ComplaintsforPlatinum Investment Properties, LLC.

• Initial Complaint

  06/12/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I invested $50,000 with PIP Group. For the first couple years, the firm was very professional and good at communicating. However, since COVID, they have not been. They have pretty much ignored me and failed to provide updates on my portfolio for 2+ years. I have not received any tax lien redemption checks since January 2021. On January 31 of this year, the company finally responded to an inquiry from me for an account update and said that they were in possession of 5 redemption checks totaling $16289.65 and that they would send them to my ****** ***** account. As of 10 June, I had not received any of those checks. They said that a lot of the property laws in ******** have changed, making ******** tax liens unfavorable and a lot more difficult for investors to make it profitable. They also said I have 5 open liens that they are trying to file sale in errors to recoup my principal. The sale in error usually takes about 6 months to know if they will get them approved. Given how poor the communication has been and the fact that they didn’t send me any redemption checks for over two years, I am not confident that they will actually follow through on recouping my principal. I would like the company to immediately send me all of my redemption checks in its possession, and going forward send any redemption checks they receive within 2 weeks of receiving them. I would also like them to immediately purchase my outstanding liens from me plus a reasonable return, as I do not have confidence that they will take the necessary action to recoup the principal on my remaining liens in a timely manner. The liens were supposed to pay 24%. I understand that tax liens are not without risk, but they have historically been considered pretty close to risk free. Finally, I would like the company to reimburse me any fees charged since January 2021 when they effectively “went dark” and stopped sending redemption checks and stopped responding to me in a timely manner and without hassle.

• Initial Complaint

  05/23/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  On December 9th, 2022, I provided ******** to ******* *** **** *****, ********** of the PIP group as well as other numerous LLC's. Over the years I have invested with this group on tax liens in ******** as well as property flips. Most recently their interest has been in ******** ** and my current investment was connected to the sale of properties in ********. The arrangement was for a short-term investment of 90 days which would be paid back on or prior to March 10th, 2023 principal + 10% interest (promissory note was executed by both parties) I was told that I would likely be paid back prior to the deadline and that I would be given progress reports along the way. The due date came and went with no update, after I inquired, I was told numerous times I would be paid next week for various reasons. Finally, 60 days later I was told a wire would be sent on May 12th. After no monies were received, I wonder if I am the victim of a crime and not a client of a troubled business. After the promise of a wire, no further correspondence has been received by PIP despite several emails & calls. I consider this extremely unprofessional as I would likely have worked with them if the deal did not go as expected, but instead they have chosen to lie and hide, hardly the actions of a reputable business. I would like them to honor the terms of the agreement they made and explain how we have arrived at this point. In summary: • An agreement was made and signed 12/9/22 • **** was transferred to PIP 12/9/22 • No updates were provided as promised. • No money has been paid to me as promised. • There has been no attempt to return my correspondence or resolve this dispute.

• Initial Complaint

  05/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Since that time Complainant invested $75,000 in December 2020 to partner with this company, The Pip Group, to do a Fix and Flip. PIP contracted to pay this principal party a 16% annual return on her investment. The Pip Group purchased the property for $25,000 and sold it to principal for $75,000 prior to doing any rehab work, a $50,000 upcharge from what they purchased it for. From the date that the property was purchased in February 2021, until the date that I received any information from PIP, which was in July of 2022, I sent emails to PIP, regularly, requesting follow up as to what was being done. These included questions as to accountability in terms of what permits were being pulled etc. It wasn’t until July 2022, 10 months ago, that an excel spreadsheet was emailed to me with $40,000 in costs for rehab work listed. At that time, PIP informed me that it would be only , a matter of days before a few other trades were completed, and the property would list for sale. That was July of last year. Two months later, in September 2022,k the same information was relayed a second time in an email. The email stated, there are a few more trades to come in and complete the rehab, and then the property would be ready to sell. After obtaining an attorney to send a demand letter, in September 2022, I finally received a response in January 2023 stating that the PIP Group does not want to acknowledge that the $50,000 upcharge that was passed on to me in the cost of the property was used to rehab the property, and instead, wants to call this charge an assignment fee for acquiring the property. Despite the fact that I have repeatedly requested updates on the rehab work, they want to charge me late fees (25%) for not paying any invoices, when in all actuality, PIP never sent me any invoices for monies owed. They are also adding their legal fees. This is not only a scam, it is unjust enrichment for them

