INTRO: Hi all. Great to be here. Heard a lot about how helpful this group is and decided to give it a try. So, I am an attorney making a midlife career change to a real estate investor at the ripe age at 40. I'm too old to reinvent the wheel and, with a family to feed, I don't have time for much trial and error and need to start making money to support my family.
GOAL: Hence, I am looking to invest in a system with a proven track record of success, where I can earn and learn at the same time. As an attorney, I don't mind putting work into a system. I just want to make sure the system I put in work actually WORKS!
QUESTIONS: Does anyone have experience with Blair Halver and his Apprentice Program? Does it work? And if so, how long did it take to get results? If not, then why did it not work?
Last, is there a system that members of BP recommend that meets the above stated goals?
Real Estate Agent · Sammamish, 🌧️ Seattle Investor-Agent | 🤑 Helped 400+ Clients Invest in Real Estate | 🏘️ Owns 23 WA Rentals & Airbnbs | 🏗️ Built 5 DADU's | 📈 You Can Do It Too · Member since 2016 · 725 posts · 3k+ votes
Nothing wrong with wholesaling in Seattle, there's lots of investors working here.
My two cents-
1. Wholesaling is a job, and one that usually pays a heck of a lot LESS than being a lawyer.
2. You don't need anyone's permission to get started. REI doesn't have a cover charge, and 9 out of 10 gurus are in that business because they think its easier to make money from you than from real estate. You might get lucky and pick one of the good ones and prosper, but I believe the odds of this aren't in your favor.
3. If you have substantial savings you should be house hacking multifamily in Seattle every year, or if your lifestyle doesn't support that buying 1 short term rental (with 10% down using a second home or vacation home loan) or 1 long term rental (standard 20-25% down) a year. Milk your w-2 for all its worth, and throw the extra money into good deals.
4. If only the largest REI focused website in the United States was free, and you had direct access to investors in your local market who aren't trying to sell you anything but are willing to share their advice and experience gained through dozens of deals. I wonder which website that is... ;)
Happy to talk with you more. I hound for my own off market deals, but I think wholesaling for others is a waste of time. I don't know much about this program, but it sounds like it focuses on using FB ads to wholesale properties, which doesn't sounds like a good fit for your goals.
I signed up for Blair’s program back when COVID started shifting the market. The unique thing about it is that you don’t have to worry about any lead generation. They provide you with 90+ hot/warm seller leads, so all you need to do is dial the leads, follow the scripts, and lock the deals up. Once you have a deal, just copy/paste their disposition system to monetize the deal and get paid.
I made my initial investment back and now know how to buy houses with no money out of pocket.
It works if you take consistent action, commit to constant improvement, and bring your situational questions to the daily coaching calls.
I joined Blair’s 90 day apprentice program feb 2020 . Leads come directly to my phone from Blair’s FB ads . U have to remember that a lot of ppl that submit their info on FB aren’t extremely motivated to sell their home at a deep discount or willing to do a lease purchase/ owner finance arrangement .
Even with that said, I was able to lock up 7 contracts and brought 4 of those to the closing table . That’s a win in my book .
Definitely sign up, take imperfect action, log in to the weekly calls, ask questions, join the FB community , sign up deals (even if you don’t know what exactly what your doing — the team will help u!!
I would recommend Blair's system ..I've been working with him for over a year and even though covid was upon us this was my best year ever for real estate transactions.
I attribute that to working and learning from Blair and Jeff and his team. I got started in the Spring doing virtual real estate and now own 5 out of state properties with lease purchase tenants in them.
The best part is they teach you how to be able to lock up all types of deals, not just be a one hit wonder
I thank God for Blair and his team everyday.. my life has completely changed for the better .
@Sophia Grigio and @Ian Lemke I looked over your profiles and comments on BP. You guys seem to always be the first ones to reply to any questions about Blair’s program on BP and seems to always say the same thing about the program.
Do you guys work for Blair or affiliated somehow with Blair?
Also, has the program brought in enough for you guys to leave your 9-5s? because that’s a main goal of mine.
I would highly recommend Blairs system! I have invested in a few other systems over the years and I definately got the most bang for my buck with Blairs systems. I was able to lock up my first deal with in my first two weeks using his system! To top it off, Blair himself is a heck of a good guy who is trustworthy and has been very helpful with answering any questions that I had!
@Sophia Grigio and @Ian Lemke I looked over your profiles and comments on BP. You guys seem to always be the first ones to reply to any questions about Blair’s program on BP and seems to always say the same thing about the program.
Do you guys work for Blair or affiliated somehow with Blair?
Also, has the program brought in enough for you guys to leave your 9-5s? because that’s a main goal of mine.
