I the intial 3 day training offered by the Income Strategies Institute offer July 6-8 at the Courtyard Hotel in Baldwin Park and found that this was primarily a "teaser" seminar designed to keep key information from you (and in some cases just flat out wrong), and ultimately sell you on $29,995 worth of addtional training
This training was hosted by John Hyland and found him rude and condescending. An inordinate amount of time was spent mostly talking about himself, and how great his life was, all the rich people he assoiciated with implying that we all could have the good life if we would just sign up for the $29,995 training package he was promoting.
He would not allow any questions what-so-ever. Any questions had to be submitted in writing to the desk flunkies in the back, where students could get answers privately. Anyone who dared ask a question was belittled in front of everyone for not being able to follow directions. Several students were labeled "Crap Magnets" to discount any comments he or she had and to keep everyone else focused on buying the $29,995 training package.
I intially signed up for the course because I am just getting starting in real estate investing in California, and was promised that ISI had a partnership with a network of realtors who would help newbies approach homeowners in foreclosure and buy their homes before they lost it at the trustees sales. This was not in any form presented at the training. We did have ONE realtor show up who spoke for about an hour about how great and wonderful her life was and described her humble beginings as an orphan in South American. The only thing she offered was that she had access to REO properties owned by the banks AFTER the foreclosure sale had already occurred. Big Deal! These properties are already listed in the MLS after the bank acquires the properties. John Hyland descibed this person as a Gold Magnet and that we needed to buy any deal she presented because she made $5 million in commissions only and had 8 others in line ready to buy her deals if we said no. Of course John Hyland's clients would get the first calls.
Also, John Hyland's teachings about the foreclosure process in California were just FLAT OUT WRONG. He said there is a 15 day, 30 day, 60 day, 90 day late notice with the home going up for auction on the 111th day followed by a 60-90 day cure period where the home owner had the right to get his home back simply by paying off the amount collected at the trustee sale. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG in the state of California where he was teaching.in California, there is only the notice of defalt, followed by the Notice of sale 90 days later, and then the Trustee's sale 21 days after that. There is no redemption period after the Trustee's sale in California. You would think with all the big bucks John Hyland was making by speaking in California that he would at least make sure his facts were right before selling a $29,995 training program in California.
One very good source of information for California Real Estate investors is Ward Hannigan who can be found at http://www.foreclosureforum.com if anyone would care to double check my findings.
Our group also got hit up to join the Multi-level Marketing company SureFire as a last ditch effort to squeeze cash out of the students. I'm not saying that this particular company is good or bad. But I did think it inappropriate for ISI, or (whoever these folks are) to be marketing another MLM company as a backend product to an investor's training. Being a successful network marketer myself, I can say that this type of compensation plan is designed to turn these so called entrenprenuers into a loyal customer base with their monthly $100 required autoship. The vast majority (95% or more) will never build a downline big enough to even pay for the $100/month it costs to participate. It's a constant battle of attrition since sooner or later the vast majority will cancel the autoship when they figure they aren't making any money promoting the company or theri products.
I was promised a software R2D2 STOCK TRADING program to be recieved at the 3 day seminar which was supposed to be well worth $199 I paid to attend this seminar. This did not happen.instead, I was told to download it at a foreign exchange website (www.isifx.com) which wasn't even opperational at the time I tried to download the program.
I also signed-up for a merchant account to go with my free website which wasn't even discussed at the 3 day seminar. So now I have to figure out how to make sure my credit card doesn't get charged for a merchant account on a website that I don't even have access to. I called the number given to try and cancel this ongoing charge but ended getting an operator's voice mail.
I did find the options trading and advanced technical training and mentor room training somewhat enticing, but after the listening to the condesending comments and attitude of John Hyland for three days, and all the other red flags, I opted not to commit any more capital. I did get the contact information of another student who did sign up and I'll post any additional relavant information should it become available.
I do agree with John Hyland in that doing something is far better than doing nothing. So if I had a choice of joining ISI or nothing at all, I'd probably pay the $29,995. Unfortunately for ISI, there are other training companies out there that are less expensive and offer better quality training from my experience.
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