That depends. Who is the speaker? What is the product? Was it done in a pitch-fest? I tell you what, as of now; there are just a small handful of real estate investor speakers that I feel good about promoting and they deserve to make good money selling their education. Then, there those that I would sooner close down my real estate club before I would ever endorse them.

My mailboxes, both email and snail mail, are getting bombarded with opportunities to attend Wealth conferences, wealth seminars, how to Earn Millions on auto pilot seminars and “gurus” banging down my door to speak at my club.

What are my red flags and pissosities about real estate investor gurus, seminars and events?

1. Seminars, conferences, workshops that have 4-8 speakers. I mean really – how much do you think you’re going to learn from that many people speaking in 1-2 days? They barely have time to get you good solid info before they have to start pitching their product so he next speaker can come up and start the whole process again. Especially since so much of their speaking time is spent bloviating about their incredible life and millions they made in real estate. Do we really care about their beautiful spouse and kids or need to see pictures of them in front of their 60K car? “Selling the dream” is what this is called.
2. FREE seminars. While there are a few good ones available - I watch out for these in general. They tend to be biggest pitch fests around.
3. You pay a good chunk of money (anywhere from a few hundred dollars up to many thousands!) to attend a speakers bootcamp and before you know it – you have other speakers coming in to pitch you their product as well! Gasp (!) This is one of the worst offenses in my opinion.
4. After you buy a speakers product, they spend the next several months hard selling you to buy into their mentoring $20K $30K or even $60K program! (But first they “qualify you” by checking to see how much money you have on your credit cards!) YIKES! And the worst of this is that most of the time you will not even be coached by them personally! YIKES Again! This is the biggest of all scams! Run as fast as you can! (TIP: Take that $30-60K and use it for down payments on a couple of properties. There - now you’re a real estate investor!)

Now – don’t get me wrong. I am not dismissing how important it is to receive ongoing real estate education and training. I am a huge advocate for education and know that it is nearly impossible to be a success without it. However, what I am saying is that we need to choose our gurus, coaches and mentors wisely. Believe me – I know it’s not easy to navigate through the muck of the investor seminar propaganda and pitch fest. I mean – I am in the business and I too find it hard to figure out who the real deal is! When I was a brand new-bie investor – good Lord, I was so confused by all the hype. I really do understand.

Now my best way of finding my favorite educators is to seek out those folks that my gurus, coaches and mentors listen to and follow themselves. Darnet! Even with that said – I have started to see a horrible pattern of real estate club owners and promoters hawking all real estate gurus as their “good friends”. Arghhh! Well, I suppose that is what is so great about discussion boards and forums on sites such as Biggerpockets. We can all help each other with feedback and recommendations as to who we like and dislike!

I personally have several great gurus & mentors and most of them came from word of mouth and networking with successful investors. This past year I really only spent money on just one “big name” educator (Mr. Bruce Norris- who is worth every dollar!). The rest of my education generally comes from lesser known speakers, real estate professionals and real estate investors themselves.

Bottom line, I strongly agree that we all need to continue with our education; however just buying blindly from speakers who sell a good story is not the way to go. Get recommendations from your peers and sources you trust! Networking and asking a lot of questions is the key!

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Tags: real estate education, real estate guru, real estate investing, real estate investing guru, real estate seminar

I have to say that this is one of my pet peeves.  What the heck is up with real estate gurus hawking tele-seminars, web-inars and seminars of other gurus?  I mean really – don’t they make enough money selling us their own stuff?

It seems lately that I am getting more and more emails from well known “gurus” that are promoting someone else all together!  I have to tell you that since I am in this business and have my own real estate club – I know exactly what they are up to and I think it stinks to high heaven.  It’s only about the money baby.  It’s never about them caring about you so much that they “don’t want you to miss this opportunity to see/hear ‘their good friend’…blah blah blah.” That’s just malarkey! The biggest culprits of these shenanigans seem to be those who have the biggest rip-offs to sell.  Yes – believe it or not there are gurus out there selling overpriced junk as “educational product”. There I said it!  (I hope I don’t wake up with a horse head in my bed tomorrow.)

Do you think these selling wizards care about you spending your hard earned money on their product and being successful?  I really don’t.  I think they care about selling us as much expensive product as possible with absolutely no care as to whether it’s good or beneficial to us. And – the worst thing is that some of these Gurus are not even real estate investors themselves.  Sure some might have been at one time (some of them not at all!) – but from what I gather – many of them don’t seem to be working real investors.  They are just speakers and product pushers.

