What If The Whole World Worked The Same As The Toronto Real Estate Industry?

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2 minute read

September 21, 2015

We may have missed an episode in August, but believe me when I say this series is going to run for a while!

In our hyper-sensitive real estate market, there’s no shortage of topics to cover.  And today, we’re going to look at those awful real estate seminars that prey on the naive and hopeful.

I’m sure you’ve heard radio ads for these seminars, and I guarantee you’ve seen their ads on Facebook.

So let me show you what they’re all about in the following video…

Free coffee to anybody who can name the movie character that I modeled this real estate seminar guru after.  Anybody?

This past summer, I got two phone calls from people who, to be complete honest and blunt, were utter morons.

Both of them sounded awkward on the phone, and both didn’t really know what they were asking me.

Both of them, it turns out, had attended a real estate seminar, and both of them wanted to know where they could buy foreclosures at auctions in Toronto, and if I had contractors that could build houses so they could flip them.

The timing of their calls suggests that perhaps they attended the same seminar.

Or maybe, they were just separated in the womb.

These two characters informed me that they had attended a workshop, and after three days of learning, they were ready to “buy properties to flip” in Toronto.

One of them told me that she had didn’t have a penny to her name, but the course spent a good amount of time on how this could be accomplished without the flipper using any of their own equity.

I was astounded.

But somewhere in my subconscious, was this radio advertisement, making these very claims.

“Learn how to make money flipping properties in the Golden Horseshoe without any of your own money.”

I don’t know where I heard that, and yet it was there, somewhere, in my brain.

I felt bad for these two people

I spent a decent amount of time with the one guy, purely out of fascination.  I asked him, “Why would a bank sell a property for less than fair market value in the hottest market on earth.”

He said, “Because they want to get rid of it quickly.”

I followed up with, “But do you think they’d really sell a $500,000 house for $300,000 in a day, rather than wait a week to get, say, $600,000?”

He politely informed me, “That’s what they do!”

I guess if people want to believe something so bad, they’ll find a way to do so.

I thought about attending one of these seminars, just to see what it’s all about, but I fear I’d grow so frustrated that I might jump up on stage and build a small house around the speaker – using none of my own money, of course, and then lock him inside it.

But in the end, I figured a satirical video was a better option.

Hope you enjoyed!

Written By David Fleming

David Fleming is the author of Toronto Realty Blog, founded in 2007. He combined his passion for writing and real estate to create a space for honest information and two-way communication in a complex and dynamic market. David is a licensed Broker and the Broker of Record for Bosley – Toronto Realty Group

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25 Comments

  1. A.A.

    at 8:58 am

    Nice hair though.

  2. Noel

    at 9:03 am

    That was hilarious! I actually thought you were parodying this real estate seminar guy: http://www.1plus12.com/opportunities/. Someone I know keeps trying to get me to go to his seminars but the guy is full of it, misrepresents his success and is just looking to make money off the seminars. He’s got the long hair too and your parody matched him perfectly.

    1. a Sucker

      at 4:13 pm

      1Plus12 is not a company you or anyone you know should invest in or with.
      Glenn Estrabillo is the CEO of this organization and the master fraudster of the bunch. His low character partners are James DeStephanis (faculty at Rotman School of Business), Dom Kawasa and an arrogant jerk named Si Mohammad. These men are not nice people and really good at listening for what you want to hear and spinning things to fit with what your dealing with. They have No integrity, are completely inauthentic jerks, and they only care about their on self centered agendas. Many so called professionals and organizations they are/were involved with and recommend to their partners to use have been or are in the middle of being investigated for one reason or another by various Ontario government security bodies. Do not invest a penny with these clowns or any of the people they are training to take your money under their control. Its is only a matter of time their scheme costs everyone involved who is holding trust in these guys, accept for each of them of course, they made sure to cover themselves in everyway.

      1. Xiao Jin

        at 5:53 pm

        You’re right on the money. 1Plus12 is a scam. Glenn, James and Sai are extremely manipulative scam artists. Really good at making you trust them. Anyone who wants to know more should read the reddit post on their shady history and fraudulent investments. They’ve pretty much admitted investor money has been totally lost in court. And that “arrogant jerk” named Sai Mohammed is a long time conman called Mo Jiwani. He’s been scamming people for decades. 1Plus12 is just his latest scheme. Read here for more info:

        https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/9u4yys/the_1plus12_scam/

  3. David Fleming

    at 9:21 am

    @ Noel

    The resemblance is uncanny!

    But I was thinking of somebody else. Somebody from a movie……..a 90’s movie…. 🙂

    1. Kyle

      at 9:24 am

      Tom Cruise in Magnolia?

      1. Dan

        at 10:36 am

        That would be my guess.

        1. David Fleming

          at 10:44 am

          YES!!!

          Kyle – I owe you a coffee.

          Is there an app for that? If not, can we put our heads together and invent one?

