Property Seminars Are They Snake Oil

When I started I read all the books that were available and got pretty educated, but still did nothing. Then I did a course and got the confidence to actually do something. I don't think it was the specific course, but I just needed something to give me that lift to make the first leap.

I didn't look back, and kept on building my portfolio. I'm no Trump, but no slouch either. And it's all because of doing a class.

Of course, you have to take that with a grain of salt because I'm teaching now too!!:)

It's all very well reading books, but to see and/or hear someone who's "actually done it" (or say they have :rolleyes:) can be the catalyst to think "I can do this, too!!"
 
Some good points.

They "need" to cover their costs; and the ones that are open about making money, I tend to respect a little more. But there are some (eg, the 2 Janes mentioned if not in this thread, than another recent one) who don't charge a lot, and have small groups. Maybe you should look into them - if their content interests you.

Rob as one of the Jane's you mention a few words from one of those offering courses.

As a property investor the snake oil salesman question comes up regularly (well actually during every growth cycle to be honest) – and it looks like 2010 is the year for it. Personally the only reason I jumped from mining engineering to mortgage broking was to educate people about property investing and the success of the get rich slow low risk techniques I used to build my large portfolio.

If I could give up my day job tomorrow and just deliver courses I would because I love sharing my experience and helping others reach their potential. However from the other side of the question I am lamenting the timing of offering any type of course in todays market.

Why? – because everyone is saying ‘trust us sign up for my course’ – and having decided to go against the norm and not join multi speaker events where you see 15 speakers in 3 days ‘for free’ and end up with 30 hours of some good content and many hours of sales pitch, at the end of the day that method just doesn’t sit with us well. Hence our haphazard attempt to self market our 2 day course around the country. With a moderate degree of success. And another reason why we don't join the multispeaker event - they dont want us - as we limit attendees to 20, no more and definitely not 200.

I read a book called Career Renegade by Jonathon Fields last night - and a comment he made resonated with me. He said I looked around for someone - a guru - to teach me. I went to many courses and for some reason or other I left most seminars before they finished, as I didnot like something about the course, maybe it was the presenting style, their attitude or I felt they lacked integrity - and I realised I had to become my own guru - so I learnt all I could and then he started teaching others.

This is why we offer the course we offer, not that we are guru's but we have a system that works and if people want to learn it they can. And if only 5 people turn up - due to our lack of a multi speaker marketing machine - then they get even more value for their money. But for you it comes down to assessing each course and its integrity. We believed in this so strongly we invited Property Investors Association of Australian (PIAA) to the course -and we put their comments on the website.

There are great books out there to learn from, my most recent favourite for its no nonsense approach is The Effortless Empire by Chris Gray buy it at a store or online or go to his website download it for free or pay 4.95 for a hard copy delivered - great value. Be it a book a course or the hard road of learning from experience as long as you are moving forward then you are closer to achieving your goals.

Hope this helps
Jane
 
The Hudson Institute - financial advisers

This thread reminds me that I got some early gen from Hudson Institute. Anyone heard of them?

It was more on investment generally and made a big play of the economic clock. He was a fan of property but believed in cycles and that you change into shares at other times. The material is on VHS though. How do I get it onto DVD?

In my previous BDM role with a firm of property specialist accountants I was sourcing property for Hudson Institute clients. They service their clients all over Australia by telephone planning sessions and email. My experience was that they are highly professional and understand both client needs and direct property investment. While the economic clock and property cycles are observable phenomena, they are not predictive models... so caution required here. Cheers, Graeme
 
BTW a group I deal with is running one in Brisbane on the 24th in Paddington....but it isnt property centric, its economy and fund update info.

Could you PM me the details of this group and wether it is a free event? I'm becoming a sponge atm :)

As to the topic, I went to a recent carly one and its got some pretty good tips, etc. So far the most valuable thing I have taken away (to me personally) is that it broadens my view and possibly my goal. Oh and the free book was really inspiring too. Cost is $0 but a day in a room full of ideas, well spent for both my wife and myself.

A different one is coming up next weekend in brissy which I will be attending too.
 
Could you PM me the details of this group and wether it is a free event? I'm becoming a sponge atm :)

As to the topic, I went to a recent carly one and its got some pretty good tips, etc. So far the most valuable thing I have taken away (to me personally) is that it broadens my view and possibly my goal. Oh and the free book was really inspiring too. Cost is $0 but a day in a room full of ideas, well spent for both my wife and myself.

A different one is coming up next weekend in brissy which I will be attending too.


will have to come back to you tmrw
 
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