Frequently Asked Questions
Welcome to the Equity & Help Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page. Here, we've compiled answers to the most common questions our investors ask about investing in properties, managing investments, and understanding our processes and policies. Whether you're curious about how to acquire deeds, collect payments, handle repairs, or manage risks, you'll find detailed answers organized into categories below.
Property Acquisition and Ownership
Discover how to navigate the process of acquiring properties with Equity & Help. Learn about deed processing times, responsibilities for property repairs, insurance and taxes, and the history of Equity & Help. Understand our methods for acquiring properties and how we ensure your investments are sound even if challenges arise.
The duration it takes for a deed to be recorded to the trust takes anywhere from 1 week - 4 months. Processing times vary from county to county.
Equity & Help purchases low-end homes that have been foreclosed and in need of repairs.
Equity & Help is responsible for the prehab of the home. This means that basic renovations are done to ensure the home is sellable to a potential qualified family.
Equity & Help is then responsible for finding qualified families who will be renovating the home.
Families need to prove that they have renovation experience such as hands-on experience, contractors, woodworkers, and do-it-yourselfers.
The family then takes on the expense and the responsibility of renovating the home.
As an added protection, Equity & Help ensures all properties have insurance when homes are initially purchased, The investor is responsible for the taxes and insurance when the house is vacant. It is required to keep a minimum of $500 USD in the escrow account for that purpose.
When the property is sold to an investor, the investor takes on that responsibility, and taxes and insurance are paid through the investor’s escrow account held with Equity & Help.
Taxes and insurance on a property averages $100 USD per month.
If a family happens to default on payment, the investor steps in to cover the costs of taxes and insurance.
Families are then required to catch up on their payments and a late fee is applied.
Purchasing a property with Equity & Help that already has a family living in that property and is giving you a return is called a Performing Home.
Performing homes are not always available because investors like the homes they have already purchased, and most investors are open to the idea of purchasing a vacant home and waiting for the home to sell to the right family. The reason for this is because there is a higher return.
If you are interested in a Performing Home, you can speak to your PhilanthroInvestor Consultant and ask them for a Performing Home.
There are a few different options of how an investor is going to manage their property. When you invest with Equity & Help you are purchasing a property. The actual title to that property will be in the name of a land trust.
Therefore, the main vehicle that Equity & Help uses is called a Land Trust. The actual deed is going to be in the name of a trust, and you will be designated the beneficiary of that trust.
Equity & Help is then assigned as the designated Trustee of that Land Trust.
Allowing Equity & Help to be the Trustee of that Land Trust, allows for a turnkey experience to the investor.
This system allows Equity & Help to manage the property, deal with monthly collections, and create monthly reports for the investor.
However, for an additional charge, to help ensure that your ownership is secure, Equity & Help can also record a notice of beneficial interest in that trust to the county. Therefore, you now have a third party that records and files that you are the owner of that property.
The investor will take immediate possession of the deed but It can take between 1 to 4 months to be registered in the city office.
Equity & Help was established in October of 2014 .
Equity & Help has 25+ employees and is expanding every year by 30%.
Equity & Help has over 140 investors and 750 properties in its program.
The manner in which Equity & Help acquires properties is through a complex system that has been built over the years.
- Use a network of various auction houses
- Use a network of whole-sellers
- Go through 10,000 properties a week
- 1000+ properties every week pass the initial due diligence stage
- Full time staff look through the following for each property:
- Valuation
- Inspection reports
- Photos
- Evaluate if it’s a fit for Equity & Help
- Through this process, Equity & Help ends up purchasing only 3 to 5 homes a week
- Equity & Help then sells these homes to potential investors.
- Equity & Help closes on these homes with special warranty deeds to ensure full and complete ownership of these properties.
If that were ever the case, there are many companies that we can refer to, who would help you move forward because there is an industry that already exists in this arena in regard to:
- Managing your portfolio
- Collections of your property
- Selling of your property
- Acquiring of new properties
What makes Equity & Help unique, is that all of these services are offered under one umbrella. Equity & Help is expanding and growing every year and continually improves upon our systems .
No, it does not. This is internal information
The purchase process with the investor and Equity & Help is such that:
- Equity & Help purchases homes with their funds following our specific criteria
- The investor is presented with a proposal
- The investor checks them and decides which properties he wants to purchase
Investment Management and Financials
Get insights into the financial aspects of investing with us. Find out how to collect monthly payments, access property reports, understand various investor fees, manage funds internationally, and follow the necessary legal and procedural steps. Learn ways to mitigate risks and ensure your investments are managed efficiently.
