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IntelliBiz Review of the
Armando Montelongo Course
Armando Montelongo Course
[All reviews are based primarily on the (6) most important considerations when choosing
a real estate investing course. Sources for reviews include the Better Business Bureau, Attorneys General,
FTC, customer input, and our personal review]
BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU RATING: Armando Montelongo appears to have several businesses listed at the BBB. Armando Montelongo Worldwide Inc currently has a rating of F (was D-).
Armando Montelongo Premier Mentoring Inc has had 233 complaints in the last 3 years. And Armando Montelongo Seminars LLC currently has a "D" rating.
COACHING: According to several sources, coach cost runs anywhere from $1000-$20,000+. Like several other "gurus",
coaching cost seems to vary - some say according to the size of your bank account or credit limit.
COACH QUALITY: Many of the online complaints and BBB complaints seem to stem from
poor quality of coaching, and the large sums his "students" lose to him.
If coaching is important to you, only Bill Vaughn's course, "The Simple Man's Guide
to Real Estate" provides the coaching for free, as it is offered by a non-profit and has the highest documented success rate of all the real estate courses.
SUCCESS RATE: No statistics available, as Armando Montelongo does not appear to
track successes.
COMMENTS: Many people who have attended his seminars report that he often does not even show up at them, instead having others do the "heavy lifting". If you do due diligence and
research Armando Montelongo, you will likely find literally hundreds of people who feel they have been scammed. It is understandable if 5 or 10 people complain about a business - there are some people you just cannot
please no matter how hard you try. But when the number of unsatisfied customers is stratospheric,
then you know there is a
real problem at the core. We found literally hundreds of separate complaints - we doubt if even CitiBank has that many.
All in all, we do not believe this course is worthy of consideration. But if you want to place your trust - and money - with a TV "reality show" personality, at least you now have your eyes open.
A BETTER, SOUND ALTERNATIVE:
Before risking hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on Montelongo's or
any other
course, do yourself a favor and check out the most effective real estate investing course available,
offered by IntelliBiz -
"The Simple Man's Guide to Real
Estate"® course by reknowned investor Bill
Vaughn (Bill developed the "Reverse Mortgage" now used by HUD and helped develop the very
flipping strategies used by Armando Montelongo).
Offered by a non-profit, it is affordable to all, and includes free lifetime coaching by investors who
volunteer their services to assure your success.
Real investors, not scripted telephone operators. And it has the highest documented success
rate of any real estate
course.
If you are truly interested in really learning how to make money
in real estate and receive the benefit of free, unlimited coaching, all at a price anyone can afford,
"The Simple Man's Guide to Real
Estate"® is worth considering.
Armando Montelongo is the (former) "star" of the A&E television show, "Flip This House". But do not
let that lull you into a belief that his "course" will make you money, or that
the cost will not drain your bank account. As a TV "Reality Show" personality he's pretty good - we enjoy his show - but let's not forget
that in his show, he has the deep pockets and marketing of A&E to float him. As his "student", you
will not have the benefit of those. Certainly, he could teach you a lot of things from his "Flip This House"
experiences, but his "course" falls far short of sharing those, and it certainly does not teach you all
of the other profitable strategies of real estate investing. An investor with only one strategy is like a carpenter with only one tool.
| Completeness | Low Coach Cost | Coach Quality | Success Rate | BBB Rating | Low Overall Cost | OVERALL RATING | ||
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A few words about real estate investing in general. Before you invest in ANY
Real Estate program...
We're not going to tell you that you will be a
millionaire in 6 months. After all, we don't know you, or how determined you are. Regardless, you should understand some very important points:
1) Forget the infomercial promises - real
estate investing is NOT a "get-rich-quick" scheme, but it WILL make you rich, and can put a lot of cash in your pocket in a short time, if you have the right guidance.
But REAL wealth takes a little time
and effort. If you have a tough time getting off the couch, save your money.
2) If the program you are
considering does not provide personal mentoring by
actual practicing investors (the Armonda Montelongo program does not) and at a reasonable cost (or free, as
offered by The Simple Man's Guide to Real Estate),
it is unlikely you will ever get your investing career off the ground unless you already have some experience. There
are just too many variables in this business, which makes it impossible for
any program to be a "stand-alone" career guide. Without a mentor to help you
get started, these variables will stand as a barrier between you and success.
Larry Goins and most other gurus charge from $2,000 - $45,000 for coaching, and THEIR coaches are not investors.
