[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]

COMPLETENESS: Of the 22 methods listed, Robert Allen's first book covered 16 of them. His earlier books were rather complete, insofar as covering most methods of investing. But details were lacking, as were appropriate forms and lack of coaching. Lately, Mr. Allen has co-authored "One Minute Millionaire", and seems to have gone in the direction of "information marketing" with the Robert Allen Multiple Streams of Income. He is very good at getting people "fired up". Perhaps too good. He now uses that same type of "pep talk" to finesse people out of a lot of their hard-earned money. Not that his products are not worthwhile - perhaps they are. But certainly not at the exhorbitant price he charges! Some call it the Robert Allen Scam. We don't think it sinks to that level.

COACH COST: Like many others, his mentoring is quite expensive and seems to be farmed out to a third party. We have been unable to substantiate that he uses "Mentoring of America", but strongly suspect that he does. "Mentoring of America" is to be avoided at all costs. It has been alleged to drain credit card balances, and provide little, if any, mentoring of any value. Their mentors are not investors, so their ability to help anyone is minimal, at best. They are, it seems, only trained telephone operators. There is ZERO value in their mentoring, and the cost is prohibitive.

COACH QUALITY: See COACH COST, above. Only two of the courses reviewed use real, practicing investors as coaches - Ron Legrand and Bill Vaughn's course. If coaching is important to you, those are the only two worth considering. And only Vaughn's course, "The Simple Man's Guide to Real Estate" provides the coaching for free, as it is offered by a non-profit.

SUCCESS RATE: Unknown. Like most "gurus", he does not poll customers for successes. And all other sources indicate there are precious few who have built fortunes from his teachings.

BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU RATING: Robert Allen is one of the few gurus with a pretty decent rating with the BBB. There are complaints, but his company seems to address them, for the most part. Only two other "gurus", (LeGrand and Vaughn), have better ratings.

OVERALL COST:Cost of the "teaser" program, itself is minimal. But it is virtually useless without the expensive mentoring, which starts at about $2,000.

COMMENTS: It appears Robert Allen filed bankruptcy in July of 1996, as indicated in case number 96-09323-LA for the San Diego Bankruptcy court. We are not sure anyone should trust the health of their financial future to someone who declared bankruptcy.

In all fairness, we should say that Robert Allen claims the bankruptcy was due to a landslide that destroyed his home. However, though that sounds good on the surface, our question would then be, "Was not the home insured?" If yes, why the bankruptcy? If no, is it not financially irresponsible not to insure such a home? And, if a person has accumulated the level of wealth that Robert Allen claims, why would just one loss force him into bankruptcy? So, we still do not understand why anyone would trust their financial future to someone so deficient in money matters.

Since Mr. Allen was hit with an IRS lien of over a third of a million dollars in 1986, we suspect such financial difficulties had a lot to do with his filing for bankruptcy. There were also $76,000 in tax delinquencies to the state of Utah, and a second IRS tax lien for over $65,000, as well as lawsuits and judgements for about $100,000 in unpaid fees to speakers at his seminars. In short, it appears that Robert Allen has had significant financial troubles over the years. Perhaps Mr. Allen's "new methods" are very good - we cannot say. All we can say is that we would want more credibility on financial matters from someone who wants people to pay big money to learn from him. Maybe he should use the Robert Allen Multiple Streams of Income program to resolve these financial issues.

A BETTER, SOUND ALTERNATIVE:

Before risking hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on Allen'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 many of today's flipping strategies). Offered by a non-profit, it is affordable to all, and includes free coaching by investors who volunteer their services to assure your success. Real investors, not scripted telephone operators.

You get the entire course - the Guide, the contract software, (20) real estate related Bonus Books, audio CD set, Market Value Calculator and free 24/7 mentoring all for a fraction of the cost of any other course, including FREE mentoring - nothing else to buy, no hidden costs, no monthly fees. And you can even download it immediately so you can start even before your hard copy arrives in the mail.

"The Simple Man's Guide to Real Estate" has the highest documented success rate of any real estate course so you will not need to buy any other courses or go to any expensive seminars or boot camps - you will be able to make money in real estate without any of those others.

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.