Equity & Help has full-time staff in collections, which is responsible for managing and collecting all monthly payments.
Payments are then made to investors on the 20th of each month through 3 different options:
- Wire transfer
- Mailed check
- Funds are kept in the investor's account for reinvestment.
- Detailed Reports are emailed to the investor
Both, the report and income received each month shows the activity of the previous month.
Yes, Inspection and property reports can be made available to the investor upon request. They are sent every month on the 20th.
There are no closing costs when buying a home from Equity & Help. All costs are included in the purchase price.
There are some fees involved with Equity & Help. Before the initial transaction, Equity & Help sends a fee schedule to the investor that discloses all fees involved and all fees are also included in the trust document.
If you do not live locally and want to invest internationally, Equity & Help is one of the best options.
Traditionally, if you would like to invest in real estate it requires you to go see the property. Equity & Help has full time staff that’s sole purpose is to view properties. They are then able to use their expertise and view over 10,000 properties per week and successfully choose the best properties to purchase.
We have over 100+ investors that have never needed to go and look at property and find a family and that is the convenience that Equity & Help offers you as an investor.
Some investors are concerned with mitigating exposure to risk and liability. There are not many risks involved because the investor does own the property outright and investing in Real Estate is a great way to build wealth.
The following risks are possible:
- The family does not make payments on time
- The family defaults from payments and then needs to be evicted
- The home may become vacant for an extended period of time if an eviction is required
- The property does not sell to a family in under a year
- The property needs to be replaced if it does not sell in under a year (Home Warranty covers this, speak to your PhilanthroInvestor about this option)
- Possibility of a natural disaster (Insurance may cover this)
All these scenarios mean that the investor may get a lower rate of return for a short period of time and it eventually improves again.
The good thing is that low-end properties are always affordable and are always a commodity with Equity & Help.
Every individual bank charges their own fees. Each bank has different set fees. You need to ask your individual bank for what that fee would be. It varies around $15-20 USD for national wiring fees depending on the bank.
International wire fees tend to be higher even when cashing American Cheques.
To lower the cost of such fees, you may opt for:
- Receiving a cheque
- Having your money wired every quarter
- Getting an ACH
No. Homes are already purchased by Equity & Help. The investor signs the contracts on a legal signature platform online but, there is always a person working with the investor who guides the process.
Equity & Help cannot facilitate the sale of a property to by finding another investor for that same property.
However, the investor has the option of finding another investor and introducing them to Equity & Help. Equity & Help can then facilitate the sell of the property in question in the investor’s name.
The investor can also sell their own property themselves.
If a potential investor is interested in moving forward with Equity & Help these are the next steps:
- Contact a PhilanthroInvestor to ensure all questions are answered
- Open an account opening form for
- Transfer (refundable) $1000 USD into Equity & Help escrow account.Then signs an escrow agreement and sends the money to escrow to pay for the properties.
- Get on to priority list to purchase a property
- Purchase a property on a first come first serve opportunity
- Equity & Help manages the property for you
- Equity & Help finds a family for you
- Equity & Help helps you get double digit returns
When an investor is ready to move forward with Equity & Help, the money needs to be deposited into the investor’s Escrow Account.
This will enable Equity & Help to fund your property that you choose through Equity & Help.
You will receive a detailed wiring sheet to share with your bank with all the necessary information to transfer your money to the escrow account with Equity & Help.
In addition, an Escrow Agreement will be executed indicating:
- The exact amount that will be wired through
- This agreement establishes that this is your money in the escrow account
- That Equity and Help only has access to these funds once a property has been purchased by you.
- Wire transfer
- Credit Card
- Debit Card
- IRA (USA)
- 401K (USA)
- 1031 (USA)
- Bitcoin
When the investor is ready to move forward with investing with Equity & Help, the investor’s funds will be transferred to the investor’s escrow account at Equity & Help’s Bank Account in the USA.
The funds remain in the escrow account until you the investor decide to purchase property with Equity & Help or decide to withdraw the funds back into the investor’s account.
This is a turnkey business made so that the investor can regain control of their time and energy, directing their energy to things that are most important to them.
