Duped in Dallas by $30k wannabe guru!

[Steven C. Suarez]

Earlier this year my good friend paid $30k to a Dallas real estate guru to finally get started in real estate at the ripe young age of 55. After the course, the gurus convinced him to put his entire retirement into 2 expensive houses in Dallas. Almost in the same block no less! Well purchase price was about 400k for each house, they wanted to put around 100k into each for repairs and sell them for around 700-800k. Sounds like a great windfall right?! Well that was in March. And they've hardly got any perspective buyers since. The gurus came with their own contractor crews and one of them was a brand new real estate agent so everything was "in house" how convenient! Well the contractors were terrible and the agent had no idea what he was doing, being a newbie and all. And at this point my good friend is praying to at least break even on these houses but even that looks bleak. So, if any of y'all has and advice for my buddy, or knows how to move high end real estate, please contact me at the earliest. I'd really appreciate it. It's hard seeing such a good man get abused the way he did. Thanks! Stevo

[Trevor Dreilich]

I would fire the agent,  let them stay off the market for a month then list with a new, better agent. See what he or she says they should list for. Interview a few agents for this. this month is the slowest month to sell in most markets. Hopefully he does better than break even.