From: J024330@LMSC5.IS.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM
Subject: Re: Tom Vu, anyone?
Organization: Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Inc.
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 93 13:22:27 PST

jsc@monolith.mit.edu (Jin S Choi) writes in

>I'm not sure if this is the proper place for this, but I was wondering
>if anyone knew anything about this guy.
>
>There's this Vietnamese guy that was on TV late last night here in
>California hocking his seminars as a way to quick wealth in real estate.
>He gives these seminars throughout the US and Canada, and I hear he's
>been parodied on Saturday Night Live. He deals in "distressed" housing.
>
>Does anyone have any interesting information about him or his scheme?
>Would anyone recommend his seminars?

After posting my previous post (SYTAM) I ran across the following file I
posted in misc.entrepreneurs about 1 year ago.  Hope you find it helpful.

------------------------------Start Article----------------------------

 I am a real estate licensee, but don't let that turn you off.  Many of the
 courses on TV put agents down as not being very creative in putting together
 transactions.  First some of my background, then an opinion on the courses
 and a plan of action for you to take.

 Background:

 My first introduction to real estate was by a late night television show
 starring Tony Hoffman, leader of "The Real Estate Superstars."  I listened
 with great interest, soaked up every word, and paid the $25.00 entry fee
 to attend the millionair maker seminar.  My father attended with me (he
 like I, was a dreamer).  We listened to Hal Morris (author of _Crisis Real
 Estate Investing_, and _How to Stop Foreclosure_), Paul Feiger, Phil
 Drummond, and another guy (I forgot his name).  This was in 1984.  Hal
 Morris gave an intro on how to purchase foreclosures from:

 	1. Buyers in trouble.

 	2. The banks after they take back the property.

 	3. People holding onto junior leins (loans, or mechanics, etc.)

 	4. And at the auction.

 His presentation was very good.  Of course, he had a lot of books and
 tapes to sell at this seminar if we wanted more information with a
 guarantee that if we did not put a deal together within 90 days, he would
 personally guide us through a transaction.

 Paul Feiger was the Government dole out specialist.  He spoke about the
 FHA 203k loan program, and how you could use this program to get money to
 fix up the distressed properties you purchased.  The trick was, that you
 did not have to use the money to fix up the property, but could pocket the
 money tax free (because it was a loan, not income), then sell the property
 for the amount of leins (including your 403k) that were against the
 property.  He also sold books and tapes on how to write offers.

 Phil Drummond I must say was the most creative of the bunch.  Is attitude
 was "why own when you can control?"  In a nutshell, here's the plan:

 	1. Find an owner/landlord who has a property for rent.

 	2. Make an appointment to see the property.  Make comments on
            how good it looks and how well the previous renters took
            such good care of it.  The idea here is to see if the owner
            is a happy landlord, or a "don't wanter."

 	3. If he's a don't wanter, offer to lease the property at 80%
            of the going rental rate, explaining that you will sign a
            long term lease, take care of the property and he does not
            have to worry about maintenance or vacancies.

            The catch: When you make out the lease agreement the name you
            fill in is _John Doe or Assignee_.  Somewhere in the lease
            agreement you write, "tenant may freely assign this lease agree
            ment."

 	4. You tell the landlord you want an option to buy, and you will
            pay an additional $50-100 per month extra as option money (lay
            away) to be applied against the down payment if you choose to
            exercise the option.  If you don't you forfeit the extra
            "rent."  The price agreed upon is based on today's real estate
            market.

 	5. Now that you have control of the property, you rent it to
            another individual, same terms, option to buy with a pre-
            approved price of say 5% greater than you entered into the
            deal with, with the original landlord.  You also charge full
            market rent, therefore getting a built in instant profit.

 	6. When the time to exercise the option comes due, you ask your
            renter if they want to buy.  If so, you collect your 5% profit
            on the front end (see paragraph 5), and assign the lease/op-
            tion you have with your landlord to your renter.  You step out
            of the picture.  If they decide not to buy, you keep the profit
            you made from the base rent, and use their additional rent, the
            option money to offset the option money you paid the property
            owner, and step out of the picture.  You've made a nice monthly
            income during the rental period.

