Lifestyles Unlimited of Texas
San Antonio, TX · Member since 2012 · 22 posts · 17 votes
I recently found out about a real estate investing mentor group called Lifestyles Unlimited based in Texas and decided to do some research on it. I came across a thread on this forum about the company from 2008 and very few people were involved with them. I figured I'd pose the question again since its 4 years later. Maybe there are some credible members of this forum that are also members of Lifestyles Unlimited who have joined within the last year.
My question is how beneficial is this group? Has anyone on here experienced success in real estate investing from their training? Is it worth the $500 membership?
If there is a recent thread on Lifestyles Unlimited, please link.
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.
All these investment gurus remind me of Amway salesmen.
Fukkkkkkk if I'd spend 2 cents or 2 minutes of my time on any of them.
I am a member of Lifestyles Unlimited. It is $500 to join (includes a 2-day seminar) and there is a $240/yr renewal (if you want to stay with it). I have 2 rental properties now but want to start expanding that in the next couple years. I give LU 2 thumbs up. If you live in TX, I would say that if you want to be a RE investor, you should definitely join. There are several benefits.
1) The keep a tight leash on their vendors list in terms of "quality". So, if you're a newbie you have a high degree of confidence that anyone you use in that database will treat you fairly (ie: not a fly by night, rip you off, etc type outfit). The LU community in TX is ginormous. They gets tons (TONS) of referrals by being on that vendor list. Dont dont want to rock that gravy train. If you live outside of TX, I'd say that it's still worth joining (come on, it's only $20/mo) for at least the first several years you are getting up and running in RE investing.
2) You get access to a lot of really good training videos. Yes, you can find similar video content on youtube, etc BUT you have to figure out who's legit or not. If someone is presenting (trainer) in LU, they are well vetted.
The problem is... what if you dont live in TX? That is legit. Their "vendor list" is not as strong or well-vetted as they are for TX just because they dont have critical mass yet outside TX.
As for comparing BP with LU.... among other things, conceptually, you can think of LU as expert led learning experience whereas BP is sort of like crowd-sourced learning. I am not knocking BP. Both are good. It's just that they serve different needs.
Hope this helps
All these investment gurus remind me of Amway salesmen.
Fukkkkkkk if I'd spend 2 cents or 2 minutes of my time on any of them.
I spent $15K on a MF membership Jan. last year, and my first investment was $50K in June. It's yielding 12% cash on cash, I have to do 0 work, and by my est. the value of my investment has increased way more than $15K. I'm kind of glad most people are skeptical like you, means less competition for investment opportunities w/ leads in the program. ;)
I am a member of Lifestyles Unlimited. It is $500 to join (includes a 2-day seminar) and there is a $240/yr renewal (if you want to stay with it). I have 2 rental properties now but want to start expanding that in the next couple years. I give LU 2 thumbs up. If you live in TX, I would say that if you want to be a RE investor, you should definitely join. There are several benefits.
1) The keep a tight leash on their vendors list in terms of "quality". So, if you're a newbie you have a high degree of confidence that anyone you use in that database will treat you fairly (ie: not a fly by night, rip you off, etc type outfit). The LU community in TX is ginormous. They gets tons (TONS) of referrals by being on that vendor list. Dont dont want to rock that gravy train. If you live outside of TX, I'd say that it's still worth joining (come on, it's only $20/mo) for at least the first several years you are getting up and running in RE investing.
2) You get access to a lot of really good training videos. Yes, you can find similar video content on youtube, etc BUT you have to figure out who's legit or not. If someone is presenting (trainer) in LU, they are well vetted.
The problem is... what if you dont live in TX? That is legit. Their "vendor list" is not as strong or well-vetted as they are for TX just because they dont have critical mass yet outside TX.
As for comparing BP with LU.... among other things, conceptually, you can think of LU as expert led learning experience whereas BP is sort of like crowd-sourced learning. I am not knocking BP. Both are good. It's just that they serve different needs.
