OK, that sounds like a good idea, my new question would be, has anyone uesd the package offered by the shortsalepro, primer, consulting or e-book, if so what is your opinion of it?
I purchased the ebook and although I found it informational the information was disorganized, generic, and was left with several expamples rather than how-to or an explanation.
Do not take me wrong here, I am happy. It only cost me $50 and thats less than 15 minutes talking with my attorney. I certainly learned something from the primer.
"Bump" just means that there have been no recent responses to the post, so the person is just trying to keep the post current in hopes of receiving some responses ("bumping it up", so to speak).
sorry about the confusion on my "bump" reply. I saw that no one had replied to the poster's topic, and I felt that it shouldn't get dropped off without a response. just trying to be courteous.
I bought the primer and I am a realtor that does 30 to 40 short sales a month in Utah we are # 1 in the nation for BK's
I felt I got my moneys worth but I also felt it was Unorganized
:-?
Pretty break-neck pace there at 30-40 short sales a month. Not really sure how you manage to pull that one off...how many people you have working on this? 5? 10?
So how many attempted short sales would you say get approved out of the 40 per month times every month you've been doing this?
Still trying to get some kind of feedback on the Dwan Twyford package, I checked the archives and could only find 1 posting on it, it was a positive one, there must be more investors out there who have used this, anyone?
Now I get it. This post is no different than the last two posts. A memeber can only ask about products that are supported by TCI. Is that fair. I wasn't even the one who asked the question but I think that is a clear example of a double standard. The shortsale primer is not the only tool on the market. Obviously people are going to ask questions because this is a place where there is a lot of short sale discussion. Where else should you go for advice on investing resources if it cannot be done here. Why was this post not removed?
I am not sure I fully understood the last post by homebuyer13, why would you want this post removed? My reasons for asking are genuine, I want to know if a product I am thinking of buying is any good, especially since it is a pretty expensive item.
I'm sorry for the miscommunication. I meant that the post regarding Mark Walter's was removed and it was from a person asking for similar feedback. I said that it must have been removed because TCI does not support that particular product. They removed that post but did not remove the post regarding the Short Sale Primer. I think your post is perfectly fine and all you are trying to do is get an honest opinion. All I'm saying is that there a several products on Short Sales available and we as members should have the right to inquire about all of them even if TCI does not make any money off of the rest. I have bought a few others that in my opinion are just as good if not better. That's all.
I am not a Moderator on Short Sales, however let me give you my take on what may have happended.
"Has anyone heard of or used Joe Guru's material and what was your take www.joeguru.com ?"
Now what does his web site have to do with whether you know about him or not? If you posted a website to Joe Guru this is advertising. Some course writers have their people post the above type of question, they have been caught many times for doing this.
Pretty easy to catch especially when it is a posters first post. Now did you or who ever had their post deleted post a url to a web site for a course wrtiter?
If you want to ask about someone then ask. Whether they have materials on this site or not has nothing to do with it, but if you are advertising (posting a url) for this person then the post is going to get deleted.
Well put, as I mentioned earlier it was not even my post I just found it odd that a post was removed for advertising a person's product that is not supported by TCI but if somone asks about the "Primer" it is not also considered advertising especially since they were basically the same posts. There are many different levels of investors on this site and although I understand your point some people may really want to know about a particular product that may or may not be available on this site. We all have spent our hard earned money on books and courses and all I'm saying is that if someone has a question about a particular product this forum could be a helpful resource in answering that question. Like you mentioned the culprits are easy to point out. I the above mentioned case I don't think that was the situation.
It was the situation because I saw the link and reported the post to a Moderator.
Another reason why the Moderators have a tough job, once you are put in the position of being a Moderator you will find that you pick up on posts that are against the rules more than if you are posting to ask questions or help someone.
Remember the Moderators here all started out as posters, they were not selected because of any special interests, albeit they have a course or don't have a course.
If you have beef that you have been unfairly treated as sometimes you will see posted from a member and a Moderator says PM me the post for review, which Rajwarrior did in a post to another member of TCI on another thread, but I don't think he has recieved anything as yet, wonder why?
