Lifestyles Unlimited of Texas
San Antonio, TX · Member since 2012 · 22 posts · 17 votes
Lifestyles Unlimited of Texas
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Investor · Plano, TX · Member since 2011 · 84 posts · 45 votes
14yI joined lifestyles back in 2010 when I was just getting my feet wet in RE and didn't know about biggerpockets. The $500 2-day was educational and I did learn a lot not knowing much going in. At the time I would say $500 was worth it for me, but that's about it.
I'm sure in one of the ten pages of the other lifestyles forum thread it covers this but there's three levels of membership; 1) $500 - you get to attend the 2-day, you get access to their "vendor's list"; 2) $5000 - SFH mentorship where you get emails from their SFH mentors (in-house realtors), access to their online SFH education, SFH roadtrips 3) $10K - MFH mentorship - where you get emails of their multi-family deals, get access to their MFH mentor and MFH education, get to attend their field trips where they tour current memeber MFH deals.
Vendor's list - don't be fooled that just because they're on their vendor's list that you won't have problems. It's hit/miss like angieslist. They have a review system where people put their feedback negative/positive. Most are positive since I think most members are affraid to post anything negative. And in some cases some of the positive reviews are biased since I've had vendor's email me to give them positive feedback before a job was done b/c they were so close in winning "vendor of the month". I've heard to be a vendor it's $500 a month. I've seen vendors come and go as well. On the flip side I have to say that I have met some good contacts and develop good relationships with some of the vendors that I still keep in touch to this day even though I'm not a lifestyle member anymore, but I recommend that you still do your due diligence when you select a vendor from their list. The best vendors/trades people that I've found was not from their vendor's list but from the local meetup RE investment email list, which is FREE!
SFH Mentors - their SFH mentors are in-house realtors. They send email blasts of "deals" they found quoting exact numbers like "$535 cashflow / month, XX% equity capture, etc.", but yet give an approximate on their rehab and purchase price. e.g. 70K purchase price, 12K rehab. i'm pretty sure they don't even do a walk-thru of the property they advertise since it's just an active listing on MLS, which you can find yourself through mls or realtor.com. the emails contains basic info but not the property address so you have to reply back to the mentor that you're interested. they say that they offer the deal to the first the responds, but i have a feeling that doesn't happen all the time. since you're competing against all the other members that respond to the email blast and they can only submit one offer, don't count on the in-house realtors finding you deals-that-they-scrub-off-mls. most members i've talked to find it on their own and submit it to their mentors to write the offers up, if at all.
They offer a product called quest, which offer mls access to run comps for $79/month. i haven't used it but i think there are much more cost effective and creative ways to gain access.
MFH Mentors - in dallas there was only one MFH mentor. all the PIG members pretty much seemed to be fighting for his time. 20,30,40,etc. MFH members and one MFH vendor. you can see how that works.
To some extent when you work with their mentors (SFH/MFH) there's a leap of faith you have to take that the deal their bringing to you and the info they're telling you is legit and you should act now. If you didn't, the mentors move on to the next willing member who could act... now!
A tactic they use for you to sign up for memberships is that "you will earn back your membership fees." Sounds good, but that's just them giving back a cut of the realtor's commission check IF you use their in-house realtors if you can put up with the competition with other members for the realtor's time.
They also have online education for SFH/MFH investing. Education being online recordings of live sessions they recorded out of the houston location. it's pretty boring if you can sit through all of it and you could learn a lot more from BP. IMO I wouldn't say there's a lot of substance in the education for sitting through 60-90 minutes of it.
My opinion - spend the $500 for the 2-day but absolutely don't sign up for any other memberships no matter how convinced/pursuaded you are. If you're willing to spend $5K to use their realtors, you might as well spend $2k and get your RE license yourself. If you're willing to spend $10K you might as well spend the money toward more accredited education like the CCIM for MFH education. Or just spend more time on BP, which cost you NOTHING.
This was my experience, it could be diff in SA/HOU. Mostly negative since I'm still bruised for spending 10K. The grass is not greener after the $500. I was persuaded since I was a newb, eager, and didn't know of other resources like meetup groups and BP.
161 Replies
- Rental Property Investor · Manteno, IL · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes14y
I live in Illinois. But I listen to their podcasts almosts every day.
Their basic principles seem to be pretty good - 3bdrm, 2bath homes
in middle class price range.What I think you'll gain though is well worth the annual membership fee - networking opportunities, special pricing from approved vendors, etc.
And the free phone calls are worth their weight in gold for an investor starting out. I wish I could have had that when I started.
The vendor list alone would have been huge.
I would definitely pay the money and attend their events if I was closer. They also have the multifamily track that you can evolve into as well so there's a ton of room to grow your investing there.
- San Antonio, TX · Member since 2012 · 22 posts · 17 votes14y
Originally posted by Mike Hasemann:
I live in Illinois. But I listen to their podcasts almosts every day.
Their basic principles seem to be pretty good - 3bdrm, 2bath homes
in middle class price range.What I think you'll gain though is well worth the annual membership fee - networking opportunities, special pricing from approved vendors, etc.
And the free phone calls are worth their weight in gold for an investor starting out. I wish I could have had that when I started.
The vendor list alone would have been huge.
I would definitely pay the money and attend their events if I was closer. They also have the multifamily track that you can evolve into as well so there's a ton of room to grow your investing there.
