Has anyone taken the plunge and attended any of the "Advanced Training" courses put on by the Rich Dad Education company? Last fall I attended a three day seminar put on by Rich Dad Education, but because of the steep price (and some mental red flags that went up during the seminar), I declined to sign up for any of them. The first warnings started sounding as things got underway the first day when we were forbidden to network with anyone during or outside of the classroom, we weren't to challenge any of the ideas of the instructor, nor were we to conduct "research" on our own by using the Internet. They also wanted to protect their "proprietary" information, so they wouldn't allow you to record any of the sessions. Note taking, it seems, doesn't seem to threaten that. I later came to find out that the Rich Dad Education seminars were essentially repackaged Russ Whitney products, and many people feel scammed by the whole process. I understand that the basic training seminar is mostly motivational in nature and is designed essentially to upsell the attendee into purchasing one of the "advanced training" seminars that deal with a specific area of investing, anywhere from wholesaling to large development deals. The basic training courses are $495, and if you can withstand/ignore the high pressure sales tactics, I felt that I did actually receive my money's worth in terms of knowledge and useful information. But the advanced courses range anywhere from $7,000 all the way up to $45,000, if memory serves. That seems like a ton of money, but if it's something that returns your "investment" back to you in increased profits from doing better RE deals, then I would assume most would feel the high cost would be worth it. My question is, has anyone attended any of these courses, and if so, do yo feel that you got your money's worth by attending? I see precious little information anywhere on the Web regarding reviews of these more expensive training courses. Perhaps attendees sign contracts forbidding them from talking about their experiences? I figured this would be the place to find out. Todd

Understand that the Rich Dad Seminars is a marketing company. They give you a â€œfreeâ€ seminar so that youâ€™ll buy the $495 class, the $495 course is used to sell you $7,000 advanced course. The advanced course is designed to sell you the mentoring program. Itâ€™s all about upselling, they want you to believe that you will find out the success â€œsecretâ€ at the next class. The reality is that you learn by doing, did you learn how to ride a bike by going to a seminar? No, you learned by falling down and skinning your knees, then you got up and did it again. Education classes are your training wheels but until you actually get out there and do it you will not learn how to really be successful. :cool:

I'm so happy that there is so much overall anti-guru sentiment on BP and that Josh does much to keep them on the sidelines on this blog. Obviously, with this site being monetized to some degree by ad revenue, the gurus and their lemmings are a bit of a necessary evil. After all, it is the lemmings and newbies who click on those guru ads. I have noticed that on some industry related blogs, they are losing visitors, and thus, ad revenue, due to the proliferation of scammers and other con men in their ranks. One blog that I have been visiting for ten years is about to close because the ratio of scammers/legit is so high forcing many to abandon the site altogether. Scammers will always be prevalent in the world of big tickets sales; there will always be vultures and bottom feeders. But hopefully, if we legitimate business people continue to represent a united front and to offer to disseminate good information to interested people, the influence of the gurus will continue to wane clearing the way for us to do more good, clean business and to help others in a more benevolent fashion. It's nice to see someone like Josh running a site that is ever mindful of its reputation and taking the steps to keep gurus in their places - which benefits all of us in myriad ways.

Just for those that are wondering, I can vouch for the Rich Dad Advanced Training courses. I have only taken 2 (plus we had our mentor out - that is worth so much more than what we paid for it) so far and I am already a full time real estate investor well on my way to creating the lifestyle of my dreams. I will have the ability to retire at an extremely early age thanks in a huge part to these classes and the training I have received. I can understand the doubts that have been expressed, believe me we all have our doubts. But I strongly believe in the statement that an entrepreneur will pay for their education, whether they pay for training or they jump in and make the mistakes that cost them money. We would have left a lot of money on the table if we had done deals without the training. I believe, without a doubt, that the classes have more than paid for themselves. And I still have 2 more classes to go before I upgrade... And I will upgrade because I KNOW that it is worth it. The knowledge, the networking, the experience, and the relationships created is priceless. But if you were wondering about what matters on paper - the money - it pays for itself ten fold! Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that every person reaches a point where they just need to get out there and do it, make something happen! However, our personal process of getting things going would have gone so much slower if we hadn't taken these classes. In less than a year we have established our company, done some deals that have more than paid for the classes and quit our jobs to do this full time. And we love it! I hope this provides a little light on the subject. If you have any questions, I would be happy to do my best to answer them. Good luck in your investing and I hope you make the right choice for you.

