Carleton Sheets infomercial
Question: does anyone have knowledge of the Carleton Sheets infomercial real estate course. its principal goal was to educate the purchasers on tips and techniques for purchasing property. The infomercial is well done, and seems to be legit.
any info would be helpful Then there’s Wade Cook. I attended a Cook free-bee introductory seminar as a heckler some years ago, Cook was promoting buying & then selling little/no/down. So he goes off on how it is a benefit if your buyer doesn’t pay the note you’re holding and you have to foreclose. WHAT!! This is sheer stinking madness. Folks is foreclosure routinely file multiple bankruptcies and stall the actual foreclure sale for YEARS. But if you’re a dumb sh*t and Wade Cook or Robert Allen or ???? tells you “this or that” you’re just happy.
Answer: Okay, but there’s a flip side to holding the note and having to foreclose. You’re the bank — you’ve been getting the principal and interest for however many years before the deed goes into default. That’s a *lot* of money. If you take a look at the ammortization table for a note of, say, $100k ammortized over 30 years at 8%APR, you’ve primarily got interest-only coming into YOU each month, with very little principal being paid down. Yes, it’s a risk to carry a deed — but many people I know think that the money paid over the life of the loan is worth the risk of foreclosure.
In some states, you can even write off the expenses of holding the note and/or producing a successful foreclosure. Plus, in many states, the amount of time to get a house back through foreclosure, including the bankruptcy problem, is negligible compared to some others where it *can* drag on for years at a time.
Holding a deed isn’t right for everyone — but for many, it’s a profitable business. FRESNO, Calif. – Wade Cook Financial Corp., which holds investment seminars costing as much as $7,995 to attend, was accused by California prosecutors Tuesday of defrauding state residents out of as much as $18 million.
CEO Wade Cook, the onetime Tacoma cab driver who is the best-selling author of books such as “Wall Street Money Machine,” also was named a defendant in the civil suit filed in Fresno County Superior Court.
The suit seeks civil penalties of at least $4 million.
Prosecutors, who describe the company’s classes as “bogus,” are seeking refunds of as much as $18 million for tuitions the company received in California in 1995, 1996 and 1997.
They say the company failed to inform students of a state-mandated three-day refund period after they signed up for seminars. The suit didn’t specify the number of alleged victims.
“Everyone who signed up during a seminar is entitled to a refund of their tuition because they were not advised of their right to cancel,” Alan Yengoyan, senior deputy district attorney of Fresno County, said in an interview. “They refuse to provide refunds to people entitled them, even though they know the law.”
The Tukwila-based company’s current contract says: “Buyers shall not be permitted to attend a seminar until the right of recession period has expired.”
The suit also alleges Wade Cook Financial and its chief executive misrepresented the company’s stock market success. The company, which claims it can teach people how to make 20 percent a month in the stock market, lost $804,493 trading for its own account in 1997.
The suit, filed jointly by Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Fresno County District Attorney Edward Hunt, also challenges the company’s money-back guarantee policy for seminar attendees.
The company offers a money-back guarantee if attendees don’t make at least a 300 percent annualized return on three stocks recommended by the company within three months.
The California complaint alleges the guarantee is “absurd” because the company would claim a stock that rises 25 cents to $20.25 during a day, for example, had increased at an annual rate of more than 300 percent, satisfying the guarantee. The complaint alleges this interpretation was used to prevent and delay customers from obtaining the benefit of the guarantee.
Wade Cook Financial’s general counsel Kiman Lucas said she can’t comment on the suit because the company hasn’t yet been served with the suit.
“We are proud of our policy of providing full refunds to any customer who requests one within seven days of registration for a seminar,” she said.
The company faces a similar suit filed last May in Texas. It has said it believes it didn’t intentionally engaged in false or misleading acts in that state.
It also is under investigation for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the states of Washington and Illinois, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. In responses to those allegations, the company has said it doesn’t believe it violated any applicable laws.
After the Fresno County district attorney’s office informed the company in March that its refund policy violated state rules, the company said in a November SEC filing that it “currently” offered refunds for a seven-day period.
California officials said they’ve tried unsuccessfully since last March to obtain the names of students in the state so they could inform them of their right to demand refunds.
It’s unclear how Wade Cook Financial would pay any fines or penalties. As of Sept. 30, its working capital deficit was $10.1 million, meaning its current liabilities exceeded its current assets by that amount.
In November, Wade Cook Financial reported to the SEC it was delinquent on $2.7 million in state and federal taxes from 1997, and it hadn’t made any estimated tax payments for 1998.
“The accrued liabilities do not include penalties and interest, which may be material,” the company warned in its filing.
Wade Cook shares fell 6 cents to 75 cents Tuesday. They’ve fallen 78 percent over the past year.
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