Anyone heard of AstroFlipping?
Rental Property Investor · Omaha, NE · Member since 2018 · 38 posts · 8 votes
@Matt Mcnulty Josiah is doing nothing new, AstroFliping is just a marketing buzzword to get people to look at the specific technology product he's pushing, his App. Using the word "Flipping" will not get people like you to give him your email address to see the video while also building his email list, the additional step in this is getting registered users to sign up for the App. We are taught this strategy in Business school, It looks like he's either trying to get enough registered users to get Series A funding, or he's already received a small Series A fund and is now trying to beat his obligated milestones in order to get Series B funding. A typical hurdle for obtaining Series B funding is to achieve a large boost in registered users for your App.
When I attend the larger REI conventions I see many companies pushing this concept of Wholesaling via an App or as you've been pitched to as "AstroFlipping". Most of the larger late night TV "We Buy Houses" commercial companies have all moved into this space as well, some have terrible Apps because they aren't really tech savvy and didn't want to spend the money, others really don't understand how important the algorithms are in the ingenuity of their platforms.
What he's trying to do is capture the portion of the flipping market that isn't aware of the latest use of technology products in the REI industry. There are Real Estate tech companies that have created Apps that do what traditional wholesalers use to do with Direct mail campaigns and Cold calling from list.
I did ask them if they would let me speak to a previous student or someone who is currently in their course and that was not an option. For me that was a tough one to get over. They did send me video testimonials of other students though.
I'm looking into this myself because I'm deciding which real estate avenue I would like to take. So, that's why I'm researching Astroflipping and came across your post.
One thing I would suggest with your quote here is that asking for a referral to speak to a student or client really doesn't help. I get why you want to ask but after all, they're just going to give you the name and number of someone that will speak highly of them. That could be 1 person out of a 100.
But, checking them out on places like BP is a good move and leads me to ask... did you sign up? If so, what's your experience been so far?
Thanks!
I did not sign up for the Astro flipping program. I ended up joining another group that is based off of a software program called REISift. Tyler Austin runs it and there is an active group of people investing in real estate. We have a weekly Mastermind call where we can ask questions about things we are needing help with and there is always a topic being taught. Cost is $49 a month. Check out the website https://www.reisift.io/ and his YouTube channel https://m.youtube.com/channel/... I’d highly recommend it there is so much good information in there.
Apologies for the thread necromancy. I'm interested in checking Tyler's material out as well (challenge included). I've heard mixed results from people that have dealt with him in the past (which is why i'm a bit apprehensive). Some liked him, others felt his attitude and the way he responded to people wasnt to their liking. Hopefully my experience wiht hi
I did ask them if they would let me speak to a previous student or someone who is currently in their course and that was not an option. For me that was a tough one to get over. They did send me video testimonials of other students though.
I'm looking into this myself because I'm deciding which real estate avenue I would like to take. So, that's why I'm researching Astroflipping and came across your post.
One thing I would suggest with your quote here is that asking for a referral to speak to a student or client really doesn't help. I get why you want to ask but after all, they're just going to give you the name and number of someone that will speak highly of them. That could be 1 person out of a 100.
But, checking them out on places like BP is a good move and leads me to ask... did you sign up? If so, what's your experience been so far?
Thanks!
I did not sign up for the Astro flipping program. I ended up joining another group that is based off of a software program called REISift. Tyler Austin runs it and there is an active group of people investing in real estate. We have a weekly Mastermind call where we can ask questions about things we are needing help with and there is always a topic being taught. Cost is $49 a month. Check out the website https://www.reisift.io/ and his YouTube channel https://m.youtube.com/channel/... I’d highly recommend it there is so much good information in there.
Apologies for the thread necromancy. I'm interested in checking Tyler's material out as well (challenge included). I've heard mixed results from people that have dealt with him in the past (which is why i'm a bit apprehensive). Some liked him, others felt his attitude and the way he responded to people wasnt to their liking. Hopefully my experience wiht hi
Sure some people may not like his personality and would prefer content coming forth in a different way. Totally understandable. However truth is truth and good content is good content no matter where it is coming from.
The cost of the course is so minimal you really have nothing to loose besides the opportunity costs.