Thanks Mike Hasemann! I agree with you. From what I hear on their podcasts, it seems pretty helpful for someone just starting out like myself. From what I've experienced thus far, it seems like the best resources for a comprehensive training layout of all of the basics that gradually advance to more advanced material, books and workshops are the answer. I've also began reading Brandon Turner's blog realestateinyourtwenties.com. He provides a wealth of information there.
- Lexington, KY · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes14y
Ciera Calhoun, I pointed this out in your other thread but thought I would point out a few things here. While I have not dealt with this particular program I would encourage you to be very careful before you start spending money on something like this. Most of the benefits which have been brought up can be acquired in other ways (much cheaper), leaving you more money to spend on real estate purchases. For example, I know I have seen several call scripts right here on BP for free, that have been tested with good results. As far as vendors, members of a good reia would be able to help you there. I am not saying there is not a program out there that is worth the money, but I have not come across one yet.
Make sure you do additional research and make sure that is the best use of your money at this time, because in usually in the beginning money is one of the largest obstacles.
- Rental Property Investor · Northern, CA · Member since 2012 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes14y
Ciera Calhoun I listen to various real estate investing podcasts every day of the week, and Lifestyles Unlimited is one of the ones I listen to most regularly. I have literally listened to just about every one of their podcasts over the last year or so.
I'm normally not one to spend a lot of money on guru's or REIA's. However, Lifestyles sounds pretty good. I've actually been seriously toying with the idea of joining them, if for nothing else then so I can attend their 2-day seminar which is only available to paid members.
Supposedly, you can learn quite a bit during the 2-day seminar, and I've heard that the second day is focused on how to transition from SF to MF, which right now is actually my top goal.
I'm in California, but would still be willing to travel there for this seminar. And yes, I understand that this same information may be available elsewhere for free or lower cost, but I like to be well-rounded and get my information from as many sources as possible. I get plenty of free and low cost information.
Plus, $500 for a membership (for the first year - $250 every year after that, a 2-day seminar, a year's worth of telephone advice, and access to all of their other videos and case studies actually doesn't sound like a bad deal.
If you haven't done it already, one thing you might do is go to their website and sign up for their free investor starter kit and/or browse through some of their free articles/videos available online. See what you think after that.
For what it's worth, I've tried checking around the internet for unbiased reviews of Lifestyles to kind of sway me one way or the other. There's not much out there and - like you pointed out - a lot of what I did find is several years old.
In my research, I didn't find much in the way of complaints about their basic membership ($500) and/or about their company as a whole. However, I did find a few complaints about their upgraded PIG (Preferred Investor Group) membership, mainly centering around the cost ($10,000) and the fact that a few people felt like they didn't get their money's worth out of this membership.
However, that doesn't concern me too much because I would never consider signing up for the $10,000 membership anyway so I'm only judging them based on what they offer for the $500 membership. And that seems pretty decent.
What I can tell you is that if I lived in Texas, I would definitely join them. I'm in California and still might join them.
If you join them, please be sure to report back and tell us what you think from an "insider's perspective".
- Investor · Plano, TX · Member since 2012 · 7 posts · 2 votes14y
I just joined LSU this month and have been very pleased. The stuff they teach you in the 2-day class totally blew me away. Worth every bit of the $500 that I paid, imo. Plus, they had a promo for 2-years so can't beat that I guess since I was already considering joining for a while.
Day 1 is about single family homes. Much of this was actually covered in the pod casts so there were not too many secrets. However, the way Del teaches you is a LOT different from what you hear from Steve on the radio (Del seems a little disconnected from the radio show content). But, the life experience that Del provides and summarizes in class - invaluable. Walks you through in detail with live answers that are worth its weight in gold. Like they say, you have to learn it from somebody that's done it and has experienced the pit falls. He keeps it totally fun-filled with his real life experiences.
Day 2 is about trasitioning into multi-family. If you have over $100k you can invest in, this is the route to go. Again, Del will convince most of us that dealing with SF homes when you can go to MF directly is pretty much a waste of time. The business model it totally different. And this REALLY blew me away. A lot more money to be made (but a lot more risk). That is why you need the PIG membership so that Del's mentors are compensated to hold hands with you. You cannot risk messing up with this much $$ involved. Nonetheless, you can start out by being a regular member and later joining the pig.
Another benefit of the pig is Lifestyles Realty folks will actually find and bring deals to you. Great for working folk that don't have the time to go locate the wholesale properties (you need to find properties at 50-60 cents on the dollar to match the business model). I'm in DFW area and there are 2 companies that I know of that specialize in wholesale properties that actually don't charge you anything (except for the finders fee that is already built into the cost of the property) so you may not need pig if only for locating properties.Sorry had to rush through this since i'm on my lunch break but hopefully this will help some folks. In DFW there are other RE clubs that are free or lower cost. I've been to them and they offer other perspectives. But, LS offers a home for me so to speak. I casually show up 1 or 2 times a week to Irving (where their office is) to network or listen in on vendors to better my education.
- Rental Property Investor · Northern, CA · Member since 2012 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes14y
Originally posted by Jim Baum:
I just joined LSU this month and have been very pleased. The stuff they teach you in the 2-day class totally blew me away. Worth every bit of the $500 that I paid, imo. Plus, they had a promo for 2-years so can't beat that I guess since I was already considering joining for a while.
Day 1 is about single family homes. Much of this was actually covered in the pod casts so there were not too many secrets. However, the way Del teaches you is a LOT different from what you hear from Steve on the radio (Del seems a little disconnected from the radio show content). But, the life experience that Del provides and summarizes in class - invaluable. Walks you through in detail with live answers that are worth its weight in gold. Like they say, you have to learn it from somebody that's done it and has experienced the pit falls. He keeps it totally fun-filled with his real life experiences.