Hope this helps
Ahhh yes, another 1 post wonder here to defend the valor of Lifestyles Unlimited. Perhaps being way up there in Virgina you really haven't a clue about the magical vendor list, or the "quality" of the vendors on that list.
Did you miss this thread all about a crappy vendor
http://www.biggerpockets.com/topics/166756-mayday-...
Please tell us all about your experience with Lifestyles Unlimited.
Hello, I am a newbie so excuse my questions if they are repetitive. I am a new member of LU and am headed to the 2 day workshop. Based on this thread why would it not be more advantageous to just flip if these house have decent equity in them after rehab? At least you get your rehab $ back or does the workshop fundamentals teach to finance the whole APV thus you get your rehab and equity back then rent? I don't understand why you would see the house 3 years later? Thanks
Hello, I am a newbie so excuse my questions if they are repetitive. I am a new member of LU and am headed to the 2 day workshop. Based on this thread why would it not be more advantageous to just flip if these house have decent equity in them after rehab? At least you get your rehab $ back or does the workshop fundamentals teach to finance the whole APV thus you get your rehab and equity back then rent? I don't understand why you would see the house 3 years later? Thanks
LU inc teaches that flipping is not investing. Flipping is a taxable event. Buy & hold is full of tax advantages. They taech use hard money, rehab, refi and leverage yourself to the max and then sell at some point and move into multi family via a 1031 exchange.
Why do guys selling WHATEVER alwasy say they not interested in selling stuff....they just want to inform viewers.
The guy that does podcast here is the same , yet at the end he spends a lot of time trying to sell the PRO thing here
I would respect them a ton if they just say they want you to buy their product so you can add to THEIR income. Nothing wrong with that.
Why does Walmsley hate Dave Ramsey? They not really directly competing against each other. In fact they all hate Dave Ramsey.....................i love Dave Ramsey.
Hello, I am a newbie so excuse my questions if they are repetitive. I am a new member of LU and am headed to the 2 day workshop. Based on this thread why would it not be more advantageous to just flip if these house have decent equity in them after rehab? At least you get your rehab $ back or does the workshop fundamentals teach to finance the whole APV thus you get your rehab and equity back then rent? I don't understand why you would see the house 3 years later? Thanks
LU inc teaches that flipping is not investing. Flipping is a taxable event. Buy & hold is full of tax advantages. They taech use hard money, rehab, refi and leverage yourself to the max and then sell at some point and move into multi family via a 1031 exchange.
Thanks Donald!!! How does the financing work I understand the hard money and the rest of it but how many houses can you have and how does it effect your credit score etc.
Thanks again
Hello, I am a newbie so excuse my questions if they are repetitive. I am a new member of LU and am headed to the 2 day workshop. Based on this thread why would it not be more advantageous to just flip if these house have decent equity in them after rehab? At least you get your rehab $ back or does the workshop fundamentals teach to finance the whole APV thus you get your rehab and equity back then rent? I don't understand why you would see the house 3 years later? Thanks
LU inc teaches that flipping is not investing. Flipping is a taxable event. Buy & hold is full of tax advantages. They taech use hard money, rehab, refi and leverage yourself to the max and then sell at some point and move into multi family via a 1031 exchange.
Thanks Donald!!! How does the financing work I understand the hard money and the rest of it but how many houses can you have and how does it effect your credit score etc.
Thanks again
Well that varies by YOU. How creative you can become in talkng people out of their houses, your credit, available capital, connections, deaires, goals, drive.... You are the only one that can limit you.
So I joined Lifestyles about 2 months ago, I don't know anything about Real Estate investing other than what was presented in the 2 day seminar. I was told I needed to have 25k to start. I want to know what I need to start investing and how should I proceed since I am barely starting.
