BiggerPockets

Well in my studies I came across the following link which I think might help new people who are starting out avoid some authors and "get rich in real estate" programs.

http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html

Reed takes a no B.S. approach to debunking a lot of the programs and books out there...good way to know what to avoid for us newbs : )...

i found his guru ratings site a few years ago. i didn't really like it because he basically has nothing good to say about anyone. there were a few he recommended but i can't remember who they were. but specifically he bashed ron legrand who is the one probably most responsible for teaching me how to buy & sell houses.

Agreed, but don't look at him as the final answer to whether a guru or mentor or what have you is a good guy or bad guy. Look at it as one piece of the puzzle. On some people, he's short and harsh. On others he provides a LOT of detail as to their negative issues. Read it, consider it, and add it to the other research you do.

Again, once we come up on his radar, I'm fully expecting a negative report because we advocate highly leveraging long term holds and think Neg Am loans (if we're still able to get them) are a good tool for someone who knows how to use them. But just because he's conservative and negative that doesn't mean you should avoid his information all together.

Sean

The ONLY thing, and let me state this as clearly as I can... THE ONLY THING one needs to know is what John T Reed has on his own site about his history in Real Estate Investing.

Visit: http://www.johntreed.com/Aboutauthor.html

Please note, that John himself shows he hasn't purchased anything since 1983. Almost 25 years ago!!! And even then, he says himself he did 12 total deals and lost money on 2 of them.

I mean, Reagan was president. If ya want to slam people about REI, maybe you should be an active investor yourself, wouldn't you agree?

Now don't get me wrong, there are somethings he points out that I agree with 100%, but hard to claim you can review investors, when you haven't been an investor yourself for almost a quarter century.

At the very least, his explanation of positive cash flows in rental situations is pretty darn close to what BP vets follow as well:

http://www.johntreed.com/positive.html

I think a lot of what he says in his site is true. There are a lot of complaints on the guru's from other sites.

I bought into his criticism of the other gurus so I had high expectations for his materials. I bought a few. He sels books for about $30/ea on different elements of real estate investing like AGGRESSIVE TAX AVOIDANCE, etc. The material is dated, info from the 80s maybe early 90s. He claims to have updated the material and lists a series of new publication dates. Total bunk... You will see a bunch of info from the 80s, then the last sentence may say, in 2001 I tried the previous technique using google and here are the results. He also seems to use info from other investors, he likes a few, has interviewed them and writes about their tactics. He does pack a lot of info in each book, does provide a few ideas of things to research to see if they may work today.

I think this guy lives off of what he did in a previous life.