Day 2 is about trasitioning into multi-family. If you have over $100k you can invest in, this is the route to go. Again, Del will convince most of us that dealing with SF homes when you can go to MF directly is pretty much a waste of time. The business model it totally different. And this REALLY blew me away. A lot more money to be made (but a lot more risk). That is why you need the PIG membership so that Del's mentors are compensated to hold hands with you. You cannot risk messing up with this much $$ involved. Nonetheless, you can start out by being a regular member and later joining the pig.
Another benefit of the pig is Lifestyles Realty folks will actually find and bring deals to you. Great for working folk that don't have the time to go locate the wholesale properties (you need to find properties at 50-60 cents on the dollar to match the business model). I'm in DFW area and there are 2 companies that I know of that specialize in wholesale properties that actually don't charge you anything (except for the finders fee that is already built into the cost of the property) so you may not need pig if only for locating properties.Sorry had to rush through this since i'm on my lunch break but hopefully this will help some folks. In DFW there are other RE clubs that are free or lower cost. I've been to them and they offer other perspectives. But, LS offers a home for me so to speak. I casually show up 1 or 2 times a week to Irving (where their office is) to network or listen in on vendors to better my education.
I didn't say anything before, but this is actually my biggest (only?) complaint about Lifestyles Unlimited. When I was searching the internet (including on BP) for reviews of Lifestyles - I found that any time someone starts a post to ask about them or if anyone is familiar with them - some new poster (who just joined the SAME DAY as the original post asking for information) with NO previous posts, adds his/her two cents about how great Lifestyles is.
No disrespect meant, nor do I know for sure that @Jim Baum isn't a real investor who just happened to join BP today and coincidentally made his first post about Lifestyles, but it sure is suspicious. Especially when the exact same thing happened a few years ago on BP when someone tried to get other BP'ers opinion on Lifestyles.
I've seen it happen on other sites as well, and I can't help but feel that people like this are actually just employees of Lifestyles looking to pad their positive reviews.
I'd be more understanding if you (generally speaking) were just upfront and said, "Hey, I work for Lifestyles and love it. Here's why..." But when you masquerade as an "unbiased" investor offering your unbiased opinion, it just makes me suspicious.
Again, I don't know that @Jim Baum did this. But surely it can't be a coincidence that a number of people have joined sites like BP, right after a Lifestyles topic is started, only to then make their first and only post about how great Lifestyles is.
- 14yJoshua D.Pro MemberBiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
Jim Baum - Thanks for the feedback. As Kyle J. already indicated, there is a patten of activity from some companies online to send people to promote their business on forums without disclosing their associations and relationship with those companies. I'm not accusing this company of doing that, but it these posters do follow the same pattern . . . they post one positive post about the company in question and then disappear.
I hope to see you jump in and get active here on the site. As an active and successful investor, surely you see the value of engaging here beyond just sharing your review of this company. We'll all look forward to seeing your second, third, and additional posts here.
- San Antonio, TX · Member since 2012 · 22 posts · 17 votes14y
Kyle J. Joshua Dorkin I was hoping this wouldn't happen. This form of marketing only makes the company look bad once everyone catches on. On the thread I read from a few years ago, this same thing happened and created a very negative vibe in the conversation that was unnecessary.
Jim Baum If you are a Lifestyles Unlimited rep, please relay this message. If the company is really as great as you claim it is, posers would not need to post falsely unbiased opinions on popular forums. Let the product speak for itself. All you're doing is contributing to any negative opinions someone may have formed against Lifestyles Unlimited.
- San Antonio, TX · Member since 2012 · 22 posts · 17 votes14y
Kyle J. Thanks for the suggestions. I agree with you. I may be willing to pay for the $500 membership but I would never consider paying $10k. From what I've seen so far, it seems they offer quite a bit of information. Like you've already mentioned, it's very difficult to find unbiased opinion of the company. However, my cousin speaks very highly of their training and he wouldn't stear me in the wrong direction. I'm currently in the process of going through their starter kit and I've enjoyed it thus far. I'm on day 6. I'll see what the free workshop has to offer and then I'll make my decision then. Most likely, I won't pay the $500 because I have no problem reading tons of books, blog posts, and forum posts for information but who knows?
- Houston, TX · Member since 2010 · 150 posts · 159 votes14y
I was a member of LU a several years ago and I will say it was worth it. The group helped me with my mind set and steered me in the right direction. Now, I will say they are a little disingenuous at times. They tend to make RE investing sound so easy and that anyone can do it. To a certain degree that may be true but in my experience it is going to take work and some sacrifice. The thing is you dont know what you dont know and Del is a successful RE investor who has done it many many years so why would you not want to learn what you can from him. It was easy for me to decide to join since I had spent thousands upon thousands of dollars, and time, and effort to obtain a relatively useless college degree that earned me the right to make less than a teacher. A measly $500 was nothing to me.
- Investor · Plano, TX · Member since 2011 · 84 posts · 45 votes14y
I joined lifestyles back in 2010 when I was just getting my feet wet in RE and didn't know about biggerpockets. The $500 2-day was educational and I did learn a lot not knowing much going in. At the time I would say $500 was worth it for me, but that's about it.
