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.
I just attended the event you held in Springfield, Mo., Sept 28-30, 2012. It was absolutely fantastic! You may remember the infamous dance off. Yes, I got new pants. Ha! Thanks for the $100! It was worth getting out of my "comfort zone".
After reading a lot of the reviews here, I find it unfortunate that some leave negative reviews when they either didn't stay for the whole event, or left because of a preconceived notion. I recall quite clearly that you stated on the first day that this was not a get rich quick plan - and later in the day, even offered to refund the $200 to anyone that felt that this was not for them. That scored big in my book. Yes, there was a pitch for the Mastery program but that should be expected by anyone with a lick of sense. The fact of the matter is that there was a bunch of very useful information though out the 3 days. I took so many notes I had to get another notebook for the last day.
During the event, I met Realtors, contractors, existing flippers, wholesalers and rehabbers as well as several newbies. In my experience, most all feedback I heard was very positive! On Saturday night after the event, I even went with some other attendees that I met who were rehabbing a house together and they kindly took me through and told me about their experiences. One had done 30 wholesales this past year and the other was on their 8th rehab this year. They were quite complimentary about your program and said it was by far the best they had attended.
I thank you, and the rest of your colleagues, especially Susan and Christy. As I explained to both of them, I am currently living in both Miami, Florida where my wife is based as a international flight attendant, as well as in Springfield. I am currently remodelling the house my house there to either put on the market or to use as a lease for passive income. Either way, I plan to use it as a start for my real estate business. It was by chance that I was in Springfield for the free session, and the 3 day event happened to be when I was going to be back in town so I decided to come. Unfortunately, my wife was out of the country and I was not able to get in touch with her about investing in Mastery after I was interviewed. I so wish she could have attended the event with me. With that in mind, I would like to say how much I respect the integrity of Fortune Builders for not pushing me to join the Mastery program without being able to consult with her first - even though I could have done it financially at the time.
I am very interested and think the Mastery program is not only worth the money, but the very best way to go. The coaching, workshops, programs and operating systems provided would make me much more comfortable as I pursue this adventure. When I am able to sit down in person with her, I am going to discuss the situation and if she agrees and you will have me I would love to join Mastery and be part of the family.
Thanks again!
Best regards,
Paul Lipscomb
I recently attended the seminar here in Pittsburgh and I am the type that is brutally honest almost to a fault, so with that in mind I am going to tell it like it is. First you have to say to yourself if you are paying to go see something you know at some point they are going to sell you something if not you are crazy. The seminar is design to be informational and to someone who is clueless to real estate investing it gives tremendous starting point to a individual.
It also gave out information on a system, how to implement the system and most important of all where they got it from that tiny little book called The E Myth. Remember it was at the very beginning,the system applies to any business not just real estate. So with that alone you can boost your profits in any field of business alone. If that is not worth its weight in gold than something is wrong with your mind but I will get to that later.
The fortune builders group also gives you a marketing system that again you can apply to something else if you choose to. The fact they give you a map in marketing real estate is a real gym. Its up to us to see if it works. As far as the real estate knowledge they give you surface information. I have invested before but the old way and unfortunately lost everything, this group is showing you the techniques that work today and some of the members lost the old way as well. The have gotten it all back with this system so that says something.
I am in the same boat as many with don't simply have the money right now. It by no means that this is not worth it and give it. The main message that alot have forgotten was to change your mind. Think about this, Ryan said at the seminar I attended that is you can not stroke a check for $20,000 then you and I have a problem, like all of us should do is take responsibility for that (might ring a bell, stop pointing out and point in)really look at the situation there is a way out and its up to all of us to dig ourselves out.
This is what really gets me people are disgruntled about the price of the program, do you go into a restaurant and tell them their menu is to high? Or in a major sporting event and the price of the ticket price is absurd? Or been told by a consumer in your field of business you need to lower your price? You got it exactly, if you would not do it to yourselves how can you expect them to? I give them credit they put a extreme worth and value on their product and offer it for sale. Its up to the individual to make a choice like we all have. They took alot of time and spent alot of money researching and simplifying the process. Do you all realize how much went into all of this? So how can we question the price this company set. Simplification is what you are paying for, and anyone that has invested before know that time is what takes up the most energy. I mean really look in the mirror Stevie Wonder this.
The price of lending is the price of lending, to many people spend countless hours counting other people money. So what they are making money loaning it to you, did you not hear what they told you? Its not yours just as long as you have OPM you can still make a fortune. If you took out a 100k loan with them and they made 14k in profit but you made 35k who cares, they showed you how to not only do one deal but multiples at a time with the same system. So you can do it ten times plus, I know if I made 350K in one month but losing 140k is too much. LMAO get real we all would love to be making that kind of money and they are showing how by guiding you.Also take a look how the owner of the company puts himself on the front line and take on critics live on his personal cell phone. Do you see the owner of Verizon,GM, Harley and etc. No cause most are to busy sending someone else to deal with that so if thats not integrity than I am a idiot.
Last but not least if anyone checked them out thoroughly, oh I'm sorry I'm going to give this away for free even though it took me 15 minutes to see so I could actually sell this information to you. They offer a opportunity to get the class for free, yes free its called a internship. Yes they offer it your time in exchange for there access and knowledge for 6 months. If you live in california or remotely close you and did not know that then, well take a look at yourself and you tell me. I'm here in pittsburgh and if that offer was here it would be a done deal and on my way to taking off to millionare status. You think I drank cool aid on this? You are sorely mistaken I like a few have change their way of thinking and is looking at something a different way!
Than will never stop sending you text spam. shameless !!
Feb. 4, 2014
Julius Haynes, I am also on the same page as you are, I just finished my three day seminar with Jeremy Black (on Feb. 2 2014) and am not able to join the mastery team right at this minute. But Christy gave me some great ideals to get to where I need to be so I can join the mastery team. I had a wonderful time with Jeremy (and the other members of the team that were there.) Jeremy, is very inspiring with his words and I will someday join the team and be a part of investing in my future. I have no ideal why other people can't see that you are investing in your future with the money not joining to spend money!!