What happened to Carlton Sheets?

[Rob K.]

Remember that guy? He was on TV all the time. He talked about buying houses and making a fortune. He never talked about tenants, repairs, evictions, problems, etc. I wonder what happened to him. I know that Tom Vu went to prison and now plays poker. Dave DelDotto went out like Vin Diesel. That McCorcoran clown went to prison. Those guru sideshows used to crack me up. How about Armando Montelongo? Haven't heard his name in years. I get emails all the time from Than Merril peddling his crap.

Good times.....

[Doug Pretorius]

Like several have mentioned, I got interested in real estate after listening to Carlton Sheets. I did my first deal (a lease option) largely thanks to him, although I had to create my own contract that worked here in Ontario.

I will say one thing about his course. It did a decent job of outlining several creative financing options, many of which work today the same as ever. Not really surprising when you consider the fact that sellers get motivated for the same reasons they did 20 years ago, or 50 , or 100. The fundamentals of real estate never change.

[Bill Gulley]

Motivations don't change, laws do and just about any creative financing thingy dreamed up in the past is most likely illegal or requires a completely different approach. Real estate is not finance, but real estate falls under the finance umbrella.

There will always be the poor, the ignorant, the greedy, the uneducated, the unsophisticated and those that pray upon them.

Part of life is figuring out who the predators are. The only way I know of to get something for nothing is to play guitar on MTV! :)

[Wilson Churchill]

His course is what turned me on to real estate investment in the first place. I remember the commercials being very informative and persuasive. The "program" (three books) was about $130 at the time, if I recall correctly. For someone with absolutely no knowledge of real estate, his course was ideal. The chapter about building credit is especially informative, and details a "credit pursuit" strategy that I should probably take the time to implement. I also ordered all of the videos. When I called to return the videos, they allowed me to keep them for free.. No, I don't work for them. I honestly thought the course was worth the money.

To critique the program, I would say that a few of the methods probably aren't practical, or would only work rarely. The coaching is also not necessary, in my opinion. It would be helpful if they would mention some of the rules of thumb, such as 2%, 50%, 70%, just to promote conservatism with the numbers.

[Donald Crockett]

This thread's been around for some time I see. It's a good Sunday afternoon read. I do not watch television at all and have not done so for 30 years or so. I don't know who these late night infomercial gurus are. When I first began to get serious about investing, someone gave me Carlton's course on investing with no money down on CDs. I listened to them all and thought two things; first, I don't really think I could pull off some of those strategies and second, using these methods would net me lower returns than I could get otherwise. But I thought Carlton seemed like a nice enough guy, someone I might like to get to know.

Robert Kiosaki has been mentioned in this thread. Ten years ago I got hooked up with a couple local REI groups. Many people asked me if I had read Rich Dad Poor Dad. When I answered no, everyone would tell me I needed to read it. It was touted as the "starting point" for any investing strategy. Well after many recommendations like this I got the book from the library and read it. Very soon into the book, I began to get bad feeling about the whole thing. I don't know how to describe it but much of the book seemed to go against everything I knew and held dear. Sometimes people I meet, or listen to speak, or read about just kind of creep me out. I get a sort of feeling of alarms going off in my subconscious mind. That book was one of those times.

One man who I became very good friends with told me he and his wife spent a very large amount of money on Kiosaki's courses and coaching. He said he would be embarrassed to tell me how much. He also said they never used any of it. They had never done any real estate investing at all and probably never would. Talk about throwing money away!

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Donald Crockett:

One man who I became very good friends with told me he and his wife spent a very large amount of money on Kiosaki's courses and coaching. He said he would be embarrassed to tell me how much.

 I believe their highest-priced course is around $45K...

[Maximo Pichardo]

For me...I did take the Carlton Sheets course, fortunately I was able to take my time to study his material. I followed everything he said to do, and I succeeded tremendously. When I purchased my first home under his program, I walked away from the closing with 10K. I will never forget that!!! That to me was everything, and I became an investor.

I am sorry to hear others make negative comments about Carlton S. course, however I did step by step everything he said to do, and it all worked according to his class. My guess is that many do buy these RE programs, but how much do they really study and actually go out and make Offers until the deal presents itself. After speaking to a few people that have bought any RE program, I can tell they did not study the course hard core, and if they did, they never made enough property offers. Its impossible to not succeed if you made lots of offers. That's my opinion.    

