Hello Jorge, ? You can cantact me at 949-467-1404. ?
Is joining TCS as a bird dog a good way to jump start one’s real estate investing business? I think once you get the leads, reputation, and hard money network, one could take off on their own?
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I understand there are a lot of less expensive ways to learn the method, but TCS is basically selling access to their “investor network”…which may take awhile on one’s own to achieve.
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What happens when the market goes up? are banks going to be less likely to accept the low ball offers?
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I’ve negotiated a significant discount to join TCS, but still sceptical.
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Any insider help would be appreciated.
I am a fellow TCS grad. Did you happen to join the seminar (a pitch really!) for PropStream? It is VERY expensive but an amazing tool. They also talked out using virtual assistants. I have a group overseas that I use. I?am looking for a partner to share the PropStream expense with. Thanks, Bill 310 897-1298
Andrew,? I found you while doing research on TSC Foreclosures.?? I am interested in learning short sales.? ? I live in TN and work full time on afternoon shift. (2-10pm).? I just completed my TN state real estate training and state license exam, and am about to get my license. But, my real desire is to get into real estate investing.? ? I’d appreciate any advice.? I am also a “Law of Attraction” believer.? Thanks???- Debra J.
Hi Debra, ? Congrats on your RE license.? Feel free to contact me directly at andrew@diamondequitynotes.com.? Or you can call me at 949-467-1404.? ? Andrew.
Hi Amber! ?I just joined TCS and would like to email further. ?Do they have a directory of members once I get going? ?Can we talk?
I worked there for about 5 weeks. The management was great, the training was very intense, the product is the real thing, the location was beautiful Irvine. The commission structure was good but it is hard to sell their training or anything for that matter over the phone especially when it’s $7500.00. People that do well are quickly promoted and some had a knack for this type of sales, most don’t. The people who had bought the system that I met and spoke to were very satisfied but you do have to work their program like any business. There was a large turnover because it is telemarketing and not for everyone. Everyone that was hired were seasoned professionals that had been displaced like mortgage bankers, car sales execs etc… Many that were not used to sitting in a cubicle for 10 hours a day cold calling Realty Trac members. My experience there was good except it was too far from my house, I didn’t like the hours and wasn’t making enough sales to make it worth my while…Go give it a try…It might be your thing !!!
Hello Amber, my wife just purchased the TCS foreclosure package and I was wondering if you can give me some insight to the business. Do you need any real estate experience or can anyone with a desire to succeed do this business. And does TCS reall y deliver on all of it’s promises? Please email me at asmendoza12@gmail.com. ? Thank you ? Steve
I took their $7500 class before the October stock market crash. ?After you join, you’ll hear TCS use the changing environment as an excuse to upsell you. ?“What worked a year ago doesn’t work now. ?You have to keep learning.”
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I know a guy who made a million last year in short sales (not through TCS and not without prior foreclosure experience) who can’t move his inventory now b/c investors don’t know what the value of property is now. ?The TCS investor network was the big draw for me. ?But your properties will matter almost exclusively to the TCS investors that are in your state. ?Don’t think that b/c you’re in a relatively stable market that out-of-towners will take an interest. Also, with the way it’s marketed to the investor pool, don’t expect investors to see all the work and best arguments you put together to show why the property is a good buy. ?(So why not just market it locally to investors on your own? ?Search me.) Furthermore, very few network investors are cash investors. ?A few investors will show interest, then disappear – likely unable to get financing.
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If bird-dogging is so lucrative, why do they have dozens of workers cold-calling RealtyTrac’s registered members – commission-only? ?In order of quality of life, TCS investors are better off than “researchers” (bird dogs) are better off than salesmen. ?TCS protects its investors. ?At the BiggerPockets real estate site, it’s INVESTORS that chime in as to how great TCS is. ?Furthermore, TCS tries to upsell bird dogs on PropStream, which bird dogs find gives outdated leads and is mostly a tool for investors to find neighborhoods that have a growing market.? If TCS is so great for bird dogs, why do they need to keep replenishing their ranks with such a huge sales force? ?And if you think you won’t have competition, think again. ?The rate of people entering the short sale and loan mod industry is very high. ?The barrier of entry is very low and groups like TCS are luring people in with promises of easy money. ?Furthermore, out-of-work realtors and mortgage brokers are better positioned than most to do this, and still struggle to make a single short sale. ?So naturally your competition will be huge. ?And don’t be surprised if you get fed up with attempting short sales and switch over (buy into) TCS’s loan mod program – and get nowhere with that too (nobody will do a loan mod with TCS for $3500 when they can get it done for $2k with anyone listing on Craigslist or found on Google). ?And if the TCS salesman tells you 40% of students complete their first short sale deal before the 8-week course is done, don’t believe it. ?It takes a month (and 500 letters; more, if you’re using outdated RealtyTrac data) to find a homeowner who will sign a contract, then a month to get all the paperwork needed from them. ?Then there’s the review period with the gatekeepers of the investor network, then a week of marketing to the small group of investors who paid $10k (TCS makes a lot of money in up-front costs) for first-crack. ?Bringing investors properties that are 70% of market is no guarantee that any investor will talk to you about it. ?This may have worked a year ago, but not now. ?It may work again in a year, once investors are confident the bottom has been hit. ?But I couldn’t get rid of a short sale that was half its purchase price a year before. ?I read yesterday of one home that sold for $1M in early '06 in Fla. that is now a short sale for $175k. ?With these decreases, have fun trying to sell your short sale contract to an investor who wants to resell.
