Dave Lindahl and the Creative Success Alliance: Does it Work?
Welcome to this review on Dave Lindahl. I want to talk to you about the Creative Success Alliance and several topics that are pertinent to reviewing the information…
>So you can figure out if it’s the right match for you.
The things that I will be discussing in this review are:
- Dave Lindahl Events
- Dave Lindahl Apartment House Riches and Multi-Family Offering
- Dave Lindahl Coaching and Mentoring
I would like to acknowledge you for taking the time to research all of this information before you make your decision on whether or not David Lindahl’s offering is right for you.
It is interesting to me that so many people dive in headfirst without really checking things out.
This seems to be one of the main causes why there are scam reports and complaints online.
But that doesn’t have to be you. Many have found what I am about to tell you helpful.
Wanna find out what a select few others already know?
My name is Paul and I am the real estate spy. My goal is to check all the stuff out so you don’t really have to.
Why should you care?
Because I have made all of the mistakes that you could potentially make in real estate investing and it cost me everything I owned. So you owe it to yourself to at least hear my story so that you can avoid the same pitfalls and traps that I fell into which resulted in foreclosures bankruptcy and ultimately divorce.
For me it was 2007, I realized that real estate investing was getting hot. I just sold a home and made quite a bit of money that I transferred into buying a newer, better home in a better neighborhood.
It was a light bulb moment.
I started buying up books and audio courses on how to build wealth real estate. Once I had spent enough time learning, I Felt I was ready as ever to get on my way to making millions.
Look before you leap.
You can read more about my story here, But I think it’s enough to say that I made some huge mistakes along the way and I completely underestimated my own lack of ability.
So do you need a mentor when it comes to real estate investing?
Absolutely.
Is David Lindahl’s course worth it?
Probably…maybe, but after losing it all, it took seven long years to rebuild my life, and as much as I LOVE Real Estate, I say No WAY.
Why?
My life changed when I found the right mentor. So before I get into the review I want introduce introduce you to my mentor. He totally helped me pick myself back up the pieces back together and learn away to provide an income for myself without having to go listen to boss, or punch a timeclock.
He taught me how to stop chasing money and create so much value for people that they want to pay me.
Literally this morning, I had a client call me at 7:39am. He told me that he wanted to pay me more. He said, “You are helping me do things outside of the scope of what we originally agreed upon, and I value your time. I’d like to compensate you.
He offered to pay me 40% more for what I was doing.
My answer?
sounds great. I’ll up your monthly fee at the next billing interval.
—–Yesterday: Similar conversation. Client said, “I think that you are generating more leads than an agency I’m paying big money to. I’d like to get rid of them and pay you more. It would be mutually beneficial.
Then he asked me to make some changes to his site. I told him, I can do them, but I will have to charge your extra. He agreed and said that was fine.
…and I am not telling you these cool stories to brag or boast. I am just sharing them with you what helped me.
Who taught me how to do all this?
His name: James
I am proud to say he is my mentor (like a younger big brother, LOL)
He showed me a quicker faster alternative to real estate investing that didn’t involve as much risk, and I’m so thankful.
I want to invite you to watch the video (It Explains Everything) and simply wanted to expose you to a supplemental idea to real estate investing.
After you watch the video I hope that you enjoy the review. Thanks for hanging with me at 700 words into this blog post, I know you are dedicated to attaining financial freedom. I wish you the best success!
*(mute all distractions for the next 3 min and 2 seconds…it’ll be worth it…thanks)
Dave Lindahl BIO and BACKGROUND
David Lindahl, who also goes by Dave, is a real estate coach who started out with no real estate experience and became a multi-millionaire in real estate within three years. Dave and his team from Creative Success Alliance offers coaching for those who are ready and impatient enough to make their own real estate business explode.
Dave was born in Abington, Massachusetts in 1963. Surprisingly he started out as a rock-band singer and struggling landscaper with no experience in construction.
During a winter in Boston, when there was no landscaping work to do, Dave accepted an opportunity to renovate a foreclosed house for a local bank. After completing one, he did another and soon enough he started to buy and hold commercial properties and other types of real estate for himself.
Over the next 21 years, he has owned or been a partner of 11 businesses in both the “bricks and mortar” and the information-marketing variety and his info-products business quickly became a seven-figure second income.
He also teaches people on how to grow a successful online business.
David has been featured different magazines and media such as Reader’s Digest, Creative Real Estate Lifestyles, AOL and Kiplinger Magazine.
He has written two #1 bestselling books, Emerging Real Estate Markets, and Multi-Family Millions. He also has an Ebook PDF called Real Estate Investing.
Creative Success Alliance
Their company Creative Success Alliance is an expert group of seasoned investors and advisers with many years of experience and is dedicated to promoting growth and wealth for people who are in the real estate industry.
Their group of experts focus on their clients personal needs in the market that they chose to specialize in. They have calls every Tuesdays to have students’ questions answered. They also have monthly calls where Dave covers important skills to create success in their real estate business.
Their products and services range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand.
They highly recommend their coaching program to those who already own their home study program to propel their business to another level. Their website has several articles written as resources.
David Lindahl Seminars and Offering
EVENTS AND PRODUCTS
Dave Lindahl is a large and active player in the current real estate investing education scene . He’s one of the guys that hosts national multi-day training events, leads a coaching program, offers a lot of products, and has a dynamic online presence .
You can find all of Lindahl’s products and resources at his website, CreativeSuccessAlliance.com .
I checked out Lindahl’s seminars first, and he is a going concern in that arena . He ran several multi day seminars last year and as of this writing has another three day event planned this week.
