About Real Estate Elevated
Maybe you have a friend or relative who’s always talking about the money they’re making flipping properties. Or, perhaps you’ve observed several episodes of popular home-flipping TV show. Either way, you want in on the action. But where can you learn the tools of the trade?
Recommended by Tarek and Christina El Moussa, stars of “Flip or Flop”, HGTV’s hit reality show, Real Estate Elevated is real estate seminar that promises to assist you in “building your future” by learning how to flip houses for profit. Through the Real Estate Elevated, you’ll study:
- The components of house flipping
- The secrets of finding deals in quality neighborhoods
- How to close deals
- Planning, goal setting, resource protection, funding acquisitions
You may have noticed that Real Estate Elevated’s seminars are constantly visiting new cities, so there’s possibly one in your area at this very moment. But before you spend your own time (and your cash) at a Real Estate Elevated workshop, there are some important things you have to know.
Real Estate Elevated’s reviews are a mixed bag. There are many positive reviews as well as negative ones. However, it’s very important to remember that a lot of the feedback is similar to other real estate classes we’ve analyzed (we’ll go into a whole lot more detail about this in the next part), so the bad reviews are anything to be worried about.
Many of these real estate seminars are discussed on BiggerPockets.com’s forums. In general, the two most common problems were:
There was a lot of up-selling. Some people believed that around 70% of the seminar was centered on convincing attendees to purchase additional courses. One of the first “homework assignments” in these workshops would be to call your credit card company and request a limit increase.
Some people also said that about 30% of the seminar included useless information, saying that much of it could elsewhere for free, including online property forums, books, and local real estate organizations.
This widespread negative feedback might make you run away quickly. But is that warranted?
Our Experience With Property Seminars Like Real Estate Elevated
Over time, HighYa (a third party review platform) has reviewed several popular real estate course programs, including Flip with Scott Yancey, The Flipping System, FortuneBuilders, and more. With the Scott Yancey course, attendees were also asked to attend upper-level events. No matter which real estate course you take, people will try and up-sell you.
Like seminar attendees mentioned in the last section, they experienced quite a bit of up-selling and “pep talks” for motivation. The up-selling felt highly relevant to the topic at hand.
These kinds of workshops might not be your cup of tea if you’re sensitive to sales pitches though.
What You’ll Learn Might Not Be Unique
Do Tarek and Christina have their own tricks of the trade which they mention in these classes (assuming the information is made around their training; more about that shortly)? It’s certainly possible.
But a lot of what you’ll learn — especially in the lower-level classes — is probably tried-and-true data which can be found elsewhere for free, or for a small charge, like books or online forums. However, when you change to the high-level classes, you’ll start to learn more and more about the real estate field. The lower level classes are more of a foundation.
It’s Your Responsibility to Do This
Throughout class series like Real Estate Elevated, you’ll probably study information you may immediately think isn’t insightful, regardless of your experience level. But when you fail to act, then a lot of your investments can have been for naught.
Instead, if you’re committing to an event like Real Estate Elevated, be sure you understand your attitude going into the seminar. Put simply, if you’re not likely to implement the data (or at least utilize it), then you must strongly consider whether or not it’s worth your own time and money.
Who are Tarek and Christina? And what business do they’ve speaking about flipping houses?
Tarek El Moussa became a licensed realtor at the age of 21, which is how he met Christina. Business was going good before the 2008 stock market crash. This made the couple transfer into a $700 per month house from a $6,000 monthly mortgage.
At that time, Orange County, CA (where the couple resides) was one of the hardest hit areas in the United State for home foreclosures. Tarek and Christina soon chose to take advantage of the situation. They started buying, fixing, and marketing homes for profit (flipping houses).
In 2011, Tarek chose to send HGTV an audition tape. Amazingly, less than a year later, he and Christina had their show named “Flip or Flop”, that has become a breakout hit for HGTV.
Today, Tarek and Christina run their own property company, Next Level Property Investments, and also have become prospects within the Real Estate Elevated course.
May Tarek and Christina Attend Your Workshop?
Christina and Tarek didn’t start these workshops independently, even though it might appear to be the case. Instead, Real Estate Elevated workshops are owned and operated by a firm called Initial Mentoring Inc. (also referred to as Premium Financial Training) based out of Salt Lake City, UT. In reality, this is the situation for several other celebrity endorsed workshop-based property training we’ve examined in the past.
What does this mean for you? These functions controlled by an independent corporation, having their own teams and speakers. Tarek and Christina’s are utilized mainly for marketing purposes. As a result, unless you obtain a higher-level function (or get lucky at the lower tier seminars), Tarek and Christina probably will not attend. They can’t be everywhere at once.
How Much Do Real Estate Elevated Seminars Charge?
All the Real Estate Elevated seminars you’ll see advertised online (for example on their home page) are for their free preview events. Like most of the other property programs we’ve assessed, these free seminars are intended to give you a sense of what you might learn by investing in high level seminars.
Although these companies rarely — if ever — advertise their prices, one BiggerPockets community user said the following:
3-Day Event : $1799
Jewelry Enrollment: $26,297
What constitutes the Silver, Platinum, and Stone packages? We’re not told.
Will Real Estate Elevated Seminars Help You “Build Your Future”?
According to the organization, Real Estate Elevated can help you “learn just how to construct a business and be real estate entrepreneurs.” is that this what you can realistically expect?
It’s certainly possible. But perhaps more importantly, is a Real Estate Elevated course worth your time and money? Is it a good value? It depends on your needs.
If you’re a self starter who’s on a budget, and loves learning new things independently, Real Estate Elevated may not be for you. You can find lots of sites and thousands of books dedicated to the topic, which are often used for free or at a small cost. On top of this, nearly every urban area in the United Kingdom features numerous real estate networking organizations, where you are able to speak to other people, who are able to offer valuable advice.
Pro tip: Remember that the Real Estate Elevated website doesn’t claim that you’ll always understand everything within their classes. They say that, “with each deal, [Tarek and Christina] have refined their property-flipping method and put it into repeatable steps.” However, you’ll observe they’re not declaring this is what you’ll discover; simply that this is the way Tarek and Christina approach their business.
At Real Estate Elevated you will have access to useful tools (including software) and other companies, like lenders who are willing to invest in your potential house flipping business.
Despite the negative feedback surrounding a lot of real estate seminars like Real Estate Elevated, the fact of the matter is that you will find thousands of satisfied customers.
Ultimately, it is your decision if you want to take a Real Estate Elevated course. Real Estate Elevated’s free workshops are occurring constantly at places all around the the US and Canada, which means you won’t be out more than a few hours of your time for giving them a try.
