Robert Allen Workshop – Has Anyone Taken the Robert Allen Workshop!
Question: Just this past Monday, I attended the Robert Allen seminar, which introduces the basics of the Robert Allen 3-Day Workshop (Robert Allen Institute).
Has anyone here taken this workshop? I am considering it, but I wanted to get feedback first since it is nearly $4000 for the 3 day workshop.
I am a real estate novice, but I would like to start ASAP. I am interested mostly in finding pre-foreclosures or other “no money down” situations, where I can get purchase agreements to flip to investors.
If this is a good course for this, or other things, please let me know.
Answer: documents seem to show that Allen lied to the first-mortgage lender-Bank of America-about whether there was any secondary financing (there was-a seller mortgage) and about his intention to occupy the San Francisco condo as his principal residence (He lived in Provo, UT at the time and never occupied the SF unit). At that time, June, 1981, when home mortgage interest rates were at 18%, Bank of America would only make loans to owner occupants and prohibited all secondary financing. I have their loan policy for the date in question in the book, too. My wife was a loan officer for Bank of America at the time. [Note to bogus gurus: do not brag about deals that you do not want me to look into-especially in the San Francisco area.
At best, you would have negative cash flow following his books. At worst, you would go bankrupt and wind up in jail. He doesn”t put it this way, but his nothing-down techniques almost all require you to mislead an institutional lender or take advantage of an unsophisticated seller or both. The president of his Atlanta Robert Allen Nothing Down Club literally went to federal prison (at Eglin AFB, FL) for doing illegal nothing-down deals. There is virtually nothing in his material about how to make a profit. Rather he simply assumes that real estate goes up so much every year that you need only buy it to cash in.
Allen himself got into financial difficulty with the IRS as early as 1984. In 1986, IRS filed a $346,395.79 lien against Allen. In September of 1987, when I wrote an article exposing his financial difficulties, he also had:
* another $65,649.90 IRS lien * more than $76,000 of delinquent tax warrants filed by the State of Utah * lawsuits and judgments regarding over $100,000 in unpaid fees to fellow gurus who spoke at his meetings
Allen declared Chapter 7 (total liquidation used when the bankrupt has a negative net worth) bankruptcy in San Diego on July 10, 1996 (Bankruptcy Petition #96-09323-LA). Bankruptcy creditors sometimes get pennies or nickels on the dollar. According toAllen”s bankruptcy papers, his creditors got nothing.
Garrison: “I m concerned that our students are not using the real estate investment information we”re teaching them after the course is over.” Allen: (wearily) “We”re not in the real estate investmet information business, Marc. This is show business.”
If you paid thousands of dollars for one or more of Allen”s courses, I hope you enjoyed the “show.” Although I suspect you could have gotten more entertainment at the hottest play or musical on Broadway for a lot less.
WOULD YOU TRUST THE HEALTH OF YOUR FINANCIAL FUTURE TO SOMEONE WHO DECLARED BANKRUPTCY?
http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html#anchor496881
http://www.johntreed.com/Colemanemail.html
http://www.alwaysreview.com/robertallen.htm
http://www.onlycritiques.com/subcategories/RealEstateOpp/RobertGAllen…
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