Customer Reviews

World's Greatest Wealth Builder

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This book is the "World's Greatest wealth Builder" for the author not the readers. Carleton Sheets is a super salesman, however his books is light weight fluff, that is a pure infomercial for his more expensive courses. Many times throughtout the book the author tells you that he has courses available to tell you the rest of the details. The entire book is an introduction to courses costing 10 times the price of the book. The book is pure and simply a commercial for the more expensive course. That being the case the book should have been free. There is very little of his background, or his purchases; making you wonder what is missing or hidden. Mr. Sheets reportedly did work for the discredited and bankrupt author, seminar-seller, Robert Allen as a huckster 15 to 20 years ago. He is refined, polished and slick but the subject matter is light, cosmetic and written in the most general terms. I read the whole book waiting for the substantive portion of the book to start,it never happened. With the thousands of books available on Real Estate investing, this book would be at the bottom of my list and would not be recommended. I have read probably 100 books on Real Estate and have purchased over 200 properties. From my my experience some of the techniques in the book do work, while other are not very effective. I would highly recommend William Nickerson's book "How I turned $1,000 into One Million in my Spare Time." Leigh Robinson's "Landlording" book is excellent and I would recommend to anyone currently think of being a rental property owner. Any of Peter Miller's books are also not to be missed. Robert Irwin's countless books are good reading at the introductory level. Kenneth Harney and Robert Bruss are also knowledgable Real Estate writers. Save your money do NOT buy Carleton Sheet's book, there are other much better choices available.

To put it concisely, this book is not worth the money. Ihaveread Carleton's books and I even bought his course and found hisinformation to be vague, outdated, and risky. The fact of the matteris, and this is a realistic thought, that you are not going to be a millionare overnight nor are going to by the "ideal" property for no money down. You have a better chance winning the lottery or being struck by lightening. Now, I am not saying that these deals don't exist. What I am saying is that they are few and far between. The reality is that banks will only lend you money based upon what you are able to pay. Seller financing? Well, look at it this way...the more money a person is willing to finance, the more problems there are with the home. This is not always true, but 9 times out of 10 it is. Using your credit cards as down payments? Ask yourself this question...how would you like to pay $1500, $2000, or $3000 at a 17.9% to 20% interest rate when you are only making $100 a month on a single family house? Do the math and you'll see what I mean. As you read Carleton's book or buy his home study course (which is just a expanded version of his book)he does an excellent job of promoting his product by explaining things in such simplistic terms. To the first time investor, the reaction is "wow, it's just that simple". Whereas to the experienced investor, the reaction may be "Well, that's correct but the reality is this." After all is said and done, what you end up purchasing is an expensive infomercial. If you happen to watch his infomercial, not only are his techniques outdated, but so are the people he uses in his commercials. They are still wearing clothes from the 1980's which leads me to believe that these people are truly a.) have no money or credit to by decent clothes and should think twice about buying a real esate course or b.) these commercials are incredibly old and outdated. When you read this, please understand that I am not slamming real estate investing. I enjoy real esate investing. What I don't like is when so called "real estate guru's" tell you you can, only if you buy the course. Carelton is making money alright, but I think the majority of the money is from selling his courses. In just a one day seminar with say 300 people and with his course at a price of $200, he will make $60,000. If you want to, take away advertising, overhead, etc., and he can still come away with $30,000 in a day. If he does one seminar a week at $30,000, he could make over a million easy($1,560,000 to be exact) Who needs to buy real estate when you can sell these courses? Buyer beware. END

This book does not describe the author's techniques. It is essentially a sales brochure, full of reasons you should buy Mr. Sheets' expensive video course. The book only hints at Mr. Sheets' techniques, providing too little detail to be of use and constantly implying that real success comes from buying his course. If you want to learn from Mr. Sheets, don't buy this 300 page advertisement. I think, though, that anyone who would disguise a sales brochure as an instructional book isn't worth your time.

Carleton Sheets' methods do work. I was studying his TV course and realized, "My gosh, this is exactly how I bought my house 15 years ago", (its free & clear now, and all that came from my own pocket was utilities).

That said, you won't get a lot of secrets from this book. It gives an overview, and may give you the motivation to seek further education in the field, but its not likely you'll be ready to start doing deals with just this book. You can find his complete course for not much more money on popular auction sites.

If you're thinking about doing some real estate investing but haven't done much studying on it yet, this is a good primer. Consider it as a first step.

Yes--this book is an overview of Carleton course but it also contains some good information and is very suitable for the newcomer to real estate. Carleton covers a lot of his famous "No Money Down" techniques and beats to deatht he success of his students. In that regard, it does resemble an advertisement, but if you have the testimonials, why not flaunt them?

This book will not be enough to get your started in real estate investing. His course is far more complete. This book will get your interest. The course will make you wealthy. Use this book as an intro to real estate investing.

