Anyone purchased Armando Montelongo’s Real Estate Package?
Posted: April 16, 2007 Filed under: General 2,399 Comments »Armando Montelongo, though the magic of Google Ads, is advertising his Master Home Study Course and Flip and Grow Rich Ebooks on the sidebar of this website. Several people have commented on the $997 package, but thus far I’ve not received a report from anyone who has purchased the materials.
If you’ve purchased this package, and would be willing to share your review, please contact mark at flipthislawsuit dot com.
The San Antonio Crew has been very effective in maximizing the return on their appearances on A&E. Their first episodes focused on their business website, Melina launched a site focusing on motherhood, and now Armando is focusing on sharing the lessons he’s learned in real estate.
It looks like some of the season schedule for “The Real Deal” is up at TLC, through May 28th!? Complete with episode descriptions and air times.
This so called guy who states he’s THE BEST in the field is an inflated ego of a jerk. Ive seen his realty show episodes of flipping houses. He has a poor production team. What a joke. He has no structure he just blabs and blabs , and tries to take short cuts with materials and labor. Thus more in his pocket. In one of his episodes he explains that ” this is a low income area, hispanic area!!!!. WOW. Guys all you need is common sense, HOOK UP WITH HIM YA GET ‘NONSENSE’.
I agree. I watched his show flip this house season 2 episode 1 and was disgusted with his behavior. Kept Barking orders, did not want to pay a fair price for labor and was upset when the workers showed up late on the first day because they were actually doing something important which was a strike for immigrant workers rights. What a douche bag. Then he was also upset because they “weren’t working fast enough “ it’s hard work and if he has those expectations of them then he needs to pay them a better price. Can’t expect people to do more than what they are paid for.
You’d have to be an idiot to want to be like Armando Montelongo. Whose stupid enough to give him $1,000.?The guy is a complete jerk & his career will reflect that. Let’s check back with him in the year 2027 & see where he is. You might be able to treat people like trash once, but they won’t be back. I can’t believe A&E waste tape on these fools.
I ACTUALLY PURCHASED THE KIT, BOUGHT HOUSES AND FOLLOWED THE STEPS AND IVE MADE IT PRETTY GOOD SO FAR! THE KIT T IS EXTREMELEY EXPENSIVE LIKE 1000. I NO LONGER NEED NEED MY KIT NOW! I HAVE IT ON EBAY (.99 NO RESERVE AUCTION)
I am interested in your kit. please email me asap. thank you.
I have a full brand new set for sale if interested email me. Captivatinggaze@yahoo.com
So what is his “kit” supposed to be? How to give Real Estate a bad name and be a Douche Bag Real Estate Agent.
If you Google him you’ll see it’s all starting to catch up with him… you can’t run around treat your contractors like shit, half ass do stuff, always try to get something for nothing and generally just be a complete D-Bag and expect to keep a good reputation.
It’s people like this that give Real Estate such a bad reputation.
Do you still have the complete kit?
So what is his “kit” supposed to be? How to give Real Estate a bad name and be a Douche Bag Real Estate Agent.
If you Google him you’ll see it’s all starting to catch up with him… you can’t run around treat your contractors like shit, half ass do stuff, always try to get something for nothing and generally just be a complete D-Bag and expect to keep a good reputation.
It’s people like this that give Real Estate such a bad reputation.
I think its 100 not 1000. I bet its filled with pointers to a special section of his website that directs you to buy more crap.
Lipstick on a pig rehabs
if don’t know what your talking about maybe just don’t post anything because those of us who have taken the course and have half a brain know that this stuff works.
Armando Montelongo is an idiot! I think that’s visible from the intro of the show. What with his “if you screw us well come back and find you and make you sorry”. Yeah, very business-like. It’s obvious Armando doesn’t know much about business and running a successful business.
Actually Armando says “do not screw with us, do not stick a knife in our backs because we will come back and find you and get what we want”. You Guys get all worked up about the two shows, but we all know that Richard fist fought Armando and won.
Curt, there are 2 packages, so technically everyone’s right. Again, those guys are fools. He treats his wife like crap too, that’s bull.
Yes, he DOES treat his wife like crap, but she is just as big an idiot as he is, because she STAYS
!
I really enjoy all Montelongo’s episodes and would buy his package!
I think that Armandos work ethics are great, he just doesnt take anyones crap.. otherwise he treats everyone fair and with respect, I watch the show almost religiously and I like the fact the it is a family business. There is a lot of people out there hustling trying to figure out how they can provide for their families for generations to come and he found his way so dont knock him.. learn something!
These guys remind me of Dave Deldotto, and Carlton Sheets. Dave Deldotto made almost all of his money off the sale of zero down packages. $200 million if Im not mistaken.
Most of the flippin” profit is in the purchase. If you buy it right you will make maoney. I think I can sum it up in 10 steps.
1. Spend a few hours each day or week treat it like a part-time job looking everyday for real estate deals., until you can afford to do it full time. Your full time job isnt all that bad once you have an outlet to do this. Your full time job helps you qualify for loans and makes you look more stable to lenders.
2.Make offers, you lose 100% of the deals you dont make an offer on. Dont listen to realtors. The law states they must present all offers. Dont over pay there is always another deal.
3.Find a hungry realtor that will work with you.
4.Find and use subs that will stick with you over the long haul. Did you ever notice how much time is wasted looking for subs?
5. Dont be a pig when selling a home. Take and work with any and all offers.
Usually the first person to look at it is the most interested.
6.Dont cut corners like Armando.
7.Pray about every deal. Seek advice from those that have success. Real Success, not what Armondo is doing.
8. Donate 10% of your profits to charity.
9. Get a used pickup, Sam Walton drove a used beatup pickup til he died. I drive 1994 Ford f-150 XL and I can afford to drive anything. Dont drive a Big SUV you look like a XXXX well, others will decide what you look like.
10.Set realistic goals. 1-2 homes per year in your first year is a realistic goal. As you are learning keep a journal and learn from all mistakes, we all make mistakes, learning from them is success….
Wow!!! Great advice. Wish there were more people that based their business practices on honesty and integrity.
I agree Mary! Best advice I’ve heard in a while, and it didn’t cost me $997!!
What is a “subs”, u mentioned it in #4
Thank you
Sub are sub-contractors. Meaning drywallers, framers, roofers, plumbers, electricians, etc.
I have 2
2 families that I would like to unload and would love
A creative deal in this market!! And personally I don’t care
Where it comes from as long as it makes sense!!!
I like what you wrote about Armando Montelongo, do you have any more tips for me?
I want to start flipping houses but have very little knowledge on the business.
Thank you.
Carlos
My friend set us up to attend the “conference” on Monday. I’ve got NO IDEA what I’m getting myself into and I was JUST LAID OFF and don’t have $1k to my name that ISN’T ear-marked for bills to support my being on this earth, health insurance (try COBRA @ $620/month when ur unemployed) or my son…please email me Ive got loads of questions before tomorrow!!!! -Jeanne
Do you have a lesson plan or could you recommend a reading list? I fail to see how Mr. M is “giving back- so other people can do what he did and provide for their families” by selling his kit for $ 900.+ which he clearly did not have. If the idea is to help those help themselves then why charge more than a months rent or mortgage payment.
Thank you
Well said!!
lol.. sounds about right .. i am deep in my first flip for myself since the market crashed. its a different game and the laws have made it very advantageous for the motivate little guy. although our c are getting close to max we have faith. i wish u all the best.
after hearing the pitch! i said give me the same help that Mr M received a chance let me pay your additional coaching from the profit from the first sale and i will sponsor one person a year for the next three yearsr as a way to giving back. have not heard from them yet
Sean, you summed it up and you are funny too! PS. I’m a Realtor.
I know how far this scam goes because I experienced the ENTIRE charade, not just the ‘flipping CD kit’.
You should write a book. I read your 10 basic steps and I couldn’t agree with you more. Wife and I will try and do 2-3 “flips” a year for starters.
I purchased the package and cant wait to get it if I can even be a fraction of Successful as Armando that would be great the Montelongos are great!
DO NOT BY THE PACKAGE!!!! I paid (Like and idiot) $97.00 for the 5 volume book that he is advertising. It is worth $5.00(e-mail me for details). The think turned out to be only 13 pages and it only a teaser to the $997 package. STAY AWAY!!!
OK, THEN SELL IT TO ME FOR $5.00
ROSE
Yep, you are a smart guy!
Richard Davis is a business man. Armando Montelongo is a piece of trash. Period.
AAAAAAAMEN!!!!!!!!
One look at the Armondo version of Flip This House should be enough to tell you everything that is in his books:
Buy the worst house possible.
Push your contractors to lower the prices for their work as low as possible, and then threaten them until they lower them again and again. Promise them “future work”, but never deliver.
Do as little actual work on the house, and worry mostly about painting the walls nice colors and covering up any issues so they aren’t visible, but don’t resolve them.
Hassle your employees, cut every corner possible, and present a half-assed job.
The reality of house flipping is that it isn’t something learned directly from a book, but rather through experience of knowing what to look for, what to buy, and what to pass on.
I find it totally hilarious to see his ads in the google boxes on this site. I guess he has to make a living some way besides beating down his contractors.
That is the MAIN reason why I think he STINKS as an investor! He berates, and brow beats those poor guys down to the lowest dollar, because he doesn’t care if they make a money or not…as long as HE does. What a JERK!
Hey rob, Curious about the details of that 97.00 dollar package. Can’t seem to find a way to e-mail you. Maybe you could e-mail me or post the details on the site before others get ripped off. Would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
Sure Jeremy. I could e-mail you.Give me your e-mail address and I will contact you.
I want to joint his program.
Do you buy his package? $41,000?
If you did so, tell me about your inves
J_Brown1384@yahoo.com
Like every other show on reality TV, if the guy or girl doesn’t have some sort of disturbing behavior about them, it gets boring to watch. That’s part of show biz.Even though it’s marketing the average joe, it’s still show business.
Armando’s attitude towards flipping isn’t that much different than Trump’s. Trump tells you that if someone attacks you, you attack them harder. I look up to both men for different reasons. I’ve been considering the course, the $97 one that is, because I am curious about it.
I can not believe the program last night with the “cat house”. It seems that the only honest person there is David Montelongo. Armando fought his brother for being honest and telling him what to do? And he was right. Armando ended up demolishing almost everything anyways. I will not buy his system or watch him again. After last night I do not think I can trust him.
Re: The Cat House: copied from my post on another site (I really have bought and sold more than 100 houses in my life, but I do not sell or give advice) :
I hate this show because it is staged for dramatic effect. But I got a new DVR and decided to program the DVR to record a couple of dozen programs over the next week as an experiment. The Flip This House episode Saturday was one of the programs. After seeing that it was someone new, and not those clowns from Benchmark Realty (or whatever they are called), and that the house was in extraordinarily bad shape (cat, rat, roach droppings everywhere), I decided to watch it.
This is the house, 12906 Lone Shadow Trail in San Antonio, TX: http://san-antonio.housealmanac.com/home-86547.htm
This is the guy that did the rehab, Armando Montelongo:
http://www.armandomontelongo.com/
http://www.montelongohousebuyers.com/
The show had the usual Reality TV standards… a couple of attractive women, a false drama about meeting the scheduled opening house date, conflict between the partners, recreated sceens where it is obvious that there would be no camera person on site normally, a final price scorecard that failed to include holding costs, closing costs, and the costs of sale, and a final profit calculation which is based upon an alleged signed contract resulting from the first open house (accoridng to the Bexar County Recorder records Montelongo, aka 12906 Lone Shadow Trust, bought he property on December 8, 2006, but has not sold it yet) But the thing that irrated me more than anything about this episode was that this BS artist claimed to have bought and remodeled more than 1000 houses in the past 5 years. The first time he said it, I just assumed that he had meant that he had seen more than a thousand houses in the past 5 years, but he said it a second time!! There is no way this joker, even if you factor in that he is working with his brother and both wives, has bought more than a 1000 houses in the past 5 years. If your buying anywhere near that many houses you have to employe a dozen or more fulltime workers. He didn’t have any fulltime workers, in fact he was hiring contractors to do everything, and paying inflated prices because of the false urgency of the open house date.
I would be surprised if Armando Montelongo has bought and sold more than a dozen houses in entire life, it is clear to me that he used this show just to advertise his faux guru services. Too bad for Aramado Montelongo that he got his A$$ kicked by this house. The show says that he bought the house for $55,000, put $85,000 into it, sold it via an open house by his wife for $165,000, for a $25,000 profit. But the County records indicate that he paid $101,400 for it and hasn’t sold it yet. He most likely lost $30,000 on this property, unless he stiffed the contractors which is a good possiblity.
I was going to say that I would periodoically check Bankruptcy records in anticipation of a BK filing from him, but he filed Chapter 13 BK on 11/10/03 (03-32986), and he is still operating under the Chapter 13 plan!, in fact on 2/5/07 he filed a motion to modify his payment plan because he claimed his only income was from diability insurance and that he could only afford to pay $150.00 per month. And his Brother/Partner David is also still operating under a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy from 2003 (03-31980).
This is interesting to read. I am so glad I found this. Potosh: I, too, search the Public Records for more info. Not sure when Trademark did their flip, the “The House that would not sell: episode is still listed on their website. Now they never claimed to have sold it either. Armando does seem like a bit of a creep, and does not suprise me that they are in Chapter 13. I’m sure their money is coning from the show, and not houses.
Last night on the Cat House episode it appeared to me that they (Armando and David) split. So are they still a comapnay together? I really like David.
I purchased the $997 Master Course, and it’s outstanding! I’ve already put a house under contract. Armando’s cd’s and Workbooks are so easy to read and follow. He has helped me start my flipping buisness. That is what his program is about. He holds back nothing. I recommend for whoever is interested in this buisness, to purchase the course. It’s a step by step tool guide on how to make money flipping houses.
[Webmaster’s Note: This post was made at 6:52 PM from a computer having an the IP address 70.114.19.218, which indicates that it is a residential Time Warner cable modem in San Antonio, TX.]
Hey Adam, I was just wondering how you are doing with flipping houses now that it has been going on 6 years since you started. Are you still flipping? Are you still using Armando’s system?
I also have purchased the Master Course. I’m reading and listening through it now. However, I will say I love the emails I receive from Armando. He really keeps my spirits high, and my mind in the right place. I’ve learned there is a whole mindset that goes along with making money. There is no other program out there like this. It has everything in it.
[Webmaster’s Note: This post was made at 7:00 PM from a computer having an the IP address 70.114.19.218, which indicates that it is a residential Time Warner cable modem in San Antonio, TX.]
I love Armando and his wife Veronica. I’m going to be purchasing his program this month! I can’t wait!
[Webmaster’s Note: This post was made at 7:02 PM from a computer having an the IP address 70.114.19.218, which indicates that it is a residential Time Warner cable modem in San Antonio, TX.]
[…] One of the commentators to another post pointed out that he believes Armando and David Montelongo to be in Bankruptcy. I’ve pulled the dockets and some important documents found while searching for “Armando Montelongo, Jr.” and “David Montelongo” at the Western District of Texas Bankruptcy Court’s website. Please note, I have not confirmed that these two individuals are the Armando and David featured in Season Two and Three of “Flip This House”, but will be contacting the attorneys tomorrow to do same. These filings raise more questions than they answer, but I’ve decided to post them for those who have emailed me about the recent comment indicating the bankruptcies. At this point, the geographical and employment information tends to indicate that, while these people may share the same names as Armando and David Montelongo, they are not the same people. […]
Potash, Nice work on the research. Keep it up!
The best way to financial independence is build your on home, flip it every 2-4 years. Repeat.
Even Armondo’s biggest profit was on his primary residence. Also it is tax free profits, ask your accountant.
Armando Montelongo is a highly incompetent developer and his book is of little or no value to anyone. I have been building/remodeling for decades, and what I see on tv is mostly repulsive. (you’ll notice you rarely see the same tradespeople because they don’t seem to want to work with him again.) I still decided to download the free first 6 pages of his book and give it a fair shake, but what I saw made me realize that I need to alert others that it is a ripoff.
Here’s why. In the very first pages, Armando claims to flip “20 – 30 houses per month”. STOP right there. Did you hear that? A house every day or 2. You’ve seen the show – every house takes a week MINIMUM and he barely makes it and that’s the only house he’s doing. Do you believe for a MINUTE that he does one a day? It’s a lie, I’d stake my name on it. Armando: prove me wrong – post the transaction records, before and after pictures, bills and contracts for a month in which you remodeled 30 houses. Until you do so, I say this highly unlikely.
Further, Armando claims to have bought “over 1000 houses in the past 5 years”. I say no way. Armando: post the transaction records for all 1000.
Now, I can go on and tell you that the techniques described in that first 6 pages are mostly useless, but what’s the point – you already know you’re being lied to, so why read any further? Armando says he never makes less than $20,000 per house and that he’s done over 1000 in the past 5 years, which means he made $20 million and now has a monthly income of $400-600K. If you had those numbers, would you be hawking an infomercial book to give away your trade secrets? Sorry Armando, but I say bullshit. Prove me wrong.
Bottom line: Montelongo is a flipper and flippers are to real estate what day traders were to the stock market in 1999: unskilled speculators who only make money when the market carries them. He’s in San Antonio, for Chrissakes – a house can be had for $30,000 there, how can anyone NOT make money?
Sorry Armando, but I’ve been at this for decades and have forgotten more than you’ll ever know, and I say you’re not legit. Please feel free to post the proof I have suggested and I’ll post a full retraction.
Until then, I suggest that no one should buy Armando’s book. If he wants to send me a copy free to review, I will be happy to read it and give a full review here for all to see. Otherwise, don’t waste your time or money,.
Mike
What’s more, on Montelongo’s own website, on the first page he says he flips 30 homes a month, then on a page inside he says he flips 200 homes a year, which is 16 homes/month or 1/2 the other claim.
Here’s a tip everyone: When someone tells you 2 different figures, throw both out. As far as all available empirical evidence available shows at this moment, Armando Montelongo flips 1 to 2 houses per month. Again, I invite him to come on here (as we can see he already does from shill posts) and post evidence to the contrary.
Like they say, believe HALF of what you see, some or none of what you hear…
There are no shortcuts. Period.
I also have purchased the Master Course. I’m listening to it now while I wipe my rear-end with the pages from the book. It’s the most expensive toilet paper I’ve ever purchased and I’ll tell you that the sh*t really sticks to that sh*t. However, I will say I love the inspiration I receive from Armando. He really keeps my bowel movements regular, and my mind in the right place. I’ve learned there is a whole mindset that goes along with making BM. There is no other program out there like this. It has everything in it, plenty of good crap.
P.S. Now I know why we real estate investors have such reputation; people like Armando.
Armondo and his whiny spoiled brat wife are a disgrace to the Real Estate biz. Where’s Richard……… sniff sniff
Gee, three “different,” gushing, pro-Armando posts in ten minutes from the same IP address. Clever.
[golf clap]
Yeah and, oddly enough, that same IP address browsed my website this afternoon…
Rob- I would like to hear more about the 5 books by email that you bought. Please email me. Elizabethdunn@aol.com
I own a real estate club in California and we do alot of rehabs in other states. So I was interested to pass his info onto some of my members. They might learn something that I do not have in my vault. But if the kit is not worth the money, I would like more details.
Also if anyone else is doing this, needs help, support, and has homes, please email me also. I have investors who are rehabbing right now. Thanks so much.
Hey Liz, nice scam you got going there charging people $250 to join your club which appears to have no resources whatsoever. Way to go looking to further mine the wreckage of Armando’s scam.
People, THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS! Save your $250 – you can learn FAR more at the public library or lounging in Barnes and Noble and can make more connections at a nice hotel bar or working for Habitat for Humanity, where you’ll also learn trades.
Ever hear what Suze Orman thinks of networking groups? The other people all need YOU more than you need THEM, hence it’s a waste of time and money.
QUALIFY anyone professing to be an expert or having the ability to assist you. This one is another ripoff.
Mike
Mike, nice job on the house. A little more upscale from what we do but I like what I saw. 4″ cans throughout?
San Antonio is in Bexar County. Check out the Property Tax
Records and District Court (civil) for some interesting reading ; ) It’s available online, free.
Nice catch on the IP thing, Webmaster!
LOL
Joseph – thanks for the kind words. Good eye – those are indeed 4″ cans throughout (A few Halos and mostly Liton ICs)
Check in a few days for a whole bunch of new pictures as it just got staged the other day and is almost ready to list.
Best regards,
Mike
Hi Mike!
I know your post was years ago but I am hoping that this will get sent to your email (and that you’re still using the same email from 5 years ago!). I’m just wondering if you have any advice/ books to read for people who would like to get started in real estate investing and flipping? My husband and I think we have what it takes to make it in the industry but aren’t quite sure where to start. Any advice from you (or anyone else experienced in the business) would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Jaden
WARNING MAY 2007: I have found out from a friend of mine that Armando is going to be sued by a large number of people who are organizing a class action lawsuit and federal charges against Armando over this product which he advertised as a dvd course WHEN it really is NOT a dvd course whatsoever. It is an audio only course! Do not waste your time sending your money to Armando thinking this is a DVD course, you will be taken by Armando’s scheme.
From watching his show everyone should see he is a con artist, now he has taken his scams to the public as well and committing the felony of false advertising, and this time he will not get away with it.
He is going to loose millions of dollars over this suit and mark my word he will not be one of the speakers for the Trump tour coming up. I know of insiders in the Trump organization who have become aware of Armando’s falsehoods and very soon Armando will be notified that he will no longer be included in the Trump tour as Trump does not want to be associated with Armando anymore over this.
Also…
His sources do not know exactly how many fraudulent courses Armando has sent out at $1000 each, but certainly it could be in the tens of thousands, easily putting him in one of the
largest felony cases of false advertising in history.
what’s up w/ the divorce with children vs. armando and veronica in 2003?? lol guess they worked it out…..
I was checking out the interesting reading you mentioned Steve. 🙂
I haven’t seen Armando’s stuff for sale, but you can pretty much guess that it’ll be crap. Like most other materials people are charging hundreds/thousands for. Does it make sense? No. I’m surprised there aren’t more class action lawsuits… I agree with the person who gave his 10 suggestions and I agree with the other person who suggested going to the libary. I would suggest joining your local real estate investing association and soaking up knowledge for free. Spend money on houses, not expensive toilet paper!
What a bunch of idiots you all are. Get off this website and go make some fucking money you clowns.
Why are you on here idiot.
I find it very telling that Armando has not even bothered to try to respond to the challenges posted here. I think it’s pretty clear just what he is at this point.
ibyprprty,
LOL You found it! Re: 2003 ; )
“Cast members from all three Flip This House temas under one roof!
WHO: Mike Huey, Michael Hellickson, & Than Merrill just to mention a few Nationally recognized speakers, who will teach you what you need to know first hand!
WHAT: For over two days you will participate in five extensive classes strengthening your knowledge and understanding of the various aspects of real estate investing.
You will learn everything from creative financing strategies and techniques to how to successfully negotiate purchases and sales to your advantage — plus a whole lot more!
WHERE: Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre,
Dallas, Texas
WHEN: July 27-29, 2007
Deadline for Registration is June 15th, 2007
SPEAKERS
• Michael Hellickson
• Mike Huey
• John Hyre
SPECIAL GUESTS
• Than Merrill
• Angie Wilford
I checked the price -$750.00 per person and I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of more stuff FOR SALE once they get you in the corner, er, I mean door ; )
It’s at tribeworkshop(dot)com. David Montelongo
I think it’s amazing my instinct told me to find you- you are a Godsend!!! I HATE being a chump- I’ll almost bought it! I would have hated myself.
The excellent news investigation of con artist Sam Leccima has made it fairly clear to me what transpired with Flip This House: After losing Trademark (and the jury is not, by any means, out on their legitimacy either, though they seem more legit than any of the other casts) the production company scrambled to find new casts to get back into production asap and did no due diligence on Montelongo, Leccima, or anyone else they featured. When making reality tv shows, this is just misrepresentation, but when the casts are selling products based on the false claims they made during the television shows, it becomes fraud and criminal conspiracy at the very least.
To be very direct, the casts of the current season of Flip This House never passed the smell test and it is now abundantly clear that they are all little more than criminal con artists using A&E to further their false credibility in order to defraud potential investors nd customers. A&E is now aiding and abetting criminals by airing the shows which feature these people, and I call on the network to immediately kill all episodes until full background and criminal investigations are performed on their casts. I encourage everyone else to do the same and BY NO MEANS should ANYONE buy products from these lying criminal con artists!!!!!!
This entire debacle disgusts me. People like Leccima and Montelongo belong in prison. Period.
Mike Voss
Whoa! I am so glad that I found this website. I loved the Flipping shows for ideas only, and found that my favorite was Richard Davis. Those brothers were comical, but I watched for comic relief, especially after watching the one where they had a duplex that was CONDEMNED and they kept rehabbing it to sale to a *so called* investor. Anyway, I am glad for sites like this that show the truth to those who are out to make a killing in real estate… Watch out or you will become a victim.
Review of Armando’s 995 product:
He steels information from
1. Ron LeGrand’s Cashflow program which is actually the late Bernard Hale Zick’s product.
2. Bill Effro’s how to sell your home in 5 days (Auction is almost exactly the same, he adds in a “reserve” which is mentioned in the book)
3. Peter Conti How to negotiate information (I don’t know for sure on this, but the technique is similar)
I don’t know where he got his hard money lender information, it’s lame information.. go to google and type in hard money lender…
Also, the original website said it was 12 DVD’s it’s 12 CD’s.. I only purchased because I thought it would be 12 hours or so of video on how he does everything, not him reading a script that someone else evidently wrote…
Armando is a piece a sh*t and I hope he gets what it deserve!!!!
Anyone that buys this is sucking on Armando’s tail pipe. What worked then, doesn’t work now, the game, market, rules, and requirements have changed.