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And good luck using the TCS approach of working with realtors to get away from having to do letters. ?I got a half-hour lecture from a realtor why they won’t funnel short sales to bird dogs who assign contracts, from protection of their 6% commission from being chopped down to 4% during lender negotiations to protecting their license from not serving their client to realtor unwillingness to work with a contract that says “assigns” to requirement of multiple thousand-dollar deposits. ?If I’d know that reasonable response rates of letters is 2% and reasonable conversion rates of respondants is 5% (not my numbers; got these from a real estate marketer with much short sale experience; I’m finding it’s true), I wouldn’t have gotten into this.
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If you still want to do this, there are other training courses that do this for much less (b/c they don’t promise access to an investor network). ?They’re sold on eBay for far more affordable cost. ?I heard of one short sale course in Florida for $500. ?One guy where I live gives seminars in the NE and on the west coast – but he doesn’t tell anyone that, since otherwise people will realize how hard even the seminar leaders have to work to make money at this. ?These lecturers are everywhere, so don’t think there’s a rush to join TCS’s webinars.
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And if you miss the start of one class, no worries: they’re starting a new one every 4 weeks. ?That should tell you something about the rate at which people drop out of their program, and how much competition you’ll have, and how much the teachers would prefer to bring in more students than to do the bird dogging themselves. ?One week they say they need you in your state to penetrate that market b/c they can’t do it on their own from a distance. ?The next week, they’re trying to sell you a $2k software packet that you’ll need to penetrate out-of-state markets. ?So “researchers” need to expand their radius beyond their state, and can do it, but they can’t?.. ?The contradictions just makes your head explode.
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Oh, and if you can get someone to answer your call or message on the fifth try, consider yourself lucky. ?I don’t know if they’re understaffed, always in meetings, or what, but TCS’s support is really weak. ?I have to second what Cibola said. ?What he’s saying means, don’t be surprised if you don’t break even in 6 months. ?Read more here about a drinking problem and low morale at the company: http://forum.brokeroutpost.com/loans/forum/2/217338.htm
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One argument they use to lure in bird dogs is, If we didn’t come through, the teleconferences would be pandimonium. ?Well, short sales take a long time to do, and nodoby’s going to say boo b/c they’re still waiting to find out whether it works or not. ?Six months in, bird doggers get up the nerve to criticize during the training calls. ?But even the training calls are self-selecting: if you think it’s a wash, how diligent will you be about calling in to an hour-long training session that you think is a waste of time?
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Some of you may think, it just takes one short sale to break even. ?Well, yeah, but meanwhile you spend hundreds on postages sending out thousands of letters to get one willing homeowner for a short sale the lender may or may not agree to, even after months. ?Then you have to find a buyer of your contract. ?I know one guy who secured 30 short sale contracts in his first year (back when there was much less competition, and he was working the Hispanic market), but didn’t do one single short sale, b/c he was weak on the investor side. ?Many people aren’t able to break even b/c after months of paying for postage, and incorporating costs, and for being drawn into upselling, they’ve run out of money. ?I’ve come across three such examples within a mile of where I live, so I know it’s not uncommon.
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(I know one person who’s dropped $40k on education, marketing, deposits, etc. and has yet to secure a short sale, never mind bring in an investor to close the deal. ?She’s unusually bad at business decisions though. ?I’m just saying that there are plenty of educators, marketers, etc. who will give you opporutnities to pay them money, if you have the money to cough up.)
Thank you CJ.
