Every time there is a real estate seminar in town things go nuts around here. Investors crawl out of the wood work like a smashed ant hill. The mortgage brokers go nuts with applications from would be future Gazillionaires. We get inundated with calls and emails: "can I get 100% financing on that?" or, "will the seller pay me to take their property?" Most certainly we get slammed with requests for more information on investment type properties, it never fails. Now here comes "Rich Dad" and before him it was Ozzie Juroc, Raymond Arron and so on.
If there ever was an underside to the real estate industry beyond those that participate in mortgage fraud, it would be the investor sharks. They lurk waiting for someone who's desperate for a piece of the action and strike just when they are willing to open their cheque book to some guru to help make it happen.
I'm not saying that the guys themselves who run the seminars are crooks. It's what happens to people who go to these seminars and then fan out into the market to make their empire. One of lowest practices I can conceive of is the old "I'm the expert and I just happen to have some excellent properties for sale" routine. If I could vommit on my own blog I would this practice is so repulsive. If the properties were that great, why are they selling them?
Anyway, inevitably people fall for this and many other scams. So here we go again as Rich Dad rolls into town.
DISCLAIMER: I have not attended a Rich Dad seminar and do not attribute the practices above to his seminars. Never the less the fall out is the same. All I know about Rich Dad I learned from CBC.
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2010/road_to_rich_dad/main.html
Spot on. A fool and their money…
Maybe one of these fools will take my underwater mortgage… Hmm…
Agree 100%. Some of these companies seem to be very tightly affiliated with developers when you look behind the scenes. If ever there was a conflict of interest, biased advice, false advertising whatever you want to call it, this is it.
I used to work with one of the Rich Dad Team years ago. Darren Weeks operates the Fast Track to Cash Flow seminars. He was an amazing salesperson with excellent people skills. Back when I knew Darren he worked full time in sales and invested in real estate on the side by assuming mortgages and renting out the properties to pay the mortgages. Under the old Alberta mortgage rules, it was possible for Darren to legally carry multiple mortgages without qualifying. When Darren started to buy and rent out properties, homes in Edmonton were well under $100,000. There were also many opportunities in the early 90′s to assume mortgages with little or no cash down and still collect enough rent to cover the mortgage payment. Darren took some risks and leveraged himself and it paid off big time. The boom of 05-07 allowed him to flip his holdings for huge profits. But now that it’s 2010, the easy money in real estate has been made and many investors have lost money since 07. Also, the odds of finding a good property with an non qualifying assumable mortgage in 2010 are zero. Darren is an excellent example of a personal success story in real estate. In my opinion, investing in real estate as part of a sound REIT or as private equity partner in a solid development project would definitely be better than trying to do it alone. If Darren had a stake in a project, I’d definitely do my due diligence and research it as an investment, but I wouldn’t buy the book!
You nailed it Sheldon. When they start selling their secrets it is because the secrets no longer work and they need a new way to make money.
Nobody has ever been able to find Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad”. And of course Kiyosaki won’t “reveal” who he is.
I suspect he doesn’t exist, and was just made up for the book.
The CBC Marketplace show on him pretty much exposes him for what he is.
In many cases the secrets never worked in the first place…at chapters I can find 50 books on how to win the lottery, but how many of those authors have actually won the lottery? If I had the secrets to winning lotteries I wouldn’t be writing a book – too much effort – I’d be winning my money.
The best real estate scam I’ve seen (in Edmonton) is a company sells lists of pre foreclosure houses and sends people to the owners with a script to purchase the house. The reality is pre-foreclosures are easily found in public records and that most people in pre-foreclosure are actually upside down equity wise anyway so there are few bargains to be found.
The greatest secret on how to win the Lottery. Shhh don’t tell anyone else.
Buy a lottery ticket.
That will be $29.99… Thanks you very much.
what! no specials on used tar sand. rats missed the boat again
A friend, desperate to get into the real estate game (with no available cash, no less) asked me to accompany her to a Fast Track seminar by Darren Weeks, in Edmonton,last year.
Let me tell you, the packed audience did not look flush with money ready to invest. Only a handful had any business experience (according to a show of hands, and not everybody owned their current home (with or without mortgage).
Darren and Friends did a lot of fast talking, for way too long.
And, as usual, no “secrets” were revealed, that evening. For those secrets to be divulged, we were told we had to come back for a “free lunch”, the next day.
Needless to say, my friend was disappointed, and I was ready to vomit (Sheldon and I must suffer from the same illness).
Since then, Fast Track keeps flooding our mailbox with information related to some Charitable Donation scheme that’s probably illegal….
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2010/grow_op_cover_up/main.html
Erica Johnson and contractor Mike Holmes reveal a new twist on home inspectors: more Canadians are buying houses that were formerly used as marijuana grow-ops.
I found this to be useful information on grow operations.
I’m a long time reader and fan of the “Edmonton Real Estate Blog”. I understand the negative point of view that some take on these weekend seminars, and the CBC’s Market Place show on Rich Dad. I also definitely understand the extra nuisance calls that these weekend seminars generate for realtors, brokers, etc.
I will offer the point of view that promotes the Rich Dad Education and weekend seminars and any other real estate education.
Most people who attend these courses think that if they take a weekend course they will automatically strike it rich and become millionaires by the end of the weekend. This is not true, however, if you apply the education Rich Dad provides you, money can be made and lots of it over time. I have spent a pretty penny paying for my real estate investing education, but the education has paid off for itself many times over because I’ve actually applied the knowledge and education I learned from Rich Dad education.
Think of it this way. A person wouldn’t go to U of A and get a degree in Engineering and come out expecting to become and CEO of an oil company 1 day after. You gotta work at it.
It all comes down to those who choose to apply what knowledge they learn. You can be successful from Rich Dad courses and any other real estate investment seminar or education.
P.S. I am a private investor and I have no affiliation with “Rich Dad” or get any commissions or anything like that from writing this.