All Forum Posts by: Larry Turowski

@Michael Ealy and @Frank Wong Buying an expensive coaching program is so incomparable to buying McDonald's franchise it is absurd to mention them in the same breath.  That is like a comparing a carnival snake oil salesman to Johnson & Johnson.

Take a look at https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/franchising/acquiring-franchising.html

For starters, McDonalds markets hamburgers to the general public not franchises.  You see Ronald McDonald hawking franchises?  Give me a break.  It is actually very difficult to buy a McDonalds franchise.  There is a serious vetting process.  It is competitive.  And they have a huge vested interest in the success of each franchise.  (Incidentally, one of the reasons Subway has so many locations, and failures, is because it is relatively easy to buy a franchise.)

@Cody DeLong I would just add to @Account Closed list that you may want to consider replacing the windows.  I hate dealing with old crappy windows.  But that is just me.  Otherwise, I completely agree with his list.

I want to have a 20 minute phone conversation with you--with 20 of you.

I want to offer what advice and direction I can as someone who has bought and sold 36 properties, who owns 36 rental units, whose made mistakes and whose made a lot of money.  I hate saying that last part because life is not about money, but as George Bailey says to Clarence the angel in the movie It's a Wonderful Life, "It comes in mighty handy down here."  And my point is that you'll be talking with someone who is successful as a real estate investor.

I'm a small player.  Not too far ahead of you, really.  And sometimes that is what you need.  Not someone who is so far ahead of you that they have forgotten how impossible it feel to find that elusive, almost imaginary first deal, someone.

I'll tell you a little bit about myself and my story, ask you about yourself and what you are doing, and you can pepper me with questions.  I won't have all the answers, but I'll have some.  And believe me, I'll learn something from you, too!

I have nothing to sell.  Just a little mentoring to give.

So here is how it will work.  If there is interest, I'll set up a call schedule on the appoint.ly (or calendly.com, I haven't decided yet) and it will be first come first serve.  I'll post a link on this thread Thursday morning and you can select a time that works for you.

Hey, and maybe you are on the next rung ahead of me and can offer me some mentoring.  That would be great too!

Here is what I can offer mentoring on:

- Sourcing deals

- Negotiating

- Wholesaling (a little bit, I'm not a wholesaler)

- Flips

- Rentals (single families and 2-4 multis)

- Pre-foreclosures

- Rent-to-own

- Cash, financed, subject-to, owner financing deals

- Hard money, private lending, banks, cash

- Self managing

- Dealing with contractors

- Networking and education

- Getting your spouse on board

- Dealing with failure and frustration

- Moral dilemmas?

I've found networking and conversation with other investors, big and small, has been invaluable.  Here's your chance to go a little beyond posting messages.

@Derek Morrison Definitely something missing, but can't tell more without more info.  PM me the property if you want me to take a look.  But don't waste your time just wondering.  Call and/or email to the seller.  At least you'll get a little education out of it.  Sometimes I go look at deals that I know I'm not going to buy just because there is something about it that I think I can learn from--maybe a neighborhood I haven't bought in, or a style of house I haven't bought.  Then I follow it to see what happens to it.  I use it as a barometer.

@Shiloh Lundahl

What you are saying is it is unfair to respond with an immediate “No, Don’t do it!” to anyone posting about buying into an expensive guru mentoring program unless we have done the research of the program and the person and know that it is a bad fit for one or the other reason.  We shouldn't prejudge.

I understand where you are coming from and it is reasonable in probably most situations.  But imagine you are in Australia with a tour group and someone picks up a snake and says, “Hey, look at this cute guy!”  Are you going take the time to educate yourself on whether it is harmless?  You’re probably going knock it out of their hand—better safe than sorry.  Especially if it is brightly colored.

I don’t have time to investigate every coaching program, let alone the fit.  I can use some heuristics, though.  There were some markers on this one.  Newbie: CHECK.  Marketed to the general public: CHECK.   Selling dreams (we get 50% of your first $500K): CHECK.  No vetting process: CHECK.  I don’t need to know more to knock that snake out of his hands.

There is so much more that I’d like to respond to-- your conflict of interest, for instance, but it would all get lost in the noise, so I’ll just stick with this one point.

@Shiloh Lundahl Good morning and I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day weekend!

I wouldn't call it high pressure sales , it is the marketing targeted to the general public and designed to whip up excitement and motivate people to buy into an expensive real estate coaching program.  I wouldn't even have a problem with that if the program were, say, $1K or $2K.  There are a number of people here on BP who offer coaching programs targeted to the general public. That would be a a manageable setback for someone earning the median US income.

$25K is half the median individual income and would be a crushing setback for most people (that do not earn their money back).  It is morally incumbent, in my opinion, to say more than, "your success depends on your effort."  The vast majority of people do not make it to your or my level.  It is not good enough that they could succeed if they put in the effort (not to mention have some skill and some luck).  These coaching programs do not say, "Listen, you can't afford this right now if it doesn't work out.  Start small.  Try some other $1K program and show us that you can act on it, that you can monetize it.  Then do the same with a $5K coaching program.  If that works out we'll admit you to the $25K program."

I've seen marketing for hugely expensive coaching programs first hand in my community--on the web, radio, and other local advertising.  I know people personally who have bought the program and failed--even the ones who took action!  Their non-local expensive guru didn't help.  I've gone to their "inexpensive" seminars and seen lots of hard working, salt-of-the-earth blue collar people get whipped up with excitement of making huge sums wholesaling and flipping, many of them buying in.  And where are they today?  The investors in my area are on my radar.  I know lots of investors. And I know the ones who are really the movers and shakers.  Where are these wannabees?  Where did they go?  Did they ever do a deal?  Are they working overtime now to pay off this coaching program that they failed to monetize?

It just makes me sad.  And it is just morally wrong when they are charging half a years income for these salesmen to waive their hands and say, "I can't tell you how many succeed.  it is up to your effort."

Fine.  Call me a liar if it makes you feel better about your “guru” friends—or do you have a  $25,000 mentoring program?

 How does that justify them whipping up excitement with the whole song and dance routine and Encouraging people to spend what is to them a fortune or even worse going into debt to buy their program?

Completely anecdotal from my and others observation. I’ll apologize when they do what you say and show it is different. It would seem to be in their interest to do so if it isn’t so abysmal. 

 I’d be happy to except I didn’t have time to write a wall of text.  I will grant you that, as someone else said, it is not a problem with the Information. It is the delivery method and whom they are delivering it to. It might make sense for you or me to pay for a $25 program because we would monetize it. And As someone else posted they paid for an expensive program but they had to go seek out the coaching. 97% of newbies will fail. It is unconscionable to  encourage them to spend $25k especially when they likely don’t even have it  specially when they like we don’t even have it.  Their marketing whips up enthusiasm specifically targeted to newbies. It is just wrong. 

@Eric Kulling You answered your own question. It is much more difficult to find great value-add deals on mortgageable properties. Properties that are in a state such that they can only be bought with cash (or maybe with a construction loan) are automatically going to go at a discount. (This doesn't mean they have to be a total wreck, but maybe someone started remodeling and there are some open walls or they don't have a working bathroom, or the roof needs to be replaced immediately.) So, on occasion you will be able to buy with a traditional mortgage and BRRRR, but most of these deals are going to be cash deals.