Again, with "The Simple Man's Guide to Real Estate" the mentoring is always free, easy to use
and our mentors are practicing investors, not telephone operators or
"couch investors". Your mentor will be there every step of the way, holding your hand, so to speak.
3) Real
Estate investing is not for everyone. Success in this field, as with any
other, requires effort, and can be frustrating at times, and can take
an emotional toll. But the rewards are wealth, the freedom that wealth brings and
a 4 hour work-week, for starters...
NOTE: Many of the infomercial gurus do not provide in-house mentoring by
qualified investors. Instead, most of them "farm out" the mentoring to disreputable companies
such as Mentoring of America etc. Before buying into a mentor program, you would be wise
to ask the company EXACTLY who provides the mentoring. Ask if the mentors are actual, practicing
investors and if the mentoring is provided in-house,
or if it is provided by a third party.
Most programs are not complete or self-explanatory, with the logic being that the customer would then need to buy into
their expensive mentoring, which is what they are really selling.
But if the coaching is free, as it is with "The Simple Man's Guide to Real Estate", you can rest assured that
the program, itself, is complete, finely detailed, and easy to understand. Again the logic is simple - the more complete the program, the less need you will have of a coach.
And when coaches are free, it is important to keep the "need" to a minimum, so we provide the most detailed course possible.
Whichever course you may purchase, we do wish you the best. And if you have questions, feel free to ask. We are here to help.
From Martin: "I receieved my packet from Armando Montelongo 2 weeks ago and was too busy at the time to review
all of its contents. Until yesterday when i received a call from one of their "mentors". He proceeded
to say he had to qualify me many times during the call. I was very blunt with my replies, expecting
for him, at some point, to disqualify me, but he didn't. In fact he was more impressed with each
response I gave him.
"About 30 minutes into the call he finally started to talk about the required education I needed. I
asked him what is missing from the kit that I already bought that I needed to pay for? He said it was his
experience that it was the only way to keep me from making costly mistakes. So I asked him how much I
needed to invest in this education and he said there were three levels (ranges), between $8k-12k,
$13k-16k, $17k-20k. He asked me to choose, so I said the middle one to keep the discussion going.
He wanted me to make a decision right then and was ready for me to commit. Naturally I thought of an
excuse, saying I had no money and I had to borrow it from someone else. This bought me time and I
needed to make sure I had the money ready for when his "director" called me back the next day. When
he realized I was not ready to spend he had nothing else to talk about except to set up a follow up
call.
"So again, after he found out I had no money he said he would have the first guy call me back and
set up a plan to gather the funds I needed. I am still waiting for the call back.
"Armando Montelongo is good at this, so beware not to get charmed into this. All the comments written above,
combined with my own experience leads me to believe that I would have lost everything."
From Joe Covert: "I have some info on Armando Montelongo. His hard money lender foreclosed on 27 houses
he owned in April 2007. Also, he overpays for his houses. One time he was competing against me for a
repo I tried buying. Instead of bidding low, he offered full price, which made no sense to me. Later
this house was one of the 27 he was not able to sell, I assume because he paid too much for it and
tried selling it for quite a bit more than retail. I've been flipping in San Antonio for ten+ years
and he never seemed genuine to me. Rather he seems like someone who attended a real estate seminar
and upon graudation became an "expert"."
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or registered trademarks of their respective owners. This website is not associated in any way with John Beck, Russ Dalbey, Carleton Sheets, Russ Whitney, John Alexander, Donald Trump,
Robert Allen, Wade Cook, Lou Vukas, Ron Legrand, Robert Kyosaki, Larry Goins or Dave Lindahl, or any company or
business associated with them. Site presented by IntelliBiz.
A letter from Dorothy Drake about Armando Montelongo: "HE SENT PEOPLE TO BUY MY HOUSE WHEN MY HUSBAND DIED. IT WAS VALUED AT
142000 BUT NEED REPAIRS. WE SAT AND FIGURED OUT WHAT IT WOULD COST TO REPAIR THE HOUSE WHICH WAS
AROUND 25000. TAXES WERE 1100 SO WE SETTLED ON A PRICE OF 125000. WHILE I WAS A CLOSING WHICH TOOK
OVER 6 MONTHS AND KNOWING I ONLY WAS RECEIVING 500 A MONTH TO LIVE ON. HE EMPTIED OUT MY HOUSE OF
ALL TV'S CLOTHING AND ANYTHING OF VALUE EVEN THO THE CONTRACT SAID IT WOULD BE REMOVED AFTER CLOSING.
I ONLY RECEIVED 38000 FOR THE HOUSE.