Those that can, do. Those that can’t,
talk about it (and sell it)
JUST WENT TO THE LEARNING ANNEX HERE IN DALLAS OVER THE WEEKEND. WHAT A MARKETING TOOL TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF UNSUSPECTING FOOLS, IM GLAD I WENT TO IT SO THAT I AM NOT TEMPTED TO GO AGAIN. IF YOU GO FOR ANY OTHER REASON OTHER THAN COMICAL ENTERTAINMENT (BECAUSE THEY WERE PRETTY FUNNY) YOUR WASTING YOUR TIME. THE TITLE LEARNING ANNEX ITSELF IS MISLEADING TO BEGIN WITH, YOU DONT LEARN ANYTHING YOU YOU GET A SALES PITCH THE WHOLE TIME YOUR THERE. SOME PRESSURE YOU MORE THAN OTHERS AND SOME JUST MAKE YOU FEEL GUILTY LIKE YOUR A FOOL FOR NOT BUYING THEIR PRODUCT AND GIVING THEM YOUR MONEY AND BETTERING YOUR LIFE. IF I WANTED THAT I WOULD HAVE SAVED MY $100 BUCKS THAT I SPENT AND WATCHED INFOMERCIALS ALL NIGHT. IT REALLY WASNT A TOTAL LOSS, I GOT TO SEE DONALD TRUMP WHICH I AM A FAN, AND I GOT TO SEE ARMANDO MONTELONGO WHICH I THOUGHT I WAS A FAN OF BUT SAMETHING HE SOLD OUT AND IS SELLING THESE PACKAGES. HE CLAIMS TO HAVE DONE 1000 HOUSES FLIPPED AND WHATEVER ELSE BUT YEAH EVEN I COULD FIGURE OUT THE TIME FRAME AND THE NUMBER OF HOUSES HE HAS DONE DOES NOT ADD UP. THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE THERE EACH SPEAKER BASHED THE OTHER SPEAKERS ON HOW THEIR PROGRAM WAS BETTER AND HOW THEY DID IT EVERYDAY, THEY ARE REAL, THEY WERE NOT IN IT FOR THE MONEY OH REALLY SO WHY DONT YOU POST ALL YOUR INFO FOR FREE FOR ALL OF US TO SEE ON YOUR WEBSITE. NOT IN IT FOR THE MONEY,BS, $1000 PACKAGES, $2000, $4000, ONE HAD A HELL OF A DEAL FOR $5995 AND THATS A ONE TIME OFFER ONLY AND PEOPLE WERE JUMPING UP GIVING THEM THEIR CREDIT CARDS. IM JUST GLAD I DIDNT GET TEMPTED AND ALL I WAS OUT WAS $100. BUT I GOT TO SEE DONALD TRUMP SO IT WASNT A TOTAL LOSS. I WOULD NOT PAY $100 BUCKS AGAIN TO SEE HIM BUT HE SHOULD NOT BE INVOLVED WITH LEARNING ANNEX CAUSE HE CLAIMS HE ONLY PUTS HIS NAME ON QUALITY THINGS THIS IS NOT A QUALITY EVENT ITS A JOKE ALONG WITH ALL THE SPEAKERS THERE TRYING TO MAKE QUICK BUCK ON PEOPLES DREAMS. IM GLAD HE DIDNT GO AND TRY TO SELL SOMETHIG TO US HE COULD HAVE BUT DIDNT ONLY ONE ALL WEEKEND NOT TO DO IT.HE WAS ENTERTAINING AND ACTUALLY STUCK AROUND AND ANSWERED SOME QUESTIONS LIKE HE SAID HE WOULD. HE KEPT IT REAL TOO DIDNT SAY ANYTHING NICE ABOUT CUBAN OR BUSH TO GET SUPPORT FROM THE CROWD KNOWING HE IS IN MAVERICKS AND BUSH COUNTRY. BUT HEY THATS HIM AND HE CAN DO THAT. HE WAS THE ONLY ONE WITH A WELL DOCUMENTED PROVEN RECORD THAT REALLY DOES HAVE SOMETHING WE COULD LEARN FROM. NOBODY THERE WAS HONEST AND WAS THERE TO REALLY HELP ANYBODY OUT OTHER THAN THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS. THEY COULD MAKE OUTRAGEOUS REAMARKS ON HOW MUCH LAND THEY OWN AND HOW CAN ANYBODY PROVE IT. FORGET BUYING THEIR STUFF DONT EVEN GO THERE AND WASTE YOUR TIME, LET ME SEE YOU PAY $100 TO GO AND SEE THEM SO THEY CAN SELL YOU THEIR CRAP, THEY SHOULD BE PAYING YOU TO GO AND SIT THERE AND GIVE THEM THE OPPORTUNITY TO SELL YOU THEIR CRAP. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. ATLEAST A FREE LUNCH OR SOMETHING SANDWICHES WHERE $8 BUCKS THERE AND $2 FOR A CAN COKE. OH AND ON THE BOOKLET IT SAYS GUEST SPEAKERS INCLUDE, TONY ROBBINS AND DAVID BACH THEN YOU LOOK INSIDE AND IT TURNS OUT THEY ARE ON A MONITOR ONLY. HELL FOR THAT THEY COULD HAVE INCLUDE PRESIDENT BUSH AND JUST TELEVISED ONE OF HIS SPEECHES. UNLESS YOU LIKE BEING PITCHED FOR TWO DAYS, AND GIVING AWAY YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY, DO NOT GO!!!!!! IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO THROW AROUND LIKE THIS YOU MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT AND OTHER GUY WAS RIGHT “THEY NEED YOU MORE THAN YOU NEED THEM.” AND IF YOU DONT HAVE THE MONEY AND ARE PUTTING THIS ON YOUR CREDIT CARD OH YOU ARE SAD, YOU WILL BE PAYING FOR THESE PACKAGES THAT WILL BE COLLECTING DUST AFTER A FEW WEEKS FOR A VERY VERY LONG TIME. THATS WHEN YOU REALLY THING ABOUT THE 100 OTHER MORE IMPORTANT THINGS YOU COULD HAVE DONE WITH THE THOUSANDS FOR DOLLARS YOU GAVE AWAY LIKE TAKE CARE OF YOU FAMILY NEEDS.
It is interesting that either A&E or the production company had restructured the Atlanta cast before the news of Leccima’s criminal activity had become public – clearly they knew something in advance and took preemptive action. I had been wondering why they were structuring a show around this totally incompetent Angela girl, and now that is apparent.
The show has lost all credibility and, more alarmingly, is still running the Montelongo episodes despite the fact that it is clear that he is a con artist and the subject of pending legal action. Remember, the casts shot all this crap at least 4 months ago. Now, Leccima and Montelongo are suddenly hawking courses *just* before negative news breaks. The timing suggests they knew something and were scrambling to exploit their exposure on the show before it was too late. I suspect their casts were about to be quietly shelved.
I think it is time that someone post an online petition asking A&E to pull the show until such time as it can get the producers of the show to do proper due diligence on it’s casts. If they’re going to make a fake show for entertinment, then the casts need to be legally prevented from marketing products based on it and the show needs to run a disclaimer to protect viewers who might be enticed to invest with those castmembers. If they’re going to make a show that is supposed to be factual, then they need to verify the backgrounds of the casts and the projects depicted on the shows.
If A&E cannot do these things, then the show needs to be cancelled for the benefit and protection of the viewing public. We, thw viewers, should demand this from A&E. Making a show for entertainment value is one thing, but blurring the line of reality and then allowing criminals to exploit that distortion to steal from the viewing public is a crime and must be stopped.
I see that no new episode of the show got recorded in my Tivo this weekend – I hope that is a sign that A&E has pulled all episodes until such time as they can properly examine the show and it’s casts and issue an apology to the public. Until then, count me out as a viewer.
I have been approached more than once to be the subject of shows of this type and I have always declined because I don’t knock out projects in weeks and don’t do things to make good TV. It would be great if someone would do a reality show covering the many months it takes to follow a quality building crew as they construct a quality house….oh, wait, that’s been done. It’s called This Old House and has been running for 25+ years showing how things are really done correctly and without shortcuts!
Mike Voss
Mike Voss,
Nice post, Mike. The first season of FTH with Trademark was clearly ‘The Real Deal’, flipping a house in 2-3 weeks. They had the organization and in an appreciating market to do it.
They left and Departure Films and/or A&E decided to carry on with the ‘2-3 week flip’ formula in a soft market, and with those that clearly couldn’t pull it off even in an appreciating market probably. So, they cheated and got caught. ALL OF THEM
The newer ‘flip teams’? Yep, complicit, no doubt but it starts at the top and sh*t rolls down hill. A&E, Departure Films etc., IN MY OPINION ; )
What’s funnier than hell to me is they put the street address on the various ‘flips’. What, they think we can’t check property records online? LOL ; )
Steve,
Yeah, I suspect Richard Davis is having one hell of a good laugh right about now. The whole debacle makes a very strong case for Trademark having developed the show format since Departure/A&E couldn’t even *continue* it after they left. I’d settle in a hurry if I were them.
In don’t always agree with how trademark does things, but they *seem* to at least be a reputable and moral company that spends a lot of time helping their community. All of these other teams were fly-by-night come latelys who were just plain slimy IMHO.
A&E is in hot water and owes us all an apology and refunds to all those taken advantage of.
Mike
Much gossip, in San Antonio. I manage a strip club here. Guess who was smoke marijuana and kicked out. Davd Montelongo. He and Armando frequently come by my club… I wonder when they work. What a great family foundation.
I found this site by accident…I’m glad I did…I was thinking about buying the 997 kit from Armando..his stats sounded impressive..
Let me tell you all this….I too, went to the Learning Annex in Boston(dec. 2006) within an hour we bought an “asset protection” kit for $2000 and then went to another seminar in NJ.
After NJ,then we were harrassed by a couple of different companies that sounded like great ways to make money…well one of the companies hooked us for $12,000 you read that correctly…
Now we are $14,000 MORE in credit card debt and feeling like fools…
I’m just so disgusted with the whole thing…I mean before we purchased we told them our financial history and where we are now…they said “You’ll make back this money in 120 days, if you follow how we do it!”
I must say that we do have a person that calls us once a week for a 30-45 min. information and discussion session and she is available to us through email as well. (We have 8 scheduled discussions with her and then we get a tax person to talk to…they still won’t tell us what the tax part is about…we don’t know how many sessions or anything…..
I’ve tried to get in touch with the “salesman” to find out about a refund..but he seems to be “in conference” all the time….he still hasn’t called me…
Well, I’m starting to ramble…but you get my point… anyone have a suugestion on how to get at least, some of my money back???
Selena,
you manage a strip club? you saw David and Armando smoking pot in your club??
I’m not sticking up for the Montelongo’s but…what’s that got to do with real estate flipping??
This is just spreading gossip.
IM WONDERING HOW STRONG IS THEIR RELATIONSHIP (ARMANDO’S & DAVID MONTELONGO’S) THEY WERE NOT TOGETHER AT THE ANNEX I WAS STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO DAVID WHILE DONALD WAS SPEAKING AND HE AND HIS WIFE LEFT WALKING OUT ALONE AND FLAGGED DOWN A TAXI AND LEFT. SOMEBODY WITH SO MUCH MONEY YOU FIGURED THEY WOULD HAVE ARRIVED IN A LIMO TOGETHER AND LEFT TOGETHER. IM WONDERING IS ARMANDO GOT THERE IN A TAXI TOO. I KNOW I WOULDNT OF IF I HAD MILLIONS.
Hello Mike V.,
I really appreciate all the informative comments you’ve made regarding Armando Montelongo. How can I contact you ?
All I can say is that I feel VERY sorry for Veronica Montelongo for having married that piece of crap man.
The way that Armando treats her is DISGUSTING.
She needs to grow a spine and leave the loser. He’s a total con man with an ego LARGER than TEXAS!
RE: David leaving in a taxi – doesn’t surprise me a bit. When you see Armando driving around in brand new hummers and Mercedes, you can be sure he’s all flash. I believe you Texans have a saying for people like this: “Big hat, no cattle” !!
Daniel, you can email me at info@hyperion1.com Best regards, Mike
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Angie Wilford has been scrapped as a ‘Guest Speaker’ from the Montelongo’s Real Estate Workshop. This was scrubbed on the web site within the last few days.
http://www.tribeworkshop.com/
Is A&E going to pull the plug on her too?
Close, Mike. It’s ‘All hat and no cattle’ ; )
This was changed as well…
“Cast members from A&E’s Flip This House will be at the event! All of whom will be available to answer any questions you may be dying to ask!”
It WAS…
“Cast members from ALL THREE of A&E’s Flip This House teams will be at the event! All of whom will be available to answer any questions you may be dying to ask!”
I just saw the episode where the contractor “stole” the cabinets out of the house they were remodeling. I wonder if the stole the cabinets are cashed them in because they were owed money?!?!
No police, no follow ups, makes me think this is a civil and not a criminal mater.
I recall another episode where one of the Montelongo women (cant remember which one) picked up a couple of California investor at the airport and wisked them away to a duplex closing IN A LIMO.
I could understand if they were closing on a multi lillion dollar deal, however, this duplex was in a ROTTEN neighborhood (AKA ghetto) I was also amused that Armondo called it “working class”… BUNK. I drive a cab for a living and I refuse to go into a crack infested area they rehabbed this duplex.
This should have raised red flags in my book that they splurged money on a limo for such a mickey mouse deal. I would have not have been impressed
UPDATE:
Mounting legal pressure upon Armando has forced him to now change his website where he had his false advertising which led to his major con.
Now he changed it to cds instead of dvds, so at least now fewer people will be conned.
If anyone doubts it was always advertised as dvds, the copies have been kept and will be used against him in the coming class action suit against him. Copies can also be found online now if you know how to go about that. Armando is going to pay very dearly for this major scam of his, mark my words.
I found the house the the Montelongo boys flipped on School street. According to Bexar County records:
They bought the house on May 3,2006 for 46,550 David Montelongo signed the document – recorded on book number 12108 page 947
They sold the sold the house FIVE MONTHS October 6, 2006 later to a Investor in San Antonio area for 53,550. Document signed by Armando Montelongo – recorded on book number 12447 page 1104.
I recall on the show they bought the house for 34,000 plus 11,000 for improvements and sold it for 70,000 dollars. And I was under the impression that this house sold quickly (less than a month). These numbers DONT MATCH!
I drove by the house and its the one featured on the show. It look great up front However, the thing need major foundation work and the roof is slightly warped looks like it about to colaspe in a couple of years.
I guess I’m too trusting….I assumed they wouldn’t need to inflate numbers on these shows and that the people on these shows were actual “experts”..
I stumbled on this web site after wanting more information on the YouTube video I saw on Sam Leccima being a scammer. This thread has been very interesting to read.
I too was contemplating buying Montelongo’s course, but after reading his five free pages, I could tell that the writing of the books would not be great. Plus the following questions/red flags were raised:
1.) Why 5 ebooks? It’s an ebook! Why not just put all the information into one book? He’s doing that to make it sound like you’re getting more. Which probably means you’re not.
2.) If he is really making $20,000 per house at 20 to 30 houses per month that means he’s making between $400,000 and $600,000. Divide that by a 60 hour work week and he would be making between $1,666 and $2,5000 dollars per hour! Why in the world would anybody making that much money per hour need to sell a course? I figured because he isn’t making that kind of money.
My biggest problem was that was not giving out any information for free. At least the other FTH team of Than and Mike have free articles up on their web site. When you are that successful it doesn’t hurt to pay forward a little good will.
I am not going to buy anything from any of the Flip This House people.
It think A&E made a big mistake by not having a non-compete clause in their contracts. That way they would be able to prevent the teams from exploiting their publicity with crappy “courses” and then A&E would be able to put out a branded Flip This House course of real estate rehabs, for free.
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the information you’ve been providing so far. I have a question for you. What’s your beef with flipping houses? Specifically wholesaling. That’s what I was planning to do because it seems to be the easiest way to get my feet wet in real estate.
I just started looking into real estate investing the past week and have found a ton of information online for free. I also went to the library and grabbed a bunch of books on the subject.
The bottom line is between Google, iTunes, and YouTube, there is way too much free information online to have to pay thousands for anybody’s courses.
Gregory
Gregory;
Flipping is an illusion. The illusion is that someone can buy a flawed house for next to nothing and, with little or no knowledge of construction trades or contracting, spend very little money and add enormous value to that property and sell it for a huge profit in a matter of days. It isn’t that way.
Never has been, and never will be.
The fact is that I can drive down the street and immediately spot houses that were ‘flipped’. Why? Because, to the expert eye, the flaws are obvious. I have pictures of houses with lovely new paint and landscaping where the grade slopes 20% TOWARD the house and the stucco never dries. This house will fall apart in a year and have termites even sooner. Or the heavily improved house with only 1500 sq ft. that never sold because a competent builder would have added a 2nd story and another 1500 sq. ft. I can find problems with most houses built by experienced professionals, so the condition of houses that have been screwed around by amateurs is always appaling.
Check out a show on Discovery Home called Holmes on Homes and you’ll see what a real builder finds checking out the work of other contractors – many of them licensed. Then imagine stuff about 3 times worse and you’ve got the true condition of most flipped houses.
No permits, unlicensed tradespeople, and totally inexperienced owners acting as GC are a sure recipe for disaster.
As for wholesaling, the concept of getting great deals on houses and then reselling them is great, problem is it also doesn’t exist. LONG before a home of any value gets to the point of being available to the general public via auction, NOD listing, etc., professionals who know what they are doing have already known about it for a long time. If it gets to the pulic, they passed on it ofr some good reason. Now, if you’re in a very depressed market like San Antonio, there are some workable properties possible *if you know what you are doing and can inspect them yourself accurately*. However, here in LA, you will *never* get a shot at any easy money houses because professional experts have networks of people alerting them to anything good *long* before it ever hits the street. There is no free lunch.
So, in a nutchell, my problem with ‘flipping’ is that it’s bs. There are no quick, easy deals, and obody who has little or no experience in the trades ever turns out a quality product. When it comes to homebuilding, there is very little new under the sun in the past 30 years and certainly nothing has changed to make ‘flipping’ a viable prospect in any other than a rapidly ascending market, which no longer exists in most places.
Mike
For years, I have dreamnt of buying homes, adding value and selling for a profit. I am now in the position to turn my dreams into realtiy, BUT I did it the hard way. I went to college, and majored in Finance and Real Estate. I got a Broker’s license, and bought and sold other people’s properties. I managed properties for investors, etc. Now, after 4 years I am a Project Manager for America’s Luxury Builder I know the cost of labor and materials b/c I contract all my jobs. My bonus is tied into how profitable my homes are.
For those of you that think I’m bragging, you’re wrong. The truth is, in 1999 I saw a Carleton Sheets infomercial on T.V. My family bought the program for me ($400!) I went through the course, and was devastated to learn much of what he was teaching was based on assuming mortgages (almost impossible now), and other ancient tactics. Not only that, the course just seemed to gear me towards EXPENSIVE personal coaching, and seminar courses. Much like the Tribework Shops. I was crushed, and felt like a fool for buying into this crap.
I dedicated myself to learn about real estate, and since 1999 I have bought, sold, managed, developed and FINALLY invested properties. Like Mike Voss writes, there is no “Get Rich Quick” techniques in real estate investing, Period.
As far as these so called reality shows, my favorite has always been Trademark Properties. Even though you can tell on the Real Deal that some of the show is staged, I think Richard does a good job being honest about his dealings. Personally, I think the show was more interesting when he was on “Flip This House” season 1. The Real Deal also needs to goto HD!
Bottom line, if you buy right, do your homework and dedicate yourself to this business in a professional manner you can make some $$$$.
Best of luck to all of you.
Well said, Shannon.
Reading your remarks reminded me of why I got into homebuilding and I think I should mention it so people can see how and why I got to where I am now.
When I was in college 20 years ago, (studying Computer Science) I did a lot of studying outside of school of things that interested me (yeah I was a bit of a dork) and learned 3 things that I never forgot: 1) 9 of 10 American millionaires (at that time anyway) made their money in real estate 2) a house is the most expensive thing most people will ever buy, sell, or own in their lifetime and yet 3) most people know close to *nothing* about houses.
This struck me as a huge, multi-faceted paradox, and began my lifelong quest to learn everything about houses. (it’s still ongoing) As a kid, my parents had contracted to have houses remodeled and when I was 12 we moved into a big old house and did about 1/2 the work remodeling it ourselves, and my whole life I’ve found some odd familiarity and comfort in the smell of sawdust and construction adhesive. To this day, it just seems to be in my blood and other people who have the same affliction know what I mean immediately. It’s what I truly love, and it never gets old.
When I got out of college, I spent years working in the computer field and working on various projects I lived in – some in exchange for rent reduction, then later some of which I lease optioned ( a powerful tool that anyone with interest in RE should understand and use – it got me my start) Over time, I got tired of the almost universal unreliability of subcontractors and started to learn their trades myself so I wouldn’t have to rely on them. (remember – if you try to do something yourself and screw up, you can always hire someone to fix it and it’ll probably cost the same or less…) I spent time as a free apprentice, volunteered on Habitat for Humanity projects, and continually challenged myself to take on bigger and bigger projects. On my first house, I was hard pressed to repair an electrical circuit. On my last one, I ran every inch of wire, including the panel and service head. Along the way, I read and acquired a couple hundred books on different trades(which I refer to frequently) and literally watched *every* episode of every home improvement show ever aired at least twice, no joke. I’ve forgotten more than most people who call themselves builders will ever know, and yet I still consider myself to know very little. The more I know, the more I realize how little I know. The education is ongoing and a constant evolution. If you have the desire and the love for it, however, it never gets old. My worst day housebuilding is better than my best day working for someone else ever was, period! I hope everyone can enjoy it as much as I have and not get ripped off by the creeps out there looking to do no more than enrich themselves at the expense of others and give real housebuilding a bad name. All you need to know is out there, free or very inexpensively available, it’s just not available fast.
There’s an old saying amongst builders: Good, Fast, Cheap – pick any 2! When it comes to learning housebuilding and developing real estate, good and cheap is the route you want to take, so forget about fast because you can’t buy real enlightenment at any price.
Best regards,
Mike Voss
Host of A&E’s “Flip This House,” Sam Leccima, Arrested for Fraud
http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/71574/Sam_Leccima_Flips_Out_Arrested_For_Fraud_For_Faking_Home_Renovations_And_Sales_
Opps – just realized – maybe this should have been posted on the Samuel Leccima page under comments.
Sorry.
LMAO @ Armando or his wife posting #23-25 praising him! Guess they don’t know what a proxy is!
David Montelongo seems nice and honest enough but his brother is a different story.
THe trademark people were fun to watch. I thought they were overall decent people. After that the show went downhill. The Atlanta shows were just garbage and the armondo shows – what a clown with his clown wife.
Anyone who thinks they are going to make money flipping in an inexperienced fool. Not Richard and trademark were not flippers – they rehabbed houses. Big difference.
Much like the dotcom mania this whole RE mania will bankrupt Armondo and many others.
Well I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks the Montelongo’s are a joke! There show is good “fluff” for the brain. You need a good laugh now and again. As for Armondo’s CD, I hope that nobody else wastes there hard earned money on his crap. Mike has been right all along…”THERE ARE NO EASY MONEY DEALS” I should know, I’m a licenced carpenter and have been in home construction and renovations for 18 years. If you have the passion for houses like I do, you can earn a fair living, but you will NEVER be a millionaire at it!
Just a further thought. If you ARE interested in trying your hand at house flipping remember this; DO NOT JUST CANDY COAT IT. Do more than just paint and carpet. Put yourself in the buyers shoes. Imagine that you are buying this house beliving it has been “renovated”, and once you move in, you find all of the mistakes that are going to cost you thousands to repair. There is something to be said for craftsmanship. Stand by your name, AND behind your work! Your reputatation will proceede you if you are known for poor workmanship! Good luck!
Hi Mike,
After further research, I think you are making an all inclusive overstatement by saying wholesaling “doesn’t exist.” What further makes that evident is your contradiction in your same paragraph.
“However, here in LA, you will *never* get a shot at any easy money houses because professional experts have networks of people…”
Networks of people screams wholesalers or bird dogs or whatever the terminology. Point is that you nor anyone with the work ethic you have has the time to go out and find ALL of your properties on your own. You pay people to do that. Either in-house or network. So to say that wholesaling doesn’t exist seems a bit much. I checked out “Holmes on Homes” and missed the first 15 minutes, but I got the idea. I also checked out “Flip THAT House: Updated” which takes place in the Los Angeles area. I saw episodes with homes in North Hollywood and Sherman Oaks. Those people, some 1st timers, took MUCH longer than 2 weeks, but they made a profit.
Your post is really telling. It seems that you love building homes. It is your life and you turn out top quality houses. I may have even seen some of your work first hand because I’ve looked at some of those newly built / remodeled homes around Sherman Oaks Galleria. But I’m not looking into wholesaling at this point to be a major homebuilder like yourself or Trademark Properties. I’m looking to make some extra cash first and it looks as though wholesaling provides extreme flexibility. Then, once I get more hands on experience in real estate investing, I’ll determine if rehabbing properties is right for me.
Anyway, it seems like you’re not saying it can’t be done. You’re saying that people should just take more pride in the workmanship they do.
Chris, to say that “you will NEVER be a millionaire” from real estate investing is so far from being true. A large number of U.S. millionaires make money from real estate investing.
I was watching “The Real Deal” where Trademark rehabs their IT guy’s house and at the beginning of the show Richard said that they now have 44 employees and did $250,000,000 million dollars in sales in 2006.
I’d say that’s pretty good.
Gregory
Hi Gregory – I guess I should clarify about wholesaling – what I actually meant is that it is like building in that it isn’t just a simple thing out there waiting to be done easily. Bird doggers is the correct term – when people know you are a builder and know your work is good, they bring deals to you. Many times, they become ongoing sources of such deals – people like BK trustees, financial advisers, realtors, etc. When you develop relationships with such people, then it is possible to find the properties which never get into the MLS, classifieds, etc. Great example: I helped a friend rebuild a house here in Sherman Oaks – we knew the owner from going to parties at his house for years – it was a piece of junk on a magnificent lot which is on a hilltop overlooking the whole valley. The guy got foreclosed on, but he was a lawyer and sued the bank and won and the property ust sat empty for 2 years while the battle went on (rare around here) At the end, he just wanted to sell it for what he owed on it, which was about 1/4 what the land alone was worth. Because my friend knew him, he got the first crack at it, and because he knew me, I inspected it and told him to get a written contract THAT DAY because it was a great deal and I didn’t trust the seller. A week later, the guy wanted to reneg and go try to get more money (he was slimy), but it was too late because my friend had an ironclad contract and had paid. We bought a $2MM+ property for $600K. We built a house for about $400,000 more and today it’s easily worth about 3.7MM.
That’s a rare example, but the moral of the story is that the general public never saw anything about that house (except in foreclosure listings, which are mostly useless like they were in this case) and my friend got it entirely because of his relationships with lawyers and a builder. (me) If someone is willing to take the time to develop the connections, there are definitely deals to be made out there (my friend could have sold that house the day he got title for over 2MM – John Salley was there the first day we saw it and wanted it BAD. To this day I don’t know who his connection was, but he had one!) If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, it can definitely be done. It’s just that, like building, the shortcuts people like Armando pretend to have don’t exist – it takes time and hard work. At least here in LA.
-Mike
PS: RE: Flip That House – I know both the women who did the house in Sherman Oaks and the one in North Hollywood. While both did sell, Susan’s house took about a year and the work was not very good quality. Kelly’s sold faster, but it was even lesser quality. Susan still is a flipper and really hasn’t improved much quality or knowledge wise. She’s great at decorating and staging, but cuts many corners and doesn’t make any structural mods on any properties that I’ve seen. Kelly never flipped another house and washed out of Real Estate and moved home with her parents. That’s the reality of what happens to most flippers.
There WAS, however, one episode of Flip That House that had a builder who was fairly impressive – check out the English guy who did the craftsman style house – Paul I think was his name? He was talented – really nice work.
Mike
You’re right Greg, I guess I was a little over zelous in saying that you will “NEVER” be a millionaire in real estate. I was referring to all of the first time “house flippers” who belive they too can be the next overnight success story. Real estate is and always will be your best investment, as nobody is producing any more ground to build a house on. There is more to “flipping” than most new comers are aware of. Yes it is best to by property in a depressed market, but you must also analize the market shifts, and possible job growth. If you are planning to be the next success story, than get a mentor, and expect it to take time. Richard Davis did not get to were he is overnight. If you are in this just for a quick buck like Armando Montelongo, then you will not last in this industry!
Veronica is HOOOOOOOT. Her husband is….a used car lot’s worst nightmare.
Hey Mike and Shannon,
thanks for finally telling it like it is. another reason flips dont work in a market like san antonio is banks are not stupid. hey look at comps. we dont have a lot of cash buyers to skew the numbers.
I wrote all three news stations and even got on the phone with one of the writers of the express news to ask why no one has exposed these idiots and no one seems to care. When I asked why such a successful company was operating out of a converted garage in an 80K home in Dellview the express news writer admited to never meeting the Montelongos, only that she was contacted about the show and did a phone interview. I’ve checked just about every success story on the show and the only one that even somewhat holds water is Armandos personal home he sold in Hunters Creek. Which, by the way he had to use a realtor from a small company called pleasant realty. Ineresting since his older brother is married to a realtor. His older Brother Rick runs his fathers old company and according to his web site, has nothing to do with cast or its crew. Armandos house of cards is going to come crashing down soon, just like most con men. I was recently contacted by a man that called on one of my real estate ads who stated he was buying a home, owner financed by Armando but was being foreclosed on by the real note holder. Apparently Armando was not making the mortgage. This is called a wrap and with todays laws I’m not even sure if its still legal.
anyway great advice Mike, I’ll drop you line some time. By the way I took photos of Armados latest success that he claims to have sold for 165K in Universal city. the home in good shape would be worth maybe 120K. regardless, it was flooded, the fence falling down, the pool green and the interior still smelled. Also, the genius converted part of the garage.
ps- Richards show is great. if Armando did even a fraction of the homes he claims his staff would be something like Richards.
Shannon,
Discovery is rolling out HD to their ‘family’ of channels (which includes TLC) in September. So far Direct TV has signed on the rest won’t be far behind.
Discovery just announced this a few weekss ago.
Wow, this is a great website and very informative. I am not a realtor or flipper, just an average working gal who is fascinated with home improvement. I have to admit that I found the Montelongo & Leccima espisodes of Flip this House entertaining. I assumed there was a certain amount of fraud in involved in these shows, as it appeared there was a lot of playing to the camera, and I couldn’t fathom that people would actually purchase houses that had only cosmetic fixes. But I didn’t realize just how much fraud was involved.
Can anyone explain to me why Angie is now a part of the Flip this House team? She acted as a real estate agent on the Leccima episodes and can be seen stating that she brokered the deal for Sam to purchase these homes and is shown placing a SOLD sign on one of homes — when in fact, it has been proven by GA county records that Leccima never owned/purchased the homes (as Angie stated) and nor did the homes ever sell (as Angie stated). Isn’t she just as fraudulent as Sam? And, if she is indeed a realtor, shouldn’t her license be revoked as well?
Last question, am I the only one confused by Flip this House and Flip that House 🙂
Denise,
Originally I was very confused between Flip This House and Flip That House. After watching many episodes of each, here is the difference. Flip That House is a 30 minute program that features a different person each time trying to flip a house. Flip That House airs on TLC. Their shows are taped in different parts of the country, although 90% are in Southern California. They have also done several in Las Vegas. Flip This House airs on A&E and is the show that Richard and Trademark Properties in South Carolina started. After the contract dispute with Richard, A&E recast the show with Armando & Crew, Sam & Crew, etc. It is a one hour show that follows the same people around from week to week. Flip That House is more normal, everyday people while Flip This House are the “professionals”.
