I was would like to know If someone could lead me toward a few other Guru's too study. I would appreciate and respect your input. Thank you

Here are some good ones:
www.bobbruss.com - his newsletter and reports are top notch.

Brian Wittenmyer - try Amazon.com to get his books: "Perpetual Income" and "The Hidden Secrets of a Real Estate Technician".

Gary Eldred - his books on Small Income Properties, Fixer Uppers, and 106 Mortgage secrets are all great. Again, check out Amazon or Half.com by typing in his name to get them inexpensively + used.

Frank Gallinelli - his book "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow".

Librarys are great places. Pick a few and read away. The objective is to come away from reading the book with at least 1 new idea that will work for you! Same principle with seminars. If you come away with at least 1 idea that you are capable of implementing that will work for you then it was a success.

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Paul Oaks
Broker\REALTOR
Coldwell Banker

You really need to stop looking for some kind of religious directive in real estate from a grue.

Real estate is a fluid career that has many changes at the fringes... fringes that often become the dominate activity.

No Grue can tell you the road to real estate salvation... your wasting your time and effort on such activities. Your as likely to make another poor selection as you did in your first choice.

The point is to find nuggets of gold from many sources that you can use in your own business plan. Don't be so blind and thick headed as to reject proven and effective techniques just because some grue "said" or "implied" it didn't work. Don't place any stock in "grues" that don't actually practice what they preach, often and as a major part of their business.

Pick up books from MANY different people... don't get stuck on just a few... gives you tunnel vision and that is not real world.

THEN, DO SOMETHING... don't just read and figure out how it can't work... find ways to make it work. You can read 27/7/365 but if you never put anything to work... why bother?

Drop the search for the all knowing grue... he/she/it doesn't exist.

I would suggest an "investment philosophy" rather than a "guru".

I advise my clients that I am most comfortable with Buy & Hold when investing. I want my risk to be a low as possible with real estate.

I have a web page here that describes this: http://donglasgow.net/default.asp_Q_f_E_cpg_A_pg_E_realestateinvesting1

This is my two cents worth based on experience.

Don Glasgow

St. George, UT homes, real estate, and foreclosures

Thanks for the advice. There are more "Acceptable" gurus to learn from, so I will keep my eyes peeled. Im sure I will learn a lot from doing deals through the years. Some of my list so far:

Robert J. Abalos
John Beck
Bob Bruss
CCIM Courses
George F. Coats
Jay P. DeCima
Gary DiGrazia
Joe Dominquez
Jane Garvey
Bill Mencarow
Kevin Meyers
Bill Nickerson
Leigh Robinson
Al Seastrand
John Schaub
Lonnie Scruggs
Bill Tappan
Lloyd Walters

p.s. I am intrested in checking out Bill Bronchick and the whole creative finance thing. Thanks

Total lost cause.....

Are you serious realty check? Learning is a waste of time? AT 26 im not about to learn from the wrong people. I'm darn glad there is a "Hit-List" (www.johntreed.com) available too weed out the Crooks. Please come into the light and post some Truthful/Helpful strategies when it comes to RE investment. But a lot of creative (bam-boozeling) which I'm sure some of it works for you??

p.s. Reader Beware!

Realty you may be right!

Montana,
The Hit list that you mention is just people with a different take than that of John Reed. That does not make them wrong or shady! You need to find something that works for you! If you get one concept from a book and are able to impliment it into your business then it was worth your time to read the book. When you look at these people look at their actual personal experience with real estate investments and are they still activelly doing it. My suggestion to you is go out and do a few deals then you have some experience to build on.

I totally agree that gaining knowledge and experience comes with doing deals. But.... I'm not dropping the text book (the right way) to pick up Realty's and others late night infomercial stuff. All the advice that I've gotten off this investment forum- I have read in reed's books.

P.S. notice the reaction to reed's and other legitimate gurus by some of these salesman (mr.check) .... They hate the light!

reminds me of a truly vow following priest giving sex therapy talks to a married couple. He has no idea what he is talking about but read in a book written by another priest.....

You should check Gurus list on John Reed's website.

http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html

I know jag- but convincing people on this forum that Reed is one of the best- is tough..

No kidding.