John $Cash$ Locke
PS: As an after thought, Joel who owns this site and is the main man, has had some of his posts deleted by me. He understood why and feels his is part of this community just like everyone else and is not immune when it comes to what you can say in a post. [ Edited by JohnLocke on Date 04/10/2004 ]
Hi everyone, sorry about the fuss I seem to have caused, as I stated previously, my questions were genuine, I wanted to know if I would be spending my hard earned money on good products, that was all, who better to ask than fellow investors who may have used the product. I am not affiliated with any "gurus" or trying to plug or sell anything, once apoligies for any problems that this posting has caused.
This is my review of Dwan's (& Sharon's) SS course.
The very first time I ever heard about Short Sales was from Dwan and Sharon at an REI conference my partner and I attended. It was a fairly quick presentation, one that's basically designed to get people excited about how "easy" it is to make money doing REI. Of course as most of you know, it takes a heck of a lot more than 120 minutes of story telling and triumphant displays of copies of $30,000 checks that past students had made on their first deal, to master the art of Short Selling. Knowing this, the ladies had workbooks and teaching Cds available for purchase. And because we were there at the event and as such “very special people”, we could get these materials for $800 off the original price. Anyway, I was the skeptic, but my partner was inflamed with the idea of SSs. (Indiana has huge numbers of people going into foreclosure.) We purchased the workbooks (Foreclosure Fortunes in Your Own Backyard & Short Sale Secrets) and the CDs for some $800, and that also included registration for the two of us to a 2-day long Short Sale Boot Camp of our choosing. (Different locations and times are available for convenience)
Both workbooks are not what I would call masterpieces of design and readability. The idea of turning every other page in the workbook into lined notepaper so that one can presumably take notes, may have had merit if the workbook content actually corresponded with the content of the CDS in any recognizable manner (it did not) or with the content of the Boot Camp (it did not); perhaps this design was for the purpose of making the workbooks appear weightier…
The content was decent. Not great, but decent. The Foreclosure Fortunes workbook was filled with information; everything ranging from which legal structure to use for your business, finding the right people to be on your team, how to dress when you go door to door, where to find distressed sellers, some information on legal forms and lingo and other basics of getting your REI business off the ground. Great information for a complete beginner. Not so great for someone who already has an idea or two.
Same with Short Sale Secrets. Good information, but there simply wasn’t enough of it and what there was didn’t go very deeply. Again, great for a beginner as an overview of what SSs are about, but incomplete if you want to go forward with your first deal with confidence.
Also, at the initial conference, Dwan and Sharon spoke at length about wholesaling the properties as a way to make their money. You would think that there would be information or step-by-step explanations about topics like Assignment of Contract, double closings, simultaneous closings, seasoning issues, etc. Nope. Nada. When we finally attended the Boot Camp, we discovered that they had conveniently created a completely separate course on Wholesaling. And for another $400 it could be all ours. Sigh. We passed.
I know that from the tone of my post, most of you may see this as a negative review. It is not.
We learned a lot from Dwan and Sharon, but not as much as I had hoped considering the investment. We learned enough to try and put a deal together, but not enough to prevent us from making all kinds of mistakes and over-looking all kinds of important details.
The materials are great as a starter. They would give someone with absolutely no knowledge or understanding of what it takes to create and run a successful REI business focusing on preforeclosures a really great foundation. If before completing this course, you had questions, but didn’t know what they were, after reading the materials and listening to the Cds you will have twice as many questions and most of them, if you paid attention, will be intelligent. So that’s a positive!
Sadly, as with many REI courses, more questions are created than answered. Realistically, no course out there can answer every question that comes up. That’s why websites like this one are so invaluable. The money I spent to register here and peruse the various forums is the best money spent once you have the basics down.
Couple of other notes about the course:
- The legal paperwork is not state specific, so if you want to protect yourself and do things right, you really should run any of the paperwork you plan on using by your lawyer BEFORE you use it.
- The Cds were better than the workbooks because they contained all kinds of little useful nuggets that went past the basics. Listening to the Cds over and over is helpful as every time something new can be gleaned.
- Both Dwan and Sharon know their stuff. As far as I know, they (and their husbands) are all active RE investors and practice what they preach.