As a Real Estate Investor for approx. 5 years now,I appreciate this book.While it is short on details and long on the end product,Mr. Sheets is right on the money.You really can become wealthy by investing in rental properties,but it does,understandably,take time and EFFORT!To be successful,as I am,you must take some risks.You must give up at least some of your couch/TV time.You must have some money to start with,credit lines or whatever,and you must do it today! Simply buying the course isn't enough.You must at some point put the book down and actively start doing it.Remember,NOTHING WORKS UNTIL YOU DO!Each of us and no one else are responsible for our actions or inactions.Action and Inaction are CHOICES. Good Luck

Mainly filled with testimonials and trying to sell his other expensive products (which can be had at auction sites for a fraction of their original cost by the way). No numbers, mainly just how to locate no-money-down deals. No-money-down deals can be disasterous, especially to the novice, by the way. Having said that, you could probably glean one or two tidbits about finding willing sellers, whether you purchased for nothing down or not, so I didnt rate it a one.

I already owned the course and it works! But I was curious to know more about Carleton Sheets and his background, so I bought the book. He does give us a glimpse at his past, but primarily he offers a lot of tips and techniques for beginning real estate investors -- many which are also included in his course.If you want to get a taste for his investment strategies and philosophies -- buy the book. And if you like what you see, I recommend the course for anyone who wants to make more money!

This book is an obvious marketing ploy designed to steer you into buying his informercial products. The book is replete with rags to riches testimonials all designed to titilate and entice you into thinking that you too, can go from being flat broke to being a real estate millionaire, if only you'd buy the home study course. Very appealing, especially if you are unemployed and just sitting in front of the TV all day long.

Still, Sheets knows how to market a product because his informercials have been running continuosly for 20 years.

As for the book itself, if you can get past all the glowing praises for Carleton Sheets, there might be 20 pages of semi-solid info and if you try any of his "no money down techniques", the prerequisite is that you have a sense of humor. You will have more people laughing at you than a rented clown hosting a five year old's birthday party. Ha!

Seriously, while I believe that real estate can be a great investment, all these real estate hucksters turned authors, make it seem easier than it really is. It ain't so.

Instead of this dreadful turkey, I would recommend: Buy It, Fix It, Sell It: Profit by Myers and/or Are You Too Dumb to Be Rich by Bennett. Here you are getting solid information and not a thick sales brochure.

This is an excellent book for anyone desiring to purchase
a property as either a first home or a vacation home. The purchase
of a property on "nothing down terms" requires a lot of very
meticulous verification work. Carleton's book points out all of
the opportunities and pitfalls. Basic terms are defined clearly.

Carleton reviews the "nothing down" techniques for acquiring
a property utilizing other peoples' money. There are various
ways to accomplish these techniques. For instance, suppose
you locate a motivated seller who will give you a note for
a portion of the purchase price. Assume that the house has a
loanable value far in excess of what you will be paying.
In this case, you can acquire a house with nothing down
because the financial institution is well-protected by the
value of the home. In estate sales, you can acquire the
contents of the home , as well as the home. In foreclosures,
the seller (usually a financial institution) is looking for
someone to assume the mortgage so that the monthly maintenance
costs will no longer be assumed by the bank. Sometimes,
you can literally roll over a property by acquiring it and
selling it immediately at a much higher price. There are
government homesteading programs wherein the government
will give you the property just for living in it for a period
of time. There are special programs which provide 50%
discounts for teachers and special discounts for the disabled.
Carleton Sheets covers most of these programs in his works.
In addition, he sells a "Nothing Down" series of workbooks
which outline the process on pre-designed worksheets.
The HUD (Housing and Urban Development) Website has a description
of many of the government programs. There are special programs
for veterans and the home-business utilization of a property.
Due to the favorable foreign exchange rate, homes in Canada
are cheaper. Carleton's book on "Real Estate-The World's
Greatest Wealth Builder" is a good place to start investing
in real estate. When you look at a property, you should bring
an experienced plumber and electrician to advise you on
the applicable code. In addition, keep in mind the structural
requirements in a house. Money spent on an experienced
"home inspector" is money well spent. The government has
low cost earthquake insurance for homes in earthquake zones.
Lastly, you should look at the town or county inspector's
books in order to find out about previous violations,
fires and other reportable events on the property. Real Estate
is a good investment because the social security allotment
will not cover everything in your retirement. In addition,
people change jobs and the pension vesting is not always
continuous. Real Estate can help you to make up the difference
in your personal investment portfolio and planning.
In instances where a house requires fixing, the HUD provides
Title I loans up to $15,000 for fix-up expenses. These loans
are at a very low rate of interest.

The work is worth every bit the price paid because mistakes
in this area can be costly and lawyers don't always provide
a comprehensive assessment of the critical issues involved in
purchasing individual properties.