Peter Flanagan seminar – anyone else go?

Steve,

I’ll answer your questions more fully tomorrow, just have time for a quick browse at the moment. Actually, I’d rather not be too specific on some items publically, so if you would like the unvarnished truth do you have a less public email address?

Dianne

“Make a decision, take the risk, pay the price, or reap the rewards”

The overall impression that I received at the preview evening from Peter Flanagan was that he was going to present specific strategies for the acquisition of cashflow positive properties and at least one strategy on how to deal with the market when it inevitably slows, and/or reverses.

I, also, found the preview evening to be well presented, tight, focused, and interesting, (unlike the seminar itself).

The actual seminar was over 3 days: Saturday ran from 9.00am to 10.00pm, Sunday from 9.00am to 11.30pm, and Monday 9.00am to 10.00pm which was a bit of surprise to me when I received the confirmation letter – these are very long days. As it turns out they were VERY long days – by Monday afternoon I was certainly very tired, brain dead and uninspired (and I believe I wasn’t the only one).

The information itself during the seminar was disjointed, scattered and scanty. For example one session was about negotiation (and a dead rip off of Roger Dawson’s stuff), then after a break we went into another subject (from memory a group exercise of how we would each increase our annual income by an additional $50K – although my memory of the exact order of things is now confused BECAAUSE OF the confusion and non-agenda and changing agenda) and then after another break we went back to negotiation where we had left off before.

The notes handed out comprised of a fancy looking folder containing 4 exercise books (the type you buy in a newsagency) some (I felt) poorly presented notes which sometimes did and sometimes did not relate to what was presented, and fortunately copies of the guest presenters’ slides – the most coherent notes of the lot.

Peter’s idea of presenting a strategy seems to have been, for example, saying that you can increase equity in a property by adding value such as a carport, mowing the lawn, doing renos, change the zoning, or aplit a big house into strata titles to sell off, and scribbling that onto a flip chart. And really that was about the depth and extent of his explanation. So much for strategies.

I never did hear what the strategy for a down market was, or maybe I just missed it somehow.

I complained to the organisers about how poor I felt the information to be, and I believe others did as well, and bingo! Next session he got up and said all the people looking for “recipes” to follow were basically poor misguided things who should pull their finger out and get creative and think outside the box (my words but that was the essence of his putdown).

All in all I thought that he talked a lot about concepts and very minimal nuts and bolts stuff. The first day was spent on personal growth such as mindset and thinking outside the box, not what I had expected. I have studied this sort of stuff with the best of them and Flanagan was a poor second (or third) behind in terms of his presentation skills on this.

One strategy that he did manage to explain a bit was what he called Vendor Finance Flip. It is (I think because I found it somewhat confusing) where you buy a property, on-sell with a 25 to 30% markup to someone who wants to buy but has no deposit. You line up bank finance for 80% of the “real” value of the house (ie what you paid for it so the valuation comes in to the bank’s liking) for the buyer and then arrange mezzanine finance for the balance of the increased price. The theory is that the buyer gets the finance with no cash down, the vendor sells the property outright with a markup walking away with the cash and no further interest in the property. The concept is that you are providing the finance package (as in a normal wrap) but you pick up the profit immediately.

I question the ethics of this one, plus if the vendor can qualify for the finance anyway why would they pay you the extra for the privilege? Flanagan would say that I see the “glass half empty” and am “problem focused not solution focused”.

The guest speakers on the other hand were completely different and professional. Dymphna Boholts presented a great session on structuring ie trusts, and even though I am familiar with this I did find out a few new things. Bill Zheng presented Creative Finance and again I picked up a few things. Peter Comben presented Creative Property Development and area I knew nothing about and found interesting if not a little scary.

Although Flanagan said in a letter that this would be “unique” and a “life changing” event, I certainly did not find that to be the case. I learned nothing from him that I did not already know, however the novices at the seminar probably would have found it of much better value than me.

I could carry on but I think you get the idea. I have sent the organisers a letter outlining my dissatisfaction overall, let’s see if I get an answer!

Dianne

“Make a decision, take the risk, pay the price, or reap the rewards”