This was pitch night for the Rich Dad Poor Dad three day seminar, and I decided to take my 17 year old daughter to the free “basic training class.”
Of all the wealth building schemes, I think Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad makes the most sense. Speaking as one who has done several “no money down” deals, one of which has yielded me value of over $20,000,000 in less than 10 years, I believe his simple principles are generally valid.
I counted 100 attendees. The pitchman was friendly, and the presentation was relatively low key. I believe he had at least two shills that I could identify but that’s expected for the Get Rich Quick business. The overriding principles of achieving cash flow in Kiyosaki’s world are:
- Opportunity
- Knowledge
- Action
The seminar, known as the “Rich Dad Poor Dad Academy” is a 3-day affair, and the price (discounted 50% of course for tonight) was $495. He compared it to Robert Allen’s $1,500 and Trump’s $3000. The Academy is purported to 1) present methods of discovering opportunity with reference books and guides, and 2) teach some procedures for buying properties for no money down. Nothing unique here. Carleton Sheets is yawning.
He showed a video example of a young couple who bought a house for no money down, and re-sold it 6 weeks later for a gross profit of about $26,800. Here are the numbers, by memory:
- Asking Price $240,000
- Purchase Price $210,00
- Flip Sales Price $258,000
- Gross Profit $48,000
The couple reportedly obtained a hard money loan (individual investor loan) for $210,000. Now, let’s look at the cost of goods sold beyond the purchase price:
-$ 4,200 loan fees (2 pts)
-$9,800Upgrades/remodel
-$1,200 closing costs
Reported net profit $26,800
So, this previously pennyless, young couple living off the husband’s pizza delivery income put $26,800 in their pocket in 6 weeks?
I don’t think so
The fallacy is the hard money loan. NO ONE is going to loan her essentially 95%-100% market value for 2 pts, and I guess that was an interest free loan for 6 weeks? I am always in the private loan business for good circumstances, and for that deal I probably would have nailed her for 5-10 pts. and half the deal. She had to have a partner, being inexperienced and with no cash or collateral. My guess is they got thrown $5,000, maybe even $10,000, which is fine for them, but not $26,000 to them.
I had a little problem with the Rich Dad pitchman’s next topic, himself. Probably LDS like so many of the no money down guru crowd, he said he worked for Robert G. Allen in college, then started flipping houses. That makes sense. But then, he told of us his latest “coup,” an area development agreement for “the ENTIRE states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont” for a Mexican QSR franchise! His reasoning was that the cost was $450,000 per store, and that Qboda and Chipotle both do about $1,450,000 in volume, and that at 1xgross he would be making$1,000,000 per store and that was a “no brainer.”
My ass it’s a no-brainer! I have been a strip mall developer for 30 years and trust me, NO restaurant is a NO BRAINER! 1x gross valuation is accurate, but only on stabilized volumes and it’s highly unlikely that those stores will do those volumes in those areas, even if they are run perfectly. So, the limited credibility he had went out the casa with that one!
Finally, I was watching for conversions. I would guess it was pretty strong, possibly 25%. Do the math. 25 x $500 = $12,500 x 4 seminars = $50,000 gross for our area and that’s a very generous estimate.
For the past three days, you could not turn on the radio or TV without hearing a spot for these seminars, nor could you find a local website without RICH DAD plastered all over it. They used affiliate marketing on the net, and I’m speculating that the deal with Kiyosaki was licensing, not a vertically owned enterprise. It looks like Russ Whitney is involved as well, and he’s got quite a history. If interested in this no money down, get rich quick real estate seminar topic, here’s some recommended reading. I’m guessing there was an easy $25,000 in promotion. That leaves $25,000 left to pay the bills.
$25,000 less
- License fees
- Pitchman’s cut
- Support staff
- Hotel meeting room; 4 seminars, 2 hours each, plus a 3 day meeting (includes a lunch)
- Materials
My guess is that if the promoters netted $10,000 from this deal they’d be lucky. As repetition is the engine of creating an annuity, one could argue that repeated twenty times a year there’s $200,000 in profit, and that’s probably the case, BUT….wouldn’t it be less risky and much less work to flip eight or ten houses, at $25,000 profit each??
You make the call. Is the Rich Dad Poor Dad 3 day seminar worth $500? Maybe, for some, it could be. I’m a huge proponent of education and training, and have spent that sum and more many times for legitimate seminars and conferences and have never felt like I was ripped. As a frequent speaker at regional and national shopping center seminars and conventions, I want to offer supreme value for the attendees’ time and money and I think we do. If you have no background whatsoever in real estate dealings, it’s probably not a bad deal, and at least Kiyosaki hasn’t gone bankrupt (to my knowledge) like so many of the “mega successful” gurus.
In reality, the “secret” to making money in real estate is no secret at all.
It’s exactly what Kiyosaki says in his original book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad: Opportunity, Knowledge, and Action. Where most people fail is not implementing the 3rd step–not taking action.
Subscribe to LocalCenters.com ,consider attending quality real estate seminars and conferences, and you’ll learn everything you need to know, and then some. Read the articles, ask your questions, even request articles on specific topics, and soon your ability to move forward with your retail or development goals will become greater than 95% of those who don’t invest their time as you are. While we don’t address residential properties to a great degree, the principles are the same as in commercial real estate.
