Taking a stand after a $50,000 lie

[Erica Nagle]

I've never named a figure on how much $$ we spent on what people call 'GURU training' but I think it's time. The amount of money that is being made by these companies is mind blowing. 

I've read posts by others on BiggerPockets who have invested in this training and many are quick to judge them saying 'who signs a contract without reading the whole thing?' or 'weren't you suspicious of a, b & c?', etc. The answer is no. No we weren't suspicious because people who you think would have a lot to lose stand behind these companies. Pete and Dave from Flipping Boston, Tarek and Christina from Flip or Flop, Doug Hopkins and Damon Lines from Property Wars, Greg Herlean and Mike Baird from Flip Men. They all endorse this same company/program by Premium Financial Training, Success Path, Advanced Real Estate Training (these companies are all linked).

You think that it's not too good to be true because you are paying a large amount of money and that's the catch. The reason not everyone is doing it is because they can't afford it, right? Wrong.

Here's how they do it...

* They have people speak that know Donald Trump and show pictures of them shaking The Donald's hand or speaking at the same event. They'll tell you about all of their successful students and how the same guy that knows Donald Trump is tight with many of the students. He tells stories of the student's successes and how he's had many personal conversations with them.

* They say they'll send you to a bootcamp where an expert will take you to properties and go through from start to finish how to make money on it right.

* They tell you that you'll have a mentor that you will be very close too and they'll even come and spend 3 days to work personally with you.

* They mention you can network with other students and use their connections so that don't have to go through the work and expensive lessons learned to find your own Power Team. 

* You'll have everyone's email (including Dave and Pete) that are speaking at the conference to contact at anytime.

* They'll tell you that you can get all your money back if you aren't successful by giving you a money back guarantee that when you read the fine print is next to impossible to claim.  

I could go on but I won't bore you. It's a good strategy, I'm not gonna lie. Nice work to whoever thought of it. The only problem is that what they promise is not what they deliver. 

Here's what you actually get...

* At the bootcamp you get a teacher from another market who will give you advice on how to flip homes in Austin Texas even though you are sitting in Boston. She gives you reference sheets with pricing that is super low (not accurate) for building materials to use when calculating rehab costs. You learn that Hard Money is basically free up front and easy to get. Just pay the points at the end...no big deal. If they ask to check your credit or require that you give them money up front then walk away. What??? They take you to properties where the teacher stands there and talks only when asked a question. Basically if you or anyone else in the class doesn't ask the teacher the right question you don't get the information. 

* The 'mentor' you were supposed to have only exists for the 3 day period that they come and spend personal time with you. You don't get Dave and Pete's email and when you try and email others you don't get a response. I attempted to email the bootcamp teacher when I couldn't find ANY hard money lender that would let us pay points at the end and obviously got no response.

* They call you asking for another $25,000 to have an actual full time mentor that will work closely with you for a whole year! When you tell them you've been mislead on some things so far they apologize like crazy and give you the package for 1/2 price acting like they are very concerned.

* The new mentor does call you once a week for a 1/2 hour but is sitting in Salt Lake City and has no idea about Massachusetts laws or processes. He gives you advice but it's advice that only works in the world they made up where everything is easy. After a few weeks the mentor just quits calling. You were told you'd also have weekly calls with a group of people and this mentor. This also has not happened.

* You ask Pete and Dave at a seminar in Vegas if they will wholesale to their own students and they stumble and say they'll think about it. Basically even though you've paid thousands thinking these guys stand behind all of this education, they want nothing to do with you.

After all of this...you still have to do everything you would have done if you never went to their bootcamp. You still learn expensive lessons and find that nothing is as cheap and easy as they claim it is and you are now have $50,000 less to work with. I won't go into more detail...this post is long enough already.

So, the purpose of this post...instead of criticizing those that have fallen for this 'super obvious scam'...as some members imply, I'd like to use this huge network to actually do something about this. Lets save people 10's of thousands and stop the company from making millions. We're in for over $50,000. Yep...that's right, I didn't add an extra zero. It's very hard to go after these companies as an individual so it's best to use the power of numbers. Please PM me if you've also spent thousands and would like to get it back or know someone who has.

My #1 goal isn't to get my money back (although it would be nice) or slander anyone's name but to stop others from being lied too and stop these people from getting richer every day by giving people a line of BS.