Couple of notes on the 2-day Boot Camp:
- If it wasn’t included in the price of the course materials – I would have thought it a waste of time. Dwan’s a talker and looooooooves to tell stories. That’s great if you’re there to get motivated or excited; when you’re just hungry for information, it’s downright annoying.
- Dwan studiously avoided getting into any details about Wholesaling. This was frustrating because we came to the Boot Camp with most of our questions specifically about this area. The Wholesaling course was a new product and we were not aware that it would be offered separately – so maybe false expectations on our part.
- Dwan’s husband was the other speaker at this Boot Camp. Lovely guy, very intelligent, great salesman, has his own course about using NLP to increase your sales and get the results you want. This is great material and I think there’s something to be said for NLP, but I felt like he was taking time away from what I thought I was really there for – the nuts & bolts of SSs. Naturally, at the end, he pitched his coursework and his own Boot Camp. I had hoped that spending $800 would have absolved us from the sales pitches at least in part. There was just too much of that going on compared to the information that I actually found useful.
- There was a session on working with people in Bankruptcy and an overall exploration of how a BK works and how one can use the knowledge of the BK process to one’s advantage when working with a Loss Mit. rep. Great information there.
- Overall, I took about 4 pages of notes over a period of around 14 hours. Not impressive. I had expected a lot more “meat”. I was really hungry for information and the Boot Camp did very little to satisfy.
In the final analysis, I have to wonder if a less expensive course could give a newbie the same information. Certainly the stuff on setting up legal structures, putting a team together, marketing and looking for motivated sellers is available elsewhere and sometimes free of charge. That was not worth $800.
What I was looking for and hoping to find is real-life scenarios with several possible and well-detailed solutions/exit strategies. Also I wanted a lot more information about the legal side of things. My responsibilities, the seller’s rights, the bank’s rights. Also, more information about different types of loans and how PMI affects the ability to short sell. Also, maybe a run down of the most popular “controversies” that investors are constantly debating on forums such as this: Should I take the deed before I close with the bank? Should I record it? Should I tell the bank I have it? Should I keep it to myself? Should I bring a notary to the seller’s house to sign paperwork because it’s more expedient or should I allow them to handle it as a means of checking their motivation and because if they take me to court, they won’t be able to argue that I coerced them into signing? What if the seller changes his mind? What to do if they suddenly want more money? Do I walk or do I cave? So, so many questions!! And 90% of them were not addressed in the workbooks, or the Cds or the Boot Camp. At least not in a way to create a complete picture.
I’m in the middle of three short sales right now. It’s exciting and terrifying because the more I have learned about doing SSs, the more I realize how little I really know and understand. Would I be doing this right now if I had not utilized Dwan’s materials? Probably not. But in retrospect, had I known about TCI when I first got into REI, and had I taken the time to read all the articles and all the posts, I probably could have saved myself $800. Hindsight is a beautiful thing!
Well, that’s my piece. Sorry it’s so long winded. For myself, I prefer a lengthy explanation because it feels more complete. Feel free to ask questions if any of my ramblings appear incoherent.
"I have to wonder if a less expensive course could give a newbie the same information"
Yes, I think forums like this are much less expensive (many of them even FREE) and they will give you the same information plus much MUCH more as I'm sure you're already aware. What I do is I go through old posts here and on other websites, copy & paste what I need onto Word, modify and scale down the font size, and compile my own 'ebook' for myself. As far as taking classes I stick to the much less expensive ones at my local community/city college, these classes I feel are also much better because they're often spread out over several weeks or months. I can't seem to ever remember anything after leaving a "boot camp", plus it's just very difficult to learn specific details in such a short period of time. I need to hear things repeatedly in order for it to stick with me, which is why I advocate city college.
I believe there are ALOT of people out there making money off of other people by selling them ideas ON how to make money. And alot of them have very limited experience on what they're teaching, which is why they can be extremely vague at times. Some of these people, you ask them specific questions about their actual real world experiences regarding a particular situation and they will dance around your question, not really give you a clear answer, perhaps even change the subject, and sometimes even become angry at you and tell you- you need to just go out there and find out for yourself. It doesn't make sense to me but o well.