I’ve read many of the comments on here and agree with what a lot of people have said. However, I do not agree with people on here saying that you cannot make money flipping houses. You can definitely make money in buying and selling real estate, ie…flipping. I can tell you first hand because I have personally completed four houses in the past year and have made a good and fair profit on every one. There is no big secret or magic formula. It is not a “get rich quick” scheme. It is hard work, pure and simple. To be successful, you have to invest time in looking for properties. You have to know your market cold! It takes time and you have to do your homework. One in 20 properties that you will look at might be worth flipping, based on the price, location, etc. When looking for properties, you need to search your local MLS daily as well as craigslist and other websites. It takes time and again it is work. I work a full-time job(and then some), but I try to find at least 20 hours per week to dedicate to my part time real estate business. My goal is to eventually be in the real estate business full time, but that is still a few years away.
By the way, I am not a believer in books, tapes, etc that “teach” you how to flip houses. The best way to learn anything is by participating. You can read books until you are blue in the face, but the way you really learn is by doing. If you want to flip a house; get your financing in order, get with a local realtor, and get to work! Just be prepared to see the 19 dogs(most of which will be overpriced) to find the one diamond in the rough.
Why is it that Angie, Marina and Veronica are so hot and have idiots for husbands? David, dump your brother, Veronica dump your hubby and find someone who appreciates you, and Angie, dump that idiot of a husband who can’t do construction to save his life.
How come when you go to the Montelongo’s web site (Montelongo House Buyers) you don’t see any houses FOR SALE listed?
The only thing I see FOR SALE are CD’s, get rich quick seminars, and so on.
Where are the ’25 houses a month’ they ‘flip’ hiding? ; )
If my math is right, to buy and sell 1,000 houses in five years, a person would have had to buy 3 to 4 houses a week, which would be quite a challenge for a large scale company, much less Armando, and his brother. I am suprised that A&E, at the least, did not do a few public records checks, and a criminal background check to ensure the accuracy of the claims, and the background of the individuals being showcased on the series.
Montelongo’s…
“The Roach House”
254 Erskine Place
San Antonio, TX
On the show…
Paid $40,000
Rehab $17,000
Total ‘in’ $57,000
Sold $110,000
Profit $53,000
__________________________
Zillow $76,906 est worth
http://www.zillow.com/
Cut and pasted from the FTH board before they delete it. Heh
“Roach House”…
“Let me add more:
bought on June 6, 2006 for $66,500
sold to an investor in Blanco, TX on Nov. 10, 2006 for $68,000
Appraised by Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector for 2007: $70,100
There is NO WAY that THIS house sold for $110,000.
The construction time line/schedule, Armando and Veronica’s vacation (which occurred during the “cat house” filming), and the open house, were ALL STAGED!
And once again, another episode where the buying, selling, and possibly the construction costs, were OVER INFLATED!!
In light of the Sam Leccima scandal, I cannot believe A&E would continue to broadcast this show without checking out the facts.
Shame on you A&E!
PS. The Montelongo’s claim they flip 25-30 houses a month. Strange how the entire Montelongo crew spends nearly a month on this SINGLE project.
What about the other 24-29 houses they are flipping?
And strange that Armando at the open house talks about moving to the next (singular) deal.
PPS. Does it bother anyone that Melina and Armando are deciding how to market the house as if this was the first time Melina marketed a house?
I thought she was doing this for at least 3 years?
The more I see the Montelongo’s on FTH, it becomes painfully apparent that they are 3rd rate amateurs in the real estate business but they are 1st class liars!”
I cannot understand A&E for letting this sham go on for this long.
It took me less than 5 minutes to do a background check on the Erskine house.
What will it take to realize that A&E has another PR train wreck in progress?
I also uncovered a questionable loan made to Armando on a house on Lemur Dr . According to loan documents filed with the county clerk, they have him listed as a “single man” – not married. No reputable lender would make such a mistake. Furthermore, they allowed a house on Basswood Dr go into foreclosure in April of this year.
Fred,
I suspect the Montelongos are not what they seem.
However, don’t assume that “taking a taxi” is an indication of a lack of wealth. Many (most?) millionaires are NOT “flashy” and don’t take limos.
One of the reasons people get to be millionaires is that they don’t waste money on “flash” or “bling”.
Mike V.,
I’m curious as to why you call San Antonio a “depressed” market.
While housing costs in San Antonio are well below what you will find in CA and certain portions of the east coast (for similar properties), it is a market where housing prices have risen fast in recent years. The market is slowing this year, but still increasing (unlike some of the “hot” markets on the west coast where prices are flat or falling).
Thanks Steve for reposting my message from the A&E board. Sure enough, A&E or the moderator removed my post:-).
Disappointed but not surprised.
A&E and Departure Films (the people who produce FTH) need to come to grips and face reality.
Removing my post only makes me wonder what other things have yet to be discovered.
boyson,
Anytime ; ) I watched that episode like a hawk last night on a 42″ HD plasma (and a DVR) just looking for the street address. Got it! I’ll be doing the same thing with subsequent San Antonio reruns ; )
And boyson,
Nice tag team effort last night …
1,2,3 TEAM!
Teamwork is our trademark LOL ; )
LOSERS, STOP TRASHING PEOPLE, GET A LIFE. START MAKING MONEY AND NOT EXCUSES.
BTW, didn’t he and his wife get divorced a few years ago?
That would explain him applying for the loan as a single male.
Justin:
They filed for divorce in April 2003, however, I did not find a divorce decree. Perhaps they reconciled and drop the petition.
Moreover, on Montelongohomebuyers.com website, Veronica’s bio says “…Nothing is more rewarding than the quality time she spends at home with her husband Armando and their son Armando Sebastian…”
correction, link to Veronica’s bio:
http://www.montelongohousebuyers.com/personal_info.html
Good one Steve. I went to his website too, it appears all he is selling is get rich quick schemes. From what I read on this website, its all severly outdated information. Probably just more stuff trying to get you to goto more seminars, etc.
On a side note, I love this blog. When I’m having a tough day at work, I’ll come on here and just LMAO reading everyones posts.
Anyone gonna tune in to hear David Montelongo tonight?
Save your money. Richard Davis gives it up for free (video)
“The Number One Rule in Real Estate Investing”
http://tlc.discovery.com/beyond/index.html?playerId=203711705&categoryId=914140632&lineupId=987239221
Lifted from the TWOP forum.
Too funny! LOL
“Did anyone else notice on the TRIBE site that not only were David and Melina special guests, but Than Merrill is a featured speaker. Looking over this site and the one posted earlier for Than, it looks like they are all jumping on the get rich quick scams.
The “I’m so successful at what I do that I’m going to stop doing it and teach you how from the generousity of my little heart. Now cough up the bucks and buy my package.” Which actually means “I’m not making enough money doing this right now, so I’ll get you to pay me to teach you how to not make enough money either, as I laugh all the way to the bank.”
Why is it that I hear Armando, Veronica, David, or Melina, I check to make sure my wallet is not missing, roll my eyes, or at a Amway sales presentation?
have you all tried renting their houses
Montelongo’s
“Condemmed”
508 W Baetz
San Antonio, TX
On the show…
Paid $31,900
Total “in” after rehab $63,000
Sold $120,000
‘Flipped’ in 21 days
______________________________________
Per Bexar County Records. The house is owned by…
BAETZ LAND TRUST
239 DALEHURST
SAN ANTONIO, TX 78201
Take it away, boyson! ; )
Can anyone tell me what is the situation with David? Have he and his brother parted company if so what is he up to?
Montelongo’s….
“Condemned” (‘The Burnt Duplex’)
508 W Baetz
San Antonio, TX
On the show…
Paid $31,900
Total in with rehab $63,100
“Flipped” and sold in 21 days for $120,000
______________________________________
Or not. Bexar County records show the owner as
BAETZ LAND TRUST
239 DALEHURST (Montelongo Real Estate Solutions)
SAN ANTONIO, TX 78201
Steve, thanks for the link. Really good advice from him.
You know, I think they are both so full of themselves, but it makes for good TV 😉
They both have the only two flip shows I watch. The other flippers on “flip this house” bore me to tears.
I would be more apt to buy a book from Richard than Armando though. I like Richards team mentality and treating people well.
Wow! What an awesome website. I’ve been interested in flipping homes and found the Flip This Home episodes very entertaining. The first thing that struck me as odd was the ridiculous claim that Mr. Montelongo made regarding how many homes he flips a month. Something like 25 to 30. What an insult to the intelligence of your viewers. I already knew about the Leccima’s cause I live in Atlanta, but I did not know he went so far as to stage people. It’s so sad to see so many people fall victim to greed. Anyone interested in real estate investing should check out John T Reed. He has serious credentials and has a very informative website.(www.johntreed.com) God Bless to all.
I loved the episode tonight when Armando was teaching “Mondo Man” how to flip houses. He explained that sometimes daddy has to yell at the contracters, but you also have to take care of them. So he shows up with a six pack cooler with a couple of waters and a couple sodas.
Yeah that makes it all better.
“Veronica Montelongo for Vice- president”
Too funny! The editors ‘fuzzed out’ the street address on this one. And no fake buyer either, instead, ‘asking price’. Although there was an alleged ‘sale pending’
Too little, too late. Every tree I’ve barked up so far with this gang has had a cat in it ; ) Good luck trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube! LOL
Steve,
What is the website for Bexar county were you get all your info on the homes? I would love to read some of that!
Re: “Veronica Montelongo for Vice- President”
Shameless plug for ‘Pella Windows’.
Although it looks like they’ve dropped
the “Added Value” phony premise they used in Connecticut with the “Burning Down the House” episode and the “Condemned” episode in San Antonio for ALCOA (aluminum siding)!
‘Product placement’ is one thing. Phony ‘infomercial’ garbage disguised as legitimate show content is another.
I have learned more on this one website than I have on any of the “Flipping” shows. Thank you. All of the links have led to some interesting reading. It is amazing what you learn when you “google” just a few simple words.
I was actually looking up the book that Armando was writing on tonights “Flip This…” episode and came across you guys……Interesting!
Needless to say, I no longer feel the need to look up his book!
Re: “Veronica Montelongo for Vice- President”
Also kind of funny, Armando shooting the windows out with his sling shot! Geeze,
can you say FOLLOWER? Keep watching
Richard Davis Armando, hey, you might learn something. And apparently, you already are ; )
I was initially interested in picking up a copy of Montelongo’s book, but I found this blog, and now really have no interest in it.
It’s amazing what can be found with just a few keystrokes!
Thanks to everyone here for the good info, and hopefully A&E will get their act together, and yank junk like this off the air.
I guess that is where “reality” tv is going these days.
My skepticism grows on a daily basis!
Hopefully it helps me(and others) keep the money in OUR pockets!
armondo you gonna let these people bash you, respond tell us its not so, give us the real deal, a real man sticks up for himself, lets hear it, cant mess with peoples lives brother give it to us here, what do you say sir.
Armando is the best illusion artist on A&E. Criss Angel is a close second but “are you ready”…for Armondo’s new book! My favorite illusion in the episode tonight is Veronica’s line to the window guys (who all had uniforms on and there company’s name plastered everywhere like they were part of a pit crew in a NASCAR event… anyway she says something like “Whoa you guys are professionals and work so fast with a beautiful product line” and then the window truck drives off into the sunset with a just another job for us, its what we do, kind of vibe going on, and one more final plug on the back of the truck to a fade out (it was really touching, I called my mother afterwards to tell her I love her). No way Armando payed 18 grand for the windows and doors, ITS ARMANDO! He turns everyone on that show into a puppet and still had time to write a book! Now thats magic 🙂 Welp, I love the website. Best wishes to you all.
~Valentino
Back about 7 years ago I was working for my stepfather in Corpus Christi during the summer between college semesters on an old run down house that he purchased for around 30K. He put about 15K into beefing up the foundation, framework and remodling it completely. It took about 2 months to complete. He then sold it about 6 months later after living in it for a little while for 75K. I can see where you could make a very good amount of money if you could do a house every 4-6 weeks or so. I have always wanted to get into this, but do not really know where to start or what it takes.
this armando is a prick the way he treats people is sickening, like he is better than everyone else. especially the time he was sitting outside with his feet in that swimming pool drinking beer and trying patheticaly to make it look like he was having to force those contractors to work, what a piece of shit. I wonder just how many of those contractors have gave him an asswhooping?1000 houses = 1000 or more asswhoopins! LOL
I did some searching on http://www.taxnetusa.com/texas/bexar/list.php and found Armando Senior owns one property, and Armando Junior owns 3 properties and Armando owns 1. Isn’t his son Junior? How can a 9 or 10 year old kid own property? Also doing a check on Veronica, she has seven houses under her name…someone else see something wrong?
Some more on them:
http://www.co.bexar.tx.us/webapps/html/DKLITDSP01.asp
David has a lawsuit pending against him for breach of contract on 6/15/07
Mike,
Great site. Glad I stumbled across it as I too was about to purchase their $97 set.
Also, as others on this site have said, I’ve learned more from the info posted on this site than any of the flipping shows I’ve watched.
Information is Power.
Thanks again for the insight.
ok, quick question, i know this is all pretty staged and all, but with the trademark properties, and of course Armando, it seems like they start demoing and building within a couple days of signing papers… in my County it takes like 4 months to get a building permit.. what is going on there? how can they start demoing and building within days?, i mean it is obvious that there is working going on for the project that they are taping, this part is not staged?
thanks in advance for anyone with any answers…
I also was looking for the book to purchase and found this site. Incredible what people will do to make a buck. Has he really written a book or is that the lead in to his $100 or $1000 kit? I agree Richard seems to be genuine and not so full of himself. I would prefer to have him as a mentor. I will be back more often
Does anyone know the real story on whether Armando & David have split up as business partners and why? Thanks for your website. You have saved me money; I was seriously considering investing in Armando’s program. Has anyone gotten the email invite to David’s live conference call next week for TRIBE? I thought the Montelongo’s were a legitimate example of a family business, but it seems as if they are getting pretty greedy and focused on $$ only. They are making their $$ from the show and not flipping houses.
Also RE: “Veronica Montelongo for V.P”. I am thankful for the internet and the ability to do instant research. I was actually looking to purchase the book they were slinging, needless to say that I am no longer in the market for it. I quickly reviewed the website, http://www.armandomontelongo.com and noticed several mispelled words on the page under the forclosure section. I am not the best speller in the world but I would certainly spellcheck my website at the very least. First impressions are everything. How can you spend $1000 on his “DVD/CD’s” when he does not even have the ability to make sure his site is at the very least accurate and concise. If you mispell a word here no big deal…on your business website, that is not good. Looks like the Montelongo brothers are parting ways. There was a new intro that didn’t even mention David or his wife Melina..interesting. How funny are the three bogus postings probably sent by the “MONDOMAN”. Great site, thank you everyone for the valuable info. I found Mike Voss to be especially credible. They should make a show about him instead of these other flip artists.
Yep I was looking up the book info from tonights show as well and “Holy Smokes” This site was the first thing listed on Google for ‘montelongo book’. Wow guess this saves me an embarrasing triumphant (told ya so)dance from my husbund. And is saving thousands (well maybee hundreds) of people from wasting bandwidth down loading the site. $997?? that would have scared me away anyway. Guess they should have sold it for 19.95 probably would have made more money on the volume.
I’ve been very interested in trying to “Flip” but I am unsure of the approach I should take. I have done construction for most of my adult life and half the stuff I see on “Flip This House” hosting Armando Montelongo is total Bull.
I had contacted a company here that “Flip” homes and they said that I can take an internship as long as I provide my construction know-how. I’m not a know it all, I’m just real friendly with the codes and permit/blue print processing. They told me that it may take anywhere from 1 – 3+ months to fully rehab a home and then you must factor in the time it takes to show and sell the house.
This should be a real interesting few months.
I must say that I am happy I found these web postings because I was in search of trying to find the books that Armando wrote so I could better my experience with this company I’ll be spending a few months with.
Thanks for all of the posts. I REALLY can’t afford a book at this cost, but was considering buying it. I wanted to add to the posts to keep this the #1 hit when someone is searching for this book.
You know, there definitely is money to be made in buying and rehabbing rundown properties, so I plan to do some of this in the near future.
I agree, however, it is just not as easy or quick as Montelongo states.
It will most likely take some good legwork to find the properties, and then some good elbow grease to do the rehab work.
I sold my first house for a good profit, but I also lived in it for ten years, so it wasn’t a quick flip.
Mike Voss, I second the motion for you to get your own show!!
Thank you SO MUCH for this site. I was also looking for Armando’s book, and I’m glad I’m a researcher at heart. I love all the remodeling shows on HGTV and want to thank you, Mike, for the suggestion to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity to both learn and do something for the communities we live in. Keep that great info coming!
i also want to flip houses and now i see the best advice is to talk to the bank and learn as u go.
What a shocker! I (was) a huge fan of the Montelongos show! I loved every episode! ON hopes that these kinds of stories are more rumor than fact, but hmmmmmmm…… I feel like I did when I was a kind and found out that Santa Claus wasn’t real…this is a shame!
Two things struck me as odd about the Armando episode I watched last night. First, the contractor (I believe it was foundation work) who showed up to get his money and threatened to put a lien against the property. I don’t know about once a property changes hands, but I do know that in Texas, a contractor can stick a lien on a property and the house can’t be sold until the lien is satisfied. The context of the episode was like this guy showed up demanding pay for work he had not done, but I bet the truth is that someone skipped out on paying him.
And did anyone else catch the blatant advertising for Aaron’s rental? There was a little blurb about how rent-to-own is a great way to get furniture for little cost upfront. But continue renting the furniture (and there’s bound to be some sort of length of terms), and you’ll pay far more for that couch than it is worth.
And slick how Armando made of big show of having to get ready to go shoot his commercial for his book.
lsj,
Re: “I don’t know about once a property changes hands, but I do know that in Texas, a contractor can stick a lien on a property and the house can’t be sold until the lien is satisfied.”
True, providing of course it’s a ‘licensed’ contractor. I think that whole thing was stagged anyway
I agree with earlier posts on educating yourself as the best course of action for this type of business. I look at FTH and other similiar shows as entertainment, not education. A very good book I found for anyone wanting basic starting information on flipping housees is “Flipping Houses for Dummies” by Ralph Roberts. Very easy to read and understand and is honest about the process. Much cheaper at $21.00, than Montecrooko’s program.
My favorite part of last nights episode was the shameless plugging and extended camera stops on the Snapple Tea he was sipping in the dark writing his book while chatting with his wife who was out in the daylight. The panning of Valspar paints was pretty funny as well like people are such sheep and won’t notice when they are being advertised to. I have felt this guy is a fraud from day one …but I will not miss an episode because it is entertaining as hell albeit fake as hell.
I posted this on the A&E discussion board and will probably get deleted (like some of my other posts. Steve, don’t worry, I got the info on the Baetz house and other properties aired yesterday. Plus I have a interesting theory about the newest flip – “Veronica Montelongo for Vice President”.
Once again, the numbers don’t add up….
Here is that post:
Laws or no laws, guess what? The house was LISTED in a foreclosure database for 171K. WOW, Armando is such a genius to come up with that figure and WOW that girl was able to talk the bank down to that price.
Coincidence?
What makes me believe the entire incident was nothing more than pseudo drama. It’s not like Departure-Films and FTH crews have ever staged pseudo auctions, pseudo open houses, and pseudo closings. Why not pseudo buying?
Do you honestly think that girl had the demeanor or confidence to negotiate a bank down 50K? She gave me the impression she was a student intern/walk-on that was placed in front of the camera and told to ad-lib as real estate wholesaler.
boyson,
Makes sence.
“Ohhhh, Armondo, I’ve wanted to work with you for SOOOOOOO long, oooo, ahhhh”
LOL
“Veronica Montelongo for VP”
I freeze framed this on my DVR. Armondo
is working on his ‘book’ and this is on his laptop, verbatim…
“When I was first broke, it was the hardest time of my life. ‘No’ being able to provide for ‘muy’ family, son, wife, and those I love the most. Once I learned the secrets of ‘lfippign’ and growing rich, my life turned around. It was the best time of my life. The time that was ‘certaintly’ the greatest to me.”
LOL
First I just want to say thanks for all the nice things people have said and emailed me in relation to posting here. If the day ever dawns where production companies want to spend the time and effort to make a good show about homebuilding/remodeling, I’ll be happy to talk to them. As long as they continue to produce shows the way Sam Leccima builds houses though, I’ll steer clear! 🙂
Like many of you, I found lots of interesting stuff in yesterday’s latest Montelongo episode. First off, I noticed that, on the voiceover for the new David-free intro, Armando now calls his company “the most aggressive” company in San Antonio instead of “the fastest growing” company. I also noticed that the correction to the purchase pricing on the house appears to have been edited in later in the production. (notice it is of a style never used on the show before) Clearly, A&E is clamping down or Departure is starting to actually worry about their claims and reigning Armando in. About time.
My take on the episode was that Armando was really desperate to start selling a book and/or materials because something was up. Combined with the fact that his own brother had clearly quit the show as of that episode, Armando’s schemes seem to be unraveling right on camera. As ye sow…
As for the house build, the product plugs were indeed everywhere. This goes on all the time with these shows. Typically, the builder is short on money and entices the supplier to give them discounted or free products or installation in exchange for tv exposure. It is a tipoff that the builder is looking to exploit the tv airtime and probably would have budgetary issues without the tv show. (at least in my experience)
I do applaud Veronica’s attempt to work in a more green manner (why not on every house? It saves money and is good for everyone.) We always recycle/reuse metal, wood, etc. (I can get a house torn down free out here by giving one company the wood to sell/recycle) Had they had a clue, there was lots more they could have done like installing tankless hot water (huge savings on gas and good units work amazingly well) or solar powered attic vents. And as for Armando’s hummer, don’t even get me started. I’m looking into getting a dual fuel pickup truck soon that runs on gasoline or compressed natural gas(CNG) and installing a CNG refueling system into my next home. CNG costs about $1.25/gallon when you make it at home and is the cleanest burning fuel there is! Why are we not all using it? Hopefully it will be something we can interest people in for future properties – for now I’ll be happy just to have cheap fuel and a clean vehicle!
I’m very glad to see that people who might have fallen for Armando’s book or courses are finding this site and learning that there are better resources available for free.
Happy father’s day,
-Mike Voss
Heather Jimenez “property scout” was also seen helping Chris “the intern” prepare for open house day.
She was also in the final shot where Veronica slapped on the “Sale Pending” sign.
I guess Armando was so impressed with Heather (she tried to take Armando for 30K) that he had to hire her to help prepare the property for open house :-).
BTW, this is the SAME Heather who was one of the intern/victim applicants on the “Bobwhite House” episode.
Hmmmmm….
WOW. Finally a cure for insomnia. That would not even be good toilet reading. I guess you could at least use the pages for a toilet paper back up.
Lol, I was just telling my wife that that girl on the latest show posing as a real estate agent was the first intern interviewed on the bob white home episode. Armando making that poor kid chase the peacock cruel but i LMAO.
Has anyone looked into the Program “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. Just wondering if this is also a get rich quick scam.
I was right, the house listed on foreclosuredeals.com is the same house featured on “Veronica for Vice President”.
The listing price was $172,900 and listed on March 6, 2007.
Unfortunately, Comal County doesn’t have their real estate recordings online. However, Comal Appraisal District has their appraisals online :-).
The most current appraisal (which includes the improvements done on the show), is $187,000 . Although I don’t have copies of the deed, I doubt that any one would pay 325K for something that’s worth 187K.
Once again, numbers do not add up!
How or why would Armando put 65K into a house that he already has 172K invested?
This is not the first time the Montelongos lost money on a flip (Bobwhite) featured on FTH.
Sure there were lots of shameless product placement plugs though out the show, but that would not pay the entire cost of the renovations.
Did you notice Armando didn’t seem as pissed off when paying for all these renovations – especially new windows? I’m sure Pella gave them a discount, but I doubt they gave windows and labor for free.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Departure Films/A&E is either subsidizing or paying for the renovations on these houses.
Remember, Sam Leccima’s former landscaper admitted getting paid by the production company for landscaping services done on one of the houses.
David – Rich Dad Poor Dad is a great book – I highly recommend it and you can find it used on Amazon very cheap! I haven’t bought/used any of the related courses or materials, so I can’t say anything about those, but the book is very good. Another favorite of mine in that genre is The Millionaire Next Door – a fascinating book worth every penny, it’s the best one I’ve read so far.
Mike
boyson,
The ‘product placement’ stuff is national in scope, they pay A&E. First the egg
($$$), then the chicken (placement). And again, the shameless “Added Value”
garbage to showcase it further for some
of the stuff
What an interesting website. I watch/ed all FTH episodes for the last 2 seasons and am glad to see I am not alone in my thoughts. I never liked Leccima. The entire group was too unprofessional for me. Angie and here husband as a spin off are very annoying and even more unprofessional than Leccima. (I had wondered where they went). Aaah, the Montelongos. Interesting to watch but with a grain of salt. Armando is disrespectful and I’m glad that contract he worked with came to his senses and left. I also hope his brother David finds himself instead of his brother’s shadow. I was sad this past season to see Trademark Realty gone and then overjoyed to find them on The Real Deal. They have always been the most professional about what they do, the emphasis on family/team work is key. I also like how they don’t try to squeeze blood from their contractors for pennies on the dollar and want to do what’s right for the house to sell and for the buyer instead of lipstick.
Anyone who watches any of these shows (except for Trademark) and believes that every episode can end with someone walking in and buying is also the person who spends 997.
I could go on but these are just my thoughts.
boyson,
Great find! LOL
Any idea where that “Flip 101” (‘Investor Special’) house is? It looks like they went out of their way to hide the street name, the address number though is allegedly ‘4719’.
NO WAY that house sold for $95K
Great point about the windows Boyson. Armando usually never spends more than a few thousand on windows, regardless of the house. He almost couldn’t wait to drop 15k to 20k on the Pella windows. They also put Boshe appliances in the house, spending 3 times what they normally budget for appliances. I can’t believe that Armando would be able to get any investor to give him 65K to renovate a home he could only net about 15k on.
Just a side note: I like how Armando “accidently” damaged part of the garage when demoing the add on. It was probably condemed and was required to be torn down anyway.
David,
my advice is to do some research on rob kiyosaki just like you did on armando…
here’s something to start with…
http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html
good luck
i suspect kiyosaki made most of his money selling his books and not investing in real estate…
after watching a few episodes of the montelongos, somethings smelled fishy. making money in RE is possible, but not nearly as easy as they make it out to be. of course, it’s easy when alot of it is fabricated.
Even though I love to watch the “The Real Estate Pros a/k/a “The Real Deal” they seemed to have “jumped the shark”. They’ve turned more into an Extreme Makeover show than an real estate investing show. First he restores a house and car for one of his tenants, then fixes up a restaurant, then a concession stand and now is helping out a high school friend with a shave and haircut. Same thing with “This Old House”. Before it was just work on an average Joe houses now it’s nothing but mansions.
Ok Steve here are the stats from public records:
Baetz House
Purchased price $48,000 with another lien for 36,000 for improvements = 84,000 total investment. Closing date 10-27-2006
Sold for 96,000 to Cherrie and Alfred Retter (same buyers featured on the show), closing date 3-22-07
Besides David losing his goatee on day 2 and growing it back in less than 2 days, check out the landscape across the street. Day 1 nice and green, Day 8 grass is brown and the trees have no leaves :-(.
Around day 11 there was the ice storm (January 16th), which would have put day 1 around January 5th – just more proof that their time line was bullshit.
Tax Appraisal for 2006 – $106,810
Tax Appraisal for 2007 – $71,380
—–
The investor special was 4719 Castle Rose.
Purchased by Rhumb Line Investments on 8-26-07, could not determine purchase price.
Sold by Rhumb Line to David Montelongo (acting as trustee for 4719 Castle Rose Trust) on 9-13-07 for $42,000. A note was secured on the property for 42,000 + 13,000 more for renovations equals total investment – $56,000.
Sold….well, it didn’t, and the tax appraisal for 2007 is ….$56,720. Who knows, maybe they can sell it for $95,000 in 2013.
“Veronica Montelongo for VP”
boyson,
If the street address is ‘8467’ then I found that house as well (sorry Departure Films, ya missed one) ; )
The square footage and year built don’t match though. Then again, I don’t trust those numbers on the screen anyway.
Zillow puts it at $244,742 ‘market value’ But yes, the appraised value by the county is $187,440.
Another thing, how come the female half of the ‘couple’ that was ‘buying’ it wasn’t wearing a wedding ring ; )
Zillow values are effectively useless the majority of the time. The information comes from public records (usually WAY out of date) and then it uses machine generated comps (always inaccurate) to guess values based on the inaccurate data it starts with. If you have nothing else, you might use it for rough guess numbers, but for anything more than that it’s just worthless. I’m considering legally forcing them to remove any properties I own from it so as not to possibly devalue them with incorrect information.
