All Forum Posts by: Constance Kang

@Amiris Brown

Mold remediation is the biggest scam going and makes me want to open a mold remediation company asap so I can charge people $20K for what will cost me about $3K to do. Mold is caused by water.. you have to stop the cause of the water which is usually pretty easy to do if it's a leaking pipe or a busted roof. Then, you remove all of the damaged materials, and depending on what happened underneath, if nothing, then you're done. Literally, that's mold remediation in a nutshell. 

A newbie should never, ever, ever take on a project with repairs exceeding $100K. Everyone wants to hit that big home run right out of the gate. Take a property that needs $10K in work, will sell quickly, and you can make $10K. Those are VERY easy and VERY hard to mess up. $100K in work is just a big, big headache that should not be taken on by someone with no experience. 

Hi, I'm Andrew Bethea a realtor in Southern MD pursuing a specialization as an REO agent. Aspiring to be a real estate investor in long term rentals, wholesaling, tax liens and deeds.

@Brian Whelan

I went to SUNY New Paltz and lived there during my shcool years.  I remember paying a lot for what I had.  In Binghamton, as well as Cortland, both have a big college population and both had big companies move in to develop student housing.  I can speak for Binghamton and had people tell me the same thing about Cortland, the big complexes cost too much for many of the students and the impact on the local rental market was minimal at best.

Hi BP family. Looking to connect with fellow real estate investors in the Binghamton, NY. Am interested in learning more about the area (Binghamton, Endicott, Johnson City, Vestal). Anyone, want to meet for coffee and share some thoughts. Thank you all!

Hi Guys, I am also looking to invest in student rentals in Binghamton. I am a BU alum so I know the area fairly well, and it seems like a decent place to find cash flow. 

How has the rental market there treated you so far?

I attended the same 3 day workshop as you. I completely agree with you 100% that it's a scam. 

I "signed up" for the class just to see the entire process, but I delayed my deposit and any other funds for a few days to figure out all of their angles.

I picked up on a few things myself:

1) The Fortune 500 cover and article that our mentor "Jason" mentioned on Day 1 was to establish his credibility. I went home to look things over. It's the May 30, 2005 edition. It does look like our instructor (I couldn't clearly make it out b/c I can't find an enhanced picture anywhere). 

At the end of the 3 day workshop, our instructor gave us all his contact info: JaYEson Jones@legacyeducation

2) An aggressive representative told each of us individually to lie about our earned annual income. 

Some people were told to lie by more than 2x the actual income, even though the person didn't have a job and massive student loan debt.

3) I looked into the proprietary network that has 29k members; it was quite odd how 99% of all message posts received 0 responses. Most of the profiles didn't even have a picture or any sort of activities. 

These are probably dummy accounts.

4) If you look at Robert Kiyosaki's wikipedia (Criticism & controversy section), it mentions a similar company to Legacy. The CBC video (think of it as a Canadian Dateline show) is found in the link below (22 min video) but well worth the time to watch. It explains why this was a Legacy Events seminar and not a Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar (the reason why we all signed up for the 3 days & Legacy package in the 1st place).

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

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2010-episodes/road-to-rich-dad

For the same reasons as Constance, I am writing this to hopefully help other people who are not as savvy to these highly manipulative tactics. It will take most people years to recover from a $40k financial loss because of these sort of scams. It's downright disgusting.

Constance - I've reached out to 6 people who have signed up for the "advanced" classes. They all are in the process of cancelling. If you happen to have anyone else's contact from that class, please feel free to pass along my contact before it's too late.

It makes you wonder if Kiyosaki warns you to get a financial education so you know enough not to sign up for his course.  A 40k program ought to come with an ironclad guarantee that you make 6 figures by year 2 (and aren't doing something illegal/unethical) to be even minimally reasonable.  It's too bad his books (and the Advisor Series) are quite good but he partners with dirtbags on the backend.

I wish BP had a $2k, 3 day course and mentoring that we could send people to instead.  Look if you are determined to spend your money on a course, go to the Bigger Pockets seminar!  You'll actually learn useful stuff and won't be set back 5 years with an upsell.

@Constance Kang well you discovered how many of the most expensive REI instructors work in this industry. I believe many contract out to the same sales company to deliver there pitches.

I am glad you picked it up and are able to describe what is happening so clearly to warn others.

I have spent a LOT of money on instructors and coaching over the years. I truly believe there is no better place to invest in than myself. However The barrier to entry in the REI teaching business is very low and a lot of bad players join the game.

What you describe led me to come up with Ned's Rule of Gurus.

The quality of an REI course is inversely proportional to the price

Thanks @Constance Kang for sharing your experience of a RDPD Seminar.   They tend to get people to attend their seminars that have no understanding of RE Investing and think that they have to "pay to play".  

Others have found value in some rather expensive upsell's and many people on BP have stated that they have spent a fair amount on programs. 

I have spent less than $250 but have learned more on BP than the 2 programs/ packets that I found online.