Is Fortune Builders Mastery Worth The Money

[Editor'due south Note: This article was refreshed on October 2, 2015. See the end of commodity for general alter history.]

The other day I overheard a conversation between two people about flipping houses. 1 person went to a seminar over the weekend to learn to flip houses. I cringed, but bit my tongue and didn't say anything.

I've been hearing commercials on the local radio for these seminars for a couple of months at present. One of the stars of "Flip This House!", Than Merrill, was pitching the seminar saying something to the result that he needs a few concern partners in the area. The company running the seminars is called FortuneBuilders. Medford, Oregon'due south KTVL News x covers a few snippets of the commercial hither:

Radio Ad:

"Practice yous want to learn how to make a ton of money flipping houses right here in Medford? My team and I are looking for a handful of people in the Medford expanse who want to learn how to consistently make a lot of money, per deal, in your spare time, without using whatever of your own money… Medford is a perfect market for my system.

KTVL News 10:

"It virtually sounds likewise good to be truthful… kind of like a scam."

Did that diction make your Spidey-sense tingle like it did mine?

It definitely sounded like a scam to me as I heard the aforementioned pitch in Rhode Island, thousands of miles away. It brand y'all wonder if there are a lot of "perfect markets."

As my friend likes to say, "We have 'The Google!'"

Using "The Google", I constitute that there was a alert most FortuneBuilder seminars on Cleveland.com a couple of years ago. Than Merrill's seminars have gotten a review of NBC12 News Investigation that institute, "Some of the advice we heard ranged from the questionable – to the cool." Y'all kind find the warnings about the seminars in Michigan every bit well. Fifty-fifty in Washington country where you'd have to be more or less a registered contractor to flip a house, the advertising connected.

Indeed it seems similar FortuneBuilders has plant a lot of "perfect markets."

Getting back to the conversation that I had overheard. The person was apparently excited about what she learned this weekend. She explained to her friend how that seminar was gratuitous, simply that this next one was going to cost $1200 to go into all the details. Every bit that Cleveland.com commodity says, "The Cincinnati Meliorate Business Bureau, which sent staffers to ane of Merrill'south seminars downstate two weeks ago, said organizers told the crowd that its three-day existent estate investment course costs $1,200 but those signed up that twenty-four hours could get it for $200."

A tremendous toll divergence like that raises some other huge red flag for me. Is the value of the course $200 or $1200? I understand early bird pricing with seminars, but it normally 1/6th the price to human activity now or 6x more than to think well-nigh it and research the FortuneBuilders overnight. I've seen a departure of a hundred dollars for the showtime few days… but this level is farthermost. Information technology reminds me of when a RainSoft salesman offered thousands of dollars in free lather if I signed that day.

I have to give FortuneBuilders a little credit for learning from how drug dealers piece of work. Get them in for free and claw them with a combination of an extreme urgency deal and use the sunk costs to push the next thing.

The "Business" of Flipping Houses

I can see how people go sucked in. I love watching firm flipping shows on television. I get sucked into Flipping Vegas. I find it entertaining when Scott goes ape-poop crazy if in that location'southward an actress $300 expense. Or when one of his contractors asks for an extra scoop of porridge but to receive 30 lashings (this may not accept actually happened). Then he drives off in one of his million dollar sports cars at the end of the bear witness. He might be the nuttiest-nut on tv.

I also dear watching Flipping Boston. I feel like I grew up with Peter and Dave, just equally Boston equally Boston tin be. I tell my DVR to record every episode. I peculiarly like these shows for background noise while I do work. I don't have to follow it like an episode of 24.

Hither's the thing near these shows: they are amusement. Accept y'all noticed that they never lose money on a house? I must take seen 200 of these shows in my life and I tin't recall ever seeing them terminate up in the red. They seem to brand at to the lowest degree $50,000 for about 5-six weeks of work… EVERY Time. It'due south easy to see how someone could picket these shows and think, "I tin make a half 1000000 a twelvemonth doing this."