True Mike about Zillow.
I prefer this site but their data base isn’t as big. I’ve heard it’s reasonably accurate
http://www.realestateabc.com/home-values/searchresult
Rob, I was very interested in purchasing the book until I saw your comment. How can I email you?
To make things accurate…
Armando Montelongo’s BOOK as featured on the “Veronica for Vice President” episode has not even been released yet, so for those of you viewers who are looking for info on that book, you will NOT find it here.
What you WILL find is info on Armando’s SET OF 5 E-BOOKS (different than the published hard-copy book!) that he sells for $97.00, apparently as a lead-in to his Audio CD course that sells for $997.00.
I am not defending Armando in any way…I am just clarifying some things because some viewers have posted that they typed “montelongo book” into Google.com in an attempt to find more information on the BOOK that was featured in the recent Flip This House (San Antonio) episode.
“Veronica Montelongo for VP”
One more thought about the (cough)
‘couple’. The guy has a digital camera.
The gal has what looks like a ‘one time use, Kodak disposable camera’ (that uses film). Makes no sense. NO SALE! ; )
“Veronica Montelongo for VP”
OK, one more on the ‘couple’ ; ) There
was no couple ‘vibe’ there whatsoever. No interaction, nothing.
I watched the latest episode, “Veronica for Vice President,” and if there was any doubt that Armando is scum of the earth, this episode confirmed it. The bulldozing scene was completely acted out and stupid. The plugs for Snapple and Pella were all too obvious. The real estate chick looked like she just graduated high school and definitely didn’t carry herself in a way to be selling houses. I can’t believe this crap makes it to TV. What a complete joke.
Armondo does not treat his wife like trash as indicated in this thread. Armondo is an AlphaMAle and his wife appreciates that. In other words he is the boss. So men, learn from him and get women to respect you. WOmen want leadership wheather they admit it or not. Stop paying attentio to what wome say and pay attention to what women do. Which guys get the hottest girls. The manly ones.
Wow, just found this site and the info about the people featured on this show is great. I am a real estate agent in NJ and always knew that “flipping” is alot harder than they make it seem on this show. If you are looking to get into this business to try and make a profit, be very careful. I have seen alot of people lose their entire life savings trying to “flip” houses. By the way, you are rehabbing houses, not flipping them. Here are a couple of things you need to be aware of in this business.
1) If you find a property that you think you can make a profit on by fixing up, spend some money first and get a home inspection done. When you walk into a house that has visible problems, there are usually much more expensive problems with the house that you cannot see.
2) Being able to turn a profit depends on what price you can get the house for. Your best bet is to find foreclosures and find out how much the owners owe and offer them that much. Just make sure that you do your research on comps in the area that have sold recently to find out if it will make sense to pursue financially.
3) You need to have a substantial cash flow available to do this.
If you really want to get into this business, try building new houses.
you guys are crazy> Armando knows what he is doing. Get a life.
i belive that armondo is not a jerk or anything that you people explained. i belive he is a good man who is trying to make a living for his family. futher more i don’t think his book which is arould $100 or his cd’s which is arould $1000 isn’t trash.i do belive it is a little expencive but i dont belive that its trash like you all explained.also i got a sample of his book and even though its a sample i think he does give good examples and good ways on how to flip houses.
after posting i contuied to read and i noticed that mpost of you say that armondo says that he fliped 30 homes a month than you go on to say he is lying and that he would have to flip 1 house a day saying that it is crap well i wanted to say did you ever stop and think that armondo flips more than one house at a time just like richard davis , thats why they say come to the ____ house and gives a spisfic name. That makes it possible.
i know i made many mistakes during my second post i wasn’t paying attention i just wantedto get out what i had to say
Of course we considered that he might be working on multiple properties at once. He isn’t. The property records in his area show that he does not do anyhing remotely close to 30 houses per month. He’s been invited to post the proof of his claims and not responded.
It’s your choice if you want to believe his claims, but the evidence does not support them and it is clear to any knowledgable remodeler that he is inexperienced bordering on incompetent and looking to make a quick buck off any sucker he can.
Mike
I don’t believe that Armando has the staff to flip more than 1 house at a time (Richard Davis has like 40+). Not to mention that all of the people Armando works with on the show appear to be incompetent boobs, other than his brother who wised up and left. The only thing that Armando is consistently good at flipping is contractors. He’s pissed through about a dozen different contractors since the show started. All the good contractors I have met or worked with have plenty of work and would never put up with the type of crap Armando gives his. Lastly, I don’t think that Armando has the financial backing from investor to do more than 1 to 2 projects at a time.
Re: “Armando knows what he is doing.”
I’m sure he does, but does A&E?
“A&E Television Networks is not a party to any of the transactions shown in Flip This House, and we believed that the programs accurately depicted the featured properties and sales.”
Can they honestly say that with a straight face? It’s the laughing stock of “Reality TV” in it’s current form.
Armando Montelongo is a jerk! I would never do business with anyone who treat other people like that.
If they (A&E) want to keep up this farce
maybe they SHOULD script it, AND, get
some better ‘actors’
“Veronica Montelongo for VP”
Buried in the ‘credits’ at the end of the show was this…
“Promotional assistance provided by
Valspar Paint
Bosch Appliances
Pella Corporation
Snapple”
Promotional Assistance? LOL
Re: “Promotional assistance provided by
Valspar Paint
Bosch Appliances
Pella Corporation
Snapple”
Let’s see. At one point, Veronica says something like…”I was looking for the BEST windows and these are the best”
bwahahahahaha
Wow….I landed on this site looking to see if David split from his brother…not only did I find that to be the truth but loads of other info…I knew these guys were “chachi’s” but thanks to all of you…I wont be buying any of there crap… albeit I have to say that this (fth) in an extremely entertaining show…I hope people do homework as most of us on this site have done as to not be suckered by TV and take is as entertainment…ie…girls gone wild…and the Ron Popeil Instant hair in a can spray…last words…NICE THINGS ARE CHEAP AND CHEAP THINGS ARENT NICE
Armando Montelongo is a poor example of a realestate investor he treats his contractors like dirt and shows no respect to his family and friends. The show highlighs his faults not his qualities if he has any.
You are all a bunch of idiots. There will always be people who bash others who have had success.
FIRST OFF: Richard Davis is a stuck up asshole. I offered him leads and he was too much of a snob to take them.
As far as Armando goes, how many of you are hiding shit that will also come into the light if you were on TV?
And for the 200 houses per year, 30 houses per month thing, how do you know that wasn’t a mistake made by the webmaster.
You are all amateurs. Even those that claim to be flippers “doing it right”. You know nothing about flipping. This website is a joke.
The public records cannot be viewed as accurate. Have you ever purchased a home with a lease/option, subject 2, or a contract for deed? These sales are not public because no deed transfers hands until the principal is paid out. Learn before you post.
Re: “Have you ever purchased a home with a lease/option”
A lease/option isn’t a SALE as you
suggest. It’s a LEASE, and will remain a lease unless or until it becomes a sale.
Funny but I haven’t seen any Montelongo episodes where it says ‘Lease/Optioned
For’. Only ‘SOLD FOR’
Re: “And for the 200 houses per year, 30 houses per month thing, how do you know that wasn’t a mistake made by the webmaster.”
LOL Hilarious. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt ; )
Lease option is going to be stated on TV as a sale. Legally it is. The person leasing it takes over full responsibility. Amateur.
Re: “And for the 200 houses per year, 30 houses per month thing, how do you know that wasn’t a mistake made by the webmaster.”
Brandon – give us a break. Armando SAYS it right in the video on the website. He says it AGAIN in the first 5 pages of his e-book. You wanna chalk those up to webmaster errors also? You’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, buddy. Even YOU know your position is unsupportable, so give us all a break.
I smell a troll and an IP to block in the future…
i think bandon IS armando. it is not hard to put a different name on your postin
Im a 23yr loan conslutant studing to get my realestate license…Armando Montelongo is a joke take a look at the facts the only thing he can do is tell 20-30 lies a month I really doubt he can even sell a house in a month….THis fool at A&E really need to do a background check on who they give TV contracts with because its looks bad for their brand
“A lease with option arrangement is NOT a sale, but rather a landlord-tenant relationship. In rare cases, a court may re-characterize the transaction as a sale if it looks like a sale. Furthermore, the IRS does not classify a lease option as a sale until the option is exercised (see, Tax Court Memorandum 1999-11).
http://www.premiereteam.com/lease_option.htm
That will be $997 for today’s lesson, “Brandon”. Can I interest you in some CD’s as well? ; )
Brandon wrote:
Lease option is going to be stated on TV as a sale. Legally it is. The person leasing it takes over full responsibility. Amateur.
TOTALLY incorrect. A lease option is a lease contract, usually for one year, which grants the lessee the exclusive right to purchase the property during or at the end of the term of the lease, and usually crediting some portion of the rent toward the purchase. Entering into such a contract in any state in the union would not constitute a sale, only an exclusive right to purchase, which would not even be recorded. Any person who represented that they owned a property who was only the lessee in a lease option contract would be guilty of misrepresentation or title fraud. They are nothing more than a tenant with a contract giving them exclusive right to purchase the property which they have leased. Ask any RE lawyer.
Free advice Brandon: It’s better to sit with your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove any doubt.
I smell a troll.
Sounds like Brandon might be a little disgruntled that Richard Davis figured out he was clueless and wouldn’t do business with him. Might be time to take up a new career like javlin catcher.
I have worked on houses for quite a few years. I freely admit that there is far more that I don’t know than I do know. I recently bought a newly constructed home to live in. I quickly found that much of the homes construction was far below the standards I had been trained over the years to provide. Doorways are NOT plumb (or completely straight vertically in laymans terms). Most of the finishing work is what most true quality builders would call “hack work”.
I looked at a lot of homes, and saw many that could use a little improvement. I even contemplated taking a few of them on as projects. In the end I chose the one I did because it had none of the issues I found with the older homes.
My Grandfathers house, built in the 1940’s has a wall that is 3 inches out of square over 6 feet. Every home will have it’s flaws, I just look for ones with the fewest flaws.
I am still interested in the concept of “flipping”. However, having actual experience, I know that two week flip is totally unrealistic. I assume that if I did try “flipping”, my first house would take about 3 months. I figure that it will take this long because I refuse to lower my standards over a couple bucks here and there. Builders and contractors who spend the extra hour ot two on various things, and spend the extra two or three hundred dollars on various materials, always end up with a finished product that enyone can tell is high quality. Those who opt out of that additional time and expense always end up with something that is noticably CHEAP.
I am sure that if I try this out, and do the kind of workmanship I plan on, that I could succeed. My name is all I have. I refuse to be known for doing crappy work. If I do good work, realtors will point their clients to my houses because they will know that they’re selling a truly good home.
I’ll NEVER be a millionaire, that’s for sure. but I can make a very comfortable Hundred or so Thousand a year eventually.
Armando’s figures are simply not realistic given the visible size of his company. It would take approximately 15 – 10 man crews (150 people, not counting support staff) to process that quoted 30 houses a month. I have never seen him running around checking in on anywhere near that many workers. Given the visible size of his company, that figure is simply impossible!
I signed up to get the ebook, and looky what i got in the email today! He wants me to be his business partner! YAY!
——————————————–
Hi Scott
THE BOOK
The response for my new book “Flip and Grow Rich” is phenominal! It is sure to open your eyes of how you can create your own personal rags to wealth story as well as a “tell all” of how I went from $50,000 in debt and on welfare to making millions flipping houses .
The book is currently in print and will be available in late July to early August. I promise that you will be among the very first to know when it comes out.
If you haven’t already picked up a copy of my “Flip It Now” e-book, it is available NOW at http://www.armandomontelongo.com and it will teach you the strategies needed to do your first flip.
BECOME MY PARTNER
As I have been promising I have an
opportunity for you to become my partner.
I want to be very clear as I do not mislead
people. This is not a partnership in a real
estate deal, but a partnership in my internet business and a way for you to make income from home without putting a dime out of your pocket!
You will be receiving a video message from
me tomorrow laying out the details of our
partnership and how we can work together.
See you tomorrow!
Armando Montelongo, President
Scott:
Thanks for the heads up. I signed up for his five free pages and the irony is it was sent to my junk email folder :-).
You forgot to add the very last line of his email:
Armando Montelongo Worldwide, Inc.
Geez, another company. These guys have more corporations and LLCs than real estate holdings :-).
So this partnership he’s talking about…internet based, I sure hope it’s not Don Lapre and The Greatest vitamin in the World. 🙂
Re: “So this partnership he’s talking about…internet based”
My guess is the “partnership” will
consist of setting up a web site to link to and or/drive traffic to his web site
or some such. We’ll see
I purchased Armando Montelongo’s e-books off his website last week. I thought it was great reading and pointed out a lot of information some of the other articles and information on home flipping did not. I have not flipped a home as of yet but trying to collect as much information and educate myself the best I can. I found it good reading but you have to decide that for yourself, just like any other material you may or may not choose to read, it’s your choice.
I just found this website, I was browsing look for information on real estate investing (I guess you can say flipping houses) and for anybody out there that knows anything about the process of getting started, and could share some information with me on the financing part of it, and some different option for that I would appreciate it.
PS. Montelongo is a snake.
Did any body hear what david had to say bout him leave FTH?
As far at the Montelongo family goes, they are the only real people on Television. Everyone in America is too scared to even feel, think or act like a real person. So many Americans in this generation have gone beyond and overboard of being sensitive, politically correct and paranoid!!! It’s called superficial judgmental people; they can’t see beyond or in the future of any outcome but you all get in the way and speak your minds anyways, unwise!! We all might as well give birth to robots instead of humans, that way everyone can program their off-spring to think “one way”. There is no individuality in America and Americans are becoming prey to “being too scared” to even move out of line in being an individual. So many people are running around making like it’s the end of the world if someone isn’t saying the so called right thing and doing the so called correct thing, even doing something REAL, but of course it comes down to one thing….you can’t make everyone happy and don’t die trying but bottom line, the world believes it’s has become so intelligent, yeah right! Without knowledge there is no understanding and without understanding, there is no wisdom to construe criticism upon another, which it wasn’t intended for anyways. People today can see as far what the surface reveals about another person, what does your surface reveal more than what you would like the “inner you” to reveal that is more than what meets the eye? Isnt it beneficial to you, preventing others from mistreating you right? Or I bet allot of you wouldn’t want the inner you to reveal the real you, that is why so many stay on the surface and have knowledge as far as what the surface will say about another person. Wisdom does not judge, man’s intelligence judges others because of a superiority complex they believe they have gained through whatever. So many have no wisdom, understanding and knowledge of realism, it’s all about what the surface entails about a person but nothing beyond that which would make people understand where another person is coming from. The truth is far from what so many believe about the Montelongo family, the truth is that they represent bravery, courage and individuality of being real; Does anyone live according to what’s in their heart or is it what’s in their minds where one spews out garbage, the enemy’s play ground. Jesus gave all the greatest commandment, to love God and to love one another. The Montelongo family isn’t mean, superior or doing anything wrong, that’s not why they are where they are, trust me. The truth lays within God not within the world, I bet so many haven’t gone any further than what the world can teach you, the highest achievement is to seek God and see what entails in what it teaches you. How many can say they know about all of that? So to the many critics that think they know what they are speaking or thinking of others, don’t, your understanding is limited if you’ve gone as far as what the world has offered you in education, seek the highest wisdom called truth.
Mike, have you ever considered writing a weekly review of the FTH show on your website? I’ve noticed from some of your post, that you not only know a lot about flipping houses, but you also known about production values. (Your comments about product placements, etc.) I think it would be very interesting to read a review of the show from your point of view. I suspect your reviews would be more educational and entertaining then the show itself. 🙂
Dale: Lovely semrmon you wrote there. Too bad it didn’t contain a single fact. You wrote: “The Montelongo family isn’t mean, superior or doing anything wrong, that’s not why they are where they are, trust me. ”
The FACT is that they are doing LOTS of wrong things, READ the research posted in these threads. Armando is a PROVEN LIAR and is seeking to take money from unsuspecting people based on the lies he has told both on TV and in his website. Public records have proven his dishonesty in a major way. Even his own brother walked away from him. These are NOT good or honest people, and thast is a fact supported by evidence.
Contrary to your opinion, these people are dishonest and seeking to profit from their dishonesty. You’re right about one thing – they ae indeed real – they are REAL liars, REAL con artists, REas a__holes, and REAL grifters. Don’t confuse likable (to you anyway) TV personas with trustworthy businesspeople unless ou want to give away your money.
Mike Voss
Chris – I hadn’t considered that, but I think I’m already spending way too much time on FTH as it is! If they somehow stay on the air, I’ll certainly consider it. 🙂
Mike
I too signed up for his free preview of his e-books…. My husband and I, along with my brother, have a rehab/construction company. We started with rehabs and now build new homes. We love watching the flipping shows and have from the very beginning loved Richard. He seems to care about the people that work with him. From the first show of Montelongo, I did not like him. He is arrogant and mean. It is now an example of how to treat your employees. My husband and I have always wondered about the numbers they use on the shows. They just don’t add up.
I received the following email from Montelongo yesterday. Thought you all would find it funny.
Dear Deena
I know that you have a desire to make money and what
better place to make it than from the comfort of your own
home.
You will always here the term ‘residual or passive income’.
However, that usually entails lots of effort. I believe passive
income should be just that… passive.
Don’t worry, I’m still flipping lots of houses and love doing
it. I thought at the same time, what can I do to get you started
on your journey to making money. Since I see that you have
been interested in making money, and I understand it’s hard
to take that first leap of faith, I took it for you.
I have decided and it would be my pleasure to make you one
of my Joint Venture Partners!
Here’s what it’s all about:
You don’t have to:
Invest money
Invest time you don’t have
Take Risk
Know real estate
Know the internet
How do you make your money?
Do you know people who like our show or who like to
talk about it?
Do you have friends or family who would like to get into
real estate?
Do you know co-workers who talk about flipping real estate
around the water cooler?
All of these are opportunities for making money!
Since the demand for my Flip It Now E-Book is in such high
demand, I have set up a referral program for you to make
money also.
This is a ground floor – referral opportunity and a way for
you to make money from the comfort of your own home!
All you have to do is refer friends, family and co-workers
who would like to get into real estate to Your Personalized
Web Page.
Now don’t worry because I have already gone through
the expense of creating your web page for you.
That’s right, you don’t have to do a think and it won’t
cost you anything.
It’s a website in a box. Pre-packaged for you!
There is no set-up or techy stuff to worry about!
All you have to do is take the website I give you and
forward it to your friends, family and co-workers and
anyone interested in flipping real estate or in reality TV.
You can check into the “back office” of your website
(which I have also already created for you) to see the
money your generating in real time.
**I will send you a commission check every single month
as your sales stack up!**
How much are you making?
I will pay you 40% of every Flip It Now E-Book that is
purchased from the website that I have already created
for you!
All you have to do to earn the 40% is forward the website
to the people you know.
Start now and I will start sending you your commission
check once a month!
I am committed to your success and it will never be easier
than me already doing the hard work for you.
To sign up as one of my exclusive JV partners please visit
====> http://www.armandomontelongo.com/invitation.php
It will be a pleasure to work with you!
Armando Montelongo, President
Armando Montelongo Worldwide, Inc.
Like I said, the truth lies with God. Allot of what has been so called reported about the Montelongos, started out from people trying to get the “dirty” on Armando and family. Trust me, it started out from that, judgement. As far as liking TV personas, what? Why are people disliking TV personas, they dont even know the guy. If you go back and read the trails of comments, it contains more of a personal perspective about Armando than real facts about his so called scams or dishonest business transactions. And it reflects such a shallow perspective about others. I am not looking to backing up a guy on TV nor will I drag him in the mud if proven guilty, I am only trying to broaden the perspective that so many lack of. Have any of you tried flipping houses, let alone dealing with when it comes to dishonesty; dishonest contractors, plumbers and so forth. Where the Montelongos are located, there are allot of trustworthy reputable workers but there are many many individuals that would take him and his family for a ride. You all are not in his shoes in knowing what his actual business situations consists of day to day. Flipping houses is a venture; a risk with hopeful financial gain. This is not a real estate type of situation, this is a down and dirty type of situation. People today have no idea about roughing it and toughing it out to survive, life’s experiences broadens ones knowledge. I’ve been there and done all! Let me paint the bigger picture for others: I know the challenges Mr. Montelongo faced coming up in the business, he more than likely had snakes, liars and the worst of the worst screw him over in the beginning. Then you have dishonest, irresponsible, and down right mean scam artists that wouldnt care if they left you in the mud along with your family out in the cold type of contractors, plumbers, etc. Talk about greedy individuals, talk about mean downright cold a–ho–s that only care about the mighty dollar than getting the job done for the good for all to benefit, yeah right, no one cares about doing the job so that another profits, they want a bigger portion everytime. And then last but not least, flipping homes are at the bottom of the line in the real estate business, it’s not a ready to sell house nor is it a newly construction type of situation, this is a money taking risky hardcore business. Think about the people they are up against, now that’s where the REALLY dishonest, REALLY mean and REAL scam artists exist. I commend the Montelongos for surviving in the business, to the ones who speak without knowledge… you have no idea what they’re up against, you all would be cheering for a strong guy that’s surviving in the business like Armando, who doesnt look like anyone would pull the wool over his eyes. Mr. Montelongo represents a guy who’s been there and had more things that you can imagine done to him, he conducts himself in a proper manner and appears to have the knowledge of making sure he and his family arent taken down in a shark infested business, what a survivor!!!! So many are sitting back watching a show, the Montelongos are living the real life and the real challenges. He isnt acting like a jerk, he’s coming off in a way that he’s got the jerks that come up against people like him nipped in the butt. Trust me, if you all could of seen the people he probably dealt with before he got to do the show, you all would be cheering him on for being a man putting all of the REAL jerks to shame, at least there is one man who the sharks coudnt take under. How many survivors or house flippers do you know who are successful, go talk to one and see how hardcore this business is, especially about the jerks you have to deal with to get just one house completed, on a budget keep in mind, no one will help you no matter how nice or how mean you are, it’s all about confidence and knowledge that makes others do the job and do it right without screwing you over.
Dale – seriously, do yourself a favor and stop talking until you know what you are talking about. Everything you say is blind conjecture and opinion and it’s clear that you haven’t done any research nor even read the posts here and that you are not an experienced builder or remodeler to offer an informed opinion as such. You’re free to like the Montelongos for whatever reason you care to. But the TRUTH, which GOD knows, is that they do NOT flip 30 houses per month, that they did NOT flip 1000 houses in the last 5 years, that they LIED about having sold certain properties and performing certain work, and that they are considered INCOMPETENT at best by experts in the field, of which I happen to be one. Yes, there are plenty of shitty tradespeople in the business, and we all have to weed them out. After years of doing it, some of us form long lasting relationships withi good trades (not the Montelongos – watch Mike Holmes sometime), others learn all the trades themselves (I did this), and then others become proficient at brow beating and hassling the tradespeople for lower prices (The Montelongos) and have to keep finding new trades because nobody wants to work for them more than once – not even when getting free advertising on tv! That’s the reality of your hero Armando – he is universally disliked by people in his field in that area.
You need to learn to distinguish opinion from fact and not blur the line between the two – that’s exactly what the FTH casts are in trouble, some of them with the law, for doing.
The Montelongos and the others can build crap houses and lie about it all day long for all I care, but when they start charging people money for knowledge they don’t have or deals that don’t exist, decent people will speak up and stand in their way to put a stop to it, and THAT is what you see going on here, whether you understand it or not.
Mike Voss
I purchased the $97 package as a process of my educating myself re: flipping. While it is clear that Armondo thinks alot of himself, he has compiled useful “bones” of information to direct you to other sources — which I have found provide same but more detailed (and free) information. One thing I did find is a FREE 5-day video seminar — excellent source of “real” information. Here is the link:
http://www.rehablist.com/Investment_Course-108.aspx#frm
Dale wrote: “The Montelongo family isn’t mean, superior or doing anything wrong,”
if they aren’t doing anything wrong, then why did someone from their family post on here three times in about as many minutes with three different user names from the same computer about how great the “e-book” was?
riddle us that Dale?
why is the “family” saying they are flipping 20 to 30 houses in one month? when anybody can figure out that they are barely doing 1 every once in awhile?
tell us Dale, since you are so “close” to the family, why they would lie about doing 30 a month?
better yet, tell us why anyone in their right mind who was making so much money from a venture, publish a book that would produce a whole bunch of competition for their own business?
only someone stupid or a scammer goes to a bar after discovering a gold mine, and telling everyone in the bar that they found gold, and where that gold is…
explain to us Dale whether the “family” is stupid? or scammers??? because there is no in-between on that one…
Mike,
“I rolled in to town on my last tank of gas”. LOL
Oh well, what can you do. Like
‘PT Barnum’ said…
“There’s a sucker born every minute.”
And, I’d be curious to know how an able bodied man could be on “Welfare”. More BS
“Veronica for VP”
Too Funny. I DVR’d this and remembered at one point they showed Armondo showing a plat map to Veronica.
Sure enough. It’s ‘8467 Bindseil Lane’
Boyson nailed it! ; )
“Veronica for VP”
Further to that. This was on the show as they were talking about this while looking at the plat map…
Veronica: “What’s the address?, hehe”
Armondo: “It doesn’t matter what the address is…”
Busted
Mr. Mike Voss:
By the way, you may address me as Ma’am, whether you care or not, but I’m sure you were raised with a respect for women, I’m sure you would care. My husband, father in law, two brothers and nephews have been buying old homes, restoring it and selling them to buyers for the last thirty years. I’ve witnessed first hand the hardships that flipping houses created but even more, the prosperity. I am well aware of the fact that the many people who are sending in very useful information about the Montelongos packages, whether the packages or e-book works or not is much needed information from others, saving innocent victims but it seems as if it’s a one sided deal here, some may post against the Montelongos and some may post “for” them. I am for. I did read the E-book which Armando offers and being a supporter and actual participant in flipping homes, some it was useful for the first timer. But all in all, I read allot more of the rude comments made against Armando in a personal way and I wanted to balance it out, it seems as if you want it to be a one sided deal to be against him. We are free to post against or for right? He is not our hero at all, if anything I think you need to stop talking or instigating useless responses because maybe we’ve been where he was in the beginning and we all make mistakes, what helped us to stay on track was helpful advice, not weeding out or a witch riot type of action, help the guy out and make him see the light, I wouldnt even go towards this lighted forum of discussional posts, so try using tact instead of hate, maybe that will help him get on the rigth path. Last visit to this site, thank you and God bless you.
Why would anybody wouldd buy a house nore a book or course from this fool…you need to have your head check if you think the montelongos are real realestate investment pros
It’s just a TV show, meant to entertain! Most of us can see past the staged parts.
Just signed up for the armondo 5 page sample.. Here is the link to look at iot your self.
Hi Spam_ me,
Congratulations on accessing my ‘Flip and Grow Rich’ system!
I made a promise to my wife on our trip across America. I
told her that if I became successful, that I would share it
with the world. Now that I have made my fortune by flipping
houses, I am unlocking the vault to my business and sharing
my flipping strategies and techniques with you!
You can download my ebook as promised by going to
=====> http://www.armandomontelongo.com/book/ebook5.pdf
You may be asking what is the difference between my new book
Flip and Grow Rich and my E-Book Flip It Now!
The Flip and Grow Rich book is the story of our journey across
America and shows the rags to wealth transformation. It is
currently written and in production.
The Flip It Now E-Book will show you how to flip your first
house. It will show you how to find your first house, where
to get the money for your first house (even if you don’t have
money or credit), show you how to fix it and then sell it
for profit! You will get this on an immediate download.
Driven to Help You Succeed,
Armando Montelongo, Pres.Corp
http://armandomontelongo.com
hDale:
Fair enough, Ma’am – you are entitled to your opinion and I will respect it whether I agree with it or not. THe only things I’d take exception with are that 1) I do not believe anyone here would classify any of my posts as ‘hateful’ or ‘useless’ and 2) I hold Montelongo accountable for intentional misrepresentations, not unintentional mistakes. There’s a *big* difference between the 2.
God bless you as well and so long.