  Business response

  05/10/2023

  I cannot begin to de**ribe the amount of time and energy I have wasted on this individual.  ****.  **** clearly has no basic understanding for real estate, investing, contracts, or how transactions work.  In 27 years, servicing hundreds of clients and through hundreds of thousands of transactions, I have never met someone so unreasonable, or incapable of basic understanding of how a contract and a transaction works.  Her attorney has ignored our attempts to resolve this.  She has ignored our attempts and our attorney’s attempts to resolve this.  She has reached out to vendors we have good reputations with to try and tarnish our good name and now she is making a feeble attempt by reaching out to the BBB. 
  As is standard protocol for this individual, she did not share any of the facts surrounding this matter and again, doesn’t understand how real estate transactions work – even on the most simplistic of levels.  It is most likely why her attorney never responded, because he realized she didn’t have a viable complaint after my initial correspondence to him.  That correspondence is attached, as are the documents I refer to with him.  **. ****’s latest claim is that we up-charged her $50k on her investment and indicates “false enrichment”.  The irony to this claim is that it was di**overed by an individual who spent time in jail for real estate fraud and of all things, false enrichment.  He clai** to be rehabilitated, which I guess is what every criminal says when they get out of jail.  Her “evidence” is a printout of a ****** post showing the property sold for $25,000.  What she fails to accept and understand (even though I have provided my own webinars on the topic) is that ****** only captures what a county records as a sale.  For example, if your parents die and the balance on their loan is $20,000, the estate would pay the balance and record the deed as a sale of $20,000 – it could be a home worth $2mm, but ****** will show it as a sale of $20k.  If I buy a tax deed in *** *** *** **, or **, the property could be worth $350k, but if I bought it for $100k, ****** sees it as $100k.  In this circu**tance, it is not even a real sale.  It is an auction and a lien against the property.  I cannot do anything with it, yet ****** has recognized it as a sale. In the world of buying and selling real estate (traditional, or otherwise), the agent com****ions, attorney fees and other expenses associated to the sale are CLEARLY not part of the recorded sales price, right?  Wholesalers are an extension of this as well.  Wholesalers canvas areas all over the country to find property owners interested in selling their properties.  They put a property under contract for a certain price, pay a deposit to the owner and then have a certain period of time to offload that property to investors like us.  If they don’t, they lose the deposit.  The way they earn their money is to negotiate an assignment fee with us, the investor.  We have paid as little as $1500 for an assignment fee, to as much as $120,000.  There is no such thing as an unreasonable assignment fee, but there could be an unreasonable asking price.  The asking price here was $25k with an assignment fee of $50k.  Very reasonable total purchase price and as a result, the wholesaler was duly compensated.  It would take about a 2 minute ****** verification to understand that assignment fees are not part of the sales price, just as an agent’s com****ion is not part of the sale price.  The fact ****** shows this as a $25k sales price means nothing.
  Sticking to her usual means of not sharing all the details, is **. **** spent months making completely unreasonable demands of us.  She wanted the property done is unreasonable timeframes, during a pandemic and even worse, SHE NEVER PAID FOR ANY OF THE REPAIRS!  She somehow wanted these miracles to happen, at OUR expense.  At one point, we did in fact take it upon ourselves to do the repairs, which she still has not paid us back for.  Again, basic understanding of how this investment works, is that we acquire a property, she pays to renovate the property and we earn a fee based on the performance of the property – it really is that simple and she’s here making false clai** and allegations.  Not including penalties and interest, she owes us $46,887.29.
  As you can see through the various attachments and emails provided here, I have been trying to reasonably resolve this matter since January.  She has failed to respond to her attorney, her attorney has failed to respond to me, she has failed to respond to multiple emails and phone calls as recently as last week from our attorney.  Why she feels BBB is going to provide a different result, bewilders me. 
  Since she refused to respond to our attorney, her attorney, or our firm, I guess I am left to communicate this through here.  **. ****, per your agreement we can terminate in 60 days.  If we do so, we will place a lien on the property for all repairs, penalties, interest and attorney’s fees accumulated to date.  Any attempts to disparage us online, or otherwise, will be met with swift and fierce consequences.  It is in your best interest to stop playing these games and respond to our attorney.

  Customer response

  05/23/2023

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

   Complaint: ********

  I am rejecting this response because:

  Regards,

  ****** ****

  RESPONSE TO BBB /***** ********* AND TO  PIP GROUP

   

  Talking about sharing of facts, it took *** ***** from April of 2021 to June of 2021 to release a quit claim deed and pictures of the property that was purchased with my funds received in December 2020. Then it took from June of 2021 to July of 2022 to come up with a spread sheet of work that was performed on the property.  That was after repeated attempts of inquiries and questioning through email asking for current updates on activity to the property.

