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.
If you do join at the $10k level, you are able to jointly invest in large multi family with other LU members.
I believe their PIG (multi-family) membership is now $20K. It keeps going up, which is a good thing IMO to balance supply and demand among deals, leads, passives, mentors, etc.
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.
1. LU guidelines specify that a deal must be funded 100% by PIG members, or no Lifestyle members. Any lead caught doing otherwise is placing their membership, and ability to raise capital via LU, at risk. I haven't seen many deals that have had difficulty raising funds, and a $100K investment isn't really considered a big deal in the program.
2. Agreed for the most part, though at least one lead offers multiple security classes w/ different risk/reward profiles. You also may have the decision to sign on as a KP, which can be fairly significant.
I know Texas has great Bass fishing! It sounds like they have pretty savvy investors as well. Regarding the continued discussion. Mr. Cowan, has provided some helpful insite which raises some questions in my mind. Im confused is Lifestlyes business model designed to teach you the skills you need to invest based on the level you buy in at or just expose you to buying opportunities based on the level you buy in at? Regarding the continued discussions about LU, I hear very little about training, mentoring and support for those who newbies who join. Secondly, there are better sources as a starting point to look for good deals than MLS every amature starts their. In order for the MLS to be effective you need full access and training how to use it. What type of access do they receive as LU members? Although, markets change fast there's still many good deals, but to learn how to find, inspect, perform valuations, submit offer, rehab SOMEONE must train you. This is just a sample of some steps involved. If your a newbie I suggest you start with SFR first, then move to multifamily later. Regarding, multfamily as an investment if I no know nothing at all The following are the initial questions I would ask; How are the deals funded, For a 10 or 20k investment whats my ROI, when will I receive it, what are the risks as they see them, how many investors are involved, is every investor making the same return or is it based on investment amount, how many units, how many currently rented/leased whos managing them, who determines the valuations, how many investments over the last 36 months have you lost money on, how was the lose handled and what exactly is this cult following Del has and does it affect me if I join? If the LU model is" join us if you want to learn how to invest in Real Estate" then NO member in my view should leave a event feeling as though Del may cater to a specific group. How is that message incentive to join by a newbie? Im sure Del through his successes has made alot of people money who want to stay connected to his revenue engine. I would do the same however, if my business is to improve the financial life of those why join by sharing my experience and knowledge for profit. It's probably not a good idea to bring a Bently to a VW party. Attitude can be a reflection of leadership!!!!
If you do join at the $10k level, you are able to jointly invest in large multi family with other LU members.
I believe their PIG (multi-family) membership is now $20K. It keeps going up, which is a good thing IMO to balance supply and demand among deals, leads, passives, mentors, etc.
So basically, you're paying a $20K fee to be allowed to invest in deals and then shadow the lead investor on the deal?
My general rule of thumb has always been that if someone invests in my deals, I'm happy to show them the ropes for free. Not sure that I'd pay $20K to shadow another investor after I also provided funding for his deal.
Obviously, this business model works for some people...and that's absolutely fine as long as they're happy. I'm just surprised that anyone looking to learn considers this a good deal...
J. Scott, they call themselves a mentoring and education program for real estate investors. They have an extensive selection of in-person and web-based classes, covering everything from SEC regs, to deal analysis, due diligence, property management, investor relations, etc. The lead investors pay to be in the program, no different than passives. I haven't shadowed any of the leads I invest w/, I have more productive uses of my time. I now know of places I can invest in MF outside of LU, and have done 1 non-LU deal with one of Brad Sumrok's mentees. But you know what I've found? LU deals are consistently the most passive-friendly in terms.
One major provider in town hits their investors w/ a 15% commission on every deal, lots of various fees to enrich the leads, and another deal sponsor charges acquisition fees based on the purchase price. I've never paid anything upfront, and can confidently state that the upfront fee has easily paid for itself via more favorable passive terms.
Is LU perfect? Of course not, I could also critique aspects of their business model that aren't ideal....but net net, for me, it's a great vehicle for MF investment.
Thanks to everyone who has weighed in on this topic. I got the free starter kit from LSU, and it made me start seriously considering investing in RE. I wasn't sure if the company was one that actually added value to their memberships or not. One of their recommendations was to educate yourself on RE, and they gave recommendations of books to read, including Rich Dad, Poor Dad. In looking for books on Amazon, I stumbled upon the Bigger Pockets books, which of course led me to this site. I don't know if I'll join LSU or not, but I'm really grateful for everyone's perspectives! Thanks, again!
One of their recommendations was to educate yourself on RE, and they gave recommendations of books to read, including Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
The Rich Dad books are great to get you motivated and excited, but won't offer you much, if any, practical investing advice.
