Lifestyles Unlimited

[Nick Pittari]

Hello all,

I am located here in Dallas, Texas and attended a free introductory seminar from Lifestyles Unlimited REIA last night. I enjoyed listening to what they had to say and the speaker was very informative.

I was thinking about joining, but I wanted to ask and see if anybody else had any experiences with them (both good or bad). They seem to have a ton of resources available to their members and I was curious if anyone could speak to the quality of their information. It seems like a solid network, but just wanted to hear if others have given them a try.

Thanks!

[Wendy J.]

Hi Nick. Don't know if you joined already, but wanted to share our experience.

My husband joined at the $500 level and then took me to the "two day" boot camp. All the information was great and they began the pitch for the "Preferred Investor Group" towards the end of the seminars. My husband was so fired up that he wanted to move to the PIG level. Promises were made that individualized attention and 'hand-holding' would be given in addition to access to LUINC deals and discount vendors as well as rebates for deals closed through LUINC realtors. So we joined. We were probably one of the first 50 members in the San Antonio area.

Worst $10,000 investment ever! We got no individualized attention or hand-holding although I did go on many "road trips" for both single and multi-family properties. I certainly learned things, however those things can be learned at a lot less expense elsewhere.

On one SF road trip, those in attendance put their names in a hat to be drawn for an opportunity to make an offer on one of the properties. I was pulled for a sweet little house in a historic district and was pretty excited. Turns out it was a wholesaler deal that couldn't close due to some problem with the title. I was to be contacted as soon as it was cleared up. Six months later, they still had my earnest money, and I couldn't get anyone from LUINC to get answers regarding the purchase status. I finally got hold of the wholesaler myself and learned that the title just got cleared up, but the owner decided to sell to his neighbor.

We did receive e-mail blasts of properties that they had "analyzed" and found to be good investments. To me, it appeared that they came across the deal through some search they had set up and simply ran numbers based on the pictures available from the MLS listing, because I visited several properties with their agent and the rehab needed was always more than they put in the email - usually quite a bit more. The agent often seemed clueless as to some of the most important things I look at when viewing a property ... evidence of foundation trouble, A/C ductwork that needed replacement due to local code changes, evidence of black mold (not a deal killer, but certainly something to be aware of), and evidence of termite damage.

Then I found a deal on a bank owned foreclosure property and when we told the agent what we wanted to offer, they refused because they didn't want to be known as "low ballers" in the market. I worked with an agent that we knew personally and we purchased the property for $14k less than the asking price.

I continued to respond to the email blast properties, but as LUINC grew in our area, I could never get 'first on the list'. Contradicting their educational information, they wanted investors to make offers based solely on the information sent in the email. Often, the email blast would be followed with an 'offer in place' email within 10 to fifteen minutes of the initial email. On one occasion, I actually made it to 'first response' only to be told later that 'oops... a mistake had been made and I wasn't first after all'.

All of the properties we purchased were located by me without help from LUINC. I finally used one of their agents to purchase another bank owned property just to try to get some funds back via the rebate. That agent was great and we got $600 back on the deal.

We could never figure out what the secret was to become one of the favorite investors that got the individual attention and hand holding. We wrote and complained and asked to get a portion of our money back, but we all know how that goes.

To sum up, I would never recommend joining at anything other than the lowest level. Save your money for your acquisitions. Everything they offer can be gotten elsewhere for less or free. The only real benefit comes if you somehow manage to become one of the favorites ... then the LUINC people will move heaven and earth to feed your success so that you will be one of their displays.