Freedom Mentor
WA · Member since 2013 · 13 posts · 7 votes
Hey Everyone,
I have an opportunity to become a student for a Real Estate Investing company and I'm not sure yet if I should buy into it. The program is called Freedom Mentor and the main coach is Phil Pustejovsky. Ive read his book and it was highly motivating so I dont doubt his credentials. I'm just wondering if anyone else in the BP community has gone through THIS program. I would to hear all the good and all the bad. Any input is appreciated. Thank you.
Don’t join Freedom Mentor unless you have cash reserves. It takes a minimum of $5,000 to join the program. And with that you get a binder with DVDs in it, along with a couple other manuals to guide you through the program. You also have access to coaching calls, videos and even some personalized coaching calls (depending on the amount you first invest). So, the tools are there for you to be successful in the program. IF YOU GET THE LEAD$.
The leads are the HUGE ingredient in making this complicated recipe of making money work. Freedom Mentor does assist with you trying to avoid the potholes out there with their various steps you should take. However, all the instruction, encouragement and where-with-all doesn’t mean anything unless you have leads for potential sellers. And let me stress the word potential. There are MANY other companies and individuals out there fighting for the 1-2% (Phil’s numbers, not mine) of the potential sellers that will fit the criteria for Freedom Mentor’s program to work.
And with the initial investment, you will be given advice or direction on how to obtain leads, but Freedom Mentor will not drop one penny to get those leads for you. This is the genius part of their plan. They can’t lose. If you shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars every month for leads and nothing comes from it, the only person who is out is YOU. Not Phil or his company. You have to spend even more of your money to hunt for those few precious leads out there. And they are few and far between.
I didn’t shell out the money every month for the leads because my finances were tight and just getting the $5K for the initial investment was two months of income for me. Little did I know that one caveat (the leads) of the program is the main thing to make it all work. You can build a great car, but it doesn’t run without the gas. You can’t start it without the keys. And the leads are just that. The KEY. Unfortunately, it’s going to cost you even more to get those. Which is why I said in the beginning, to make sure that you have cash reserves if you want to make this program work.
Phil didn’t have to have cash on hand to get his first deals done. However, you are going to have to have plenty of it. No person living in their truck (like Phil was) would be able to be helped by Freedom Mentor today. Why? Because unlike Phil’s mentor, he won’t be a mentor to you unless you pay up. And that is not only in the form of your large initial investment, but also the monies you are going to need to obtain leads and the many other small expenses that add up to get a deal done.
Freedom Mentor isn’t a scam or necessarily a rip-off, even though I lost quite a bit of money listening to Caleb Jenkins (the recruiter) and Phil. However, I wanted to let you know that there are MANY moving parts in this machine and MANY things have to line up and work out just right for a deal to finally get done. If you want to take that gamble, then that is up to you.
For those who are looking to work with Christians and thinking that this is a Christian program. It isn’t. Jesus said in Matthew 22:39 that the second greatest commandment is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” I emailed Caleb Jenkins a couple months after joining the program to see if I could get my money back. After seeing the videos and listening to a few calls, I knew this wasn’t going to work with me because I didn’t have the funds for the leads and the $200/month to stay in the program. Caleb never got back to me. He was more than willing to talk with me before I signed up, but once I signed up, then I guess he didn’t have the time to contact me back.
And speaking of no contact. You’re not allowed to talk with others in the Freedom Mentor program except at corporate functions. After being in the program for a couple months, I was wanting to get some things figured out. I thought what better way to do that, than talk to those who have already done it. I asked my coach if there were meet-ups or support groups for those in the program to bounce ideas off of and give each other support. I was told that Phil doesn’t want people talking to each other in the program. What?! I had never been a part of an organization that didn’t encourage participants to be there for each other….until now.
Seeing Freedom Mentor for what it was made me decide to leave. There are obviously people who have made money with the program. However, the percentage of those who paid thousands of dollars to get into the program and actually made their investment back or got ahead will never be known. It’s kind of like other real estate programs out there. Yes, some people have made money. However, they may be few and far between. Of course, what we always see are the “winners”. And if Freedom Mentor dominates the search engines with ads and gets you only seeing all the people who were made rich, then of course you’d be a fool not to join. Right? Unfortunately, there are those looking for a break and decide to take a chance with something without knowing all that goes into it. And you won’t know the whole story until you shell out the money to find out what’s behind the door. Hence, the reason why I wrote this.