Your posts in defense of RD appear to be canned. I have seen the same type posts, with the same vague ROI and NOI references. Most of the types who work at these "enterprises" were students once. The Guru's have no problem with eating their own chum and they also feast from their own bait bucket as well. Sooner or later these types spiral in, landing in flames without much noise but with plenty of stench to go around. They generally push colon cleansing "miracles' just before they implode in an odorous heap of their own ethics and finally become obvious to every human sense what they were full of from the start. Thank god I will be shunned.............. Tell the guys in Cape Coral I said Hi!

I am currently taking the "Advanced Courses". Here is my take on the whole situation. I began looking into investing (all type - stocks, bonds,real estate etc) when I was in college. I knew I wanted to get started in real estate, but was not sure how. My cousin and I signed up for the 3 day $495 course. I really enjoyed this course, being a newbie, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to get started. Even though there were a lot of push to purchase the advanced trainings, I think the trainings gave a good overview of all the different types of investing. Additionally, it was very motivating. My cousin and I signed up for 4 advanced training courses. We both put out half on credit cards. I maxed out two credit cards doing this, and my cousin did one. So far, we have attended one of the courses. Out of the 20 people who signed up for the advanced courses, I only know of one or two who have been going to courses. The couple who have gone were not very impressed with the material. The one again mentioned the sales strategy to "upgrade" and said everything was at a very high level. The best part about the trainings is the networking with other investors. Since taking the training, I have spent ~$1000 buying several books/courses off ebay. They have been much cheaper and taught me so much more than I have learned with the advanced trainings. I bought my first duplex at the end of last year, and will be closing on my second duplex in the next two weeks. One thing I know is that maxing out credit cards to pay for the training did not help my real estate investing. I had trouble getting financed at a bank for the first property because of the added debt from the courses. I am a firm believer in education. I continue to learn every day. I would not recommend signing up for the advanced courses. I do not think you need to spend that much money to get started. I also do not think they are worth the money. You can spend that money on other training or put it towards purchasing a property and be better off. And for the two people who posted praising the trainings, I hope everyone will notice that they each only have 1 post and disregard anything they have said. Good luck. Go join your local REIA and start networking with SUCCESSFUL real estate investors. That is all you need to get started, not a $20,000 series of courses.

Todd, I am sorry that you feel the way you do about the "tactics" received at the Rich Dad seminar. My husband and I attended this seminar last year and our lives have changed dramatically. We did sign up for the "big" package. We sold our successful business this past January and have been taking our classes and doing real estate full time since them. You cannot put a dollar amount on your education or on changing your life for the better. We now have quality time with each other and our families. Not only that, we are quite successful at what we are doing. We purchased two properties this year that are fully rented out and we are doing short sales and wholesaling properties. Our mentor came out a couple of weeks ago and that experience was priceless. Take it from me. We are "real" people who took a chance and invested in our education. Our lives will never be the same again. We are happy to wake up in the morning and do something we are passionate about. It's funny, all you ever hear from are the naysayers, however, there are thousands of us who took a chance and couldn't be happier. The choice is yours. Noelia

