Park Place Finance – Unreliable. Do Not Trust Written Commitments.
On May 11th, I received written loan terms from Park Place Finance stating that if a luxury property I am investing in appraised at $4.3M or above, the loan terms would not change. They basically begged my broker to allow them to fund the deal. Their own appraiser valued the property at $5.3M — a full million dollars above that threshold. They still refused to fund.
After weeks of responding promptly to every document request, paying out of pocket for appraisal fees, and producing additional photos and video documentation they requested, they reversed course at the eleventh hour with no substantive explanation.
Their COO's response essentially said that written terms are not commitments — they're just "preliminary indications subject to underwriting." That's not what was communicated to me, my broker, or the seller's broker throughout this process.
The cost of their reversal was real: appraisal fees I will not be reimbursed for, a seller who had already reduced the price to accommodate their funding structure, and a financing contingency deadline put at serious risk after I deliberately passed on other capital partners based on their written terms and verbal assurances. Luckily I was able to pivot and received "Clear to close" today by a reliable investment partner!
Before working with Park Place Finance, I strongly encourage you to check their BBB profile. This pattern — pre-approvals they can't deliver on, appraisal costs absorbed by the borrower, and last-minute reversals after written commitments — is not unique to my experience. Multiple other investors have reported the exact same playbook.
If you are a real estate investor considering Park Place Finance for a new construction or luxury asset deal —Make sure you have a back up lender in place, get everything in writing, and even then, do not rely on it. Their written commitments apparently don't bind them, but your appraisal fees absolutely do.