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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey people, I am a sophomore in high school in Knoxville, Tennessee and I will be attending this 3-day seminar with my dad this Friday, Saturday, Sunday. As I expected the seminar to be great, after reading the comments above I found it kind of flattering to some people who said that it would be a rip off paying K’s amount of money for more advanced training. Well as I high school student, I foresee the world that the people who are limited in as a high schooler. Way before in my life I thought I wanted to be an orthodontist or medical field area job. I had completely ignored the idea of businesses and real estate. I thought it was boring. After reading the first series “Rich Dad Poor Dad” it had changed the paradigm concept in my brain thought that was very enticing to me. I really before hand thought of being someone in the medical field like an orthodontist would be fun but not as money making, but to real estate I had found the ideas of becoming rich instantly. I had got more interested and had continued to read the series of rich dad poor dad and read the book “why you want to be rich” by both the biggest real estate developer and investor Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. I had definitly got more interested and that is why I had attended that seminar that held in my city, which lead to me to attend the $495 3-day seminar with my dad. My dad is also an open minded person, he seeks new ideas to live life too which is great having him with me for support on this subject.
I also besides real estate investing thought of other ways to make “big” money. Investing into the “Iraqi Dinar” is a big one also. I have recently bought dinar for a relatively cheap price. The dinar that I bought now would be worth 3X the American Dollar about 10-20 years ago. Since then, it fluctuated to a real cheap price $1USD=1206IQD currently. But researches say that the dinar will probably not reach that mark again but it will definitely someday reach up to the 1/1 mark.
Well that is all I got to say for right now. I will post again how the experience goes during this 3-day seminar this friday and please leave comments for me and questions! Thanks!
D Hu
I attended today and loved it! I decided not to attend or buy the 3 day seminar, but the free seminar had great info. I went to look for industrious, hardworking partners wanting to help me with global expansion. I met great people and we will see. If you know anyone that wants to work hard for 1-3 years in order to have finanacial and time freedom , let me know. The best! But, I loved today! I love RK!!!
I initially discovered the RDPD phenomenon about 6 months ago when I found a copy of the first book and read it. The book was inspiring for me for several reasons but I immediately recognized it’s double use as an advertising tool for other products, notably the Cashflow games. I continued to explore by reading most of the other published works by Kiyosaki and his RDPD collaborators including “Why we want you
to be rich” written with Donald Trump. After reading several of the books I ordered Cashflow 101 and admit that it is a challenging and very fun board game to play – where as I despise the boredom of Monopoly, Cashflow delivers on it’s promise of excitement coupled with education benefits.
Several weeks ago I attended a free 3 hour training expecting a sales pitch but curious to hear about the RDPD education and also anxious to get some idea of the real effort involved in applying the RDPD principals and strategies. The entire 3 hours is a hard sales pitch, but it was enjoyable enough to sit through. Needless to say I ponied up the 490 dollars to attend the 3 day training understanding that I knew very little about real estate and knew that I needed a look behind the curtain so to speak. After signing up and charging the 490 dollar “doodad” I was presented with my “free” guide to real estate investing and the 3 step guide to financial freedom book, as well as some other reading and CD / DVD products. The materials are well presented and very informative, but nothing ground breaking for anyone with personal finance savvy, and nothing that can’t be substituted for at a local book store.
Before attending the 3 day seminar I set a limit for myself, knowing that it too would involve a salespitch, that I would not impulsively purchase any thing else if the cost was ridiculous or the product was not measurably tangible from the outset.
Having just attended the 3 day event I must say the introductory level training was worth every penny of my 490 dollars with my only caveat that I have only a very basic understanding of Real Estate. For someone at my level the course was most likely valuable. But a real estate agent that was at the same seminar admitted to me openly that they already knew everything we had learned up to that point of the program. The age and experience level of the class varied and nobody seemed overtly unsatisfied.
One who attends this 3 day seminar should expect a broad stroke introduction to several real estate investing subjects, including financing methods, wholesale tactics, foreclosure process, due diligence, etc… However it is emphasized over and over that to be successful one needs intensive training in each of these subjects. This of course is where the sales pitch for more advanced training comes in. In addition to the training that you do receive, and I re-iterate that you do receive good training at this seminar, you get to play Cashflow 101, meet new people with similar interests, and receive more literature and information to study on your own.
Anyone who has read the RDPD books is very aware of and familiar with the concept of the “rich” mentality vs the “poor and middle class” one. During the sales pitches, which are a continuous part of the 3 days, this “mentality” becomes a tactic. This is where I began to detach from the experience and hastily put down my glass of “kool-aid”. I felt it was a tad insulting to use the validity of the RDPD message in it’s inspiring context as a subtle manipulation to get one to do such things as consider credit cards “investor card” and then attempt to convince one that investing in education is the only way to succeed. Not that this is inaccurate, but once you are presented with the pricetag of the advanced training the ploy becomes blatantly obvious. The advanced training packages, consisting of more weekend seminars, vary from 2 to 8 training events for prices ranging from 9K to 65K. I am not exaggerating when I say that the speaker / salesman suggested that people could take money out of their retirement savings to “invest” in these classes. It quickly becomes evident that it is ridiculous to expect to learn the complex advanced subjects at a 2 or 3 day weekend seminar with a price tag in the neighborhood of 3K to 5K each. In addition to the audacity of the inflated prices the speaker made several claims regarding the company owner (which is not Robert Kiyosaki) as well as herself which were easily refuted with some online research. It is worth mentioning that on the first day the class was encouraged not to use Google to look up unreliable internet information. My unreliable Google search netted a NY Times article about the Wealth Intelligence Acadamey’s owner – Russ Whitney – which was far from an unreliable Google search. There was other information and claims that I disproved and/or could not substantiate that I wont waste time on – by now you should get the point.
