My review of Bob Andersen's training
I realise this is my first post so take that for what you will.... I would have posted an intro somewhere but I didn't see which forum would be the most appropriate.
Anyway, I attended Bob's 3 day workshop over the past 3 days in Melbourne. My missus and i took turns attending (she went Friday, I went Saturday and Sunday). So my attendance was patchy due to work commitments so it may not do it justice. All the same I'll post my $0.02 worth so folks can make their own call.
If you go to a few of these seminars, property home studies as well as reading a LOT of books (for full disclosure - we own 3 properties with the bank so far, 1 going through a subdivision).
I have not seen Bob's DVDs yet but will. My brother-in-law purchased them and realised he wasn't going to be able to attend but knows my partner and I have started a small subdivision development and could use it, so we went instead.
What we found right away was the Bob was a straight talker and sounded much more genuine, and a straight shooter than some of the more polished trainers/salesmen who deliver these courses (who shall remain nameless). I prefer straight shooters so this appealed to me. He also talked from a lot of anecdotal experiences - which to me at least, reinforced the point he knows what he is talking about. Now the whole 3 days is a relatively soft pitch to buy his $34,995 mentoring program but I will say it is soft (compared to the REALLY hard sales guys out there).
What I found and learned:
- A lot of the people who went also did Dymphna Boholt's program as well
- Most of the people were well into real estate already or development (I exchanged details with a bunch of people who were architects, accountants, developers, finance brokers, etc). Very different crowd to who normally attends the free sessions. I found the networking aspect the most valuable TBH. Very different to the free or cheap seminars folks go to. The people in that room all had money and were serious with building their property portfolios.
- The finance section on day #1 my missus thought was the best (on structures and so forth). We already have structures and she's no newbie to this subject but even she found it value. A lot of the gotchas of property development were discussed, particularly asset protection, GST and capital gains. I read the notes and was impressed. I've got a laundry list of questions for my accountants this week out of it.
- On day #2 I found the feasibility approach the best. Bob had some quick approaches on how to crunch feasibility fast (and loose). Having done Carly Crutchfield's homestudy I felt that this was probably the biggest thing I took away from Bob's course personally. Carly highlights this is the most critical part and says you need to do a lot of them. However if you don't know where to get all the numbers, it just falls apart and you really can't progress. Bob dealt with that on day 3 (see below) but basically shows a way to do a 5min and 2min feasibility.This isn't to substitute a proper feasibility mind you, but for being able to eyeball a potential deal and assess whether it will work, this can save a lot of time if you're reviewing a lot of deals.
- He also discussed the valuations aspect, talking a lot about commercial and residential lending. While I'm aware of commercial lending what I wasn't aware of is how much more in control of the process you are, where as with residential lending you are at the mercy of the banks and their crappy -10%+ valuations. You probably want to avoid residential finance for a development if it's big enough.
- Day #3 I came in about half way through, but the morning was talking about creative strategies. I think that would have been another thing I really wanted to get but Bob highlighted it's all on the DVDs. So I'm going to get them from my brother in law and watch them. That one I am very, very keen to see. The afternoon was more about construction, which the most I got was some of Bob's indicative construction numbers from around Australia. Not that you'd want to take them as gospel but again, for initial feasibility analysis, they'll do the job for now.
Overall, my takeaways gave me confidence that the subdivision I am doing is solid and the progress we're making will work. I think it also highlighted to me the scale of the projects I can probably take on at this stage in building out our portfolio (with the help of a good architect).
We didn't go ahead and buy his mentoring program (for a number of reasons, mostly we are committed to this development for now and it's small enough and relatively hassle free) but I will say if I want to accelerate my portfolio or take on bigger developments then I would probably do it.
I can't compare his DVD's to Carly Crutchfield's because I haven't seen them but having done hers, it will be a tough act to beat. But I will say I am pretty confident with Bob's program.
I would however be very, very keen on speaking with someone who has done his mentoring program, can talk to it's success and provide evidence of the projects they've done and completed. If anyone knows of anyone, please let me know. I would consider doing this BUT not without a few referrals.
Hope this is useful.
Cheers!