FortuneBuilders.com is an online education website that teaches its members the ins and outs of real estate investing. Run by Than Merrill, Paul Esajian, and JD Esajian of A&E’s “Flip This House,” FortuneBuilders claims to have courses available to people of all levels of real estate investment experience.
Though this may seem like an odd time to become involved with real estate investment, fans of the show “Flip This House” understand that the concept behind Merrill’s investment theory is buying homes cheaply and finding ways to quickly and affordably fix them up for a solid profit return on your investment.
How Does FortuneBuilders Work?
Fortune Builders functions completely as an educational company. Working with professionals in every aspect of the real estate industry, their course curriculum covers a wide range of real estate related topics, including but not limited to what to look for when buying an investment property, what remodeling projects offer good investment returns, how to deal with the tax implications of quickly buying and selling property, and how to successfully market and sell your property when the time comes.
Having recently been written up in Inc. magazine, FortuneBuilders is growing quickly. Perhaps one of the best reasons why is the wide variety of ways they handle their classes. You can take an in person seminar from one of the three owners or many faculty members referred to as a 4 Day Bootcamp seminar, which is a type of crash course to being successful in the real estate industry.
In addition to that, Merrill himself offers a brand new webinar each week on a topic relevant to investing in today’s volatile real estate market. They also offer eBooks and online classes, in addition to a selection of DVD series on a variety of topics.
Finally, they offer the FortuneBuilders Mastery Implementation Coaching Program to a select group of members at a time. This series includes in-depth training from a variety of professionals who have been and continue to be successful in the real estate industry.
Is FortuneBuilders Right For You?
Fortune Builders claims to work with people of all different levels of experience, but what they aren’t clear about on their web page is what sort of resources you must have at your disposal to begin a career in real estate investing.
A quick glance of their DVD training series will be enough to stop many people, as the DVD training courses are priced at $1,197.00 each. A further investigation shows that investing in many of their coaching programs often requires investments of thousands of dollars.
Though prices in the housing market as low as they’ve been in years, you’ll still need the time and money to purchase, fix up, and a market a home. As these figures vary widely from region to region and project to project, Fortune Builders wisely makes no promises as to what is required from you for potential success. But it does seem fairly clear that being serious about switching to a career in real estate investing will certainly require some significant investment capital.
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I left there thinking this is only the tip of the upsell iceberg and after doing some online research, I am correct. I would hope you could find better things to do with 2 hours than sitting through this painful exercise in patience.
Sadly, I can never get those 2 hours back! Thanks Danny for nothing. Oh and by the way, I am smiling now as I write this.
Thanks for your humor and response. I really appreciate your insights and comments they are refreshing...and most likely accurate!..Back to the future would be nice....
Well - it didn't. I would repeatedly ask questions that they would tell me had to be answered by my attorney. The weekly classes were full of "rah rah" and very little, if any, substance. The "how to" of flipping and the forms were so basic that anyone who has ever flipped should already have them in their arsenal. My colleague went to the live seminar to see if we were actually missing something and they tried to sell him the EXACT SAME THING for $5,000!
Now, I'm just plain indignant.
And, just in case you think you should join for the financing or the magic "list, don't. I can get better financing through my credit card company at 20%. Not to mention their financing requires an inordinate amount of money down - even for hard lending companies.
I could go on and on . . .
Before we signed up, we made good money flipping. After we signed up and used their techniques - absolute disaster.
We're no longer doing what they suggest. And I wish I could get my money back. That $30,000 could have gone to another flip and actually MADE US money!
Run . . . run fast.
Did Pat Precourt threaten you with a deflamation and slander lawsuit?? that the reason your post now clarifies a few things..
Anita, you were ripped off and that is the bottom line..
I am very pleased that Pat showed genuine concern, conducted the interview with the utmost integrity and contacted me several times until the issue was resolved.
In all fairness, although the program did not work for me (which apparently occasionally happens), it does go way beyond just coaching. There are hundreds of people who HAVE built very successful businesses utilizing this program.
Also, I would like to correct an inaccuracy in my original post. After speaking with Pat, the program my colleague was offered at the seminar was not the exact same thing as what I originally invested in. That part of my post was not correct and I regret the error.
