Here is the full letter that was sent to the Robert Allen Institute's department of disputes all the way up to the Director Nicole Smith. Her thoughts were that she felt as if the integrity of the company was to give me a credit of $3000 of the $25,000 that I paid them because the program did not deliver on their promises on many occassions as said in my letter below. Please read below as I have done many courses costing in excess of $100,000, and have never asked for my money back.
Cindy Emily,
I wanted to inform you of my experience with Robert Allen and to help inspire you to take action to make me, the customer, happy. You and I have the power to help, inspire, and make a difference. As a businessman, I too am passionate about making every opportunity outstanding. I can see that one reason customers see RAI as an expert in the Real Estate field is because of the statements made on the website. As stated on the RAI Association website, 'The Association's staff is comprised of real estate experts working hard to keep continuing education available to graduates, while also providing exceptional events, publications, and assistance.' These expert qualities were demonstrated during my first experience with RAI, unfortunately I have not seen them since then.
I want to begin by letting you know that my time with RAI started in March at the 3-Day Real Estate workshop held in Clayton, MO. This 3 day workshop exceeded my expectations and was so outstanding that I wanted to continue my education on this track. I purchased the best package you offered and expected to again receive exceptional service and training. I was given a 1-on-1 mentor, the software, Real Deals, Quick Comps, and Deal Maker Pro. Additionally I was promised a Field Mentoring 3-Day seminar and a 3-Day J.J. Childers Asset Protection Seminar. Please keep in mind that I alone have invested $25,000 and my business partner Mason has invested $12,000. Together we have invested $37,000; if you include the $3000 that each of us spent on the first 3 day real estate workshop, it totals $43,000. Two days after signing up with the protg program we were considering canceling due to the many issues found with the software and programs. However Dan Sperry from the had spoken with the software development team and they knew of the issues and were working to get them completed. We also spoke with them during the same time and they stated how they would be using the foreclosure.com data and getting everything resolved soon. Out of good faith that this would happen we stayed in the program, but unfortunately have never seen this resolved or improved.
Excitedly I started getting into and understanding the software, Real Deals. I found there are some good pieces of the program; unfortunately, I found more issues than I found reliable information. As I got into the program, I found that 15 out of 20 times the listings in Real Deals were not accurate for my area. Not to mention, I have found many other programs that exceed the quality and reliability of information found in Real Deals and for a much better price. As the time went on I realized I was wasting more time trying to decipher the good information from the bad, and therefore I just can't use it because as a businessman that owns a few businesses, I can't afford the time it takes to find the exceptional deals.
In addition to Real Deals not fulfilling its advertised opportunities; neither has Quick Comps. I found it hard to get good comps in the St. Louis and Southern Illinois regions; which I don't consider to be 'rural' America. Eight out of ten times the free websites like www.zillow.com and www.bankofamerica.com were more accurate than Quick Comps. This again brings me to the question again, what am I actually receiving for the money I paid RAI if the information for my area is not accurate? I have heard that Quick Comps is better in areas like Chicago, but unfortunately, it is not beneficial to me in my region.
Aside from the issues with the provided software programs, I open mindedly attended the Field Mentoring Program.in fact, since we were asked what we expected and our input was given, the students were all excited to experience and learn all this course had to offer. Prior to any experience with RAI, I had purchased 4 properties in the foreclosure realm however I never fully understood contracts and the back end process and felt as though I was ready to learn more to make the process run smoother. I was sure this course would prove to be outstanding just as my first course was. Unfortunately, the course did not live up to any of the expectations set. The instructors were Alan and Wanda Grist. The group was not divided up into two separate groups like it was explained before.
The first day was spent reviewing what was covered in the first class, which came not only as a disappointment, but also a surprise. The first day is vital in setting the stage, pace, and expectations. Unfortunately, the day was not only unnecessary review, but also broken up and unorganized. If they were going to review somehow, they should have given homework prior to attending the event to make sure everyone was up to par, or at least listed some pre-requisites. It was a complete waste of time for all parties. We were given homework at the end of the first day to look for properties in the area of the conference.
Unfortunately, no direction was given. They didn't tell us a good starting place, what towns to look in, or how to identify a 'Real Deal'. They gave no instruction on what qualifies as a deal or how to analyze them. I paid for and expected professional real estate investors to teach me what they would do so I could learn from them.
The second day we drove around looking at deals all day with very little direction. I know that I did not get anything out of this day because I have looked a lot of foreclosures before, but what about all the ones that have never looked at a foreclosure before. The way all of us were sold on the whole protg package was that we would do our first deal at this field mentoring class and that would easily pay for this.
The third day we spent half the day looking at only one of the properties. It was one of those situations where we spent two much time discussing what carpet and other items would cost. The rest of the day was a review (this now makes a half of the course to be review) on the software deal maker pro. I thought that was what we had software advisors for! At the end of the day we knew what we were sold on did not happen when we got to the survey and a good chunk of the items on the survey were never even touched. If you don't believe me look at the surveys and see how many items people put N/A or 'did not do'. We never even looked at or wrote any contracts, which I would believe to be the biggest part of doing any deals.
As the course description noted, time would be spent looking for deals, putting bids on them, learning how to estimate repair expenses, and writing contracts. All of these activities would be very helpful for any new investor and how to find deals better, how to analyze properties better and writing contracts were main attractors for me. As a matter of fact, this is an outstanding idea that adds great value and great lessons. Unfortunately we spent time looking at properties that were not a deal.in fact many people didn't want to put a bid on them because of what they lacked. It is quite unfortunate for me at this time to note that I feel like the entire course was a waste of not only my time, but my money in travel and food arrangements, but also a waste of expenses on your part. If this was my business that put on such a disappointing course, I would be not only disappointed with my employees/contractors, but also highly concerned with the lack of respect for the attendees' time and desire to learn. I do hope that you are able to find a way to improve a course that shows so much potential.
In addition to us not covering how to write or create contracts to our needs, we did not even discuss which contracts were right for us in particular situations. With my Protg program, I received a book of contracts and have access to contracts on Deal Maker Pro. Again, you have great intentions, and you must be awarded for having great ideas. Unfortunately, as stated above, I am new to this industry and was looking for something much less complicated than looking having to sort through 4-6 different versions of the same contract. Just one of them would have been more than great if it could be usable with very little review from a lawyer. Unfortunately this was not the case. We also found many of the contracts are full of careless mistakes like formatting issues, numbering issues, indenting problems, and clauses that are particular to only one state. For a beginner, this would leave you wondering how you are supposed to adapt these clauses to fit your situation, which would have come in handy if this would have been covered in the Field Study program. One of the pluses about buying the Protg Program as it was sold was the access to consistently updated contracts and easily found. Again, it is unfortunate for me to report to you that this is not the case.
I do want to let you know that every experience with RAI has not been as poor as the experiences mentioned above.in fact, I have actually learned some things through a couple of the CD courses. I believe that most of the issues that are going on with RAI are both organization and training. I would have to say that if I owned RAI that it would be time to stop creating more content and programs and to improve and clean house on the ones that you already have. Getting everyone in a company on the same page and goal is crucial to the company's success. At this time I am done with the RAI program and do not have the time to wait for things to improve. However I do hope to come back some day and continue education once many of these issues have been resolved. I hope that you will follow up with what is advertised on your website at some point with 'providing exceptional events, publications, and assistance.' Until then, I have full confidence that after reading this letter you will put yourself in my shoes and you too will see that a full refund is both an admirable and courteous thing to do. I look forward to hearing the good news of my full refund from you and I hope that you and your business flourish.
Thanks again,
Nick
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