I would be extremely suspicious of these kinds of replies. Not saying they are all fake, but I am on this website way too much and have seen several really similar scenarios get outed as fake accounts spamming to promote a service.
I really dont think you need to
pay for mentorship to be successful. Also note that this system sounds like its just
wholesaling, which is what many gurus try selling to newbies because its
one system that you can start with little cash. Especially from what you described, if its so easy to post FB ads and then "follow the script" then youd have 1000s of other newbies doing the same thing. Wholesaling is a grind, and not a well respected one either.
I wouldnt pay a dime to a guru myself, if you are an attorney then you should be pretty good at research. Pretty much every morsel of knowledge you need is given away free or in books that are very affordable.
@Account Closed thank you for the reply. You are absolutely correct about replies. I’ve seen them all over BP. That’s why I’m giving them any weight.
However, I am looking for a system that I can follow. There is just too much information out there and it’ll take too much time to weed through as I want to fast track my knowledge and get up abd running with as little mistakes as possible.
Even in the law, we have legal guides, desk books, and cheat sheets that lawyers and judges use to quickly get up to speed in any area of law so we can get up and running and feel confident to represent clients. It’s impossible for any lawyer to jump into a new area of law and start practicing without these systems. It would be malpractice to do so:-)
So, I was looking for a similar thing in real estate but I’m starting to realize that real estate is not as structured as the law. Am I wrong?
@Account Closed by the way, in the law, we pay for these systems too. Some people pay for them and others learn it through trial and error. The ones that learn through trial and error usually end up with malpractice lawsuits, suspended, and/or disbarred.
I’m trying to speed up my education while avoiding the many drawbacks of trial and error.
Big difference is probably how law is so structured, and not welcoming to unlicensed newbies trying to practice :) wholesaling is basically just practicing real estate agency without a license, but its one of a billion ways you can make money in this field. However, the different ways dont always work in all different times and places. this guru system may work great in Toledo Ohio but totally fail in Miami, for example. It may have worked in 2010 but not in 2021.
My suggestion would be to learn basic theory: cash flow, operations, marketing, wholesaling, notes, foreclosures, agency, law etc and then figure out what exactly you want to do, then seek out to launch and refine your method.
There are cookbooks once you know what you want to do, but you dont need to pay a guru to spoon feed you. That is my take anyway.
@Account Closed great advice. Thank you for the time. I really needed a sounding voice. I will commit to learning the basic theories until I figure out exactly what I want to do in real estate.
Is there a particular area of real estate I should start in that will give me a good foundation/lay of the land so to speak?
@Account Closed great advice. Thank you for the time. I really needed a sounding voice. I will commit to learning the basic theories until I figure out exactly what I want to do in real estate.
Is there a particular area of real estate I should start in that will give me a good foundation/lay of the land so to speak?
What exactly is it you’re trying to accomplish? Trying to transition from your law practice is a very broad statement.
Also keep in mind that it seems a little fishy that newbies that are making money hand over fist would want to announce it to the world because they are so grateful to their mentor ship program that they join.
Typically the people that are vouching for any particular niche and/or program have something personally to gain from promoting what they do.
@Joe S.thanks for responding. Yes, that’s is pretty broad. This is my game plan:
1) start by wholesaling as low barrier to entry and will get my feet wet into REI. Specifically, virtually wholesale because Seattle, WA market not a good state to wholesale;
2) After building capital, get some multi-family homes and cash out refinance abd collect rent - hopefully rent will be enough to cover my living cost;
3) then progress into owning apartment complexes and own about 20-30 doors.
I’m thinking of using wholesaling as my foundation to get into all these other areas. So, even in bad economy I’ll still be able to wholesale to make quick cash.
What do think? Good or bad strategy? Any suggestions?
@Kabbie Konteh would need to spend money on marketing. I like that you are looking to go big, but wholesaling for a living is not as easy as most would think. What niche do you practice as an attorney?
@Joe S. yeah, I've tried wholesaling for 2 months and not really my cup of tea. I have quickly found out it's a lot of work. Hence, why I am trying to find a system to simplify the process:-)
I practice immigration, criminal, and some personal injury law - car accidents. I am used to clients coming to me not me chasing them. I haven't advertised for the last 10 years. I guess I have been spoiled.
My wife and I have amassed a substantial amount of savings and we want to invest in something but the stock market doesn't interest us. It's enough $ for me to take 2 years off and transition into real estate but it's not enough to buy another house in WA State where average house prices are over $600K.
So, I want to use the money to transition into REI and gain passive income without squandering all our money. That's my dilemma.
I don't want to spend money needlessly on marketing, then get sellers coming in and don't know what to do once I talk to a seller. I did that already and leads came in but when they came in I didn't know what to do with them.