Hi everyone, I am Lynn Murrow Executive Vice President of Lifestyles Unlimited. I committed to @Joshua D. several years ago that the employees of Lifestyles Unlimited will ALWAYS identify ourselves on these posts, to my knowledge an employee of lifestyles Unlimited has never posted at Bigger Pockets without letting everyone know up front that they work for us. Jim Baum is a member and not an employee of Lifestyles Unlimited. @Account Closed the information you have shared is outdated and our program is quite different today. We have been educating and mentoring real estate investors in a very specific investment model to create passive income for 25 years. We update and change our program on a regular basis to improve the results for our members and to reflect our opinions on best practices in the business.
Paid education and mentoring is not for everyone. Bigger Pockets has created a large community of investors and potential investors here to help eachother. I also jump on from time to time and chime in to conversations, not just those about Lifestyles Unlimited. Many investors thrive in this community and do not need any additional assistance. Others are looking for someone to distill information for them and they like live events and a mentor they can work with one-on-one in person. If you are interested in our program you can listen to our radio shows and podcasts, call one of our offices or attend a free workshop.
Our focus is on creating passive income through single family and multifamily real estate investments using a buy and hold period strategy. Our mentors, both single family and multifamily are not active realtors. That is a change we made several years ago. We do blast out properties that fit our investment criteria to our Challenge and Preferred Investor Group Members, but if you do not have the time to respond quickly to those deals you can work directly with our realtors in each city to find a property through our Ready To Buy Program. Many of the properties our realtors are selling at this time come through our network of independent wholesalers and are not listed on mls because of their condition and need for rehab.
Your pricing is out of date as well. Our Financial Freedom Program Membership which includes our 2 day seminar and 1-2 years of membership allowing you to attend the seminar as many times as you like during your active membership at no additional charge, plus question and answer support on anything covered in the seminar and monthly Case Study where you can gather in person with hundreds of investors is $750 and is available for $500 at our free workshop and other events. We have two other mentoring programs which provide a wide array of benefits including an extensive online education portal, personal one-on-one mentoring, a variety of live events, educational webinars, road trips and more. The Challenge Program focuses on Single Family Investing. The other program, The Preferred Investor Group, gives you access to everything we do including our Multifamily Education and Mentoring program which includes access to on-going operational support at no additional charge. That's it...just those 3 options. With any of these programs you become a member for life. You start with 2 years of active education and mentoring. You can let it lapse and return for a small mentoring fee when you need additional help. You can always attend our Case Study events and network and reconnect with Mentors, fellow investors and vendors.
I hope this helps. Feel free to reach out to me directly with any other questions or concerns. I think that Joshua Dorkin has built a terrific community of real estate investors here on Bigger Pockets. You will find people active in every conceivable aspect of real estate here. We do not all use the same approach, but we are all interested in creating an income through real estate investing that allows us to wake up every morning and decide what we want to do with our day, and that is something we can all agree on!
I joined Lifestyles Dallas about 4 years ago at the PIG level. (I think the price is now a head-spinning $18,000...)
During my time of membership my little startup company has gone from 0 multifamily units to over 2000 units. We've closed over $100MM in assets. All of these deals were heavily distressed assets with large upside potential. Many of these properties have already been sold after repositioning to realize the large capital gains, before "1031'ing" into much larger deals.
Would all of this been possible without lifestyles? Sure! But why the hell would anybody want to do that? The PIG membership buys you into one of the finest MF networks in the country. Your network is the only thing that matters in this business. I spent years spinning my tires trying to do it on my own and educate myself for free. What I really needed was a network of people who know about deals, how to close deals, investors who wanted to invest in deals, and a common framework of ideas to make the conversations and deal structures much simpler to accomplish.
I am a 100% "do it on my own" kind of guy who will work harder than any other person in the room to get where I want to go. Lifestyles, or any other group like them will never be the single thing that makes driven people successful. However, a wise person works hard AND smart and will take HUGE shortcut by leveraging great groups like Lifestyles and their priceless network of industry professionals and fellow passive and lead investors.
