All Forum Posts by: Cornelius Charles

@Alex Young

I love the enthusiasm, but i think you have to be realistic at some point. My wife and I both have pretty decent day jobs, and we are struggling to get our real estate investment business moving in this southern California market. We have been at it for about 3 years, and have only done 1 flip, one JV type deal, and gotten 2 listings for my wife. And that's with us having money to use for marketing. If you're really interested in real estate, maybe look at becoming a realtor to get your foot in the door. I'm not a realtor, but from what i can see from my wife's experience, that either takes a marketing budget or joining a great team to actually make an income you can live on. I've seen too many people who jumped at real estate the same time we did, thinking it would be quick/easy money. Most of them have since dropped out due to the difficulty finding deals in our county. My guess is San Diego would not be too different from us.

@Bryson Paulo

I joined fortune builders a few years ago.  It will teach you the ins and outs of real estate investing, especially flipping, and how to build systems to do so.  Most, if not all, of the information can be found for free online.  It is up to you to decide if it's worth the money to you to have everything packaged nicely for you to learn from and if you are actually going to implement it.  They will not bring deals to you, so don't expect to start doing deals just for joining the program.  It will still take a lot of time and/or money to find deals and i'm willing to bet a high percentage of students never do a single deal. 

There is also the Real Estate Entrepreneurs of Conejo Valley and the Real Estate Candy shop.  Both can be found on the Meetup.com.  

@Natalie Harper

Were you able to find your funding? if not, i know a lender who would do these types of loans.  I think his rate was around 8%.  i haven't talked to him a while, but if this is something you might want to pursue, please feel free to send me a PM.

@Kevin Phu

IMHO, I doubt the info you provided will have any effect on the local market. I would question how many people are even aware of the numbers you provided. I've lived here since 2001 and i couldn't tell you anything about what the crime rate has been year-to-year, and i doubt many other people could either.  My guess is that most of the crime you've reported (especially the shootings), are in the areas that are already known to be not the greatest.  I could be wrong, but i wouldn't hold my breath waiting for people to sell quickly and leave because of this. 

@Seth Richardson

Our focus is on flipping. We've only done one flip and one JV type deal so far. My wife has gotten several listings from our marketing as well. Once we build up more capital, we will look into more passive income such as rental properties (probably in the mid-west) or non-performing notes.

@Seth Richardson\

My wife and I are located in Ventura county. Please feel free to reach out if there is anything that we can help you with.

@Richard Gabriel

A few comments from a fortune builders member.

#1. if you do a search for fortune builders on this site, you will find many posts that probably talk about most of your questions.

#2.  From my experience, they tell everyone they would make great students, which is one of my few complaints about the company.  Although I'm big on personal accountability, I still don't think it's too cool to coax people that they know can't really afford it, especially if most probably will never do a single deal.

#3. you shouldn't do anything just because they want you to do it. 

#4. Most of the material they teach can be found online and elsewhere.  However, you get access to the systems and paperwork that they use

#5. I don't know anything about the area you are in, but I would shy away from thinking it is going to be easy to be successful. Sure, the systems that they teach are not rocket science, but there is a big difference between learning what to do and actually doing it and achieving results.  If they are telling you that it will be easy, you can add that as one of my complaints.

#6. all that being said, my wife and I have found success with the company.  Although we have not reached the goals that we set yet, we have definitely made more money than we have spent on the program. however, we also both came from successful backgrounds in other industries, so we have a history of learning and getting results elsewhere.  People really need to take an inventory of themselves to ensure that they really can be successful.  IMHO, it takes a lot of time or a lot of money to be successful in this market (at least in my area), so if you don't have at least one of those, I would think long and hard before spending the money on this program.

@Paul Hurtubise

I have not been involved with real estate for too long, but I am hearing/seeing that that's just the state of the Southern California real estate market now-a-days.  We are up in Ventura County and were sending 2000 mailers a month. Our response rate was about 0.25%.  I have reached out to several big wholesalers on this site, both from California and out-of-state, and they have all said that their current response rate is only slightly higher, but they just send out A LOT more mail than that, so obviously they get more leads.  One investor in Southern California who's been doing direct mail for years and years even said he's thinking about abandoning it for now and focusing entirely on pay-per-click. 

Out of the mail we have sent in about a two year period, we have gotten one fix-and-flip, one JV with a seller, and my wife has gotten two listings. IMHO, it takes either a lot of money or a lot of time to find consistent leads.

@Alvin Frierson

My wife and i joined the program about two years ago. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have specific questions.  I've heard the programs and costs have changed quite a bit since i joined, so i may not know what your program will offer specifically, but i can definitely talk about mine.  In general terms, i will say like anything in life, you will get out of it what you put into it.  If you are expecting that deals will be handed to you just by joining, you may be in a for a surprise.  If you want to learn specific strategies and the steps to implement them, then it may be worth your while.  My humble opinion is that people should not sign up for the program (or any program) if they cannot afford it.  In my short time in real estate, I've already seen too many people stretch themselves too thin on the hope that real estate is their road to financial freedom. i think everyone should do some self analysis and confirm that they are willing to put in the time and effort before starting any program.