Consumer regulators across Australia are launching a national campaign against spruikers, who run get-rich-quick seminars.
Consumer Protection WA is leading the Australian campaign, amid concerns people are attending free seminars only to be pressured in to paying thousands of dollars for dodgy deals.
Click on the image above to watch the video report.
I went to a number of these seminars in the early 2000's - always found them interesting. The one that stands out was a company that when you sign up - you ended up using their lawyers, their accountants - bottom feeding at it's worst. The same could be said for many of the books that are promoted on investment - it's not the information in the book that gets you rich - you are making the author rich by buying their book.
I have recently attended one of these, interesting and scary at the same time. I think they did have a good few perks like they had good contacts in the industry but the guys (promoters and speakers) are not evaluating risk correctly for their clients. Encouraging people to take on ridiculous debt in times of low interest rates is scary, clients buying at 70% over CV and thinking that is ok, yielding 2% rental returns is a very very very scary outcome. Seems like a cult following, each member encouraging the other..... they are selling a get rich quick sort of scheme and people are cheering those that are buying multiple properties yet not understanding their risk vs your risk. Most amusing when clients/audience actually ask intelligent questions and the speakers/coach's fluff around the answer and confidently makes the person asking the question look stupid or uninformed - I was dumbfounded by the reactions of some of the audience who actually believed the answers given.
I've never understood how these outfits are able to "coach" / "tutor" unsophisticated "investors" into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt and concentrated property portfolios.
Why don't they fall under the FMA etc etc etc???... try to sell someone $1000 worth of shares and you have mountains of compliance work to contend with and have to have qualifications up the wazoo... but "coach" someone into a debt position equal to 8x their annual income and it's all gravy, even for mugs with no qualifications or oversight it seems.
Nikki Connors is now omnipresent on radio, TV and is now self-promoting her own book, Sean Wood from Property Tutors is also heavy on self-promotion and just generally blowing his own trumpet... BOTH have been declared bankrupt in the past.
Great timing. Nothing to do with the seminar in Auckland yesterday? It was incredible. The message is seemingly "borrow, borrow, borrow, buy, buy, buy and you'll be rich!". No mention of risk or market downturns!!
What do you mean? Property prices never go down do they? :)
Oh yes they DO!!! Property prices can drop like a tone of bricks, when the economic wind changes. Take this advice from someone who''s actually been through a property crash in the UK and survived it. Even in the very affluent area were like London and the South East of England. It took at least five years for property prices to recover and in the less affluent areas of the UK house prices still haven't recovered back to there 2008 prices.
So be very careful where you invest, if the general population can't afford to pay the high cost of rents or house prices, it's a bad investment even if you're in it for the long haul.
But seriously, a fool and his money right?
You can't legislate against 'stupid'.
If people are going to give their money to these people, there's little anyone can do about it.
The only people guaranteed to get rich are the ones running these seminars, its money for jam. No risk for them just all talk. Wake up and smell the coffee people. My advice is free, you don't need multiple properties to get rich, just payoff the one your living in ASAP. Once you don't have to pay a mortgage it changes your whole life and its not all about money, its about what money cannot buy its called TIME.
Agree about the only ones getting rich are those that run the seminars. I probably learn more through being a member of the Property Investors Association. I finked books ok but usually only but from upshots. I find they are good at motivating me.
I am not keen on these "free" seminars. I was thinking more along the lines where you pay me money to tell you what you want to hear.
Should run same campaign in NZ.
Just think about it, if they know that well how to get rich with property, why don't they spend their time doing that rather than run seminars ???
@Davo36 hahaha you are right absolutely.. we should start a seminar ;)
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