There is always the option to withdraw the cash balance in the investor’s account at any time.
The investor receives a monthly report and the account statement will demonstrate how much money the investor has in their account.
The investor owns the investment properties and can sell any of them through an investment property broker at any time. Equity & Help does not recommend doing so until the investor recovers their investment which is usually after 6-7 years
- The markup that Equity & Help makes from buying homes in bulk and pre-rehabbing them for the investors plus selling them between 7-10% Net
- $500 that the investor pays when we sell the home to the Family
- Our monthly maintenance fee that is charged to the investor is:
- $25 / month per property when the home Is vacant
- $45 / month per property when the home is occupied
- Our monthly maintenance fee of $30/month per property that we charge families
- Our brand representation agreement of entrepreneurs who pay to represent our brand and train the ambassadors in different parts of the world.
Not necessarily, the majority of families move every 5 to 7 years.
We have families who live in a home, improve it, and then give it back to us free of charge.
All the money the investor has made is pure profit, and it is up to the investor to decide what to do with the property.
Most investors decide to sell their property again and make even more money.
Another option is that an investor may sell their property to someone they may know. There is a fee of USD 500 to complete the paperwork regarding transferring the land trusts to the new investor.
Right now $180,000 is the minimum required for initial investment with Equity & Help. You will own three investment properties with this initial funding of your account.
Legal and Procedural
Understand the legalities involved in your investment. Learn about the realtor commission fee structures, the legality of our contracts, procedures for selling your properties with or without our assistance, and how we ensure the correct taxes and insurance are handled for each property.
A great advantage of Equity & Help is that investors are not required to pay any realtor commission fees to purchase homes.
There is a $500 fee that Equity & Help charges on a pro-rated basis depending on how long it takes to find a qualified family to purchase the property.
The contracts used by Equity and Help are legal. You have access to Equity & Help’s lawyer. We have consulted with several different lawyers to ensure that we adhere to current laws. You can also request a copy of the contracts before the sale of a house and have your lawyer review the contracts.
Yes, the investor is completely free to do whatever he chooses with the property.
Equity & Help is there to help manage the property, sell the property if need be, however the investor is not tied to Equity & Help in any way.
In regards to taxes, Equity & Help calls the county of a property to request the amount of taxes required for that property.
In regard to Insurance, as soon as a home is purchased with Equity & Help it is set up through the insurance company. Each property is assessed and is insured for its structural value. It includes $1 Million for General Liability.
If an investor is interested in more insurance they can purchase more on their own.
Risk Management and Eviction
Find out how we manage risks associated with your investments. Learn about our timelines for qualifying families, handling payment defaults, the eviction process, costs associated with evictions, and how we maintain property conditions. Discover our system for dealing with defaults and ensuring families uphold their responsibilities.
The average processing time it takes to qualify a family for a home is 3 days and to sell the house is between 3 to 6 months.
It can be quicker and this is one of the reasons why we require that a new investor start with a minimum of 3 homes.
When a family defaults on their loan payment it goes into an eviction process just like any other loan or mortgage. We will try to work with the family to catch up on payments up to 3 months (90 days).
However, if a family does default, Equity & Help deals with an eviction process.
Equity and Help has over 750 properties.
The default rate for loan payments is currently around 10% overall for all homes ever purchased by Equity & Help.
This is a very low rate for a subprime mortgage lending company.
It depends on how many payments the investor gets from that house. You will see the data in the fee schedule before signing the service agreement.
When a qualified family is found for the home, the family agrees to renovate the home at their own expense.
This is not normally the case since these are not rentals. The perception of being a homeowner mostly avoids the property being damaged but it could happen.
If a family happens to get evicted and leaves the property in a worse state, Equity & Help ensures the home returns to sellable condition.
Equity & Help prides itself on helping families.
Sometimes families can run into financial problems and may not be able to make payments.
Every situation is on a case by case scenario and at times families may push off their payments for a month or two.
Equity & Help works with the families to ensure that they do catch up with their payments.
If a family does not fulfill their promise of catching up on their payments or stop making payments altogether, that is when an eviction process would commence.
Equity & Help takes care of managing these families for the investor. This is a turnkey business investment for the investor.
Only 7.4% of all families in the entire history of the company have defaulted on payments and needed to be evicted.
Equity & Help has first-party collection rights to the property.
