Bailout Riches!: How Everyday Investors Can Make a Fortune Buying Bad Loans for Pennies on the Dollar [Hardcover]

Bill Bartmann (Author), Jonathan Rozek (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 047047825X | ISBN-13: 978-0470478257 | Publication Date: May 26, 2009 | Edition: 1

What is the investment opportunity from America's financial crisis? Somewhere north of one trillion dollars of debt--mortgages, credit cards, and other forms--will be written off and sold to buyers at pennies on the dollar. It gets even better: There are ways to buy that debt with no money of your own.

Society's collective pain from this crisis means that it's unlikely to occur ever again on this scale. Investors with the right roadmap are poised to profit spectacularly. Bartmann lays out a step by step plan on how to find the best deals from the federal government, local Financial Institutions, and loan brokers. The spectrum of loans that are available include: credit card debt, consumer loans, business loans, commercial loans, and real estate loans.

You’ve heard about the massive government bailout of the financial sector and its cost to taxpayers. Couple that with skyrocketing unemployment and a shrinking stock market and you might think this is a terrible time to invest in anything. But you’d be wrong.

In Bailout Riches!, Bill Bartmann shows you how to invest in the bailout itself and take your own cut of the trillion-dollar pie. What does Bartmann know about bailouts? Only that the last big-time government bailout-involving the savings and loan crisis and the government’s Resolution Trust Corporation- made him a billionaire. This time around, the bailout is much bigger and opportunities for profit are much greater.

"Who better to teach you how to prosper from this economic chaos than a man who actually took himself from ‘bankruptcy to billionaire’ during the last crisis."--Ken Blanchard, coauthor, The One Minute Entrepreneur

"Bill Bartmann is more than a great financial success story; he is a phenomenal teacher who has helped thousands of my students achieve success. Bailout Riches will show you how you can prosper during these tumultuous times." --T. Harv Eker, author, New York Times #1 bestseller, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

"When the economy is in crisis, Bill Bartmann finds the diamond in the rough. The information in this book made him a billionaire fourteen years ago during the S&L crisis. Now the economy is cratering again and his methods are working better than ever. Read this book and discover a hidden source of wealth all around you."--David Lindahl, author of Emerging Real Estate Markets and Multi-Family Millions

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In the current bailout, billions of taxpayer dollars are being used to buy bad debts from banks in order to keep those banks solvent as borrowers default on loans. These bad debts are being sold for pennies on the dollar to anyone willing to buy them. But just because these are bad debts doesn't mean they're worthless investments. Imagine this: you buy a $5,000 bad loan for just $250. You approach the borrower in default and offer them a chance to settle that $5,000 debt for just $500. If they agree, you've made a one hundred percent profit on your investment, the bank has the loan off their books, and the borrower is out of debt. It's a win-win-win situation!

If that sounds like fantasy, it's not; it's how Bartmann made his fortune and how you can make yours, too. But if his ideas worked so well, why would Bartmann share them? Simple—there's plenty to go around.

In fact, over the next year or two, somewhere around $1 trillion of debt will be written down and sold to buyers at ridiculously cheap prices. Now is the time to get your share.

Bailout Riches! lays out a step-by-step plan for finding the best deals on loan packages, building a valuable debt portfolio, and collecting from debtors with little hassle. It's simple, it's practical, and it's cheap to get started. If you're looking for a new way to make real money, Bailout Riches! will show you how to jump on the biggest gravy train in recent history.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Bailout Riches

"Who better to teach you how to prosper from this economic chaos than a man who actually took himself from 'bankruptcy to billionaire' during the last crisis."
—Ken Blanchard, coauthor, The One Minute Entrepreneur

"Bill Bartmann is more than a great financial success story; he is a phenomenal teacher who has helped thousands of my students achieve success. Bailout Riches will show you how you can prosper during these tumultuous times."
—T. Harv Eker, author, New York Times #1 bestseller, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

"When the economy is in crisis, Bill Bartmann finds the diamond in the rough. The information in this book made him a billionaire fourteen years ago during the S&L crisis. Now the economy is cratering again and his methods are working better than ever. Read this book and discover a hidden source of wealth all around you."
—David Lindahl, author of Emerging Real Estate Markets and Multi-Family Millions

You've heard about the massive government bailout of the financial sector and its cost to taxpayers. Couple that with skyrocketing unemployment and a shrinking stock market and you might think this a terrible time to invest in anything. But you'd be wrong.