I've talked to many people over the phone I've met in chatrooms and message forums like this (as well as in person at real estate clubs) that have given me precise 'real world' information for FREE about all sorts of real estate topics and these people weren't trying to sell me anything- just being a humanitarian I guess.. It always amazes me that there really are some very successful people in real estate willing to lend a hand to a little guy like myself just because they want to be helpful and aren't trying to sell me anything. I guess If I was a big time investor I would do the same for others.
Needless to say I'm not a fan of the multi-hundred OR thousand dollar real estate bootcamps, I just go to the bootcamp's free "intro" seminars, get all the info and take all the notes I can then leave and gather the rest of the puzzle elsewhere on the cheap..
I'm glad that someone else addressed this situation. I have spoken with many other short sale investors who agree with you. I have completed successful short sales without the help of an expensive seminars or courses. It really hurts my stomach to know that people are paying hundreds and thousands of dollars to learn how to do short sales. I was introduced to short sales by two people, both who was more than happy to teach me what they knew free of charge. After I started doing them on my own I realized that they could not hold my hand through every deal so I took it upon myself to purchase some affordable information to guide me and to also use as a reference when a problem came up that I could not solve on my own. To this day these two people still help me and I have have been able to be a mentor to two other people who are in similar situations that I was in not too long ago. I have suggested Making Money with SS's and the Cashflow Institute's e-book several times because I can vouch for these based on my own personal experience. Depending on what a person is looking for I always recommend one or the other or both since they are both under $40. There is no subsitute for real life experience so my strongest advice has always been to jump in and learn as you go. A simple book or guide will help you gain the knowledge and confidence that you need to make money doing short sales. Trust me that is all you need.
Since the purchase (of the updated, soft cover version) includes an hour of E-Consulting... why not ask what that is like, too.
No matter what, or how much you read, there is no substitute for experience.[ Edited by TheShortSalePro on Date 04/04/2004 ]
OK, that sounds like a good idea, my new question would be, has anyone uesd the package offered by the shortsalepro, primer, consulting or e-book, if so what is your opinion of it?
bump
didn't quite understand the last reply by ssjustin
Yes. What kind of answer is "bump"?
Thanks
I purchased the ebook and although I found it informational the information was disorganized, generic, and was left with several expamples rather than how-to or an explanation.
Do not take me wrong here, I am happy. It only cost me $50 and thats less than 15 minutes talking with my attorney. I certainly learned something from the primer.
GOOD LUCK
"Bump" just means that there have been no recent responses to the post, so the person is just trying to keep the post current in hopes of receiving some responses ("bumping it up", so to speak).
HTH!
thanks for the responses, anyone got any more good info on short sales, what about the Dwan Twyford stuff, anyone tried it and if so whats it like?
You might try clicking on the course review section button or this link to see for yourself.
http://www.thecreativeinvestor.com/modules.php?name=Reviews
John (LV)
sorry about the confusion on my "bump" reply. I saw that no one had replied to the poster's topic, and I felt that it shouldn't get dropped off without a response. just trying to be courteous.
I bought the primer and I am a realtor that does 30 to 40 short sales a month in Utah we are # 1 in the nation for BK's
I felt I got my moneys worth but I also felt it was Unorganized
:-?
Thanks for the responses on the primer, how about the Dwan Twyford package, any opinions on that, good, bad or indifferent?
Pretty break-neck pace there at 30-40 short sales a month. Not really sure how you manage to pull that one off...how many people you have working on this? 5? 10?
So how many attempted short sales would you say get approved out of the 40 per month times every month you've been doing this?
Ryan J. Schnabel
Still trying to get some kind of feedback on the Dwan Twyford package, I checked the archives and could only find 1 posting on it, it was a positive one, there must be more investors out there who have used this, anyone?
Now I get it. This post is no different than the last two posts. A memeber can only ask about products that are supported by TCI. Is that fair. I wasn't even the one who asked the question but I think that is a clear example of a double standard. The shortsale primer is not the only tool on the market. Obviously people are going to ask questions because this is a place where there is a lot of short sale discussion. Where else should you go for advice on investing resources if it cannot be done here. Why was this post not removed?
I am not sure I fully understood the last post by homebuyer13, why would you want this post removed? My reasons for asking are genuine, I want to know if a product I am thinking of buying is any good, especially since it is a pretty expensive item.