M. Voss
Just wanted to put my2cents in I just read all these posts and I too was looking for (the book) and of course I absolutely have to buy it now just so I can make up my own mind.this site is great but who knows who anybody is here and what their agenda is (if any).I gotta agree with Jan,this is TV folks, nothing else. here for entertainment. and by the response given here it is doing what its intended to do ENTERTAIN! what you or I get out of these shows is our own business.why do you continue to watch these shows ?is it to look for more dirt? or maybe just maybe you secretly like the show and think you could possibly get A little something out of it.Personally I cant get enough education Ive gotten a few things from these shows that is truely helpful.use your own mind make your own assumptions
I think A&E has a problem checking facts on the shows it airs. Remember “Family Plots,” the show about a funeral home in California? It lasted two season and never came back after the owner of the funeral home was exposwed as not having a license and other legal problems. Do a search on the internet for Family Plots, or Poway Bernardo Mortuary, etc., and I think you’ll see what I mean. Shame on you A&E. Your track record stinks.
To Dale:
…. blah…blah….Pardon me, Ma’am!
Help whom????
I hope YOUR husband does not treat you as well as this idiot Armando treats his already trash looking wife!
And with all respect to all YOUR experience in flipping houses, please, get some experience in internet research and find out that this Montescrewlongo never did anything successful as much as he babbles about. Yes, it is a TV show, but after being fed up with the lowest class trash behavior of Armando Montetrashlongo we do not watch it anymore – there are better shows about flips, even being just shows…. I think only a complete idiot would buy anything from Montelongo, believe in his trash stories, and moreover feel pitty for or help such a trash sitting on the neck of taxpayers!!! How much did he pay back for his welfair??? Oh, pardon me, he might just sell books first! Such a “writer”…
Does anyone have a link they would like to share where Armando’s stuff has been put online (bittorrent?)?? 🙂 I am curious to read a bit more, but wouldn’t consider sending him real money unless I see that the system is real. 😉
Tim,
What does it matter if you “know anyone here”? Facts are facts, and speak for themselves. It’s all here, phony buys, phony sells, and on and on…
It’s DOCUMENTED. Check the facts!
I bought the 97$ package after getting the 5 free pages, and I could not be happier… I wish it had a bit more meat in it, but… to me, its very worth it, not sure what some for the other folks are talking about, but its about 100 pages over 5 chapters, its simple, easy to understand, and if you pull even a single tip out of it, and do a single flip….. you should WAY more than make you 97$ back … its worth it if you ask me, and I think I will go for the Master Kit when I flip my first house.
Andrew,
Why is it then, Armondo can’t seem to pull a “single flip” in todays market?
Those that can, do. Those that can’t, talk about it (and SELL it to you). Garbage in, garbage out.
Wouldn’t you be better off following someone that was, you know, successful at actually DOING what you are paying for?
I just love these shill posts – anyone else notice they’re all the same: “I bought the $97 e-book and it’s great! I’ll probably buy the master course next”
Gimme a break Armando or Veronica or whoever you are having post this crap for you – you aren’t fooling anyone.
Let’s pretend for just a minute tht these posts were real: I challenge the posters to tell us exactly what was in the book that they found useful. I’ll wager it could have been learned in seconds for free in any number of places.
If anyone is really foolish enough to spend money on Montelongo scams, you should at least have enough sense to spend an hour at the library or doing online research first – it’s free and anyone here with depth of experience will tell you there’s far more available.
What you WON’T get, however, is some of the illegal stuff Armando talks about like how to defeat loan seasoning to commit mortgage fraud. Ask yourself why in the HELL anyone not doing something wrong would know this. I’ll be happy to post the email he sent out discussing it if anyone wants to see it.
Save your money people, there is better info available for free. And my offer still stands to review Armando’s materials – all he has to do is send me free copies – I’ll return them when I’m done. He won’t – and we all know why.
I just finished reading 230 postings. It has been an interesting journey to say the least. Mike Voss, man, you are the truth. You’ve become a real celebrity with your sound advice, professional manner and industry knowledge. I will always favor those who have the courage to scream, “Buyer Beware!!!!!” I, too, want AM to come clean and speak truthfully, if only for a minute, about a real-life flip and overselling his short trip to success as he defines it. I guess he only appears to be a harsh and heartless businessman on TV. Although he pales in comparison to other Texas knuckleheads like Kenneth Lay (RIP). Hey AM, if you grow balls, you MUST wear them! Maybe AM is Trump without the seven-figure inheritence. The RE biz is not for suckers and WILL FEED YOU AND EAT YOU. Period.
The sad fact is that there will always be a cluster or contingent in our society that never see things for what they really are and will continually buy into falsehoods. Oh well. As such, there will ALWAYS be beachfront property for sale in Colorado.
To all: Life Liberty and Happiness!
-marc thomas
Armando is a proven fraud. Nothing more than a telemarketer. But if you want his book on flipping, why risk the money? There are dozens of books on the subject to choose from. Why would anyone choose the most controversial guy with a questionable track record? Because he treats his wife and workers like crap? Real manly!
Does he have a connection with Trump, or are people just comparing them? What a pair of lying crooks. And not a drop of class between them!
Love them or hate them, these guys are jerks. The women are treated like crap and as comic relief. And those poor kids! (is A+E mining their current shows for future shows about all the confused children? Take the kids of ‘Dog’, Gene, Armando and such, put them up, realword style, add some Interventionists and a confessional Matchmaker… HEY – I WANT A PERCENTAGE! (haha) )
Their ethics… we can guess, but we really don’t know more than what we are shown. They show fast negotiations that have already been agreed to. A contractor agrees to half their price. Are they desperate? Dumb? Just learning the business? Has the amount of work been changed? We don’t know the real price of the bid or the final price – just what this ‘reality’ show reveals to us.
The last show I watched had Armando telling a publisher he sold 25-30 houses a MONTH! (I was so shocked I went back and replayed it – twice. He fudged it by saying he ‘could’, not ‘does’ ) 30 houses at a conservative $10k profit is $300,000 a month. Just guessing, but I doubt he does a tenth of that. Maybe he means BOOKS a month? (and didn’t he also say he wrote it in 3 weeks? Does he also walk on water?)
The HUGE office building they purchased, which was way too big for them, now seems to be something they are refurbishing for investors. I’ve not seen many shows, but saw this building just once.
Veronica for VP? – ??? Was that in reference to the brother leaving? An olive branch to his mistreated wife? I guess she likes to think ‘green’ to his ‘greed’. It was an odd house. The windows were an obvious ad, and were too expensive for the house. Not that they paid for them.
My final observation – I hate ‘reality’ shows. They are really just post scripted shows, adding phony drama and conflicts to the mix. That said, I (we) loved ‘queer eye’. I’m a straight, married guy who could do with a whole lot less male smooching on TV (I’m fine with it being part of life, but it is so flavor-of-the-month overboard these days, on every show…). But these guys didn’t have an agenda, other than marketing themselves. They came in, made some minor changes in someone’s life, and the (mostly guy) recipients were so obviously moved at the end that THEY were the ones initiating the farewell hugs. The product plugs were all from small places obscure to anyone outside of NY and in the end we all sat in with the guys to watch the results. Which leads me to a least favorite show – Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Everything is a plug for a national corporation, every heartstring is shamefully plucked, everything is amped up beyond reason… UGH! And the Makeover guys make the QE guys look butch in comparison. I’d rather watch an hour about the people volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. But that would really be beyond reason!
(this rant is brought to you by sears, home depot, walmart and all the other congloms selling our future to China)
to steve in texas;
If you read my post I didnt mention anything about the”facts”.Personally I could give 2 shits about whether the flip it people are crooks or not it doesnt effect my life in the least i havent bought a house from them nor have i sold one to them..All I was saying steve is that if your going to watch something on tv expect it to be just that…TV .do you believe captain kirk and his crew visited all those other galaxys? no ,neither do I. why? because its TV.So its been proven that their dirty….now what?
Maybe there is alot of bull on these shows but look at the positive for once ,did you pick up anything you could use in real life? maybe when armondo told his son to save 10% of his earnings for investment later or maybe when he said to the viewers to live in a property for 2 or 4 years to aviod capital gains and to invest into a more expensive home the next time ,do this again and again.
Dont get me wrong Im not condoning what they do I just try to see the best for me..so steve ole boy you just keep checking the facts about something you obviously know already.and keep beating that dead horse and ill continue to watch and learn all i can …my own way
Every now and then…
Tim then (223):
“Just wanted to put my2cents in I just read all these posts and I too was looking for (the book) and of course I absolutely have to buy it now”
Tim now (234):
“If you read my post I didnt mention anything about the”facts”.Personally I could give 2 shits about whether the flip it people are crooks or not”
So, Tim. It sounds like you’re going to take a pass on the book.
And, you’re welcome ; )
i thought it was coolio man!!
I LOVE YOU!!! YOU GUYS EFFIN ROCK MAN!!
did you know the people on trinity st. were kicked out , honestly i knew them , they were told to get out , to think mexicans screwing mexicans …. sorry mexicans giving back to the community
Believe it or not, I was listening to Armando via the learning annex last night. It was free teleseminar so I thought why not. It was decent and I did learn something, He is an excellent salesman. Nothing more. When it came to pitch his course, he stated that his course sells normally for $2100 and he was selling it as a discount for $997 and for a limited time, for the first 15 people, he was offering a dvd where they would walk through the whole process, step by step. As I usually do, I always check stuff out before buying especially at those prices and I see on his site he was selling the whole program for $997.
He is a good salesman, and in this day and age, that is all you need to be.
I don’t see how he can be sued because if the users who purchased his products would actually read the indemnity clause it states the following: “You agree to indemnify and hold Armando Montelongo Worldwide, Inc., and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, co-branders or other partners, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Content you submit, post, transmit or make available through the Service, your use of the Service, your connection to the Service, your violation of the TOS, or your violation of any rights of another”.
I’m a fan of flip this house and I don’t see what he is dong is wrong.
The only thing I see wrong is that to flip over 1000 homes in 5 years, that would be 200 homes a month or 6.66 homes a day. Will I buy his course? Not sure, maybe just the ebooks but then I’m sure I can find a place to get them for free someplace.
Jeff – You don’t see what he is doing wrong? Are you kidding me? There are pages and pages of documentation of his frauds, your own post even quotes the fact that he does NOT flip 30 houses/month and he did NOT flip 1000 houses in the past 5 years (both pillars of his sales pitch) and any reputable/competent developer will attest to the fact that he has no knowledge nor skills to offer. but you don’t see what he is doing wrong?
Let me spell it out for you: he is a proven, documented LIAR trying to take money for a course based on things he never did and skills he doesn’t have.
That’s fraud.
THAT is what he is doing that is wrong.
Clearer than that I cannot make it.
Mike Voss
Has anyone here ever bought a property from the Montelongos?
It is only a sales pitch, nothing more. In the 5 years as he says, if he is close to flipping 1000 homes,I believe he can say that without being misleading. Sure it’s better to say “Close to 1000”. I’m not sure if you can sue somebody for their sales pitch.
The way he does business may be very shady and crooked. The only reason I say may be (until I look up additional information)is because we don’t know what sort of contract he has with the contractors he hires. Every business man wants to pay the least amount of money for anything. So to convince the contractors to do something cheaper than what they would normally do, that is part of business. That is why he doesn’t hire employees. It’s cheaper to hire a contractor and get the lowest bid that to have employees and have to pay medical, dental, etc.
There could be a clause in the contract where the contractors don’t get paid until the house is sold or something of that nature. I would like to see one of their contracts.
If the contractors are working without a contract which stipulate terms of payment, then technically he doesn’t have to pay them. Is it wrong? Sure it is, but with out a contract there is no agreement…unless it is less than $500.00 then it only needs to be verbal.
They just don’t pay at the end of the project, the contractors must send out an invoice then they have a certain amount of time to pay,again unless the contract says that they have to pay at the end of the completed project. If they don’t pay, then the contractors have to do follow up calls, send out late notices etc. so that by the time it is all over, they won’t get any money for months if at all. Their only option would be to take them to court which from the the above threads is already in the works.
Now, would I do business with him? Not with a tarnished reputation such as his and definatly not with out a contract.
Now for their website, They are selling the same stuff as the other infomercials that you see on tv. Is it any good? Probly, probly not. The problem with the information he is selling which IS false is that he is toting it as a dvd course when in actuality it is an audio cd course.
I just checked his website again and he has changed his website to say cd vs dvd course. Now people will still buy from him and of course he will still recup any lost money from the lawsuit (since he will most likely settle out of court) since people won’t know that he is being sued.
Unfortunatly, as long has he is withing the law, regardless of how crappy or shady he is, there isn’t much the law can do.
One more thing, is he saying that he flipped 1000 homes in 5 years or is that part of a script that A&E is having him read to make him and the show more credible. If it is part of the script then A&E can be held just as liable.
yea and they screwed them like the episode done here in san antonio the one with the whole block ever wondered what happened to them well they kicked them out period and try renting from them they will rob you blind i know cuz i knew who rented from them and i knew the people who lived in thoses houses before they so called flipped them even flipped the house are in bad ways
oh, I just received an email from Armando that for the next 12 hours, he is going to reduce the price of the book to $48.00
So for those who are interested and want a copy, paypal me $1.00 and I’ll send you a copy. paypal address is [REMOVED BY WEBMASTER]
Mike Voss, your an idiot, If you don’t like the Montelongo show, why do you even watch it you dumb ass, and you still waste your time posting stupid ass messages on this site. Your still stuck on the 30 homes a month issue, no one is forcing you to believe it idiot, you either believe it or not.
Get a real job you clown!!!!!!!
You must not be doing to well in the remodel bussiness if your wasting all your time posting dumb messages on this site.
get off wellfare fool and make some real money and quit wasting peoples time with your dumb stupid ass messages.
Robert P.
Hey, where did my replies go? Since this is moderated, it appears that this site is one sided. I posted two other replies to this after 6pm and now they have been removed.
ok, now they who up. Sorry
david has several failed Businesses that when out of business , bbb.com says that most complaints went unfixed at each business , david also rates unsatisfactory by the bbb, and Montelongo Developments LLC is not listed
scott David has a lawsuit pending against “breach of contract” on 6/15/07 can you tell me more please
I find it interesting the variety of opinions that people have about the lies that are clear and not very difficult to understand. I have a real estate company, a home flipping company and also a home building company. I have flipped approximately 200 properties (mostly vacant land) in the past 6 years and when i heard that Armando flipped over 1,000 homes in 5 years i could not wait to get a copy of his book, thinking i could increase my production, but as usual “if it sounds too good to be true it is”. It is a shame that the people that seem to protect him are the ones that have no experience and are looking for that gleam of hope. With all the free information on the internet, if you can’t figure out how to flip a home from the net a book will not offer you any more ACTION, and action is the key. you can all talk about investing in homes and some dream and some even do, but until you take the action required to buy your first home it is all a dream. The book, the e-books may contain something that may help you buy your first home but you will have better luck driving around looking for homes with old roofs that need replacing, tall grass or any other signs of distress and making them an offer. if you just do what i said above you will probably own your first flip before his book is even available. those that stick up for him are the same people that buy self help information, read, listen or watch it and then think of what they can do next and never do it. someone commented about some galaxy show on t.v. referring it to what armondo is doing. sorry, you are not even close, if you want to get technical, it would be more like captain kirk selling a part of the galaxy and then offering a book & cd teaching you how to purchase your own galaxy and sell it for a profit. big difference from a show that is portrade as fiction and nothing but figurines being sold from it to a show that causes one to believe it is reality and then packaging it up and selling ideas that they themselves could not get to work. Good luck to those that are really trying and to those that believe these books and cd’s will get you going, i wish you even more luck because like someone said earlier “this is a business that will eat you up and spit you out” and if you are that naive you really won’t last that long in it.
Relax Rob P. Mike Voss has been the most informative person on this thread. We’re having an educated conversation exposing this so-called expert with his paper thin credentials. No more name calling, my friend. It’s not that kind of party. Montelongo is that dude on the corner that just sold all of us a big of sticks and stems; The dude that charged me premium and filled my tank with water; The dude that gave me a neck bone when I asked for a 48oz Porterhouse; The dude that put a donkey in the Kentucky Derby. The dude that will ‘glady pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.’ No one ever takes accountability anymore! We’re ALL sick of it and this site is letting people know that we’re completely fed up with TV execs mistaking the viewing public as (to use your word, Rob P) idiots. When I see reality TV. I expect, at the very least, some truth. This dude Montelongo is straight out lying. And A&E is in bed with him. A cowardly way out is to simply turn the channel. I completely understand Mr. Voss’ point of view considering the passion he has for his business and how it is being grossly misrepresented…..on national TV for all of us to see. Chamberlain claimed to have slept with 10,000 women and he got blasted by people like us, too. Like the 1000 homes, it JUST DIDN’T HAPPEN. Rob P, I know you have respect for the truth. This site represents just that. No one here is an idiot.
Furthermore, ‘Your’ is You’re…as in you are. I wouldn’t get too comfortable about calling anyone an idiot, Robert Pee.
marcthomas
Rob P,
You probably need to learn the difference between “your” and “you’re” before you call someone a ‘dumb ass’.
Just a thought ; )
Rob P:
“Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.” – Confuscious
Funny that you call me an idiot, yet you demonstrate an inability to form proper sentences or use correct forms of simple words like your and you’re.
As for getting a “real job” and your further accusations of my not doing well in this business, I’d suggest you check out http://www.4125allott.com, which is a property for sale on which my profit will be over $600,000. Sorry but, unlike the Montelongos, I’ve never been on welfare. You really should get a clue. Unlike Armando, I can refute your accusations against me because they have no merit.
So, sorry to disappoint you Rob, but I’m doing just fine and I think it’s fairly obvious which one of us actually *is* an idiot.
Mike Voss
Dear ‘Nick in Albuquerque’,
I flagged you craigslist posting as ‘spam’. If anyone else want to also here’s the link.
http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/rts/358755630.html
Couple of people trying to sell this garbage on eBay too…
“This listing (200122679500) has been removed or is no longer available. Please make sure you entered the right item number.
If the listing was removed by eBay, consider it canceled. Note: Listings that have ended more than 90 days ago will no longer appear on eBay.”
Whoops!
Mike, I looked at your site, very nice home. Congrads!! Your just proof that there is money to be made in any market.
I think the main gripe with Armando is that he is stating he is an expert in flipping homes then turns around and sells information on how he has done this on A&E. He quotes that in 5 years time he has flipped 1000’s of homes which with all the paper work etc, is nearly impossible. His company would have to close out 7 homes a day everyday for those 5 years and that is impossible. If you look at my first post on here, I stated that I listened to him on a free teleseminar hosted by the Learning Annex. I do remember him stating that when he first started flipping homes, that he was approached by an attorney to be an expert witness in a trial. If I understand this correctly, the attorney would call him forward and ask the court to have him credited as an expert witness. He stated that he was an expert witness in a couple other cases. If this is true, Does that make him an expert in the field? Unfortunalty yes it does. Here is the defination of an expert witness:
An expert witness is a witness, who by virtue of education, profession, publication or experience, is believed to have special knowledge of his or her subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially (and legally) rely upon his opinion.
By the above definition, regardless of how homes he has flipped or how incompetent he is, he could be considered an expert. I feel your pain. He is stating he flipped 1000’s of homes in 5 years when it is more like 100’s and using his experience to sell a product, which no one here has yet purchased and tested to see if it lives up to the claims. Again the unfortunate thing is that people who purchase the products from him basically give up any rights do to agreeing to the terms and agreements noted in a previous posting of mine.
He is using the A&E show to promote a product. The bad thing is that when he was first selling the product he was stating DVD instead of CD. That is what got him into trouble. Since he has changed it to CD on his website, he is legit. Can you find the information that he is selling for free on the internet? Sure you can. He just created a product from that information along with his 5 years experience (regardless of how good or bad it is) and is using the show to help him promote it since that is what he is famous for. There is nothing wrong with that. He probly won’t sell a whole lot since this website is 2nd on a search with his name.
I’m not defending his business pratices. With the lawsuits, we know they are not very good. However since I don’t know if his product is any or not, I’ll be the guinea pig. Since I got a deal ($47) for just the ebooks, I went ahead and purchased them. I’ll review them and see if I can flip a house or two. I have bookmarked this site and I will keep you all posted. If anything, I’m out $47 vs the $97 or $997. If it works then I’ll put more money in my pocket and the $47 will be well worth it.
Re: “I do remember him stating that when he first started flipping homes, that he was approached by an attorney to be an expert witness in a trial.”
There you go, “him stating” and you bought it. Best of luck
It’s called Fraud. See if what Armando does fits the legal description.
Definition of Fraud
Under the “common law” of all states, there is a body of definitions, including the definition of fraud, that have been developed and refined by judges and lawyers over the years. As more cases about fraud have been adjudicated, the definition of what constitutes fraud has become more precise. Fraud has a specific legal meaning. The following essential elements must be present before an actual finding of fraud will occur:
Misrepresentation of a material fact consisting of a false representation, concealment or non-disclosure;
Knowledge of the falsity (scienter);
Intent to deceive and induce reliance;
Justifiable and actual reliance on the misrepresentation; and
Resulting damages.
Just got this in my email. I knew he wasn’t smart enough to think of this himself:
Hi Scott,
This is a very important message about
***********THE MONEY YOUR NOT MAKING!***********
For those of you who have not taken me up on
my offer to become one of my JV Partners..
I want to give you a little background on the opportunity that awaits you. It WILL change the financial future of all those who take part!
Six months ago, a very persistent man by the name of Joel Therien continually contacted me via email. At first I thought he was a crazed fan, but I soon found out he had a business strategy that I needed
to model.
After several emails and phone calls he flew down from Canada to meet with me to tell me about the************MONEY I WASN’T MAKING!***************
That caught my attention…
If there is one thing that I am particularly good at is getting ahead of the curb of making money. However, Joel’s strategy was so new that I had not even heard of it.
He told me two things that I will never forget:
1) There have been internet marketers who have made upwards of $1 million in a single day.
2) They share the majority of this wealth with other internet marketers who share in the launch of their information based products.
Now, at first I was a bit of skeptic so I decided to “test” Joel’s business idea on my own web based business.
I previously had my internet business for almost a year and never made a dime. You already know I make A LOT of money flipping houses!
After implementing his strategies…
I WAS ABSOLUTELY STUNNED WITH THE RESULTS..
My skepticism turned into one of the biggest and best decisions I HAVE EVER MADE! All I took was a leap of faith and listened to someone I hardly knew!
Now Scott, I want to humbly ask, will you take that leap of faith with me?
Here is where you share in the wealth with me. We are launching my e-book Flip It Now where I will be paying out 50% commissions To YOU!
We expect to pay out nearly *$250,000* in commissions in the first 24 hours! We have set the Launch date for July 3, 2007 at 9:00 am EST and have named our launch
“Financial Independence Day”.
Mark your calendar, because I will say it again,
Tuesday July 3rd, at 9am.. with your help we will launch my e-book to the world!
So how can you take part? Just visit
======> http://armandomontelongo.com/opportunity.php
To become one of my VERY valued partners for our launch on Tuesday July 3rd 2007!
–Armando Montelongo
President
Armando Montelongo Worldwide INC
PS – If you have a lot of questions, please do not worry, I will be conducting a webinar next Sunday before our launch, the exact where and when I will send to you tomorrow
But remember, we don’t officially launch until Tuesday July 3 2007 at 9am so please hold back your promotions until then:D
I’m wondering…Is Armando a fraud or isn’t he? I have tried to look at property records in San Antonio and could not find “Armando Montelongo” or “Montelongo House Buyers” on anything. Does anyone have any DIRECT or CONCRETE proof of the homes he owns or has sold. I have e-mailed Mike Voss and he has not e-mailed me back.
Is it possible that Armando uses an agent to sell his properties and that’s why they’re not listed on his web-site. I did find it strange that he never has any property listed.
I wanted to believe him, but I had some questions of my own as well. Such as:
Why would you sell a package instead of directing your efforts into your REAL ESTATE business if you’re flipping 30-50 homes per month? Think about it…if you make $20,000 average profit per flip and you’re flipping 30-50 homes per month, that equals about $600,000.00 to $1,000,000.00 per month in profits. Why would you bother selling a “package” for $97.00 AND when would you ever find the time to put efforts INTO that?
How do these guys get the permits SO FAST?
If he has made about $20,000,000.00 flipping, how come his office was SO small and why were there not more people working there? AND why was his marketing budget ZERO for the launch of their web-site?
SOMEONE PLEASE PROVIDE ANSWERS!!
Thanks in advance!!
-Christopher
Geez I’m absent for a week and I get to read all this :-)…
flipthislawsuit.com is an excellent web site and I will continue to post comments.
Yet, I would like to expand more on my comments and post documents I have made reference to online. I also, would like to have a forum or area in which people can get together and share their experiences, tips, advice, and scrutinize other deals aired on TV.
Therefore, I registered the domain FlipThisForReal.com and plan to have it online near the end of July.
I POSTED a message here last night, now it’s GONE!!!
I want to know WHY?
This is a BULLSHIT site, if you don’t agree with the masses, you’re out of here. All I had were some Armando questions….I WASN’T DEFENDING the guy!!
Now it’s back….hmmmmm….
Mike Voss…Why won’t you e-mail me back?
Scott,
RE: “After several emails and phone calls he flew down from Canada to meet with me to tell me about the************MONEY I WASN’T MAKING!***************
That caught my attention…”
Canada, eh? Check this out…
http://cgi.ebay.com/ARMANDO-MONTELONGO-REAL-ESTATE-MASTER-HOME-STUDY-COURSE_W0QQitemZ110143764221QQihZ001QQcategoryZ102328QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Chris – sorry I didn’t get your email – probably sitting in one of the spam folders as we have very heavy filtering here. Feel free to ask me anything here and I’ll reply. -Mike
Chris – as for records, there are virtually NO records of houses turned by either Armando, David, or either of their wives, any LLCs bearing their names, or any known businesses they are part of. Most or all of the houses identified on the show have not turned out to be theirs nor sold by them from what I have heard and the numbers reported on the show did not prove true, but I did not do this research directly. (however I verified some of it)
Contrast this with, for example, Richard Davis. You can find plenty of records on properties owned by him or Trademark, and in an email to me he even offered to show his title transfers and tax records – even though he’s not been questioned. (I had stated in an email to him that, altough I believed Tademark is legit, I didn’t KNOW that, and that was his response.)
It’s pretty near impossible to hide property transfers. I invite everyone to email Armando directly and ask him for the records or how to get them. I predict you’ll get dead silence as a reply. I also encourage you to write the FTC and ask them to investigate his claims until he proves them. On other shows, like flip THAT house, you can find and verify every flip record. Indeed, I personally know 2 people who did that show (Susan and Kelly – both live near me) and have seen the properties/numbers myself. It should be simple to verify any house actually flipped on TV as well as historical transactions, yet we cannot find any of Armando’s claimed 1000 flips. Where are they? Anyone, anyone?
Mike
Christopher:
Are you searching the correct database?
Try Bexar County Clerks website:
http://www.countyclerk.bexar.landata.com/
You will need to create an account. Takes about 24-48 hours to get one. As for searching try:
Armando Montelongo Jr.
David Montelongo
Veronica Montelongo
You can also search for the legal description (not the address) of the property. If you know the address but not the legal description, you can cross reference it via the Tax Assessor Collector database.
Hope this helps.
Jeff:
You said…”I’ll review them and see if I can flip a house or two. I have bookmarked this site and I will keep you all posted. If anything, I’m out $47 vs the $97 or $997. If it works then I’ll put more money in my pocket and the $47 will be well worth it.”
Trust me, you only made a down payment.
Not only does he have 47 dollars of your money, he has your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number. Ohhh and your credit card number :-).
If you read the fine print, you enter into a agreement with this guy. Meaning, he has the right and without penalty, call you and try to sell you more stuff. AND it would not surprise me if this guy will sell/lease your info to other telemarketers.
Did you also notice the lack of a privacy policy on his web site?
Check out his testimonial page, Bob Ward is Montelongo investor. He backed them on the 5 houses on Trinity, the office located on Vantage Dr., and other properties.
Can we say conflict of interest?
It’s equivalent to using a relative for a job/credit reference.
Mike:
Armando or David signed as trustees in most of their flip deals. In March-April of this year, several of their holding were transfered from trusts to LLCs.
Someone should set up a page with every subject property from every episode. Then we could post all the info/misinfo discovered in a central place for everyone to see. The Leccima section will sur ebe easy. 🙂 Then people who want to know the truth could look up every property/episode.
Boyson – maybe on your new site?
Mike Voss
Boyson,
Re: “Check out his testimonial page, Bob Ward is Montelongo investor. He backed them on the 5 houses on Trinity, the office located on Vantage Dr., and other properties.”
LOL That ‘testimonial’ garbage is one of the oldest tricks in the book. They use friends, relatives, actors, whatever. To say what the ‘SELLER’ can’t say or lay claim to.
u say bob ward backed montelongo on the trinity houses and on the vantage dr business but then why is he in court and why do the houses on trinity sux not to mention he charges 580 to rent a one bedroom and one bath house that is super tiny now that is a rip off
Boyson,
Yep, that $47 is just for startes…
‘A would-be real estate mogul follows boom tips straight to bust’
“After spending a year and upward of $15,000 (borrowed on credit cards) going to real estate seminars and buying home education courses from everyone from Russ Whitney to Bruce Norris and, of course, the aforementioned Robert “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” Kiyosaki, Serin embarked on his brilliant career as a real estate flopper, er, flipper.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/10/06/carollloyd.DTL
Steve – thanks for posting that link about Serin. I saw him on TV a while back. He is a PERFECT example of why I burn time posting here and why the public needs to be protected from the false lure of the fast flip and easy money.