Then again, that's probably why they were recommended... :-)
Hi there, this is probably the longest post discussing lifystule unlimited (LSU) and that's why I am posting here.
I just attended the first day of the two days class presented by Del. My first impression is that it was worth the $500 we paid.
I want to know from the "real" LSU PIG program members here if they are still seeing the membership fees they paid was with it.
Also I'll really appreciate if some real members can spare me 5 minutes for a phone call just to get their impression.
Please email me and suggest 5 minutes that is good for your schedule.
Thanks,
HI everyone!
My name is Lynn Murrow and I am the Executive VP of Lifestyles Unlimited. I am popping in to assure you that Jim Baum IS a member of Lifestyles Unlimited and not an employee. If you explore posts going a back awhile here on Bigger Pockets about Lifestyles Unlimited you will see that I have promised the founder of Bigger Pockets, that we will never comment without identifying ourselves. We have over 20,000 members so it is not unusual that that someone will comment when Lifestyles Unlimited is mentioned. Bigger pockets is a big place and it can be challenging to decide where to start when you join, so often our members will look for lifestyles Unlimited topics to get started. I hope this helps. I am always available to answer questions about our program. Wishing success to you all, Bigger Pockets is a wonderful community.
Sorry to necro this thread but I too was a basic $500 member a couple of years ago and wanted to put my 2 cents in. The biggest issue I see with their higher level memberships is that they give you no idea (nor will asking get you anywhere) about how many people have memberships at those levels, or whether they even attempt to limit the numbers of those advanced level memberships. Why is that important? Because if they have too many members that means your odds of actually getting any deals out of them dwindles considerably. I've read a review online of a guy who was a mid level member ($5000) for a year and, despite actively pestering their realtors the entire year, got exactly ZERO deals from them. That issue combined with their "throw deals out by email and first to rewind gets it" and the aforementioned issue that their prices aren't even very good (evidenced by the comment that wholesalers prefer selling through Lifestyles members because they get better prices there) begs the question of what value is even there.
In a market with a finite number of opportunities, the success of the company, as measured by number of members, often means less success for each individual member. Not saying this is the case with Lifestyles; I don't have anywhere near enough information to give an educated opinion, just saying its something to consider.
I personally know four people who purchased higher priced levels of membership, and all had only positive things to say about the program. One purchased a 280 unit apartment complex and had only purchased a few SFR before joining Lifestyles. She and her partner were able to stabilize the property, after almost a year of full time wotk, and for the last 6 years have enjoyed an increasingly significsnt cash flow from that property and have created a substantial equity position.
I have no relationship whatsoever, in any capacity with the Lifestyles orgsnization
Joined about two months ago and have closed on a house alreaday and about to close on the second. The $500 is worth it.
Thank- you Dean
This was the best post ever!!! I am so glad I came across this before attending their workshop.
So in reality, Lifestyle unlimited is a real estate company in disguise with a slick marketing gimmick and nothing more. Got it!. Will continue to listen to Dels radio show cause it's entertaining with a few gems of wisdom or common sense ideas I can use. Again Dean thanks for saving me $5000-$10,000.
The PIG membership is 20k now and will drop to 15k at the end of the two-day seminar. The membership has doubled since 2008. The reason is exactly what is mentioned above....lot's of members, so it's difficult to give everyone the attention they need in order to be half-way successful. Sounds like more of a discouragement to me or sales-reverse-psychology. I know just a few of preferred investors. My brother-in-law who basically did not close any deals and just torched 10k and did nothing.... an old co-worker of mine and his wife who have been investing in multi-family with LU for about five years now and who have been a part of three multi-family deals. I have lunch with them occasionally and I always ask them if they can both quit their jobs and retire after five years of investing in multi-family apartments with lifestyles. They just laugh and tell me....yea, right. There is "hope" being sold here, and that's not a bad thing, however it can be expensive if you are not secure and knowledgeable enough to take risks on your own.
That being said...the 500 membership is worth it to me with the vendor list and networking opportunities.
Investors, both new and experienced, need to be realistic. Lifestyles does not have a magic formula of success, or any great deal flow outside of normal channels, or a pipeline to superior investment opportunities.
Paying $500, or $15000, or $50,000 to any "mentor", will not get you close to being able to retire in five years.
If you already possess significant investment capital, you may be able to learn how to deploy that capital for a greater risk/return reward.
If you have limited knowledge of the real estate residential and multi family investment market, you should be able to acquire significant knowledge.