I'm sure in one of the ten pages of the other lifestyles forum thread it covers this but there's three levels of membership; 1) $500 - you get to attend the 2-day, you get access to their "vendor's list"; 2) $5000 - SFH mentorship where you get emails from their SFH mentors (in-house realtors), access to their online SFH education, SFH roadtrips 3) $10K - MFH mentorship - where you get emails of their multi-family deals, get access to their MFH mentor and MFH education, get to attend their field trips where they tour current memeber MFH deals.
Vendor's list - don't be fooled that just because they're on their vendor's list that you won't have problems. It's hit/miss like angieslist. They have a review system where people put their feedback negative/positive. Most are positive since I think most members are affraid to post anything negative. And in some cases some of the positive reviews are biased since I've had vendor's email me to give them positive feedback before a job was done b/c they were so close in winning "vendor of the month". I've heard to be a vendor it's $500 a month. I've seen vendors come and go as well. On the flip side I have to say that I have met some good contacts and develop good relationships with some of the vendors that I still keep in touch to this day even though I'm not a lifestyle member anymore, but I recommend that you still do your due diligence when you select a vendor from their list. The best vendors/trades people that I've found was not from their vendor's list but from the local meetup RE investment email list, which is FREE!
SFH Mentors - their SFH mentors are in-house realtors. They send email blasts of "deals" they found quoting exact numbers like "$535 cashflow / month, XX% equity capture, etc.", but yet give an approximate on their rehab and purchase price. e.g. 70K purchase price, 12K rehab. i'm pretty sure they don't even do a walk-thru of the property they advertise since it's just an active listing on MLS, which you can find yourself through mls or realtor.com. the emails contains basic info but not the property address so you have to reply back to the mentor that you're interested. they say that they offer the deal to the first the responds, but i have a feeling that doesn't happen all the time. since you're competing against all the other members that respond to the email blast and they can only submit one offer, don't count on the in-house realtors finding you deals-that-they-scrub-off-mls. most members i've talked to find it on their own and submit it to their mentors to write the offers up, if at all.
They offer a product called quest, which offer mls access to run comps for $79/month. i haven't used it but i think there are much more cost effective and creative ways to gain access.
MFH Mentors - in dallas there was only one MFH mentor. all the PIG members pretty much seemed to be fighting for his time. 20,30,40,etc. MFH members and one MFH vendor. you can see how that works.
To some extent when you work with their mentors (SFH/MFH) there's a leap of faith you have to take that the deal their bringing to you and the info they're telling you is legit and you should act now. If you didn't, the mentors move on to the next willing member who could act... now!
A tactic they use for you to sign up for memberships is that "you will earn back your membership fees." Sounds good, but that's just them giving back a cut of the realtor's commission check IF you use their in-house realtors if you can put up with the competition with other members for the realtor's time.
They also have online education for SFH/MFH investing. Education being online recordings of live sessions they recorded out of the houston location. it's pretty boring if you can sit through all of it and you could learn a lot more from BP. IMO I wouldn't say there's a lot of substance in the education for sitting through 60-90 minutes of it.
My opinion - spend the $500 for the 2-day but absolutely don't sign up for any other memberships no matter how convinced/pursuaded you are. If you're willing to spend $5K to use their realtors, you might as well spend $2k and get your RE license yourself. If you're willing to spend $10K you might as well spend the money toward more accredited education like the CCIM for MFH education. Or just spend more time on BP, which cost you NOTHING.
This was my experience, it could be diff in SA/HOU. Mostly negative since I'm still bruised for spending 10K. The grass is not greener after the $500. I was persuaded since I was a newb, eager, and didn't know of other resources like meetup groups and BP.
- Rental Property Investor · Manteno, IL · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes14y
Yea. I wondered about their other memberships.
I'm not sure what the 5k membership is. I thought the $500
level gave people unlimited question and answer so what
does the 5k thing really get you - the mls deals?I still see the $500 for year plus $250 each year after being
a great deal considering you can go to all the case studies
to network and you get unlimited question and answer.I also wonder if the 10k isn't a bad deal for someone
going into multifamily. Sounds like they do road trips
where they go to actual properties and do walk throughs
and you get to look at the books of other investors.That sounds like a pretty good way to get an education
to me - compared to some of the other investor classes
that are out there. You're not going to get that info from any other business types (i.e. franchises, etc) that I know of.That being said, I still don't know if I would pay 10k
for any training so who knows. :-)And just so you know, I am not a Lifestyles Member
and never have been. And I've never met a single
member. Although I have toyed with the idea
of paying the $500 just to do Del's 2 days class.
The guy is fun to listen to and really helps you
stay motivated when you run into a bad week or two.I still say $500 to be part of that kind of group is going
to be the best money you'll spend. REI's are ok but
these types of groups seem a lot more motivated.We have some crazy training organization here in Illinois
but they have some deal where its really just a pyramid
to get members to sell more training - instead of
investing in real estate. And the training is a lot
more expensive than $500 or even 5k! - Investor · Plano, TX · Member since 2012 · 7 posts · 2 votes14y
All I can say is to take my comments however you'd like. And no, I am not trying to convince any of you here who I am or not. I am just a newbie that needed a place to go, and it was Lifestyles that I chose to join. Now having going thorugh the 2-day class, I felt like I could contribute (from my experience). I've been reading various forums and finally came across this one.
I was actually searching for comments regarding Lifestyles because I wanted to validate if I've made the right choice. I still believe that something is too good to be true about them. They are a business after all so I'm trying to figure out the ulterior motive. Either thye are trying to get folks to join the pig, or to be able to charge vendors some fee to provide a pool of investors to them. - San Antonio, TX · Member since 2012 · 22 posts · 17 votes14y
Anthony Y. Thank you so much for your response. This is exactly what I was looking for. Someone who was once a member but is no longer involved and can tell the pros and cons of the membership.
