Real Estate Investing: Joe Crump Style Exposed
That’s right, I call it Crump Style, No Not the Dance known as Krump style, although it might as well be…
It’s Paul again. As discussed before, I am known as the Real Estate Spy, and I love what I do. Today, I felt like one of the panel on America’s Got Talent or American Idol.
(Thank you Google for the pic. attributes goes to them.) Hahahaha… I couldn’t resist. I always wanted Simon to tell me I was a rock star. (Disclaimer…he didn’t really say that about me, so don’t get crazy.)
I’ve got James to thank for all the training. I put some of his millionaire coaching training videos on this site, so you could get a feel for what he teaches.
Why did I feel like one of the panel members?
Because I got to review (Mr. Joe Crump) this genius marketer busting all the right moves in his attempt to funnel his prospects through his system. Gotta hand it to you Joe, nice internet marketing.
“Subject To” Review
His “subject to” system which he considers a little more advanced is a great way to funnel prospects who need to sell their real estate through a process that enables you as the real estate investor to capitalize on a lease option and capture and hold the real estate to build long term wealth. The system also let’s you pick up some cash by getting the buyer to commit to a lease option upfront cash drop. But I am getting a little ahead of myself here.
First let’s talk about Joe.
Zero Down Real Estate Investing
We all want to know the secrets to getting rich quick with as little to no money involved and with as little to no work involved too.
I mean, really, who doesn’t?
The truth is, while it is possible to get rich over night, about 99.9% of the time, it really doesn’t happen in reality…well as much as we would like.
And…as my brother always said, even a blind squirrel gets a nut every once in a while,
get rich quick is unsustainable, unless you are some lucky son-of-a-deity whose touch turns anything and every damn thing to gold and makes it rain hundies from heaven (100 dollar bills.)
If that’s you, you can just exit out of this page now because this will serve you no purpose, you lucky…never mind.
Take it from many of these men and women like
Joe Crump, a real estate guru,
who has made it all, then lost it all and then gained it all back with a vengeance.
Something stood out to me….I noticed Mr. Crump referenced something his grandfather used to say that he quoted during the time when he lost everything due to the real estate market crash. It goes like this:
“There is no shame in being poor, it’s just a damn inconvenience.”
I mean the guy lost 17 million big ones (dollars) worth of real estate (ouch), not to mention he lost his houses, his cars, his fortune (more like misfortune), because of making decisions without a proper exit plan in case something crazy happened…like the real estate market crashing without warning.
$17 Million! Holy MC Hammer meets Vanilla Ice in Red Pumped up kicks. That’s crazy.
Most of us haven’t ever lost $17 Million let alone had $17 Million to lose, but I lost everything I had once. So, I can identify somewhat.
It sucked!
Joe Crump’s story: let’s get to know him. Maybe there are a couple of nuggets you can apply in your own life. More importanly how was he able to get back on his feet and gain back what he lost and create a list of followers?
As he tells it, he was a graduate student from the school of hard knocks with a major in
“Get rich fast, get broke faster.”
He learned the hard way. Because of that, he was able to use the valuable lessons to create programs that he tried for himself successfully and share it with others. He pushed himself to get back on his feet and started his journey to success all over again with a different and renewed mindset.
Here comes the mindset talk…gotta love it. It’s definitely a thread in everyone who is affluent.
Experience really was the best teacher for Joe Crump. He was able to use valuable information from the adversity he went through and propel himself to a better future, one in which he’s not only rich, he is also able to share his ideas for those wanting to get a chance at a better life.
Joe Crump is a real estate guru who married his wife Nancy in 1990, has a son who is 20 years old named Alex and a daughter who is 16 years old name Katie. His Family lives in Indiana where he grew up.
He has written several books that are geared to help people who are into real estate investing. He also has a mentor program for those who want a more one on one access to Mr. Crump.
He graduated college in 1981 with a degree in film production and moved to Chicago and then to Los Angeles where he worked as a guy who prepared the lights and cameras before a shot (they are called grips). He did this for the next five years.
He made decent money. Although he made a very good living and only worked half of the year, he wanted to do something different.
He wanted to be a scriptwriter. So for the next five years he wrote 12 screenplays until finally somebody had called him from 20th Century Fox and told him that they liked one of his scripts and wanted to develop it.
Unfortunately it wasn’t successful.
