Hi All,
I’m new to the REICLUB and have just started getting acquainted with the site. So far is seems like a great resource!
I’m from Toronto but lived in the U.S. for 6 years before recently moving back “home”. (I love the States, but we have a family now and wanted to be closer to the grandparents, yadda yadda yadda). During my time in the U.S., specifically during the past 12 months I caught the Real Estate bug.
I bought Carlton Sheets “0 Down Payment” program and going through it I felt that it left a lot to be desired in giving you a good structure to go forward with Real Estate investing. I later bought John Beck’s program of Tax Lien properties and that was hands down the worse writing I’ve ever seen for something sold to the public. Some good links were provided, but the text of the books was utterly terrible. I sent it back for a refund. I then bought Claude Diamond’s course on Lease Options. Although I didn’t have the time to go through the entire program and ended up sending the materials back, I listened to the CD’s in the car and it opened my eyes to the world of Lease Options. It’s worth listening to just for the understanding of the Lease Option process and I think this is also a good way to get into an investment property with little money down. Just make sure that the contract is reviewed by a (your) Real Estate Lawyer familiar with the local laws to make sure your interests are covered.
But before all was said and done, I bought what I think was a fantastic investment. With the move we have only recently gotten ourselves settled and are working to get back into a position to invest in real estate, but with the number of posts in this forum of people who are trying to figure out how to get started, I thought I would offer up this course as I think it gives you a good overall view of how to get started in real estate, what you can do to “massively” increase the value of a home, etc etc. The course is called “The Property Investor’s School” by an investor from New Zealand named Dolf Deroos. I’ve listened to the course (12 CD’s) about 5 times now and pick up something new each time. Check it out at www.dolfderoos.com. Now my next steps are to figure out how to do all of this in Canada. I’ll let you know. 
Successful Investing!
-Jeff
I don’t know about the course but I do like the infomercial I always need a good laugh!
there are better courses out there. but i have the carlton sheets course if you want. i’ll sell it to u for $10 plus shipping. but in my opinion, you’re
better off donating $10 to charity!!!
ok so if no one likes the course what is a good alternative in the opinion of those here
http://snipurl.com/topbooks
have you read any of these? if not, rush down to your local library
and check them out.
I think Carleton’s program is excellent for ABSOLUTE beginners. If you know ANYTHING about real estate, don’t waste your money. However if you don’t know what a mortgage or deed of trust is, it could probably do you some good.
Good luck,
Ryan
It seems to be popular to bash the Carleton Sheets course on this board. However, I think that the Carleton Sheets course is one of the most complete basic REI courses on the market. It basically walks you from zero to making your first few deals. It does not cover the more creative strategies in great detail, but it is an excellent resource for new investors and new landlords. I also use the Carlton Sheets Toolkit for keeping track of my properties, rents, etc. The toolkit is also rather basic in nature, but it provides everything I need to run my rental business.
So, while everyone likes to bash Carleton Sheets, I have yet to see a better or more comprehensive course on Real Estate Investing.
Mike
i bought it knowing is was kinda “hokey” because i didn’t know a whole lot. to me it was more motivational than anything else. i bought it about 3 yrs. ago, waited 2 yrs. then finally jumped in a yr. ago. we now have 24 rentals not including a 3 unit that we purchased sat. at an auction. i’m happy w/ carlton. i have to say that i try to read info. books on motivation and real estate every chance i get.
The only thing that really bugged me about his course was the fact that his students do most of his teaching on the dvds. I dont know why it did, it just did. I do find myself having “brain farts” every now and again and find myself checking through the course for basic things.
PROPERTYMANAGER
Then you have not been looking Carlton’s course is very basic! It is great for people just starting to get people exicited!I have had so many investors come to me and say I just read Carlton’s Course And I am so confused! or act like they know what they are doing and screw it all up! Carlton is a rookie himself! He is one of those great speakers/salesman who can get his point across well he just dosen’t know this market as well as he thinks he does as a matter in fact if anyone is looking for a get rich quick idea go buy Carlton for what he is worth and sell him for what he thinks he is worth you could be a billonaire tomorrow!
i agree with REO. carlton is a shill. he’s not an investor.
REOConsultants,
I said in my post that the Carleton Sheets course is a basic REI course and it is. However, I think that it is very well laid out and easy to understand. REI is NOT difficult, although many of the gurus would have everyone believe otherwise. In fact, REI is quite simple. The entire process is 1) buy at a discount, 2) rehab if necessary, 3)sell or rent at a profit. Carleton’s course contains ALL the basic information needed to be successful in REI. It even covers basic rehabs (on one of the tapes), cash back at closing (on one of the tapes), etc.
