Are Real Estate Guru's Worth the Money?

I was talking to a friend a while back about Real Estate investing. My friend and I talk about the subject of business quite a bit. We talk about success, the companies and the people that have become successful in business. When the subject of Real Estate investing came up, it lit a spark in my mind, a reminder of my first real experience in the field of Real Estate investing.

A few years ago, around 1998, I was up late at night and came across an infomercial on how to get rich in Real Estate. The infomercial said that a fellow named Russ Whitney was giving a free seminar that weekend in the next town over, Tacoma Washington. I had read a few books on Real Estate investing over the years and found the subject intriguing, but not to terribly exciting. I asked my wife if she was interested in attending, she was, so we went to Russ Whitney's real estate seminar that weekend.

The seminar was the first I had ever attended that had so many people in attendance. It was like what I would expect of an Amway convention with the amount of people it attracted and the excitement of the crowd. Now that I think about it, it was like an old fashioned revival, only with the music being played on CD's instead of live singers. Instead of preaching about an almighty God, they preached about the almighty dollar and how to get as much of the almighty dollar as you could by investing in Real Estate.

The seminar was somewhat informative, but they (Russ Whitney was not there, his disciples were) let you know that the real "meat and potatoes" could only be had by purchasing their tapes, books or attending live boot camp style classes. I believe the cost of a one week class was $1,500 and they "guaranteed" that you would come away with some very lucrative information if you attended these classes. While driving home I asked my wife what she thought of the seminar and she blurted "We need to go to the week long class and buy the tapes!" I'll have to tell you I was shocked. I had bought one of his books. But personally, I figured, what could they possibly tell me that I either did not already know or was not in the book?

So, we attended the seminar. Mind you I entered the situation with skepticism, but the classes turned out to be pretty informative. We had five days, forty hours of training on how to become a real estate investor and on how to improve and obtain credit. At the end of the five days, fully satisfied that I had made my wife happy by attending, I went back to my normal life. My wife in the mean time kept watching for good deals in real estate. We were renting a really nice ranch style house at the time and had previously owned a house in Colorado and had a few credit problems.

After looking at a few homes and not finding any really good deals I lost interest altogether. One day, a few months later, the wife found a home she thought we should go look at. It seemed to meet the criteria of a good investment, so we made an offer. Long story short, we used Russ Whitney's techniques, purchased our home and got a really great deal. The wife and I eventually divorced, I moved to Ohio and remarried. Since part of the terms I negotiated was a !0 year note, the ex wife has now paid off her home and is now secure in knowing that she no longer has that debt to worry about. Also the house has doubled in value since we purchased it so it was really a good investment.

Neither of us has since become house flippers or bought rental property, but I would say the investment in Russ Whitney's course paid off. There are a lot of Real Estate gurus advertising on the Internet and TV these days. Are they all worth the money they charge? I don't know. I have a remodeling and construction business. A few years ago I was talking to a client that invests in Real Estate and rents it out. She told me that whenever a new "Real Estate Guru" comes along she will buy their material and check it out. Most of the time it is the same old thing, just packaged a little differently. Every once in a while a Real Estate program will have a new idea or some really good information that will make the money and time spent worth wile.