Personally, I have made the choice to never buy another product from someone who is not a real estate investor NOW.   Sure there are a couple of old timers who used to be major players in SFR who are now just too rich to do these types of deals anymore.  Ten years ago – I did their trainings.  That was back in the good ‘ol days of when you paid for a boot camp and it was just that – a pitch free/no selling/ strictly education boot camp. Those seem to be few and far between these days don’t they?  Now you go to a $5000 boot camp and you still get a pitch fest when you are there! This is so bad… (Don’t get me started.)

Now don’t get me wrong – I think it is extremely important for investors to have continuing education and training!  Heck I probably spend about 10-15K a year for my own continuing education.  And I understand everyone needs to make a buck… but for gods sake… do we really need to buy a new product every month from a Guru that we already spent good money with – and it’s not even his product that he is hawking?  I should say not!

Over kill, information overload, and over the top…. Give me a cotton pickin’ break por favor!

Image Credit: Kansas City Real Estate Investing Blog

Tags: Learn Real Estate, real estate education, real estate guru, real estate gurus, real estate investing, real estate investing guru, real estate speakers

Those who run real estate investment clubs have a big challenge in lining up speakers for each meeting.  Clubs do not usually have the kind of budget that would allow them to pay for speakers, therefore they need to do their best to locate those that will speak for free.  This invariably results in the talk being given by someone who has a specific agenda or something to sell.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, you just need to keep the speakers ultimate motivation in mind when you listen to the spiel.

Some of these speakers are quite good and their knowledge is obvious.  On the other hand, some of the speakers leave you scratching your head and wondering if they have ever owned an investment property.  Investing veterans have little difficulty in separating the fakes from those who are the real deal.  Novice investors may mistakenly assume that if someone is speaking to a group he must know something.  Hopefully they will learn before they are burned by one of these phonies. 

 My primary purpose for attending monthly club meetings is for the networking and resulting connections ( see: Getting the Most From Your Real Estate Club ), however I do enjoy hearing from good presenters. My local real estate club had two very well qualified speakers at a couple of recent meetings.  While both were very obviously qualified to speak about real estate investing, their styles and agendas were a world apart.  

 Guru #1

At our May 2008 club meeting we had a speaker who specialized in foreclosures.  Certainly a timely topic and on that I was looking to learn more about.  I had seen this speaker once before and knew that he was a good presenter and very knowledgeable.  After introducing himself and providing his background, he openly stated his agenda.  He was not there to sell books, tapes or home-study courses, in fact he didn’t have any of that.  The business model for his company was to purchase bank REO (foreclosures) properties in bulk.  He then sold these properties as-is or after light rehab to investors at wholesale prices.  To do that he needed two things, properties to buy from banks and investors to sell them to.

What he was pitching was a two day seminar on how to locate, buy and finance the acquisition of these properties.  He was charging $1800 for the seminar with the guarantee that he would refund your money after the first day if you didn’t feel it was worth it.  He then proceeded to spend the next hour sharing some of his knowledge of the subject.  He was truly impressive and it was a great example of what you would get in his workshop.  He had over twenty people sign up and most of them were veteran investors who are not easily impressed.

 Guru #2

At our most recent club meeting we had another speaker with impressive credentials.  He is currently featured on one the house flipping shows and has a real estate company on the east coast.  The club heavily promoted the meeting because they do not usually have a name speaker and the resulting attendance was much larger than normal.  Many of the regular meeting segments were cut short to allow this speaker to have as much time as possible.

This speaker had an array of tapes and course material displayed, so his agenda was obvious to anyone who was paying attention.  He began his talk with his background in real estate and talked about all of the mistakes he made when he began.  He kept telling us that he was going to teach us how to do this, that, and the other thing during his talk.  I kept waiting for him to actually “teach” something but all he really did was talk about what he was going to tell us.

As the talk progressed it was laced with sales pitches for a computer program, home-study courses and his five-day boot camp.  Some of the pitches were very subtle while others were blatant commercials.  After 90 minutes he closed with a final pitch for his boot camp.  The regular price was $5,000, but is you signed up now it was only $2,497.  But wait, there’s more! He would include a $500 credit for your travel expenses and the first few people to sign up would receive the $2,000 computer program for $1!

A handful of people did sign up.  From what I saw they were newcomers to the club or novice investors.  None of the veterans were impressed enough to part with their cash. 