It's amazing to me that this guy 'worships' a self proclaimed real estate/investment guru that gives his track record as having bought and sold a grand total of 11 houses and apartments buildings since 1969 including the one he lists as his home address!!!

http://www.johntreed.com/Aboutauthor.html

11 units bought and/or sold in the past 36 years and the last one in 1992. Does anyone think real estate has changed just a tiny bit in the past 14 years??? ;-)

and then writes stuff like this self serving gem: "J.P. Vaughan
I almost never visit Vaughan’s Web site, Creative Real Estate Online. I think it’s a good idea and I’m glad it exists, but as a real estate investment information writer, there are several problems with my hanging around there. Mainly, I sell the sort of information that persons who contribute to CRE give away for free."

Here's the site he's talking about if you want some good, FREE advice.

http://www.creonline.com/

or just find a agent who works with investors and does the homework for you. Thats what we do (as agents.)

trust me, if they know what theyre doing their isnt anything "creative" or "secretive" about the business.

The amazing thing is they know what their doing.

You may want a mentor rather than a guru- A mentor is who is actually making a living in real estate investment rather than a "guru" who spends all their time selling courses and bootcamps. Be careful on selecting a mentor, the real estate world is full of less than ethical people who are looking for a new sucker to reel in.

Since this is the investment part of the forum, I must assume that you are talking about gurus for investments.
I was given a book from one of the 1031 Accomodators that I work with and its called
"Selling Real Estate Without Paying Taxes"
written by an atty in CA. (+ or- $20.00)
I thought that it was so informative I bought 20 of them for my investor clients.
Read it, Study it, and re-read it again. Very worthwhile.
Can get it on Amazon

I don't put too much into any Guru. I am working with many rookie investors doing thier first deals. Each is different in thier own way. Someone have a lot of money to put down some have little or no money. Some have great credit and some have bad credit. I think it would be difficult for someone to actually know all the laws of every state and be able to cover every type of prospective investor. Every situation is different. The best place to learn is from a mortgage company. He will be able to tell you what type of financing is available to you. Then you have a starting point on what to look for and what you may still need.

Montana, how do you know John Reed is legitimate?

For that matter how do you know the other two writers you advocate so often (Zito and Rodgers) are any good? They obviously sold you, great, but have you had any success following their teachings?

I'm not saying these guys are good or bad, just pointing out that from what I can tell you have no basis to advocate or pan any of these guys yourself.

Sometimes a lure is better at catching the fisherman than the fish...

I would say that without knowing what kind of investments you're speaking to -- it would be difficult to say.

Are you looking for this info for your own investments or for a client?

If for yourself, then you may want to first determine what/how you want to invest. Are you looking for new, rehabs, foreclosures, tax liens or what? That will help to narrow down your search.

We have several investment programs for our clients. We have a psssive program where we pay up to 20 points to passive investors. We have IRA programs that we pay up to 15 points for passive investments. We also have new construction for active investor/developers (less than 10 homes a year) where we teach new investors how to earn 30% and more on their investment capital. And, we also have a program for those who want us to build and manage property for them.

Those are a few of the very distinct groups we cater to. Each one is treated differently according to the clients wants. Each requires different expertise.

You might want to first figure out what type of investment you want to make or you're comfortable with. Then find those that specialize in those areas. I'd keep away from the infomercial gurus. You know the saying, "Those who can't - teach"

Just a thought...

Storm

Montana, you haven't yet said if these systems work in your experience. Until you speak from personal experience you're just parroting someone else. We're perfectly capable of reading someone else if we so choose, but you're preaching like it's gospel seemingly out of pure faith.

And not that it's remotely pertinent, but why did you say "Jflynn, your a high school grad" out of the clear blue sky? For whatever it's worth I'm not a high school grad - I dropped out of high school to go to college about 20 years ago.

This is what JohnTreed is good at and probably the only he's good at.

I can't say that he understands real estate but he knows how search engines work.

He knows that by creating pages and topics on his competitors, he can zap traffic from their hands. It makes a lot of sense to create editorial for dozens of gurus when you understand how search engines work.

Go to google or yahoo and search any of the gurus names and I bet it leads to John Reed's site.

On the topic of guruism I would stick with people that have done deals in the previous 2 years.