Real Estate Seminars. Worth the Money?

[Financial Planner Dude]

I just attended a free Brick buy Brick Real Estate Seminar (Rich Dad Poor Dad) and as expected it was a two hour long info commercial with all the usual tricks trying to get you to sign up for the 3 day seminar. Normally that would be the end of it but they had enough good stuff and things specific to the European that showed me they knew what they were talking about.

I'm considering paying the money as I saw several positives, one connections as it's taught by people who are experienced investors not just trainers. They offer turn key solutions, of course nothing I can't learn on my own, just would take me a long time to figure out. And of course a chance to network with other investors. I know this won't make sense but once you got past the sales pitch what I saw was this is a Garth Turner (Greaterfool.ca) on steroids, a different way of thinking.

I'm undecided is this an educational opportunity, a chance to learn from experts or is just network marketing where they make money on selling you upgrades. The sales pitch does bother me a bit but on the other hand they have to cover their costs.

I'm a successful astute investor and I can smell a rat a mile away and I've been to loads of this pitches (man it was nice hearing English for an evening) and usually walk away pitying the people who signed up. But this time it feels different.

I'd love to hear from people who've paid and done one of this seminars.

Thanks Rob

Edit: it's now called Tigrent Learning and doesn't get the best reviews

[iamlindoro]

ALL of these seminars are loosely veiled attempts to get you back for the paid weeklong seminars, which are in turn sales pitches to get you back for multi-week "training courses" that cost tens of thousands of dollars.  Please, please don't do this to yourself.  Everything you need to learn about and execute a profitable real estate investment is in books and online at sites like BiggerPockets. 

The companies that do these "training courses" are despicable and there is just so, so much literature on them failing to deliver anything of value, turning out to be pyramid/MLM schemes, and offering a small amount of info that you can learn better, at your own pace, online.

Even if one wants mentoring, there are people who will happily do so for free if you take the time to dive in at communities like this one, or BP.

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/InvestmentSeminarsRealEstateScams
http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2011/04/04/real-estate-guru-scam-trap/

[Poorman]

I've not attended the Rich Dad seminar but the feedback on Bigger Pockets is that they spend 3 days trying to upsell you to yet another expensive seminar that costs anywhere from $10,000-$70,000.  Along the way they teach you all kinds of useful tricks, like how to call your credit card company and request they increase your balance so you can cover the cost.  Once you've paid for it, getting any kind of refund if you are unsatisfied is nearly impossible and they have an army of lawyers on staff just in case anybody gets the crazy idea to sue them in court.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=bigger%20pockets%20rich%20dad%20seminar

If you want to network you should find actual RE investors that aren't trying to sell you something.  Maybe attend some meetups or try to at least find some people online.  These Rich Dad sales men aren't professional investors, or at least not very successful ones, otherwise they wouldn't be traveling all over the world trying to sell seminars.  The best way to learn is to read some books, read Bigger Pockets, attend some meetups, and listen to podcasts.... then get out there and put some deals together.  You'll learn the quickest by doing.

[iamlindoro]

The best way to learn is to read some books, read Bigger Pockets, attend some meetups, and listen to podcasts.... then get out there and put some deals together.  You'll learn the quickest by doing.

Couldn't agree more.  I had a lot of theoretical knowledge before I bought my first rental, but a healthy dose of jitters.  Just getting out and doing it gave me a lot of confidence, and while I learn more each time, I felt much more comfortable starting from the second deal.

[Financial Planner Dude]

thanks everyone for your thoughts. It was an interesting evening half BS half facts all hype. In spite of that I did take away some interesting ideas, mainly on shorter term flips and angel investing, but not enough to sign up for the seminar.

As mentioned I also looked up the company and every review just dissed it. Interesting as they're not a member of any recognized associations. Basically like MLM the only people making the money are those selling books and seminars.

[NoNonsenseLandlord]

If the seminar is free, go for it.  I have even ordered many "return in 30 days for a full refund" packages in order to get knowledge.  Even a few Learning Annex courses are worth it.

You ave to get immersed in RE in order to be successful.  Live, breathe and think about it all he time.

[Financial Planner Dude]

Hey No Nonsense

Great idea!!!!


BTW regular reader of your blog thanks

[arebelspy]

Networking is free (or close).  There's a reason those places have terrible reviews.

Start going to local real estate meetups and meeting investors regularly.

I found this, for example: http://www.meetup.com/Munchen-Immobilien-Meetup-questions-around-real-estate/

New group, but could meet some people there who tell you about other meetups.

[Kriegsspiel]

Brandon Turner, from BP, is doing a webinar on Thursday the 25th for investing in apartment buildings.

[NoNonsenseLandlord]

Hey No Nonsense
Great idea!!!!

BTW regular reader of your blog thanks

Thank you!

[zephyr911]

thanks everyone for your thoughts. It was an interesting evening half BS half facts all hype. In spite of that I did take away some interesting ideas, mainly on shorter term flips and angel investing, but not enough to sign up for the seminar.

As mentioned I also looked up the company and every review just dissed it. Interesting as they're not a member of any recognized associations. Basically like MLM the only people making the money are those selling books and seminars.

Yeah... I went through the free version of one of those things and I wrote them all off as a result.

I figured, if their approach is so foolproof, why aren't they out DOING it? The answer is, most of these get-rich-quick strategies amount to gaming the system and out-negotiating everyone else through clever timing and such. The more people try to do that kind of stuff, the less feasible it becomes. So the real hucksters decide to get one step ahead of the game, stop wasting their time in the market and make a whole new market: profiting off other people's laziness and greed. Sell them a get-rich-quick scheme and don't bother with property - the margins are higher and the liquidity is infinitely better.

There's no such thing as magic in real estate. There are clever people who make a lot of money with a little work, but they're generally duplicitous assholes. The rest of us just dig in and plan on the long haul.

[thedayisbrave]

No.  I went to a free one with my mom and it was more entertaining than educational.  I thought, "hey you never know, we could learn something."  Zero.  Zilch.  A few times we couldn't stop giggling because the presenter's showmanship and over-the-top method of speaking was just plain ridiculous.  My mom is a more seasoned investor than me and she rolled her eyes quite a few times which was kind of hilarious cause I'd never seen her do that.  It was a show - not an education.

Of course they tried to sell us on expensive week-long training courses afterward.  We took the free notepads, pens, and water and left :)

Edited to add.. this was Than Merrill's workshop. 

[mooreprop]

I went to the Rich Dad 3-day seminar, and was amazed that there was so little useful information.  It was designed to get a few unlucky souls to increase their credit card limits so they could purchase a $10,000 plus program.  That being said, the real value was found outside the presentations.  I was able to counsel/mentor a couple of people at my table who had never purchased real estate, and show them how it could be done with their situation.   I also struck up a conversation with the guy selling products at the back of the room about what he does when he is not at a seminar, and got some new investing ideas. (He buys mobile homes in the Midwest) In the entire room, there were only two of us who owned any real estate.  The rest were a bunch of people with bad credit looking to "get rich quick".  Hopefully, they listened to the two of us about how to "get rich slow" and did not fall for the sales pitch to fork over $10,000.

[clarkfan1979]

I went to an investor's conference in LA at the Staples center. They had 3 headliners speak (Trump, Rich Dad & Magic Johnson). I think it was 2-3 day and $100. I missed trump but Rich Dad and Magic Johnson were good. This was in 2004. Now with youtube, I could get all the same information for free from the same people. I think youtube did exist in 2004, but I don't think it has as much useful information as today.