Update for anyone still looking for info on Astroflipping: I tried Astroflipping last year, and it was a really bad decision. The course is for the most part as-advertised, there is categorized content and assignments that you're supposed to work through, and there are opportunities to get on live calls with Josiah, who runs the show. There were a few big problems for me:
1) When they give you the sales pitch, they make it sound extremely easy and they reference how many deals they do, as well as random people around the country that are crushing it and doing tons of deals. The harsh reality is that everything they are mentioning is an exception/outlier. Wholesaling is immensely difficult. It takes a lot of time to get into wholesaling, and spending that time doesn't guarantee any sort of success. When I was in the facebook group, at least 90% of the people were posting about not knowing what to do next/not having any success. The Astroflipping team will sell this course to ANYONE - even people who are not suited for it or have no experience in real estate/contracts/negotiations etc. As long as you say "I'm interested in real estate," then they'll say "this course is for you." I am a realtor and a real estate investor, and I went through the course and even tried to implement some things, and I quickly found out it is not worth the time...unless you are prepared to literally make it your business and priority - it's next to impossible to build up operations that are successful.
2. They get you on the hook by telling you it's a month-to-month deal and that you can cancel any time. That is clearly something they do frequently, because just in this forum alone there are a handful of people who said they had a month-to-month subscription. While they do (as far as I know) honor the cancellation even if you haven't paid for all of the months - they give you a very hard time about it (more to come on that below). After I said I wanted to cancel, I was on a series of phone calls with different people who were confused and did this whole routine that "that isn't normally how we do things, that's not how it is supposed to be set up, our employee should not have said that to you." I believe they do this to get you on the hook and have people pay for a few months that would have never signed up for the full program, and then once you are 1-2 months in they pressure you in to staying.
3. This is my biggest problem with them - they owe me $1,000. I am still tangled up trying to get some money back from them. In a very long story short - I told them they wanted to cancel, but they had billed me for an extra month, but they set the billing to auto-bill well before your current month has expired. This started in June of 2020, and they billed me $1,000. They refused to refund me the $1000 saying that it was too late, but once I disputed the charge with my bank, Astroflipping came back to me saying that they would refund me if I dropped the charge...it's too bad that my discussion with them wasn't enough to be decent and refund me. They ended up lying to me, because I dropped the disputed charge just as they asked, but they never refunded me. I have the emails proving that they said they would refund me, and it has not happened. This started about 7 MONTHS AGO and they still owe me $1000. If I contact them now, they just say there's a problem with the banks and that there's nothing they can do about it.
4. All of the things mentioned above as preface, the last thing I'll say is that this is a wholesaling company. Wholesaling is perfectly legal, but wholesaling is built upon a less-than-honest foundation. The entire business of wholesaling requires misdirection, pursuing people who are struggling in life, pursuing widows with recent deaths in the family, and trying to rip people off and get properties very cheap etc. Many times throughout the Astroflipping content, they have scripts that suggest something different from what the intention is - this happens to mislead a seller and hope to get a seller's property under contract for far less than it is worth - that is after all a requirement for a good wholesaling deal. I know all of this is legal and part of a free market capitalistic economy, but I think it speaks to the character of the company. This company is willing to screw over a grandma/widow, this company is willing to screw over me while I just want my money back, why wouldn't they screw over you too?
As mentioned before - I'm a Realtor and a real estate investor. I'm well studied in business with a background in accounting, and I'm well studied in real estate business niches like wholesaling. I feel like I'm in a uniquely strong spot to comment on this company as I watched countless people in the facebook group fail, and not even have the first clue what they were doing. Even with my experience - I had no success, and ended up not trying any more so I could focus on other things that are more fruitful. I heavily recommend against paying all this money for a company like this. If you want to wholesale, that's awesome and good luck, but just look it up on youtube.