[Rique Viera]

I also purshase Mr Sheets program and did nothing with it. but I got interestede in REI many years later I got my lic. and did some investments and when the crush came I lost it all. at this time I'm coming back and my challenge is financing...I want to say thank you to all of you who post your experiences it really helps. thanks again.

[Robert Carrillo]

Carlton Sheets was my inspiration...at 2am on a Saturday night when I was a fifteen year old watching his infomercials. I must have watched numerous infomercials with my cousin before we finally decided to buy his program...then it was another year almost before we opened it. But when we did...we uncovered a gold mine. Twenty three years later, I'm still in real estate.

[Brian Mitchell]

Originally posted by @Joe Cummings:

Originally posted by @Don Konipol:

Armando Montelongo was a speaker at a real estate investment club meeting I attended a couple years back. He said he went broke, went into a depression for 6 months, and now how found inspiration and desire to help others succeed. This must be the only business where people will pay big bucks to learn the secrets of success from a total failure.

ALL real estate guru stuff is an outgrowth, twist, or extension (often fantasy) of Bill Nickerson's "How I turned $5000 into a Million Investing in Real Estate in my Spare Time". Save yourself money, time and aggravation, study the book and apply it's principles. It's as valid today as it was in 1959 when it was first published.

$40,570.27 In today's money.

Seriously, how many people in the guru's target market have 40k in cash laying around? I think Bill Nickerson was writing for a different demographic.

 Just for the record: The original Nickerson book was titled, "How I turned $1000 into a Million in Real Estate - in my Spare Time". 

[Kent Palmer]

I ordered the Carleton Sheets No Money Down System about 15 years ago when I was up late at night watching the infomercial. It thought it was very interesting and was determined to make it happen. About a year after ordering his system, I was invited to attend a live showing with Carleton in Florida to give my success testimonials.... they filmed me and put me on his infomercial as one of his success students! I was on his television commercial for about 7 years. In one year I amassed over 1 million in real estate and had great cash flow. I followed about 3 of his no money down techniques and applied them to my investing career. You see, you can say it's all BS and it doesn't work but let the truth be told......it doesn't work if you don't apply yourself. You must take ACTION my friends!!!!!!!! My latest deal, I bought a property subject to the existing mortgage with a low monthly payment and 30k in equity. All I needed was $370 to get the deal and have the owner deed me the house. This property will give me approximately $650 in positive cash flow!!! Not to mention the thousands I am going to get up front from the tenant/buyer!!! Real Estate is the BOMB!!! I will say this; Carleton paved the way for me and got me inspired about property!

[Elizabeth Turin]

I was interested on buying an online course from Carleton Sheets. When I went to his web, few minutes ago, he was advertising for a coach program. 

Anybody knows any other coach program?

Happy New Year 2016!!

[Robert Blanchard]

@Elizabeth Turin  Here is the subcategory on Bigger Pockets that discuss many RE courses and Coaching programs/ courses.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/79-real-estat...

If you listen to the podcast on this site, you will learn a lot about RE investing for free.

Then there are the blog posts that also have some great information.

Also attend your local REIA groups to learn from investors in your own area.

Here is the link on BP for your area:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/maryland-real-es...

I have not attended any of Carlton Sheets Seminars but as you will read on this site, most of the RE Seminars will keep up selling you for Coaching programs until you reach the $10K to $40K level for personal coaching or training.  Some people feel that it is worth the large fee, but most do not from the posts on this site many of the complaint sites on the web.  

After the first "free" seminar, the next step is a 2 or 3 day Seminar. Rarely, the 3 day $500 or so course will give you more info that can be found on this site. 

Welcome to the site!