And when y'all hear a too-goodhoped-for-true-sounding radio pitch from FortuneBuilders, yous most wonder how anyone escapes information technology.

What the Flip This Firm viewers might not realize is that the people in the shows are professionals and have been doing this for years. It'due south their full-time job, not something they practice on the weekend to make a little actress cash. It isn't done in their spare time equally the radio suggests. In many cases they are contractors and designers themselves which permit them to cut major costs of hiring contractors and designers. With the shows themselves, I often wonder if they get a pause on some labor and materials as a kickback for having them featured in the evidence. All of these things are impossible to duplicate for the boilerplate apprentice. Fifty-fifty a professional isn't going to a pause on labor or materials for advert a brand on television.

FortuneBuilders Criticized by Yahoo Finance

In November 2014, Yahoo Finance criticized their marketing techniques. It called them out for not being transparent that they are trying to lure people into the $34,000 program. Information technology too questioned them for telling people to put that money on credit cards with double digit interest.

The response was that people were "investing in themselves" with a comparison beingness made to college. That drew more criticism every bit these seminars aren't accredited and there'south no transparency into where the coin is going like colleges and universities.

If you want to utilize the aforementioned logic, why not pay me $34,000 to teach you how to weblog. Hey it's investing in yourself, right?

FortuneBuilders Isn't Alone. See: Armando Montelongo

Years ago, I meant to write how Armando Montelongo was doing a similar thing using Flip This Business firm to sell his educational activity kit. Unfortunately, I never got the article off the cutting room floor.

Fortunately, Forbes did… and their article was a lot more scolding than mine would have been. With an "F" from the Better Business organisation Bureau, he's raking in $50 million selling business firm flipping kits. The Forbes article is a great read at how dangerous the advice can be in flipping houses (such as taking on a large amount of loftier-interest debt). That seems to be a theme with seminars costing tens of thousands of dollars. Robert Kiyosaki'due south seminars were caught doing the same affair.

FortuneBuilders Conclusion

I don't desire to discourage people from existence entrepreneurs and I certainly don't want to discourage them from getting educational activity. This seems close to some of the MLMs that I encompass, where the people making the money aren't the ones digging for aureate… they are the ones selling the shovels and option axes. And like with the MLMs, extremely few people seem to ever detect a speck of gold.

The ones that practice are trumpeted as examples of success. Consumers aren't given the full picture. If they were, people might not buy the shovels and pick axes.

My advice every bit usual. Stay away from high-cost, unaccredited, seminars that rarely seem to work. As Mark Cuban says: "I don't broadcast my bully deals. I keep them all to myself. The 2nd thing to recollect is that if the person selling the deal was then smart, they would be rich across rich rather than trolling the streets looking to turn you into a sucker. At that place are no shortcuts."

In short, if Than Merrill really institute a perfect market, he would not be likely to be telling people almost it. He'd hire a group of managers and contractors in the surface area to accept reward of the situation.

Refreshes

This article has undergone what I call refreshing. Sometimes, I get more than data from readers in the comments or I'll read another article on the topic. I feel like incorporating this information into the article improves the reader feel. I tend to class them equally minor and major refreshes.

January ane, 2015 Refresh (Small)

– Added data from Yahoo Finance review.

October 2, 2015 Refresh (Major)

– Inverse Title from Flip This House to FortuneBuilders. When I was starting my research, I went off the name Than Merrill who I knew from Flip This House. I don't recall the commercial maxim anything about FortuneBuilders and my initial research into this was from Armando Montelongo as well from Flip This Firm. Montelongo has his own $25,000 house flipping seminars. Armed with more than information, it isn't off-white for me to categorize this as being related to Flip This Business firm as the bear witness's producers may not be connected. However, it is worth noting the connection.

– Added Medford, Oregon's KTVL News 10's coverage

– Added Determination

Source: https://www.lazymanandmoney.com/fortunebuilders-flip-house-seminar-scam/

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