Last year’s seminars were conducted in Fort Lauderdale, San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. This guy definitely gets around and draws large enough audiences that he can pull off events like these on a national stage. These events were called “Multi-Family Millions,” “Immersion Training,” and “Commercial Training Academy.”
The tuition for a 3-day “Multi-family Millions” seminar event is a hefty $2,995 . A second person can go free . Included in the tuition is the Apartment Houses Riches Guide , Document Treasure Chest , 77 ways to fill vacancies report , 27 ways to buy with no money down report , 23 most costly mistakes report , and how to have an endless supply of motivated sellers report .
According to the website, the total value of all items listed above is $9670 (including the tuition for the second person), which makes the $2,995 tag seem like such a deal!
The website claims that at these events you will learn:
- The five keys to financial freedom through apartments
- How to attract deals and not chase them
- How to get good apartment investment properties
- How to Learn how realtors think
- How to write lead generating letters
- What to say when people call with deals
- How to identify the very best deals using Lindahl’s’ “x-ray techniques”
- How to find out all you need to know about a property before you receive it
- How to identify the key number that tells you what a property’s cash flow potential is
- And how to identify multiple ways to cash out, whether you want to get monthly rent checks or just one large check.
I looked at the coaching program next. Pricing info on the website was scant, but comments on other sites reveal the cost to be upwards of $10K. Looks like you have to schedule a call to get the skinny on that.
My research in other locations revealed a bit more information, one piece being that the coaching is done by a team, not necessarily by Lindahl himself.
There are mixed reviews out there about the coaching program. I found quite a few at pissedconsumer.com.
Here are a couple of positive ones:
I’ve taken real estate courses with various teachers and I’ve found Dave Lindahl to be the best. Even if he does try to sell you on more products, he also gives you tons of useful information. I also took a coaching program with Dave Lindahl’s company, and I knew exactly who my coach was going to be. She was awesome.
And another:
I’m now doing real estate deals far more profitably than I did before I met Dave. His bootcamps have taken me many levels above what I was able to do on my own. I’m now doing Real Estate Syndications, something I never dreamed I would be doing. If you follow dave’s systems, you can make money in any market.
And then the negatives:
They made it seem like the only way you can do a deal was by joining their coaching program. So I signed up for the coaching program. It was over $11k.
My coach started off pretty well with addressing how to get started and what to say to people. However, over time, it got worse and worse. I would ask a question about something and he’d respond with a question about if I had read the manual. Another time, he just told me to listen to the audio for a topic on the website. Another time, he told me to find an expert at my local REIA to learn from.
Lesson learned. When you find a mentor where the events are so commercialized, with bootcamps filled with a couple hundred people and so many signing up for coaching, think about the quality.
And this one:
I went to the event, which is only designed to sell you the advance coaching program.I paid them $15,000 and they assigned me to a coach named Craig P.
He had me build a mailing list, print postcards, and invite people to a meeting. I wasted another $2400.00 doing all this and never received a phone call. When I questioned Craig, Dave Lindahl’s “hand-picked coach”, he said, hmm….. I thought that would have worked.
I called the office and asked for a refund, and they said no, but I could talk to another coach.
A few days later, I found out the lady they were going to put me with left them and started selling her own real estate coaching program. Do not join their racket!
At BiggerPockets.com, I found this comment:
The problem with programs like Lindahl’s and other such programs is that he is not involved with you. A lot of rah, rah and plenty of reading but you always seem to have to buy more to get the full deal. –David Widemire
The coaching program and multi-day events are Lindahl’s biggest-ticket products. At his website, under the Products tab, you can find home-study course for somewhat less
- “Apartment House Riches” comes with a 143-page manual, ten CDs, a worksheet, a checklist, and various forms. Price: $995
- “How to Estimate and Renovate.” Includes 8 CDs that were recorded during a live seminar and a bunch of forms, checklists, and contracts. Price $595.
- “Foreclosure Investing Riches.” Includes 150-page manual, CDs, forms, etc. Cost: $997.
- “Managing for Maximizing Profits.” Includes guides, certificates and forms for $499.
- “Student Housing Riches,” $697
- “Private Money Creative Financing,” $997
- and several others
Lindahl also has quite a bit to offer in the area of free resources, specifically his blog posts and YouTube videos. He has a current and active presence on YouTube, with a truckload of recent videos posted under his Creative Success Alliance channel. And on his website, you can find a lot of blog articles about real estate topics.
A little more costly than free but certainly not expensive are Lindahl’s books, which can be found on Amazon and range in price from $12 to $22. The titles are Emerging Real Estate Markets, Multi-Family Millions, Commercial Real Estate Investing 101: How Small Investors Can Get Started and Make It Big, and The Six-Figure Second Income.
Per my usual m.o., I looked at the Better Business Bureau and RipOffReport.com for any complaints filed. I found nothing for Dave Lindahl or the Creative Success Alliance. The only consumer watchdog organization that listed anything was PissedConsumer.com, where there were a number of negative reviews (including those inserted above).
CONCLUSION
So to sum up, Lindahl is a guy that does know his stuff and has a lot of experience in the real estate investing industry. He has proven himself successful both in the doing of real estate ventures and in the educating about the doing.
What’s left up to you, the searching investor, is to determine if the seminars and programs and courses are actually worth all that money. True, education is not usually free . . . but it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg either. Before plopping down $3K or $10K on an event or a coach, think about what else you could do with that money. Like, for example, using it toward a downpayment for the first rehab you just might flip.
I’m not minimizing the value of Lindahl’s stuff. I’m just saying be smart and don’t talk yourself into the belief that a fancy expensive program or mentor is critical.
Good luck!