The Bottom Line

Both of the gurus were qualified to speak about real estate.  However their value was very different.  One was geared to marketing courses and boot camps to novice investors.  Those who sign up would most likely gain valuable knowledge, but would it really be worth the price?  The second guru was targeting experienced investors with a desire to participate in the foreclosure market.  I spoke to several of the attendees who agreed that there was definite value, but it was not for everyone.

If you are ever inclined to sign up for some gurus course, do so with your eyes wide open.  Is the course geared to someone with your level of experience?  What do you hope to gain from the seminar or boot camp?  Will you be able to implement what you learn or are you just falling for a sales pitch from a smooth-talking speaker? Buyer beware.

The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.
George Santayana

Tags: guru, Learn Real Estate, real estate club, real estate guru, real estate investing

Real investing is, and has always been, a topic that has generated a lot of interest. Some people are actually accomplished investors while others are dabblers with the remainder being “wannabes”. That’s the American way and nothing wrong with that unless you fall victim to a real estate hustler.

What’s a real estate hustler? If you have ever heard of a fellow named John T. Reed, you will know. A West Point graduate and former Army officer, Reed isn’t exactly your run of the mill dummy. However, he does carry an acerbic pen.

To give you an idea, he has a full page devoted to those folks who sell how to invest in real estate courses. He gives you in no uncertain terms who he thinks is a hustler and who he thinks isn’t.

As one would imagine, he has both critics and supporters. Personally I like the idea he created his guru rating. It at least gives a broader read on the former late night real estate hawkers.

There is an ominous overtone in his pages as well. If you go to his headline page, you will see this in the headline box:

USAA canceled my homeowners insurance and refused to sell me umbrella liability insurance because of this page

I hate to admit this but USAA is my insurance company as well. I have been with them since 1972.

From the letters he reprints it appears USAA has decided to censor Reed for his outspoken political views. Mind you, in my opinion and from I’ve been taught, your political views are not grounds for censorship by ANY insurance company.

I also happen to be a co-owner of an insurance agency. None of the companies we represent list “political views” as a ground for cancellation.

This has me a bit upset. His political views and his real estate guru views are his and his alone and not subject to any sort of admonishment by any entity unless clearly declared illegal by law or done in a slanderous or libelous way.

What upsets me the most is the arbitrary nature of USAA’s expressed objection. If they can cancel Reed for his political views and statements, they can then cancel me because I invest in foreclosures. It amounts to the same sort of sin if one reads their reasoning.

The signal might be that only certain investments are politically correct. The signal might be Big Brother has many ways to keep you in line. I could go on but you get the idea.

I am neither a proponent nor a detractor of Reed’s. What I am is concerned that the censorship line is getting wider and wider. I used Reed’s case only because he is well known in the real estate investment community.

Tags: gugu ratings, john t reed, politics, real estate, real estate guru, real estate ratings

We’ve got a wonderful interview for everyone today! Christian Malesic is a relatively new member to BiggerPockets, but in that short time, has given quite a bit of himself to help others out! His knowledge, enthusiasm, and energy is captivating, and I thought we ought to find out more about the man. Christian focuses primarily on a buy and hold investing strategy in the Central Pennsylvania area.

Meet Real Estate Investor Christian Malesic

How long have you been investing in real estate?
Round 1 went from 1994 to 2002. Round 2 started in 2006 and is gaining momentum everyday.

While studying Electrical Engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, I was an Air Force cadet with dreams of becoming a career officer and a leader among men. I excelled as a cadet and was a better than average engineering student, especially in digital systems and computer hardware & software, which made me a highly desirable Air Force asset. Partly due to this, but mainly due to our like-minded approach to life and leadership, the Commandant of Cadets took me under his wing. I learned much under his tutelage; the most appropriate to this discussion being (I paraphrase here):

Purchase a home at every duty station. Live in it. Rent it out when Uncle moves you along. Your tenants will pay off the mortgage.

I fully planned on implementing this wealth strategy at my first assignment to Minot AFB, ND in 1992. There was little to nothing for sale, no new construction, and rent was extremely low. I rented a nice 1 bedroom house with a decent yard and a two car garage for around $350 per month. I studied up and began planning for the next assignment.

I purchase my first single family dwelling in 1994, a three bedroom with two bath house on a _ acre in a suburban neighborhood in Palm Bay, FL.

I kept this property for almost 10 years as my life changed. I decided that almost 6 years in the service of my country was more than my ‘duty’ and promoted myself to ‘civilian’ to start my own construction company back home in Harrisburg, PA.

