The Truth About Wendy Patton’s Real Estate Investing Program
Ok…confession here. When I was a kid (prob like most out there) I wanted to be a super hero. When I was 6, my grandma made me a batman cape, and that cape and I became inseparable.
I wore it everywhere. I even began to wear my underwear on the outside of my pants, which was an embarrassment to my family, but everybody humored me.
I was able to dig up an old photo: try not to laugh too hard. Only thing I am missing is my cape in this one.
Fast forward to my 41 year old self….you know what I’m doing tonight? Right now, as I drop a couple of lines about good ole Wendy Patton?
I am watching “The Flash” on Netflix.
I guess the super hero persists deep within my psyche, as I (the Real Estate Spy)…uh my alter ego, super hero self… exposes the bad guys and gives you some honest reviews and thoughts on real estate investing (while trying not to get sued) wink.
My story?
I got hammered in REI…lost it all, but luckily found James, who taught me how to run a less capital intense business and murder my 9-5.
This is my friend James. He’s the one who helped me wake up from the corporate cubicle nightmare I used to call life.
Not really, I just know I found a better way. You can learn more here.
And so >>I’m OUT<<
But regardless, I’m gonna give you my thoughts about her here. -Enjoy
Wendy Patton: Reviewing the Wonder Woman of Real Estate Investing
Seems like most real-estate investor gurus have a niche or a favorite technique or a pet slant. Gary Johnston says he’s a Buy-and-Hold guy. Jay DeCima is all about Ugly Houses. Wendy Patton’s focus is creative seller financing, and more specifically, Lease Options.
So what’s the back story?
Patton was a college grad, outfitted with a degree from the University of Colorado and a corporate job with EDS (Electronic Data Systems).
Along with the outfitting came $20,000 of school debt, so she was educated and employed, but broke.
Investing in real estate seemed the ticket to financial freedom, so she jumped in while maintaining her 9-5 job. Credit card companies were naturally delighted to fund her early property purchases (a little kidding there), and she quickly found herself with $200,000 of credit card debt.
She got married, had twins, and became a single mom within a fairly short amount of time. At that point, she faced a future alone with two kids and a whole lot of debt. She needed something that would produce enough income to pay off that debt.
Real estate still seemed like the train to ride to financial freedom even with its headaches.
But how to get on it without money or credit to buy in the conventional way? She had to come up with creative financing techniques. And that is how Patton got started with lease options, subject-to’s, and land contracts.
Over the next 24 years, she accumulated extensive experience in lease options, subject to’s, land development, property management, rehabs, foreclosures, new construction and pre-construction . Patton now is a licensed builder in Michigan and a real estate broker in three states.
Somewhere on the train ride, people began to sit up and take notice of Wendy Patton and her Lease Options.
They asked her for advice, and, long story short, the education component of her business was birthed. She has joined the ranks of Those Who Sell What They Know.
I’m always curious, when it comes to stratospherically successful real estate investors, about how much in-the-trenches stuff they do after they are producing home courses and cruising the seminar circuits. Meaning: are they still personally scouring for properties? Sitting their own butts down at the negotiating table? Checking on the drywall subs all by their lonesomes? Or have they surpassed that menial stuff and are just focused on the training track?
I can’t tell with Wendy Patton. I don’t know how much trench work she’s still doing.
But I can tell that she has worked hard, and continues to work hard, at parlaying her experience and knowledge into presentations that other hopeful investors can use. Which is not a bad thing, done right.
For a start, she’s up to speed in the social media game. In this regard, she is outstripping many of her real estate investment colleagues, especially those born a generation before her.
Patton is active on Facebook with varied, attractive, and informative posts. She’s on Google Plus, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, to name a few. She has over thirty YouTube videos. She’s got it going on with social media, which is pretty key in today’s world.
Patton has a fairly comprehensive website with lots of solid information. Her blog archives go back over a year, and include substantial articles on such topics as Lease Option Forms and Contracts; How to Find a Seller Now; Sandwich Lease Options: Details of the Paperwork; Seasoned Funds and Paper Trails; Cooperative Lease Options; and How to Screen Tenant Buyers.
It’s refreshing to see a non-scarcity mindset behind these blogs. In other words, this information is out there without cost to anyone to access, even the average non-paying Joe.
Of course, if I were to play the devil’s advocate, I could also say that the blogs are teasers to draw a person in to buying Patton’s products, which are conveniently listed on the Products page.
Wendy Patton Lease Options Course Analysis
Patton’s courses include Buying On Lease Options, Selling on Lease Options, Cooperative Lease Options, Get the Deed “Subject-To,” and Working With Realtors.
