What’s the Deal with Rich Dad?

Last night I attended a free workshop Learn to be Rich. It’s part of Robert Kiyosaki’s “get rich” empire. I just finished his book Rich Dad Poor Dad and happen to be on their mailing list, so I decided to check it out. What I discovered was quite fascinating.

About 50 people showed up for this free 2 hour event. A sharply dressed man was the MC and introduced a lovely young lady, Jessie Connor, a former Apprentice contestant. She showed pictures of her with celebrities like Regis and Katie Couric (to build credibility) then one of a shack where she grew up.

She told us her rags to riches story and credited her success to investing in a 3 day Rich Dad course where she learned everything she needed to get wealthy from real estate. Of course, she was pushing this course. “Sign up today and you get half off PLUS we’ll throw in a ton of extra stuff.” The cost - $495 for two people. Not bad.

Right away a lady stood up and registered for the class as our host Jessie encouraged others to follow. “Limited spots available!” I want to believe that lady genuinely felt a calling rather than the Rich Dad folks picked her off the street and paid her (she looked rather rough).

Then she gave us a taste of what we would learn in the course. If any of you have been to the course or any like it, I’d love to hear from you. Or if you have further insight about these topics, let me know. Here’s what she had to say.

During a foreclosure, there are three stages of opportunity:

  1. (Before) Pre-forclosure. Using Craigslist, she puts an ad “If you know you won’t make your next payment, call me.” Then she does a Sandwich Lease to Own. The link does a better job explaining this than I ever could.
  2. (During) Auction. She doesn’t like this method because there’s too many details. So she didn’t get into it much.
  3. (After) REO. This is Real Estate Owned (aka owned by the bank). For each house, the bank must have 8X the delinquent loan in reserve. Hence why so many banks are tanking right now. So they’re desperate to unload these properties and will do it at a bargain.

She also talked about:

  • Using lenders money to fix the joint.
  • Something about 3 month rehab and secondary markets. I didn’t really catch it.
  • Tax Liens and buying them at auctions (but she didn’t say how).
  • Wholesaling is a great way to rehab (buy-fix-rent). There’s no money down, you use options and there’s earned income ($5 - 10K each).

I’d love to learn more about this, but didn’t have it in me to hand over $495, although some of it was intriguing. We all know the housing market is “half off” at the moment, so nows the time to buy. Maybe I’ll catch the Get Rich folks the next time they’re in town and I’ll be the first person in the audience to sign up. Maybe.