What attracted you to becoming a real estate investor?
My father – plain and simple - was my inspiration and both parents are still my biggest fans. Dad spent countless hours attending REI seminars, reading, and mostly talking about investing. He had grand plans that he would lay out for me in the wee hours of the night when the rest of the world was asleep. He never pulled the trigger. Still, he is a great success; especially if your measuring stick is the education he gave to his sons.

Are you a full time or part time investor?
By the book I am a part time investor. As of this writing we hold 28 rental units in 14 properties.

How did you get started investing?
Round 2 (see previous for Round 1). My brother and I own our electrical contracting firm together and work very closely everyday. We had researched and debated for years that a REI company would be the perfect compliment to our electrical business.

What’s more, since we are our own bosses, we could do whatever management the REI company needed whenever we felt moved. Thus, the REI company would not necessarily be serviced only in the evenings or on weekends, but rather whenever we could work it into the daily grind. Now that it is a reality, I do it just as planned. Even though the two companies are separate and distinct, my work flow during the day passes through both, in and out, almost without differentiation.

Tell Us About Your First Deal . . .
Round 2. We had spent years preparing… actually our whole lives at the foot of dear old dad. I had learned some previous lessons. We decided to get serious. We lined up financing, planned our strategy for rehab or remodel, started accounts with construction supply vendors, and started looking. Then it happened…

Benjamin Franklin: “the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

We bought a city property. The deal: half of a brick, three story duplex for $25,000. An old man had lived there for years and his Power of Attorney was now moving him to assisted living. It was not abused, but had not been maintained for decades either. It needed work. The owner (POA) allowed us to start removing the man’s discarded things before the settlement. We knew this was risky as the deal could fall through and we would ‘lose’ all of the labor we did. But it panned out.

A neighbor from two doors down approached us three days before our settlement (we did not own the property yet) asking if we owned the property. Hesitantly, we answered that we were buy and hold investors and planned on fixing it up and renting it out. He wanted to know if we would consider selling as-is, stop work ASAP, and let his friend see the place in about and hour. He mentioned a price of around $50k (remember we had paid, or were about to pay in three days $25k plus closing costs). Long story short, we literally went from the closing table to his house three days later to sign a contract (of course, we could not sign a contract before we even owned the property). We cleared $18,500 on that first deal and did only a few hours of clean-out labor.

We got lucky… or worked hard (depending on if you were observing from the outside or were us working the long hours away from our families in the evening and weekends for weeks on end to get ourselves prepared for this new venture.)

What is your focus?
Buy and Hold residential. We rent clean, updated, nice apartments to upper lower class or lower middle class people. We often hear perspective tenants say that ours are the nicest apartments they have seen in all the time they have been looking. We like that. We are building a reputation and have begun to brand ourselves.

Do you prefer the residential side or commercial side of investing? Why?
Residential. Our experience with commercial is limited. We purchased an office building for our electrical firm with HUGE growth potential on one acre along a busy street in a great growth area. Other than that we have done nothing other than walk from less-than-desirable commercial opportunities, though we continue to review them.

What do you look for in an investment?
As Buy and Hold investors, we think long term. Cash Flow is King, but… We are sometimes willing to sacrifice cash flow for an “add to inventory property” (one that cash flows neutral or small positive) if it is in the right shape in the right geographical area.

How many deals have you done in your career?
As of 21 Mar 08 - Completed deals in the business name only: 17 buys and 3 sells. Adding my Round 1 property and our personal homes, it jumps slightly to 21 buys and 5 sells. I am still a newbie, which is why I am profoundly honored to be chosen for this Meet the Investor interview.

Do you have your real estate license?
I do not. My wife does. She became an agent at the beginning of 2007 and serves mostly one client – me. This was / is our strategy. I have written on this in a BiggerPockets thread entitled, “Don’t Rely on Agents, Become One” in the General Real Estate Investing forum on 12 Mar 08. Check it out.

What advice would you give to a beginning investor?
JUST DO IT! It literally took decades for the Malesic clan to get off our collective butts and get out there. Don’t do as we did, do as I say. I learned more in the first year of actually being a REI than I learned from all the books, tapes, forums, meetings, and talks with dad. Start small. Do not buy 12 or 7 or even 2. Get one and work it through. Learn. Make your mistakes. Come here for advice. Recover. Then, my friend, then you are ready to own the world.

What was your toughest deal?
In glass-is-half-empty-thinking: every deal is tough. I know that sounds like an end-around, but I do not mean it as such. Every deal is about controlling all of the time-tables. Every deal is about reminding everyone to DO THEIR JOB. Every deal is about padding suspense dates so when they are missed it does not mess up the deal. We have gotten good at it.