So he finally decided that he would make enough money to make his own movie and he thought that the real estate business would be the best way to go.
So he started real estate investing in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. All of his friends were making more money on the appreciation of their own houses than they were on their job. So he decided to buy a property and within one month the value of the property had gone up 20%.
He also decided to start flipping houses and he became very successful at it. Blinded by the success, he started buying houses without thinking twice.
Three years after this seemingly unstoppable success, he bought $17 million worth of property. It was a brand-new construction. That was some big money!
Kids, do not try this at home! Here’s why.
In 1990 and 1991 the real estate market in Los Angeles dropped 30% and that’s where trouble began for him. He was in the middle of this massive construction when the market dropped and his lenders cut his funds to prevent further losses. On top of that, it was clearly stated in his contract that they (the lenders) can pull out any time they want.
So he had to walk away from the project. He ended up owing more and practically lost everything almost overnight. Not only that, he had people harassing him incessantly at his home asking for payments. He was served legal papers constantly and got served with many lawsuits for unpaid bills.
He ended up leaving his home in L.A. with his wife, who was six months pregnant at the time with their first child, and moved back home to Indiana.
He said that he was lucky that at the very least, his family still loved him.
For Crump, starting over, with no money and no credit, was a very humbling experience for an ex-millionaire.
He was depressed, discouraged and at an all time low.
I was once there too. It’s a long story, but let’s just say that it involved me sleeping next to a bottle of Jaeger.
But he still had to figure out a way to make money to support his family. He had to get over feeling sorry for himself.
Although he had nothing he knew a lot about real estate and quickly he became a real estate agent. He started doing very well being an agent. Finally, he had gotten a break from his financial ruin and hope emerged.
A few months down the road he decided to look at real estate investing again.
This time he put his thinking cap on. He realized that he had the knowledge of creative financing back when he was doing real estate marketing before he lost everything.
He invented a method that he called “The Safety Net” method.
This method claimed to teach people:
-how to close deals in a matter of minutes,
-how you can do deals from one’s home,
-how deals will not close until they are profitable and make one money,
-and how one would never have to put one’s finances at risk with this method.
Also in this method, Joe says that you can literally make hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars not having to get a single loan or use his or her credit.
He also started doing his business online and wrote a book “How to clean your credit in 60 days!” He started a newsletter called “The Real Estate Moneymaker E– Zine!” Which gave people tips on how to buy and sell real estate with little or no money down and with bad credit or no income.
Joe Crump: Customer Critiques and the Better Business Bureau
What do customers have to say about his methods.
There are many pros and cons when it came to people reviewing his books and his methods. Let’s take a look.
Many students and customers were happy that they were able to access his methods. People had said that after taking the courses and applying his methods they walked away with a few thousand dollars on their first deal.
Nice…
Let’s take a closer look at some of the claims he mentioned in his methods.
In the “Stupid – Proof System” (backed by a 60 day money back guarantee) course included the “Safety-net” method among other things. He claims that any one person can be successful but following his methods and can start taking home several thousand dollars after the first deal.
Unfortunately for those who are not new to real estate, they stated that his books and methods lacked originality and new content. A few critics have stated that he had made promises in his books that you can’t really guarantee such as making millions for everyone who followed his methods.
I researched complaints online including the better business bureau (bbb) and the nationally acclaimed rip off report dot com. But overall, there was really nothing to report. Even the biggest claim I found was pretty pathetic.
Push Button Automarketer for Real Estate Investors & Real Estate Agents:
Joe Crump is brilliant at Internet marketing because if you take a look at his pushbutton automarketer you’ll see that he has created a program in which people can use software in order to automate the aspects of real estate marketing that they probably don’t care to do on their own.
If you have heard the saying:
“that facts tell and stories sell”
then you’ll notice that Joe understands implements it on all of his marketing sites. On the automarketer site itself he has quite a few testimonials… lots of stories. All the while the potential candidate is thinking if that broke McDonald’s worker can do it…so can I.
Because at the end of the day, no matter whether you are researching a diet or money making idea, you only have 2 questions in the back of your head.
Now you might think you have more, but really there are only two. Every brilliant marketer knows what these two questions are and so everything on their site is to answer these 2.
Do you wanna know what they are?