Nobody spending $100K on a top tier MBA program expects to learn how to retire in 5, 10, or 15 years. The expectation is to learn skills to advance a career or possibly start a business.
The major problem is that the seller's of real estate knowledge, package it as if they are selling a secret, a method, a formula, a program, or the Holy Grail itself! They are selling knowledge, plain an simple. The purchaser of this knowledge needs to be able to utilize this knowledge to turn a profit, in investing or brokering.
The seller's of these platforms do not have exclusives on this knowledge, nor are the methods they expose unique. Most of the methods are the same or variations of one's that have been utilized for over 50 years. And to find the killer deals is like finding a needle in a haystack.
My experience tells me that probably 30 million people have spent at least some money over the last 40 years to learn "real estate investing". This includes everyone from the people that join a REIA for $150 per year and go to the monthly meeting and weekly workshops, to those that spend $50,000 on a mentoring program.
And out of all these people with the ambition of being full time real estate investors, sitting back and living on their passive investments, sending their managers to collect the monthly rents while they vacation on exotic beaches, all these 30 million people who had the drive and ambition to spend time and money to try to reach this goal; how many do you think did obtain the investment results enabling them to build a portfolio of real estate or real estate related investments providing a sufficient enough income for them to retire in a lifestyle of fun and carefree living? How many people do you know who obtained that as real estate investors.
Perhaps the question that should be asked of the seller's of real estate knowledge who use the lifestyle obtainable by following their instruction as a selling tool is what percentage of the people that purchase your program obtain this lifestyle?
I think these programs can be good for basic learning and networking. I do see people coming away from these seminars w/this giddy look and then wonder like Don above what is really happening. I meet a lot of these folks at local meetups. The work and investment is still the same. It takes time like anything to learn. Do you throw money at something w/basic knowledge of it? Do you trust the leads that do the deals? What experience do they have in various economic cycles ?
For many, this is their first and only exposure to large MF. There are other ways to learn. You can do a lot on your own first (thru BP, listening, reading good books as a solid foundation). You can also find mentors, join local clubs that focus on MF and get started there. You can even hire coaches and get a 1x1 experience.
There are also syndication groups that do have a lot of experience and not part of these clubs if you are an accredited investor and just want to be passive in your investing while still learning. Yes, you can get into large MF deals w/o paying $10K-$20K to get into clubs. You can learn a lot from participating as a limited partner by reviewing the strategy, reviewing the partnership documents, reading the monthly reports from the sponsor, analyzing the quarterly property manager financials, etc. A good sponsor should take the time to answer your questions. With intention, you can learn a lot by investing minimum amounts into deals where the market looks good to you (jobs, pop growth exceeding natl avgs); deal is a value-add opportunity and reasonable purchased relative value w/experienced teams w/10+yr track record.
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.
So I just learned about both the LU and also BP yesterday. I was reading an article that mentioned LU and in my Google research came across this question about LU. So my question is to Cierra, after 4 years did she buy the program and if she did was it worth it. I'm new to both of these websites just wanted some recent input
I joined less than a year ago (I have to pull the credit card bill to validate that). I am a multi-millionaire already through my 27 years of real estate investing. I thought I was getting access to a network so as to collaborate and build wealth. I was told not to pass out my business card / bio resume though I had paid the $500. What I understood I was getting versus what I got two different things. Seems like they wanna sell something and mutual prosperity is not so much the sole focus
I have had one rent house in the past. Nothing was wrong with the experience, but I realized I needed more education to proceed with real estate investing. I am currently working overseas at a job that allows me plenty of time to read and listen to pod casts. I have learned a ton from various sources. In several of the LU pod casts Steve Davis throws out his email and says to send any and all questions. I have been wearing him OUT with all of my questions. I am not yet a member, so I can't say what that's like. If I gain nothing else from joining at the $500 level, it will still be worth it because of everything I've learned from talking with Steve. I explained my financial situation to Steve and asked what he thought the best use of my money was. I'm not a sheep by any means and wasn't going to blindly do what he said, but I did want to know what his opinion was. he told me to NOT join at the PIG level. He said it wasn't right for me and my circumstances. I was expecting some sort of wishy washy answer that steared me towards spend a lot of my money with them. I was more than shocked that he told me not to do that. I will be joining at the $500 level the next time I am in the States. I will update this site with how the process goes.
Disclosure; I know that my situation is very unique and I feel that I need to include some (not all) of those details. Because of the kind of work I do (I will not talk about it online, but I will in person) and the fact that we have a very frugal lifestyle, I can put $50k - $70K a year into real estate investing. I will update my progress as I go down this path.
