Comments on: Rich Dad Poor Dad Seminars a Scam?

By: David M

David M — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:36:00 +0000

I went to one of these seminars in Pointe Claire (Montreal) and it was a total waste of time and money. All they did was try and sell me more lessons. Did not learn anything new from the seminar. Shame on you Richard….how dare you steal from good honest people. I should have googled you first before attending this piece of crap seminar. After searching online, I found the CBC video about your practices….

By the way, I have read the Rich Dad Poor Dad book and it is very good and provides great inspiration. Too bad, you are leeching off people with these seminars. My opinion of Richard has changed.

Save your money and time…..just read the book. It is very helpful book. If you can download the book, do it…..if he steals from innocent people at seminars then you can download the book online for free.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:13:00 +0000

Liz, I just finished the 3 day course yesterday but did not sign up for the $40,000 training they recommended since I needed time to look into how to free up that money and my wife thinks it’s nothing more then a big scam. I took the course with my son who also thought it was pretty good and we met some people who did sign up and we’ll keep in touch with them. I realize it’s not as easy as they make it sound and in the beginning it’s going to take a lot of time and energy. So far most post’s I read are negative and since you seem to have gone through the process I would like to know your story and if it’s working for you. I’m 56 and my son is 26 and we both still work and I think you need to do this full time to succeed. Any thoughts or advice you could give me would be appreciated.

Thanks

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:35:24 +0000

I attended one of these seminars in the UK several years ago now, and yes it was basically a long drawn out sales pitch to get you to part with a further £20,000 in extra courses (which I of course did not) and having already paid £650 for the two day course, (of which half a day was spent playing a bloody board game they were also trying to flogg!). Was a total rip-off in my own personal opinion, and if you want any further evidence then google ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad Rip-off’ and see what comes up!

By: youngandthrifty Rich Dad Poor Dad Book Review and Giveaway: Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki | youngandthrifty.ca

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:01:36 +0000

[...] successful book, he has created a board game, many other books, and even both free and fee-based seminars on how to generate passive income cash flow. He’s pretty much the cash flow guru and many [...]

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:44:45 +0000

I haven’t been the RDPD but others. They are definitely scam-y but not totally. They actually truly teach you a bunch of stuff that I’ve used in my short real estate career. It was beneficial as a novice, but someone in the business probably would not benefit at all.

Really, at the end of the day you can just say no and that’s pretty much it. I’ll admit that it’s predatory in the sense that they hope weaker people will fork over the cash. BUT I don’t think it’s a scam in the sense that they’re not lying to you.

They offer you a service, tell you what you get and it just happens to cost a lot. I read through the material that they had for sale and I promise that it looked so good and had so much real information that I would have bought it but simply couldn’t. (The one I went to cost $25,000) I told them I couldn’t afford it, thanked them for the seminar and that was it.

As for the RDPD book I found helpful. I didn’t really find it as a salespitch for cashflow.

I am esentially just waiting until I have navigated enough of the market then I will write a book that sells nothing but gives out all the information

By: Yansheelue Moua

Yansheelue Moua — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 04:48:09 +0000

its not about what he says, its about what he does, he is a business person. How many people can sell a book and convince people that this is how you earn money. Also, how many people can get a voice to to reach out and convince people to attend a speech you’re giving. THINK ABOUT IT. ITS ABOUT WHAT HE DOES.

By: Yelena

Yelena — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 01:22:55 +0000

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2010/road_to_rich_dad/main.html

Check the video!

By: Yelena Kuchumova

Yelena Kuchumova — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:28:55 +0000

