m hoping to catch all variations of the name in case they try and change it.
My recommendation before you choose to do business with any company and that includes paying upfront fees or providing personal information, you should attempt to verify that they are legitimate.
In almost all states, lenders (including private money commercial lenders) must be licensed. This means that you can check with the state to verify if they hold a license or are an actual business entity.
First red flag is if they do not hold any lending licenses or are not registered in the state that they show addresses for.
In either case it would be advisable to report any fake businesses to the FTC as well as any appropriate State AG’s office for investigation.
Up front fees are not a sign of a scam unless they are requesting said fees before even talking to you or reviewing your intitial proposals.
Many established banks & commercial lenders all require up front due dilligence & commitment fees after they review your financing request and send you a Letter of Interest.
Said fees are usually:
$10,000 to $25,000 for non-refundable application/due dilligence
1 to 2 points of the lenders total points as a commitment fee
These fees are typically required when requesting commercial real estate financing for loans of $1 million or more.
Oh and before I forget … generally anyone who is offering you 100% financing for commercial real estate is either using misleading or false advertising since almost all commercial lenders that I know of require the borrower to contribute between 15% and 50% of the property acquisition cost meaning that they will only finance 50% to 85% of the appraised value.