I am not a shoot from the hip type of guy. I like to know what I am doing before doing it or like having someone whose been there already guide me so I am not running in circles.
@Joe S. yeah, I've tried wholesaling for 2 months and not really my cup of tea. I have quickly found out it's a lot of work. Hence, why I am trying to find a system to simplify the process:-)
I practice immigration, criminal, and some personal injury law - car accidents. I am used to clients coming to me not me chasing them. I haven't advertised for the last 10 years. I guess I have been spoiled.
My wife and I have amassed a substantial amount of savings and we want to invest in something but the stock market doesn't interest us. It's enough $ for me to take 2 years off and transition into real estate but it's not enough to buy another house in WA State where average house prices are over $600K.
So, I want to use the money to transition into REI and gain passive income without squandering all our money. That's my dilemma.
I don't want to spend money needlessly on marketing, then get sellers coming in and don't know what to do once I talk to a seller. I did that already and leads came in but when they came in I didn't know what to do with them.
I am not a shoot from the hip type of guy. I like to know what I am doing before doing it or like having someone whose been there already guide me so I am not running in circles.
Any suggestions?
Not sure how much the program you’re looking at cost, but it doesn’t appear like it would financially drain you to give it a shot. If the program helps you then great and if it simply shows you that you don’t want to be a Wholeseller faster then great as well. :-)
@Joe S. lol...yeah, it won't financially drain me at all. There's always a price for education, either time or money, sometimes both. I am willing to pay for the education if the program provides a great foundation to build on and gets me doing deals sooner.
I want wholesaling to be my fallback tool in my REI arsenal. Once I get the wholesaling part of the business off the ground and automated, then I will venture to step 2 and then step 3.
So, step 1 is really finding a way to get wholesaling business established and automated through a system that can be replicated.
Actually, that should be my next post. Thank you for the help:-)
Blair is definitely the real deal. He has been an absolute wealth of knowledge for me in my business. His program is extremely dialed in and very impressive. Systems, hiring, process, support. It's really good. I can't say enough good things about Blair and his team. Best wishes for on your journey!
@Steven Howell How can I trust what you say when you just opened up an account today and your first post was to just simply rave about Blair's system? This is very suspicious. Do you have anything to backup your statement?
If I don't hear from you I am going to assume you don't.
Blair is definitely the real deal. He has been an absolute wealth of knowledge for me in my business. His program is extremely dialed in and very impressive. Systems, hiring, process, support. It's really good. I can't say enough good things about Blair and his team. Best wishes for on your journey!
This guy is another guru. Searched the name and photo and found his website, more guru nonsense. Really surprised he only has 1 post on here for being such a success according to his website.
the absolute toughest thing to do in real estate is wholesale.. I get the draw.. the hype etc.. however there is a reason states are cracking down on it ( at least un licensed actiivty) I mean just read the regs in virtually any state.
A license is required if for compensation you are bringing a buyer and seller together.. of course there is all sorts of interpretations on this.
But being an officer of the court I would think you would have a ton of liability when you tell someone there 200k house is only worth 100k thats why you are offering that amount.. unconscionable profit ..
I am thinking with your back ground much better to simply get a license and go work for a commercial broker.. you light years ahead of most starting out.. and in many states I think a law license is a free pass to a RE license.
Then market yourself as an attorney representing buyers and sellers.. you will get business no problem... And you build a loyal following in wholesaling your only as good as your last deal.. that seller you snagged only has one property generally so that lead is dead and gone.. Whereas , you being in the business you could create all sorts of referral business..
@Account Closed great advice. Thank you for the time. I really needed a sounding voice. I will commit to learning the basic theories until I figure out exactly what I want to do in real estate.
Is there a particular area of real estate I should start in that will give me a good foundation/lay of the land so to speak?
Honestly I do "BRRRR" (which did get a "guru name" to sell books, but is basically a recipe old as time) which I love because it really exposes you to many different parts of real estate:
BUY - Acquire property at a deep discout. You can use the same techniques the wholesalers use, but KEEP the property for yourself to build wealth! I prefer bank auctions, REO, and other straightfoward deals, but also get deals by networking locally, and even sometimes the MLS. How you find deals really depends on that local market.
RENOVATE - Fix it up! Can do this mostly yourself for sweat equity, I really strongly recommend doing at least one hands-on so you get a feel for the timelines and costs. I don't mean do everything yourself, but be very involved. Be your own GC basically, what you don't do yourself, hire out that specific sub. I have learned to avoid general contractors and anyone who is too cheap (eg "craigslist handymen" unless its like demo and hauling, etc.)
RENT - Self-manage your empire, pick the best tenants you can find, treat them fair and honestly, outsource all the sucky work like clearing toilets or painting at turnover. However, when running your numbers for due dilligence, factor in professional property management. Being a landlord is not an enjoyable job for most sane people.