Something that the original post forgot to mention is that your original investment with Phil is returned after you reach the investment goal. I a looking into the program and think it's very good and comprehensive.
Hi all,
He talks about fix and flip as a waste of time and money and to go for the cosmetic and just doll it up, sell it to a retail buyer and not really put any work into it and make as much cash as a fix an flip.
What Phil teaches is that *UNLESS YOU ARE A CONTRACTOR/INVESTOR* it is unlikely that you will be able to make any more doing the rehab yourself than you would just passing it on to one of them. It's all about experience and resources. If you are a contractor, already have a crew to work with, already have sub-contractor relationships, already have the ability to get materials at deep discounts, it is a more efficient use of your time to go after face-lift properties than to try to work on full-blown rehabs.
Hey, Dario, can you give us an update? Did you sign on to Phil's course or decide to go it alone? If you signed on, how is it working out for you?
I was contacted by Phil and chose not to do the program. I like the fact that he would fund your deals, being a part of a REIA would not get you deals funded.
Happy Student, message me if you have questions, I'll answer what I can.
Phil is the REAL DEAL. He has been my mentor for about 2 years and I have closed many, many deals. It isn't easy but most things that are worth having aren't easy either. Remember you are paying for knowledge and mentorship. You will get refunded the upfront cost once you reach your profit sharing also. He shows you how to be successful. It is up to you to actually apply the knowledge.
Don’t join Freedom Mentor unless you have cash reserves. It takes a minimum of $5,000 to join the program. And with that you get a binder with DVDs in it, along with a couple other manuals to guide you through the program. You also have access to coaching calls, videos and even some personalized coaching calls (depending on the amount you first invest). So, the tools are there for you to be successful in the program. IF YOU GET THE LEAD$.
The leads are the HUGE ingredient in making this complicated recipe of making money work. Freedom Mentor does assist with you trying to avoid the potholes out there with their various steps you should take. However, all the instruction, encouragement and where-with-all doesn’t mean anything unless you have leads for potential sellers. And let me stress the word potential. There are MANY other companies and individuals out there fighting for the 1-2% (Phil’s numbers, not mine) of the potential sellers that will fit the criteria for Freedom Mentor’s program to work.
And with the initial investment, you will be given advice or direction on how to obtain leads, but Freedom Mentor will not drop one penny to get those leads for you. This is the genius part of their plan. They can’t lose. If you shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars every month for leads and nothing comes from it, the only person who is out is YOU. Not Phil or his company. You have to spend even more of your money to hunt for those few precious leads out there. And they are few and far between.
I didn’t shell out the money every month for the leads because my finances were tight and just getting the $5K for the initial investment was two months of income for me. Little did I know that one caveat (the leads) of the program is the main thing to make it all work. You can build a great car, but it doesn’t run without the gas. You can’t start it without the keys. And the leads are just that. The KEY. Unfortunately, it’s going to cost you even more to get those. Which is why I said in the beginning, to make sure that you have cash reserves if you want to make this program work.
Phil didn’t have to have cash on hand to get his first deals done. However, you are going to have to have plenty of it. No person living in their truck (like Phil was) would be able to be helped by Freedom Mentor today. Why? Because unlike Phil’s mentor, he won’t be a mentor to you unless you pay up. And that is not only in the form of your large initial investment, but also the monies you are going to need to obtain leads and the many other small expenses that add up to get a deal done.
Freedom Mentor isn’t a scam or necessarily a rip-off, even though I lost quite a bit of money listening to Caleb Jenkins (the recruiter) and Phil. However, I wanted to let you know that there are MANY moving parts in this machine and MANY things have to line up and work out just right for a deal to finally get done. If you want to take that gamble, then that is up to you.