Robert

[Phil Hensley]

@ElizabethTurin.  I might take a slightly different tack than what many have said about Sheets.  My experience of Carlton Sheets is through his cassette tape course purchased twenty plus years ago...while in your neck of the woods, by the way, and applied it in Fells Point in Baltimore.  This course, if no longer offered on his website, can be purchased on eBay for a cost of less than $100.  What Sheets' provides, that I found to be exceedingly helpful, is real estate investment information, boiled down to a clearly understood step-by-step process, put in a box and sent to you.  He took this huge undefined confusing monster called real estate investment (that's how I viewed it at that time) and simplified it.  Is it everything I needed to know about real estate investment?  Of course not.  Is it everything needed to buy your first investment property or home with no money down?  Absolutely.  I followed his process and bought my first investment property at 515 South Ann Street and put $2000 in my pocket at closing with rent providing a monthly positive cash flow.  I paid, I think, $175 for his course.  I've said it many times, it's the best money I've ever invested.  You're buying information, if purchased at all, and Sheets is a good source for a well rounded course.  What you do with that information is up to you.  Happy investing!

[Leonardo DiGiovanni]

I bought the Carleton Sheets course in 1995 after seeing it on TV late one night. I can't remember what I paid for it, maybe like $129 or $199 or so. He offered a Money Back guarantee that if you didn't like it, you can get your money back. That was the main reason I bought it. I still have the material; I never sent it back for my money back. It's 2 binders and each binder has 6 cassette tapes. It's the best investment I ever made in my life. You can't pry these materials from my hands now. They are as good today, 20 years later, as they were in 1995. They are a little dated, but the fundamentals haven't changed. 

In 1995, I was an employee of Home Savings of America as a computer programmer making very good money. When I applied for a home loan with them and was denied. I was devastated. 

I ordered the Carleton Sheets course in 1995, although I was skeptical it would help me. I started buying properties one after the other. I now have over 40 properties worth over $8 million, but I still have $2 million in bank loans on some of them, but half the properties are paid off now. I'm getting great cash-flow on these properties now although I was in a break-even stage when I bought them. 

If you think it was easy getting to this point, it wasn't. It took work. The homes were bought one at a time. I was exhilarated every time I closed on a home. If you followed that course and worked hard at learning how to do what it told you, you would end up owning the homes. The people who bashed the course, either never read the material and listened to the cassettes,  or never applied it's teachings. 

The course by Carleton H. Sheets (not Carlton) is absolutely great. I wouldn't be were I'm at now without it.

[Lou Storiale]

The entire Carleton Sheets Program is owned by the same company as Rich Dad Poor Dad... The Professional Education Institute.  Also, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People... They sell coaching to those programs and they own the rights to it.

Carleton Sheets is the only "guru" in the Real Estate field that didn't go to prison.

I was project manager on the Carleton Sheets website back in 2009 when I learned about "Stuffing the Chicken."  They used to ship their products to people and then bill people without actual orders.  They laughed about how much money they made off of it.  Kind of made me sick to hear their stories of "The old days."   Their marketing folks are basically morons in my opinion.  Very odd management system - but all the company is sourced in Utah (one location in IL).  They are almost all Mormons (Chuch of the Latter-day Saints).   

I remember one of the managers explaining to me that "You know we work for a cult, right?"  Me:  "What?!"   I wasn't a fit, thankfully.  Finished the site (which is sort of still the same site), got a bonus and was fired.  LOL.  




Originally posted by @James H.:

I never read the Carlton Sheets. I'm not big on gurus. However, it was reading Rich Dad Poor Dad....

[Michael Haynes]