REFINANCE - This part is tricky if you don't have W2 income. But, if you did everything right you should get most (if not all) your money back out, AND it cashflows and/or appreciates! (hopefully)
REPEAT - Now you learned one, time to do more.
I admit this may not work as flawlessly in really expensive or anti-landlord areas. I am in central Ohio and it worked awesomely until the real estate market went bananas. Now I have way more competition and I am leaving more money in each deal. I used to be able to cash out 100% and still get 200$/mo/door cash flow.. those were the days..
It's also slow and labor intensive. You also really can't do this remotely, at least not at first. However you are building up a nest egg, AND you can keep the money rolling from one deal to the next. If you have a ton of cash sitting around, leave out the refinance until you get a bunch of them all operating cash flow, you can get much better financing once you get proven experience and can show operational history and cashflow. Then you can refi a bunch at once and move up into something much bigger such as commercial multifamily.
You also need to be able to model several different moving parts.. What is your market rent? What will the rehab costs be? how long will it take? what kind of deals can I realistically find in the current market? However, what you would spend in gurus, I advise to (smartly) just jump in and get your feet wet once you know the basics. Don't just buy any random property, but once you feel confident, go ahead and pull the trigger.
Anyway since I was digging on the gurus, I wanted to share my method. That's what let me quit my day job and sit around talking trash on the internet :)
@Account Closed Today there are so many gurus on youtube and fb selling a program or some type of system or a coaching business you have to be very careful not to be taken advantage of. I've either read it somewhere or heard it that the most successful investors spend the majority of their time investing. Some of them like Than Merrill have courses, and I believe you get to meet him and others like him face to face. Anyone that's very successful, you will be able to meet them, like Robert T Kiyosaki from Rich Dad Poor Dad who took just a simple course, did the work from the course and just kept learning and repeating the same steps.
I'm a newbie as well, and you're right there is a lot of information to absorb. Good luck and keep us posted.
@Steven Howell How can I trust what you say when you just opened up an account today and your first post was to just simply rave about Blair's system? This is very suspicious. Do you have anything to backup your statement?
If I don't hear from you I am going to assume you don't.
Thanks for chiming in though.
I hope you're doing well and I appreciate your original post in this thread. I've been investing since 2009 but rarely EVER come onto BP for reasons just like this. I prefer to be out in the field doing business and lifting others up. I can understand where you're coming from though, so certainly no hard feelings. I know Blair and have been in masterminds with him. I saw this thread today and thought I would simply share my experience. Never said to please go buy his product. I have his program and it's helped me a lot. If you want to take that with a grain of salt that's totally okay by me. I wish you a very safe and Happy New Year! Best of luck to you in your real estate endeavors!
Blair is definitely the real deal. He has been an absolute wealth of knowledge for me in my business. His program is extremely dialed in and very impressive. Systems, hiring, process, support. It's really good. I can't say enough good things about Blair and his team. Best wishes for on your journey!
This guy is another guru. Searched the name and photo and found his website, more guru nonsense. Really surprised he only has 1 post on here for being such a success according to his website.
Super nice to meet you Nicky! It looks like you give some very valuable advice and contribute a tremendous amount to posts here on BP. Are you saying that because someone doesn't post frequently as you do or at all on BP then therefore they are not legit? That seems like a pretty crummy argument. And certainly don't want to continue to back and forth here! It's New Year's Eve for crying out loud :-)
I certainly would never consider myself a guru. I do and have worked with people on a 1 on 1 basis in real estate investing and wholesaling since 2014 in a mentoring role and enjoy that tremendously, but I mainly lead with tons of free content on my YouTube channel, email newsletter, and my website. I don't run any paid ads, seminars, or any of the other typical guru crap. And there's a lot for me to always learn. I'm certainly not MR. Know It All. I love helping folks and continuing to grow myself.
Anyway, it's interesting that you just threw me into the mix as a "guru" just because I popped on and shared my experience of a friend in the business who has helped me. Confirmation of why I don't spend a lot of time on these forums! :-)
As I shared with the original person who started the thread:
I've been investing since 2009 but rarely EVER come onto BP for reasons just like this. I prefer to be out in the field doing business and lifting others up. I can understand where you're coming from though, so certainly no hard feelings. I know Blair and have been in masterminds with him. I saw this thread today and thought I would simply share my experience. Never said to please go buy his product. I have his program and it's helped me a lot. If you want to take that with a grain of salt that's totally okay by me.
I wish you a very safe and Happy New Year! Best of luck to you in your real estate endeavors!
ps. Thank you for the thorough information you shared about BRRRR.