4 years ago I was flipping SFRs from the courthouse steps with about $150k to my name. It's insane how fast life can change if you put the right puzzle pieces together and properly leverage time and money.
I'm an investor in 2 of Will C.'s apartment complexes, and would have never met him nor had the opportunity to invest with him had it not been for Lifestyles.
I've kicked tires on several apartment syndications outside of Lifestyles, and in most cases the less favorable terms of these non-Lifestyles deals "costs" about the same as the PIG membership fee, but you end up w/ no mentoring, networking, or education.
I'm literally sitting in the 2 day boot camp right now. There is a lot of good info being shared which is not common knowledge. However, what's leaving a bad taste in my mouth is that the mentor presenting, Dave Fisher, concludes each story/ lesson/ example with "and we have a program that can help you with that" or "we have a service that you can access with our program". After the first day, I decided to ask if the only way to access member/mentor advice is to buy one of their additional programs and he said yes. He said in order to get access to their listings, advice, legal help, or mf guidance you have to purchase their elite programs. The first tier is $9k and the preferred program is a head wobbling $20k!! I'm being told the reason is because "I can't let a millionaire sit with you for free!" Basically you get examples of "home runs" or blockbuster deals but are told the details or guidance to achieve these are only possible by purchasing the preferred programs. They also have a member planted in the front row reiterating , confirming and vouching everything the presenter is saying. Please understand I'm a newbie and have had VERY LIMITED exposure to the group. Please understand this is just my personal, first impression. I could be totally off base. I'm just feeling like other than the seminar, you won't get any additional benefits until you purchase the $9k-$20k memberships. Until then, they keep the keys to the kingdom.
sitting in the back in the adidas athletic gear. Are you the brunette lady asking all of the tough questions? :-)
They also have a member planted in the front row reiterating , confirming and vouching everything the presenter is saying.
They also have a member planted in the front row reiterating , confirming and vouching everything the presenter is saying.
There is a lot of good info being shared which is not common knowledge.
Can you give us some examples of the good info presented that's not "common knowledge?"
@Ciera Calhoun I am not a Lifestyles member, but I do know someone who is their "basic" member, for lack of a better term, which I believe means that he pays the couple hundred bucks a year and has access to the meetups, case studies, networking, etc... And he says that it has been a good decision for him from a networking perspective. Also, I have heard that the vendor list is helpful as well.
Jordan
I've read many of the comments and decided to share a bit of knowledge. First, if you desire to make a career change into Real Estate specifically flipping or rentals for profit. Its difficult to find someone willing to take the time to teach you the ropes its time consuming and alot to learn, you must get over your what if fear. You must learn how to locate wholesale properties, how to submit an offer and at what price, how to determine ARV (After Repair or Rehab Value), how to figure rehab cost, how do you compete with other active listing, find the right contractor, you need working knowledge of IRC and NEC codes and there's more. Spending $10,000 to learn is reasonable in my view as long as I can see a return as a result of the training, compared to the loss and disquiet you'll sustain if you can't sell the home you just put 30-50k into and possibly a hard money loan. Consider this every decision to spend money to make money carries risk, your job is to decide is the gain worth the risk? For me the transistion made sense with my quality background only the language was different. I reseached the business extensively prior to a decision, I became a home inspector to develop my property evaluation skills, I also took licensed contractors classes to learn building codes. My wife became an agent and I quite my job of 25 yrs with a credit card and we jumped in 15 years ago and never looked back. It's scary at first but you'll get over it after the 1st house/deal!!! Before joining any group do your homework decide what part of the business you want to start in then learn everything about it. Now your better prepared to ask the right questions to whomever you reach out to for training. No company is perfect you can always find someone who had a bad experience. However, if there honest, have a proven business model over the last 10 years they should be able demonstrate in great detail how they can help you do the same. Thx
Disclosure: I am a basic member of LU.
