Are free Real Estate Seminars a scam?

[LaQuan Bates]

I recently came across a add on Facebook for a Free Real Estate Seminar in Maryland hosted by Than Merrill. I'm new to REI and wanted to know are these events a scam to sell you something? I don't want to waste my time going if it's a scam.

[Shiloh Lundahl]

@LaQuan Bates I agree with @Guy Gimenez and @Joe Norman in that they will certainly sell real estate education at this free event. I don’t think it is a scam though. Or at least not how I would define a scam which would be: someone selling something that is not as it is advertised. 

For instance, I wouldn’t consider a black belt karate instructor selling people on how cool it is to be a black belt a scammer even though most people who start karate don’t stick around long enough or put in the all the work that it takes to become a black belt.

I think it is similar with real estate investing education. The instructors sell the idea that real estate investing education can help people financially - which is true. However, most people don’t do the work that it takes to become successful at it. People say paid real estate education is a scam because it costs 40k and many people who pay for the education never do any deals. To me that is not a scam. That is people not following through with what they paid for. So as long as the education company actually provides the services they advertise then I would say it is not a scam. If they make it seem easy, however, then in my opinion, they are scamming people and misleading them because it is not easy. It is a lot of work and that should be emphasized. 

I was one one of those who did go to a 3-day event and ended up eventually paying for a 40k education program. In fact, I also paid an additional 30k for private coaching and to increase my access to money. But I am one of those people who did implement the education and created a network which has helped me create over a million dollars through investing in real estate over the past 3 years. The coaching is what probably helped me out the most because it helped me have accountability. And not having accountability is the reason why I think so many people don’t end up following with investing even after they pay for the expensive real estate education.