Complaint Review: NSIC

https://dfi.wa.gov/documents/securities-orders/S-07-294-10-SC01.pdf

Steven Hettema was charged and fined for selling securities without a license amongst other charges. 

Christopher, We are talking about 2 different things. As a club leader we have had selling speakers come to our meetings. They give a 90 minute presentation and 90-95% is to be education and 5-10% promotion or the sales pitch. Yes our goal for those speakers was to fill the seats for them to do what they do best, sell. I have bought books/tapes from these folks and
yep, like many other people, they are still sitting on the shelf and not used.  Im not blaming any of them for my inaction for that. 

With Steve Hettema, he was trying to start a national company with local groups and tapping into existing REIAs to switch over to his club model because it was so good and profitable. When he came to town it wasnt to sell books/tapes at $500, $1500, or even the $5000 you paid him so filling the seats for that type of sale wasnt the idea. I did however fill the seats to let everyone know of the switch I was going to do by going to the NSIC Club model. He came to town to sell that change. He had nothing with him for anyone to buy. He also had franchise language on his website to get people to think that becoming a club leader at $5000, everything would be in place for them to start and run a NSIC Club. Let me ask you this, if you paid a fee of
$5000 for a business model that wasnt put together for you to run that business model, how would you feel? Again Im not talking about buying books/tapes expecting the author to do everything for me in them. Im talking about all intents and purposes, buying a NSIC Club franchise, only to get a broken system to run this franchise with. You would expect more wouldnt you? If the idea was to drive people to his site and it was so broken, why would someone want to ruin their own reputation doing so? You know there were about 26 such Clubs yet none really built into anything. Why would that be? That is because all one could do is buy the $5000 franchise, get people to pay $2300 or so to be a Club Partner and/or AE certified by getting the same material, watch/listen to it and hopefully use it if they could. Thats it! So I guess instead of him going from club to club selling books/tapes, everyone was to sell them for him, make some money on that, and hopefully people use the material. Not much of a club model or franchise with everything in place for someone to run and build something with.

As for the SEC, how can you say the case doesnt exist?

He got fined by the SEC for his wrong doings. Just click on the link above.

You said you WERE with an investment club affiliated with NSIC in Port Orchard. Why you arent anymore really isnt a big deal the fact that that club which Im guessing WAS Steve Hettemas club in no longer in existence is the big deal. So if his club model is so successful and profitable, why doesnt he have one anymore? Could that be because of his issues with the SEC?

Why dont you take a look at this link http://www.reiclub.com/real-estate-clubs/Washington.html

It is the REIA club listings in the state of Washington. Scroll down and see the NSIC club in Port Orchard and how it lists having 67,000 members. That is either the work of a con man at the very worst or a down and out liar at best.

The same goes for everything I listed he said he was going to do to help Club Leaders build their clubs but that he didnt do. If he said he was to help build clubs AND he said he was going to do those things, HE SHOULD HAVE DONE THEM, not lead people along and not do them!

So when someone buys some books/tapes they shouldn't expect the author to do the work that is in them, but when someone buys a system, business model or franchise where there was a license fee, the system should be in place for it work, dont you think?

I was involved in an investment group that was affiliated with  National Strategic Investment Corporation in Port Orchard, Washington that was very successful and found Mr. Hettema to be knowledgeable and experienced in the principles that he taught.  If being a good public speaker makes him a smooth talker, then I guess he qualifies there, but that does not make him a con man.  Mr. Hettema was never collecting money for or setting up any of the investments discussed by NSIC, so I'm not sure how he could have been running a Ponzi Scheme.  The writer in the original complaint should look up the definition to be sure that is what he meant.   

The group was presented with all kinds of different investment strategies and tools by NSIC (by Mr. Hettema and a number of other experts in real estate, law, finances, short sales, insurance Etc.)  From those presentations and seminars (most of us paid $5,000 for the seminars) we were expected to take the knowledge we had gained and put it to work in the group, finding our own investment opportunities.  The success did not depend on Mr. Hettema doing any of the investment work for us and we were told throughout the process that it was what WE made of it by our one hand.  Those that attended a seminar expecting to be plugged into a money making real estate scheme without doing any work were as disappointed as this Club leader filing the complaint seems to be.  the question I have is why in the world would you put $5,000 up without knowing what you are getting into.  Club leaders were expected to fill seats for the speaker - as it is with any organization I have belonged to anywhere.  If you were not able to do so, you should have declined/canceled the meeting before Mr. Hettema got on the plane. 

I agree the web page has not come along as fast as was indicated to the affiliated groups, but if you have been involved in real estate investing in the past 3 years, you know it has not been an easy time to find expansion capital.  That is what our group has come to understand, even with our group investments.  Mr. Hettema always emphasized that our success or failure was going to be do to our own initiative and use of the real estate investment training provided.  It is easy to get on the web and say bad things about people and call names (or even call the SEC - as I suspect happend since the case sited no longer exists).  If you would put the same energy into your group as their leader, maybe you would have had a different result as I did.  I know of member of at least 3 groups that made good investments and are still doing well.   

Maybe the reason NSIC and Steve Hettema are not around so much anymore has to do with the problems they are having with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington. You can check that out here http://www.dfi.wa.gov/sd/orders/S-07-294-10-SC01.pdf

Another thing about Steve Hettema and his NSIC model is that he DOES NOT pay people money they are due! Although not a lot, there is about $95 he owes for a service that was sold.

NSIC is also starting to disappear. There is no more NSIC Facebook Fan Page, or a Meetup group. I'm wondering why that is?

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