As I had agreed I walked away at the end of the three days without “investing” in my future – But I did it with no credit card balances and still have my life savings in it’s account where it belongs. The WIA / RDPD crowd may now accuse me of “thinking on the wrong side of the quadrant”… however I was confident that I could afford to pass up their generous opportunity because while I was using the internet to look for unreliable information I found several alternative sources for RE investing classes, mentors, and opportunities with much more realistic price tags. One of these is the Non-Profit organization the NREIA – I am not currently affiliated – but I do recommend one look at the website if they are interested in RE investing in any capacity.
I’ll part by saying that my overall experience was very positive and that I am pleased with the service I received for my 3 day introductory seminar. I came away with a wealth of information about Real Estate and investing that I didn’t know existed, and with the motivation and plan to seek out more training. The experience was life enhancing and horizon expanding.
I have taken Rich Dads lessons to heart and recognize their value in learning how to think progressively about financial security. But I learned some lessons from my Poor Mother that are worth mentioning here – and that is that some elbow grease is what it takes to get things done. AKA – apply yourself. If you can afford to pay premium prices and feel that a few days will get you where you want to be then the Russ Whitney / Kiyosaki team is a good choice. If your realistic, use some sense and shop around for something less manipulative and more reasonable.
Best of luck.
rbt thanks for th einfo, i will be attending the 3 day class next week and i am grateful for your review.
D Hu
March 26th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
“Well that is all I got to say for right now. I will post again how the experience goes during this 3-day seminar this friday and please leave comments for me and questions! Thanks!
D Hu”
So?….I am waiting….so you were scammed too? There is my question…
re: Rbt’s comments
Your review was very timely in the scheme of things for me. Like you, I happened onto the RDPD book and branched out into a few of the other books including the one in collabo w/ Trump. They were inspiring in that they all had slightly contrarian views to money (think: most parents teach their kids to study hard so they can get a good job, but still end up living paycheck to paycheck), and offered a glimpse, albeit rather fuzzy, into a way out.
I was slightly slower in my approach, in that last year, I attended a free seminar, knowing full well that I would hear a sales pitch, but going nonetheless, committed not to be sold. However, the RDPD company stayed in touch with me, and when the seminar came around again last night, I went again still in the minds-set of just refreshing those inspriational ideas. This time, I pulled the trigger. I’m not sure if it was all the gimmicks (think, the “take action” part, where someone runs up to get the dvd, or the heavy dose of contrarian rhetoric, think “how many of you learned to disect a frog in school”?), but, by the time the pitchman, Mr. Paul Figurski, got to the “go sign up for class” part, I was in. Fortunately, this is also when my need for confirmation instinct kicked in, so I straightaway began doing some background checks on both the seminars and the people involved. I tried to keep an open-mind while reading, knowing that different people respond to things differently, yet, repeatedly, the evidence was overwhelming that the material being taught, while potentially useful, was in the wrong hands: teaching folks how to increase their credit limits so they can purchase more classes is not in their best interest. The kicker as you might say, was the NYTimes article that you described, which was easily found when googling Russ Whitney, and cited devastating examples of zombi-behavior in those that attended the classes. That is when I realized that there is a reason, I was immediately uneasy with the whole thing: learning and decision making are naturally events that take time to mature – so, based on the tactics they employed at the seminar, which utilized hyped up emotion/energy and banked on the illusion of scarcity (limited class spots), the instructors were espousing group-think, which actually more frequently leads to being personally lost and not self-digestion, which can lead to intellectual independence.
To conclude, I don’t part with any ill-will towards RDPD, b/c I do believe that their concepts if aptly applied, can lead to succesful results. Where they begin misleading you, is the process. Kiyosaki, I believe is an ideas/dreams peddler. And, like the many who have come before him as well as the others, certain to follow, they prey on the mutually shared dreams as well as areas of discontent (being dis-satisfied with your job, lack of family time, etc) to exploit the natural human desire of wanting to think that one is better than others.
The million dollar question that others have asked and that I will repeat in parting is: how much of their respective fortunes, b/t kiyosaki and whitney have been from real estate and how much of it is from these get rich seminar empires? The answer to that should tell you all you need to know about where you should place your dreams…(you may need to be the next one in line to “teach” others how to get rich)
I tried to get a refund! I had to cancell because of a death of my poor dad.I called the academy,faxed the app.,my statement,and info.I believe I should at lease get an email!I know I got hosed!!
Did the 500 dollar 3 day course. Got my moneys worth with a few nuggets but in all you only learn enought in 3 days (thats 3 very long days) to become dangours. Its a big sales pitch to spend 12-65 thousand more dollars in advanced education.
Your not allowed to ask questions during this 3 day class. you can ask the 2 other teachers in the back of the class before after and during breaks.
but 500 bucks… I made it all back on the nuggets he taught us.
but no way could i spend 12k on more.
Yeah college cost double that to get a “Job” but unless RDPD starts up a student loan program… well you get my point.
