Armando Montelongo Real Estate Training International Hard Sell, Deceptive, Bait and Switch, over promises, upsell to $40,000 bus tours San Antonio, Texas
I just attended the 3 day Armando Montelongo seminar for which I paid $1,495. I took the "free" seminar two or 3 weeks ago and got suckered into this 3 day one. Lots of rich guys bragging, fowl language, and tons of very heavy upsell to the $30,000 or $40,000 bus trip in LA or Las Vegas.
I Could have gotten most of this information for free in the internet, or from a few basic real estate books from Amazon. Never got the promised insider info such as hard money lender contacts, or specific sites or ways to find pre-foreclosures or other distressed prooerties.
They manipulated and pressured lots of poor, broke a*s, and uneducated people into the $30K or 40K bus trips, which they can't afford. They'll have huge credit card debts or liquidated 401-k's.
Maybe some very few will do well, but from what I saw, it was lots of desperate people being manipulated. They'd be better off to spend the $40K on down payments on one or two actual properties.
Also, it seems their true motivation is to lend money for the real estate deals to these broke-a*s people, and charge huge interest rates, like one half of the profits on the deal for lending the money for a few weeks or months. They are the hard money vultures that go on the bus rides to cream skim teh best deals and take the easy profits, while all the studendts compete against each other and bid the prices up. I also read that many of the properies they look at are ownwed by Armando M, so its a total conflict of interest.
Some may do well, but buyer beware, that "free" seminar ends up being very pricey.
Now I just need to cancel my $30,000 visa charge within the 3 day window, as my subsequent due diligence and discussions with other investor friends have since caused me to reconsider my rash decision. I'll cancel ASAP tomorrow. or tonight.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert attended 3 day Sept 2012
Sunnyvale,California,
United States of America
I wrote original complaint. They did geve me a refund
#2Author of original report
Thu, November 08, 2012
I wrote the complaint about the hard sell at the 3 day seminar. Armandos people actually read it within two days from posting. They wished I'd contacted them directly with my concerns, and seemed genuinely concerned about my complaint, and seemed to really believe in their ability to change people's lives through real estate investing.
They processed and paid my $30,000 refund in about two weeks, which I was very relieved to get.
I had an 808 credit score and still kind of freaked out my card company with such a huge charge. Often they will bump up your minimum payment to 3% of outstanding balance, or a monthly payment of $1,000.
If you miss payments, you rate will go to 29% annually, or an additional $9,950 annual interest, so you better have your cash flow planned out to handle this large and risky charge.
Assuming you have a true workable plan, Armandos program and bulk buying power may well give you the opportunity to make money if you can work at it a few hours every day and all day on weekends until you have recovered your costs and
paid off you credit cards. Then work even harder to make it a life changing business.
I recommend partnering up to split the costs and reduce risk. They do have hard money guys that are expensive, but there are many other more competitive ones that are less pricey that you can find via Google in your area. YouTube has lots of
investing videos for free to get you started for free.
Armando may change your life but have your act together BEFORE you show up at the seminar and then fork up $30 or 40K.