Reasons To List With A Professional Real Estate Agent (This is the 8th in a series of 10 real life situations)
TV Star Real Estate Flipper
Sunrise Florida Local 10 News viewer Rafael Mendoza called the “Call Christina” hotline, saying he couldn’t get Armando Montelongo’s company to respond to his repeated requests for a nearly $1,500 refund.
Mendoza said he wanted to get his money back after he claimed the three-day seminar he attended in 2014 didn’t deliver on a promise to reveal the secrets of making a fortune flipping real estate. Instead, he said he was just badgered to spend even more money.
Television personality and self-professed real estate guru Armando Montelongo claims to be America’s No. 1 home flipper, calling the people who buy into his products “students.”
Some 423 individuals who attended Montelongo’s seminars filed a lawsuit alleging that he sells “worthless, dangerous, and unlawful information” and “takes advantage of the students’ trust to loot their accounts.” Of the 37 plaintiffs who live in Texas, six reside in San Antonio.
Rick Koerber, who became infamous in Utah for his “Free Capitalist” real estate investment seminars, has been given 14 years in federal prison for running what prosecutors called a Ponzi scheme, according to KSTU.
Koerber was accused of using his companies, including Founders Capital, Franklin Squires Investments and Franklin Squires Companies, to garner investments with promises of 24 percent to 60 percent annual returns between 2004 and 2008.
Selling Real Estate Investment Training Packages
The Federal Trade Commission and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection sued Nudge, LLC and affiliated companies, alleging that they make empty promises about earning money by “flipping” houses, to convince consumers to buy real estate training packages that cost thousands of dollars.
According to the complaint, Utah-based Nudge markets its training through real estate celebrities who promise to reveal strategies for making “amazing profits” at seminars included in the packages.
“These defendants presided over a sales process that started with empty promises of future wealth and ended with many consumers left in financial ruin,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The lure of easy income is strong, but consumers should stop and evaluate the facts behind any money-making promise.” In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Nudge’s revenues from late 2014 to late 2017 alone were more than $400 million.
Attend A Real Estate Investment Seminar
Far too many of these seminars are a waste of valuable time, oxygen, and (most important) money. Some of them are all-out scams, claims Brandon Turner of Bigger Pockets.
They may lure you in with big promises or guarantees of financial freedom, saying they’ll teach you how to make lots of money. But many real estate investment seminars are scams, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
People get invited to a free seminars. This usually is in the form of a weekend boot camp that costs a few hundred bucks.
This, for the real estate educator, is a way to filter out all those who don’t have the funds to make a larger purchase, which is what the weekend boot camp is usually about.
Attend and you’ll likely learn just a bit more, but much of that event is focused on the next upsell—the $30,000, $50,000, or even $100,000 coaching or education platform they’re offering.
Digital Real Estate Investment
According to the investment firm Charles Schwab, one in 10 investors will eventually be victimized by an real estate investment scam. Seniors are targeted more often than younger people.
“Even more onerous are investment scams that lure people, especially non-technically savvy individuals, with fake profiles or catfishing schemes. Fake cryptocurrency-style investment schemes litter the landscape,” Vena told the E-Commerce Times.
Scammers are growing their stolen rewards as they become more skilled in using fraud tactics online. In 2018, the median loss from investment scams was $2,262. The median loss from investment scams in 2022 was $21,727.
A growing part of the real estate investment thievery involved phony crypto deals. By far, the most common payment method in such scams was cryptocurrencies. Investors lost over $880 million worth of crypto as per 30,162 reported investment fraud cases.
Contact Us
Tucker Benner Realty, LLC‘s licensed professional agents can help you invest in real estate. We can help find and secure rental properties without seminars or promises. Call or text today 231-730-8781.
Marilyn Tucker