I am an investor that started with RDPD. I love his books but I don’t like their education program. I thought they were the only source out there but there are so many other good ones where you can get a better value for your information. The one thing I disliked most about the RDPD 3 day seminar was that the company is like a traveling circus. I couldn’t attend the 3 day seminar the week I signed up and they told me it wouldn’t be a problem for me to attend another session. Well, the next session was a week or month later…but in another city. The next year they came back into my city but once again my schedule didn’t allow me to attend. I kept waiting for the traveling circus to come back into my town to attend. Then once you join…your on your own. Sorry, no one from RDPD is there to hold your hand as you try to educate yourself about investing like they say will.
My boyfriend and I attended two days of the RD seminar on stock trading in NYC Aug 2009. Although we did learn some potentially valuable information it was overpriced and I feel they are con artists and it is a big scam. I will say that it did make me feel motivated to do some of the things that I want to do financially. But I was already at this point when we signed up for the seminar. So this was not a total loss, but only because I recognized that this is a scam and what to learn from it. I’m not advocating going to ANY RD seminars. Hopefully we will be able to figure out what information we learned will be valuable to us.
The course instructor spent much of the time trying to bully, insult and sway us into signing up for and paying ridiculous amounts of money for advanced classes($10,000-70,000). And all of this has to be done on the last day in order to get a better rate… which is already way too much money for a 3 day seminar… !!!! Just a drop in the bucket compared to the money you will make with RD “Education” and mentoring. If they are so sure of this, something they keep disclaiming throughout the course and in their literature… why not defer the tuition until we make the money to pay them????
I googled Kyosaki/scam before we went to the free seminar but found nothing… too bad.
Our seminar instructor, Scott Stewart, claimed to be a *very successful* trader, but I could find nothing about him online. He did share a lot of knowledge about trades and trading strategies, his own and the kyosaki system… as well as about his own finances… but due to the crazy stuff(like telling us to increase our credit limits on credit cards, max out our credit and deduct vacations as board meetings in our proposed private trading corporations) who knows what is sound and what is true…??? He also belittled and insulted people who are nøt financially successful and who have previous trading experience, telling 3 traders who attended that they would never be able to be successful with K’s system because of their preconceived notions. I think that much of the information he shared can be found online for free, such as the turtle traders rules which he said they teach in the advanced courses. He said that if we wouldn’t invest $3000 in our financial future( the “tuition” for one of the advanced courses after tax deductions from our “proposed trading corporations”…I’m not sure how he arrived at this number) then we didn’t deserve to be millionaires… lol !!!!!
And tell me why would a successful trader need or want to teach for RichDad? According to Scott, because he loves to teach and share his knowledge and because RK pays him big bucks. But teaching does not include insults and pressure to shell out your money. This would almost be funny due to Kyosaki’s view on education systems which I agree with in part, if it weren’t so reprehensible. Presumably the credit card limit increase was to help pay for the ridiculous price of these 3 day seminars which would make us into millionaires and more? It is important to note that the course prices and access to courses were determined by the size of your portfolio/mutual fund/pension/bank account.
I spoke with a father and son who lived near us… the father has spent $30,000 on real estate courses… I don’t know if he made any profit yet but he said he was investing with the big wigs now and had met K briefly I think. Another woman had lost her money, paid off her debt and was now recovering… I hope that she doesn’t give RD any more money. We were encouraged to change tables and network, especially if we were doing advanced classes… if we didn’t take the advances classes then we would “NEVER” be traders… lol.
My boyfriend and I never did the encouraged private sessions with the advisors, I suspect these are probably designed to see how much money you have, but we did speak with Jose, who said that he had not made a lot of money trading, and that if he had he would be on an island somewhere not here giving a seminar… lol !!! I overheard Scott telling one of the advisors on day two that someone was causing trouble, maybe one of the traders, by telling everyone what to do and could they figure out how to deal with that…NOT A GOOD SIGN !!!!
From what I’ve now researched, I learned that Kyosaki has apparently never made any money in real estate or trading, but in selling books and ware and promotional talks. I also found that Whitney Information Network Inc., one of the companies associated with RichDad “Education” made, according to their financial statements/reports in 2008 $39 million in gross profits. They advise against buying their stock as RD is having a problem with them and may stop association with them and they’re being investigated by the SEC and DOJ. K is associated in some way with Amway and the Morman Church had a warning article about RichDad Seminars… pot calling the kettle black!!!
Bottom line is… these people want your money, they want lots of it, and they’re using time honored sleezy and ugly tactics such as psychological warfare to try and get it… they don’t give a rats ass about your financial future or welfare. BEWARE !!!!
I paid $495 to go to the RDPD seminar in Ontario, CA from 092209-092409. Is there anyone can give me an idea before i attend this training session on what I should be looking for or looking out for. Is this just another real estate sales gimnick or is there a true opportunity to make some good honest money without ripping people off? I do have a conscience and I would never want to take advantage of anyone trying to make an honest living or seeking knowledge and understanding.
Thank You!!
i went to that free seminar and that is was a total scam, things paul said he would cover he never did and then when he pitched the 3 day school he some how just disapeared out the back door never to come back and go over some material he said he would,,
Thanks for the infor, I’m takeing the 3 day
class next weekend
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2010/road_to_rich_dad/main.html
This report says it all
Although I do not agree with all you’re saying, I must confess I do enjoy your method of writing.
Hi all, I have read rdpd books which I have to admit they are inspring, which is a great thing. I too paid the 500 for the 3 day seminar there were four of us total. so we spent $1000.00.
I have no real estate background so i feel the money i personally paid 250 cause we all split the cost. i think it was worth it.