Mike Voss
Mike and Boyson,
RE: “Someone should set up a page with every subject property from every episode”
Hey! Look what I found! ; )
http://armandomontelongo.blogspot.com/
Mike,
Yeah, Serin is a must read for those that land here as a result of those ‘Googling’ “Armando Montelongo”
How interesting. At 7:03 AM this morning, my phone rang and the caller ID said Montelongo, Veronica (210) 491-xxxx.
I thought someone might be pranking me with one of those caller-ID spoofing services. Curious, I looked at the tail of the HTTP log for my webserver and saw this entry for the contact page with my phone number from minutes before the call: 70.114.19.218 – – [30/Jun/2007:06:54:31 -0700] “GET /contact_image.jpg HTTP/1.1” 200 46190 “http://www.hyperion1.com/contact.html” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)”
Does that IP address, 70.114.19.218 look familiar? That’s right, it’s the same one from the shill posts #24 and #25 aboove. Clearly, it is confirmed that that IP address belongs to the Montelongos.
Here’s the forumla.
Look like an average guy, or, better, an idiot. Pretend you made lots of money, show it around (hummer, 1000s of flips, etc). Then sell your ‘secret’ in books and seminars.
The average sucker will say “Hey, if that IDIOT can do it, so can I!!!”
It’s nothing new, Armando Montelongo is just the latest incarnation.
Mike Voss has made some terrific observations and it’s nice to see that professionalism and pride in one’s trade is job one.
Nike mentioned a Canadian show called “Holmes on Homes” and it really is wonderful. Mike Holmes is a master builder who is called in to undo the damage done by unscrupulous contractors and shoddy tradespeople like the Montelongo family.
The Montelongo’s projects are garbage and all they are interested in is sugar coating properties rather than fixing the underlying problems. No insulation or vapor barrier is used, no permits are obtained, tradesmen that look as though it’s their first day on the job….it’s truly laughable.
I am disgusted by the Montelongo family and it’s nice to see a website where these fraud artists are exposed.
Cheers from Canada.
I just can’t wait to watch his next episode just to pull it apart.
He is a total fool.
His intern is a tool.
Anyone that has purchase the $97 thing or the big $997 course please email me with your comments. Thanks
I just watched an episode of Montelongo and wondered what his education and qualifications were. I didn’t look very long and I stumbled on this website. Does anyone have the answer to my question?
bette
Just finished watching the Intern episode.
Finally some honesty from Armando. He showed 2 houses he didn’t sell, one house he sold for less than the amount said on TV.
And the best part…he called himself an asshole…
Talk about Honesty!
Mike,
Thank you for responding to my posts. I have been trying to learn everything I can about real estate, but I have hesitated to make the leap because of people I know personally that have been burned. Is there a real way to slowly break into this business without destroying your financial future?
What about “bird-dogging”?
Any tips or advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Chris,
Without knowing your detailed background, I can give you some generalized advice.
Let’s start with bird-dogging or scouting properties for others. As I’ve said before, real estate is a localized market business, so if you can become an expert in a certain area and get to the point where you know *everything* going on in that area, you can develop a skill that is worth something to others. However, in the age of the Internet and cell phones and email, information travels so fast that you really have to develop expertise to find deals that nobody else knows about. Then comes the hard part: having people to give the deals to that you trust and who will buy them. You only get paid when they buy, so this can be tough. What’s more, you need to have legally binding contracts in place before you ever tell them about a deal, and that won’t prevent them from passing on a deal and then secretly telling a friend about it so they can get it for free. As you can see, the relationships are the key element and they are hard to develop. So, if you have the time to develop the expertise, detective skills, and relationships, you can certainly make money this way, but it’s tough and a big investment of time, especially getting started. One key skill missing from any of the FTH crews including Trademark is having the expertise to inspect houses thoroughly before buying. If you can develop this skill you’re way ahead of the competition.
If I had to recommend one simple way to get into this business, it would be the use of lease-option contracts. If you’re renting a place to live, there’s no reason not to use this method. A lease-option is a simple contract which, basically, is a lease, say one year, which credits some part of your rent (say 1/3) towards purchase of the house and sets the price in advance. It also allows you to have the first right to purchase it until the lease is up. So you find a house that needs some work that you can get a lease-option on. (hint: houses for sale a long time that switch to for rent are good targets – sellers are likely feeling the pinch) Make sure the option is assignable – that is, you can transfer the right to purchase to another party. Now, live in the house for a year and make whatever improvements you can – most owners will gladly let you do anything at your expense. At the end of the year, you will hopefully have a house that was priced a year ago with a year’s appreciation plus your improvements – it should be worth more than what you can buy it for. (If it’s not, you rented a house for a year which you would have anyway, but this is rare if you slected a good house) Find a buyer for the house at the option price and transfer the option to him for a fee of up to the difference between the option strike price and the current value of the house. My first deal ever I optioned at $395,000. It was renewable, so I kept it 2 years during a soft period in the market and put about $20K into it. At the end of the lease, it was worth $595,000. I sold the option for nearly $125,000. I’ve done this more than once early in my career – it’s an effective technique, especially at low points in local markets when people are scared and happy to have a year+ lease to pay their mortgage!
If I had just one tip to give for someone starting out,that would be the one.
Mike Voss
Hello everyone,
I live in Ottawa Canada (nation’s capital) and I’ve had experience in buying, renovating and selling properties.
Mid’es advise is sound and I echo his sentiments. Know the market you’re buying in to. Study it and research it to the nth dgeree.
If for some reason you cannot “flip” your investment property, is there a contingency plan to have it rented to carry mortgage costs, taxes etc.
Secondly, if you’re planning to renovate and sell, get qualified, experienced professionals to complete the renovations if you’re not very handy. Be prepared to oversee the renovation because it’s YOUR money at stake. Insist on quality work and good materials (ulike the Montelongos). Your profit marging may be a bit smaller but you can walk away from your “flip” with pride and honour knowing you’ve not screwed someone over.
Use the same contractors and trades people if you can. A large degree of trust and loyality is built up and they will go the extra step for you. Unlike the tv show, qualified professionals are busy and don’t cut their prices by 50% on the promise of getting another job.
Great forum…I enjoy it. And good luck to all of you with your respective projects.
“The Intern”
‘I’m a very private person… But I am on this show on A&E Sunday’s at 7:00pm called “Flip This House” I play the Intern and I work with Monster Energy Drinks.. I do alot of acting, commericals, movies,etc…’
http://www.myspace.com/Smallville1976
What happened with the teleconference the David was suppose to have? I know it was rescheduled but have not been able to find out what he said. He was suppose to give his reasons for quiting FTH.
“The Rookie”
Full mode attempt at damage control, too funny. I’m surprised that Armondo found the time to revisit those three houses. I would think that with flipping 25-30 houses a month it would be difficult to even remember three of them ; )
Just saw a YouTube video of Armando and Veronica in Mexico talking about the cat house and how they will have to deal with the smell when they return from vacation. They state they have been in Mexico for a week-and-a-half. So much for the deadline. In the episode they make it sound like they have been working straight through, but the video exposes the reality.
See the video on YouTube http://youtube.com/watch?v=qUYAa6FQMFU. “I Got Crabs in Mexico” is the title of the video in case the link does’nt work and you have to do a search.
He’s just as full of himself in real life as he is on TV. I feel sorry for the kid, “Mondoman.”
It’s all FAKE. That guy is not a real intern, he’s an ACTOR. Armando was trying to cover his ass by going back to the old houses and saying they didn’t sell.
The heat is ON. A&E should be ashamed of themselves for trying to pass the Montelongos off as “reality television.” This is a soap opera, no more, no less.
And anyone who buys his “real estate” package for $997, $97, or 95 cents is a damned fool.
Steve,
I think he was trying to cover his butt. He does not want to be considered in the same boat as Sam Leccima. By revisiting and airing an update on his flips makes him more legitimate, in his eyes anyway.
I have had such a great time reading these posts! My husband and I caught two of the FTH episodes late last night, and are just incredulous at how *awful* that Armando guy seems. Of course I went online to look him up and came across this site! OK – can we talk about his websites for a second! They are SO BAD! Anyone who is making as much money as he claims, would have much higher quality websites than this dude. I mean, if his websites aren’t even coded properly, imagine the houses he flips. Oh and just as an FYI, every time someone puts a link to one of the Montelongo’s websites on this thread, the Montelongo’s benefit. The more incoming links there are to a website, the higher their ranking is on search engines….so you may want to consider not making the links to their sites linkable and just make them plain text. Why help them out…you know.
Now I wonder how much longer Chris will be the “Intern” now that his true identity has been found out? You would think that AE would have had him sign something to the effect that he wouldn’t reveal that he’s a paid actor. Now if one participant is an actor, my feeling is like many others, they all should be actors.
I dislike Armando for many reasons, but his blatant disregard for others is the highest of course. But looking back, of course so much of that is scripted. Who is he really? Someone who sold his soul to the highest bidder. Actually several bidders.
Now this mistake which was taken apart in an earlier post #240 by Robert Pee appears again in one of the invitations by Armando to Scott:
Hi Scott,
This is a very important message about
***********THE MONEY YOUR NOT MAKING!***********
Either they are one and the same authors or this is a common grammatical error. Very said either way.
I am not an agent, a flipper or even remotely interested in getting into that business, but like so many others, Richard Davis held my attention and when Sam and Armando came along, I just sort of watched like one watches a train wreck….unable to take my eyes off.
The difference of course, is that with those two there are the gaffs and obviously the laughs as well.
I love this forum and while I may never contribute again, I do so enjoy the dissection from the others….we love Mike Holmes and have learned much from him.
Cheers,
Bonnie
tiffanydog,
The NEW ‘revised’ numbers still don’t match with reality! LOL
Bonnie,
Too late, you’ve delurked and there’s no going back ; )
Thanks Steve,
I know….now you all know I’m here!
But for you who deal in real estate on one level or another for a living to know that through this forum you are reaching more people than who do respond to you, that has to mean something, no? My goodness what a runon sentence! But you know what I mean…
Bonnie
In hawking his product his website says “Armando, how do you flip 25-30 houses per month – every month!” or “Where do you get the money to flip your houses?” or “How do you find so many great deals?” .” If he doesn’t flip this many houses, this is faulse advertising. As everyone posted above, it doesn’t seem at all possible. Besides if he did, would Cat house have gotten him so stressed out? That would have only represented 1/3 of 1 percent of 1 year’s income.
Guess his brother David had enough of his b/s
Bonnie,
I’m not in the real estate biz in any way ; )
Steve,
Yes, my husband and I were laughing at the discrepencies and when told the “intern” that he has to make hard decisions and things don’t always work out. We picked up on the “intern” being fake right away. There is no way that someone would do all that crap for no money.
Don’t forget to check out the YouTube link from my previous post. It’s a real scream!
I think I’ll stick with the TLC and Richard Davis and his team. I still want to know if Richard is having a thing with Ginger. Can’t seem to find out!
The New Haven team is a strange group, but seem like a good group overall.
Atlanta, what a joke that is–Sam and the new show with Angie.
Just my thoughts.
tiffanydog.
Something more to laugh at! LOL
http://armandomontelongo.blogspot.com/
Steve aka Cozumel
Sorry, I have been away for a while. I did see the intern episode and yes it was all staged. Did everybody notice that he as also changed the begining of the show? He doesn’t say that he has flipped 1000’s of episodes.
As for the intern, He needs to take better acting lessons becuause he was just not very convincing. My cat can act better while taking a crap!!
As for them having my credit card number, phone number, mailing address etc. I’m not concerned. If they want to call me, fine, if they want to drive from texas all the way to California on their dime to visit me, more power to them. If I see credit card charges to my credit card that I know I didn’t use, that is why their are lawyers and laws protecting me.
Sure they have $47 of my money, but that is much better than $97 or $997.
As I said, I bought it out of curiosity. He knows that he is starting to get caught and now he has to change his tune. But here is the thing, Wouldn’t A&E be held responsible as much as Armando for misleading the people.
Now for his website where I purchased the ebook. In order for you to purchase the book, you automatically become an affiliate to sell the book. Will I do that? no I won’t. There is nothing that states how you will get paid for the people who purchase it. If he isn’t careful, he will become the Don Lapre of our time.
I should be finished with the ebooks by the end of the week, after which I will post my review of it.
Some schmuck is selling the $997 package on eBay. 3 bidders so far. Probably 2 ‘straw buyers’ trying to run the price up on some fool! LOL
Get this!
“I got this product as a birthday gift, but I realized that I already own this in my large Real Estate Course collection, so I’m selling an un-opened BRAND NEW course that my cousin purchased only 3 days ago. A fantastic comprehensive course that teaches you everything you need to know about Flipping homes from A&E’s star from Flip This House, as seen on TV this is my best purchase on flipping homes, everything is explained in step-by-step detail.”
ROFL! I’ve got a bridge… ; )
I started recently watching those shows. Now I never miss a show maybe because Armando is a good looking guy 🙂
Too bad he’s married 🙁
These guys are business savy and they got experience. Not sure why some people say bad things about Armando. He makes his living best way he can and he’s doing pretty damn well.
His business is great because his wife is a realtor and it was said on the show “she can sweet talk anyone to buy a house” – that’s a huge plus, don’t underestimate to have a person or better a relative who’s a good realtor and can sell houses like hot cakes.
I admire his business savy and his tactics. He’s energetic, business driven. If you are looking to start such business. Flip your own house to start with and see if u can sell it and make a good profit on it anywhere from 25-50K per house.
Also cinding a good, honest/dependable contractor is a huge plus. Many of them cut corners or like to charge for nothing.
I can’t belive that “HeyforArmando” actully likes his business savvy (or lack of it) and his tactics.
The man is cheap and crude and doesn’t know which end of the hammer to hold. I know that anyone in the home reno trade will not drive around in a Hummer or Cadillac Escalade. We have a saying that goes “All flash and NO CASH”. His wife picks up propective “buyers” at the airport in a limo? It would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.
The “intern” they have is a complete waste of energy? Let me ask you this….if YOU were the developer who was purchasing homes and you had a deadline to meet, would you have someone with ZERO experience overseeing the project?
I live in Ottawa Canada and the tax law here states that if you buy an investment property and sell it, you have to pay capital gains taxes on one half (50%) of the total gain.
For example, I buy a house, renovate it and flip it, and I walk away with a $20K gain. Then I have to pay tax on half of that gain at my marginal tax rate. If I’m in a 50% tax bracket, then I walk away with $10K.
This doesn’t take into account legal fees, real estate commissions etc. So, when the Montelongs sell a house for a $20K gain and there are 4 of them who are involved in the scam…errr….business transaction, what kind of profit have they actually made?
So the guy sells thousands of homes? RIGHT….and that’s why when he and his family stayed at the hotel, they had to sneak in their pets like a bunch of criminals and he’s crying about paying $150 a night for the suite? Can we say staged, phony SCAM ARTISTS? lol
Love the site….
Thank god I’m not the only one that thinks FTH is staged! My favorite has & always will be Team Trademark. In my opinion they are the only ones with any kind of structure at all. Can anyone please tell me why every house that Armando & Veronica flip is that horrible FUGLY khaki color? The last one would have been cute if they had painted it a different color. I heard Veronica say once that they got a good deal on paint so they bought a bunch.. I sure hope they run out soon~! I’ve enjoyed reading all your comments 🙂
Hi everyone. Last week I went out on a limb and decided to purchase Armando Montelongo’s e-books, at the discounted price of $47–after not purchasing at full price, I repeatedly got emails from his company offering me the lower price. I finally bit. Unfortunately, the money was deducted from my account immediately, and I did not receive any order confirmation, receipt, or any e-books! I can’t locate a phone # for Armando Montelongo Worldwide, Inc., and I have tried emailing through “contact us” on his site 3 times with no response. The Better Business Bureau does not have his company listed. I don’t know what to do! I even resorted to emailing Veronica through her My Space page this morning; I’m interested to see if she will respond or not.
Jeff–I noticed your post that says you did get the e-books. How did you get them? I am curious, since I ordered them and got NOTHING, but they did get my money. I’m also curious to see if they have any decent info in them. I’m interested to read your reviews.
Maureen H,
Try this number. (210) 341-7355
Montelongo Real Estate Solutions
8026 Vantage Dr
San Antonio, TX 78230
http://www.anywho.com/rl.html
Good luck!
Maureen – email me at contact@hyperion1.com and I will be happy to give you Veronica’s direct phone number so you can try to reach her.
-Mike
would you believe this i know some people who rented one of there houses, boy was the house screwed up they even have pictures, ne way they decided after seeing what a mess the house waas they wanted out of the lease and they told them no finally after a couple of weeks pass they decide to rent it to some one else while the other person still had a lease and they(david montelongo) still had the first lessee’s money and he won’t refund them their money back, they hadn’t even moved onto the house in the first place and he is getting money from the other renter’s too
don’t trust the vantage dr business they will bullshit with you and give you alot of bs
“Today was a great day! I learned how to make a blog as well as advertise with my partner Armando Montelongo. Armando will be releasing his new book “Flip it Now!” July 2nd. To purchase his book just click the links on this page.”
I’m not going to post the link but…LOL!
Yeah, that is the interesting thing about their site. After I click to purchase them, it takes me directly to a thankyou page and that’s it. To get the books, you have to go back to their website and click on members, then enter your username and password.
Interesting. Guess who just paid a visit to my blog?
IP Address 216.89.67.# (A&E Television – NewYork)
They are afraid, do a google search for armando montelongo and this website is second on page one.
Hey everyone. I just wanted to update you–I emailed Veronica Montelongo through My Space earlier today about the e-books, and she responded just a couple of hours later with instructions on how to download them. She said they get tons of emails similar to mine; I suggested they need to tell people what to do after they make the purchase.
I am so glad that I found this site. I have been skeptical of the Montelongo Business since day one of their show. My father and I recently finished our second property in Texas. There are no easy ways in this business and it simply takes good old hard work and determination. I always knew his claim of flipping 25-30 homes am month was bull. I totally agree with Mike Voss and Sean and would rather buy a book from them then the Montelosers.
I’m out!
it’s interesting to hear your guys comments, 99 percent of you have not received or saw their packages and yet you lashing at them with just pure foolish thoughts. thus far all who have purchased their packages seems to like it. Quit your bitching and get a life, stop knocking people down when you have no solutions on your own.
I have not purchase the package just simply because I cannot afford it with my government salary, however since I have not seen it I will not go around and batch the product like an idiot. you guys are like ABC news reporting on sh*******t that never hapens.
I you guys have some since you would try to get with someone in your neighborhood who have purchase the package and see for sure if what they are saying are helpful. they guy that said that he been a builder for a long time now and declare what Amando is saying are complete crack. as a builder you sound completely broke and sinceless. Just because something may not work for you does not mean that it not good, maybe its your ability to comprehend new matter that is the issue instead of the package.
one big thing that you guys failed to realized is that, once you open your business and get the first 3-5 deals, you need to hire others to work for you and concentrate on building your business not be a worker in the business that you are trying to build.
It is possible to him to flip 20-30 houses a month if he has other people working for him. then all you have to do is supervise to make sure things are going the way that you want them to go.
If you can build of team of people to work with you ,there is no reason why you should not be able to flip this many houses per month. when someone say they make a certain amount of money in a business you must keep in mind that the profit the person is claiming to make is the gross not the net, meaning that the profit that was made will be divided among those who are helping me make the money.
regarding the lady that said her friend is going to sue, I can tell you right now base on the information you provided your friend will be just wasting her time, because audio’s lessons are considered to be courses, you do not have to see the person with a piece of paper in their hand showing you line-by-line what to do for it to be a course.
you guys need to wise-up a little bit, I am not saying go ahead and by this guy package, but find out who in your area may have purchase the package and speak to them instead of listening to these idiot who are posting here, find out for yourself dont listen to people who thinks because they cannot do something that it must be fake…..
Halla
BigG,
I’ve got a sure fire ‘deal’ for you. I’ll triple your ‘investment’ in five days. First though, I’ll need some good faith, no strings attached, money up front. Interested? ; )
More like Big G.E.D. if you know what I mean…
If you REALLY want Armando’s 5 ebooks it looks like you can get them on eBay for a “buy it now” price of $.99 (ninety nine cents) with FREE shipping.
http://cgi.ebay.com/FLIP-THIS-HOUSE-W-ARMANDO-MONTELONGO-e-BOOKS-LOT-NEW_W0QQitemZ190128666113QQihZ009QQcategoryZ102486QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It’s a scam auction. He claims to be “selling” the information of how to link to Armando’s website to buy the ebooks. Total eBay policy violation and should be removed.
AMAZINGLY, we now have 325 posts in this thread and NOT ONE person who has bought Armando’s products has been able to tell us about some specific useful information they got. All we have are random defenses of Armando and generic defenses of the book – not a SINGLE example of what was useful to anyone. Hmmmmm.
I may very well go ahead and write a book if people keep asking me to do so. And if I do, I’ll make it available for free and with a PayPal link that readers could send any amount to if they found it useful. (since, as a real builder, I make my money on development, not book sales!)
STILL no reply from the Montelongos as to my request for a review copy.
Mike
“BigG”, maybe you should consider decaf.
Re: “It’s a scam auction”
Figures, why am I not surprised. Nice catch
Movie Star episode house was rented to his brother while his divorce was pending. Second episode first season…..potential buyer was Melina’s Mom. Professional photographer that Melina got for free…family friend with a big ego that needed to be stroked by being on television
Amazing isn’t it that Pella can miraculously deliver and install custom fit windows in a house in just a couple days notice when, in reality the delivery time on any Pella product in San Antonio is at least three weeks. The store here is a depot and does not stock anything. Amazing television.
People, stop being mean to poor Armando. Gheez, he is just trying to make a living. Sort of like he did a few years ago when he was a mold remediation expert and took as much money from the insurance companies as he could, did as little actual work on job sites as possible and left all of his clients unhappy and disgruntled…..you want names and addresses, I have them. Oh yeah and before that Two by Two, a multi-level marketing scam where he took all his friends money and then dumped them. And, let’s see prior to that, oh yeah a cook book with his picture on the front containing as many healthy recipes as his friends could come up with and give to him for free. You should have heard him at the Two by Two seminars….he told this story about traveling across America and rolling into San Antonio on his last tank of gas….hilarious.
I am so glad that I found this site!
I was at my mom’s this weekend and we were watching FTH. My mom could not even stand to watch it – she kept telling me to change the channel but I told her it was like a train wreck in the making with Armando as the conductor.
I couldn’t wait to get home and look these scam-artists up!
I have never been so disgusted with a tv-personality. Armando’s tactics are degrading, disgusting, fraudulent and down-right mind-numbing.
I feel bad for the people who don’t know any better and will shell out the $1,000 for his b.s. get rich quick scheme. I’m sure many of these people will use their hard earned money that they probably cannot spare in hopes of making a living for themselves or for their families.
People, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
Mike Voss – you sir, are the man.
Everyone else, good job on digging up the research and publishing the info. The more information that comes out the quicker these jackals will be taken off the air.
Shame on you A&E. Just how dumb do you think your viewers are?
Re: “It’s a scam auction. He claims to be “selling” the information of how to link to Armando’s website to buy the ebooks. Total eBay policy violation and should be removed.”
I just sent the ‘seller’ a message via eBay informing them they were in violation of eBay’s TOS. It’s gone now! ; )
Yeah it’s such a great product that they have to sell it by viral marketing and fake eBay auctions to generate links and page views.
Looks like eBay’s admins are now onto the abuse and killing all the fake auction advertisements. Scams to sell scams – you gotta love it. The Montelongos remind me of an old joke I saw once where a snakeoil salesman rolls into a Western town:
Sheriff: “You run an honest business?”
Salesman: “Honest as the day is long.”
Sheriff: “Good, when are you open?”
Salesman: “Sundown!”
Seriously, if anyone on here spent the money and owns these things, please lend them to me so I can review them. I promise to return them to you and to post a fair, honest review.
MV
ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, people please dont tell me that the armando and veronica are fakes, i love them on the tube, i beelived them, i am getting into the real estate career, an interested in all the tips i can get, so help anyone.. thanks
martie,
OK, here’s a tip for you! ; )
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470068353/bookstorenow56-20
Has anyone else noticed that Armando keeps getting fatter every episode? And his hair is getting higher and fluffier too (I think he’s trying to keep himself from looking like a peanut head!)
Veronica…..RUN LIKE HELL NOW AND TAKE MONDOMAN WITH YOU! LOL
I wish I had found this website before I purchased the $97 ebook. I was going to take a one day course at my local community college about Women and investing in real estate by Marshall Reddick (anyone familiar with this course?) It was around $50. When Armando’s ebook was offered to me at half price I purchased it thinking it would be about the same I had intended spending on the college course anyway. The content of the ebook is very small. I just finished it last night. I don’t know much about real estate, but I don’t think I learned much more from the ebook. There are some basic common sense tips. But in general, it is not worth it.
Also offered with the purchase of the book is to be allowed to “attend” Armando’s webanair live computer seminars. The first one was all about getting us to promote his book to our family and friends. For everyone we referred, we would get a percentage of the sale. To me it sounds almost like a pyramid scheme.
Real of fake – I love the show and can’t get enough of it. The Montelongos are by far my favorite. I think they’re quite entertaining. I also considered buying Armando’s RE Pkg, but it seemed too good to be true and I find that if it seems too good to be true, it is. After reading this thread, I’m thankful I didn’t purchase it. That said, I’m not at all mad at A&E for this “docu-soap”, as they call it, for having some embelishments. My husband and I have flipped one house. It had it’s ups and downs. We’ll probably do it again. But I don’t get mad at this show for not portraying certain aspects. The show isn’t a direct “How to” guide that has tricked us all, though I often get that vibe from the posters here. It’s a TV show and I take it for that. I don’t believe there is a single reality show on television that’s actual “reality”. Maybe Armando is a scam artist, I really don’t know. He and David obviously went their seperate ways for a reason, but I won’t pretend to know what that is, but I do miss seeing him & Melina. (David did bring a lot of professionallism and level-headedness to MHB.) All I know is I enjoy watching his episodes and will continue to do so.
Sarah:
Sure, the show can be entertaining, although I will no longer watch anything with the Montelongos. I’d much rather be entertained by Richard Davis, who seems to care about the people who work for him and the customers who buy from him. No, A&E isn’t just presenting an innocent entertainment program. They owe it to their viewers to at least run a disclaimer at the start of the show that some scenes are set up, out of sequence, re-enacted, use actors, etc. It’s clear that many people have been influenced by this show to try to get into what they see on FTH seems to be a relatively easy and sure-fire way to make big money, or, like yourself, have considered buying Armando’s garbage because there’s a level of trust from what you’ve seen on tv. Thank heaven for people like Steve and Mike who are saving people from their own naivete and willingness to be parted from their hard-earned savings. Mike, I am not even interested in flipping anything myself, but I’d read any book you write, just to see how things are done the right way. Steve, I hope you’ll continue to write here–I look forward to checking back each day.
Barbara,
Ah shucks, thanks! I can’t even remember how I ended up here exactly. I’m not in the real estate business. Like Mike and Boyson, the Montelongo ‘scam’ bothers me to no end. 25 houses a month my ASS!
Disclaimer: I’m not associated with Trademark in any way, other than a fan of the show.
Barbara, I don’t know, I guess I’ll just never take television as reality. I watch TV to be entertained. If I want to learn, I read a book on the topic I’m interested and ask live people in that field I can actually interact with. I live across from my local library, so I do research. I don’t rely on A&E to map it out for me in 47 min. And Steve and Mike (no offense to either of you) seem like nice people, but I know nothing more about them than what they post in a thread. I won’t sing their praises to the heavens because of what they’ve typed about themselves. If A&E had to run a disclaimer, so should every single other program on television. A&E doens’t push Armando’s RE pkg, Armando does. And I’m not vouching for his character because I don’t know him either. But as you point out, the show is staged.
Sarah – Actually, I’ve gone out of my way not to post anything about myself, so I’m not sure where you’re going with that.
