Re: Yes, he is. - Posted by JohnBoy
Posted by JohnBoy on June 23, 2002 at 17:52:22:
Ron,
I would hardly call buying real estate using conventional methods being VERY experienced in “creative real estate” investing. In fact, he seems to have a problem with anything that pertains to “creative real estate” investing methods.
Also, some of his guru ratings are based solely on assumptions and some are assumptions based on never reading the guru’s material. Only what he thinks he knows about the guru and/or the methods they write about. I’m sure some of his ratings are accurate and that is what really is a shame! If he is biased on some of the guru’s ratings then how does the reading know which ratings to believe? If your ratings are way off and biased on some then how can you trust anything he has to say about any of them?
Here’s an example of what Reed states:
“Scott Britton - University of Real Estate Letter—I do not recommend
According to a promotional mailing I received, he sells a video in which you learn how to “make $10,000 in 98 days.” $10,000 divided by 98 = $102.04 per day or $102.04 divided by eight hours = $12.76 per hour. According to my local want ads, you can make that much in jobs like the following: driver, chauffeur, customer service, child care site supervisor, carpet cleaner. Britton’s way of making the $12.76 a hour is rehabbing buildings that you must buy, rehab, then sell to get your money. There is far less risk and effort in a customer-service job.”
Now Ron, anyone that has seen this tape and anyone that knows anything about Scott will know that everything Reed says here is not true! Not even close! So WHY would he exaggerate something like this? The only thing I can see why he would just make this up the way he did is solely to promote the sale of his own products! I can’t see any other logical reason for him to exaggerate this the way he did.
No where did this video show or imply that Scott spent 8 hours per day for 98 days working on this property where he made $10k. In fact, Scott PAID OTHER PEOPLE to do all the work! What Scott did was come across the deal, negotiated buying the deal, hired contractors to do the work, over seen the work, and resold the property making a $10k profit! So how much actual time did SCOTT actually spend on this deal??? No where NEAR 784 hours that Reed would like his readers to believe! So is that what Scott really made on this deal, $12.76 per hour??? Not even close! So how many actual hours could someone expect to spend on a deal like this where they contract out all the work to be done? Lets give a GENEROUS estimate and say Scott actually spent a total of 50 hours of his own time on this deal. That would be $200 per hour that Scott would have made without doing any of the labor involved. Can you get a customer service job that pays $200 per hour as Reed exaggerates you could??? Of course not!
Robert Allen he does not recommend? His opinions are way off. Allen’s book is one of the all time classics and a must read for anyone getting into real estate. And Allen’s personal problems with his BK has nothing to with this and from my understanding his BK had nothing to do with his real estate investing. It was over other ventures other than real estate investing that lead to that.
Bronchick he disagrees on over the due-on-sale clause in which he writes his opinions on that in my opinion are plain bogus.
He does not recommend Claude Diamond because he stated only 50% of tenants that L/O end up not exercising the option. That is bogus! Considering MOST tenants on a L/O are high risk tenants to begin with, I would say if 50% do end up exercising their options that that is a very high success rate!
Next he talks about Diamond stating:
“On 6/29/00, Bill Mencarow told he he had just learned that Diamond bought the number one ranking for the key words ?Paper Source? at goto.com. Apparently this means that anyone who searches for ?Paper Source? in goto.com?s search engine will get a list with Diamond at the top. Mencarow takes umbrage at this because he has been publishing the newsletter PaperSource and putting on the Paper Source convention for many years. A common law called ?unfair competition? may be pertinent. ?Unfair competition? is defined in Black?s Law Dictionary in part as ??endeavoring to substitute one?s own?products in the markets for those of another, having an established reputation and extensive sale, by means of imitating?the name, title,?the imitation being carried far enough to mislead the general public or deceive an unwary purchaser, and yet not amounting to an absolute counterfeit or to the infringement of a trademark or trade name. Singer Mfg. Co. v. June Mfg. Co., 163 US 169?”
Really? Is this not simular to what Reed does to draw people to his site when people type Carleton Sheets into search engines??? How is Reed any better???
Bill Gatten he does not recommend. Reed seems to appoint himself as an authority of Gatten’s material yet he apparently has never read it!
Reed states:
“Someone sent me an email Gatten uses to promote his $139 PACTrust ?workshop.? My first reaction is that people dumb enough to fall for this stuff, deserve to. Here?s a sample. ??you can own?unlimited ?income-producing?real estate?without cash or credit?in as little as a few days.? How can people read a sentence like that then call me and ask if I recommend this program? If you think there is any chance that statement is true, a guardian should be appointed to handle your affairs.”
First of all, notice how Reed only takes out the parts he likes to suit his needs to criticize this? Second, its obvious Reed has NO experience in “creative real estate” because if he had he would know that you CAN own real estate income producing real estate without cash or credit in as little as a few days! Those of us that have done it and do it everyday know better! So Reeds “assumption” based on his own inexperience in this matter is false!
Joe Kaiser he does not recommend. Another joke of Reed’s bogus opinions! First of all, it is well known that Kaiser’s L/O course is written for investors that already understand lease options. It is an advanced course on techniques to find more lease option deals. It is not a course written for the layman looking to get started with investing in lease options. He attacks the way Kaiser uses a lot of white space in his course. It is not the amount of space that is used to write a course that is important, but only the quality of the content that is important. I see nothing wrong with using extra white space to make it easier for the reader to read. That does not take away from the quality of the content.
Reed goes on to state:
“Kaiser then published a critique of my article which I did not believe described what I said accurately.”
This is just too funny!!! REED has room to talk about anyone not accurately describing what he said??? LOL He’s the grand master of not accurately describing what others have said!!!
Ron LeGrand he does not recommend. His review is a joke! I will agree $9k is a lot of money for a seminar, but at the same time LeGrand has and still does turn out a LOT of very successful students that become very successful in real estate investing. You cannot just ignore those facts! And of the 5-6 years that I have been reading this site I have yet to see anyone post here claiming they were ripped off by LeGrand or feel they did not get what they paid for. Would I pay that kind of money for a seminar? Not me! But that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with what he teaches. He has many of successful students doing very well in real estate and you just can’t argue with success!
Then of course there is his ridiculous opinions about this site!
There are some gurus he does not recommend that I would agree with. However, since there are gurus that I do know about and based on their materials that I have read where I see Reed has either taken his opinions out of context, and/or exaggerated what he says, and/or just out right falsely stated…how could anyone listen to anything he has to say about anyone unless you yourself have read the material of that guru and know whether what Reed says is accurate or not??? You can’t!
I can go on and on about this but I see no point since this has been beat to death many times already.
So in my opinion the bottom line is this.
Reed is just his own self appointed critic. A lot of his opinions are biased and formed without ever reading the gurus materials. He has his own products to sell which he constantly tries to push onto his readers by claiming his stuff will tell you the real way to invest where the other gurus are telling you illegal and unethical ways to invest.
There is no way any person in their right mind could ever believe anything he has to say about any of the gurus he gives opinions on UNLESS you the reader have personally reviewed that gurus material first hand.
So if you are looking for excuses NOT to get into this business then go read his site and suck up all the exaggerated BS he has to say and give yourself an excuse to fail!
If you want to find excuses to get into this business and succeed with this then stay away from his site and ignore anything he has to say because his negative, over exaggerated BS will only get in your way. Instead surround yourself with the people that are doing it and that are successful doing it.
It’s your choice!