The turn off for us was when tehy spent from 3 in the afternoon till 7pm trying to sell you the 12k to 67k plans was discouraging. We felt that they took too long to some how convinse us about it. Was a dead giveaway for me and my guest.
another turn off was today toward the end of the day while we got to play cash flow when the speaker came up to us and asked why we hadnt gone up and we said we didnt have that kind of money how in less than a second he left our table without looking back and when leaving shaking his hand trying to say that i enjoyed what i learned he didnt even to bother looking me in the face when he said great. I guess i should of committed. NOT.
I wish everyone luck and wealth for any to pursue their hopes and dreams. for i will try to do it myself. Peace out to all…
I just finished a 2 hour seminar of “rich dad poor dad” and bought into the sales pitch to attend the 3 day extensive “rich dad academy”. I just got home and read all of these reviews, what a waste of money it is. I have no desire to attend it anymore, and am trying to find a way out. Does anyone know how I would cancel? An excuse that would be valid to cancel and get my money back? The academy isn’t until August, and I just paid a couple hours ago, so i’m wondering if there’s anything I can do. Any suggestions would be great, thanks!
This is my $500 worth of information. I hope no more people who see this would waste their $500 anymore.
Rich Dad 3 day training Seminar (Tigrent)
Date: August 13, 2010 to August 15, 2010
Instructor: Gregory S. Downing
Staff: Marianne$Tom$Lavone
Topics list:
1. process of assignment of contract 2. Pre-foreclosure 3. Lease option and how to go around 1031 exchange 4. Create finance–use property management strategy to build business safely. 5. commercial properties 6. multiple streams of income through Real estate: need to master minimum 7 of them in 14 months and 14 of them in 3 years. 7. asset protection and tax relief 8. mobile homes 9. internet resources
Business Plan we had to write during training:
I will always do exactly what I say I will do. I will take action in my life now. I will always be on time this weekend. I will participate at level 10 all weekend. I will master the art of learning how to follow the money. I will dedicate a minimum 14 hours a week to my real estate investment business. If I can’t I must. If I can I will. Failure is not an option. I will take minimum 4 months vacation every year. I will become completely debt free 12 months from today. I must do one per month every month for 24 months deals. I must develop relationships with portfolio lenders (community banks). I must develop database consisting of 350 potential buyers, sellers and tenants. I must master the art of taking the action quickly. I must follow up on all offers within 24 hours after delivered. I must develop a quality rehabbing database (45 in 45 days). I must generate $50,000 capitol by Sunday morning. I must tonight write my real estate investment company mission statement. I must develop relationships with tax professionals (in next 30 days).
Power Team: 1. Mentor (millionaire wealth build mentor) 2. 3x community banks 3. 3x Mortgage brokers 4. realtor (must be a millionaire wealth builder) 5. property manager 6. Accountant 7. real estate attorney
Strategies to convince us to sign up for advanced courses:
1. Today 60% of college graduates move back to their parents. college education average costs more than 35,000 dollars a year in tuition. Thus the 35,000 dollar training package of 7 courses which will guarantee you make money is a bargain.
2. if you want to make money, you have to committed to your financial education. We are here to help people who has financial trouble by buying pre-foreclosure houses at 70% to 80% of fair market value. And we are educating them and helping them to make more money on their house by persuading them to do seller financing. We are helping people who cannot afford buying a house now to buy their dream house through lease option. We are making contributions to today’s economy.
3. People’s fear prevents them from getting out of rat race and being financially independent. They need positive thinking from right brain.
4. Future learning for successful business: 1. land development 2. Creative Finance 3. Foreclosure 4. short sale (1-4 are earned money) 5. lease option (passive income) 6. asset protection (when make over a million dollar) 7. property management portfolio (1-7 are the safest and quickest way of making money and must to learn) 8. mobile home park 9. commercial 10 Tax liens and Deeds (to park your cash)
5. By the end of the second day of seminar, the price tags of the advanced training are reviewed. Based on the above, the package 3 “wealth acceleration certificate” are highly recommended which includes Rich Investor, seven additional training program, personal Mentor program (3days), software, 2 refreshers up to 2 years, additional software activation code (recurring fee applicable). The full price is $55,404, onsite price is $34,990 with a savings of $20,414. The lowest package is” Special Interest Certificate” including rich Investor, One additional training program, software and 1 refresher up to 2 years priced at $9,990 on-site. The highest package is “Financial Freedom Certificate” priced at $65,990. All packages are money back guarantee in writing.
Information new to me:
1. Need to work with non-conventional lenders also called portfolio lenders who will not sell your loan. Typically conventional lenders sell loans after 3-4 payments.
2. Only buy properties in hot spot which has appreciation rate of 5% or more. Rich Dad has a software can use zip code map to track medium house price, appreciation rate and every day price change. It also link to a database which has down loaded all documents of filing of foreclosure in each county court house.
3. Renting a single family house is the least profitable (about 1.5% PCF ); multiunit building is 3% PCF; and mobile home park is 10% PCF.
4. How to find a good realtor: 1. Call for No. 1 realtor in the company 2. must like to work with investors 3. know zip code map 4. know average price by neighborhood 5. know appreciation rate
5. How to make conversation with people to establish database:” Hi, my name is xxx. I represent Colorado Investment Group. We are investors. We are going to invest in the next two years of 8 to 10 million dollars worth of real estate here in this area. If you or anyone you know ever has a question about real estate don’t hesitate to give us a call.” Create profile of people you met: 1. hobbies 2. family 3. make 30 day contact, then 90 day contact. Document last conversation. Relate new call to old one. Call 9 times in 2 years.
