John T. Reed runs a website designed to sell books and information products about real estate investing. No problem there – it’s reasonable to sell good educational products.
But the way he does it is to bash other “gurus” for doing the exact same thing. In fact, when you enter your name and email address in his subscription box (which I do not recommend), the next page you see is nothing more than a list of all of the products that John T. Reed will sell to you.
Ever the information marketer himself, John T. Reed also includes a recommended sequence for purchasing his products. How very thoughtful of him.
I have no knowledge of Mr. Reed’s products. I’ll make the assumption that they are fine, legitimate products. But he sells them primarily because he has a web page in which he lists his own highly biased and frequently questionable reviews for various gurus. He has very little good to say about anyone who happens to be alive today. In fact, it appears that a primary criteria for his evaluation is whether some other real estate guru sells a product that’s more expensive that Mr. Reed’s products.
There are many disreputable real estate “gurus” out there. And it’s completely reasonable to review them. But if you want to say something bad about a person, make it honest, well researched and based on truth rather than innuendo. An example of the foolishness of John T. Reed’s evaluations for a guy named Peter Conti (about whom I know nothing), about whom Reed could apparently find nothing negative to say, is:
Uses the business name Mentor Financial Group, LLC. The purpose of an LLC (limited liability company) is to make it harder for you to sue the owners of the company in question successfully.
Well yeah, Mr. Reed. Liability protection is one purpose of using an LLC. Does that make the people at Mentor Financial Group LLC unscrupulous for protecting themselves? Or does it make your reviews suspect for implicitly criticizing wise business structuring? I suspect the latter.
As always, your questions and comments are welcomed. Thank you for visiting FreeRealEstateTraining.com!
John T. Reed has been around for years and a number of “GuRus” have taken him to task on his reviews. I’ve reviewed his materials and found them less than helpful. I for one consider him nothing more than an information marketer using a negative campaign. He has already left a bad tastte in my mouth and I personally ignore most of what he says.
I agree with you and feel that anyone with a business needs good business structuring, and that in this world of sue happy people, putting your real estate investment business in an LLC, is a smart move, for asset protection. If Mr. Reed claims that something is wrong for protecting your family against all the sue happy people, then you can bet I wont be listening to any of his information, or buying anything from his site.
I agree with your review of John T. Reed. I have watched him for 2 years and have never heard him say one nice thing about anyone. How sad to live your life in that much misery – the only way he seems to be able to raise himself up is knock everyone else down. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!
I’ve seen John T. Reeds “reviews” for years as well. He merely preys on the fact that people want to do research on the particular educators that they have found interesting before purchasing a product. He self-servingly only bashes others to gain “trust” for himself.
How about Jack Sternberg and Ken Pruess?
See my Jack Sternberg review page. — Bryan Ellis
Bryan, you are right on with the use of an LLC, and I feel that any business is making a mistake not to use a business entity to give themselves asset protection etc, as history has shown time and again. As far as Peter Conti and REI, Peter has books on Amazon that he has written, also some books he has co-written that puts out decent information for the REI industry. Peter is a little on the higher-priced side with his Maui and Denver, CO seminars. But, then so are lots of other REI gurus. And, it is the individuals choice as to whether or not to attend these seminars anyway. This doesn\’t make Peter Conti a bad boy either. People such as John T Reed lets their attitude shine through loud and clear for folks to see just where they stand overall. I am looking forward to seeing more of your next reviews Bryan. Have a great day now.
I knew that when I clicked the link in your email introduction, it was going to be about John T. Reed.
As is usually the case, you are right on the mark!
Keep up the good work. Best of Everything, Mel
John T. Reed’s website is one of the oldest on the REI topic around. For that reason (alone) it ranks quite well in the search engines for many prominent keyword terms in our industry.
Thus, most newbies tend to stumble upon his guru rating page while in the process of heir due diligence on education before spending their hard earned money.
It’s obvious from his own writings that John Reed thinks far too much of himself, and far too little of others in the industry. He’s quick to judge — and judges often – based on a perception of quality and integrity which seems to use only himself as a baseline.
I’m not saying everything on his whole site is wrong. You’ll find some elements of truth in how he views some of the industry shysters. But there’s more than enough one-sided, antagonistic drivel to discredit him as the protector of innocents he fancies himself to be.
Thanks, Bryan, for telling it like it is!
…jp
I must say that Elgin took the words right out of my mouth – I too, immediately knew this post HAD to be about John T Reed! KUDOS to you for your site. The info you present here is top notch!
Thank you, Bill – I really appreciate your kind words very much! — Bryan Ellis
Wow Bryan,
I don’t who the heck you are or where you came from, but I’m glad I found you and I LOVE reading your emails. Always short, concise and there always something I can take with me. I’ve learned a lot from you in the last couple of months.
I came across J Reed many years ago and learned to take what he says with a grain of salt. He tends to be pretty negative and assume the worst about someone til they prove otherwise. Although in Claude Diamonds case, Reed seems to dislike Claude for no apparent reason except the price of Claude’s products and services. Last time I checked, the free market will dictake what a person can charge.
Thanks again for your superior site. Randy Hoese
I appreciate your article. I was just reading his site yesterday.
Many of his claims about the different gurus are completely out of line. I have personally been through many of the seminars and courses and gotten a tremendous amount out of them.
It seems to me that by building his site the way he has, he cares much more about making a ton of money than anything else.
I have to agree that John Reed is an incredibly negative individual. I have taken his reviews with a grain of salt until I recently read one that is so far out in left field it strongly offended me. As JP Moses notes, some of what he says about the outright thieves in this industry is true.
I was strongly offended by his review of David Lindahl. I have attended a few of his events this past year. I have been investing for almost ten years. David Lindahl is a great teacher and is the opposite of how John Reed portrays him in his review. Unlike so many “gurus” out there, you can reach David by e-mail and phone directly. He will answer your questions and provide guidance. His team is outstanding in helping and supporting you when moving from SFH to multi-family and following his Emerging Market strategy.
John Reed has lost all credibility in my eyes, although he has pegged some “gurus” correctly, he apparently has also pegged others completely unfairly. I believe any of us could get the same results just by throwing darts at guru photos and pegging hits as bad and misses as good.
John T Reed is the biggest hypocrite on the planet. For years he was against the “no money down” strategies that some gurus were teaching but what does he do he puts out a book on what you guessed it “no money down”.
That shows you this man’s credibility and advice should be flushed down the toilet.
Bryan,
I’m so glad you set the record straight on John T. Reed. He has used these so called “scare tactics” to position himself as the only credible source on the internet, yet the facts he tries to give cannot be validated.
It’s a known fact that some internet marketers do this to again position themselves as credible and to go after the skeptics who are trying to do their due dilligence before getting involved with a “guru”. They’re only objective is to find out the truth. People like John T. Reed may seem like their after your heart, but when you can’t back up the facts, you are simply after the wallet, to include a high ranking on google.
Such a smart marketing tactic when it comes to positioning and ranking…yet so disgusting and devious, which is why John T. Reed gets no respect from me.