These cost $497 each for either a digital package or a physical course where the CDs and forms arrive in your mailbox. None of the product descriptions say how many CDs or forms are contained in the courses.
One can also purchase the “Wealth Building Arsenal,” which includes four of the above courses—Buying on Lease Option, Selling on Lease Option, Cooperative Lease Options, and Working with Realtors—for $1097 (save a hundred bucks if you get the digital package and download everything).
Patton has an enthusiastic copy writer.
He or she claims that the Wealth Building Arsenal “shows you how to put $5,000-$10,000 in your bank account in 29 days.” And, “You do realize that you could pay for the course with the first deal that you do, right?”
And then this prod: “Successful people take action! Order today so you can make that deposit into your bank account in 29 days!”
I think this refers to all the money you will make by taking the course—not the $1,097 you will deposit into your bank account after transferring it from another bank account to cover the cost of the course. Just kidding.
Seriously, though, Patton’s product blurbs are a little heavier on the hype than I like. Each individual product page has a short video in which Patton herself extols the virtues of the course and then ends with, “Go ahead and sign up right away!”
Anything that smacks of pressure is a bit of a turn-off, even if the product is outstanding.
But that’s just me.
There are two services on Patton’s site that make me a little uncomfortable. They aren’t bad or illegal or anything; they just seem like ways to get more of a buyer’s money. More of your money—money that could otherwise be going into buying that first property.
Wendy’s Inner Circle Reviews
The first service is the Inner Circle subscription. The Inner Circle is a “select” group—select, that is, because you are paying $39.95 per month for it—of people who have special access to all of Patton’s wisdom.
“Go beyond the books,” says the Inner Circle blurb, “and get motivated with monthly, live Q & A webinar sessions with Wendy.
Also, you will have the keys to open a vault with hours of tips and training from Wendy and other industry experts.”
The second service that smacks of grabbing is the Lease Option Coaching for $199/month. Now, I’m certainly not against coaching, but the red flags wave over the reason given for why buyers need this.
Apparently the courses from Patton aren’t enough. After you have spent the $497 or the $1,097 or whatever, “all you have is enough information to be dangerous!”
This is because, according to the blurb, if you still don’t know how to start, how to best use your time, how to begin talking to sellers, what to do when a seller says yes, how to analyze the deal, and how to make intelligent offers, you are, ahem, screwed.
And thus your need for personal coaching at $200 per month. That adds up to $2,400 per year, in addition to the $500 or more you spent on the initial course.
That one actually makes me more than uncomfortable. But again, it’s just me. I think coaching is a great idea, but I also think that after I’ve plunked down a bunch of Ben Franklins for one of Patton’s courses, I’d know things like “How to Start.”
A Look at Patton’s Books
Patton has four books on the market, available both through her own website and also on Amazon.
These are:
- Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and “Subject-To” Deals;
- Rent-to-Sell: Your Hands-on Guide to Sell Your Home When Buyers Are Scarce;
- Rent-to-Buy: Your Hands-On Guide to Buy Your Home When Mortgage Lending is Tight; and
- Making Hard Cash in a Soft Real-Estate Market.
All can be purchased at full price (between $20 and $25) from Amazon or at much less than full price (from a penny for used to $13 for new, depending on the book) from Amazon’s third-party sellers. All four books received between 4 and 5 stars (out of 5).
Following is a little more uncomfortable information.
I include it not to slam Patton but just to inform. I checked out Ripoffreport.com, and found one complaint about one of Patton’s courses (the specific course wasn’t identified).
This was posted in October 2013. “The mp3’s of the training are very, very poor quality and on several sessions instead of teaching direct she has conversations with her kids about lease options and calls that a training session.
When it comes to the contracts, she does not explain the contract line for line, but reads the contract and explains a little. I called Beverley the sales person. Beverley answered some of my questions on the surface, but didn’t get deep. I then gathered all of my questions and asked her to explain these items.
“Beverly said she can’t answer my questions. I told her if I don’t understand the contracts and can’t explain them, what good is the kit that she sold me.
Beverly told me to go back and review material and if I needed additional help I would need to pay $200 a month. I have not heard from her since.”
It’s possible that that was one unfortunate situation and not representative of the quality of either the material or the customer service. Nevertheless, buyer beware.
I have tremendous respect for real estate investors like Wendy Patton. She came back from a tough situation that would have buried some of us, worked hard, maintained confidence, learned a lot, and built wealth.
Then she figured out how to translate that knowledge into formats that new investors could access, and has done well with that endeavor also. Even if there’s a bit of over-selling and a few dissatisfied customers, still, overall this is a woman who rocks at her business.