To be clear, I don’t think A&E knew anything about the “questionable” Montelongo transactions just as they didn’t know beforehand about Sam Leccima
Sarah:
I understand your point, and I, too, tend to take most tv with a grain of salt. You, however, are obviously not as easily swayed as many people are, to see things presented as “reality” programs as reality. Just look at how many people on this thread alone have been tempted or have gone ahead and purchased Armando’s garbage because of what they saw of him on tv. It’s no accident, and it’s really pretty shady on A&E’s part that they aren’t distancing themselves from that a bit. Are they obligated to disclaim everything? No, but one would hope that a seemingly entertaining and enlightening network would care a bit more about what they present. No, every show shouldn’t have to run a disclaimer, but those that purport to educate, even in a seemingly benign way, should if they value their credibility. As for Mike and Steve, I simply know what I’ve read here. Mike is obviously very well-versed in this arena and Steve has done some great research. I appreciate their entertaining and enlightening posts, complete with disclaimers throughout.
Okay, guys. I read every entry in this chat site. I just watch the show for giggles. I don’t take it seriously and just kick back and enjoy the antics. I really giggle when Armando gets mad and throws things. How funny. I think Trademark this season is boring, and I actually fell asleep watching it. Armando is purely entertainment. Please, just take it for what it is – with a grain of salt – and laugh with me.
Just because it bothers me so much, I decided to write to A and E about Armando. Oh, I’m sure that was original, but I couldn’t help myself. I have received no reply and frankly do not expect one. I’ll sure share it with you if I do though!
See, Steve, it’s like potato chips, I can’t post just one….
Cheeers,
Bonnie
Bonnie,
LOL! I want to reiterate, I think A&E was duped along with the rest of the viewing public, just as with the Sam Leccima episodes. I think they’re discovering (along with us) that the Montelongo episodes featured don’t jibe with are actual contrary facts as provided with what are easily obtained property records, free, online
But Steve, one would think that a channel that presents shows steeped in fact like City Confidential and American Justice would due it’s due diligence when presenting this, new-to-them format.
Well, one would hope anyway and as the producers are just that, either they were duped or they just didn’t mind duping us. Either way, as I wrote to them this is beyond the taping of a dysfunctionial family.
Let me clarify, the taping of a family as dysfunctional as others they have taped, not to imply in my post that Armando and Co are dysfunctional.
[…] Originally Posted by New Mommy For everyone whose blood pressure goes skyhigh when watching Armando: there is some interesting information about him at a place called flip this lawsuit. A friend directed me there regarding his “book” and some bankruptcies. Interesting to read. Here is the link Flip This Lawsuit » Anyone purchased Armando Montelongo’s Real Estate Package? __________________ "A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise." […]
Mike,
Re: “25- 30 house a month”
“Brandon – give us a break. Armando SAYS it right in the video on the website. He says it AGAIN in the first 5 pages of his e-book. You wanna chalk those up to webmaster errors also? You’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, buddy. Even YOU know your position is unsupportable, so give us all a break.”
Update: Armanmdo said it on the show too. “25-30 houses a month”. I heard it 5 minutes ago on the ‘Rancho Montelongo’ rerun ; )
“Rancho Montelongo”
Armando: “Like this – the stress you feel here? Magnified times 20 to 30 houses a month and that’s what we do all the time…”
Veronica: “Well I know, but…”
OK, it was 20-30 and not 25-30 ; )
I checked the site this evening because i was suspecting someone would possibly purchase his product on launch day. Anyway, I just want to credit Mike Voss for giving FREE advice to Christopher regarding getting started in the business. My other post is #251 and when I started real estate i had 5 jobs, ya 5, then I made myself a promise that if I ever made as much selling real estate in one month than I did working at UPS in a year, that i would quit UPS and go into real estate full time (my wife did not want me gettting into real estate because her best friends mom was an agent and they never had any money). I was a part time pre-load supervisor so i worked UPS from around 4:00 a.m. to approximately 9 a.m., then the rest of the day i would devote to either building homes (framer), selling real estate, re-roofing homes, putting up soffit and last but not least laying tile. Basically anything that would pay the bills. well the month came about a year and a half after starting real estate that i made as much in one month selling that i did in a year as a part time supervisor. Long story short, i am not much of a risk taker so it actually took a bet that a friend and i made $1000 that he would give me, but i had to quit the monday moring, my first day back to work & I did & he paid, best bet i ever made, it changed my life forever. I truly love the business and would never do it just because it pays well. I am now a real estate broker in florida and do just about anything that you can with real esate and to me that is what makes it so exciting. Like Mike said earlier about the lease purchase (LP), now is the perfect time to be doing them with so many investors that are way in over their heads. That is great advice and you (Christopher) should really consider it the way for you to break into this market. When i retire from investing, developing, building, selling, flipping and whatever else you want to call it, I want to do seminars or disc programs that really work. I have helped several people in my area make millions flipping properties prior to me having money to do it myself. It is true that you do make your money when you buy, not sell! along with Mike’s advice that would be the one thing you must always remember and when figuring your costs for a flip, at first, double them and also add in at least a 10% depreciation factor, just in case the market is even softer when your flip is ready to sell. Good luck and I wish you the best. To this day I still get a true sense of pleasure when i find a buyer a good deal or sell someones home for top dollar. It is the people that get into this business to make a quick buck that are truly upsetting & make alot of good people seem questionable at best. Wait until the first time you save someone from going into foreclosure, not only do you win, they win, the bank or mortgages get paid and everyone is happy. It really is a great thing! Take your time and don’t ever get emotionally attached to a property, that can always kill a great deal.
Tim (Florida)
Mike Voss & Christopher,
I just posted you two but did not specify anyone at the top of the post. Sorry, it is from Tim.
Thanks Tim!
It seems that there is a lot of vehemence being directed against the Montelongos on this site. Most of it stems from the fact that they have exaggerated their flipping accomplishments and they have the audacity to package their knowledge in an e-book and expensive courses.
Armando may come off as a jerk on TV but I admire the way he went from broke to TV personality and quasi-successful business man. The Montelongo shows are by far the most entertaining flipping shows on TV. Team Trademark is much more professional and accomplished, but the show is fairly boring. And for A&E, it’s all about the ratings. If I wanted to learn the nuts and bolts about flipping properties, I’ll do my own research. But for entertaining TV, the Montelongos get my vote.
Quit the hating and take everything you see on TV with a grain of salt. If the Montelongos had to exaggerate to get the TV deal, then it’s no different than those of us who exaggerated to land a job. Armando obviously has flipped some properties so I wouldn’t call him a scam artist or complete fake.
[…] Anyone purchased Armando Montelongo’s Real Estate Package? […]
Montelongo family has been aroung a long time. I even remember the TV ads from whan I was a kid. David Montelongo worked for his family for years. These two guys are not what they seem and I think David is regretting getting the family name dragged through the mud by his brother. They are promoters, thats all. Certainly not real estate experts. Google John T. Reed if you want the real truth on investing and flipping and such. Reed seems to be a grumpy old man with an MBA from Harvard and a military background. His information is dry and detailed and its the truth. If you can get through his dullness, you will learn all you need to know.
Wow!!..what a bashfest you people have going on here.
If I was Armando, I’d sue this website or some of it’s posters for libel as almost all the views and detective work here is unsubstantiative.
First off, only a complete idiot would take everything on their show as the gospel truth, it’s obviously embelished for entertainment purposes.
The show is quite entertaining and motivating though. My brother and I are about to buy our first house to flip and we’re not going to try and do it the Montelongo way, nobody can do it the way they can, especially first timers. But I have learned a lot and now have the motivation to do it. I’ve been self employed for a long time and this will just be another venture for me.
I see the biggest problem in other people trying to flip houses is fear.
I have no fear of quitting my job as I don’t work for anybody and have no fear of hard work or this type of work dominating my life for awhile.
I’d also like to say that Veronica is an extremely hot red head and Armando is very lucky to have her.
Hi everyone – I’ve been reading almost all the posts on this site (up to #257) and I have to say THANK YOU to everyone, especially Mike Voss (and by the way, that house on 4125 Allot – to die for – just gorgeous!). I, too, was searching the ‘net for info on Armando’s book and came across your site. Thankfully, I like to do research on everything before I purchase. You’ve saved me and many others a lot of $ – so, thank you again for this wonderful forum.
By the way, I was just checking eBay and sure enough – someone is selling the complete “master” set now… http://cgi.ebay.com/Armando-Montelongo-Flip-This-House-Master-Course-NEW_W0QQitemZ320134446140QQihZ011QQcategoryZ102332QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem – too bad it’s a “private” listing. I was going to email everyone that is bidding on the set a link to this site! Anyway, keep up the good work and thanks so much (again).
Now… back to reading the remaining posts… LOL =)
Yvette
Naples, FL
I must say there is alot of bashing going on here and some of it is deserved, some of it is probably not. I have rehabbed (flipped) houses and did wholesales. I will say that in real estate investment circles, the Montelongos are well liked for one reason: Ethics. When you don’t pay assignment fees to wholesalers, back-door people, whether that be fellow investors or home-owners you are purchasing homes from – you can’t do that for very long until it all will catch up to you. At least that’s what my Grandparents, and parents taught me and I teach my own kids and employees.
I think Steve in Texas is awesome! Richard Davis and Trademark properties seem to be the only legit flippers yet. I am also from Texas, actually San Antonio and have seen the Montelongos around. They seem nice, but some of the work they do is pretty damn shady. I like the fact that Veronica went green on one of her projects. It’s nice to know someone is trying to help our planet. Either way if you want to see honest work you should watch HOLMES ON HOMES on Discovery Home, that should open your eyes up and see what should be done when fixing a home. I hope TRADEMARK properties takes over TEXAS, like Richard Davis says on the Real Estate Pros “We’re going worldwide”, did you catch that!!!!
MACDADDY is also his favorite word lol
Ciao!
[…] Second, the TV show, the A&E network, and the couple themselves are under fire for alleged misrepresentations in the show, and in Armando’s website and home study course. (For more info, check out this site.) Look, I’m not going to pretend that I know enough about the Montelongos’ legal situation to pass judgement on them. But is it wise, with the controversy they’ve managed to generate recently, to hold them up as role models that the rest of us should emulate? […]
“Also featured during the same season was Armando Montelongo a man who so deeply repulsed me I frequently had to turn the show off in order to reduce my blood pressure. One of the biggest questions concerning Montelongo is the actual purchase and selling prices of the homes featured on the program. The blog FlipThisLawsuit.com does a great job digging into the property histories and the history of Montelongo himself.
http://www.sonorancity.com/sonoran_city_news/2007/07/famous-flopping.html
DAVID’S AT LEAST PROMOTING OTHER REPUTIBLE REAL ESTATE INVESTORS AS HIS SPEAKERS.
I bought the $100 ebook. Got one little bit of info in it. Was expecting ALOT more for that price. Most of the fluff is found in countless other books. So if the one piece of info I got turns me a profit from that technique, its worth it.
I think Armando was trying to make up for it the other day when he offered everyone who bought the book to join in on his webinar for free. I was hesitant, but did it thinking it was going to be a recording. It was him live. He was very funny and spent over 30 minutes answering questions. One thing that caught my ear was that he said he didn’t like the way A&E has portrayed him as a brass negotiator. He said he was much more of a joker in real life. So for what its worth, there’s reality shows and then there’s reality.
Speaking of books, Anyone going to Richard’s speech and see the unveiling of his new book?
I was thinking about buying the cheaper package. I think that Armando is perfect version of the american dream
Hey everyone, like a lot of people I found this site by accident, but I just spent the last 2 hours reading all 364 comments and am blown away of what a pos Armando is I was going to buy is $97 book but screw that…lol. For the last 5 years I’ve wanted to get into house flipping, but don’t know how to, can anyone help????? Where to go to get info, any contact info of people who do this? an intern job or a job in general. I’m not one of those easy money people, I know it takes hard work and planning but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to either learn from someone who is willing to teach. You all seem incredibly knowledgeable and I turn to you for assistance. If you have any information about any way to get information, get experience on flipping houses please email me at juda222000@yahoo.com ……anything would be greatly appreciated and not forgotten.
Thank you for your help,
Ryan
Ryan,
Get “Flipping Confidential” by Kirsten Kemp, who hosts ‘Property Ladder’. Everything you need to know is in it and then some!
$13.57 at Amazon.com
Mike Voss, I sent you an email that I was hoping to have a response to. I realized recently that the email may have not gone through due to you spam filtering. If you wouldn’t mind, I’ld like to resend the email. let me know the best way to do so.
Dan – I did receive your message – and a lot of others from many other people asking the same things. I am working on something to answer these questions and when I have it completed will make it available to all of you. -Mike
Thanks Steve
I have enjoyed reading the post. I just received an email for an online REI training where Armando is marketed as “Bonus Guess #2”.
The marketing material states “…together with his brother David, built the largest real estate investment firm of its type in Texas. Now Montelongo House Buyers purchases 20-25 houses per month.”
Below is the marketing piece re: Armando..
Armando Montelongo – A&E’s Flip This House – BONUS GUEST # 2
Armando was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas and is the seventh child in a family of eight. Armando moved his family to California due to life threatening complications with his wife and unborn son in order for his wife to be with her family. After working past massive medical challenges with the two people he loves the most, Armando found himself $50,000 in debt with no job, and no money. He lost his personal home to foreclosure and was forced to live in his in-laws garage. These extreme challenges created ‘the rage within’.
He took his life experiences and chose to be better, not bitter. He moved his family back to Texas, and in a period of 5 years he has, together with his brother David, built the largest real estate investment firm of its type in Texas.
Now Montelongo House Buyers purchases 20-25 houses per month. His no “holds barred approach” and drive to excel in the Texas real estate market mixed with his passion for helping his customers create their ‘American Dream’ is the perfect recipe for success. Armando enjoys studying real estate market trends as well as developing techniques for creative real estate investing. He has master-minded some of the industry’s lucrative and creative investing techniques. He is currently developing an educational CD series to release with his “Millionaire Investor Tips” where, as Armando says “every investor, from beginner to seasoned veteran, can learn how to make a million dollars in real estate in a year”.
JT,
Re: “I have enjoyed reading the post. I just received an email for an online REI training where Armando is marketed as “Bonus Guess #2″.”
I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about but here’s my take. You’ll NEVER, and I repeat NEVER, ‘buy’ it all. Once you get sucked in there’s ALWAYS going to be something MORE for $ale that you NEED, and is a must have ; )
Steve in Texas – Simply pointing out there are claims in another publication to Armando’s ability to flip 20-25 houses a month. I have read the many posts regarding his claims on the television program and his book.
I have not purchased his book or training; however, I have watched the program and have heard him make the claim. I will not purchase his book or training based on the way Armando comes across on the television program.
This is the link I received via email:
http://www.reimostwanted.com/
Near the bottom is the portion regarding Armando.
wow guys, have you also background checked DOG the bounty hunter, and any actor you might watch on tv. Some of you should open up an investigations firm…and make some $$$$!
C,
So you’re saying Armando is an
‘actor’? ; )
“1 : one that acts : DOER
2 a : one who represents a character in a dramatic production b : a theatrical performer c : one who behaves as if acting a part”
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/actor
C,
I think you’re right that he is in fact an ‘actor’, and that he doesn’t really flip 20-30 houses a month, or 1,000 in the last five years. And, my personal favorite, ‘Rolled into town on my last tank of gas’. LOL
When you try to $ELL your ‘act’ though, it becomes something else ; )
Did anyone happen to catch the “Rancho Montelongo” episode? If you have it recorded, watch it again. Armando’s time frame is all wrong.
When they first “sell” their old house (which, by the way, was sold by another realtor…pretty funny if your wife is a realtor) and start plans for the new house, Mondo Man’s hair is “buzzed” cut. At the end at their little party, it was supposedly only 3 weeks later, but Mondo Man has a head full of hair. Either this kid is the fastest hair grower on earth, or Armando is fibbing.
What can you say… he’s a Chia Kid.
You folks crack me up!! We have caught a few episodes with the “Montefakos”. The first thing I noticed was such a successful firm had makeshift offices, cheap furniture and no budget for a real website. Wouldnt you want to build credibility by having nice meeting space? Or a functional website? Also for clearing $400-600K per month on 20-30 flips I would expect a larger personal home for Armando. I know people dont always showcase their wealth, but a guy with his ego surely would. Give credit to the “Montefakos” for rising from the poorhouse, but karma is a b****. Guess he will be heading back to the poorhouse after all this. Veronica, be a real mother, take your son and run away.
Hi my name is Derrick and I just relocated back to San Antonio from Springfield Missouri. My wife Ruth and I began watching your show in Springfield we had never heard of Flip this house, and what drew us to the show was the fact that the Montelongos were from San Antonio which we loved because that was home to us. Anyway we grew to love the show, however we realized there were things we disagreed with. I do support the montelongos in what they are doing I know its not easy however there are certain things that I disagree with. From the comments I have read here I would not buy the program, but I still want to read the book when it comes out, even though I may not agree with everything in the book
i think that you all are just jelous u need to stop woring aboutut others and worie about your selfs…. you all do know this is all gosip………and he stop selling the 1000 book so you stop talking about it
I rehab houses (not flipping in the traditional sense but the phrase flipping has been perverted by TV). I sold 4 houses last year in a non-inflated market in Nashville. We don’t make $200,000 a house like on most of the flipping shows but we don’t have bubbles bursting either. I made a pre-tax profit of $137,000 on the 4 houses with the highest profit being $55,000 and the lowest being $15,000. Profit verses investment is close to 30% so far. Two were foreclosures, one was an estate sale and one was bought off the MLS. I did 90% of the work myself with mostly carpet being subbed out. I picked houses that didn’t need major overhauls but were basically just outdated. Overall I made a fairly decent living doing what I enjoy but it’s not something you’re going to get rich doing, at least in most markets. I also have a real estate license to keep 3% of the sale price. I figure this type living can be made by most, more in hot areas, if you just spend the time to learn the market & not try & get too greedy. NO one can flip 200 houses a year without having built up a HUGE organization behind them which would take, I assume, 20 or more years at least.Flipping can be profitable but you better know your market and at LEAST be fairly handy yourself. I see no way, at least in my market, to buy a house and flip it using all subs and still make a minimal profit of 10%
We buy homes for remodel and resale….We make a living at this…we do not make a killing.
We watch most all the shows on flipping and in truth these shows are meant to give people the impression that this is easy money and a way to get rich….and yes,in some cases this is true .but that is the exception,not the rule.
We live in a small southern town.and our biggest obstacle are wanna be “flippers”Who come into this not knowing the market and having unrealistic ideas.and over bid on houses.and in turn cut us out.
If your wanting to flip homes….first you need to decide if your interest lies with being your own boss…or if it lies with making a one time killing….second know your market.Location is EVERYTHING.In some areas a 800 sq ft home can go for $200.000.in our area $50.000 at best.even with all the bells and whistles.
You don’t need to spend a $1000 on a how to dvd…all you need is a defined plan and some common sense.
check out this article. Written 2 years ago it explains the basic concept of the seminars and books:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/11/real_estate/investment_prop/re2005_scam_0506/index.htm
I’m hesitant to even post this, because of admiting to getting “sucked in” to Armondo. I guess mistakes are the way we learn, though it’s embarassing. I didn’t spend the 997, but they cut it in half and I bought that. My goals are not flipping, but investing in real estate to hold, and was mainly interested in the information about hiring contractors, materials and that sort of thing. As I am not in construction, I need help in this end of rehabbing.
I have never even received the course to evaluate. I wrote “Armondo” to get my money back. In going back to his site, I now find that my user name & password don’t work anymore. Hmmmm – THAT’S funny???!!! WHAT a coincidence.
If anyone knows how to join the class action suit, or any other sort of help on this, I would be grateful. I guess it’s the principle of it more than anything.
Thanks all!
Julie
Julie,
If you paid by credit card you might have a “buyer protection plan” with it. Check to see.
You can also contact the FTC and file a complaint…
http://www.ftc.gov/
And, file a complaint with the Central Texas BBB…
http://www.centraltx.bbb.org/
Good luck!
Julie,
One more. File a complaint with the Texas Attorney General…
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/
Alan,
I have to disagree with you on your last sentence. I am also in Nashville and have done four houses so far this year. On the first two, I did some of the work and hired out the rest. I quickly realized that the work should be done by the professionals and that my time was better spent managing the project and looking for more properties. So, on the last two I hired out all of the work. My ROI was 15% on house 1, 18% on house 2, 21% on house 3, and almost 25% on house 4. As you can see, I actually made more money on the two houses where I hired out all of the work. I think this was due to two main reasons, 1) the work was done faster by hiring it out and thereby lowering my holding costs, and 2) The work was higher quality when done by the pros thereby increasing my sales price. Your work may be higher quality than mine so that part may not be a factor for you.
Anyway, thats just my take on it. I do totally agree that you that you better know your market very, very well. Its not hard, it just takes time and research.
We should exchange contact info since we are in the same area. I would also like to see how you got your real estate license(how much did it cost, where did you go, etc.)
Todd
Just a quick note to say that someone was nice enough to loan me their copy of Armando’s $100 e-book set. Once I finish reading it, I will post my review here for you all to see. I’m only through the first of the 5 ‘books’ so far, but there’s an incredible amount of fluff, most of which is standard fare from ‘how to get rich’ books and courses. (telling you the ‘mindset of getting rich’ – not what you are generally expecting from aq book on house flipping…) Anyway, I will hold my tongue until I have read it all and will take the time to write up my impression of each of the 5 parts. I’m a bit busy, but will try to get to it within a week.
Mike Voss
Thanks Steve – I will file the complaints and re-write Armondo’s and let him know as well. I appreciate your help!
Julie
And A&E continues to run their show? How ridiculouse and extremely stupid they are!!! I’m very proud for Richard and company for moving to TLC.
No doubt A&E is owned by mobsters and they refrain from good people.
My Mom is a real estate investor/flipper in Dallas, Tx I can promise you that Armando and his team is a complete fraud, not only is there tv show misleading, but the market in Texas is in a all time slump, doesn’t matter what city your in; the market has shot down the last two years and has not come back up a point. I am a real estate agent and I know there is no way he sells these houses for what he claims he does, my mother owns property’s (mainly lots) down in Houston but has friends that invest in property’s down there, and they can’t even owner finance there house’s out let alone have them bought with cash.
Please do not pay for this guys bullshit e-book, and don’t take the show seriously, don’t get me wrong its entertaining but it is very misleading.
I’ve just finished reading this entire string. What has always troubled me about these shows is that they never show people failing, yet (in the real world) it happens all the time.
I’ve spent the past eleven years as a lawyer advising clients, dealing with sellers and buyers, dealing with brokers and contractors, and sometimes trying cases concerning shoddy work and deals gone bad. I’ve watched people make money and I’ve watched people lose their shirts.
Mike Voss, you are right on. You, and many of the contributors here, should be commended for their diligence and their excellent investigative research. Thanks to you, the charlatans are being exposed.
And Mike, I must commend you on the incredible restraint you’ve demonstrated in dealing with the shill posts. I can’t say that I would have been as kind or considerate under the circumstances.
In business, a bit of humility and honesty go a long way. Nobody has it all figured out. Trust me, the “heavy hitters” lie awake at night and tremble with anxiety over these deals just like the rest of us. In my judgment, the advise given by Mike and others here (you should be able to figure out who they are) is sound: know your market, read, study, learn, and ask questions. Remember: you can be bold and innovative and still treat people with respect and courtesy. We all have a lot to learn from eachother.
OT- More shenanigans in Atlanta it looks like ; )
http://www.flipthislawsuit.com/2007/06/05/fox-5-atlanta-leccima-night-one/#comment-14707
BTW, I’ve found the best way to navigate the comments on this blog is by using the “RSS Comments” link on the left side of this blog…
http://www.flipthislawsuit.com/comments/feed/
And, the front page of this blog is here, btw
http://www.flipthislawsuit.com/
Greetings from a lurker. One of the reasons you can’t find the ‘Longos in the Bexar County Deed Records is because they do many deals in the name of land trusts i.e. 1234 Main Street Land Trust. Hmmmm…. I wonder how many ‘trusts’ actually have legitimate trust agreements. For those of you with a login for Bexar County, might I suggest that you do a land record search on grantor/grantee “San Bernardo Land Trust”. Specifically look at the transfer record dated 04/02/2007. This document lists approximately 25 properties (along with others unrelated to the ‘Longos) that are titled to various trust names which were personally guaranteed by the Brothers. I would guess they are being transferred back to the hard money lender for foreclosure as many (if not all) subsequently appear as TRUSTEE DEEDS for sale on the public courthouse. I do not know if they were actually foreclosed on, or if they pulled them out. I leave you all to the rest of the story. p.s. If you research each of the individual trusts, you will find the original purchase docs with both purchase prices and rehab reserve amounts. Happy hunting!
Document Number: 20070075940 That’s easier.
And further reading of the individual Trustee Deeds would appear to show that YES! They were foreclosed on to the tune of twenty-something properties. Wow.
FTHFan…NOT!,
I’ve got a Bexar County Records ‘login’ and I’m still digging around! WOW! Nice find ; )
4719 Castle Rock was included in that ‘document dump’ and was one of those “flips” featured on FTH ; )
Steve – so if I read this correctly, 4719 Castle rock, which Armando ‘flipped’ on the show, not only never sold, but has now been foreclosed on.
Hmmm – would having 25 homes foreclosed on in one month count as ‘flipping’ them? Maybe that’s what Armando meant when he said he flips 25-30 homes a month! HAHA LMAO!
This REEKS of mortgage fraud, btw. A few months back, I helped out a friend of mine whose identity had been stolen. She’d been involved with a guy (no names, but his name is Dwight Shelton so beware if you enocunter this guy) who conned her into signing a power of atty and then used it to buy houses, cars, etc. in her name. Long story short, this guy had over 20 houses he’d bought in collusion with an appraiser and lenders, never flipped one, and never made any mortgage payments. He DID, however, take cash back at each purchase and lease expensive cars and live like a pig on the stolen money. He’s just a step ahead of the law still, amazingly.
Armando’s situation sure does seem familiar….he didn’t sell too many houses, but he sure did go out and get himself a Hummer…..
Mike
Re: 4719 Castle Rock
Correction. That was a typo. The property is 4719 Castle Rose (not rock)
Mike,
If I remember correctly, “4719 Castle Rose” was the property featured on the episode called “Flip 101” and referred to during the show as the ‘investor special’.
At the conlculusion of the show it allegedly sold for $95,000! LOL Again, if I remember correctly
PS.
Re: 4719 Castle Rose
I checked upthread and my memory was correct. “Flip IOI” (investor special), ‘sold’ on the show for $95K ; )
FTHFan…NOT!,
Re: “I suggest that you do a land record search on grantor/grantee “San Bernardo Land Trust”. Specifically look at the transfer record dated 04/02/2007.”
And the very next day… ; )
Cause Number: 2007CI04979
Business Name: VCH FUNDING CORP
Litigant Type: DEFENDANT
Style:
MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC
vs VCH FUNDING CORP
Court: 057
Date Filed: 04/03/2007
Docket Type: INJUNCTION
Case Status: DISPOSED
http://www.co.bexar.tx.us/webapps/html/DKLITDSP02.asp?txtLitIsn=0004363996
I’ll show you something better:
check out document: 20050260027 dated 11/17/2005
It’s a public affidavit to draw funds out of a new home construction loan.
Meredith Keller is one of Armando’s testimonials.
And who is David Montel? 🙂
Is this technique covered in Armando’s study course?
boyson,
LOL I saw that doc but not the
testimonial thing. Nice catch!
Check out this one…
20060157090
Hey! Have we unlocked the secrets in Armando’s vault? LOL ; )
Re: 20060157090
That was yet another “Lien Transfer”.
Filed on 7/05/2006
It appears that whenever VCH funding lends money, it always transfers the lien to Texas State Bank. It’s probably where they get their money. I wouldn’t make anything of the lien transfers EXCEPT where the bank transfers it back. That would seem to signal problems or paper that the bank doesn’t want to deal with or have in its portfolio.
FTHFan…NOT!,
You’re right. In fact 20060157090 was transfered back and sold by the
“whatever” ‘land trust’ a few months
later ; )
Steve,
With reference to the civil case you cite above (Post 407), it would seem that they probably sought an injunction to stop the foreclosure. The next time I need to run down to the courthouse, I’ll stop in and see if I can view the original petition. Regardless, I guess they weren’t successful based on the trustee deeds that followed. It’s too bad. I bet it would’ve made for a heckuva show! Now THAT’s reality TV.
FTHFan…NOT!,
Shoot me an email using the address at the bottom of the webpage.
If you’re willing to gather records from the courthouse regarding these transactions, I’d be happy to reimburse you the costs of copying, etc. I’d like to run down more details about the San Antonio crew and their suspicious transactions.
Same applies to those in other cities where the Flip This House and Real Estate Pros casts operate. I can’t visit all the courthouses, and would greatly appreciate your assistance in obtaining documentation of any nefarious activity.
– Mark Lyon
FTHFan…NOT,
Re: “With reference to the civil case you cite above (Post 407), it would seem that they probably sought an injunction to stop the foreclosure.”