I'm sorry for the miscommunication. I meant that the post regarding Mark Walter's was removed and it was from a person asking for similar feedback. I said that it must have been removed because TCI does not support that particular product. They removed that post but did not remove the post regarding the Short Sale Primer. I think your post is perfectly fine and all you are trying to do is get an honest opinion. All I'm saying is that there a several products on Short Sales available and we as members should have the right to inquire about all of them even if TCI does not make any money off of the rest. I have bought a few others that in my opinion are just as good if not better. That's all.
homebuyer13,
Glad to meet you,
I am not a Moderator on Short Sales, however let me give you my take on what may have happended.
"Has anyone heard of or used Joe Guru's material and what was your take www.joeguru.com ?"
Now what does his web site have to do with whether you know about him or not? If you posted a website to Joe Guru this is advertising. Some course writers have their people post the above type of question, they have been caught many times for doing this.
Pretty easy to catch especially when it is a posters first post. Now did you or who ever had their post deleted post a url to a web site for a course wrtiter?
If you want to ask about someone then ask. Whether they have materials on this site or not has nothing to do with it, but if you are advertising (posting a url) for this person then the post is going to get deleted.
John $Cash$ Locke
Well put, as I mentioned earlier it was not even my post I just found it odd that a post was removed for advertising a person's product that is not supported by TCI but if somone asks about the "Primer" it is not also considered advertising especially since they were basically the same posts. There are many different levels of investors on this site and although I understand your point some people may really want to know about a particular product that may or may not be available on this site. We all have spent our hard earned money on books and courses and all I'm saying is that if someone has a question about a particular product this forum could be a helpful resource in answering that question. Like you mentioned the culprits are easy to point out. I the above mentioned case I don't think that was the situation.
homebuyer13,
It was the situation because I saw the link and reported the post to a Moderator.
Another reason why the Moderators have a tough job, once you are put in the position of being a Moderator you will find that you pick up on posts that are against the rules more than if you are posting to ask questions or help someone.
Remember the Moderators here all started out as posters, they were not selected because of any special interests, albeit they have a course or don't have a course.
If you have beef that you have been unfairly treated as sometimes you will see posted from a member and a Moderator says PM me the post for review, which Rajwarrior did in a post to another member of TCI on another thread, but I don't think he has recieved anything as yet, wonder why?
John $Cash$ Locke
PS: As an after thought, Joel who owns this site and is the main man, has had some of his posts deleted by me. He understood why and feels his is part of this community just like everyone else and is not immune when it comes to what you can say in a post. [ Edited by JohnLocke on Date 04/10/2004 ]
Hi everyone, sorry about the fuss I seem to have caused, as I stated previously, my questions were genuine, I wanted to know if I would be spending my hard earned money on good products, that was all, who better to ask than fellow investors who may have used the product. I am not affiliated with any "gurus" or trying to plug or sell anything, once apoligies for any problems that this posting has caused.
This is my review of Dwan's (& Sharon's) SS course.
Anyway, I was the skeptic, but my partner was inflamed with the idea of SSs. (Indiana has huge numbers of people going into foreclosure.) We purchased the workbooks (Foreclosure Fortunes in Your Own Backyard & Short Sale Secrets) and the CDs for some $800, and that also included registration for the two of us to a 2-day long Short Sale Boot Camp of our choosing. (Different locations and times are available for convenience)
Feel free to ask questions if any of my ramblings appear incoherent.
The very first time I ever heard about Short Sales was from Dwan and Sharon at an REI conference my partner and I attended. It was a fairly quick presentation, one that's basically designed to get people excited about how "easy" it is to make money doing REI. Of course as most of you know, it takes a heck of a lot more than 120 minutes of story telling and triumphant displays of copies of $30,000 checks that past students had made on their first deal, to master the art of Short Selling. Knowing this, the ladies had workbooks and teaching Cds available for purchase. And because we were there at the event and as such “very special people”, we could get these materials for $800 off the original price.