In Bailout Riches!, Bill Bartmann shows you how to invest in the bailout itself and take your own cut of the trillion-dollar pie. What does Bartmann know about bailouts? Only that the last big-time government bailout—involving the savings and loan crisis and the government's Resolution Trust Corporation—made him a billionaire. This time around, the bailout is much bigger and opportunities for profit are much greater.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (May 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047047825X
• ISBN-13: 978-0470478257
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OK, I'll try..., June 29, 2009

By 

Sucker for PUNishment "Looking for a way" (Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bailout Riches!: How Everyday Investors Can Make a Fortune Buying Bad Loans for Pennies on the Dollar (Hardcover)

As with any person or organization (church or business) that has achieved any measure of success you will be able to find plenty of negative if you google or yahoo it enough. As a person, I don't care if Bill Bartmann wears a halo or if he rips babies from the womb and eats them whole. I bought the book (through a Brian Tracy joint promotion) in order to use it as a blueprint to wealth and that blueprint hasn't worked.

I like Bartmann's straight forward writing style and his occasional use of humor. I was nearly in the floor laughing at times.

As for the substance, I would call this book a "how did" rather than a "how to". The world has out grown the method.

Bartmann is correct when discouraging the reader from approaching branches of large banks. I actually manage a branch of one of the nation's top 10 banks and Bill is right - you would spend horrid amounts of time getting to someone "in charge" and when you did finally break through you probably wouldn't get anything out of it.

Otherwise, I have discovered through actually utilizing the information in the book that the system Bartmann used 15-20 years ago is now an anachronism. For example, one of the local banks in my town garnishes the wages of charge off DDA and delinquent consumer loan customers. They don't send the delinquent accounts to collection agencies, they keep hammering away until they find a payroll check to garnish. No room for me in that scenario. Another local bank sells the accounts to a collection agency and afterwards the accounts are never seen again - the accounts never return to the bank once the primary collector get hold of them.

At present, I have approached 5 banks - 3 in northeast Oklahoma (Bartmann's homeland) and 2 in northwest Arkansas - using Bartmann's system. So far, I am 0-for-5. I will try a few more however, in this day and age it's pretty easy to quickly run out of local, home town banks to visit. Granted, 5 isn't an incredible sampling, but it's probably 5 more than many of the reviewers here have attempted. Besides, who's going to adopt a new system they read about in a book and visit 53 banks until they find one that will bite?

Final summary: reading how Bartmann amassed his fortune makes for an intriguing read and as a banker I found his explanation of bank operations refreshing and some times hilarious. However it is my experience, vast or minimal that may be, that the system that worked for Bartmann years ago may not work to the same degree today. I wouldn't in 100 years throw around terms like "scam" or "rip-off" but I will use "impractical".

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If debt collecting is so profitable, why isnt he still doing it?, August 30, 2009

By 

A. Nesbitt (Antelope, ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bailout Riches!: How Everyday Investors Can Make a Fortune Buying Bad Loans for Pennies on the Dollar (Hardcover)

Bill talks about how he became a billionaire in 1998, but leaves out something very important. What happened after 1998? I'll tell you. His company went bankrupt due to fraud. I do not know the full details about it, but I know he had something like 120 multi-million dollar creditors which stinks of some kind of half business half ponzi scheme, but again...i do not know the details of the fraud and I am not claiming that is was ponzi, only that is what it looks like to me.

If I could ask Bartmann a question, it would be "If you had made a billion dollars from this business, why dont you do it again? Why waste time writing books and giving seminars(which is not as profitable)? Why not get back into something you know about instead of doing books and seminars about how you USED to be a billionaire?"

Let me be clear that in his book he never says he lost all that money. He says in his book he made a billion dollars (although I'm not sure that he did, only that GS said his company was worth a billion, not sure he ever had a billion in cash or that his net profit ever totalled 1 billion from his business) I had to do a little searching on my own to find out he lost it all.

If you want to be inspired though, its a decent read. But dont think that this "blueprint" for making money will make you money.

81 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Useful but conspicuous, June 2, 2009

By 

Arjun (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bailout Riches!: How Everyday Investors Can Make a Fortune Buying Bad Loans for Pennies on the Dollar (Hardcover)

Does anyone find it odd that every review (save one) was written on the same day (June 2nd 2009)? This usually suggests a collaborative effort from a specific group of people working to hype the book up.

His story and marketing is manipulative as he was only a BILLIONAIRE ON PAPER. HE NEVER ACTUALLY HAD THE MONEY, IT WAS JUST IN THE VALUE OF HIS COMPANY.

Yes, he went to the Fortune 400 list, only to lose all of his money and go bankrupt shortly after. If this guy was such a savvy businessman, HOW DID HE LOSE A BILLION DOLLARS?

Its not like he has a story of Trump who went from 900+million in the hole back to Billionaire. He is now having to use his story and motivational speaking skills just to get his wealth back.

If you google Bill and his history, you will find the story of an egomaniac who appears to feel empowered by his wealth and nothing else. That is how he defines himself.
[...]
The book may be useful if you plan on calling people to collect on bad debts, but following this person as a motivational speaker? A quick review of his past and character would likely change your mind.