1. Does it work?
2. Will it work for me?
That’s it. Cat’s out of the bag. Now, before you dismiss this with…yeah Paul I got it. That’s easy, put your investigational NYPD badge on and think about what people might do in order to convince you that the answer is yes to both of these questions?
I have to circle back to the blind guy testimonial on Armando Montelongo’s site: seriously after hearing his testimonial, you are left with the thought…well if a blind guy can do it, then I should be able to do twice as good. What’s better is that it answer both questions at once. Heck it worked for a blind guy so it does work and it will work for me.
Not so fast grasshopper. This is what marketers want you to believe, so start asking some more sophisticated questions like… how much training do I really need to make this thing fly. If you look at the story of Gene, you’ll noticed he dropped close to $40,000 before his real estate business took off.
The bottom line however is that you can be looking to pay anywhere between $199 a month or down to $149.25 per month if you pay for a full year advance for this “automated system.” Make no mistake though, it’s gonna take work.
Joe Crump Seminars and Mentoring Program
He also exposes you to the concept of a two day buying event that he puts on for his students several times a year. The concept is not so much a seminar according to him rather it is a place where you are going to take action.
One of the reviews that was published as a case study about a woman named Hope Crystal out of Melbourne, Florida mentions how they basically started dialing numbers and talking to for sale by owners and people looking to rent from craigslist right there at the event.
This concept reminds me a little bit of Dean Graziosi’s concept of having two lists: a buyers list and a sellers list.
The concept is that you broker in between and make some money by putting the deals together.
Pushbutton Automarketer System Summary:
What comes in the package? Basically you get 2 products or services for that matter. It just depends on how you see it. The first part that you receive is a package 3 cloned websites that are each geared towards: sellers, listings, and buyers.
You also get an automated system that scans craigslist and other areas searching for real estate sellers. The system automatically then generates automated voice calls. I think we all know what that is. Most likely you have gotten a couple of these. They tell you a story and encourage you to continue by pressing one or two.
If there’s no phone number listed then they send an email.
It appears as all of the sites offer some kind of auto responder email series that then goes out to the prospects.
If you are unfamiliar with auto responders basically the way they work is they drip out emails to the potential buyers and sellers over a specific amount of time.
This done for you work is pretty nice actually. It takes time to write really effective emails that convert people into clicks. Ask me I used to do that stuff before I met James.
So, it looks like the system is well developed. He’s thought of every aspect of the buying process. That’s why I say he is a master at online marketing and created an amazing selling funnel.
So, is the price steep for $199 a month? I don’t really believe so. I mean if the system works then it’s definitely worth it, right?
I’d have to do more digging to find out what else might be sold to me on the other side of that $199 per month. But, initially, it seems affordable.
Also I have an idea of the cost of what it probably took him to develop this product. So, it sounds reasonable to me.
The only part that I zero in on is:
the fact that no matter how much of the automation you have, you eventually have to pick up the phone and talk to people. This is where your people skills and your ability to connect with people as well as posture in an effective manner (so they know that you know you’re doing) will be called into question.
On his case studies page he has a lot of people that had little or no experience and have done well. This includes a guy that worked at McDonald’s and a woman that was his personal chef that started in real estate and eventually did that full-time.
You have to dig a little deeper to find out that the guy that worked at McDonald’s actually had a degree from the college in Athens, Georgia where he majored in real estate. You also have to dig a little deeper to find out that his chef already ran her own company. So, she was a business minded woman.
So these were educated people that weren’t completely new to business. And I think that’s where it all comes down to negotiating with the buyers and sellers a real estate.
I figure as long as you’re not intimidated by talking to people then you might do all right. I mean these are people that need to know you are the expert, so you will have to be able to posture and answer their questions.
I don’t think the gift of gab will carry you through the whole process.
Note: one of the statements that I came across in the purchase agreement that you can access down at the bottom of his pushbutton automarketer website is probably worth mentioning.
His refund policy is simple… there are no refunds. So unlike many of his other product guarantees, he doesn’t guarantee that you will have the results you want. This is normal in some cases of online products. I mean, it’s a system and once you have used it, you are basically exhausting the product to an extent. So, no refunds for you.
I don’t think he is being a soup nazi. I think he just realizes that so many people have good intentions and then don’t follow through. This makes them fail, and the system, however automated it is, still requires a strong work ethic.
But, I just wanted to make mention of that.
Thanks for reading….