6. How to work with foreclosures: Find pre-foreclosure through county court house and send letters to the owners. You will get 30% response.
7. Elements of contract: 1. subject to partner approval 2. subject to inspection 3. subject to financing 4. make 2 offers/house in writing: request seller financing at 80% fair market value; pay cash and close quickly at 70% fair market value 5. 75% business is from database or by word of mouth 6. Make offers to 100 houses per month
8. Whole Sale house: find house, make contract, assign to buyer (rehabbing) –quick money, only own the house for a few seconds
9. Cost of setting up your Real Estate Business: $50,000 1. business set up by accountant who knows real estate $750 2. equipment: computer, modem, cell phone, transportation 3. Ads, sales letters 1st deal may take 90 days 4. advanced training, mentors 5. capitol to fund business
10. How to raise $50,000 from credit cards: consumer cards are bad debt but don’t cancel them which will lower credit score –freeze them. Investment cards are the ones with cash advance, balance transfer, convenient check. Call credit card companies to increase credit limits. If it is below $10k ask for $10k; if it is over $10K, then ask for double the amount but less than $50k. You can open as many as possible new credit cards in 14 days window to be count as one for credit score. You can say your house hold income to be $50K a month since you can get that cash for the current month through the business. Before the first billing cycle ends, you can transfer your balance to another credit card or other cards. Then do the same for the next month. By paying off the previous cards, your credit score will be increased since you are proved to be a responsible person. You and call credit card company to eliminate transaction fees. If your credit score is over 650 you can get instant credit from 1-800-600-blue and go to web creditwww.com.
11. six tools needed to start your business: 1. mentor 2. financial education 3. money 4. tools of pro: software 5. attitude 6. desire
12. “Buyer to be given the right of 1st refusal to buy note of mortgage under the same terms and conditions that could have accepted by a third party.” This is the statement in the contract of seller financing example. For a house which fair market value was $220,000, the counter offer was $185,000 with seller financing. The amount of $1262.03/month paid to owner. Then in the mean time, a lease option was done based on 0.75 to 1% fair market value which is $1650 to $2200/month. Taxes and insurance are paid by investor. The lease option is based on future value increased by 3% a year. The investor asks the seller to act as a bank and at interest rate of 8% the seller will make over $440k in 30 years. The seller did not believe anyone will stay in a house for 30 years. The investor gave the seller Mr. Smith another calculation which showed in 5 years, he could get $250,322.26 instead $185,000 at present. Mr. Smith agreed with the term and signed contract with the above statement. Later Mr. Smith decided to sell the mortgage to another mortgage company. And the mortgage company asked for a discount for $163,000. Because the above statement, Mr. Smith has to sell the discount mortgage to the investor at $163,000. Because of both lease option and the seller financing, the investor make a lot of money in short time. It is all in the name of helping people who has financial trouble. When the house was not paid off, a sandwich lease option is used to sell with wrapped mortgage. A contract for deed does not protect buyer. It was the above statement did it.
Conclusion:
“The Rich Dad Education 3 Day seminar” is a scam. It is a sales pitch for the pricy advanced training courses. There is some useful information but mostly misleading material. Lease option and Seller Financing are the dirtiest tricks to rip off people in the name of helping them.
I am in Dallas right now just finished day number 1 of the 3 day seminar. What a long day and long sales pitch!! My wife and I only paid $199 “special offer” during the free intro seminar so we decided to give it a try. For the past month I have been obsessing and researched studied all of these methods already and I consider myself somewhat knowledgable in the subject of real estate. We are both the youngest in the group of about 100, we are both 22 years old and today I am very happy because the bank accepted our 65k offer on an Reo “Real estate owned bank owned” property! My plan is to rehab and with my estimates will be 3-4k. The after repair value is 103k. Well enough rambling about that back to the seminar. About 70 percent of the time has been spent on the sales pitch and building up the belief in peoples minds that without them they wont succeed in this business. All of this talk about maxing out credit cards and pension plans is TRUE THEY DO ADVISE YOU TO DO THIS!! I had read about this and was prepared for it but oh my God I feel terrible for the people that actually have spent their last 200 bucks to attend the seminar and will be led into buying 10k-70k classes! They will WARN YOU to not bring any WASTE MATERIAL to the table you are sitting at meaning to not be negative and they mean it. We only live 45 min away in Fort Worth and decided to stay at a hotel
to make things easier. Tomorrow in day 2 we should be expecting to play the cashflow game because today for some reason fedex/ups or whoever is delivering the board games could not deliver them on time….makes no sense at all but oh well i hear it is fun and this is the only thing i am looking forward to do in the seminar. Another thing is that usually i am very good at figuring people out and their energy/intentions i got it from my mom well.. I sensed something fishy with one of these so called “coaches” and I asked her as she was passing by our table some basic knowledge about rehabs and flipping homes. Lol, she immediately corrected me saying that is not the proper term LOLOL everyone uses it even HUD. I asked her basic knowledge questions and she changed the conversation EVERY SINGLE TIME. After this I became very afraid i dont know why but I got this negative sense and it hurt me to think that these people could rip these people off! Ive learned more from reading a 50 dollar ebook than in a full day and most likely the whole 3 days. Well its late folks and I need to sleep to get up and go to day number 2. If i remember I will be back to inform you all of how it went. Good Luck
Is there anyone out there who cancelled their registration BEFORE the 3-day training? If so, did you return the books given at the ‘free’ 2-hour seminar? If you didn’t return the books, did they provide you with a full refund of the seminar anyway?
