Who likes who dislikes?
Almost all of the gurus teach basically the same information. Ron Legrand is no exception and covers the basic information in a competent manner.
Ron does teach some “original” material and I am not impressed by that portion of his material. For example, Ron teaches to never sign your name on the note and don’t borrow money from the bank. He uses hard money lenders and does subject 2, etc. That all sounds fine and dandy, but it is NOT realistic in most markets. If you are unwilling to borrow money directly, you will lose 90% of the deals out there. Cash is king and trying to do only creative deals will result in very few deals being completed. In addition, I have a real moral and ethical issue with this strategy. If I’m going to be in business and borrowing money, then my assets are at risk. I am happy to sign notes personally, because I’m not “playing” business, I’m serious about business and I will protect the bank’s money as if it were my own (which it is).
The other aspect of Ron’s teaching that I don’t like is his “autopilot” system. Many other “gurus” are also teaching this system. In my opinion, basically it is just one more marketing step in separating newbies from their money. With previous gurus, they would pull in newbies by saying that you don’t need money or credit to do deals. With the next generation of gurus and their “autopilot” systems, you don’t need money or credit OR EVEN TIME!!! You set up a phone system; put a lockbox on the door of your investment property; and then sit in the lazy boy while you get rich quick! RIDICULOUS! If I put a lock box on one of my houses and let people tour the houses unescorted, the next call I would be getting would be from the police - telling me that they were doing a drug bust on my house!!! On the houses that didn’t turn into crack party houses, everything would be stolen including the carpet, all appliances, and maybe even the paint on the walls!
The TRUTH is that real estate investing is a lot of work - especially when you’re first starting. I think it’s bad that some of the “gurus” try to convince people that getting rich in REI is easy! NONSENSE!
Mike
Property Manager,
I agree that it is not easy I also think it is only as hard as you make it…
Hey JP,
I have his book and agree with Mike. It is a good, basic info book like most out there but I wouldn’t waste money on it if you have others like it. You don’t need to keep reading the same stuff from the gurus. Take my word, I read most of them. If you don’t have a basic education, then by all means…get some books but check out this website for suggestions. But, if you have the basics, which I think you do just from the great advice you’ve gotten from the pro’s here, spend that money on marketing and find the deals.
Just my opinion!
Mark
I have read a few of the creative investing books and Mr. Legrand seems the most arrogant of them all. My 2 cents. ;D
I’ve been studying LeGrand for a while as my Dad bought a few of his courses a while back. IMO… investing in RE is as easy to the extent of the quantity of your resources and the degree of your education.
Almost all of the techniques of LeGrand hinge on having capital for marketing. That’s how he finds all of his killer deals… even in lower prices markets down south. He doesn’t prescreen Sellers… he has people do it for him… likewise for prescreening Buyers. It’s true though what he says…“The less I do… the more I make.” It does take money though… so if you don’t have the conviction that his techniques work and the money for the process such as marketing and other stuff like ‘staging houses’ then it won’t work.
my two cents
I just finished his book. Although good I feel every book has to be taken with a grain of salt. There is no ONE METHOD that works I have started to learn. I think you take the principles that each offers and apply it your own way to your market.
Maybe a little marketing one guy suggests, a dash of word choices that another suggests, and mb a screening method others suggest. This combo I think is the best way to get your own system down.
I have gone from wanting to start renting in the NY area to now lookign to wholesale properties to Rehabbers. I wouldn’t have come to this method if it werent for me picking a little from every guru’s method.
I am gonna take the money I make from my first deal and take a portion out of it to reinvest in marketing materials. The first deal I have to scrounge for because I have little capital. I am going to build a buyers list of active rehabbers who are always looking for a deal by calling the “I buy houses” ad’s and asking if they would be interested in workign with a wholesaler on a couple projects and if they would be interested in being added to my buyers list. I then will get to work on finding properties that I can buy and sell to these rehabbers at a double closing.
Its crazy how far i at least FEEL i have come.
I’ve read ron le grand and i like him. however i havent personally used any of his systems. I have a fultime job
and its not feasible to quit it to become rich like ron.
No money and no credit only work if your time is worth less than you make at your job.
Hey does anyone have the CDs? I’m missing one.
i do. which one are you missing?
Missing Disk 3 of the red book. I’d GREATLY appreciate a copy!
I’ve got some or Ron’s materials. I even went to a couple of his bootcamps in the early 1990’s. That was before he got so big. He and Ray Rach were the only ones running the thing at the time, at least as far as I could see.
I got a lot out of the seminars, but most of the good stuff came from some of the other attendees while we were sitting around the pool of the hotel late at night, drinking cool beverages. That is the real seminar!
Ron seemed to be able to break down the investing business into its component parts. He presented things in a manner that reminded me of a recipe for baking a cake or something. Everything was step by step. “Do this, and you will get this. Don’t do that; it won’t work.” It was easy for newbies to grasp the concepts this way. He seemed to be for real. You could tell that he really did make money from doing real estate deals, verses making money just talking about doing real estate deals, like so many other gurus today. But that was way back, like I said.
I don’t think he does his own seminars and bootcamps much anymore. Someone else teaches them for him, but you get to pay the same amount as if you were getting Ron himself. The seminars have become big business now. It’s not the same as it was. Too bad.
He is big on using a systems approach for your real estate business. Unlike some of the others posted here, I have implemented some of this in my business, and it has worked rather well for us. I particularly like the systems approach to marketing for lead generation. To be honest, Ron got most of this concept from people like Richard Roop, who does it better IMHO.