I went for Rich Dad workshop in Montreal just yesterday and sure, the speech person for 2 and half hours was selling the course for real estate investing. First it was 495 or 500 $ for 3 days classes and then you can go with them to Honolulu but pay more of course, and make it tax deductable, because it is not just for leisure. That was a speech guy’s advice. I am a real estate broker and want to learn what I don’t know, though I work in real estate for 10 years and have investment properties but any way I hoped I can learn something new may be.
What I learned right from the beginning the person who gave a speech knows little or nothing about real estate in Quebec and real estate law. That was upsetting. You want to pay 495 $ for the courses where they will teach you that the banks repossess properties here in Quebec and by law do not have a right to rent them? Not true. No such a law in Quebec. Banks just don’t have resources to manage rental properties; they make money by selling mortgages. I sold 2plexes, 3plexes, 4plexes -repossessions and they were fully or partly rented and the banks were collecting rents according the law. Sure if the bank repossesses a single family house they wouldn’t rent it because they don’t have management for that. They do not need to rent the properties; they need to make money from mortgages.
The speech person then gave little hints how to find opportunities to get good deals. Just a few, because more you can get only when you pay 495 and attend 3 days courses.
But those few are also very unsupported and misleading. Buy a wholesale property to renovate and flip, and sign a deed of sale not on your name but on the construction company name and then after the renovation you sell and make tax free profit. What? No company will agree to do that and no law exists here in Quebec to do that! And what is it wholesale property? We don’t have such properties in Quebec!
You want to learn how to buy pre foreclosures here in Quebec? Pay 495$ and learn! There are no such sales here! Only bank repossessed already!
FSBO- for sale by owners! They offer to use this opportunity to get a good deal! We have statistics in Greater Montreal Real estate board- 85 % properties of FSBO end up selling with real estate brokers. Initially they overpriced or the same market priced as listed with brokers. Cases what I know and my colleagues see every day in our practice when people buy directly from owners, of course exist. Most of the time people overpay or pay exact market price and owners just make more money. How can you know prices for similar properties in those locations, the same size and conditions what were sold recently? The sold prices are confidential for public. We are- real estate professionals have access to that info. The guy also mentioned that we don’t have in Quebec on internet a full system where to find properties. We have! In Quebec we are almost 18,000 brokers use a system tool Matrix where all the listed for sale properties published with all the info. And we pay to use this tool. We use other sites only for real estate licensed professionals to order all the info for deeds of sale for any property. This info is confidential for public too. You have to be a licensed real estate broker to access the info!
The speech guy then gave another hint- find a bargain deal, analyze. You save 6% commissions. How? Pay 495$ to find out! How do you know then it is a bargain? How can you know prices- comparables what were selling in the area if you don’t recommend to work with real estate brokers? May be at seminar they will offer crystal ball? Very risky investment then!
Other things what I learned from the guy who also said he is a real estate investor. Buy a property with hard money loan, simply- loan sharks. What and amazing advice! You are not qualified by bank to get mortgage with2,25% interest rate because you don’t have enough income and your credit cards are maxed out and from loan shark you get a mortgage with 12% interest. How on Earth you can pay it back with 12% interest if you cannot pay 2,25%? Ooo, you can make a lot of money just for flipping the house? Again back to finding a bargain.
The speech guy’s other brilliant idea – you want to buy a house but you don’t have money for down payment– let the owner to pay you together with a bank- we say the name for that transaction here in Quebec- balance of sale. To get a balance of sale from the seller to the buyer if they don’t know each other or the seller can sell to another buyer without dragging himself into this is very little to impossible. Forget about single family houses at all! The sellers will wait for the buyer with money then! Yes, we do some deals with balance of sale- most of the time rental properties with prices over a million when you are required to put 20% down payment minimum by law. Then for sure, you have 200,000 and 50,000 is just missing, we can negotiate for a year or 2 to repay. The guy gave an example as himself. He bought a property with 12% interest and 5 years of balance of sale, and 3 years later got a call from the lender asking to repay his money. The speech guy said – now he was in control and hung up the phone. He wants to use this money. Common! 12% interest? Be serious? You want to repay as fast as possible the balance of sale just do not pay such an interest!
The speech guy gave a wrong terminology what I found very wrong, people will mix up then what is what- buy commercial properties, for example. It took for me a while to understand that he is talking about residential rental properties after he showed a picture of his 6plex. Commercial property is a property with commercial purposes only- restaurants, stores, salons, etc. Can be mixed with residential though. First floor of multiplex is a store and other floors are residential rentals. Again he didn’t know that for only commercial property you have to put down minimum 40%. Why? Because the banks know that this is very risky investment. What if the restaurant has a 10 years lease with the land lord and then goes bankrupt for example? You lose 3-5 thousand dollars each month. If you are not experienced in real estate just to do that I found this advice very wrong.
Buy a multiplex and convert in condos! Those guys should check first with city of Montreal. We have here in Montreal ban for the last 5 years for conversion multiplexes to condos! Just a very few areas are still allowed and you have to check with the city very thoroughly.
Pay 495$ and find out that if you don’t have time to manage you rental property by yourself you can hire a landlord. No, you are the landlord and you can hire a janitor, but by law here in Québec if you have more than 8 apartments you need to have a janitor. But if you hire a janitor for your 5-6 plex then what profit will you have in your pocket?
So, in conclusion, that was a waste of my time and people from Rich Dad workshop who came to Montreal to teach real estate investment do not know anything about our market, our law, our taxation, our mortgages- they are different for American mortgages, -our refinancing of the houses and use a wrong terminology for Quebec housing and real estate. They just want you to spend money on their useless seminars.
And when I asked the guys questions he just shut me up sarcastically saying he will answer the questions at the end or he doesn’t want to go to arguments when I said that he gives misleading information! He then mentioned few times that I am negative and he will not tolerate this negativity here. Wow!

By: young

young — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 05:43:23 +0000

@kris bolton- His books are great actually (I’m reading Cash Flow Quadrant right now and it’s very inspiring). However, charging someone $10,000 is quite a bit. In an extreme way, it is somewhat analogous to going to someone for cancer treatment, when you have no proof that it actually works, but it costs $20,000 per treatment. Is it ethical to charge so much for something when you know that people may be selling whatever possessions they may have in order to attend your course in hopes of striking it rich?

By: kris bolton

kris bolton — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 18:08:00 +0000

Wow this is hilarious!

Robert is a business man who claims to make lots of money!

People are acusing him of being a scammer because he charges/makes lots of money, BUT everyone wants robert to show them how to make lots of money too. Lol, what a contradiction. The fact that he makes lots of money from the seminars makes him a scammer? The fact that he charges high prices makes him a scammer? No! quite the opposite. The fact that hes making lots of money from these seminars goes to show once again he truely knows how to make money, so much so he even got money from YOU!!!

Ive read his books, about 5 of them. They are all extremely informative, inspiring and educational, they have changed my mindset actually. He NEVER EVER claims he can make you rich, he knows the answers or anything scammy. He also reiterates time after time that his words are just guides and you should do your own research.

It is not roberts vault you are poor, it is not his fault you paid $10,000. That was your choice, he did not put a gun to your head so stop winging about a guy who makes lots of money from perfectly legal means.