Hey Mark Went,
Thanks so much for the link to cbc. That’s incredible! Everyone thinking about attending the 3 day event and especially the advanced seminar needs to LOOK at the report. I just finished the 3rd day today 11/14/10 and actually believed it was worth the $200. It was held in Garden Grove, California. Our instructor Lee Escobar was quite charismatic and convincing. I probably would have shelled out the $10k – $65k for the advanced seminar if I didn’t have a wife and two kids. Yes, even if it meant to put it on your credit cards! “Since you could pay it back in one year!” I was moved by Robert’s book Prophecy and knew I had to do “something else” than my job to attain financial freedom. They throw Robert’s name around quite frequently and to learn that he actually is quite angry about the company and can’t get out of his “contract” is very disturbing. Because it was his book that made me want to attend the seminar! I feel very sad for those people that are/have spent the extraordinary fees to continue learning in the advanced seminars.
Great post and information on here. I will be attending my 3 day seminar in about 2 weeks I will do a write up after explaining my experience.
I just attended the free seminar and signed up for the 3-day one as well. I have read all of kiyosaki’s books. I also understand that he made the majority of his money from the books etc. not in real estate. It onlt cost $199.00 so i fgure what the heck. I absolutely will not be spending money to buy the more expensive courses.
I went to a seminar this weekend and left on the 3rd day, before it was over. They shared what I thought were amazing techniques to make money in RE using OPM [other people's money], which is really appealing. I’m sure it can work and would actually like to have given it a try, but there are things that turned me off.
First is the pressure to sign up NOW! because if you don’t you’re NEVER going to make it out of the rat race; there’s no allowance for outside researching and consulting with others so you can make an informed decision. They require a ton of $ to take their advanced training, so you would think they should want people who go in with their eyes wide open, but no! they appear to mainly want your money and your soul.
The 2nd thing has to do with one of their ‘business plan’ statements which is ‘I will always do what I say I will do.’ When I explained that I had promised my wife that I would make no unilateral decision to commit to anything [she was out of town, so did not participate in the seminar], it seemed to be okay with the trainer that I ignore that commitment and just go ahead and do whatever I felt like doing. That’s when I realized that their making money off of me was more important than doing the right thing. They’re big on emphasizing doing the ‘right thing’ and not taking unfair advantage of people in unfortunate situations [which I agree with]. So why be inconsistent in the application of doing the right thing? It’s indicative to me of more serious issues. So, no thanks Robert.
Hey Mark, thanks, and well said. The reason the trainer didn’t respond is that he probably wasn’t given the answer beforehand. Good for you for involving your wife. That’s the right thing to do. Unless, you just HAVE to have a $1,000 .45 pistol that’s calling your name;-)
I thoroughly agree with everything you said. I decided to attend only the first day of the 3-day seminar since it became obvious that they’re making us pay just to market their advanced coaching program and boost their enrollment. Enough is enough!
Hey folks, I just attended a 2 day basic 3-day RDPD training class and as a Commercial Broker, I can tell you there are a few nuggets to obtain from this Selling (oh, I mean training), but many senerios are inaccurate.Do yourself a favor and research the training and reviews. To good to be true,,,maybe! That being said, Real Estate is a very good place to invest with the understanding that it is a process and not a “get rich quick” vehicle! Ed
I recently attended the RDPD seminar in Phoenix (3/25/11-3/27/11). I was a guest of my girlfriend, who had bought the 3-day seminar a year ago, before we got together. I am an attorney and prior to that used to be a realtor, so I was interested in what they had to say about investing in real estate.
From the start, I felt like I was at a timeshare presentation, meaning that I was being told how great everything was and how much I needed this program to change my life, and was waiting to hear how much it was going to cost me. The presenter (Lee Escobar) was a very polished snake-oil salesman who spent a lot of time giving us his background, complete with pictures of him in uniform (army chaplain, apparently), his mom (army major), his Bentley, etc., to establish his credibility. He also spent a lot of time talking about how well-regulated the RD company was by the SEC, and how we had to trust what they were telling us because all of it had been verified and survived scrutiny by various attorneys, the SEC, the IRS, and the Easter Bunny. Sorry, sport. Enron was a publicly traded company with SEC oversight, remember? So is Fannie Mae. So is Freddie Mac. The government couldn’t make a quarter if it managed a laundromat, so telling me to rely on government oversight really isn’t reassuring whatsoever.
Lee set out early ground rules, the most important appearing to be that nobody gets to ask any questions during the class. He graciously offered to stay after class (which ended at 7) to answer any individual questions, but the general impression I got was that he wasn’t going to be challenged by us “left-sided thinkers”. That doesn’t sit well with me, being told to effectively “sit down, shut up & don’t ask any questions because we know what’s good for you.” After all, if I knew what was good for me, I’d already be rich, right? Hard to argue with that logic, eh? And if someone actually did have the gall to ask a question, he would refuse to answer the question and talk to them in a condescending manner, letting them know that they were wasting everyone’s time.