Both workbooks are not what I would call masterpieces of design and readability. The idea of turning every other page in the workbook into lined notepaper so that one can presumably take notes, may have had merit if the workbook content actually corresponded with the content of the CDS in any recognizable manner (it did not) or with the content of the Boot Camp (it did not); perhaps this design was for the purpose of making the workbooks appear weightier…
The content was decent. Not great, but decent. The Foreclosure Fortunes workbook was filled with information; everything ranging from which legal structure to use for your business, finding the right people to be on your team, how to dress when you go door to door, where to find distressed sellers, some information on legal forms and lingo and other basics of getting your REI business off the ground. Great information for a complete beginner. Not so great for someone who already has an idea or two.
Same with Short Sale Secrets. Good information, but there simply wasn’t enough of it and what there was didn’t go very deeply. Again, great for a beginner as an overview of what SSs are about, but incomplete if you want to go forward with your first deal with confidence.
Also, at the initial conference, Dwan and Sharon spoke at length about wholesaling the properties as a way to make their money. You would think that there would be information or step-by-step explanations about topics like Assignment of Contract, double closings, simultaneous closings, seasoning issues, etc. Nope. Nada. When we finally attended the Boot Camp, we discovered that they had conveniently created a completely separate course on Wholesaling. And for another $400 it could be all ours. Sigh. We passed.
I know that from the tone of my post, most of you may see this as a negative review. It is not.
We learned a lot from Dwan and Sharon, but not as much as I had hoped considering the investment. We learned enough to try and put a deal together, but not enough to prevent us from making all kinds of mistakes and over-looking all kinds of important details.
The materials are great as a starter. They would give someone with absolutely no knowledge or understanding of what it takes to create and run a successful REI business focusing on preforeclosures a really great foundation. If before completing this course, you had questions, but didn’t know what they were, after reading the materials and listening to the Cds you will have twice as many questions and most of them, if you paid attention, will be intelligent. So that’s a positive!
Sadly, as with many REI courses, more questions are created than answered. Realistically, no course out there can answer every question that comes up. That’s why websites like this one are so invaluable. The money I spent to register here and peruse the various forums is the best money spent once you have the basics down.
Couple of other notes about the course:
- The legal paperwork is not state specific, so if you want to protect yourself and do things right, you really should run any of the paperwork you plan on using by your lawyer BEFORE you use it.
- The Cds were better than the workbooks because they contained all kinds of little useful nuggets that went past the basics. Listening to the Cds over and over is helpful as every time something new can be gleaned.
- Both Dwan and Sharon know their stuff. As far as I know, they (and their husbands) are all active RE investors and practice what they preach.
Couple of notes on the 2-day Boot Camp:
- If it wasn’t included in the price of the course materials – I would have thought it a waste of time. Dwan’s a talker and looooooooves to tell stories. That’s great if you’re there to get motivated or excited; when you’re just hungry for information, it’s downright annoying.
- Dwan studiously avoided getting into any details about Wholesaling. This was frustrating because we came to the Boot Camp with most of our questions specifically about this area. The Wholesaling course was a new product and we were not aware that it would be offered separately – so maybe false expectations on our part.
- Dwan’s husband was the other speaker at this Boot Camp. Lovely guy, very intelligent, great salesman, has his own course about using NLP to increase your sales and get the results you want. This is great material and I think there’s something to be said for NLP, but I felt like he was taking time away from what I thought I was really there for – the nuts & bolts of SSs. Naturally, at the end, he pitched his coursework and his own Boot Camp. I had hoped that spending $800 would have absolved us from the sales pitches at least in part. There was just too much of that going on compared to the information that I actually found useful.
- There was a session on working with people in Bankruptcy and an overall exploration of how a BK works and how one can use the knowledge of the BK process to one’s advantage when working with a Loss Mit. rep. Great information there.
- Overall, I took about 4 pages of notes over a period of around 14 hours. Not impressive. I had expected a lot more “meat”. I was really hungry for information and the Boot Camp did very little to satisfy.
In the final analysis, I have to wonder if a less expensive course could give a newbie the same information. Certainly the stuff on setting up legal structures, putting a team together, marketing and looking for motivated sellers is available elsewhere and sometimes free of charge. That was not worth $800.