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Finally someone who has a straight answer.? You don’t need to spend $10,000 on a course to learn this stuff.? Throw a rock and you’ll find a foreclosure in your neighborhood.? Take a real estate attorney out to lunch.? Short Sales and loan modifications will be falling by the way side soon, we all just have to adapt.? We just have to understand that there is no easy way to make money in real estate.? Never was,? Never will be.?
Hail from South Carolina!
Robin Castin will not leave me alone!? Why do they think, ?just because I sell the heck out of SC, ?I will have time to do this too!?? Short?Sales Suck??? Way Too Much Time on Hold Waiting for Another Assest Manager.?? ?Have any of you heard of? Ameraco??? Cheap!? I do not think they are service minded,? books sent out and you are in the Investor River.???Please All Investors Email Me I will get Licensed IN your State,? I am Praying For An Investor River???Check out FINDITANDFUNDIT>COM??? Robin and I have talked, ?just about everyday soooo… Let know what is the cheapest I can get TCS for!? You Know …Just In Case?I Win the Lottery.-----Diane
Wow!
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That was one hell of a post!
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Maybe you need a cocktail after that…maybe a few.
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Good luck.
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There is money to be made in RE right now.? This deal didn’t work out after a couple of months and the guy is riping everything he can think of…
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Grab that cocktail and figure it out…once again,? there are ways to make money in this RE market.?
Thanks to Anonymous for his detailed experiences dealing with TCS. Robin Castin has been hounding me lately too. I brushed them off last year as an investor, but thought I might consider “researching”. Obviously many many obstacles to achieving success this way…Also subscribed to TCS data for about 6 months. Not once did anyone ever call me back on an enquiry I made on listed foreclsures. I really question how current the data is…
This wasn’t my experiance.? I must say, although I didn’t close anything yet, one is days of closing, tcs was great help in the process.? Any info I need they always respond.? Also, I asked to be on the investor side, and everytime I got a property and called Theados, he always replied.? I think it’s about time you guys will see what you can do for yourself, not what other’s can do for you… TCS is there to assist you, but can’t do the work for you, only you can. … good luck
Mr. Macia: Hello.? I am interested in doing what you are doing with properties.? In fact my business partner and I have three properties under contract in Texas and Nebraska which we want to assign.? Further,?two properties have equity ($70k and $40k), so all I want to do is sell the contracts (we already have people who will pay a mortgage via promissory note for these properties).? TCS contacted me yesterday and they want to get me “on board” on Monday.? I read what you said about the investors you are working with.? Please give me some insight. Thanks: Kenneth Daniel SOLAR of El Paso, Inc. 1-888-489-7771 www.solarofelpaso.com ?
Hello Ken. ? TCS investors are looking for properties that they can purchase at 70 cents on the dollar or better after rehab/repair.? Depending on the property, location, etc., they may find an investor who will pay higher than that…good luck. ? I’ve been hearing from TCS for months now that it’s a good idea to find your own investors and not rely on TCS investors soley…so, take that for what it’s worth.? ? Belinda,?a TCS trainer, just sold?a contract to an investor, (not a TCS investor) and supposedly made $20k…good for her, but she works for the company and uses outside investors…go figure.
Hello, I had signed up with TCS foreclosures on March 2008.? I invested $7800.00, but I never invested time with the program.? I am looking for a partner who can work with me.? I will provide the capital, and my partner will do the work.? Are there any interested parties out there?? Please contact me at jjbartolo@aol.com
total ripoff/don"t waste your time,money,or anything else—if they call hang up as fast as posible and never speek to them again,? total scam 100%
you will never recover your? money? ever!!!
TCS teaches you how to become what they call a?“researcher”.? As a researcher you’ll go out and find distressed homeowners in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure.? You’ll convince the homeowner that you’re going to help them get out of this mess by purchasing their property.? You’ll then proceed to negotiate with their bank for a short pay off of their loan.? Once you have negotiated a discount of about 30% percent you will submit the information to TCS so that they can shop the contract around in their “investor pool”.? Once an investor is interested you’ll make money by marking up the negotiated price a few percentage points and more then likely get paid out through escrow.?
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This is not a complicated strategy, but it’s just one.? If you’re looking to become an investor and have the money, then you probably don’t want to learn how to be a researcher.? You probably want to learn about how hard money or private money works, how a joint venture works, how tenants in common work…etc.? I’m putting this information out here?because I have done extensive research on many real estate investing programs, I have perchased many and I am a real estate investor, and yes I have brokered contracts before, and would gladly do it again.? This is not a real estate investing program, it’s a program on how to aquire properties and assign the contrcat.? It’s not a bad program, but it might not be for everyone.?