- 14yJoshua D.Pro MemberBiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
Thanks for dropping back in, Jim Baum. We'll see you around.
- Investor · Plano, TX · Member since 2012 · 7 posts · 2 votes14y
Thanks Joshua, I certainly appreciate your warm welcome :)
As a newbie, I've been lurking for a while and finally was able to post a reply. But since I've never responded before, naturally had to create a new account. So I could see how it comes across. Perhaps I need to ask some newbie questions first?Anyhow, a little about me - I do have 1 rental property due to moving and purchasing another primary house. Luckily have been cash flowing positive (even with a mgmt co.) on it. After the 1st rent check, I basically fell in love. Then came Lifestyles as my urge to get more rentals developed.
Apparently, they claim that now is the 'perfect storm' (interest rate low, rent higher, etc.) and that we would probably not see this in our life time again. In this market, you are able to see both cash flow and equity. However, I don't have equity since I bought the home at market value. Their business model teaches you to get foreclosed houses on the cheap - fix - and hold. A solid business model, that is supposed to not be impacted by market conditions too much. One thing Del mentioned was to sell the property after 2 years, capture the unrealized equity, and then do a 1031 exchange. Rinse and repeat. I guess he really likes being aggressive compared to the standard Lifestyles model which you hold the properties for some time longer.
But again, I have yet to test the model and only time will tell so I will chime in from time to time to update.
Jim
- Commercial Real Estate Lender / Syndicator · Dallas, TX · Member since 2011 · 888 posts · 309 votes14y
A friend on mine is a member. Well, was. He kept trying to get me to join and just recently stopped trying. Not because I joined, but because he finally came to the realization that $5k or $8k or whatever he paid could have been better spent. He now says even $500 is too much.
As for their vendor lists, many of the same vendors are sponsors of local REIAs here in DFW. Just look up the REIAs on Meetup.
Like Anthony said, their internal realtors blast out properties that anyone can find on MLS. They also offer some non-MLS. Those come from a few wholesalers. One of those wholesalers told me he likes sending deals to LS because that's where he can get the most money for his deals.
I heard Del speak once. He kept saying there are no secrets in real estate. Why is it that none of his students ever repeat that line?
- Investor · Clarksville, IN · Member since 2012 · 226 posts · 96 votes13y
Here is my 0.02 cents on LU inc.
First about me. I have no RE investing experience and have not attended any other training other than LU inc. I consider myself to have a lot of common sense and have thought off and on about buying SF homes to hold as rentals, but never gave it too much thought beyond that. What I did know, was that it isn't rocket science and that others in the world were doing it, so to could I.
I had an inside track on LU inc from a member, who happens to be a friend of my brothers outside of LU inc. My brother is not a member. Knowing this members success of nearly 100 doors (SF/MF) over a 3 year period and knowing that he is a stand up guy, I decided to attend the free informational presentation. I knew going in that I would be upsold, as I knew that they are a business and they have to make money someplace.
Sure enough, the sales pitch came, $500.00 for 2 years. BUT, this was a special deal for today only as it was the presenters birthday and he had spoken with the mystical "Del" and gotten permission to offer this deal. I did not join that day. After the class I got a few emails encouraging me to "take action now" the sky is falling kind of stuff, as if I didn't get in now, I would never have another opportunity.
About 20 years ago I worked in a business that there who deal was selling, although I was not in sales, so I knew of some of the games and tricks sales people use to close sales. I wasn't too worried about letting the "deal" slip away. Two months later, I contacted the presenter/sales person to ask about who they reccomend for FICO improvment. I was told that I had to join to get that information. A few weeks later I decided to join to get this secret access to the FICO professional and to attend the 2 day classs to see what I could learn. Funny thing, when I went to the office to join, it was still $500.00 for 2 years. The person who signed me up acted as if she were extending me some special courtesy and might get in trouble for doing so. I told her that the "special" was insulting to anyone that knew the basics of sales and closing sales.
For $500.00 I get the 2 day class, which is a boot camp for REI, 1st day on SF and the 2nd day progressing from SF to MF. I learned a few things in the class, such as the formula that they use for property evaluation, but not much was new to me as I had listend to every podcast that I could find prior to going. They are careful to not give away the farm on the radio show, but if you listen enough and can put 1+1 together to come up with 2, then you can put the basics together. You also get access to other classes on property evaluation, guest speakers on a wide range of topics, who I suspect have a dog in the fight, as they are vendors. You get unlimited telephone access to "junior mentors" who are not real estate agents. They claim you can call and be walked through anything at any phase of your deal. The will not however evaluate or opine on any deal, claiming they can not do that because they don't know if one of their realtors is working the same deal with an upgraded member (More on upgraded memebers below). You also have the ability to sign up for Lifestyles Quest, an online tool that imports data from the MLS for comps, rent comps etc and formulates the final estimated numbers on the deal that you are looking at. This access cost $79.00 a month + tax and is only for the DFW, Houston & San Antonio/Austin markets. They teach you how to do the evaluations on paper, but claim, that it does require that you find a real estate agent that is willing to work with you by providing comps "quickly" the way that you want the comps and who is willing to put in multiple offers on small priced sales. They are claiming that they are putting this power in your hands with this tool and then you only have to find an agent who is willing to put in the multiple offers to compete with all the other investors.