Although I've been a member of BP for a couple years now, I have not used the site at all. I too, have considered taking the LU $500 course until I read through this lengthy but informative thread. I haven't changed my mind, but certainly hesitant. We have two SFD with 4 tenants, not counting our residence, and have done very well. I've been a contractor for most of my adult life (62 years old now), I have my Real Estate License, as well. We are leveraging out of all our properties, close to $500,000 to attempt to really ramp up our retirement, with a goal of 5 years from now. I'm looking for the fastest, least expensive (RE Program) way to reach our goal of 2.5 Million in the next 5 years in total assets. I love real estate, been around it my entire life, understand Cap Rates, the exponential value growth that improvements can have, etc.
Finding the deals is my greatest challenge? Not knowing ANY multifamily investors I would trust to learn from is my 2nd greatest challenge? Laying out an effective realistic plan to get to our goal is my 3rd challenge? If anyone, WITH EXPERIENCE AND SUCCESS in MFD is reading this, and has a heart to pay it forward, with compensation of course, I would like it if you would connect with me.
Regarding LU, or any other investor group, the percentage of successful people vs those that feel their time was wasted, generally has nothing to do with the program or the group, and more to do with the passionate aggression one MUST have to be successful in a not-so-easy, sometimes very risky business of Real Estate. If it were easy, everyone would do it, but it's not. Nothing good is easy, just worth it! My 2 cents? RR
@Rick Richards, My opinion, after 40 years of successful real estate investing, is that 50% of all real estate guru courses are worthless, 45% are dangerous, and the other 5% vary from being marginally productive to very productive. I know 6 investors who joined LU, and all have said their experience is positive and worth the money. Two in particular told me that they would never had purchased a multi family property, but for LU. Now, while I have no PERSONAL experience with Lifestyles, I find the results of my small empirical example at least somewhat compelling.
@Rick Richards, My opinion, after 40 years of successful real estate investing, is that 50% of all real estate guru courses are worthless, 45% are dangerous, and the other 5% vary from being marginally productive to very productive. I know 6 investors who joined LU, and all have said their experience is positive and worth the money. Two in particular told me that they would never had purchased a multi family property, but for LU. Now, while I have no PERSONAL experience with Lifestyles, I find the results of my small empirical example at least somewhat compelling.
I echo Don's sentiment, I think that there is little to be gained with most real estate guru training, especially those systems that are designed to have you take one class to upsell you to another class to take another even more expensive class.
By the time you have spent the 20K or more, in almost all cases you would have been better off to have used free or cheap resources like the Bigger Pockets books and then spent the rest on an actual down payment.
I have never taken and paid for a guru class, and have no interest in doing so.
Having said all of that, I have a co-worker who did spend the tens of thousands of dollars for the full LU membership and he also invested low to mid six figures on a LU deal. My understanding was that particular investment was very successful and ended up giving a great return.
But the caveat is this person had a very high level finance background, my understanding is the deals were getting harder to come by and the head of the deal that my coworker participated in was going to sit on the sidelines because valuations had gotten so far out of control in Dallas.
Now, I haven't talked to my co worker about the topic in several months, so I don't know if he has done any other deals.
I just don't see how someone could make something like LU work without having a lot of capital to invest, (talking hundreds of thousands), and I would think most new investors could do as well or better on their own.
IMO find a good investor focused realtor and have them show you the ropes. They at least have their incentives aligned with yours, because the better the deals they bring you the better off they are because you will make a lot of money and be able to do more deals.
I was a member when I lived locally to Dallas, and like most of the warnings, its an upsell opportunity, a friend stuck with in the multi -family space, like $20K class and I think did well. Like any education, you have to compare time versus value. I always divide my time into acquisition versus operations, and to be honest acquisitions is not that hard, but operations (management, collections, etc) can really be a pain in real estate, and your on your own in that area.
We have been Lifestyles Unlimited members for almost 3 years. We don't have a lot of money, but somehow, we scraped together the 20K to become PIG members. 26 months ago we invested as a passive investor in a small apartment community. We invested 25K and 26 months later we are going to get a check for over 60K AND made 12% a year on our 25K and got our portion of the write offs that more than offset the 12%. We did ALL of the available training, which includes the portion that is required to be SEC compliant. We are very happy with the results. The issue, like most things, is that there are people involved along the way.
Let me also say;
My wife and I had some issues that were in no way Lifestyles Unlimited's fault. Our issue made it all the way up the chain to Lynn Murrow. She gave personal assistance and referred us to other people that would help. I work out of state and my wife was taking care of all of this by herself. Their assistance was very helpful and meant a lot to me since I wasn't there to help my wife. In our case, the mentoring program has been very helpful and well worth the money.