Am I surprised that many “students” are confused? Absolutely not! Many of these confused students have no money, no credit, no motivation (other that getting rich quick) and will absolutely fail as real estate investors. In fact, I read somewhere that 95% of real estate wannabes will never buy a single property. Of those that do buy at least one property, a very small percentage of those will ever do over 5 deals. So, am I surprised that some of Carleton’s students are confused? I don’t think so!
What I do know is that I bought my first rental property within 30 days of buying Carleton’s course and now have more than 25 rentals with a significant positive cash flow and a bunch of equity. Although I have read dozens of books and completed other courses since I started, I give the Carleton Sheets course credit for providing me with the information to get started correctly.
Good Luck,
Mike
I just picked up on Real estate investing doing rehab houses. I rented my first house out after refinancing about $15,000 in credit card debt from college and am profiting $100 per month while tenants pay for my debt and build equity in that house. I just bought a house for $9,000 and rehabing it and should have no more than $16,000 into it and be able to sell it for $45k or rent it out at $600 per month. I will have done 2 houses over the course of 10 months, and 6 months of that i was out of town, otherwise i would have probably had another house or two in there.
Point being, why waste money on Careltons program for the basics? Like REO says, If he is an experienced investor and is so good at this, why is he just selling the basics? Everyone knows that if you buy low and sell high, your going to make money. And not everyone knows about this site, but come here and ask a few questions. The info that i have gotten from asking a few questions here have done wonders for me and got me from making a Big bad decision on a 4plex. And best of all, its free here.
Also like someone said in a previous post, goto the library and check out a couple of real estate books.
I know someone who bought a very successful motel and three other houses with no money down and attributes it all to Carleton Sheets. He is obviously a big fan of his.
Barbara
Propertymanager,
I think maybe you and I can agree on one thing. All REI is about is finding deals so that is Creative Marketing. Its not about 90% of what Carlton teaches. Where is his marketing? Oh wait it is in here its just so basic that you might as well skip over it! If I sent out the stuff he has I would be lucky to get 1 deal out of 100! Face the facts you do not need to know everything that is why you outsource everything! Do you still go look at houses to buy? I don’t its not my job that is my appraiser’s and inspector’s job. The bank never calls me to see what I think so why go look! Your job as an investor should be nothing more then coming up with creative stuff to get your phone to ring that is it! As of Right now I have 25 deals good deals sitting in the office that need short sell done! and 14 closing within the next week and I am sitting here typing why? because I have people to do that!
DO WHAT YOU DO BEST! AND OUTSOURCE THE REST!
REOConsultants,
I do not agree with you that REI is mainly about creative marketing or any other type marketing for that matter. Marketing is only one facet of any business and this is true of REI as well. I don’t send out any “stuff” and still have purchased more than 25 rentals in 18 months, all of which have significant cash flow. I do have an ad in the local newspaper at all times (in the classified section).
To answer your question, YES I definitely do look at every house I buy. I certainly wouldn’t pay tens of thousands of dollars for anything without looking at it - that’s only common sense. What’s more, I certainly wouldn’t pay an appraiser or an inspector to look at a house for me. I trust my knowledge of house prices more than I trust someone else’s opinion and I certainly can inspect the house myself in 15 minutes for free.
However, all of this didn’t answer my question. If you know of a better basic course than Carleton Sheets, what is it???
Mike
It depends on what you are looking to do if you are looking into! There are courses that cover and are very detailed towards one subject! I think Robert Kyosaiki is 100 times better then any Carlton Sheets course as well as I belive that John $cash$ has a wonderful course and also is a great guy that will take the time to answer any question you might have! TRandel has out some great stuff! It all depends on what you are looking to do!
I personally do not have my appraiser/Inspector look at a property until I get comps know what I can buy it for and know that there is equity in the property at that time I send them out to inspect the property it then cost’s me $100.00 to get a inspection done that tells me what needs to be done from there if it is still a deal I get an appraisal done why does it matter I am not going to live there. People call me all the time and want me to see houses I always ask if it has windows doors kitchen bathrooms and I always get the same yes! well I live in a house like that I have all of that stuff right here that I can look at there is no point in going to look until you have a deal! otherwise I would be looking at houses all day long! That is not what I do best!
As everyone can see this is another case where we do agree on one thing it is basic! And I have known people that have paid over 6k by the time they bought everything he sells! Property Manager had good luck with it so he is correct it works! If you are going to buy it go to ebay and pay the $25-50 dollars it is worth!
That is the difference most work hard I work smart!