Tawana
Atlanta,#2Consumer Comment
Mon, February 20, 2006
First let me say I honestly do not work for these people, I am always looking for good opportunities and this one sounded fair so I tried it. I recently attended the 3 day training week end. We paid $495.00. Is this a high pressure sales conference mixed with some good real estate advice and lessons? yes it is. If you think you are going to anyones' class similar to the CFG and they will not try and sign you up for somthing more though, know this, they all do it. That is what sales people do, they sell you things, of course they do, that is how they make their money, don't be naive. Given that, you simply decide if you think they have anything of value you can extract from your time and money spent when they are not in 'sell mode'. I typically never sign up at an initial free seminar for most of these I attend, as I have gone to several. This training was for 3 full days, and they lay out what they will cover each day right on their website. They did live up to this part of the promise I must say. Some of the real estate investing information is quite valuable, some of it you may already know but what you don't can be worth the $495 for 3 whole days "if" it helps you, some of it did help me. I would say if you don't want to feel burned split the cost with a partner like I did and then you only spend $250.00 on the weekend, which again from my experience when they weren't selling more to us and were just straight teaching was worth it for the advice alone. You can do alot of the things they teach on your own without the advanced training but what you may not have before you walk in there is the basic guideline to do it which they do outline for you. The part they don't tell you is that while they are teaching you about real estate they will also throw everything at you psychologically they can to convince you that you will never succeed or learn anywhere else but from their "advanced training". They push this message quite a bit between lessons, that you "need" it or you will not succeed. This is cryptically fed to you off and on through the whole 3 days ramping up more and more to that end as the weekend unfolds. Do I think they are actually buying and selling real estate? yes I do after talking to each of them seperately on breaks. Are they making money doing it, yes I believe they are. How much? that is the grey area. Could you learn some great techniques and make money after their advanced training classes or even just the 3 day class? if you apply it most likely yes. Should you have to pay them between $8000.00 being the cheapest course and $90,000.00, yes $90,000.00 if you chose not sign during the 3 days, $40,000 if you did for all of their advanced courses, no joke, for that advanced training to learn the way to profit from real estate investing? absolutley not. Some people in the room actually laughed out loud at their fees, some got up and left, others actually signed up. Bottom line is, how much is it worth it to you to sign up for this kind of hands on training? they take you out in the field and show you how a deal works with the advanced classes. Do you need them to train you or can you do it on your own? Can you get equivalent training or better for alot less money? I think so, so I took the 3 days of real estate investing information which does give you some good background on opportunities in the market as far as what is hot and what is not at least and I will build on that now by taking my $8000.00 - $90,000.00 and invest in some actual properties rather than give it to them so they can use it for the same purpose..
Michael
Chicago,#3Consumer Suggestion
Wed, February 02, 2005
Dear Racheal, I just read you entry and I feel for you as I have been ripped off myself in a similiar situation. The way I resolved it was by consistently calling them and by notifying the appropriate government agencies. Let the scam artists know that you are going to contact the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission)www.cftc.gov and the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) www.ftc.gov as well as the Attorney General's office in your state and theirs. Also, Russ Whitney holds a public company under the stock symbol of RUSS. Tell them you will contact the SEC, Securities Exchange Commission. Report it to everyone. These companies (cash flow, trading classes,and real estate seminars) are all scams they prey on people who looking to better themselves or get out of debt. They claim that this will give you financial freedom (it's a get rich quick scheme)only it's quite the opposite your paying into theirs. That is why they can live such lavish lifestyles. They take the seminar money and invest it for their own use. In your case (the cash flow system) they took your hard earned money and it's that money that adds to millions and they use that to purchase the cash flow contracts. That is why they claim they are so successful at it because they use your money not theirs to purchase foreclosures and what not. Also, never trust their instructors or testimonials, those people get paid to say that they made money. There is never any substantiated proof. Don't give up! 15K to me grand theft larceny. Make sure you call and go onto the web site of the federal consumer agencies. If everyone complained we could put these theives out of business. Also, go to the search engine web sites like Google and search for cash flow fraud complaints. You'll find you were not the first and unfortunatly won't be the last. Also, if they do end up giving you a refund, be aware that they will most likely give you a form to sign that you will not disclose anything about it. Good luck.