Most of the day was spent with the class acting like a bunch of barking seals, dutifully raising their hands whenever Lee ended some leading question with “let me see your hands.” (“How many people want to be rich? Let me see your hands.”) It happened so often, that in just one 3-hour stretch, he said it 137 times. But people kept responding. (Oh yeah!) So he kept it up, making sure to chastise the class when he didn’t see enough hands. I told my girlfriend I was going to have 2 lb. wrist weights made and sell them outside RD seminars for $10 each and market it as the “LMSYH” workout (Let Me See Your Hands).
At the end of day one, he told everyone to go home, call their credit card companies, and try and get the limits on their cards raised, ostensibly because they would need capital for deals they were going to start making. Interestingly, early in day 2, he informed everyone that it was the people with bad credit who had an “advantage” in real estate investing, because they already were in a position financially that the “good credit” people would be soon enough – where they would have to “engineer” deals using no cash and no credit.
Well, if the credit card exercise wasn’t for deals, then what was it for?
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long for that answer either. By the end of day 2, we had the prices of the advanced training. Mr. Escobar told us how much he would have loved to give us all of the information he had on engineering deals, but it just wasn’t practical in the 3-day timeframe, so we all needed to have this advanced training and mentoring. The packages he recommended were between $25k and $35k. Um… Thanks anyway.
I didn’t bother going back for day 3. I read a number of reviews online and watched an expose of the RD seminars done by a Canadian reporter. The things outlined in that youtube video were eerily similar to what we were hearing. In fact, if you watch the report, pay close attention to the mobile home park portion, because Lee spent a ton of time telling us how he was making a half-million on a mobile home park and that we should be buying trailers at $5,000 apiece and renting them to generate positive cash flow each month.
To be fair, there was some good information presented, although I wouldn’t recommend anyone actually go out and act on it. At best, it was incomplete and might land you in some financial distress if you attempted some of the deals they were advocating. At worst, it might land you in legal trouble. I’d STRONGLY advise talking to some “left-sided thinking” attorney before you ran out and began using some of their one-size-fits-all contracts, because if you’re ever hauled into court on a breach of contract action, you’re going to be presenting your case to a “left-thinking” judge and a bunch of “left-thinking” jurors who might not appreciate your zeal for making shady deals just so you can buy more $5000 mobile homes.
One final note. Lee made a big deal about being “financially free” and being able to do “what he wants, when he wants, where he wants, any time he wants, with no negative financial consequences” and you couldn’t ever get to that point if you were an employee of a company. Then, he proceeded to tell us how he used to be both a teacher and a mentor in the advanced RD training, but had to give that up because he spent all but 30 days away from his home one year and RD told him he had to choose one or the other. He chose to be a mentor, but RD told him that he was going to have to teach instead. So Lee is no longer a mentor. Doesn’t sound like he has the freedom to do “what he wants, when he wants,” does it? Also sounds a heck of a lot like being an employee.
Bottom line: Do your homework. Ask questions. Don’t be talked down to.
Their should be laws against this form of B.S If any of these groups can promise you a rose garden make them bring it if not give the people their money back. they give you a arm full of books and CDs and send you on your way with the luster of the seminar wearing off with every page you read. They should take a person by the hand and make sure they at least get one deal done.
I couldn’t agree more with Chuck! I just attended the 2nd day here in Arlington, TX. The whole thing goes as Chuck says. Couples: be aware, make sure you both are in the same boat because Lee Escobar is going to tell you that if one of you doesn’t support the other, just leave him/her, don’t even try to convince him/her, they are not smart enough. Very odd!
Also, Lee is extremely charismatic, but don’t let that fact robbed you more than $10,000 (for one “advanced” course). However, to be fair, the seminar had some good information (borderline unethical, I think) but half of the time was a huge sales pitch. I don’t really want to go tomorrow Sunday, but husband is still intrigue…so I better go with him, I wouldn’t like to come back home with $40,0000 debt under his shoulder…..
I’m going to be hanging out at the hotel where they are having seminars this weekend. I refuse to pay $300 for info that is available in a book or online for FREE. Fyi Kiyosaki does say that network marketing is going to be the sales model of the future.
http://www.rmq.energy526.com
This seminar was a huge rip-off with very outdated information. They try to lure you in to spend more money on the more expensive packages to invest in your ”education”. The highest level package was, if my memory serves me correctly between $30-50,000! Another one of their sneakly little tactics they do on the first night is to go home, call your credit card company and try to get a limt increase, disguised as a way to secure more funding for
”real estate deals”. What their real motive is, to get you to finance all their other extremely expensive ”courses” they offer using your credit cards if you are low on funds.
They are quite friendly and personable in the beginning, however once they realize you’re not taking the bait their demeanor turns cold as ice. Just know what you’re getting yourself into!
The last thing I heard walking out of this seminar as fast as I could was the insults from the two “sign-up here” thugs in suits slinging the “…back to the J-O-B…” guilt trip for not signing up for the once-in-a-lifetime, special price if you act now, 3-day education from top investors. Puleeze! And they call this low-class crap … education?
While the principles (dirty tricks) presented in the seminar were probably legal, they seem to take full advantage of the system and prey on the naive and under-educated. And while you can take the approach that this is their problem, it’s still morally wrong and only feeds the desperate get-rich-quick cancer that has been plaguing our lazy society for years.
While I am glad I went to the seminar and picked up a couple of pointers, but not the whole story, my gut told me it was a refresher course in motivation and sales tactics that making a quick buck on the backs of the unfortunate and naive will always be wrong. Thanks, but no thanks.
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