There is something that I keep in mind every deal at the eleventh hour when we are making it all happen. As soon as the deal is done, the deal is done. “We may never see these folks again once we close,” I say to our team. I try not to ever let it get to me. I keep a smile with my chin held high, stay professional, roll up my sleeves, and get to work. So, I guess you could think glass-is-half-full in that every done deal is a good deal.

What would your dream deal be?
A deal that goes smooth. I sign the contract at the beginning and the paperwork at the end (closing). Everyone else does their job and gets paid. Done Deal. Win for us. Win for the Buyer / Seller. Win for all of the folks helping us to do the transaction. Win - Win - Win. That is business, American style (all winners, no losers).

Do you have any thoughts about the current state of the real estate marketplace or economy?
It sure seems as though the perfect buying storm is headed our way. Sellers and flippers beware! I am taking advantage of the current economic climate to hunker down, ensure the fundamentals of my business are sound, and prepare to buy the heck out of my target market in the very near future.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the rest of us?
It is difficult to go it alone and expect that you have the talent, personality, education, and perseverance to do EVERY PART of this business. It may not be possible for some, but where it is – get a partner.

My brother is our Construction Manger. He estimates and manages rehabs, repairs, and remodeling. He does the small maintenance himself and manages the contractors for the larger jobs.

My sister-in-law is our Property Manager. She handles tenant relations; that is: showings, lease paperwork, complaints, evictions, etc.

My wife is our Bookkeeper and Office Manager. She does the filing, research, and general paperwork as well as enters in the bills, receipts, and rents. She works with deposits, withdraws, and general banking.

I am the President / CEO. I do everything else. I buy and sell, which includes all negotiations, paperwork, and closings. I work with the accountant, insurance broker, and lawyer. I network.

We are all different and so should be our jobs. Keep this in mind as you are formulating your company or growing it.

Finally, in a bit of self promotion, I wanted to ask what do you think about BiggerPockets.com?
Even though I am a relatively new investor, I do consider myself ‘advanced’. I have: a college education, tons of experience with construction, lots of management background, am a fast study, and just can’t get enough (sorry to brag).

It was not until I found BiggerPockets that I found myself among others like myself. It is an environment that is honing my skills everyday. I am glad to play a small part.

Tags: buy and hold, landlord, real estate, real estate guru, real estate investing, real estate investor, real-estate-deals

Last week I wrote an article about “Lucky”, the wanna-be real estate tycoon (article). The article was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek story, yet many people took it seriously. The fictional character “Lucky” was a composite of many people that I have met over the years. He was portrayed as someone who wanted to get rich quick, yet was too lazy to work for it. He kept looking for short cuts and was certain that getting rich in real estate was easy if only he could get someone to reveal the secret formula.

There are many companies out there that prey on these people. They offer a free seminar that is nothing more than a sales pitch. They look to sell books, tapes, sales courses, boot camps and mentoring programs. They hold themselves out to be experts in the field of real estate investing. What they really are is experts in marketing. When someone buys a program the company is generally looking to upsell them, or get them to buy additional programs.

While there are a lot of trainers who have something valuable to offer, many of these “gurus” have little or no investment experience. The company may target those who are looking for easy money, but regular people get caught as well. People who are legitimately trying to learn something can easily get burned. My character, Lucky, was shown as someone who couldn’t make it as an investor yet claimed to be an expert who could teach others.

The Not So “Lucky” Ones

Like many works of fiction, the story of Lucky does have a factual basis. I know of a couple who got burned by a “Lucky” type guru. They were hard working people who wanted to invest for their future. They had done well on their own home and wanted to try their hand at investing in real estate. The market was flying but they didn’t know where to begin. They wound up going to a “free” seminar where they ended up enrolling in a boot camp program. While they did learn a lot, they were still uncertain. At the boot camp they were convinced to sign up for the mentoring program. It was a lot of money but they were assured that they could make it back on one deal.

This couple was looking to invest in the Las Vegas real estate market when it was very close to the peak. Their so-called mentor coached them through the purchase of a house at a price that wasn’t any better than what they could have done on their own. The idea was to use the property as a rental while they waited for the inevitable appreciation. The rent didn’t come close to paying the mortgage let alone the other costs involved. They were almost $500 in the red every month. They were told not to worry because they would make all of this back and more.

