Last night when I was trying to fall asleep(it was very late-that’s what I get for eating chocolate at 10pm), This infomercial came on with some person named John Beck. For 1/2 hour, he and 2 dupes read from cue cards how people have bought houses from tax sales “for pennies on the dollar.” I promise out of the 30 minutes, 20 were used to show photos of houses and them exclaiming “a person bought this one for $185.20! and this one $287.93!” and on and on.
I was so tired but had to watch as much as I could stomach with one eye half-open, wondering what poor naive souls would spend their money on his product. He never got to the meat of really what he was selling, but I assume it was how to look up tax sales, which we all know, you have to have special tools and training for. It was really sad. His emphasis was that it could all be done without leaving your computer, but even if you didn’t have the internets, you could do it by mail. WTF!?
They must have said 100 times: " And there are 1.8 million homes in the US and Canada currently for sale just like this one!" speaking of the $250k property that Clara H. bought for $300.00.
Cripes. P.T. Barnum never knew how accurate he was.
I agree that it’s too bad. These infomercials make investing seem easy and low cost. Although there are ways to make it low cost, it’s a business. I had a friend who attended one of Russ Whitney’s events and it was a complete rippoff. It left a bad taste with him on investing, so he hasn’t tried since then.
at the Real Estate Expo in NY a few weeks ago - i was watching many of these guys get up on stage and give their schpeel about 8000 dollar boot camps and the like.
that just didn’t sit well with me.
if you’ve got $8000 (depending on where you live) - use it to purchase a piece of property!!!
goto the library and get FREE rei material.
goto certain websites like this one and get a free taste of what you need to get started!
i mean, i think one boot camp was like 12,000.
$12,000 bucks!!!
R I D I C U L O U S
i have seen that guy on TV. i like watching it because he’s funny and i also laugh about all the morons who are actually buying whatever it is he’s selling.
i mean, if the guy wasn’t selling - he wouldn’t be on TV. for the life of me, i have NO IDEA how that guy sells anything. he just looks and sounds like a baffoon.
He doesn’t even have shots of himself sitting in his Corvette or on his yacht surrounded by beautiful girls, which is of course why we all got into real estate.
Pennies on the dollar could be 97 pennies on the dollar
Maybe he’s trying to sell, but hasn’t actually sold anything. Just because you put a commercial on TV doesn’t mean you make any money. It’s the same assumption I get from people that the seller must be making money in any sale. Stores have lost leaders, stores go out of business, not everything done makes a profit.
What gets me about that John Beck character’s infomercial is that EVERY property has some wierd amount they bought it for. Not $500, but $523.19. Not $750, but $768.91.
Who here lives in a town with annual taxes under $1000/yr for a $300k house? And since when do they auction a house off over $300 worth of taxes?
Those could be for parcels of land. Taxes on land are much lower than houses. The other possibility is that the lien is for a town water bill, but then again, it wouldn’t be a tax lien.
I do know someone in that situation in this state. He owes about 18k though and some company bought the tax lien. In about another 6 months, they’re going to go to the court and ask for the right to auction off the property in a foreclosure. I think they’re entitled to recoup their expenses and they’re getting 12% interest in the meantime. Any excess money raised in the auction is supposed to go to the current owner.
And of course maybe it just follows those other models of government auctions for cars at $50. They don’t tell you those $50 cars are burned out husks of cars good for scrap only.
Supposedly he is showing pics of houses and saying they were had for a few hundred dollars.