Hi, I am currently doing the massland training and undertook this because of the same reasons as you…that is having someone that is willing to put up the money and help you through the negoteating process while you are learning, thus reducing the chances of making mistakes and potentialy lost deals.
The first thing i would like to say about the training is that Mark is definately very clever at finding solutions to maxamize the potential of a deal as well as great negotiating strategies with potential sellers, I too had reservations on how well this would work for me as i live in perth which also has a bit of a challenging residential market at the moment, However i do believe if you get the option system right you are eliminating alot of financial exposure as well as giving you the time to really see if the numbers add up or not, If not then you can walk away from the deal without any commitment.
I guess the nitty gritty of what did initially dissapoint me was that in the first couple of webinars i watched prior to deciding that this was the avenue i wanted to learn to get me into the real estate investing process was the main reason that interested me in the first placeplace,as i said at the biginning which is massland putting up the money and being there in the begining to get you through the deals, They will do this but what was not clarified until actually joining up was that they are only going to look at big deals before they will do the whole deal with you…..they do have a support team that you can e mail or call to help with advice on what and how to move forward if you get stuck or need help at any stage which is great,however i did believe from the first webinars i watched that even with smaller deals as you were starting out that as long as there is profit in it for them they would put up the money and provide someone to help with the option process until you were confident enough to do it yourself and really this is not so unless the deal is big enough, In other words if you are starting out with little or no capital you will still need to somehow find a way of going it alone to a degree or trying to find someone to possibly do a joint venture with you.
I know this is a bit of a lengthy reply but hope it has clraified a couple of things for you, I am still moving forward and looking forward to doing my first deals and the training i have done so far has definately opened my eyes and mind to the opportunities that are around me as well as the education process around development aprovals,and the different deal options available so I believe this can only be a positive thing.
Good luck with your future.
Glenn