Russ Whitney??

Ok… I’m sure all the gurus have been covered extensively, so forgive me if I am retreading old material.

I recently went to a Russ Whitney weekend. Yes, the sales pitch was heavy, and the way they try to get you to max out your credit cards so they can get you to sign up for advanced courses can easily leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.

But after seeing/reading/listening to my share of gurus, I thought the material presented was very clear, simple, concise, and the trainers knew what they were talking about. What got me excited was that (A) the advanced training really seemed thorough, and (B) they really send a coach to your town for 4 days for personal training? Can’t ask for much more than that. It seems failure-proof.

Has anyone here had any experience with Whitney’s advanced trainings?? Any thoughts?

I’ve never been to one but have heard nothing but negative comments.

http://www.foreclosures.com/pages/gurus_to_avoid.asp?gID=41#Entry

http://www.reiclub.com/forums/index.php?board=29;action=display;threadid=10695

Yeah, I have read most of those… but they all are complaints about the high-pressure sales pitches. I would really like to hear from someone who was “suckered” into taking the advanced training, to hear if they felt it was worth it.

Just read his books…

…oh, and he does have a cool mortgage calculator on his website that I use a lot!

Keith

Keith…

You might be right… but I am a big, flippin, baby! I need hand holding!!

;D

Trust me, Leiter…it’s NOT rocket science. You’d be way better off finding a local mentor that understands the local market and, for a percentage will help you with the first few!

Keith

Any suggestions on finding a local mentor?

Try the local REI Club…

Keith

Yeah, thats a pretty good idea. I have two clubs within a half hour from me, and haven’t gone to a meeting yet. I will absolutely go this month. Thanks Keith! That’s good advice.

I am realizing that I’m nervous about making a costly mistake my first time out. Best to ‘man up’ and deal with it. I’ll definitely hit the local clubs.

Would still love to hear from anyone who has actually dropped the $$$ on the Whitney advanced training.

Been to a couple seminars of his years ago, didn’t feel the need to shuck out the $$ for the advanced training. I highly recommend his book “Building Wealth”. Costly mistakes can be mitigated by developing a relationship with a mentor of some type; you’re on the right track with this board. Get to your REI Club meetings and make contacts. BTW, those costly mistakes; once paid for; can be your greatest wealth builder. Expect and welcome them.
Regards,
Dave

I wonder how long it was going to be before someone else mentions Russ Whitney’s organization. My husband saw his info commercial one late night and decided to attend the free “seminar” here on the coast. We went to it and ended up signing papers for bootcamps/seminars/books. There is always a catch when they advertise a “free” seminar. It’s a sales pitch to get you to spend more money than you should. That was our mistake.

All of the Whitney products were informative, all the boot camps we attended (we attended about 5-6 camps), we calculated how much money was spent with these camps and travel expenses and it pretty much maxed our credit cards. One weekend, we spent over $9,000.00 in books/tapes. It is so easy to get into buying all this stuff, whereas maybe we could have tackled one thing at a time and not be persuaded that we had to purchase their products. We have both met Mr. Whitney in person and he is obviously well known in the Cape Coral area.

The only “negative” thing I have to say is their products were way too expensive but his knowledge of real estate investing is very informative.

We had a mentor come down and stayed with us for 4 days and I personally didn’t think the mentor was ready or organized. I was very disappointed in the way it turned out.

If you have a chance to read any of his books, his books are very informative. However if you purchase any of his products (one time we ordered the same thing twice) it took the company 4 months to give us our refund. We sent the 2nd package back after they charged our credit card and we had to go through all the red tape. Anytime you call their 1-800 number, you get a machine, everytime.

Just my opinion.

The reality is you will always have negative feedbacks and positive feedbacks on all the realestate courses out there, its inevitable. I know people involved in his classes and have been very successfully. I actually attended his MU class in cape coral yrs ago with a friend for free since you can take someone and it was very imformative but was a basic class and one i do not recommend unless your starting out and have no knowledge. But the field trip for the day was great when they take you out on a greyhound bus to hunt for deals and show you homes. Makes you realize what to look for in rehabs.

