Should you spend your last $500 on a course?

I don’t know if this question has been asked or not but I would like to ask it.

Let’s say a person is unemployed and only has $500 left in their savings. They have about 2 more months before the unemployment runs out.

Should they or should they not spend the $500 on a real estate course?

Even if this course promises in writing to make them $5,000 or more in 1 month.

A friend of mine asked me this question and I told him that he shouldn’t spend money he doesn’t have but maybe I was wrong. What would you do…?

Tell your “FRIEND” to save their money. Real Estate courses are sold by SALESMAN who could not make it in real estate but are good at selling things. However they were never good at ACQUIRING things like real estate… They piece together other courses and articles.

How many GURU’s really ever show their holdings to the public??? Out of all the guru selling courses, I believe Carlton Sheets (outdated and no longer around) was somewhat solid and worked in the 80’s to late 90s. Also Russ Whitney which is a bootcamp style classes thought throughout the USA by investors was excellent hands on training for 3 days and he was one of the mian reasons Cape Coral exploded during the boom. He owned tons and I mean tons of vacant lots in Cape Coral and was selling them cheap with owner financing at the beginning of the boom to boost the home sales plus he donated tons of money to the area for developement.

I think Becks tax lien is the biggest waste of $20…

Tell your friend he is better off buying $500 worth of scratch offs…

yrush,

What do you mean Carleton Sheets is no longer around? I recently surfed past his infomerical on TV.

Dwaynex,

If your friend knows nothing about real estate or anything about the myriad of real investing techniques that work in today’s market, then I would say that investing in Carleton Sheets’ newest course would not be a waste of money.

I agree with yrush that the first edition of the Sheets course that taught the investing techniques that worked in the 80s is outdated material. However, I believe Sheets does update his course every two or three years so that one of the newer editions should be teaching techniques that work in today’s market.

I would never spend my last $ on a course if I need the money to feed my family. However, if your friend is planning to purchase a course anyway, tell him/her to look on ebay. Even the newer Sheets courses are sold on ebay at prices that are cheaper that purchasing new from Sheets.

Dave. Did not know Sheets was still advertising. Have not seen an infomercia of his in years on TV in Florida. He was probably one of the real true guru’s out there at one point.

Dwayne, suggest to your friend that he hang onto his $500 and sit down and read this forum.

After he has read past notes, he can come and ask for clarification about things he doesn’t understand. Then he will still have his $500 to use for things like advertising to get him started.

I know darn good and well that you have read nothing on this forum. The question of paying for guru courses is asked several times a week. You couldn’t have missed the answer if you’d spent so much as 30 minutes reading.

Your friend isn’t going to get much help if he comes on and tells us he has no money, no credit, no job, but he’s ready to make his first million and wants us to tell him how in 25 words or less. But if he will read the exisiting notes first, he will get some good help if he asks some reasonible questions.

Tell him to send me the money and I’ll tell him the “secrets” that only the “insiders” know.

It is difficult to say what another person should do with his last $500 as we do not know what motivates him nor do we know his level of faith in his belief system. What is easy to say is that I was in a similar spot many years ago…out of money, a wife, 2 small sons, a heavy mortgage, and a big car payment. I believed I was doing the right thing to (spend) invest in my future to turn financial things around and I really believed in myself as well as the R.E. Investment Business.

I did invest my last sum of money. It is now 20 years later and I’ve successfully completed over 400 deals, and have a successful investment business as well as a successful consulting business mentoring others on how to invest in real estate, notes, and mortgages.

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it will achieve! I say…Go For It!!!

Rob in Atlanta
R.E. Investor/Mentor

a lot of my courses I picked up on ebay. That is one way to stretch $500 dollars.

In a down economy w/ rampant unemployment, it would be silly to spend your last $500 on a REI course when you know your last income source is about to run out. If your friend is that desperate to learn about REI, tell them to go to their public library and start reading the forums here.

There’s enough free information on the Internet, for the most part. No one can guarantee you money. The old adage is true: if it sounds too good ot be true, it probably is. You have to work hard, there is no way around that. You reap what you sow, period!

I would use that $500 for something more directly related to investing like advertising or building a professional image before I spent it on a course.