The Father of Real Estate Investing Infomercials
Born in 1939, Carleton Sheets had an unremarkable career until 1984 when he became involved in the Professional Education Institute (PEI) and wrote his now famous "No Money Down" real estate investing book. Having been a marketing pro earlier in his career, Carleton soon produced the first of many late-night infomercials to market his real estate investing home study course.
Many thousands of wanna-be investors bought into the hype, and a handful succeeded, and those few successes were used in future infomercials as testimonials. And the rest is history.
Carleton spent the early part of his adult life in a variety of endeavors, from selling soda bottle caps to being a marketer for a Florida orange juice company, and then in 1970 he entered into real estate. His first deal was a commercial property and by most standards was a dud. But he did not give up - he learned from it. Eventually, he was successful. But true success came from marketing his home study course on late night television infomercials, where he sold over 300,000,000 copies.
Think about that - he sold as many copies over 30 years to equal the population of the United States. Yet, in spite of that, there are relatively few investors, and most of those investors did not learn from Carleton. In short, only a tiny fraction of his customers were able to work his program successfully. But his success in SELLING his course started a "gold rush" of sorts. Today, there are literally hundreds of people pimping their own materials - Armando Montelongo, Than Merrill, Ron Legrand...the list in nearly endless.
And they all have two things in common - all are marketed using the same basic sales stucture made famous in those old west "Medicine Shows", selling their own brand of elixer. And all are incredibly over-priced, up to $35,000 for the whole enchilada, including limited mentoring.
There is a viable alternative, however, for those interested in learning the craft from a professional investor with over 50 years experience. "The Simple Man's Guide to Real Estate" is a down-to earth course created in 1989 by investor and author Bill Vaughn and is marketed as a not-for-profit venture to keep it affordable to all. Updated constantly, it teaches all 22 methods of real estate investing, eight of which do not require your cash or credit, and includes detailed instructions. It also includes software that creates all the agreements necessary - just fill in some blanks. And here is where it really shines - it also includes unlimited mentoring by professional investors at no charge! As a not-for-profit, Bill has assembled professional investors who volunteer their services to teach others and are dedicated to the success of each student.
We owe a lot to Carleton Sheets, for creating an interest in real estate investing. But it is what we owe ourselves and our loved ones - that is what really counts. If you have ever thought about real estate investing, now is the best time to begin.
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