Seminars among worst ways to start real estate investing

“Pick up distressed properties for a few cents on the dollar.” “Invest in real estate with no money down.” “Learn the secrets of professional real estate investors.”

If you’ve been looking for a way to begin investing in real estate, you’ve no doubt heard those phrases in the advertising for real estate investment seminars. Taught by self-described investment gurus, you’re promised that you too can become a millionaire in real estate, once the “secret system” is revealed at the seminar. But seminars are probably the worst way to get started in real estate investing.

Before you spend the money to attend a seminar about investing in real estate, especially one that has been promoted in an infomercial on late-night TV, ask yourself this: Why would the investment guru want to share all that information with you? Could the answer be that there’s more money to be made from selling the seminars than there is actually investing in real estate?

Even if the seminar is free, you’re likely be hit up to buy expensive books, manuals and computer CDs. Perhaps part of the deal is consultation or mentoring: You (and the thousand other people at the seminar) will have instant access to your guru for one-on-one advice.

The mood at these seminars can be a bit frantic, and that’s part of the danger. They want you to feel that if you don’t jump on board immediately and pull out your checkbook, you’ll be the only one in the room losing out on a potential mega-million-dollar deal.

Or perhaps the deal doesn’t involve attending a seminar, but instead you’ll purchase a package with books and tapes full of investment wisdom. Afterward you’ll likely be subjected to high-pressure phone calls, urging you to take all your new knowledge and put it to work.

As always, before you spend money, do your homework. Check out the investment guru online, and hunt for signs of scams and unhappy customers.

Before you invest in real estate after you study one of these offers, compare how much you could make investing the same amount in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. You have about as much control over real estate values as you do the stock market.