By the way, I read some really ridiculous things in some of the reviews. After being in business and dealing with customers, I would just advise you to have your opinions about people who would complain about them not being served coffee, thinking that they should be given a product for free, etc. Also keep in mind that the "buy now" is not a new concept. Resorts, hotels, car dealerships, and many more have some kind of a "if you purchase now or online or something", you can receive a discounted price. This should definitely not be a surprise. Even the well known department store, Sears, has different prices in their catalogues if you purchase before a certain date.
So in conclusion, I did not feel pressured in any way. They simply offered me a course that I would rightly pay for and I could accept or decline. When I said it wasn't the right time for me, they shook my hand and wished me well. And I left there with much respect for Jon and that team and for Fortune Builders and happy that there are still people out there trying to be positive. Thank You.
Just want to tell you I felt the same after the 3 day seminar.
Thanks...
After the lunch break I thought maybe he would resume giving us insider tips on how to go about starting in this business, only to be disappointed once again. How dare these "millionaires" claim to care about uplifting the community by asking people who are clearly at their wits end financially, to spend the equivalent of some people's yearly salary on a mentorship that promises nothing? I may have made poor financial decisions in my past, but I am far from stupid. After finding out that their intentions were far from helpful to anybody in that room, I decided not to return after the afternoon break. Perhaps the most insulting part was the threats from "Matt" that any negativity or words of discouragement would be thrown out of the "seminar". I thought to myself, "How are facts negative?" and "How can he throw me out of something that I paid for?". One of his "advisors" said that I should open up several credit cards to invest in this madness!!!!!
Perhaps I had my stupid shirt on that day. I was thoroughly annoyed and insulted with the majority of these people's antics. Only the weak minded would allow these people to believe that they are out for their best interests. I know that I am capable of achieving success without the "help" of these greedy misinformants. DO NOT BUY THIS!!!!Learn it on your own. Learn from my mistakes. I hope someone from FB reads this and develops a conscious....
Good for you that you you were annoyed by the flash of the presenters!
I'm relieved to see that you are flipping houses and not teaching anymore. I would hate to think my kids were being taught by you. You can't even spell or use proper grammar. There are so many grammatical and spelling errors in one paragraph that I could barely understand what you were trying to communicate.
Relationship: *Consumer Comment
I take umbrage against the claims that there is nothing to be gained in the $197 3-day seminar for the "flip houses" Fortune Builder's weekend. A solid 25% of my weekend was about flipping houses. That is HONESTLY 25% of down to the bone information on what a real estate investor is and is not (I learned that they should not be conflated as speculators - a thought that had not occurred to me). There was some amount of information on how to be one. So to suggest it was ALL a sale to sell the honest to goodness position as a student of the successful Fortune Builders system is disingenuous. And you are just one of the negative people who were warned early in the program that one of their seminar mates would inform the administration of the seminar and have them REMOVED. So, pay your $197, sit down, follow orders and if your financial situation is compatible, pay your at least $14,995 to have any chance of competing with the overwhelmingly organised organization.
You see, to suggest that you could ever, EVER compete with this system is LUDICROUS and, in short, impossible. So stop your God-Danged negativity and get off of your back-side and live your dreams! Live them now or you suck! There are three types of people: those who do nothing, those motivated to change their lives and pay $197 and take notes at the speed of light before the slide changes, and those who do all of that and have immediate access to multiples of thousands of dollars or other financial resources/contacts. The message here is => the former are "losers" and the last, "winners". Thank god I attended because life has never conveyed this message previously. If there is any doubt as to the complete veracity of my rebuttal, look up the word: facetious.
Seriously though, it is a brilliant program in its conception. It is masterfully deployed to the masses in a bullet resistant woolly Kevlar business suit. I fail to see its morality as anything more than any other investment, as they pointed out themselves, "franchise like". On the contrary it is marketed as a helpful solution to that which ails you. It is not. It is, very probably, a good wolfie investment in, well, a woolly Kevlar sheep suit. Thanks Ryan for the good info. but seriously I wish you would go all the way with the Karma narrative and just teach house flipping all weekend. Reduce the days to two, for example. Positive affirmations and motivations are fine. I have Tony Robbins CD's that I have been using as Frisbee s for 15 years. And for God's sake, kill the goofy videos. They are tooooooo "rich and cheesey", not NINJA and a DEAD GIVEAWAY.
If you knocked on my door, I would think you were offering me a SCAM. At least an agent/broker is licensed in the state and USES the state forms for purchase and agreement APPROVED by the attorneys of that state! The forms in this program may not protect you!
Work with an agent! This is worth it!