Get Rich Quick Real Estate Seminars: Are They a Scam?
You’ve probably seen commercials about them on TV, or seen advertisements on lampposts: seminars that promise to get you rich quick through real estate. Is there any reason to believe them? Are you foolish to pass up on what could be a once in a lifetime possibility?
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Frequently what happens at these seminars is this. Although you are free to visit, and they do teach you a few things, you are repeatedly pressured to sign up for more “specialized” courses that cost several thousand dollars. Insiders report that these specialized courses are simply used as a means to extract money from gullible investors. One insider even said these seminars are referred to as “dog and pony shows.”
At some of the seminars, attendees have various coloured dots placed on their name tags. Those with certain coloured tags are pegged as having a certain amount to invest, such as over $100,000 or less than $10,000. Who do you think gets the most attention?
Even if you manage to take away some real information from these seminars, there is no guarantee that anything you have heard is legal. That “get quick rich” scheme may simply be a form of fraud. And how can a national speaker even realistically tell you about every detail of real estate transactions, when so many of the laws governing real estate are local? Remember, if it’s such a great idea – why do you think everyone else isn’t doing it?
And don’t let branding from relatively legitimate sources, such as Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” fool you. The seminars with this branding are often run without his direct oversight, and Kiyosaki admitted to the CBC “there were problems with some of the tactics used in the workshops that bear his Rich Dad brand.”
If you want to make money in real estate, you will have to go the traditional route. You will either need to become a real estate agent, or you can hire a registered real estate agent of your own. Registered real estate agents are there to ensure you do not run afoul of the law, and to make sure you are getting the best deal on your property. And that is the best way to get rich through real estate.
Heleen Jacobsen
Broker of Record with InfoMarket Group GMAC Real Estate
www.infomarketgroup.com
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