          The person who invented “The Selfie Stick” is making tens of millions, and here we are, working like suckers…

          1. Kyle

            at 11:31 am

            If there was an app to give you an Oscar i would – so i owe you an award. We can call it a wash. That was pretty hilarious. To Appraiser’s point, i think a video of you dressed in a Ralph Lauren shirt, on a yacht with some bikini clad ladies would also have been pure gold! Tom Vu – The true O.G.

          2. Joe Q.

            at 1:23 pm

            Yeah, Tom Vu started it all. I can still picture those scenes with him on the boat, serenely floating on by, surrounded by scantily clad models, basically taunting the viewers. Classic.

  4. Appraiser

    at 9:26 am

    From my era the names Tom Vu and Ed Beckley Jr. come to mind. Late-night infomercial real estate stalwarts. Both of whom ended up being sued for millions by their clients. Beckley went bankrupt years ago and Vu is now a proffesional poker player. Both were complete scam artists.

    Along the same lines as infomercial guru Kevin Trudeau, who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/tv-infomercial-star-kevin-trudeau-sentenced-10-years-article-1.1724871

  5. Fro Jo

    at 9:54 am

    Respect the *ock! Nice work on this, David.

  6. Noel

    at 11:57 am

    How do you do these videos btw David? Were those paid actors? Friends? Volunteers? I must say the production values on your videos are very high and your acting was SPOT ON!

  7. David Fleming

    at 2:25 pm

    @ Noel

    I’m actually a formally trained actor…………if you consider “formal training” to be Grade 10 drama at Leaside High School. Get a bunch of kids in a room, give them a pen and paper, let them write their own scripts and then act it out – that was the best experience in all my years of schooling!

    I appreciate the kind words though, seriously.

    For this video, we asked for volunteers from my company (ie. I told all the rookies they had no choice), and brought in a few extras, who my mother paid with sandwiches.

    I set the bar high with this one. My next video is going to suck by comparison.

    1. Noel

      at 9:48 pm

      Thanks. Who is operating the camera? I’ve done some videos myself and whomever it is knows what he is doing (ie the shots, the angles, not zooming in and out, etc).

    2. moonbeam

      at 2:10 pm

      David’s blog & video followers should know that he’s actually pretty modest but very creative!.. This was a very impressive film shoot from all aspects, and the fantastic resulting video was the result of his vision, serious thought and effort. Definitely deserves two thumbs up & an oscar for documentary short! 🙂

  8. T

    at 3:25 pm

    I agree. Tom Cruise….but to be honest all I thought was you were doing a keen impression of Scott McGillvray as well.

    1. Libertarian

      at 10:31 am

      hahaha!! Brilliant! Totally agree.

  9. KC

    at 11:32 pm

    David, I started following you and this blog about a 1/2 year now… love your videos and this is absolutely hilarious. I always wondered about those guys and now, you finally shed some light. Never new it was that EASY to make money!

  10. RPG

    at 12:39 pm

    Absolutely epic!

    Do you have any media contacts? Seriously this should be picked up by the news station and major newspapers. The whole series should be.

  11. steve

    at 1:24 am

    I have to ask … why are some houses on MLS almost permanently? Is this not supposed to be a hot market?

  12. steve

    at 9:39 pm

    Think I saw a fb ad for a house flipping app.

  13. mitch

    at 11:37 am

    I thought it was going to be more interesting/clever….talked about what most people already knew. I guess it was a fun thing for you to do nonetheless.

  14. MoJoScammer

    at 9:02 pm

    It looks like their former 1Plus12 COO has left the company and is now spilling the beans, exposing what’s really going on behind the scenes.

    For those of you who don’t know of the 1plus12 scheme, a quick search on reddit and google will show you what these scam artists have been getting away with, ripping Canadians off for years. Looks like a text book ponzi scheme, but apparently now there’s concrete evidence that hopefully puts an end to it.

    Mo Jiwani – who recently goes by Sai Mohammed amongst other aliases – has been conning people all over Canada for decades in former companies like Dexior Financial, Q Institute of Wealth Enhancement, Oracle 20/20, and others. His latest venture is called 1Plus12.

    One of former partners, Dominick Kawa, has filed a claim that is quite shocking but not surprising. People have been calling this scammers out for years, but 1plus12 somehow manages to evade authorities like the police, FSCO, OSC and others..

    Anyone who has been involved with this scam should definitely read the claim and avoid giving these guys any money. It looks like they are still pitching new investors even though millions of dollars have not been accounted for and no existing investors have been paid back!

    What will it take to stop these guys (and other scammers) once and for all? Does Kawa have the evidence to back up his many claims?

    Have you heard of these guys? Been to any of their presentations or seminars? Know anyone who is involved or gave them money?

Pick5 is a weekly series comparing and analyzing five residential properties based on price, style, location, and neighbourhood.

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