  In July of 2022 and September 0f 2022, I was informed both times through email messages,  “  That it would only be a couple of months before the property would be completed.”   This is SUPPOSE TO BE from an experienced rehabber.  Really???  This is not rocket science. It is a simple fix and flip. It’s not even a high-end rehab, nor is it a brand new house that is being built from the bottom up. In fact, for the time it has taken this man to do one simple rehab house, I could have built 2 brand new homes. He tries to blame it on Covid, but Covid restrictions have been over for a year now.  

   

  Moreover, this man has yet to provide any invoices, cancelled checks, escrow papers, or proof of what been spent or what is being spent.  It is called ACCOUNTABILITY with a capital A, and this man does not know what this is after 27 years in business.  It’s pathetic to say the least. If he was ******* ** *** **** he would have still to prove all his expenses.

   

  While *** ***** states that he paid a $50,000 assignment fee, and in light of the fact that he has yet to show any evidence otherwise through escrow papers, I believe this $50,000 to be a blanket of funds to cover rehab materials and work performed thus far. But again, there is no evidence of this. There have been no receipts or invoices or cancelled checks to show any of his rehab work thus far, yet he wants me to fork over more money. I don’t think so.

   It was not until I spoke with *** ****** Publisher, ***** *******, who has advertised this company in the past, that a response to a demand letter was actually received by *** ***** updating this investor of performance done since July 2022. That response was received in January 2023, 4 months after a formal inquiry.  Moreover, this whole shebang is starting to sound like false advertisement to me. If a magazine advertises a 16 per cent annual return on one’s money, and the person holding the ball cannot perform in a reasonable time, and cannot document any accountability records, I question the integrity of this statement. *** ***** tries to state that I am disparaging his 27 -year business, but this is the kind of  experience that I have witnessed with this company, and I have no reason to lie. Talk about time and energy wasted.!!!!! As I stated previously,I could have built 2 brand new homes in the time lost on this business. Perhaps this is why *** ***** continually has to recruit new investors. It is extremely difficult to retain the business of existing customers if a shoddy operation likes this is how he runs his business.

   

  Moreover, this man wants me to hand over, another $ 47,000.  What does he think I am stupid?????  Like I stated before, I could have built, 2 brand new houses with my $75,000 during this last 2 years.  In fact, my brother already did. He bought a lot for 35,000 in February 2021, gave a deposit to the builder, and closed escrow in September 2021. Again, this is not rocket science.

   

  I come from a family of real estate business individuals. From agents who buy and sell to builders who do new construction, to contractors who renovate to appraisers, who appraise values of properties. The contract is not as difficult as *** ***** makes it sound. He may have issues with understanding contracts, but I am accustomed to them. The contract says he will pay 16 percent annual, and so does his email of 2022. I have attached his advertisement and the email message. He needs to fulfill his fiduciary responsibility,, instead of neglecting to do so as is evident in the March 2023 email.   

   

  see attached

• Initial Complaint

  09/13/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  On April 2, 2021, I wired $85,000 to PIP Investments in anticipation that the money would be used to invest in Illinois tax liens. I received acknowledgement of receipt of funds by email, but nothing further: no welcome packet, no account number, no plan as to how the investment would proceed. I initiated email contact, and finally was informed that PIP would no longer be involved in Illinois tax liens because of staffing problems. I was invited to instead invest in Savannah fix-and-flip projects, but again, no further information for months. Finally, on July 25, I received an email with a revised contract attached. I expressed my concern with the new contract, noting that it did not state how our business would actually proceed, but instead went to great lengths to insulate PIP from any liability for anything, even gross negligence. The company said they would address my concerns, but did not. On August 24 I sent a certified letter requesting return of my funds, but no response.

  Business response

  10/12/2021

  From: Charles Sells <[email protected]>
  Sent: Wednesday, October 6, 2021 2:29 PM
  To: Info <[email protected]>
  Subject: Case: 15854593
  Importance: High

  We have asked the client to voluntarily retract their complaint, as we have refunded their entire investment in full.  We have been working with this client and have communicated with them ongoing.  There have been lost communications between email threads on both parties.  As a result, frustrations have built on both sides and we have attempted to offer concessions in an attempt to repair the new relationship.  These have mounted due to labor shortages outside of our control from a COVID issue in county and municipal offices for which our business coordinates with and operates within as well.  I believe we have rectified this matter to the best of our ability with the client, by returning all of the funds submitted to us and have asked he give us another chance when things return to normal one day. 

  Thank you.

  ******* ** ***** * *** ******************** ************ **** *** **** ********* ****** **** *********** ****** ** **** ****** **** ******* ****** *** ** ********* ** **** **** ******* *** ** ******** ******* **** ***** ****** ****** ******** ** *** ****

  Customer response

  10/12/2021

  Better Business Bureau:

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 15854593, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.  I would refer any reader to my review, which I submitted last week, for details.

  Regards,

  Douglas Markley

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