Ryan,
Let me preface my comments with this: I have owned several businesses over 25 years. I have been through a bankruptcy, and other financial hardships. What I know is that with the other businesses i usually took courses to learn about the business. I would pay anywhere from a few hundred bucks to nearly 100k on one. Each time, I learned that what I do with the education (the necessary work), not matter what the education was, turned out to be the only determining factor in my success in that business. The education showed me the details on the business, but I actually had to DO something.
Additionally for me was having someone to hold me accountable and coach me until I got my mind around the important data points and was able to duplicate the actions easily. A mentor was critical for me from my 25 years of business and professional experience.
Additionally, I can echo Ryan's advice from above based on my experience with another business where I sold, yes sold, a 30k program to fitness trainers. It was always odd to me that when someone would pay 30k for a business (and then a lot more for space and equipment) and then not take our advice and implement our strategies that were proven successful over many years. Just odd.
Why do people do that. I have a friend that thinks that it is because for our entire schooling from kindergarten through college sharing work was called cheating and had negative consequences. But in the business world that is collaboration and is expected. Makes sense to me.
That said I was looking for what to do next in business and liked real estate as an investment. I made a great deal of money on the sale of my family home when I went through a divorce and it struck me that could be a good business.
I did a bunch of research, like I always do. I read reviews. I asked question. I discovered that there are lots of classes on real estate. Some were inexpensive some were quite pricey.
Fate would have it, that I received a notice about the Rich Dad intro course and knew that it would be a sales tool for Rich Dad to offer whatever other classes they offered. More research...this time on Rich Dad. I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly reviews (like yours). I decided to try the course and see where it went. I took Greg's course in Philadelphia.
I was clearly right about it being a sales tool for the upper level education. That said, I learned real estate basics on several issues like foreclosure sales, multiple offer methods, yes, mobile homes, and a host of other data. There were obvious pitches for a pitch coming later. I expected that. For me it was not about how many classes or how often or even what ones, it was about what do i need to do to have that mentor to hold me accountable and help me put into action all that i learned in the classes. So for me the decision was easy. I choose the package you did, with the mentor.
I took 2 of 4 the classes i purchased, Core, and Rehab, (and another free one a class about rehabbing and rentals.) But I had my mentor. That was the critical part for my son and I. Ron (the mentor) brought all the forms and worksheet. He gave us a ton of information. He helped us build a real estate business plan ( I always had a business plan in my other business as a critical step), and then we went out and looked at properties, wrote offers and waited. He helped us find money sources and much more.
When he left we felt like we understood how to analyze a property for condition and scope of work needed, how to financially analyze a deal with the spreadsheets he gave us, how to write offers, and how to deal with the world of real estate. It was a fantastic 3 days. He then worked with us on several properties, advising and mentoring on the process as we moved along through our first deals. To this day if I need advice he will take my call and help me. It is a cool relationship.
For our first deal, we ended up purchasing a foreclosed property from an auction website. We realized that there was extra land with that house that was already subdivided and our real estate attorney easily was able to put that on a separate deed and we sold that with in a few months of purchase for 85k. That was almost our purchase price on the whole deal. We finished the house and sold that for 320k and in entirety had a profit of nearly 130k on that deal. I would say I made back that initial investment several fold on one deal. Now that deal was unusual, but I learned so much doing it.
Ron (the mentor) was critical in helping me think through the details of the deal and the actions we needed to take to maximize profits.
My son and I formed an LLC and have done 5 deals through that LLC in about 22 months. We make at least 35 to 40k on a deal and have decided that out of the profit on each deal we will purchase 1-2 rentals in a low income area where the people need good quality housing at a reasonable price, and then we purchase another flip and have some profit to the partners as well.
So, my analysis is that my return on investment has been at least 10 times what I spend and i am only 2 years into this.
I have to agree with Chris Pickrell's point that a few will take what they learn at a class and apply it, and most will not. I will add to that that there are even a few who will regret the purchase and never implement what they learned or never even take the classes, and ask for a refund and get angry and tell horrible victim based stories...that is a small percentage of those working with Greg from what I can tell.
Of course I have not completed all my courses. I don't really care as my ROI was excellent because of what I DID after taking the classes, not because of the promise of Greg, or my mentor or anyone else.
May I suggest that you actually apply yourself instead of being a victim. It is much more rewarding and a great deal less work.
Please let me know if you need any more help.
Best regards.
Dave
