Real Estate Investment Guru?

[Norberto Villanueva]

An attendee of one of our Real Estate Investment Hour Meetups meets with me some time after for lunch and agrees to work with me. During our meeting, we touched upon his having attended a guru workshop (you'd know it if mentioned), paying tens of thousands for their advanced blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAH!

After notifying the client of an opportunity to acquire a bank owned single family residence zoned R-2, which will allow the conversion to a duplex by partitioning a walkout basement, he excitedly meets with me at the asset, workbook complete with rehab estimates and more in hand, feverishly noting this, that and the other. Good stuff. 

I contact him by phone shortly after to go over comps, during which I get the impression he's yessing me to death, only halfway engaging. Afterward, he contacts me to explain his findings put value considerably below mine to justify a low ball offer while offering to send me his comps, which I accepted. It's only worth what a buyer's willing to pay, I said, agreeing to write up the offer. 

Then I saw the "Free Comp Report". Noticing three of the five comps are half the square footage of the subject property, one on the other side of a major thoroughfare and in a different area of town, I advised the customer to be careful about using just any comp, as it may end up with money left on the table, or worse. I know that, he says.

Folks, this is a disaster waiting to happen, time and time again. Determined to save commissions by cutting out the licensed broker, or using them to get what they want and no more, countless would be investors accomplish not much more than accumulate stacks of workbooks, cost sheets, strategies and credit card debt with no assets to show, head in hand, tail tucked. 

Do yourselves a favor, take the tens of thousands these so-called guru's charge and apply it towards down payment, closing and holding costs after aligning yourself with licensed and/or knowledgeable real estate, finance, trades and other professionals, and resources such as this, committed to your success with little to no upfront costs.