Doesn't everyone have to start at the beginning? I am an extremely slow learner and the Carleton Sheets course was the guide book to getting my start in buying rental properties for my retirement here in Tampa, Florida. On my first trip around the world I wanted to see how other people survive in their old age and one old couple in Spain told me that you need to work to have one house that is paid off and one rental property. I started with reading every investment and get rich quick book at the library. Twenty years later, I worked on oil tankers with the same Union where Robert Kiyosaki was a Chief Mate. One of the Mates on the ships told me about a Chief Engineer in Seatle, who would give his real estate agent $5000 every time he got off a ship and when he retired with a huge pension, he had a million dollars worth of rentals. Every time I would get off the ships I would attend every home based business seminar that came to town. I must have been to hundred different seminars for individuals looking for a way to make money on their own. Wade Cook gave me his whole course for free and I was a member of an investing group here for ten years. While I was on the ships I studied Mutual Fund investing and made the $100,000 that I used to buy my rentals. The reality of Low and No Money Down in Tampa, without connections to the bankers and pre-foreclosure properties, was that you had to do a lot of searching, without the computer and make a lot of offers or attempt a Lease Option etc. and I didn't have the time. So, I used cash to do one of the things that Carleton taught. You could finance by the owner with $10,000 down, at 9%, and try to buy multi-family duplexes or houses that produced enough rents to pay for PITI and unforeseeable repairs and disasters. You maintain ten properties for ten years and then sell five worst ones at a profit to fix up and keep the five best that would be worth a million dollars. I did that and got creamed with the 2008 collapse in the economy. You couldn't lower the price fast enough to sell what you could and save some of the rentals. Carleton Sheets started in Tampa, Florida. My broker knew him from Davis Island. I wonder how he made out with his portfolio losing 50% or more in value by 2009. Just like with everything else, real estate values run in cycles. We used to think that they were 7 to 9 year cycles from the lows to the highs in value. Right now, we may be in a 20 year stagnating downtrend. No one pays attention to that. As a stock and options trader I had to think about that in the Daily term and right now I am a Futures trader using the shortest term trading method. The reason why is just what Robert Kiyosaki taught as his principal lesson. You pay your bills on a 30 day schedule and you have to have Daily Cash Flow. Nothing else he teaches impressed me as much. Even as a Flipper, you have to have deep pockets to cover the carrying charges and repairs. I met an old Italian this week who said he bought a big property with a huge house in a really good location for $120,000 when the Market crashed in 2008 and he would not sell it today for less than $230,000. Great deal! How many years did it take to make it work. Right now I am selling. I need for my IRS designation as a Real Estate Professional, to have at least one rental with my Futures trading so that I can use all may deductions in the current year. In Florida they cannot take your residence for any debt you may incur. So, I need a paid off residence. I need to continue to work with my little knowledge base and for me the Sale of Residential Property Tax free up to $250,000 every two years is the trick. I met one lady who had done ten of these as her only real estate deals. I met another older couple who would buy the first new home in a housing project and put up with all the trucks and dust, because they would get really good financing with the builder. Then, they would use the Residential Sale rule to sell and move onto the next new home when the project was done and property values had increased. No miserable tenants, full of excuses, leaking sinks and blocked up toilets and oh! they lost their key and had to break in the window in the back to get in... The expansion on that will be that I own a commercial half acre in a good location that I can divide up into four lots and build two townhomes on each one. Move into one and rent the other. Two years later I sell the residence, tax free and move into the next one. I can build out the property slowly for the rest of my life and live in a new townhome each time. This is also where Creative Financing makes sense. I needed something for Daily Cash Flow so I learned how to micro-scalp trade with Futures. I can sit at the computer each morning and make a few hundred dollars and go to lunch. If you do that in your Roth IRA it is tax free in and out after you hold it for five years and you are 65 years old. In real estate you can also sell a rental/Flip and do the 1031 Exchange for another like property and avoid the taxes until you get to one that you want to live in and then use the Residential tax break to free up the profits for that one. We have to think smarter and try to not end up as burned out landlords. If you don't want to do the Carleton Sheets thing, then, learn how to invest in REITs. Just make sure you can go Long and Short them if this really is the start of our 20 year decline like Japan. Some guys can figure out how to do one or two good deals and some guys and gals were just born to horse trade.

[David Dec]

Back in the day (mid 1970's) I took many NAR classes with Carleton H. Sheets for my CCIM and RESSI (Real Estate Securities and Syndication Institute).

He taught us much about mathematical tools for analyses; especially calculating IRR with paper and pencil, and the HP12c was advanced stuff.

He was a nice and caring gentleman. That was some years before he started his commercials and course book materials.

I owe much to his instruction.

Thank you Carleton H. Sheets!

[David Dec]

By the way, that was in Chicago.

[Account Closed]

after I sold my buy and hold in 2007, I purchased the Carlton Sheets program and then the market crashed. Who knows how it could have helped.

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

after I sold my buy and hold in 2007, I purchased the Carlton Sheets program and then the market crashed. Who knows how it could have helped.

That was pretty close to the best time you could have gotten into flipping...  Sadly, I don't think there will ever be another opportunity like 2008-2010 when it comes to flipping...

