Posted by John J. on January 18, 2001 at 08:29:43:
It was Dr. Lowry’s book, “How to become financially independent …”, and one of his one-day in-person short-courses that got me started in this business in the seventies. So I owe a great deal to the man and have great loyalty to him.
I had the privilege of meeting him again a few years ago. He still does his one-day seminars, but it now covers much broader territory, including government property auctions (cars, boats, jewelry, etc.) and where/how to find government money for rehab and no-money-down financing. I still had the newspaper article about his bankruptcy in the Lake Tahoe development and when I presented it he was very open about discussing it and actually used it as a learning experience, explaining to the audience what had gone wrong and what can be done to avoid such turn of events. I recommend him for a newbie. He has a good way of explaining the basics in detail as well as presenting numerous alternative scenarios.
He must now be in his seventies and I have the impression that he does these seminars because he realizes that he has a tremendous knowledge and actual experiences - he learned a lot of techniques the hard way - and just enjoys sharing all this with people who will take the time to listen and go to work ‘making it in real estate’. He will also stay in touch with those who actually implement what they learn from him, if they want to. He still has his fast pace and enthusiasm about all the opportunities that are out there.
I don’t think that he makes a lot of money from these seminars. He was in town for a week, personally doing the free intro presentations each evening. Estimating his expenses for travel, room/board, seminar room rentals, his assistant and the cost of the large stack of books and tapes that he hands out and estimating his revenue from the seminar fees, I did not calculate a high margin. I am now listening to his tape series, ? How to make money in foreclosures?. Along with the work book it also covers a lot of the basics of investing in residential properties, contracts, etc.
Throughout the seminar - which we had paid for - he also pushed Pre-paid Legal Services several times in an MLM fashion. Toward the end he even handed each of us a sign-up form and then spent the time going through it line by line, telling us how to fill it out. It concerned me that he had to resort to this to generate income for himself.