🏚️ Why TikTok Real Estate Gurus and ChatGPT Are Ruining “Creative Financing” (One Dumb Offer at a Time)
Welcome to the new era of AI-generated hustle culture, where half the “buyers” out there are sending out real estate offers created by ChatGPT — and the other half are following some guy on TikTok who “bought 27 duplexes with no money down.”
These “investors” all have one thing in common: they know how to copy-paste templates, but not how to read a calculator.
Every week, agents are getting bombarded with shiny, four-page Letters of Intent written in corporate gibberish, complete with fake company names like “Imperius Horizon Holdings, Inc.” — because apparently, if you sound like a sci-fi villain, sellers will take you seriously.
Let’s take one of these AI-generated masterpieces and tear it apart piece by piece.
🧾 The Offending Document: “Imperius Horizon Holdings, Inc.”
This thing looks polished: bullet points, CAP rates, NOI projections, even a fake “investment summary.” But under the surface? It’s like an episode of Shark Tank written by a chatbot on Red Bull.
The letter proudly lists four “offers” — all of which sound intelligent until you, you know, do math.
Let’s unpack the absurdity.
💰 OFFER 1 — The “All Cash Offer” ($1.8M on a $2.3M listing)
“Close in 30 days. This reflects our evaluation of the current financial performance (NOI $158,700, CAP ≈ 8.8%).”
Translation: We want a $500K discount because we copy-pasted the term ‘CAP rate’ from BiggerPockets.
If you actually had $1.8 million in cash, you wouldn’t send a 5-page LOI filled with buzzwords — you’d just buy the place.
This offer exists for one reason: to look serious without being serious. It’s like writing “Dear Lamborghini dealer, I’d like to offer $140K cash for your $250K car. My offer is based on your tire condition.”
🧮 OFFER 2 — The “Creative Finance” Fantasy ($2.3M)
“50% down, seller-financed, principal-only payments, 40-year amortization, 10-year balloon.”
Ah yes, the TikTok investor starter pack: throw in words like “principal-only,” “DSCR,” and “tax-efficient income” — and hope nobody checks the math.
Who on earth offers a 40-year seller carry? What seller wants to play mortgage banker for four decades with no interest?
This is not “creative finance.” It’s “can you please finance my life choices?”
🤡 OFFER 3 — The “Higher Price Incentive” ($2.35M)
“30% down, 45-year amortization, 7-year balloon.”
That’s right — a 45-year amortization.
This deal ends before the payments even scratch the surface of the principal.
Let’s decode it:
“We’ll pay you for seven years as if it’s a 45-year loan. Then we’ll owe you a balloon payment that we’ll somehow magically refinance right before it explodes.”
In other words, they want the seller to take on all the risk while they play landlord with no skin in the game.
It’s the real estate equivalent of leasing a Ferrari and calling it an investment property.
🪄 OFFER 4 — The “Premium Price, Minimal Cash Outlay” Special ($2.5M)
“10% down, 35-year amortization, 6-year balloon, plus 3% of profits until payoff.”
This one deserves an award for creative fiction.
They’re offering over asking price but only 10% down, no interest, and a 3% “profit share.” Profits from what, exactly — their TikTok channel?
No serious investor offers a profit percentage to the seller while asking them to finance 90% of the deal. That’s not partnership — that’s desperation with a thesaurus.
If you squint hard enough, you can see the ChatGPT prompt that created this:
“Write me a real estate offer that sounds impressive but requires no money.”
🤯 The “Standard Terms” Section — AKA, The Comedy Footer
“Earnest Money: 1% of purchase price.”
“Inspection: 15 days.”
“Closing: 30–45 days depending on document prep.”
“Subject to verification of financials and property condition.”
Basically: “We’ll tie up your listing for a month, poke around, and then ghost you.”
The earnest deposit is laughable — 1%? On a multi-million-dollar deal? That’s not skin in the game; that’s pocket lint.
📱 The TikTok Connection
Here’s where it gets funny (and sad). These exact templates are being handed out in TikTok “ coaching programs” where self-proclaimed gurus teach new investors how to “buy real estate with no money down.” This particular offer was taught by Steven Glaude, who is the Team Manager of Glaude & Associates, and Instant Hotels
They probably record videos in fancy Airbnb’s saying things like:
“Use ChatGPT to generate your LOI — it makes you look professional!”
Professional? Sure. Realistic? Absolutely not.
You can always spot these “AI + guru” offers because they:
- Use made-up company names that sound like hedge funds.
- Reference “projected NOI” with zero actual data.
- Offer multiple “creative options” because they can’t pick one that actually works.
Not A Real Company
🧱 What Real Investors Actually Do
Serious buyers don’t need four “creative” options — they need one good offer.
They:
- Know their numbers.
- Offer realistic terms.
- Provide proof of funds.
- And they definitely don’t suggest a 45-year amortization with no interest.
A real LOI fits on one page, not in a fantasy novel.
⚠️ Final Thought
To every seller and agent out there:
If you get one of these “Imperius Horizon Holdings” letters, don’t bother printing it. Just frame it and hang it in your office as a reminder of what happens when AI meets TikTok hustle culture.
Because behind the slick formatting and made-up math, these offers all say the same thing:
“We don’t have the money — but we do have Wi-Fi.”
✍️ Author Bio
Written by Duncan Wierman — Real Estate Investor, Speaker, and Educator who’s seen every “creative finance” scheme the internet could dream up. When he’s not debunking nonsense, he’s building real portfolios, teaching others how to do it right, and occasionally laughing at TikTok deal sheets.