His classes are taught in several different cities because its taught by seasoned pro’s who do this a few times a month. They do not hustle you to one centeralized school for each class since his mentors live all over. many people I know recommend is wholesale, foreclosure and asset protection classes…

Know what? My husband and I attended the MU seminar about 2-3 years ago too. Wow, small world. Chances are we all were there at the same time. I remember talking to an agent that he used. Kevin, I think was his name. I remember going on the greyhound bus!! Wow, small world. Who knows we probably was sitting right next to each other and didn’t realize that we would run into a reia site posting about real estate.

I loved the seminars we attended and we still have all the kits we bought. We know that there is very high potential to be made in real estate investing. At that time we was attending seminars, we never took the first step, until we started doing foreclosures. I loved doing that niche in real estate but I gave up too quick. Now I’m determined more than ever to get back into this re investing world. I’ve got thousands of dollars worth of knowledge sitting in my hands and now it’s time for ACTION on my part.

Lindi - But would you say his bootcamps are a waste of time and money?? Yes they are expensive, but you can recoup the money in 1 deal. I also know the instructors will help you work deals if someone was to call your cellphone during bootcamp and you need help. They actually encourage you to keep the phone on in wholesale classes like that and have that ad in the paper so you can start right away.
One of my friends, he lives in Calf and he attended 5camps , never did the mentor and is making a mid 6figure income from his education. But we all have to remember, its all junk if we do not apply what we learn, plus many people, including myself love hands on knowledge, its much better than books…

Also another good thing about Russ Whitney classes you can retake them again within 1yr for free which is something no one else is offering I thing and his message board is great also…

I think the Russ Whitney’s of the business are nothing but saleman. All they do is try to get you to spend thousands of dollars. I just can’t stand the upselling. You should be able to buy a course and not need anything else. Anyone who can’t prove they have done deals are not worth spending thousands of dollars on. I’m sure some of his books and products are decent, like most, but the sales pitches and upselling are a joke.

Russ Whitney is not selling a course with books, he is selling bootcamps where you have hands on training by instructors who do this professional and become available to you all the time thru phone and email once you have taken there bootcamp. He only has 2 or 3 people that teach a bootcamp for that reason.

Like Wholesale is only done in North carolina and Texas because of where they live…

Carlton sheets just gives you CD’s and books to read…

Actually a large part of the sucess of Cape Coral’s growth is directly related to Russ Whitney. He owned tons of land out there that he was selling at his MU classes for about 20-30% under vlaue and financing half of it for 3yrs I think. Plus he contributed money to build the newer bridge that opened cape coral up and built some new building like a city center or something…

This is more along the lines of the feedback I was hoping for.

So can you tell me more about the mentor coming out to see you? Why were you dissappointed? Did he help you make money?

Oh I agree with you on Whitney. No I don’t think his books or seminars are a waste of money. I’m just saying from what I did, after we went to the seminars, we was ready to take action. All I’m saying is his camps/courses was a little bit out of our league as for spending, but be prepare to shell out thousands of dollars, and I’m just saying you can get the same education for half that amount now days. But …I was also basing on what we did. I gave up too soon and just gave up. 3 years later now, I’m still in the same position as I was then. I’m not trying to be negative, hey that was then, this is now.

I have been on his message board on his website, it’s been a while but I do check in from time to time. I think we still have 4 bootcamps left to take so Monday morning I’m giving them a call (if I can get through) and instead of traveling to the seminars, they will instead give you a copy of the seminar on a dvd and so I am definately taking advantage of that.

Oh wow, hey did they ever put that new bridge up?? I remember them discussing that they were going to put a new bridge in Cape Coral…I think they was discussing putting a shopping center/mall.

I wouldn’t mind seeing it if they have completed those projects. I know alot of the city’s …whatcha call it, …Russ donates to alot of businesses/charaties and he’s very well respected down there.

The mentor was a female and let’s just say she was totally unprepared. All she did was take us around to show us how to talk to the homeowners. The whole time we was there, we either was on the computer or talking to homeowners. She didn’t help us construct a deal at all the whole time she was here. We didn’t make any money at all or didn’t get a deal. We were new, we never did a deal before. She didn’t even took the time to show us how to do a contract or anything.