I joined at the "basic" ($500 for two years) level so that I can access the networking opportunities and go through the education. Before joining I already had a few rental properties and have wholesaled a few as well so I am already familiar with the concepts they teach in their boot camp. I have been through various seminars and education systems (nothing as expensive as $10k) and of course learned a ton from BP. I have still learned several nuggets of information from LU that have helped me, and I usually do from any training I take, free or paid. I really like their focus on building up enough capital through SFR and small multi rentals to trade up to larger multi family. I especially liked how they go through that process step by step and show you how the numbers work. It has opened my eyes to the much higher returns that I can be getting in the future and that it is not quite as complicated as I thought (but still not easy).
If you do join at the $10k level, you are able to jointly invest in large multi family with other LU members. What I like is that an experienced "lead investor" walks the group through the process of finding and fixing up the property and LU mentors oversee things as well. So you get a smaller buy in amount for your first property (usually $50-100k) and learn the ropes with more experienced investors keeping you from making newbie mistakes. The lead investor has money in the deal too so they also have skin in the game. I have t decided if I will join at the $10k level yet, but it might be worth it to me because of the greater amount of money at stake with the large multi family.
They have a upgraded membership for SFR investors ($5k I think) but it really doesn't seem to get you much except for first shot at MLS properties through their realtors. I prefer to find my own deals at 70% or less ARV and I don't need hand holding for these smaller properties.
I agree with other posters, their leader Del has a cult following, and it is a little creepy to be honest. He seems like a nice guy. Basically he is a successful investor who has a big personality and colorful language (seriously don't bring the kids to his meetings).
Bottom line is that basic membership is worth it for the networking, discounts with contractors and suppliers, and education events. Only pay for the expensive membership if you want to do large multi. Oh and free booze at their meet ups, yay!
If you do join at the $10k level, you are able to jointly invest in large multi family with other LU members. What I like is that an experienced "lead investor" walks the group through the process of finding and fixing up the property and LU mentors oversee things as well. So you get a smaller buy in amount for your first property (usually $50-100k) and learn the ropes with more experienced investors keeping you from making newbie mistakes.
Two questions:
1. Would the lead investor not take $100K investment from someone outside of LU? If someone didn't pay the $10K to join, would they turn down a large investment?
2. If you're a passive (or relatively passive) investor in the deal, what kind of "newbie mistakes" could you possibly make? You only have one decision to make -- invest or don't -- and by the time you choose to invest, if you've made any mistakes, they've already been made.
Hi @J Scott. Good questions. Keep in mind my answers are based on what is right for me. Everyone's path is different.
1) LU keeps tabs on the deals being done through them so they would know if someone outside of LU was investing. Maybe some of the lead investors are doing deals outside of LU, but that's just speculation on my part. One thing I do like is that LU has vetted the lead investors so that everyone investing knows that they are legitimate and have done these types of deals before. But I will still do my own due diligence on them just to verify. Unfortunately the RE industry is full of con artists (I have personally encountered a couple so far), so I see going through LU on my first large multi family as an added layer of protection against that.
2) you are absolutely correct. As a passive investor you really can't make the mistakes since the lead investor is making the decisions. For me this is a learning process. What I am getting is the ability to see a deal from start to finish from the inside so that I can replicate it successfully on my own. I am also getting a boatload of education that is pre packaged and will accelerate my learning process. The end goal is for me to be the lead investor in a deal either through or outside of LU. I could also see LU as a great way to find investors in my deals if I were a lead investor some day.
I realize that I could probably find someone to work with outside of LU, and I am still considering that. I just like the idea of having my first deal vetted by multiple people with experience, the reduced risk of being scammed, the education, and the networking aspects.
By the way, I love your books @J Scott. They have been invaluable!
also I want to clarify that I am talking about large multi family above. I don't think the higher level of membership for single family investing is worth it given the much lower capital you put in and that those deals are much less complex compared to large MF