BUT, for the low low price of $5,000.00 you can become a challenge member and have one of their realtors do all the work for you. Mind you, this is a special for today only, "I spoke to Del late last night for hours to convince him to let me give you this special, it is regularly $6,000.00." What they don't say until you go to sign up (and no I had no interest in signing up) is that it is $5,000.00 for the first year and $1,000.00 for renewal charged all at once for a total of $6,000.00. Which shell is the pea under? (another insult IMHO) Now if you are the type of person who can't decide to get out of the way of speeding bus, I suppose this might be an ok deal. My opinion is that they are likely working for too many investors, and you would be better off going and finding a hungry RE agent. Which, if you rub a few elbows in the class, you will find that there are RE agents sitting right there among you.
The challenge membership gets you a a babysitter if you are not able for whatever reason to do it yourself, be it lack of motivation, common sense, time, skill, education... They will find deals evaluate it and blast it out in email for the hounds to fight over. They evaluate it using Lifestyles Quest (remember $79.00 a months + tax), so you can do it yourself. If you call them directly or go to the office and sit down with them, they will locate deals directly for you to evaluate and make offers on. They do not allow one LU memeber to compete with another LU member on the same property if you use their agents, and strongly discourage you by contract not to go to an outside agent with anything they give you. You also get to attend SF roadtrips, where they go out and evaluate properties on site and vendors give on site classes on various topics about REI. At the end of the trip the hounds have a chance to put in an offer on the properties visited. If there is more than 1 member intersted in the property, they draw cards to see who gets to make an offer. Some properties are MLS listings others are wholesale deals.
OR you can become a PIG for $10,000.00 on sale of course from $12,000.00 just for today. You had to pay for the following years membership at the same time, but don't remember what the price was. This is is for those who want to do MF. They will not let you be involved in MF as a passive or lead without being a PIG. They claim you need education and credibility, which can they can teach you.
Interestingly, both Steve Davis and Del Walmsley came from selling gym memberships 22+ years ago, I can't help but think that they got this idea of adding on the second year up front from that. Most people sign up and don't follow through, money in the bank.
What you get being a PIG is 200+ hours of classroom training, some certifications on APT MGT and they will evaluate the deals from start to finish. They will take the available and willing PIGs to the property to walk each unit, find ways to cut cost without cutting quality, audit leases, losses, projects rent increases as the property is rehabbed, project RUBS, they whole works. Unless you are on point doing this yourself or want to hire someone to do it for you, I would guess this would be an OK deal, but purely a guess. It is not need for SF and they tell you so.
In the other thread about LU inc, someone brought up the smugness of the MGT & office staff. They are people, in every group you are going to find different personalities. I did find it to be true that some of the people working there seem to walk around as if they are the **** of the walk, but all seemed nice enough and willing to talk to you and answer any questions. There were certainly a few peacocks, chest out, feathers showing.
As for the mystical "Del", I have not met the man, and really have no interest in doing so. I am not a sheeple, nor a Koolaid drinker. There seem to be plenty of people around there willing to kiss his... he doesn't need me. He may be a real nice stand up guy, I just don't have any interest in going out of my way to schmooz, not my style. I can say that it seems a little cultic when it comes to him.
They do teach "best product, best price" and screening tenants to keep your expenses low. This, as others have said, involves replacing anything that might be a problem. Further, they advocate getting out of the SF properties within a few years, taking the equity capture to MF, so long term expenses are not an issue if you follow that advise.
Oh... I almost forgot, remember that FICO professional that I was seeking? Well when I called the junior mentor to get the info, I was told "I could get in trouble for giving you this information as this person is not a LU vendor". Well then why did I have to sign up to get this information if it isn't a LU secret?
Overall, for $500.00 I got a basic education and a map to proceed on. I get to call up someone on the phone and ask them questions to help me from making mistakes, I can go rub elbows & even worship Del if I choose. There are continuing education classes and I have access to the vendors list, which I think is a little sparse. I am guessing this is because they charge to be in the list (so another poster says).
IMHO, it was $500.00 well spent for someone with no education or experience in this area.
For the record, I am a member of LU inc at the lowest level, I am not an employee of LU inc, nor do I ever want to be. This is my first post, but I suspect that this will not be an issue, because I do not think that they walk on water.
One thing that I thought was careless about the 2 day class, is that they "suggest" people cash in their 401K or IRAs and other investments, take the penalty and make it up in RE. This seems like a personal financial decision that shouldn't be promoted to the masses, considering the masses are blinded by the hand picked examples of the great wealth to be made in RE. They did not show or speak of one failure.
That is my 0.02 cents.
Questions? Would anyone like to sign up today?
- Investor · Clarksville, IN · Member since 2012 · 226 posts · 96 votes13y
Oopps... forgot to add that they are business like any other, they are for profit and not a charity. I can not begrudge them for making money by providing a service. The information may be elsewhere for free, but you have to weed it out. They give you a clear and concise method of doing business and on going support.
There may be a time when I become a PIG if I ever decide to go MF, as that is way over my head. I think I have a grasp on SF, so I wont join that group.
As with anything, it is what you make of it.
- Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2009 · 40 posts · 9 votes13y
I work for Lifestyles Unlimited. I am a member first and foremost. I started as a member. I was referred to Lifestyles from a friend who is a full time real estate investor ex IRS agent. He said in order for him to talk to me about real estate i needed to become a member of Lifestyles. They had a good base foundation. So I joined Lifestyles and the RICH club in Houston. I started investing and applying the clear and concise plan that Lifestyles teaches. After staying home with my little ones and deciding that was not for me i came to work at Lifestyles. I am over the Vendor Program. I love helping members and seeing members grow and change their financial tree. I am not an advanced member. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE AN ADVANCE MEMBERSHIP for it to be worth your while. I find it amazing how many people gawk over 500$ to invest in any good training is worth it. As with anything you can always purchase more! You can always purchase more physical training, more business coaching more of anything but that doesn't mean you HAVE TO OR NEED TO to be successful. What other company will pick up the phone and answer your questions when it comes to investing? You go to a REIA and they bring in National Speakers all peddling a product pushing books and tapes.
