Complaint Review: Commercial Millions; Jason Gilbert; Fidelis Properties; Joint Venture Facilitation; JVF and Master L

My background is in residential and commercial lending.  I have been investing in residential real estate since 2003 and have been involved in few joint ventures on small multi-unit apartments.  I am a full time investor (not an agent) and make a good living doing it.  I used to also take real estate deals from just about anybody and spent months looking at so called "legitimate" real estate deals.  What a waste of time.  I completely understand why Jason asks people to buy his course before they can submit deals.  At least you know the person is serious about their real estate business and has at least some knowledge of what a good deal looks like.  Actually, I might start charging people a fee to analyze their deals they submit to me.

I personally know people of high net worth that actively invest in residential and commercial real estate and in 8 years I have yet to have one offer to pay me for a deal I present to them.  Any seasoned real estate investor knows that you just don't do that unless you have the property under contract, have a vested interest in the property, or some other binding business relationship.  Perhaps this poster is just a "bird dog"  which is fine but I hardly consider that investing. 

I have purchased both the MLO/JVF course and the short sale course.  I find them to be very informative and spot on especially on deal evaluation.  He essentially uses the same evaluation criteria commercial lenders use.  I have known about MLO's for many years and have seen it on many different types of properties but I did learn of new ways of structuring MLO's due to the course.  Bottom line, I make more money because I gain more knowledge from courses I buy.   As far as if Jason actually does deals, I have a little story.  There was a self storage facility in AZ I was looking at.  I contacted the agent and they sent me an offering package with financial info on the property.  After doing my own evaluation and after checking with a few self storage investors, I decided to issue a LOI to start the process.  The agent called me back and told me the property was under contract but they would contact me if it fell out of escrow.  The likelihood of that happening was slim according to the agent because they were suppose to be very strong buyers.   I basically forgot about the property after that until I bought Jason's short sale course and went to the boot camp a few weeks later.  They were going over some current deal case studies and you'll never guess what property they were using.  The same property I was interested in.

This poster didn't even buy the course so how could he have been ripped off?  I also noticed he didn't post any details about the "legitimate" commercial real estate deal he mentioned.  If you're so experienced and the deal is so "legit", why go to Jason?   Why not go to his normal investors he's done deals with before especially if they will pay him to bring deals.  I hope this poster realizes that practice is illegal in most states without a real estate license.  I just have a hard time believing this poster has any real experience in real estate investing judging from this post. 

Lastly, I am a former Marine myself.  I find this posters trash talking conduct unbecoming of an officer and just simply childish.  It doesn't even belong on this site.  He has no clue about Jason's courses and he obviously doesn't believe in spending money on furthering his education and increasing his investment IQ.  There are no college courses on this subject and in the real world, you have to invest in yourself and your business in order to be successful.  End of story.

BVig, CA

I followed this string to try and get some positive feedback regarding Jason Gilbert's new commercial strategy on short sales.  I have listened in on several of his webinars, and all seems to be legit.  But as the old saying goes, "if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it."  The way it is presented, it seems like it is doable, but can see these deals taking longer to happen, but payouts could be huge.

Has anyone ordered his new course?  I really don't mind paying for the information if it will assist in gaining the knowledge needed.  I would just like to know if anyone as personally worked with him and actually closed some deals.  To his telemarketing staff currently employed to sell more packages, I asked several of them if they are implementing any of his tools.  Of course, they all said yes, but would not comment as to whether or not they have made any money.

Any helpful critique's or testimonials would be appreciated. 

Thanks to all who take the time to contribute.  I am also retired military but tend to agree that, having bought nothing, the complainant is entitled to be disappointed or angry, but has not been ripped off.

I have signed up for Jason's course.  I do not know whether this is the same course to which the man from Windson refers.  I am told that all materials will be supplied at a conference rather than having 60 days to review and return, if not satisfied.

Would be pleased to hear from any one else regarding their respective experiences.

I have to agree with the other rebuttals.  How were you ripped off if you didn't even buy anything?  I too appreciate your service to our Country, in fact, my son is a Mortarman in the USMC, but your claim of Jason being a scam is unfounded.

We signed up for Jason's program back in July, and he has been very helpful.  He does everything that he says he will, as long as you do everything that you need to do.  This is a legitimate business opportunity.  It is not easy, but it is simple, as long as you keep it that way. 

We will continue to work our business and continue to partner with Jason on deals.  If we simply do our due diligence, he has the connections and horsepower to take deals to the next step, and Jason and his team have been above and beyond what we have expected.  He is honest, straightforward, and he is interested in our success...

I am sitting listening to Jason's pitch, and while doing so I peruse the internet and often check Rip-off Report. I have been ripped off by another company (and have filed a rip-off report on this scam). So doing, I encourage people to do this sort of internet perusal and also encourage people visiting Ripoff Report. However this complaint I am replying in rebuttal mode, not even being a customer of Jasons, seems far from ligit.

One, Jason is not a developer, which this person seems to be mistaken about.
Second, I am glad that he is requiring anyone calling in with a deal to first buy his course, this gives ligitimacy to his students and controls what sort of deals are coming in.

I have not even been presented yet with the $997 price as I am sitting here listening (8/1/09 Los Angeles) but after reading what I am here, I think that this sort of complaint is a sad abuse of RipOff reports.