What I was looking for and hoping to find is real-life scenarios with several possible and well-detailed solutions/exit strategies. Also I wanted a lot more information about the legal side of things. My responsibilities, the seller’s rights, the bank’s rights. Also, more information about different types of loans and how PMI affects the ability to short sell. Also, maybe a run down of the most popular “controversies” that investors are constantly debating on forums such as this: Should I take the deed before I close with the bank? Should I record it? Should I tell the bank I have it? Should I keep it to myself? Should I bring a notary to the seller’s house to sign paperwork because it’s more expedient or should I allow them to handle it as a means of checking their motivation and because if they take me to court, they won’t be able to argue that I coerced them into signing? What if the seller changes his mind? What to do if they suddenly want more money? Do I walk or do I cave? So, so many questions!! And 90% of them were not addressed in the workbooks, or the Cds or the Boot Camp. At least not in a way to create a complete picture.
I’m in the middle of three short sales right now. It’s exciting and terrifying because the more I have learned about doing SSs, the more I realize how little I really know and understand. Would I be doing this right now if I had not utilized Dwan’s materials? Probably not. But in retrospect, had I known about TCI when I first got into REI, and had I taken the time to read all the articles and all the posts, I probably could have saved myself $800. Hindsight is a beautiful thing!
Well, that’s my piece. Sorry it’s so long winded. For myself, I prefer a lengthy explanation because it feels more complete.
polina
Thank you very much for the reply, this was the sort of info I was after, good luck with your ss.
posherov, nice post ..
"I have to wonder if a less expensive course could give a newbie the same information"
Yes, I think forums like this are much less expensive (many of them even FREE) and they will give you the same information plus much MUCH more as I'm sure you're already aware. What I do is I go through old posts here and on other websites, copy & paste what I need onto Word, modify and scale down the font size, and compile my own 'ebook' for myself. As far as taking classes I stick to the much less expensive ones at my local community/city college, these classes I feel are also much better because they're often spread out over several weeks or months. I can't seem to ever remember anything after leaving a "boot camp", plus it's just very difficult to learn specific details in such a short period of time. I need to hear things repeatedly in order for it to stick with me, which is why I advocate city college.
I believe there are ALOT of people out there making money off of other people by selling them ideas ON how to make money. And alot of them have very limited experience on what they're teaching, which is why they can be extremely vague at times. Some of these people, you ask them specific questions about their actual real world experiences regarding a particular situation and they will dance around your question, not really give you a clear answer, perhaps even change the subject, and sometimes even become angry at you and tell you- you need to just go out there and find out for yourself. It doesn't make sense to me but o well.
I've talked to many people over the phone I've met in chatrooms and message forums like this (as well as in person at real estate clubs) that have given me precise 'real world' information for FREE about all sorts of real estate topics and these people weren't trying to sell me anything- just being a humanitarian I guess.. It always amazes me that there really are some very successful people in real estate willing to lend a hand to a little guy like myself just because they want to be helpful and aren't trying to sell me anything. I guess If I was a big time investor I would do the same for others.
Needless to say I'm not a fan of the multi-hundred OR thousand dollar real estate bootcamps, I just go to the bootcamp's free "intro" seminars, get all the info and take all the notes I can then leave and gather the rest of the puzzle elsewhere on the cheap..
I'm glad that someone else addressed this situation. I have spoken with many other short sale investors who agree with you. I have completed successful short sales without the help of an expensive seminars or courses. It really hurts my stomach to know that people are paying hundreds and thousands of dollars to learn how to do short sales. I was introduced to short sales by two people, both who was more than happy to teach me what they knew free of charge. After I started doing them on my own I realized that they could not hold my hand through every deal so I took it upon myself to purchase some affordable information to guide me and to also use as a reference when a problem came up that I could not solve on my own. To this day these two people still help me and I have have been able to be a mentor to two other people who are in similar situations that I was in not too long ago. I have suggested Making Money with SS's and the Cashflow Institute's e-book several times because I can vouch for these based on my own personal experience. Depending on what a person is looking for I always recommend one or the other or both since they are both under $40. There is no subsitute for real life experience so my strongest advice has always been to jump in and learn as you go. A simple book or guide will help you gain the knowledge and confidence that you need to make money doing short sales. Trust me that is all you need.
On a short sale from a bank or lending institution, how much does one typically drop the price when they make the offer?
Bartell - :-o