I wonder why so many people feel the need to speculate on things? Go to a free workshop and check us out. We aren't for everyone but those we are for do really well.
I am passionate about what I do. We don't teach secrets. We TELL YOU THAT UP FRONT! YOU CAN GET EVERYTHING WE TEACH AT THE LIBRARY. We are a consolidated focused information education piece.
We do have 100's of hours of classes online and AWESOME VENDORS! We are more complete than ANY REI. We don't have people pushing and selling their own products... Like a wholesaler coming in and pushing his way. The flow is the Lifestyle way.
Since we a re a business you can get to the boss to complain at an REI its a lot harder to get action. We have members across the nation not just Texas. Check our BBB rating.
BTW if we work for Lifestyles we will tell you we don't have "marketing people" trolling the site to post comments those are our members. You find them on here but it seems anytime you do they get beat down or questioned. We have loyal members because they have felt the benefits. We are not "too good" to be true we are an excellent value with an excellent teaching ability and staff to back it up. Almost every single one of us invest in real estate too. We practice what we preach.
- Investor · atlanta , GA · Member since 2012 · 287 posts · 148 votes13y
I'm a real estate investor in Atlanta Ga. Like many who posted, I've listened to the Lifestyles podcast for the last three years. I finally decided to take the plunge and join. I flew to San Antonio in November for the two day class, and signed up for the 10,000 PIG membership level while I was there. That's how strongly I believe in what Lifestyles does, and as you can probably atest to, they are light years ahead of other real estate groups around the country. That's why I'm starting to invest in Texas and not Atlanta where I live. They do practice what they preach. I networked with mentors there (including the President and V.P.) via Facebook and e-mail before spending a dime on any membership. They will help you regardless of your membership or membership level. Hope this helps someone else.
- Rental Property Investor · Manteno, IL · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes13y
And have you bought any multifamily properties there yet?
I'm assumig that since you paid the 10k, thats what you were really interested in.Just wondering what the numbers looked like on the property(ies).
- 13yDon KonipolBusiness MemberInvestor · The Woodlands TX / Avon, CT · Member since 2009 · 6k+ posts · 10k+ votes
I was a guest speaker a couple of times about 5 or 6 years ago at lifestyles. A couple of passive investor limited partners of mine wanted to get into ACTIVE real estate investing and paid the $10K to join. Both purchased medium to large apartment complexes with the help of the mentoring program ( one was a 243 unit complex, the other two 20 unit complexes). Both sold out after one year (for a profit) and reinvested the proceeds as passive investors in my fund.
My conclusion is that Lifestyles is probably the best mentoring program out there, and at least for PIGs will make sure you are able to successfully negotiate and close deals at a good price. However, both parties completely underestimated the amount of work required to managed these properties. Lifestyles claims (or at least did 5 years ago) that owning apartments was at worst a part time business and all you had to do was hire and train a manager, and you could work one week a month. This might be true with A or B apartment building, but Lifestyles deals in C and D apartments. I know from personal experience, C and D apartments are more of a business than a investment. You might make money, but you will not get the "lifestyle".
- Investor · Colleyville, TX · Member since 2012 · 70 posts · 7 votes13y
I joined LU back in 2007. I was new to real estate and wanted some guidance. For those who are thinking about joining, I will give you my own personal opinion. I am sure you can pay the $500 and attend the bootcamp and it will be beneficial. Any amount further is not worth it. I feel your time spent here at BP is far better. BP is a great community and I have met several great people here. I am sure there are LU people that will argue this, however this is only my opinion and what I experienced.
- TX · Member since 2013 · 5 posts · 9 votes13y
I joined, have been watching these forums a while, I am now ready to write a review. I recommend that you DON'T join their company/club.
I can literally say I got nothing in return from them when up-sold to the $5,000 program. Everything they do is a sales presentation to some higher membership, once they get your money they don't do anything past that. I put the time in, I called them constantly, emailed them constantly, to no avail. When talking to them in person I said "tell me what I have to do to get a house", they said "just email us what you're looking for and if we come across anything matching your criteria we'll email you". Well I didn't have any criteria other than just get me a discounted home like the ones you advertised. When I'd email them I just got the same automated reply saying "welcome to lifestyles let us know what you're looking for and we'll email you if we find it", and that's about all you hear from their realtors. Now my membership is about to expire and they never found me a single house.
THE DETAILS
In Del's "2 day bootcamp of real estate" up-sell-seminar he says, and I quote, "if you sign up for the challenge or preferred, you don't have to worry about this [certain stuff he was teaching], they will just do everything for you". This was a lie. In other words the idea was that if you didn't have time to scour the net for agents and deals, that you could pay 5-10 grand and they would find houses that you could purchase with 80% capital gains for only 0-$4,000 out of pocket. Many members I have talked to are disappointed with this. From the beginning they teach that you don't need money, just sign up for the class and they'll teach you how to buy homes for $4,000 or less down, these are the only examples they give. Then when you go to the class they say pay more and we will find the deals for you. They have an email blast where about once every other day they email ALL their members 1 house... the same house... This is the only deals they find, and the cheapest one will require $15,000-20,000 (usually 20) out of pocket not $4000. Trying to get one of the email blast houses is like trying to be caller #9, everybody emails them within seconds of receiving the message and whoever is 1st gets to make an offer. If your email account can't push messages to your phone the instant the message is sent, or you can't respond in seconds, you have no chance of getting the deal. My account pushes messages within 6 secs to 15min, even 6 seconds is too long though, one of their other thousands of members will get it.
