Posted by John Behle on January 26, 2002 at 15:41:26:
In Reply to: starting this business with no money question posted by Dawn Owens on January 26, 2002 at 10:10:08:
My post about doing a follow up seminar to cover elements the high priced seminars missed or glossed over was related to a different set of seminars.
Russ's infomercial is new. I have glanced at it, but not watched it clear through. All I have heard about Russ or his materials has been positive. His basic course is just that - very basic. You would need more advanced materials to really succeed in the business. I don't know much about his coaching or more expensive services.
Generally my advice is to study all the lower priced materials and courses you can find before spending thousands for some kind of seminar or coaching system. Like I mentioned, I don't know how Russ handles his coaching - I'd read the information very carefully before spending a great deal of money.
Some of the coaching services are a joke. They have young kids with no experience manning the phones. They hope to give you a "Rah Rah" motivational experience for a long enough period of time that you won't ask for a refund. Most truly do hope and expect you to make very few calls and have the attitude of "we have their money - to h@#$ with them".... and have literally used those words.
At the same time, there are coaching services and programs that do try to help their students succeed, but they are the minority.
As to whether you can do this business starting with no money and little time, that depends on the person. Yes, it's possible, but the odds are very high against it.
To be successful in this business, you need to learn to find notes, negotiate well and pay a competitive price for them.
1 - FINDING NOTES. There are many posts here about finding notes and articles to read at this site. There are over a hundred sources and those that are successful in notes know many sources and tend to find a "niche" market with a sources that is little known with no or little competition. Those that are un-successful waste their time on sources that are highly competitive, expensive to follow up (like mailing) or produce little supply of notes. Bottom line, if you can't find the notes the business won't work. They don't fall out of the trees at your feet like some would have you believe.
2 - NEGOTIATIONS. Once you find a note and make contact with a note owner, you need to move quickly and smoothly. You need to arrive at a price and terms that meet their needs before someone else beats you to it. The baloney about find a note and list it or shop it to funding sources is just nonsense if you want to be successful. You will need to negotiate successfully to achieve a price and terms to keep your seller, funding source - and yourself happy. At the same time, you will need to gather information on the note so you and a funding source can truly weigh and price it.
The seminars teach that you only have to be a bird dog. Walk out your front door, look at the millions of notes waiting there on the ground and point to them while the funding source does all the work and wires thousands of dollars into your account. Oh and by the way, you'll also lose weight and your vision will improve.
This is a real business, with real profits and real "hypsters" promoting it in an "MLM" type manner. I don't post Russ in that category, but most of the high priced seminar people I would.
3 - FUNDING THE NOTES. The whole industry of finding and funding notes has been radically changed in the last few years. There are thousands out there trying to find and fund notes that don't have a clue what they are doing. Most are broke and dependent upon funding sources that don't always perform or in the worst case scenarios cut the "finder" out of their commission. The well established sources won't do this, but how is the new finder supposed to find their way through the "hype?"
The best approach is probably to take it one step at a time. Learn to find the notes. Hook up with another broker or "Master Broker" to handle the negotiations and funding. NOTE - - - there is no magic in the term "Master Broker", it is just a term used by one of the seminar companies.
There is no licensing or approved training or designations in this industry. When someone used to come to us with some imaginary designation or initials after their name, we used to be thankful for the "warning" because it meant to us that they had insufficient training, unreal expectations and no experience. At one convention a franchisee of mine got tired of the newbies strutting around with their initials. He wrote "ADB" behind his name on his name tag. When people asked, he explained it meant "Already Doing Business". So, don't be caught up or impressed with any so-called designations or "distinctions" in this industry.
Now, many that do have those designations have gained some experience and training, so I wouldn't write them off, just don't be overly impressed or influenced. At one point a few years back I looked at a list of the "Master Brokers" and a very large percentage of them had never been through the course that awarded the designation or had already received their training and experience previously. I had trained about 20% of them. There was one group holding an infomercial a few years ago and I had trained most of their "successful students" they claimed. All of which had said they had learned little through the group holding the seminar when I met and trained them later. People like to be on infomercials - and it brings them business.
But, if someone is starting in the business with little cash or time, the best approach would be to hook up with someone else that knows their way around (that may or may not be a coaching service). Then learn the next stage of negotiations and funding. You can then step into the role of broker yourself and make greater commissions, but the true profits in this industry are to be in the position of funding notes and buying them for your own account. I'm talking about buying notes, not just getting into the position of a "Mega Broker" as some of those pretending to be funding sources are. I'm not recommending being a Metropolitan either. Nowadays they have become more of a broker themselves. They had somewhat of the right idea at first. They bought notes for their own account and issued annuities through their life insurance company to raise the money. Now they spend more time brokering notes off to other institutions or Wall Street.
Funding notes is a totally different subject than this post and is covered well in the articles and posts at this site.
- Re: starting this business with no money question Robert Sheldon 01:35:43 12/06/2003 (0)
- Re: starting this business with no money question Jim Z. 19:47:18 2/03/2002 (1)
- Re: starting this business with no money question Daniel Barr 00:38:44 8/01/2004 (0)