Balmain's sniffer dog bargain
The private credit manager puts its telemarketers to work.
A few weeks ago, Carlos, a 65-year-old hairdresser working in the leafy Bayside suburbs of Melbourne, was browsing a popular social media platform when he was drawn to an advertisement for a high-yielding and secure property investment.[[Carlos is not his real name.]] The advertisement, posted by Balmain Group, was offering a nine per cent yield on a first-ranked mortgage loan.
As Carlos and his wife were nearing retirement, and their life savings invested in bank term deposits were returning less than five percent, the hairdresser was interested. The additional four percentage points of return would make his retirement a lot easier, so he clicked on the ad and filled out his contact details.
The opportunity of a lifetime
What followed was a barrage of friendly phone calls from a young man claiming to be a Balmain employee. The charming young man urged Carlos to act quickly as the investment opportunity might close soon, and he emailed Carlos a series of advertising blurbs, offering mortgage investments in a variety of properties in Western Sydney. Carlos didn't like the look of the deals that were vacant blocks of land for future housing, but he did like the look of a hotel property in Granville.