[Account Closed]

@J Scott I totaly agree with you. I should have taken every penny from that sale and picked up some houses. I had a hardwood flooring company back then and was doing the floors for the investor I bought my flip from.The guy went from flipping to building spec homes when the market was great. When the market crashed I was seeing first hand what he was going through, when he couldnt sell his houses. I eventually had to close shop since his homes were a large part of my companies revenue.

After almost 9 years since I've seen him last, I met up with him for dinner to see how he was doing and he said that he was into turn-key and property management. Remenissing on the past, he stated that he lost almost everything and had to become creative and do whatever it took to stay above water. This included writing loans, which he did not like doing. I would like to think that if he would have guided me or encouraged me to buy houses with the money I made, I would have done so, but I cant put that on him. I was you and ignorant as it pertained to the market and how to see the benefits of the its condition back then. 

I'm in the Tampa market which is always at the top of some chart for flipping, but in a real estate training class I was taking today, they were discussing how difficult its getting for flippers here. They did say how things were better about 45 minutes to an hour north. My wife and I met a wonderful agent / investor here on BP and are looking for our first flip together. I'll definitely post when that journey begins.

[Antonio E Logorz]

Well right now we are attending ( My son Anthony as student, because he is working with me right now and I am a bad teacher ) a 3 days workshop. This time with Mr Drew and Mr Danny. I also bought in the past Mr Carleton, Macorcle, Kirosaky, Del Dotto and on 2014 with Mr Armando Montelongo. I keep all their books for memories and consultation. Montelongo has refunded my $1,500 dollars course cost in full after my first deal was closed before the 90 days as they have promissed.The best that I also have permanent and unlimited access to his web with multiple RE documents. We ( My wife a Real Estate Broker) spended 3 nice days with them in Clearwater, Florida included a nice lunch. Really you always learn something on those seminars. Until now was the best workshop I ever have attended. Today on my second day I also have learned few actual tips. Be informed is the key. All of them has helped me greatly to owned today an small family company of one of the most profitable businees in USA, the Real Estate Investments. Blessings!

Ed Logorz

[Ian Godfrey]

I still have Carlton Sheets CDs and DVDs. His teaching was a good starter and his CD was what got me started on my real estate education. I still see Armando Montelongo on YouTube on HGTV, he's hard core. I have watched, listened to and followed *************; he is pretty good. Anyone remember John Beck "pennies on the dollar" Tax lien real estate? He was a joke!

[Bill Hays]

I know this is an old thread, but the same question came to my mind today....then after seeing a bunch of others names like Tommy Vu et al, the one that I didn't see was Don Lapre.  I looked him up and like others he went to jail and then apparently killed himself in 2011.   He started off with a credit repair business in the 1990s which eventually led to his "tiny classified ads" infomercials that rivaled Carlton Sheets at the time.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Lapre

[Tom Purtell]

My two cents folks. I first bought Carleton's training in the late 1980's or early 1990's and I was hooked on his charisma. I probably spent $69.99 or somewhere around there. The best money I ever spent. I also picked up more of his stuff on eBay a few years back. A classmate of mine at college had in fact bought an investment property in the 1980's with owner second mortgage no money down, but it seemed like that sort of thing was drying up around then. I think Carleton's course absolutely worked in the 1970's and early 1980's. Would you agree the federal government has totally changed the rules on mortgages and real estate finance over the last 40 years? It is evident that Carleton has inspired many people in this thread alone to pursue their real estate dreams or the American dream. When you spend money on a real estate course, you won't automatically become instantly wealthy or live the life a millionaire or billionaire. The course is meant to motivate you to action and explain that it is in fact possible to chase your dreams and give you ideas on how you can get it done. I hope to chase my real estate dreams of investing soon. My wife has been a real estate agent for 18 years and I am on my first year. My wife just sold an owner occupied VA loan no money down purchase and all the buyer had to bring to the closing was $0.09 to which my wife pulled $0.09 out of her pocket and paid the buyer's cost for him making the purchase a no down payment purchase for the buyer. When I heard that I thought of Carleton Sheets. I know its an owner occupied property but still truly astounding. There are many real estate guru's that sell their training for $25,000 and $35,000. How do you like Carleton's motivation cost now?