What makes someone a real estate "Guru"?

[Seth Williams]

After hanging around these forums for about half a year now, I've noticed that the word "Guru" gets tossed around quite a bit, and (understandably) not in a good way. It's a label that tends to be used interchangeably with words like "scam", "ripoff", "liar", "no credibility", and a lot of other negative connotations.

I have to admit, when I hear the word "Guru" - the first thoughts that come to mind generally aren't positive either.

This got me to thinking, what exactly makes someone a "Guru"? At what point does someone deserve to be lumped into this category?

- When they make a particular claim?
- Is it an attitude, action or behavior?
- When they try to sell an informational product of any kind?
- When they claim to have a repeatable "system" of any kind?
- When they offer proof that they have been wildly successful?
- When they say that real estate investing is "easy"?
- Some other criteria?

I'm guessing there are a lot of different ideas out there. I'd be curious to hear what you all think, and why.

[J Scott]

I don't think it's black-and-white, but in my opinion, here are two big things that would lead me to call someone a guru:

1. They make the bulk of their income in education, not investing in real estate.

2. They use their paid education (seminars, courses, etc) to upsell additional (generally higher priced) paid education.

These two things -- to me -- are the hallmark of a real estate "guru"...