- The 1st option is that Equity & Help tries to ensure open communication with the family in hopes of resolving the issue. If the issue cannot be resolved the family may decide to vacate the home and return the keys to the company. Equity & Help then sells the home to a new qualified family.
- The 2nd option is to offer cash for keys. Usually $200-$1000 USD at the investor’s expense.
- The 3rd option is an eviction or foreclosure process that involves the help of a lawyer. Several notices are sent out to the family and if need be Equity & Help will get the ruling of a judge in order to have the family evicted. The investor needs to pay some fees to evict the family.
All families are informed of these rules and the eviction process before entering a home. The 2nd option; cash for keys is not publicized to the family.
In most traditional real estate scenarios, the investor is responsible for the repairs and upkeep of the home.
One of the main advantages of Equity & Help is that the family is responsible for the renovation and upkeep of the home.
Equity & Help ensures that the family is qualified and capable of the renovation and upkeep of the home. We do inspections to verify that the house is maintained.
Market Dynamics and Performance
Explore how to maximize your investment’s profitability. Understand how we determine resale prices, the benefits of investing with Equity & Help, protections against market fluctuations, and our approach to ensuring robust property values. Get detailed reports on property taxations and strategies to continuously grow your investments.
The main place of profit on the investment is with the payments you will receive from the family.
There is also an equity gain which is the difference in how much you purchase the property for and the price we sell the property to the family.
Ex: You purchase a property for $60,000
You sell the property to a family for $70,000
Equity Gain: $10,000 USD
The resale price is based on several online evaluation models. We use mortgage valuation tools and we collect different evaluations for one property and average them. We also take into account the tax assessment of that property to help determine how much a property is worth after a repaired value state.
We will then put the home on the market for a percentage of that amount and allow families to negotiate back and forth to close the sale as quickly as possible.
Therefore, the projected price on the proposal is going to be the average selling price for any particular property.
We achieve that by starting at a determined higher amount that sometimes ends up selling at that price or perhaps ends up selling at a lower price than anticipated.
The main reason you would choose to purchase a property with Equity & Help Inc. is because of the convenience and expertise that the Equity & Help team brings to the table.
Buying a property on your own is a lot of work. For some people that is a challenge they are willing to take on through trial and error.
Over the years, Equity & Help has purchased, managed, set up, and sold over 750 properties.
If you are looking for a simple turnkey business that uses the power of the real estate and banking industry, then Equity & Help is your best option.
Yes, that is not a problem. You can decide to do what you wish with the home that you have purchased and own.
Equity & Help is fully responsible for the collection and processing of monthly rent.
Rent is collected through an online portal, credit card, or personal cheques.
The rent money is kept in an escrow account with Equity & Help until the end of the month.
Once monthly investor reports are completed, Equity & Help disperses the correct amount to each investor.
Yes. Equity & Help takes care of all collection and disbursement of taxes incurred by the property to the proper tax authorities on the appropriate dates.
A full report is available to the investor and the family at the end of the year.
The advantage of Equity & Help is that investors are purchasing low-end homes.
Investors that have run into trouble are investors who have purchased higher-end homes. The 2008 market correction affected these higher-end homes as families could no longer afford to make payments or afford to purchase these higher-end homes.
The advantage of Equity & Help is that our homes are essentially recession-proof.
If the economy starts to decline, there is going to be a higher need for lower-end homes. If the economy continues to flourish there is an abundant need for lower-end homes for families that are in the market looking to purchase their first home.
All loans to families are subject to a 20-year loan at 12%. At the end of the 20-year loan, the investor will have collected payments over 3-4 times their initial investment throughout the duration of that loan. Only then will the family now have full ownership of that property.
At any point in time, you can leverage your monthly cash flow to purchase another home and continue to increase your monthly cash flow.
In most case scenarios, most families do remortgage their home with a bank after 5-6 years. In that case, you as an investor would then decide what you would do with the money and how you would like to allocate it or cash out.
Equity & Help has many property sources. The amount of foreclosures has diminished over the last 5 years, however, there are still plenty of foreclosed properties to choose from.
Equity & Help continues to expand and if there is a downturn in the economy, this would only put Equity & Help at an advantage in where more foreclosed properties would become available.
Equity & Help has a Market Protection Policy that in case a property is sold for less than what it was purchased for, the investor will receive a non-cash credit to use towards the purchase of another property.
No, it does not.