Are Real Estate Guru's Worth the Money?

I was talking to a friend a while back about Real Estate investing. My friend and I talk about the subject of business quite a bit. We talk about success, the companies and the people that have become successful in business. When the subject of Real Estate investing came up, it lit a spark in my mind, a reminder of my first real experience in the field of Real Estate investing.

A few years ago, around 1998, I was up late at night and came across an infomercial on how to get rich in Real Estate. The infomercial said that a fellow named Russ Whitney was giving a free seminar that weekend in the next town over, Tacoma Washington. I had read a few books on Real Estate investing over the years and found the subject intriguing, but not to terribly exciting. I asked my wife if she was interested in attending, she was, so we went to Russ Whitney's real estate seminar that weekend.

The seminar was the first I had ever attended that had so many people in attendance. It was like what I would expect of an Amway convention with the amount of people it attracted and the excitement of the crowd. Now that I think about it, it was like an old fashioned revival, only with the music being played on CD's instead of live singers. Instead of preaching about an almighty God, they preached about the almighty dollar and how to get as much of the almighty dollar as you could by investing in Real Estate.

The seminar was somewhat informative, but they (Russ Whitney was not there, his disciples were) let you know that the real "meat and potatoes" could only be had by purchasing their tapes, books or attending live boot camp style classes. I believe the cost of a one week class was $1,500 and they "guaranteed" that you would come away with some very lucrative information if you attended these classes. While driving home I asked my wife what she thought of the seminar and she blurted "We need to go to the week long class and buy the tapes!" I'll have to tell you I was shocked. I had bought one of his books. But personally, I figured, what could they possibly tell me that I either did not already know or was not in the book?