3 Day Mega Conference opinion.

Hi all, Mr Negative here once more.

To all that are looking at US Tax Liens – I hope that the conference gave the following information as well:

Pitfalls of tax lien investing

• Payment is usually required at purchase or within a very short time afterward (often no more than 24–72 hours). Failure to pay the full amount results in all lien certificates purchased by the investor being cancelled, and may result in the investor losing his/her deposit and/or being barred from future sales.
• In many states, further actions must be taken to protect the lien holder's rights after purchase of a lien. Failure to comply exactly with these requirements may make the lien worthless.
• Tax liens on "choice" properties are quickly purchased by major institutional investors having sufficient time and resources to research valuable properties versus worthless ones, and who can afford the occasional poor choice. Smaller liens often involve properties that are generally worthless (such as odd strips of land). (In addition, Florida does not allow auctions or sales of tax liens of less than $100 on homesteads.) In "random" and "rotational" jurisdictions, investors have even less control over which liens they purchase.
• In "bid down the interest" jurisdictions, valuable properties are usually bid to the lowest rate possible greater than zero percent. (For example, Florida permits the interest rate to be bid down to a minuscule 0.25% – though it guarantees a minimum 5% return – while Arizona allows the bid to be as low as 1%.) Similarly, in "premium" states, valuable properties are bid up above the means of an average investor.
• Unlike a certificate of deposit, tax liens are illiquid. They cannot be "cashed in" (resold to the taxing authority), but must be held until either they are repaid or the holder takes action to foreclose. (It is possible, however, to assign one's interest in a tax lien to another party.)
• Some experts tout tax lien sales as a means of acquiring property at highly discounted prices. In practice, except for very rare instances, liens of any value are redeemed well before the property can be foreclosed (especially where a mortgage is involved; the mortgage holder is secondary in line to a tax lien holder but, upon payment of the lien, the mortgage holder would then become the primary lienholder). Where tax deed sales are used to foreclose, numerous bidders participate, thus making the chances of actual acquisition remote. For example, in one Illinois county with a population of over 500,000, the County Clerk's office said only 3 residential properties were not redeemed in 35 years.
• If someone is successful in attaining the deed to the property, the property might have environmental problems for which the new owner will be responsible. Depending upon the state in which the property is located, this could be very disadvantageous; the investor might have to pay a large amount of money to have the problem taken care of, or might be fined daily until the problems are fixed.[1]
• Deeds obtained are usually quitclaim deeds, which do not provide insurable title. The owner would then have to file a quiet title action to obtain marketable title to the property, which involves additional cost.
• There may also be other governmental liens (such as weed liens or demolition liens) that the investor must pay off when attaining title to the property. These are not part of the lien sale and remain even if the lien holder acquires the property.
• If the owner of the property declares bankruptcy, the bankruptcy court may lower the interest rate to be paid, or may discharge part or all of the lien, leaving the lien holder with nothing.

Just want to make sure that you are fully informed before your 2 day training session.

Oh…, if this was discussed at the conference then I will stop posting any further negative comments about the conference and its educational value.

The reference for the above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_lien_sale

I am not only new to property investing in Aus, but still relatively new in Aus (been here for a year and a half). I owned 4 properties in South Africa so not a total newbie to investing. The main reason I attended the conference was to see what strategies were available so I could decide on a game plan for my new life in this awesome country. From highlighting and identifying the different strategies available I would say the conference delivered.

I genuinely believe Steve wants people to do well and he is a man with integrity. I appreciated him not putting all the focus on his products. The products were a by product, where I felt many other presenters structured the presentations to build to the sell. I am in sales and appreciate the fact that many of the the presenters are sales people, however many people came to the conference under the assumption that there would be product sales taking place, but were not the main reason for the presentation.

Highlight without any doubt was Mr Daniels. WOW what a guy. He is such an unassuming man and comes across as a humble person with his feet firmly planted on the ground. SImilar to Steve his products were secondary to his presentation, the presentation was not built around the product. He really impressed me. I really would like to order his Destiny of the 3rd Millennium when the finances are in order. Please could anyone who bought it or have gone through it give me some feedback on it once you have finished the course.

Lowlight was Aussie Rob. I felt he was insulting my intelligence. I also feel he misrepresented the risks involved in trading as well pitched in an irresponsible way. The fact is if trading was so simple and he had the wonder product, Richard Brandson would be opening for him.

After all said and done was it worth flying from Perth to go to a 3 day event……..the answer would be yes. My aim was to see all the investing options Aus had to offer and it delivered from that point of view. I totally can understand many of the above comments as well, I guess it depends on what you wanted from the conference. Big thank you to Steve and his staff for organising the event, we may have not spent mothers day with our loved ones, but Steve sacrificed mothers day and his birthday.

To

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the comments.

I'd like to thank Steve first to put together the conference!

I flied from Syd on Sat so missed the first day. Li is my favourate! ! He is so so inspiring!! I was so excited to buy his book and took photo with him and I even forgot to pay for the book.  ( I did go back and paid for it once realised it)

Totally agree with some of the comments, too much sales pitch.  Very little contents. I got Steve's 2009 or maybe 2008 conference records in Brisbane, a lot lot more information.

I've heard of the tax lien thing a few years ago and tried to contact a few solicitors in States and was told it can't be done if I am not in US at that time. Glad that Tommie cracked the code. So signed up for the 2 days workshops. (havn't tole my wife that I'vebspent the money yet )

I've also signed up for the RP6 before the conference so looking forward to get started!

I finally make the decision to take some serious actions after wasted 5 years, so as Steve said, you can always find excuses not investing, get  some education then applied the knowledge.

Happy investing!

Cheers

Rich

Loved reading all of the comments about the 3 day conference.  I flew over from Perth and spent a few days before with friends and their new baby and of course did some shopping.

As for the conference I loved it.  On the first day made a promise to myself not to buy anything until after a week of researching etc and by then I figure that if I still wanted the product I would buy it even if it cost a few dollars more.  Have been caught up in the hype before with buying the product and not even looking at it when I got home.

Having said that I did sign up for the 2 day Tax Lien course because I have been wanting to find out more for the last 6 months.  If Steve is doing it with the help of Tommy it's good enough for me.  I was in the Results Program 2 and admire the integrity and ethics of Steve, Simon, Brendan and the team.

I new that there would be alot of hype and hard sell but it's alot like religion take on board what you want and disgard the rest, no harm done.

The best part of the weekend where the quality people that I met.  They really made the conference worth while.

Ros

Hi Jan

Just pm me and by that time I would have tracked down my notes (still coming down after the conference).

Ros

Hi,

Thanks for starting this post. We're very open to constructive criticism and we are fully on-board to make the event better.

In particular, I appreciate the comments about being 'oversold'. We set very strict rules around conduct, and that the content of the presentation must empower people to understand the concept. Only then, if people want to go further, can the product etc. be mentioned. If any session was a hard sell then please let us know so we can take corrective action.

In saying that, can you please ensure that your comments remain respectful and helpful. Since this post relates to us, we want to be very sensitive in moderating it to ensure a balanced discussion is maintained, but we cannot allow defamatory or disrespectful comments.

Please keep posting. We're reading and taking on board all that you say.

Thanks,

– Steve McKnight

Yes I have to agree that the sales pitches were a bit hard to swallow.  However I have come away with a renewed interest and took time to write goals and the steps I will need to take to attain them during the workshops/keynote speakers that didn't interest me.