Awful, just awful

Posted by Dana on 2nd Sep 2009

I received tickets to a Russ Whitney seminar with my purchase of their material at the Learning Annex. The Russ Whitney seminar was held the following weekend and was supposed by a more in-depth seminar. Apparently by "in-depth they meant "hard sell" as that's all it was. Some enticing facts and figures about real estate were thrown around as were stories about how the presenters live this ideal life and spend all this quality time with their family. Oh, and I should add that at the beginning of this seminar we were instructed to not only NOT talk to each other about this seminar or the topics covered, but to inform the presenter or his staff if someone is talking negatively about this seminar/topics covered! I suppose if word got out how much the additional seminars were ($4995-$49,995--yes, $49,995!), and the whole weekend was just an upsell, then people would leave early.

At the end of day one, it because very obvious that the seminar was greatly lacking in the "how to" arena. Details were thown out, but they weren't in order, nor were they all that helpful. Details like writing "subject to" in any real estate contract, or lease optioning a house and then placing a simple ad in the paper and getting a renter for $200 more a month than what you are paying. ...Great tips, but they leave a lot to be desired!

Day two was just more of the same, except more hard closes more often through the day. I was one in a handful of people who didn't rush to the back of the room, credit card in hand to buy the next round of information, so I was encouraged to go for some 1-on-1 mentoring with one of the staff in the hallway. This "mentoring" was really a 1-on-1 hard sell pitch that involved shame, guilt and put downs. I was asked if I wasn't ready now, when would I be? Don't I believe in myself? And on and on. I finally got up and just left. ...Just so we're clear here, I'm not opposed to paying for information, but so far I'd already shelled out $995, plus my time for nothing--I wasn't about to let good money chase bad! My 02 is that you'd be better off joining your local REI club (or spending time here!)