The Sad End

Unfortunately the ending to this story is all too common. The real estate market collapsed and the house dropped to a price that was significantly less than the mortgage balance. They couldn’t keep up with the payments and let the property go into foreclosure. They lost the almost $20,000 for the training and mentoring program as well as the down payment on the house and two years of negative cash flow. The total loss was almost $100,000. To make it worse, a lot of the money had come from a home equity loan on their personal residence.

It turned out that they had no legal recourse because there was no fraud involved. They just followed bad advice from someone that was supposed to be an expert. They were not looking to get rich quick, they just wanted a better life. They were well aware that they didn’t have the proper knowledge and tried to acquire it. Unfortunately they just trusted the wrong person.

Do Your Homework

Before engaging the services of a mentor or enrolling in some course or boot camp, do your homework. Has the person you are looking to learn from actually been a successful investor? Have you checked references before turning over your hard-earned cash? Ask the hard questions and verify the answers. Be careful because “Lucky” is out there.

Tags: gurus, Learn Real Estate, real estate, Real Estate Fraud, real estate guru, real estate investing, real-estate-scam, training

This is the saga of “Lucky” the newbie investor. Lucky has big dreams of being an ultra successful real estate mogul. He is addicted to all of the flip-and-grow-rich TV shows, he just can’t get enough. He sits in front of the TV night after night watching property escalator, real estate jocks, flip this flophouse and various other fantasy shows.

He gets so excited that he can’t sleep, so he stays up watching the late-night infomercials featuring the latest real estate gurus. His mind is racing a mile a minute. “This is so easy,” Lucky thinks to himself. He’s just trying to figure out how to get started. There has to be a really easy way to do this.

The Morning Paper

The next morning Lucky is sitting at the kitchen table having coffee and reading the daily newspaper. As he’s perusing the disappointing results from the racetrack pages, he sees a full-page ad on the page opposite the one he’s reading. The headline screams at him Do You Want To Be Rich? – “yup ‘, Dreamed Of Making It Big In Real Estate? – “uh-huh”, Is Your Credit Score Hovering Around Absolute Zero? - “that’s me”, Would You Like To Learn How To Do Deals With No Money? - “hell yeah!”, Come To Our Free Seminar, - “awright!”

Lucky is so excited. He is sitting at the seminar with hundreds of other tycoons in the making. One guru after another is doing a flashy presentation and telling them all how rich they are going to be. All they have to do is buy the various sets of books and tapes and all of the secrets will be revealed to them. Lucky is pumped! He figures that if he sells his Pokeman collection and Star Wars figurines, he can raise enough cash to buy the program. After all, its only $3,000, what’s that compared to the millions he’s going to make? Heck, with these programs you don’t need any cash or credit to do deals.

Deals Everywhere

Lucky reads through the material and listens to the tapes. He is so excited that he immediately starts looking for that first deal. He has to buy something right a way before he misses out. The gurus said that the current downturn is nothing more than a great buying opportunity. There is nothing to fear because real estate only goes up and the market is going to turn around any minute. Just get out there and start making offers. So he does.

He calls a real estate agent and says he wants to buy a bunch of houses quickly. The agent asks him about his investing experience and if has been pre-qualified. He also wants to know how much he has available for down payments. To all of this Lucky responds, “What do I need that for? I’m going to buy with no money down!” The agent hangs up.

Undeterred, Lucky heads down to the courthouse for the weekly foreclosure auction. He signs in at the registration table where he is asked about having certified funds ready. Lucky is confused. “Why do I need a check? I’m going to buy with no money down. Isn’t that how it’s done?”

There Has To Be A Better Way

Lucky heads down to the next meeting at the local real estate investment club. He’s chatting with several of the successful investors and explaining his frustration with doing a deal. One of these investors takes pity on him and tries to point him in the right direction. He tries explaining that investing in real estate takes a lot of hard work and success doesn’t happen overnight despite what the gurus say. There are no shortcuts on the road to success and it is extremely important to take the time to get educated. Lucky gets irate and blurts out that he’s got more than enough education, “I’m a ninth grade graduate” he yells as he storms out of the meeting. Heck, if he wanted to do that much work he’d just get a job like his mother keeps telling him to.

I was watching TV one night wondering what ever happened to Lucky. As I’m surfing through the channels I can’t believe my eyes. There he is pitching his program, Lucky’s Way to Real Estate Riches. Once again this just proves that those who can do, those who can’t teach!

Tags: gurus, Learn Real Estate, real estate, real estate guru, real estate investing