Do stay away from Adam Ginsberg's stuff on how to make money on the internet [that's a real snake oil salesman], but Jason Gilbert seems like he is and has a legitimate offering for commercial real estate. I am even more sold on him for his NOT taking your deal over the phone.

An interested commercial real estate investor

First let me start this by saying I have Jason's program. I am not an employee of his company and I have not done a deal with him or through his program. I have not had time to go through his program yet so I can't comment on how well it does or does not work. What I do know though is that his program comes with a money back guarantee and it has been backed by many well known people in the real estate industry. That was why I took interest in it and I also know that doing commercial real estate deals are not easy to do because I have been working in the industry for years with the financing of them. I also know because I do the loans for these properties that it is rare any new investors get their foot in the door on these deals because lenders want borrowers with a lot of skin in the game as we call it. That's why I am still doing these loans for clients and I myself have not yet been able to buy one and that is why I took interest in this course because you are going to have to be creative in getting ownership of a property. Once you have the property in your name and have it seasoned on title for 6-12 months it is not that hard to refinance and get the loan in your name or a better terms.

So when I was doing a search today on Jason and this fraud report came up I was interested to see what happened and why it was filed. This isn't a case of fraud though because Jason has provided what he said he would provided. I can certainly appreciate bringing titles into consideration and respect our men and women who serve our country in the armed forces.

However, Jason is running a business and like any business to make money you need leads and marketing to grow it and keep it a float. That also means you have to sort through the things that don't make you money and will consume your time. For Jason to require you buy his program to bring him deals is 100% within his rights to decide how and who he chooses to do business with. If someone wants to charge or require you buy their program to do business with them it is their right to choose to do business that way, just as it is your choice not to do business with them. Jason with his program created a high profile brand of him and that will bring him thousands of deals, but most of them are going to be deals that won't work. The best way to get people to bring you the right deals and to get a level of commitment from them is to have them put money up to qualify them as being motivated people. If Jason did not offer a money back guarantee then I would see that as being some what questionable, but since he does offer a money back guarantee you can buy his program and try it without risk. Now will he take every student's deal, of course not, but not because he does not want them. It will be because the investors or lenders he is getting most of the money from turn the property down and won't lend on it.

There are many other investors out there who do not have high profile names like Jason who are going to have more time and be more motivated to work with new people. Jason's program though from skimming over it is very in depth and again if you don't like it then you have a 60 day time period to return it for a refund. My advice to you is read his program and if you don't learn from it and like it return it for a refund. As for working with Jason on deals, if he turns you down, look for another investor to work with. Jason has no reason to turn away a deal that is a good deal, if the deal is good then he has reason to work with you on it. I can certainly relate to your frustration in wanting to get in on a deal and get started, but it is not easy, I do the loans for properties and I know how lenders want strong buyers. I have been looking for JV partners to go on in a deal with too, but I haven't found a property that has enough value to take to a investor yet. I hope to find one, it is rare that one of my clients finds a deal that is out of the ordinary, but when you find one and if you secure it in contract, it won't be hard to find a investor to go in on it with you because those deals are good to grab and investors will want in with you.

There was a misleading invitation to a Jason Gilbert Webinar last week that went like this: Mr. Gilbert was going to give webinar attendees his home study course for free because his colleague has SO MANY LEADS that he simply can't do all of the inital fact-finding himself. If webinar attendees agree to use his colleagues list to contact the owners, then Mr. Gilbert will give webinar attendees his course for absolutely nothing--even the shipping costs will be covered. There were many sections of the webinar advertisement that quoted the information above, but here's the most succinct quote: "Gary's got the leads. I've got the team to do the deals."

Here's the REAL deal:

At the end of this webinar, Gary explained his lead generating system, and then said that Jason's home study course will be thrown in for free after you PURCHASE HIS LEAD GENERATING SYSTEM for $1,497 SO YOU CAN GENERATE YOUR OWN LEADS.

I'd have to agree with Joe P. Ripped kinda went overboard there. A simple paragraph with your experience would have sufficed, not a one page diatribe.

Also, this is "Ripoff Report", not "Decided Against Doing Business with a Company Report". You didn't get ripped off.

I currently have his course and am going through it now. So far I'm happy with it.

Sean

Dear Ripped,

Let me start by saying that I am in no way connected with Jason Gilbert or his company and I have yet to even purchase his course. Now that I have made that clear I have to get this off my chest.

I think what you are failing to understand is that Jason Gilbert already has many students who have paid good money for his course AND the ability to partner with him on deals and because of this, it wouldn't be very fair to them if Mr. Gilbert also accepted deals from just anyone who thought they had found the next goldmine.

Not to mention the fact that if Mr. Gilbert entertained partnering on deals with just anyone off the street, he would be overloaded with a ton of garbage deals that would just be thrown at him by a lot of people who have no idea what Mr. Gilbert is actually looking for.

By insisting that someone actually takes his course before submitting a deal, it expedites the entire process because now Mr. Gilbert knows that most deals that are sent to him fit his criteria because they are only sent by people who have been trained to look for properties that fall into the specific categories that he wants.

I understand your frustration, but you must understand that Mr. Gilbert is running a business and he can't risk angering the many people that are already customers just to please one person who is NOT a customer.

Although I thank you for your service in the military and admire your courage to do what many others, including myself, are not, I also think that your complaint against Jason Gilbert is both ridiculous and unfounded.