Update for anyone still looking for info on Astroflipping: I tried Astroflipping last year, and it was a really bad decision. The course is for the most part as-advertised, there is categorized content and assignments that you're supposed to work through, and there are opportunities to get on live calls with Josiah, who runs the show. There were a few big problems for me:
1) When they give you the sales pitch, they make it sound extremely easy and they reference how many deals they do, as well as random people around the country that are crushing it and doing tons of deals. The harsh reality is that everything they are mentioning is an exception/outlier. Wholesaling is immensely difficult. It takes a lot of time to get into wholesaling, and spending that time doesn't guarantee any sort of success. When I was in the facebook group, at least 90% of the people were posting about not knowing what to do next/not having any success. The Astroflipping team will sell this course to ANYONE - even people who are not suited for it or have no experience in real estate/contracts/negotiations etc. As long as you say "I'm interested in real estate," then they'll say "this course is for you." I am a realtor and a real estate investor, and I went through the course and even tried to implement some things, and I quickly found out it is not worth the time...unless you are prepared to literally make it your business and priority - it's next to impossible to build up operations that are successful.
2. They get you on the hook by telling you it's a month-to-month deal and that you can cancel any time. That is clearly something they do frequently, because just in this forum alone there are a handful of people who said they had a month-to-month subscription. While they do (as far as I know) honor the cancellation even if you haven't paid for all of the months - they give you a very hard time about it (more to come on that below). After I said I wanted to cancel, I was on a series of phone calls with different people who were confused and did this whole routine that "that isn't normally how we do things, that's not how it is supposed to be set up, our employee should not have said that to you." I believe they do this to get you on the hook and have people pay for a few months that would have never signed up for the full program, and then once you are 1-2 months in they pressure you in to staying.
3. This is my biggest problem with them - they owe me $1,000. I am still tangled up trying to get some money back from them. In a very long story short - I told them they wanted to cancel, but they had billed me for an extra month, but they set the billing to auto-bill well before your current month has expired. This started in June of 2020, and they billed me $1,000. They refused to refund me the $1000 saying that it was too late, but once I disputed the charge with my bank, Astroflipping came back to me saying that they would refund me if I dropped the charge...it's too bad that my discussion with them wasn't enough to be decent and refund me. They ended up lying to me, because I dropped the disputed charge just as they asked, but they never refunded me. I have the emails proving that they said they would refund me, and it has not happened. This started about 7 MONTHS AGO and they still owe me $1000. If I contact them now, they just say there's a problem with the banks and that there's nothing they can do about it.
4. All of the things mentioned above as preface, the last thing I'll say is that this is a wholesaling company. Wholesaling is perfectly legal, but wholesaling is built upon a less-than-honest foundation. The entire business of wholesaling requires misdirection, pursuing people who are struggling in life, pursuing widows with recent deaths in the family, and trying to rip people off and get properties very cheap etc. Many times throughout the Astroflipping content, they have scripts that suggest something different from what the intention is - this happens to mislead a seller and hope to get a seller's property under contract for far less than it is worth - that is after all a requirement for a good wholesaling deal. I know all of this is legal and part of a free market capitalistic economy, but I think it speaks to the character of the company. This company is willing to screw over a grandma/widow, this company is willing to screw over me while I just want my money back, why wouldn't they screw over you too?
As mentioned before - I'm a Realtor and a real estate investor. I'm well studied in business with a background in accounting, and I'm well studied in real estate business niches like wholesaling. I feel like I'm in a uniquely strong spot to comment on this company as I watched countless people in the facebook group fail, and not even have the first clue what they were doing. Even with my experience - I had no success, and ended up not trying any more so I could focus on other things that are more fruitful. I heavily recommend against paying all this money for a company like this. If you want to wholesale, that's awesome and good luck, but just look it up on youtube.
@Brad Piper
Sounds like you had an interesting experience but hey at least you learned something about it now. It is common for people to market the exceptions as you stated above as the results that can happen to anyone. My thought is that there are probably other factors with those individuals that they likely would have been successful doing other things. It does create a lot of hype though.
Although there are probably those that take advantage of others in the wholesaling business I would say that takes place in almost every business type out there and isn't unique to wholesaling. It's a people problem not a business model problem. I used to have a hard time understanding why people would sell their properties at a discount and thought it was just taking advantage of people until I started talking to sellers and negotiating contracts myself.
I agree with you too there is so much free content out there on youtube that if someone really wants to do it start there.
I hope you have success in your endeavors.