For those who are looking to work with Christians and thinking that this is a Christian program. It isn’t. Jesus said in Matthew 22:39 that the second greatest commandment is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” I emailed Caleb Jenkins a couple months after joining the program to see if I could get my money back. After seeing the videos and listening to a few calls, I knew this wasn’t going to work with me because I didn’t have the funds for the leads and the $200/month to stay in the program. Caleb never got back to me. He was more than willing to talk with me before I signed up, but once I signed up, then I guess he didn’t have the time to contact me back.
And speaking of no contact. You’re not allowed to talk with others in the Freedom Mentor program except at corporate functions. After being in the program for a couple months, I was wanting to get some things figured out. I thought what better way to do that, than talk to those who have already done it. I asked my coach if there were meet-ups or support groups for those in the program to bounce ideas off of and give each other support. I was told that Phil doesn’t want people talking to each other in the program. What?! I had never been a part of an organization that didn’t encourage participants to be there for each other….until now.
Seeing Freedom Mentor for what it was made me decide to leave. There are obviously people who have made money with the program. However, the percentage of those who paid thousands of dollars to get into the program and actually made their investment back or got ahead will never be known. It’s kind of like other real estate programs out there. Yes, some people have made money. However, they may be few and far between. Of course, what we always see are the “winners”. And if Freedom Mentor dominates the search engines with ads and gets you only seeing all the people who were made rich, then of course you’d be a fool not to join. Right? Unfortunately, there are those looking for a break and decide to take a chance with something without knowing all that goes into it. And you won’t know the whole story until you shell out the money to find out what’s behind the door. Hence, the reason why I wrote this.
I just want to chime in for those who haven’t considered this. When signing up for the program, you get the idea that you don’t need to have much money to make it work. However, what we didn’t realize until later is that you still need to have money for obtaining certain information to find motivated sellers, you’re also needing to file documents with the county clerk’s office often (if you’re doing well in the beginning, which my husband was pretty good at signing on deals). My husband and I literally didn’t much disposable income at the time we signed up. We took money from our retirement (bad idea) to be able to afford the program. Then, we just ran out at a certain time. We got to a point, where the little we had set aside was gone, then a couple of deals went south due to circumstances we were too inexperienced to foresee.
I just want to say that we did make a pretty good deal doing this program. We made the initial fee back when we closed that deal, but we needed money to keep going and also pay living expenses for our family of 5.
We also needed to find our own lawyers and pay the fees when we needed them. I assumed maybe the program would have real estate agents who would be willing to help out the new investors with finding comps, but they don’t. You have to find an agent willing to do quite a bit for free in hopes you find a deal that helps them as well. That’s just a couple of the additional costs needed.
Some people may be completely fine with this. However, some people sign on thinking they’re going to get a little more assistance or personal help than you actually get.
Because of this, and other reasons, we decided the program was just not working for our family. We spent the next few years paying back the debt we incurred during this time and getting back on our feet.
What we didn’t fully consider.. was that you are also (according to the contract) locked in to the program.. for life, I guess? So, be cautious. If it doesn’t work out for you, you’re stuck. You can’t even buy a small rental home the traditional way. I mean, you could, but they legally could come after you and demand you give them 50% of the profits until you hit $250,000 or $100,000 or whatever the contract said at the time you signed.
Now, Phil does seem to know his stuff. However, his style is different and it doesn’t suit everyone. It didn’t suit us, which is why we haven’t done any deals in over 6 years… but when I asked to be released from the contract, nobody is responding.
If they released you from the program, on request, then I would have felt better about the program even though it did set us back for a while. And maybe they still will? Maybe they just haven’t had time to respond to my e-mail?
Don't say I didn't warn you, well I started this program in november of last year and since then I've spent a lot of money on marketing and spent 10 k to join the program, and have not had one single good lead . Yes I know that it frustrating but that is not even why I am writing this review. As a matter of fact I was not even going to write a review except after I ask them to cancel my membership because I did not want to be charged 197.00 a month to keep their software they sent me a docusign basically saying that no matter if I find a deal because of them or not I would have to split it with them . Trust me I am okay with splitting a deal with them if they helped me get it that is only fair. But if I find a deal without their help they expect me to split it with them no matter if I am in their program or not . Please call me before joining this group I would love to inform you before joining their program (385)283-1039 and if after talking with me if you want to join that is up to you.