Real Estate "Guru" Finally Arrested

Oh the tangled web we weave, when we first practice to deceive...

The lure of the almighty dollar is very tempting, sometimes so tempting that some people don't recognize legal and ethical boundaries, or somehow feel they are exempt from following the rules.  This is my second brush with blatant evil in my new career as a real estate investor.  The first was in a previous post "Our First Deal Fed a SCAM!", where a middle aged lady used my name and credentials to SCAM 2 elderly gentlemen out of $60,000.  The second is paying good money to a training course where DC Fawcett and Karen Hanover taught about short sales and commercial real estate investing.  I was originally upset about the training mainly because it was a pitch fest, as I posted on my Commercial Goldrush Foreclosures trip report.

After I posted that blog here, and on BiggerPockets, someone reached out to me and told me I had been scammed and pointed me to Duncan Wierman's blog where there are now over 67 pages of comments on how awful she is.  As it turned out, as in a lot of these "training events" there is always something more you can buy, and she was offering a "FAST TRACK" program to investors wanting to team with her so they would land at least 2 commercial real estate deals using her and her investors as equity partners for only $30,000.  You can see the actual video of her offering here.

After the flurry of people that signed up had waned, I started asking detailed questions about the program.  The first thing that bothered me is they wanted a $1,000 deposit and they needed the rest of the money wired to their account by the end of  the week.  I admit I bought the up-sell on the Armando Montelongo program, but they took my credit card for the whole amount.  They weren't trying to be sneaky about it.



One poor person reached out to me a few months after this event because I had posted my trip report and said that her friend paid that money and never heard anything else.  I pointed her to Duncan Wierman's blog with my condolences.

I actually ran into Phill Grove at this event, an up and rising guru from the Austin area that was trying to bring his Mortgage Assignment program nationwide, and had scheduled meetings with DC Fawcett.  I remember pleading with Phill not to follow that same example of turning his trainings into "pitchfests".  He himself is moving on with his own seminar business and I wish him well.

Onto DC Fawcett, I must admit I did get a partial refund.  I explained that I paid for the upgraded membership because I thought I could partner with Karen Hanover.  And that as soon as I got home, I did minimal research on her and public records showed evictions, judgments, and foreclosures against her.  How can you partner with someone like that?  The DC Fawcett organization refunded me 95% of my purchase price, but I'm still out the other travel costs.  I bet DC Fawcett is out even more!

What's worse is that there is this whole ring of real estate information marketing guru's that all promote each others products.  The program is called jvupdate.com and it's by invitation only - Duncan Wierman claims to have been ejected from the guru ring by not following their rules and supporting each other.

"We are who we associate with" some say.  Karen Hanover has disgraced the seminar guru business along with stealing millions of dollars from many people.  Yes, I'm embarrassed I was sold on that training.  I'm embarrassed I considered the fast track program.  I'm thankful I didn't buy it. 

I encourage anyone that bought that program contact the FBI at (310) 477-6565.