Matty, In my first year I did 16 deals total. On one deal I made $72K Net. Here are the numbers I bought the property for $110K. I put 12K into it to fix it up that I borrowed from my mother and paid her 15% interest. I actually borrowed $20K total for fix-up and holding costs. I then sold the property for $210K. This property was on a lake in a very nice area in Lake Mary, Florida. This was a probate property. I did 7 Wholesale deals with paydays ranging from $5K - $15K. The remaining deals were all fix and flip and I used NON of my own money to do these deals. I used hard money lenders who I found at my reia club. They only charged 1point and 16% APR. I still to this very day will NOT use my own money to fund deals or go down to a bank for financing. I use Private Lenders and I pay them 15% APR Accrued Interest and NO payments until the property is sold. I'm finishing up the paperwork on a deal in Greensboro, NC where there are 22 unit apartment and 34 seperate duplexes and quadraplexes. The Owners mismanaged them. They now need to sell. They only owe $572K the 22 units alone appraised for $910K. The owners are letting us take it subject to for the balance owed and my private lender will loan whatever we need to close and fix-up the properties. Today I won't purchase a property unless I'm taking it Subject To the existing financing and I will not sink my money into any deals. This is what I mean by Investing the right way.

Nate and Noelia - Thanks for sharing your input on the classes. While I appreciate that you've taken the time to endorse the classes that you've taken, perhaps you can share some more with all of us? Both of you have joined BiggerPockets, and posted on the site only 1 time. Both of these posts happen to be endorsements of 1 product/service. I think your endorsements would likely carry more weight if you were more active on the site prior to your posts or since. I have a funny feeling that we're going to get a rash of endorsements from people who continue this trend of joining with the sole intention of promoting RDPD. Do any of the moderators smell something funny here?

Nate, Thank you for your post and giving us some insight as to the value of these courses. With such a steep price, I had to weigh the benefits of the courses with the financial impact it would have created. In other words, if it were a financial strain where I could *just* afford to enrol in a seminar, but my credit cards would be maxed out or I tapped into an equity line of credit, would this have been an advisable course of action? Given the high-pressure sales tactics at the seminar I did attend, I was led to believe that attending these advanced trainings would be worth the sacrifice of becoming over-leveraged, if I can use that clichÃ©. To me, that was a red flag and was the deciding factor in deciding NOT to participate. I understand they wish to encourage and reward action and seizing the moment, but I wouldn't want to get myself upside down financially just to make it happen. Their apparent unwillingness or inability to offer financing or offer other arrangements effectively sealed the deal for me. If I had unlimited resources, I believe I would have taken a chance on it, but given my financial situation at the time and some of the reviews I read about the tactics that the Rich Dad team was using, I decide to defer that education until another time or when I could find out more about its value. Like Wheatie said in the previous post, I too would like some more information about what they've taught you. I don't want you to divulge any "trade secrets" by any means, but whatever you feel comfortable sharing would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for replying, Todd

Nate, Its clear you're passionate about what they've taught you. Can you be more specific about "done some deals that have more than paid for the classes"? What is it you have learned from the classes that have helped you in those deals, or made them better deals? You must be making pretty good money from this, if its supporting you and your wife.

Rich Dad "Advanced Training" seminars?

Mark B

Investor · Albuquerque, NM · Member since 2009 · 118 posts · 43 votes

17y

Originally posted by Steve Nicewarner:

Originally posted by Taz:

So, I guess no one is bothered by the fact his "Rich Dad/Poor Dad" book is fiction?

http://johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

Honestly, no. I read RD,PD as more of a series of parables and philosophy anyway. If Kiyosaki uses a fictional character to make his points, so be it.

I would never take actual financial advice from Robert Kiyosaki, but I certainly credit RD,PD for changing the way I think about money.

Well said. As I read RD/PD, I could tell that it was heavily embellished - especially some of the dialog sections. I didn't know that RD didn't exist but it doesn't surprise me. By the way, you can learn a lot from fiction too.

It's good to change the way you look at money, but for actual mechanics of RE investing - what author do you recommend?

thanks,
M

Rich Dad "Advanced Training" seminars?

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