If you have come to this review post from Google or other sources I suggest read Part1 of this review before this post. I would also request the reader to pardon me if I have miss quoted the dates or any other info. I have gone through my emails, journal and all RESULTS documentation that I hold, in order to give you as much accurate information as I can, it’s been more than 5 years that I have joined this course, my memory has faded a bit since then.
If you read the book “From 0 to 130 Properties in 3.5 Years” by Steve McKnight he has been famous for finding properties that are positive in cash flow. The book documented his real-life examples accumulating 130 properties, going forward there was one more book released later called “From 0 to 260+ Properties in 7 Years”. If you haven’t read those two books I strongly recommend them they are good books to read.
Positive cash flow strategy
The strategy he used to build his 130/260 properties is by identifying and buying only properties that are positive in cash flow. Positive cash flow is the strategy wherein your property returns cash to your pocket from day one after deducting interest and other expenses.
There is a quick 11-second formula that he introduces to decide if a property is a positive cash flow or not.
Purchase price of positive cash property= (Weekly Rent/2)* 1000
I think he started building his property empire in the late 19th century or early 2000 (reluctant to read the book again to get the time frame). Those were the times when property market as relatively inexpensive if you apply the above formulae you are sure to find at least a dozen property not far from CBD. I also don’t think this was the only reason he was successful, what made him successful was his dislike to work in 9 to 5 job, motivation, persistence and a bit of luck.
Coming back to my story, I had a full-time job that demanded 50 hours a week, of course, I was looking a way out of it. After reading his book and following him for a couple of years I wanted to do something similar, I wanted to buy positive cash flow properties, which is something I can do on weekend, this was the main motivation for joining this mentor program.
The RESULTS mentoring program was designed in a way that all the material of the course is not given at once even though you have paid the fee in full. The material will be given in due time as modules to the student, starting with personal finance, saving concept, financial goals and motivation topics etc.
Material on property investment strategies which I consider is the cream or main part of the course will only be given to you after the first 7 months or so. This is a big drawback of joining in a group because the mentoring would be tailored to incorporate the least intelligent student, in this case, the person with more debt than assets.
Remember this is a one-year mentorship program, the reason I have joined the course was to learn strategies from the course and implement them in the market under their guidance, but the biggest drawback I have faced here was that the course would only leave me with approx 4 months of time to implement strategies on the field. There was the option of extending mentorship into 2nd year as a member but fees were no less it runs in thousands as well.
I have decided to look for properties that were positive in cash flow with the little knowledge I have and previous RESULTS program webinars helped. By 2009, the property market has gone through a couple of boom cycles, the prices were nowhere that cheap as they used to be. If I go to realestate.com.au apply Steve’s 11-second formulae there was not even a single property that I could purchase.
This was a hard realization for me the moment of truth that properties have moved up at prices and the same formulae will not work and there are no positive cash flow properties in the market. I remember having a conversation on this with my mentors, they agreed to my observation and their solution to this was to add value to the property by either renovating, subdividing or extending the existing property.
I was unhappy that there are no positive cash flow properties for which Steve was famous for and I believe we are sold that way as well. The reason I say that is, in the seminar he walked on the stage by presenting us with a property from realestate.com.au that was positive cash flow and said: “with lower interest rates there are positive cash flow properties even today, you just need to know where to look“.This idea of renovating or subdividing a property was something I wasn’t comfortable with and couldn’t grasp just with the sheer learning curve of transforming myself to the builder, to add to it was the timing left to learn and implement was nowhere near one year.
The program had money return policy prorated, if you apply the formulae it is heavily skewed towards the program. Every day I delay the formulae would take a big chunk out of the money I have paid. I had to make a decision], if I want to continue on this program -I need at least 2 years or quit now and go on my own, I made a decision to quit and collect what remaining money of mine from them and decided to go on my own, it was a tough decision as I have lost most of my money and the main part was disappointed as I wanted to achieve so much from this course and I had a lot of hope on this program.
Is the course total waste of money, I can’t say that as one of the guys whom I met at the course bought a commercial property with good profit margin in it, he could do it because that year when we joined the course commercial market was in a slump and he could use his existing properties as surety with the bank to get the loan and I also know one more person who completed the course and couldn’t benefit from it yet.
My observation is this course and its materials are not even worth a dime as they are irrelevant to current market conditions or basic, but if you are amateur you need that as a foundation to start on. The real gold is in the knowledge of people who are mentoring you as they have done multiple developments till now and it’s their knowledge that you pay these thousands for.
If you are planning to start as an amateur like me, I don’t see the benefit from this course, by the time you get materials and learn the year will be over, you will not get a chance to use your mentor’s expertise. This course is for people who have already done renovation, development or subdivision, this course can fine-tune your skills, as you can throw the material aside and talk to the mentors in making your investment strategy effective, that’s when you can get the value for your money.
I hope sharing my experience was valuable in your decision process.
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