I do PPC, but I had very little budget, and a specific farm area, I would find the local watering hole - the bbq joint, greasy spoon, or church.

Guru’s for money know this fact that so many people who have some money want to know NOW how to do this Real Estate thing and it’s just not that simple, but yet hundreds each day sign up for this type of teaching with little or no due diligence because they want it simple and spoon-fed to them.

You can't run your business constantly being spoon fed information from a guru.

Ah, Kingston ... we use to frequent a little restaurant/club owned by Zal Yanovsky (lead guitarist of Lovin' Spoonful) back in the '80s... called Chez Piggy, I believe.  

Wholesaler,fee taker,etc. whatever you call it if I am the listing broker for my client and you come with the little to no skin in the game you won't be locking up any of my client's properties.If the client demands it then fine but most of my clients are somewhat sophisticated.What I don't like is that in a wholesale transaction the seller doesn't know the STRENGTH or CAPABILITY of the end buyer with these wholesalers trying to lock something up and then leave unscathed if it falls apart.This reminds me years ago when I did residential short sales.I would get calls from sellers who was contacted by one of these wholesalers or a regular investor.They would take all the sellers financial docs and say they submitted to the bank for approval.I found out papers were never submitted or the package was incomplete.The investors never returned papers to the sellers and the buyers were gone "like a fart in the wind".I had to come in and do damage control to fix things.Another classic is the investor gets the seller to sign a quit claim deed and then disappears and now the seller can't sell if they wanted to.We had a saying when we first got licensed as an agent.The head broker said "you learned just enough to pass the test".Now comes the hard part of learning your skill with a proper mentor so you don't "practice on the public".Then he said "you know just enough to be dangerous"So I feel just like new agents some wholesalers cause massive damage out there.We have our contract where the seller allows assigning into a corporation the buyer owns,assigning to another buyer,or not assigning at all without written permission and review by the seller first.I think wholesalers should pay a very hefty fee if they can't perform.They won't do it again and they will think very hard about the purchase price and not over valuing before putting a property under contract.There are a lot of wannabe buyers out there.A broker saves the seller time weeding them out.Purchase price,terms,deal structure means little to nothing if the buyer has a low chance of performing.I don't have anything against people with no money trying to get a leg up.I wasn't born with a silver spoon and had to start out small.Just be realistic and do not try to do a deal you aren't qualified for or have the means of following through on.Partner with someone more knowledgable who can guide you away from mistakes and help you.To one posters comment about we are all in this for the money.I would DISAGREE that that's the only or sole reason.I enjoy real estate on many levels besides the monetary aspect of it.There are many things I could do for money and I wouldn't last long at them for the simple fact that besides the monetary aspect they do nothing for me.

What other rhetoric has the common man been spoon fed?

I'm down to 1/2 spoon maple syrup in my coffee/tea.  

Bottom line, the property manager wasn't nearly as aggressive with marketing the property as I was and I would expect you'll have the same problem with any realtor.Ultimately, I fired the property manager because not only were they not bringing in any rental leads but they weren't treating the leads that I spoon-fed them as I expected (returning calls, showing the property).

They do have a few membership options, some of which supposedly include bus tours, spoon feeding of deals, and multifamily mentoring.

I don't see people accepting a virtual world for reality and make a buy decision, at least for mommy and daddy.As to brokerage operations, I don't like the set up, the hype sold to new agents, the acceptance of anyone who can fog a mirror and pass a simple test that is spoon fed with a pool of test questions.