On "their road" trips which aren't road trips... they're tours of an area of town, they take you to 4-9 houses they found on HAR, they put your name in a hat and if drawn you can make an offer on one of the homes, most people are competing for the same 1-2 best homes from the trip. Most, if not all of the homes require $18,000 to $37,000 out of pocket, some of the homes have so much "mildew" that the siding is fully rotted away, the support beams are exposed and partially rotted. Some homes are condo/ townhouses, which is contradictory to what Del teaches in his class, he says "stay away from anything that's attached to another home". Del also teaches that you DON'T want agents that just patrol MLS, and to only deal with agents who sell you homes before posted on MLS. Well all his agents do is patrol the MLS, which you find out after you pay them 5-10 grand.During his class he has a gimmick where he demonstrates how fast he can find a home with his software that he wants you to subscribe to for $70/mon. He shows how he can find a good deal on the mls in 20 seconds. When he does this, count how many people are in the class then count the number of homes he finds... Once you become a member you find that all the good homes like that are either HUD, cash only, or "tagged"/pending with another member, so you have no access to them. That other member probably wont even get the house as most the time someone outside Lifestyles Realty gets it. Maybe lifestyles used to work in the past, before government was restricting the supply, and everyone and their brother was a competitive investor. Keep in mind that lifestyles has hundreds if not thousands of members at this point, and a quick search on the mls shows there just aren't enough homes, that are deals, for everybody. Their realtors even admit this in so many words. Also, lifestyles only has about 13 realtors getting slammed by hungry investors all day, which shows they aren't serious about finding homes for all their members.
The road trip is advertised as an opportunity to see ~7 house 'deals', with contractors and inspectors present to teach you about evaluating a house. Not only are the houses mostly overpriced junk now days, but the inspectors/contractors aren't doing a real inspection of the house. They're there to sell you their service, so when everyone there is asking "how much in repairs, whats damaged etc." They tend to give a programmed answer stating the obvious "Well um hm you see there is a crack in the wall there, yep the carpet needs replacing, the roof is um, well just look at it, and yeah that pipe hanging out of that hole in the wall is gonna need to be fixed, I cant tell you what it will all cost to fix, you'll have to call me for a real inspection when you make an offer, BUT if you hire ME I promise to do a real good thorough job, you can count on me".
MEMBER TESTIMONY
Their most successful people (and I only know of 1), they will bring on stage, to talk about their success. One of these people comes on stage a lot but not to teach us 'how' he does it; he comes only during the sales pitching 'Work shops' when non members are there. He tells everyone he gets homes for $4000 down all the time, but many of the members snag him after his speeches and ask him how or who to call to get these deals yet he wont tell anybody, which makes us suspicious. Other members are getting terrible deals then going on stage to brag about it like they just made a genius business transaction. Of course it's easy to get houses if you're willing to overpay so much you can only afford 2/yr. I have also talked with some of the 'satisfied' folk and when I ask how many homes have you bought, "well none, b-but we haven't really tried very hard.." Well try hard to use the service you already paid for before you say you're satisfied with it. Most people aren't satisfied.As for me and many others we had to give up on lifestyles to acquire our first house that was actually a deal. Within 4 days of me calling up some realtors who don't charge $5000 to find you houses, They had sent me 20 houses to look at... all for free. Some of us have been accused of 'going around lifestyles realtors' to purchase (tagged) houses out from under their members. This isn't the case, it's not like I'm going to pay $70/mon to see whats tagged by other members on "quest", my realtor just happened to find me a home that one of lifestyle's realtors wanted at the same time. Sorry if free realtors find more than $5000 realtors.
MARKETING
You can learn about a company by the way they market. They don't post their membership levels and price on the net where you can take the time to research, review, think about it at home. Instead they market like a time share company. You have to go into their "workshop" where they have an hour to sell you on the $500 membership without ever mentioning the other levels. They tell you membership is $600/yr but if you sign up tonight you can get it for $500 for 2 years. When you go to the boot camp of real estate seminar, 1 day teaches you the basics (all common sense stuff) of renting homes, how to be skeptical about even most perfect looking renters... and of course how you can get homes for $4000 or 0 down. The 2nd day is pure up-sell, after 16 hours of getting you right on the edge to purchase the &10,000(apartments) program they tell you there is a $6000 program for just house renting. But don't think about it, you must sign up NOW, so you can get it for $5000. Bam, 20-30 people get in line to sign up instantly without thought.I fell for the marketing. During the 2 day (1 day) seminar) the stuff he said about renting homes sounded profound. But after thinking about it, it was all common sense stuff. There is nothing profound in real estate, just be careful, don't do anything that might constitute gambling or high risk and you'll be fine. I could have gotten in depth knowledge by internet or just going to the library and renting some books for free.
Maybe I'll post this on their goog map so when people gps to their office for the sales pitch they can be warned right away. Haven't decided. Anyway... Learn. From. My. Mistake. Sorry for the long post.
edit: if you recently purchased the membership with a credit card you may be able to get your money back.
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