Georgia Mortgage FHA

So many gurus, so little time. And, when the gurus are finished with you … so little money!

Much of my time as a lender/broker is spent correcting incorrect “education” and downsizing myths about the real estate investing world. There are, indeed, many extremely knowledgeable investor “gurus” sharing the news but there are also a great many who really don’t need to be giving advice. Just yesterday, in fact, I listened to a blog of so called professionals who not only gave a little incorrect information but everything they said about a 1031 Exchange was incorrect. Not just a little bit … totally.

So, what are we to do? I have a simple formula.

Before you attend a seminar, buy a book or CD, listen to a radio show, answer these questions about the author/speaker:

1) How many investment deals have you personally done in your life and then again in the last 24 months?
2) What is your business and education background?
3) Are you currently actively involved in some field of real estate whether it be finance, sales, management, or legal?

If they answer less than 20 to question number one – forget them.
If they say “author”, “reporter”, “lecturer” to question number two – forget them.
If they answer “no” to question number three discount everything they say.

There is a particularly “snotty” girl on the radio on Sunday afternoons in my town. She’s usually on opposite the Brave’s or Falcon’s games so she doesn’t really have much of an audience but she does have listeners. Every episode of her show contains deeply incorrect information about the real estate business. Finally I emailed her asking about her background. She, of course, did not reply. So I did a little research and here’s what I found:

“_________________ is an award-winning nationally-syndicated journalist who writes about real estate.”

Something I just now discovered that I find actually humorous is a change to her website. On a prior date when I was researching there was a glowing, self-written no doubt, biography of this person. In it she gloated on her education and her writing awards. It’s no longer there. No link, no explanation … just missing.

The bottom line, after my digression, is that here we have a so-called “expert” in the real estate field giving advice and commentary when she has no education and no practical experience in the field!

The worst part? She’s not abnormal. When I see an advertisement for a seminar, boot camp, workshop or what have you about real estate or real estate investing and the keynote speaker is one of my clients or disciples I know the truth. I do indeed have clients who have done high dollar seminars after just doing one or two investment deals.

DON’T BUY BAD INFORMATION! Being misinformed is much worse that being uninformed. Call the keynote and ask them the questions above. They may have great charisma and terrific speaking skills. They may have even read a thousand books and attended a hundred seminars. But if they haven’t personally experienced at least 20 deals and at least 10 in the last two years you’re not going to be getting cutting edge information from someone who knows from experience what the truth is.

— admin