I have to admit that after 40 years in the business I have never fell for one of these scams before but they had a pretty good sales pitch and I fell into it. The assigned 3 properties to me, the had the current owner's name (all were companies) all 3 homes were vacant and 1 out of the 3 already had field service there which he acted like he knew this! I paid the money, Yep 40 years and never falling for one of these scams I PAID THE MONEY. Well after about 2 months with no listing agreement the Asset Manager named Andrew Forman sent me another email asking if I could handle several more. Since we were no closer to listing the original ones this time I decided I was goint to ask him for at least 3 brokers that had recieved listings, nothing! So after really looking into things I noted that when you go onto their website and click on any link they go nowhere!, facebook, Twitter, none of them. When you look up Andrew Forman on Linkin you find he has no connections, really NONE? So I dig deeper and find that the address for the company is home house not even owned by this Andrew Forman guy and WAIT..here is the best of the best! So I did a reverse image search for his photo that was on his email and the same photos is a Stock Photo for a head shot company out of California...DO NOT DO IT, BYLINE IS A SCAM...Lucky for me my CC company reversed the charges..
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1) On Byline Management’s website, the address of 487 Herrick Drive, Wheaton, IL 60178 if you search via Google Earth is a Residential Home. NOT an office building that would house a Large Management Company that Andrew pretends he is an Asset Manager of. Further, none of the Links on the website do anything and are just for show, if you click on them!
https://www.bylinemanagement.com/
2) The actual BPO platform really is very unprofessional, NOT what you would expect from a Real Management Company. This was another red flag for me!
3) I looked up Andrew Foreman and there is NO connection anywhere except for (1) on Linkedin. In further investigation, Andrew’s signature tag fails to provide any information other than a phone number. I did a Reverse Phone Research on this phone number and found it did NOT belong to Andrew Foreman, but a 70-years lady named Brenda Anita St******.
https://www.whitepages.com/phone/1-773-645-9922
4) As properties were being assigned and payments were being requested via Paypal (what legit Company does that?) initially were going to a link into Byline Management. The 3rd and 4th payments started going to individuals Robert Crook Collins, and Lejla Besic. Again red flags, which Andrew claimed they were the Owners of Byline Management when I questioned him about this.
5) I then did an Image Search on Andrew Foreman’s photo and found it is a GENERIC Shop photo of which is used on many other sites when many other fictitious names. This is NOT even a picture of Andrew Foreman and probably just a made up name by him!
https://www.google.com/search?tbs=sbi:AMhZZivhhJckwmGRgBTUEcYIpHIhE...
6) When I finally called Andrew out and demanded a FULL REFUND, Andrew promised I would get my full refund within 3-5 days. Almost 10 days later, I have tried to follow up with Andrew only to receive silence in return. NO refund is given and Andrew is now hiding from me!
I then found a NEGATIVE review from a very good friend of mine in my area, of which we compared notes. This is DEFINITELY A SCAM! Like my friend, we were smart enough to put our payments on Bank Credit Cards, of which we BOTH received all our money back via reverse charges. I am out 25 hours of wasting my time driving around and working on these dead assignments. My Bank has turned this matter over to their FRAUD division and I am planning on turning over all my findings and documents to the Attorney General’s office to have this SCAM shut down!
My friend’s review as well:
https://www.reopronetwork.com/forum/topics/byline-management-1
I am here to tell you, SAVE YOUR MONEY AS THIS IS A REAL SCAM!
He told me that I was referred to him by another asset manager, from one of the large banks, who I had worked with during the last REO market.
He gave me an REO assignment and asked me to provide BPO and also to drive by the property to do an occupancy check. He mentioned that the lender, was requiring a $349 upfront fee and that, once the property was sold, I would receive reimbursement thorough escrow. Based on my decades of experience as an REO broker, working with many banks, I had never been asked to send money upfront before. Nonetheless, I sent the $349 and immediately completed the Broker Price Opinion and drove by the property within 24 hours.
Several weeks later, he contacted me, again, and told me he had 6 new Listings for me. Within 24 hours I provided him with 6 BPO’s and six occupancy checks, spending many hours of time.
Upon completion, he mentioned that the six lenders required that I send $349, each, for a total of $2,094. At this point, I was getting suspicious. As mentioned, in all my years handling REO’s. this was the first time an asset manager asked for money upfront.
Looking further, I Googled the # 920 phone number that is on the Byline site lead to more negative comments on the Ripoff Report. Same for multiple blogs. Several dozen negative comments and only one good one from someone that just joined the group on that very day-probably a friend of theirs...
I then Googled the physical address for the co and it shows a single-family home in Wheaton. IL-not a corporate building or typical office setting.
Also, I googled ‘Byline asset managers’ and Andrew’s name was the ONLY one that came up.
Did the same thing again and found ZERO managers on LinkedIn as well.
Seems like the company would have other Managers with their photos Bios, resume etc which is normally the case. There was no other info that I could find on the internet about Byline which gave me real cause for concern.
The Byline Management site also mentioned a fee of $349 to access the website, and that is it.
So, I couldn’t understand why we are supposed to pay $349 six times-once for each assignment. There’s simply, no way that six different lenders would all request an upfront fee..
In light of all of this, I was not comfortable sending another $2,100 for the most recent group of listings.
It is clear, after this experience, that Byline Management is a Scam! They prey on real estate agents and steal their money. BEWARE!