Gurus, their actual qualifications, and have they been through the wringer before...

[Doug Smith]

Here’s rant #2 for the day. I have a preliminary call in a few minutes with a person that wants to get into private lending and wants to engage our loan consulting side to assist. When we asked “what they were currently doing, what they planned to do, and how we could help.” The response was that they paid a guru to teach them how to do 100%, 2nd mortgage financing to real estate investors for purchases and down payments. I looked this person up and they have a bajillion followers/disciples (I think bajillion is a number). The guru has zero lending background…zero. They also didn’t even get into anything remotely real estate-related until 2011. They also had a professional license taken back by regulators. The guru has never seen nor have they survived a downturn. Do you see all those commercials by Baltimore Oriole great Jim Palmer touting those 100%-125% 2nd mortgage loans? Me neither. That company went belly-up during the last crash long before this guru even thought about real estate investment let alone finance. I’ve done this 33 years now. I’ve seen high-highs and low-lows. To you folks that are paying gurus to learn lending, make sure 1) they actually have a formal credit/lending background and 2) make sure they went through at least the last major crash of 2007-2009 and lived to tell about it. To those who are doing 100% financing for down payments and EMDs…a train is coming. I highly advise that you get off the tracks. End of rant #2 for the day.

[Jay Hinrichs]

well i lived through it.. painful as it was.

Gap lending is far to risky for almost anyone end of story.. totally agree.

the only time it works is with some decent cross collateral and or you have a substantial relationship with the client and have done LOTS of deals with them for many years. 

[Jay Hinrichs]

although the standard Guru pitch is.

I was broke.

I lived in my moms garage or basement.

but I found this super formula

and now I have a lambo and fly on private jets.

you DESERVE this just let me teach you . 

[Don Konipol]

Those that can do; those that can’t get rich “guruing”

[Bruce Woodruff]

Maybe you guys can explain this to me.....I just fail to understand why anyone would pay a 'Guru' anyway. I always had the notion that anyone can learn anything if they just take the time and do their own training and research.....

[Doug Smith]

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Maybe you guys can explain this to me.....I just fail to understand why anyone would pay a 'Guru' anyway. I always had the notion that anyone can learn anything if they just take the time and do their own training and research.....

I agree with the "paying a guru", but I think people on sites like BP rely too much on themselves and their research. Yes, I agree you should research, but a lot of the engagements we end up doing are bailing people out that tried to do it themselves. It's kind of like diagnosing your cancer and treating it yourself from WebMD. That being said, most of the people that turn to others for help don't do the same level of research on the qualifications of the "doctor" that will be assisting them. I'll give you an example. My wife and I are putting in an outdoor fireplace. I'm pretty handy and I really thought about tackling it myself, but in the end I decided to hire a pro. There are a lot of things that people can learn on here (if they are paying attention to the right people) and eventually begin to tackle themselves, but there are times that reading a blog won't really help. 

[Chris Seveney]

Quote from @Doug Smith:

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Maybe you guys can explain this to me.....I just fail to understand why anyone would pay a 'Guru' anyway. I always had the notion that anyone can learn anything if they just take the time and do their own training and research.....

I agree with the "paying a guru", but I think people on sites like BP rely too much on themselves and their research. Yes, I agree you should research, but a lot of the engagements we end up doing are bailing people out that tried to do it themselves. It's kind of like diagnosing your cancer and treating it yourself from WebMD. That being said, most of the people that turn to others for help don't do the same level of research on the qualifications of the "doctor" that will be assisting them. I'll give you an example. My wife and I are putting in an outdoor fireplace. I'm pretty handy and I really thought about tackling it myself, but in the end I decided to hire a pro. There are a lot of things that people can learn on here (if they are paying attention to the right people) and eventually begin to tackle themselves, but there are times that reading a blog won't really help. 

 I think one area people also make the mistake of is spending money on a guru before they even know if this is what they want to do. Its like going out and spending a huge amount of money to put a golf simulator in your home and realize after a week, I really do not like golf. 

The other is people will put all this cost on a credit card, and then have no money to take action, if you are not taking action on it, you will forget everything. It does not matter whether its real estate, or day trading, flying a plane or anything that continues to require repetitive knowledge.

Then people get upset that after a year they have done nothing, because they had no money to do it (but of course many gurus will tell you that you can do it without money because that is probably their biggest revenue generator).

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Maybe you guys can explain this to me.....I just fail to understand why anyone would pay a 'Guru' anyway. I always had the notion that anyone can learn anything if they just take the time and do their own training and research.....

Bruce,  why would anyone partake in Amway ?  the exact same methodology that gets folks into Amway and other MLM is what the RE guru's use to hook and land RE students ..

[Doug Smith]

Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Doug Smith:

Here’s rant #2 for the day. I have a preliminary call in a few minutes with a person that wants to get into private lending and wants to engage our loan consulting side to assist. When we asked “what they were currently doing, what they planned to do, and how we could help.” The response was that they paid a guru to teach them how to do 100%, 2nd mortgage financing to real estate investors for purchases and down payments. I looked this person up and they have a bajillion followers/disciples (I think bajillion is a number). The guru has zero lending background…zero. They also didn’t even get into anything remotely real estate-related until 2011. They also had a professional license taken back by regulators. The guru has never seen nor have they survived a downturn. Do you see all those commercials by Baltimore Oriole great Jim Palmer touting those 100%-125% 2nd mortgage loans? Me neither. That company went belly-up during the last crash long before this guru even thought about real estate investment let alone finance. I’ve done this 33 years now. I’ve seen high-highs and low-lows. To you folks that are paying gurus to learn lending, make sure 1) they actually have a formal credit/lending background and 2) make sure they went through at least the last major crash of 2007-2009 and lived to tell about it. To those who are doing 100% financing for down payments and EMDs…a train is coming. I highly advise that you get off the tracks. End of rant #2 for the day.

@Doug Smith: The other side of his business is touting "subto" to his "community". 

Your comment: "They also had a professional license taken back by regulators.", is correct. That was for FRAUD by the way. He apparently has made enough money to satisfy the fraud and to pay people back, but chooses to ignore the people he defrauded. It's all available public information.

He is pushing buying properties for full asking price and using gap lending "gator lenders", (unsophisticator investors), to lend the money for the deal to close. So, he says he is into the transaction with "none of his money". He also charges a hefty sum to teach people how to buy overleveraged properties for full asking price. Wha . . . ?

What could go wrong?

Click to enlarge
He had the Due on Sale called 10 times last month. So, don't do whatever this guy is doing.

"very short answer is yes, I've had the due on sale called on me 10 times"

So, all you lurkers who never post, that means the "gator lenders" lost their money".

 I never mentioned any names...lol