 My father and I purchased all the materials that night to the tune of
 $1200.  Needless to say, none of it worked, and I had money to play with
 at the time.

 Since that time, I've purchased a lot of other materials ala get rich in
 Real Estate.  Yes, what they are saying can be done, but what they fail to
 tell you are there are full time professionals with the cash doing it and
 the competition is very heavy.  How many people do you think would
 purchase a $10 bill for $7?  Get my drift?  They don't cover the tax
 consequences.  In addition, I met one lady who took out her life savings
 of $75,000 to bid on a $200,000 property.  She won the bid.  Little known
 to her, across town at the same time, on the same property, there was
 another foreclosure auction, for $50,000 (total of $125,000 in leins).
 Another bidder won that foreclosure bid.  The lady I knew had a JUNIOR
 lein that was wiped out, in other words, she LOST her money.  Thank you
 TOM VU!

 Now you know my background.

 MY OPINION:

 You just got arrested for drunk driving.  Would you go to someone who had
 just finished Roy Bean's book and cassette do it yourself law course and
 ask them to defend you? I think not.  Well, that's about what you're doing
 with these Real Estate expert courses (oh boy, he doesn't like these
 courses because they are going to take commission bucks out of his
 pocket).  Hey, it took the full time professionals months, maybe even
 years to get where they are today.  Like any business, it needs to be
 worked, developed, and nurtured.  Don't for one minute believe you can
 learn it all in an 18 hour tape cassette course.

 Perhaps you've heard of Dave Del Dotto, or Robert Allen.  I used two
 approaches with them.  I challenged Dave.  I told him I had $5000 to
 invest (he says you need nothing down).  I offered to put up my $5000 to
 get a first property.  When I sold it at a profit, I would take back my
 original $5000, give him 50% of the profits and give 50% to a charity of
 his choice (his course was $350).  All he had to do was send the tapes and
 accept my a secured promissory note for $1,000.  This way, if I burned
 him, he could collect more than enough to pay him for his troubles.  Never
 heard from him.

 Robert Allen was a different approach.  His course was $4500 cash up
 front, or $6000 to finance with $2500 down.  I told him I was a hard luck
 case, could I just sit in one of his seminars.  I told him I owned a small
 piece of property in Silicon Valley, California but had absolutely no cash
 to my name.  I would practice what he preached (read his book _The
 Challenge_) and he could have 50% of the profits I made over the first
 year.  We could strike a legal partnership (general or limited, his
 choice), his name would go on title as joint tenant.  His office was nice.
 They call and talked to me but the final decision was mortgage the
 property and pay the $4500 so I could get the discount ( wish ol' Bob
 could see this go out to the world).

 You know my opinion.

 YOUR PLAN OF ACTION:

 Do as I did.  I enrolled in a community college and took _Principals of
 Real Estate_, _Residential Appraisal_, and Business Law I (contractual
 law).  The total cost including books and parking was about $150.  I
 earned real college credit that I applied towards my degree.  In addition,
 I learned more than all those books and tapes taught me, and what I
 learned was from professionals in the field, and geared towards my local
 market.  Not only that, but after 16 weeks I was qualified to take the
 real estate broker exam for the state.

 You do the same.  Go work as a RE Agent for about a year after you get
 your ticket.  You will absolutely, positively, definitely learn everything
 you need to know to persue this other fantasy in purchasing foreclosures.
 Wanna know what I discovered?  While I was learning (and selling RE) I was
 raking in a part time income of about $3500 per month in real estate
 commissions.

 I now know enough to produce my own books and tapes.  Why don't I do it?
 Getting sleep at night is one of my motivations. The Golden Rule is
 another (MAT 7:12, LUK 6:31).  I am, however, producing a book (oh, there
 he goes.....) entitled _What Your Real Estate Agent Doesn't Want You To
 Know_.

 OK there's my $.02 worth.  Do with it what you will.

 Good luck, God Bless,





Newsgroups: misc.invest.real-estate