Todd Dotson and Brad Sumrok
Investor · Baton Rouge, LA · Member since 2016 · 3 posts · 1 vote
Hello Bigger Pockets Community,
1) I am currently planning to train with Todd Dotson of Irving, Texas in an effort to increase my monthly cash on hand via his "Get In Out Techniques". If you are a former student or current student who has had a great deal of success working with Mr. Dotson please share. So that I can make the most out of my opportunity and make the proper preparations to insure my success.
2) Upon completing my training with Mr. Dotson, I would like to begin learning apartment acquisition from Mr. Sumrok once I have adequate cash on hand. Students of Mr. Sumrok please advise.
It would be greatly appreciated if all responses are limited to substantive feedback regarding the required effort and financial commitment to be successful in the aforementioned programs.
The below link contains some useful discussion about Brad Sumrok's program. There is some skepticism upfront (including from myself), but by the end of the thread there are some very positive comments from some of his students. I joined the program only a few months ago, so I can't say much about my own experience so far, but I have learned enough about how it works that I could probably answer any questions. If you are ever in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, there are often free multi-family investing events on Meetup.com where you could meet many other students and learn from them. The best introduction would be the "Rat Race 2 Retirement" weekend seminar that Brad holds every four months in Dallas. The next one is in July and I highly recommend making the trip. It costs something like $50-100 to attend. I know of no other place where you can get two days worth of multi-family investing knowledge for so little money. (You can probably get all the same information for free here on BP, but it would take a lot longer and you would have to know what questions to ask).
After the weekend seminar, if you decide to continue learning with Brad, there are two choices: Foundations (online training and attendance at networking events six times a year) and Personal Mentoring (same as Foundations, plus the ability to personally work with Brad and have him hold your hand through the multifamily acquisition process). The first one is a few thousand dollars, and the second is something like 15 or 20 thousand. If you decide not to spend that kind of money, I still think the weekend seminar is worthwhile. (I am not getting paid to promote it.) I am a Foundations student, because I only wanted to learn about how Brad's students buy properties so I could properly evaluate their deals and passively invest with them. At this time, I have no intention of buying my own properties, so I would not get enough value from the personal mentoring.
Brad's program is NOT one of those seminars where you learn how to invest in real estate with "no money, no credit..." etc. You have to have some cash in the bank (or in an IRA) to do it the way Brad teaches. If you simply don't have the money now, but still want to do it in the future, I suggest learning what you can now and networking with others who are doing what you want to do. You could decide to join in the future, and you'll already be knowledgeable. Or you may end up finding others to work with who are not in the program but are doing the same thing. Some decide they prefer to learn on their own and save money. Others believe the money they paid to a "guru" is far less than what they would have lost if they went it alone and made their own mistakes.