I think that’s what it was also. Clearly though, ‘VCH Funding’ now holds the deed
(owns) the ‘few’ I’ve checked according to the latest Bexar County Records filings. And again, I’ve just checked a ‘few’, so far ; )
FTHFan…NOT,
Re: it would seem that they probably sought an injunction to stop the foreclosure.”
Or to be more specific, the auction on the court house steps on 4/3/2007 of the “defaulted” properties ; )
Hi, Mark.
I don’t mind doing a little sleuthing in Bexar County (San Antonio) for FTL, but unfortunately, I am going to be unavailable for a few weeks starting tomorrow. HOWEVER, the bulk of the filings that we have been referencing here are freely available for viewing and printing on the Bexar County Clerk’s site:
http://www.countyclerk.bexar.landata.com/
You’ll need to create a (free) login and I think you might need Java installed for the viewer app. That site will give you access to any land records (deeds, transfers, liens, etc.) that have been filed with the county.
The injunction I mentioned looking up is a civil filing so to view that one you would either have to go to the courthouse, or it might *possibly* be available to an attorney if those filings are digitized but that is on a different fee based system if it’s available at all.
Good luck and I will check in with you all when I return.
To all the haters, you just wish you had HALF of what Armando has.
I bought the full $997 package and that thing is overflowing with information.
Now, if some of you don’t know how to read or can’t get off your arses and be productive, I guess all you CAN do is bitch and moan about how everyone is a scammer.
Before you spend your life putting others down, you should really try to be positive and make things happen like Armando did and is doing for me with his teachings.
Yes, this is pointed towards Mike and all of you who don’t know jack but still are trying to slam a good GOOD step by step guide to flipping for profits. I would like to end with a swear word for you but you are not worth it.
Armando’s master course taught me alot! If you want to flip like a pro, go get it!
So Robert, how is it that you can rant 3 paragraphs against everyone here and yet not give even a single example of what is so great in the $1000 course you bought?
Obvious shill post. My regards to Armando.
Mike Voss
Well, Robert. I’m looking forward to you posting all about your successful flips, to include location and property record document numbers. Oh and Robert, you make your money on the BUY, did you skip that part? Cause’ if you paid $997 you must have missed this stuff being dumped on eBay for far less. Hey, but keep thinking ‘positive’ with your new rose colored glasses that you obviously bought into that make your credit card seem like something it’s not ; )
Robert,
Re: “you just wish you had HALF of what Armando has”
Well it certainly wouldn’t be that half that was the multitude of properties that got “repoed” on 4/2/2007 and then actioned off on the courthouse steps the next day. Was that covered in the course you bought?
Ouch ; )
Steve – last time I checked, half of nothing was….nothing. 🙂
These bs shill posts are so freaking obvious. They start out calling everyone ‘haters’, then talk about how great and succesful Armando is, then how the poster bought the course and is sure of his future success. And they NEVER follow up post when confronted.
Armando: you don’t fool a single person reading this blog – you’re pathetic, man. They should call you Con-mando insead of Armando, because a con man is what you are, period.
I’ll be posting my review of your $100 course very soon, and it doesn’t look good. Hopefully I’ll receive your $1000 course soon and put an end to that shortly after.
We all know you read this blog – it’s been proven. Either be a man and post under your true identity or bugger off and die because you fool no one.
Mike Voss
“Well it certainly wouldn’t be that half that was the multitude of properties that got “repoed” on 4/2/2007 and then actioned off on the courthouse steps the next day.”
Got proof of that?
All I see is shoddy detective work with a lot of guessing of who owns what, whos affiliated with the Montelongos, etc.
You haven’t seen the paperwork nor do I think you would understand it if you read it.
Just watch the libelous statements because I can guarantee you Armando has a lot more money than you and can sue your ass off.
If you have rock solid proof with all the paperwork then post it or make a website with it instead of spreading rumors here.
I’m not sticking up for Armando if he’s a con man but until he’s charged for a crime then I’ll take him at his word…or embelished word…for example when he says he flips 20-30 houses a month maybe he means he buys that many. You heard of tax sales? Maybe he buys that many houses at tax sales per month?
Texas has a redemption period of 2 years for the owners to pay the buyers back what they paid for the houses at the tax sale price plus 25%. It’s a great deal for investors like Montelongo but not worthy enough to mention on the show since there’s no drama or renovation. Maybe that’s what you’re seeing on the county records.
Anyway, that’s just one possibilty that you may have missed.
Well at least we know that in April 2007, Armando & company flipped at least 25 properties… sorta 🙂
Hi Mike
Buy it so you can find out. Honestly people like you who complain at the wind should get their feet on solid ground.
Did yo9u check the info Armando has to give? All the way through or did you stop wherever you felt it was futile?
Most people make up their minds real quick and most people here seem to be like that. Without basing their thoughts on FACTS and checking before they comment.
Purchase everything Armando has to offer, then your comments will be worth something. Your IGNORANT thoughts show how little knowledge you have.
Little minds achieve little results.
Oh and please stop commenting about how Armando sucks. You probably do that for everyone you know so better yet, just stop posting all together you negative nanny.
I got screwed don’t buy anything everyone is out to get you death and taxes blah blah blah
Enjoy life you have only one of those to live. 🙂
Robert – blah, blah, blah. Post ONE thing you got from your wasted $1000 on Armando’s bs product. You still haven’t done that, just as I said you wouldn’t.
If you had a clue you’d know that all the reserch posted here is easily verified and Armando has been proven as a liar long ago, just as you’ve now been proven a shill. That’s why Armando HAS been cut from Flip THis House, Learning Annex, and all other associations he had and is now desperately hawking worthless courses.
For the record, you can’t “guarantee” Armando has a penny (inless, of course, you ARE Armando and are willing to post proof of your liquid assets), so you ought to just stop talking because YOU are the one demonstrating your ignorance.
Post your business name, properties, etc. and show us your bona fides, otherwise YOU are the one who can just screw off as you have no legitimacy and your words carry no weight.
There are REAMS of evidence posted here that Armando is a liar and a con artist, including DIRECT challenges to him to prove otherwise. If you want to take the opposing view, post PROOF, not your opinion, which is worthless and inaccurate.
Later, fool.
I know Mike Voss personally as I live in Canada
and do business in Los Angeles. Mike likes to “act”
like an expert in everything from real estate to raising chickens.
He is one of those guys who is the annoying “know it all” at a
party (if he even gets invited) that no one takes seriously. He is financially broke
and lives to knock anyone who doesn’t agree with him.
Let’s review Mike’s canned responses to this post:
1) You must be Armando
2) You must be a friend of Armando
3) Give me a record of my being a “know it all”.
4) Now that I can’t think of anything else, let me pick on your spelling or grammar.
Mike Voss is the jealous little kid that none of his friends like and the
grown adult that hasn’t made a name for himself.
To Robert:
If you are Robert what I doubt by the way you talk….
Armando not only SUCKS but also is an ignorant, selfish idiot!
After his shows we stopped watching most of AE if they could not see who is representing them in their “shows”
Not only I am not going to buy the sh..t Armando is “writing” but also tell you YOU are an idiot inspired by the “crapreation” like that…
Having 1000 I’d rather spend it on something worthy or just have a huge party making fun of Mentelongo and enjoying ourselves, not on some crap you are advertising as “book”, you, idiot!
I suppose if Armando and/or MHB were legit, they could just easily supply a list of all the properties they have flipped this year (Jan 1 – July 1)…heck, keep the financial details to themselves…but share what *should* be easily verified via public records.
It is time to put-up or shut-up.
Armando/Veronica/MondoMan…stop the shill posting…
On the otherhand…maybe Armando has a method that he is not sharing in this $997 (sometimes discounted) book of his that he doesn’t really want to share…like shell trusts, cut-outs, multiple names, wrap-around sales, whatever…
Lee,
Re: “Well it certainly wouldn’t be that half that was the multitude of properties that got “repoed” on 4/2/2007 and then actioned off on the courthouse steps the next day.”
Got proof of that?
It’s public record, foolio. Look it up
It’s ironic to see people attacking Mike Voss, when all he’s doing is protecting people who are quick to buy get-rich-quick nonsense from Armando, who has yet to prove that any of what he says works. Bob, you’ve said nothing that disproves any of Mike’s postings and you’ve made a personal issue out of something that doesn’t belong in that realm. I don’t know Mike and he obviously doesn’t need me to defend him, but I think you’ve missed the point of this site.
Bob wrote:
“I know Mike Voss personally as I live in Canada and do business in Los Angeles.”
Really now, Bob?!?
Then I’m sure it will be no problem for you to identify yourself and your company so as to prove that you are telling the truth and not either Armando or some lying idiot making that up. Since I know *nobody* from Canada (other than a female model working here on an H-1 visa) it’s pretty obvious that you’re lying. Post your full name, company, and where and how we met.
Since we both know you ARE lying and don’t know me, and that I’ve substantiated myself and my background here numerous times, it’s fairly obvious we’ll never hear from you again and that your post is either by Armando or on his behalf.
PS: Armando: you write just like you talk – in staccato, incomplete, childish bursts that are frequently not even completely formed because, like a child, you cannot contain yourself long enough to complete them. Additionally, the recurrent themes (I have money, you don’t, I have a name and am important, you’re not) which reveal your personality flaws make it really easy to see through your shill posts and identify you. We all know who is really posting here.
If you want to conceal your identity more effectively, ask a therapist to screen your fake posts to hide your personality flaws. (or maybe just use your wife, like before)
The fact of the matter is that plenty of people ARE smarter than you, wealthier than you, and better people than you. You fool no one. (except maybe yourself)
I looked up Armando Montelongo on the Bexar County Assesors website and he and his company do not have more than $200,000 worth of properties – including his own residence
Does anyone want to comment on this?
I ran across this web site as I was doing some research. I had purchased a house and immediately had problems with it. I’m hoping to sell it and have spoken with some folks that “flip” houses in hopes of selling it for what we owe. The story about what happened to my family because of this house is long and involved. I won’t go in to that but I am going to post some tips from what I have learned from my experience. This is a bit off the topic here so I hope nobody minds.
Here are a few tips for those of you that are purchasing a “used” home of any age. These tips are based on what I have learned from this one house (purchased in Texas):
1) Talk to the neighbors that live around the house you are considering purchasing before you purchase it. Don’t be shy, knock on the door and say hello. Maybe you might start by asking them about schools or local churches, or whatever. Then ask them if they know of any problems with the house. If they have seen any repair trucks at the house for example. Ask them if they know why the sellers are moving.
2) In Texas ALL real real estate inspectors are licensed with the state. Never hire any inspector suggested by any real estate agent involved in the deal! Find your own inspector and get references and CALL those references! See if you can find one with professional liability insurance. MAKE CAREFUL NOTE of the agreement the inspector wants you to sign! I repeat! Make careful note of the inspectors agreement! In Texas the inspectors all have a clause limiting their liability to what you pay them. So, if you pay them $495 and they make a huge mistake that costs you $100’s of thousands you are screwed. Strike through this part of the agreement if you can. I suggest you videotape the inspection. Open up every door in the place, every attic door and anything else you can get in to. And make the inspector look at everything you can. When you get the inspection report read every line! And demand the inspectors written notes they made during the inspection. Usually they just put what they noted in a computer and sometimes they screw up. Get the notes and compare it to the computer generated inspection report. If the inspector finds things to fix and writes up money estimates DO NOT trust that they know what the real costs are. If there is a plumbing issue and the inspector says it’s going to cost $100 get a real plumber in to give you real estimates, etc.
3) No matter what the inspector finds bring in a plumber, HVAC people. Hire an electrician, a roofer and pool company if there is a pool. If you have any question about anything bring in a professional! If they do an estimate make sure you read and understand it.
4) If the house is expensive hire an engineer to inspect the house besides hiring an inspector.
5) READ THE SELLER’S DISCLOSURE. READ ANYTHING THE SELLER PROVIDES THAT LISTS PRIOR WORK, IMPROVEMENTS or ANY KIND OF WORK THE SELLERS HAD DONE ON THE HOUSE!! If they have anything listed on the disclosure they repaired or improved get all the receipts for any work they have done.
6) Again, I’m speaking of “used houses” here. DEMAND they provide and carefully review the disclosure the person selling TO YOU received when THEY PURCHASED the house they are trying to sell you. Also get the inspection from when THEY purchased the house. The earnest money contract may stipulate that they have to give you prior inspections if they have lived in the house less than a certain number of years. No matter how long they have owned the house get the disclosure they received and the inspection they had done.
7) Go to city hall and find the permit department. Give them the address of the house you are considering buying and see if there are past permits that have been pulled for the house.
8) Call your insurance agent. Get them to run the address on the house you are looking at in the ChoicePoint CLUE system and the ISO A+ system. These databases may list past insurance claims. If your agent does not have access to these databases find one that does. You may find out things about the house they are not telling you about.
9) I’ve listed a lot of things above. if you can’t get these things RUN!
10) Ask the listing agent and the selling agent if they have Errors and Omissions insurance. If they don’t do not use them. Ask your agent to pull all the MLS data on the house you are looking at and to let you read it. Find out how long it’s been on the market and what the person selling to you paid for it when they bought it if possible. A lot of houses have been sold several times. This is especially true of houses with problems. If you can find out who the prior listing and selling agents were on prior sales CALL THEM and ask them if they know of any problems with the property.
11) Besides not using an agent that does not have liability insurance BEWARE of real estate agents that work as “independent contractors”. For example, there is one HUGE real estate organization (think balloons) who has agents that rent their offices, etc. from the franchise owner. In the event your “agent” that works for these types makes a mistake you will have a tough time getting to the rich folks that own the balloon.
OK, let’s say you do everything right. You hire the right people, you have a great inspector, etc. You do everything right and you buy by the house only to find that the house has horrible problems that have been covered up. And you are screwed. Big time! If you have to sue be very careful when it comes to lawyers and litigation. Find a board certified real estate lawyer and only sue of they take the case on contingency.
Sorry about the long post. But I assure you that you never want to learn what I did after buying what I thought was my dream home.
It’s amaizing that A&E will produce and air a show with these jokers and liars, and yet cancel the best reality show ever created in Random1.
Good job A&E, and Dog is a real hero, with his 10 or so illegitimate kids, hey why not give Sean Kemp a show too!
Very sad
F Baken,
WOW! Can I say it again? WOW!
If you don’t mind I want to showcase one of your many points. Which is if you don’t like something in a contract, strike it out before you sign it!!! There’s no such thing as a “standard contract”.
Audrey,
Re: “looked up Armando Montelongo on the Bexar County Assesors website and he and his company do not have more than $200,000 worth of properties – including his own residence
Does anyone want to comment on this?”
Forget the Assessors. Go here and get yourself a FREE login registration…
http://www.countyclerk.bexar.landata.com/
Once you get there here’s a few off the top of my head to check out ; )
Mandoman Management
Montelongo Acquisitions
VCH Funding
Great White Ventures
I was so excited when I seen this show for the first time. Like everything I search the internet for his book. It seemed odd that I was getting bounced around. I ordered the free pages and noticed quite few spelling errors which had me thinking that the editor did a terrible job.
Long story short, I do not know how I fouund this website but I thank God Almighty that I did. I had the order page filled out on another page that I was ready to pay. Once again, thank God I didn’t get robbed!
I’ve worked in real estate for 13 years. Sadly, the nature of the market created conditions that made it attractive to guys like Armando. He’s another “Johnny Come Lately” and represents the camp of people who came into real estate industry with no regard for the client – and even less regard for the industry. Many of the people that came into it were failures in every other venture in their life a la Armando Montelongo. People are either lazy or ambitious by nature. It isn’t a trait that can be turned on and off so for me it’s hard to digest the fact that he was essentially a bum until he turned 31 then “found his calling”. He’s another classic example of how easy it was to make money in real estate the last five years. Let’s see how he does now that the market is finally correcting itself, lending standards have tightened, and honesty and ethics are becoming more standard (again).
His whole “rags to riches” story is terribly flawed. Wouldn’t you at least attempt to get some type of health insurance if your wife was expecting a baby? It’s not like they both woke up one morning and she went in labor. They had nine months to prepare for this baby. There are a lot of jobs that offer health insurance. They may not be ideal jobs but at least they will have insurance. He didn’t have a job when his kid was born? I’m more inclined to think that his $50,000 credit card debt was due to lifestyle choices. We can clearly see that in the show, how he dresses like a pimp, is groomed like a princess, and struts around in his Hummer.
I did get his free pages out of curiosity. It looks like it was rushed to print because there are a few print errors. He states, “With this system, I am able to fix and flip 25-30 properties a month consistently. That means 240 to 360 houses a year. We make a minimum of $20,000 per house.” Um….I did the math and figured that flipping 25-30 houses a year would be 300 to 360 homes. Obviously, if doesn’t have the pride to make sure that something in print is accurate and perfect, do you think he’d do this for his real estate? He’s only in this for the money and that wasn’t how real estate operated 13 years ago. People in my camp do a lot of free work because sometimes it’s the right thing to do. We are all in business to make money but at the same time any good leader knows where to draw the line and let humanity have it’s role. Remember Richard’s friend, Gus? Take that as an example. Plus, sharp businessmen in real estate aren’t generic. They are very specific on their numbers. They will tell you, “I averaged 23.4 flips last year and am currently averaging 26.2 per month year-to-date. My average net profit on them is $21,500.”
I seriously hope that TLC is done with them and that this delay in filming isn’t intended to give Armando time to market/scam his newest product. He also took a $5000 course on internet marketing to learn how to build a seven figure internet business. If he already has one, why not expand on that and make it better? You can see his testimonial right here, stating he went from making $0 to $48,000 in just a few months. However, he states in the recorded interview that he made $48,000 a month. Haven’t we already heard that story? Scroll down to the bottom and listen to it:
http://the7figurecode.com/
i think there are a lot of people out there that like to mess with otheres that are happy and doing good for them selfs so why dont you all leave them alone and get a life losers
erik wrote:
i think there are a lot of people out there that like to mess with otheres that are happy and doing good for them selfs so why dont you all leave them alone and get a life losers
Well, Armando, there “are things that go bump in the night and we are the people who bump back.” We are the advocates who prevent scammers like you from getting away with the damage you’ve done to innocent people.
I’d like to invite you to open your morning paper and read about the subprime lending implosion and violent increase in foreclosures. This is a condition of a market where the “professionals” were “left alone”.
Strange! Doc # 20060085873
Grantor: Back Alley Land Trust
Beneficiary: Manodman Management, Inc
Beneficiary’s Mailing Address:
4535 W.Sahara Ave. SE
Las Vegas, Nevada
Why, I wonder would Armando use an out of state mailing address for that!? And not the ‘usual’ San Antonio one????
Typo alert!
Should have been…
Beneficiary: Mandoman Management, Inc
Beneficiary’s Mailing Address:
4535 W.Sahara Ave. ste 204
Las Vegas, Nevada
OT – More fun in ‘Hotlanta’…
http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3128626&st=1155
where can i go too get info or learn how too flip a house. i never did it and need to get pointed in the right direction. please help email at theott7@hotmail.com
Howdy Folks,
You have all entertained me for many hours tonight. I’m wayyy past my bedtime but this is like a book that I can’t put down.
Anyhoo, good job on crying “Foul” on the Montelongo folks. I haven’t liked them since the first episode and thought something was amiss. So, I rooted around on the net found out stuff and that was it. Watched a few more shows to prove myself wrong but nope a rat is a rat is a ratmondo.
Here are some more links to check them out.
The Texas Real Estate Commission website shows who is licensed and if you click on their name it gives their courses taken. If Veronica’s first name is Laila then she is listed. You can search “montelongo” at the top middle of the screen.
http://www.trec.state.tx.us/index.asp
This site is the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. You can search and see that some of the Montelongo businesses (that are associated with the A&E Montelongos) are noted “Not in Good Standing”.
http://ecpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/Index.html
Just thought I’d share.
Hey Steve-
He’s probably set up a corporation here as corporations to not have to pay employee state tax. I’m right around the corner from that address and will be going by there today. I’ll stop in and check it out and see what’s there. I’m betting it’s a virtual office address.
There are plenty of good books (used)
on Amazon that teach the same thing. The used books are as low as ten dollars. This is a much better way to spend your money. Paying $900 for Armando’s info is crazy!
Katie2U – Re: “If Veronica’s first name is Laila then she is listed”
That’s not it, her name really is
Veronica ; )
Hey Darryl – I googled that address and it’s had several occupants.
Steve on #444:
It appears he originally setup Mandoman Management as a Nevada corporation. That address is to a company that will (for a small fee) setup a company, file papers in their name (so you can remain anonymous), setup an address in Nevada, act as your registered agent, setup phones lines, answer your company phones and forward your mail.
As for filing, what they do is setup up the company in their name and once setup, they resign and make you president, vice president or whatever. In Nevada, you are only required to file your list of company officers yearly. Thus when it comes time to do your yearly filing with the state, you simply reverse the process.
People think they can setup a company and operate anonymously under the protection of a company and with little or no consequences.
YET, there is little or no advantage setting up a Nevada company and operating primarily in Texas.
1)You have to file in Texas as a foreign corporation and pay the corporate franchise tax (our version of a company state income tax).
2)Although the federal government does not have direct access to Nevada state records, they can still subpoena those records.
3)You may have some limited protection of civil liability (eg defaulting on loans); however, it offers NO protection from any criminal liability (eg fraud, tax evasion).
4)Operating like this will set off red flags with the IRS or Attorney General and if you don’t keep good records, the government will be more than happy to make an example out of you.
Looks like A&E is going to show a new FTH with the Montelongos:
http://www.aetv.com/flipthishouse/flip2_episode_guide.jsp?episode=235646
Wow. Thanks for the warning everyone! I just watched the show the other night and thought what a good way to get out of our student loan debt. I began to research Armando and found this site. I guess the first thing that came to my mind is that if the Montelongo’s want to help the poor people like me by sharing their secrets to success then why are they charging such a high price for the secrets??? Us poor people can’t afford to throw away 1,000. As I read on and saw more comments, my thought was confirmed. Thanks for saving me the trouble. I would hate to have to use the book as toilet paper.
Katie2U,
Re: ““Not in Good Standing”.
http://ecpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/Index.html”
NICE find ; )
The address listed for Mondoman Management Inc, is in fact Nevada Mail Center. Which you can post your company information at and rent mail boxes, etc.
Howdy Sleuths,
Steve–yes Laila is Rick’s wife. I found that out today while rooting around in the Bexar County website. The V in her name is the initial from her maiden name.
That Las Vegas address reminded me of a story by USA Today about people setting up corporations in Nevada. Here’s the link to that story:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/regulation/2007-02-23-tax-havens-usat_x.htm
So I went to the Nevada state government website. Armando has set up two corporations there.
-Armando Montelongo Worldwide Inc
-Mandoman Management
Here is the state’s website to do a company search:
https://esos.state.nv.us/SOSServices/AnonymousAccess/CorpSearch/CorpSearch.aspx
I tried the Orange County California website and found that Armando had some businesses there:
-A&D Auto Glass-3/25/1997
(two owners)
-A-Express Auto Glass-8/12/1997
(one owner)
-Montelongo Health Solutions 8/4/2000
(one owner)
I went ‘next door’ to Los Angeles County but was called away before rooting around there much.
The most fruitful was the Bexar County website. Those guys have a variety of business and/or trust names. Coral Reef Ltd is another one of theirs.
Did you see where the Montelongo’s were to pay some woman’s taxes and then didn’t do so?
They also have taxes past due on a number of properties under Armando, David or Veronica’s name.
Given David’s new venture into Real Estate seminars…shouldn’t he have a license for some credibility?
Ha! I associated credibility with Montelongo.
Check with y’all later.
Katie
Thanks, all! I figured at best (or worst?) the Las Vegas address was a “mail drop”.
But that brings me back to the original rabbit hole I crawled into. Why that doc, and why the Las Vegas address when everything else I’ve seen so far lists a San Antonio address for that “Inc” ???
There was a reason for it. What, I don’t know. Yet ; )
Mike and anyone else who thinks Armando is a bad person.
Why in the hell would I post here if I was actualy Armando. Don’t you think Armando has better things to do and is rolling in cash anyway? Isn’t this a futile exercise in trying to your/my point across? Get off your Internet crack wagon and get a clue. I am someone who really gets pissed off at people who point fingers and try to put people down while it is based on pure guessing.
You want proof that what I am saying is true about how Armando is truthful? BUY THE PRODUCTS YOU CHEAP SO AND SO AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.
I don’t have to give you ANY info about how this is real, YOU however need to prove that the products are no good. How can you say what Armando is doing is a bad thing while you don’t even know what the true offers are?
Can you say:
– This is not true
– That fact is wrong
– etc
All you can say is “It’s all garbage because anything Armando does is bad”
Back it up buddy. Put your money where you mouth is. I did and Armando is NOT me but he sure as heck has my support.
Again, negative nanny death and taxes everything sucks. That’s what you seem to be all about. Nevermind that some people in this world actualy take a good thing and make good with it.
My grammar, attack all you want it is nothing compared to your negative text based polution.
Mike,
I know this website is mostly directed towards exposing this Armondo Montelongo guy, but it also seems that a lot (by the way Dale…and others….this is how “a lot” is spelled! 2 words!)of people seem to also be searching for info on flipping since obviously they are not going to get valid info from what Montelongo is selling. SO…I just wanted to say that I really do believe in most of what you had to say in post #74, and do respect the fact that you seem to have been in this game a long time and have made yourself a lifetime student of Real Estate. The only way that I know, and with all honesty do have limited experience (but I do have some experience)that so called flipping can work is:
1. First and formost when you target a property, figure out, based on the comps in the neigborhood, what you think you will be able to sell the house for in the amount of time you are allowing for the rehab. In other words WORK THE NUMBERS BACKWARDS. Then from that figure, subtract your remodel and labor costs, loan fees for the purchase, your carrying costs (include the possibility in most markets of contributing to seller closing costs as an incentive), property taxes, if you are selling it by owner, but want to offer an incentive to agents bringing you buyers, then consider around 3% of your price for that (you don’t have to…but you might want to), and then pad at least another 10% to that number for the unforseen. Then you have the an idea of what YOU should pay for the house ( and not what some seller is hoping to sell it for)
2. When making an offer you have to low ball. And you can’t just be looking at one property. You have to be doing this to several….as many as you can find. Because you are going to be submitting lots of low ball offers and of course not all of them will get accepted. But that one that does for whatever reason could be your gold mine. You never know when someone is desperate to sell. Also, learn how to write offers yourself, if you come in with no real estate agent, then you can save the seller possibly 3%, more or less, that they would have to pay out to your agent, and you use that fact as a negotiating factor. Yes, it is riskier, just familiarize yourself with all the laws of being able to back out of the contract and being able to get your earnest deposit back. This is where an agent, if you have one, helps protect you. If you elect to go with no agent just read the contract carefully. And if you want internet access to the listings that only agents see without using an agent, see if you can make friends with one who will let you use their access code. Obviously they are not supposed to do that….but you just want to do the leg work instead of them. Plus, at least in San Diego, CA, there are lots of cool ways you can use the system to search for properties for you.
3. If you get an accepted offer, get an inspection on the property. Its anywhere from $350 to $600 and is one of the best insurance policies against possibly losing thousands in the end. Plus it will give you a better idea of how to budget and will eliminate a lot of the stresses of the dreaded unknown. If you know that you have not only addressed the cosmetic issues of the house but also the things that not everyone can see, you will be a more honest and confident seller. PLUS whatever the inspector finds you may be able to use these issues to negociate a better price when buying. For example, if its found that the whole house needs to be rewired, you find out what the RETAIL cost of getting that done would be. Retail is what most people out there expect to pay. But if you want to flip houses you of course know how to get it done for a lot less. Right there you have increased your profit margin….thanks to getting an inspection.
3. speaking of getting it for less….that is the only way I think you can make flipping work. Negotiate everything, labor, materials, appliances, paint etc. I think a lot of these flippers just go down to Home Depot and get everything. If you research enough, you can get quality items for a lot less. Its just takes time. And I am not suggesting cutting corners…all I am saying is don’t pay retail.
Anyway…I seem to be going on and on. I know there is A LOT more to it then what I have written here. And I know this website is mainly geared towards exposing this scammer. But I just wanted to comment on Mike’s post that flipping a property is “an illusion”. Although I do agree with most of your points Mike and again respect your obvious experience. It can be done. Its just not as easy as it used to be simply because of the market and is not as easy as these shows make them out to be. But Real Estate has always been a cyclical market and it will come back. So like Mike is doing, become a student of Real Estate, because as in most things, knowledge is power.
BTW….any comments on the show “Property Ladder” and Kristen Kemp? seems to be a more realistic approach to the game. And they, unlike Flip This House, mention the carrying costs and RE agents commissions, as part of the costs and when they mention the profit….they clearly say “gross profit.” And one show I just saw, they said the people still have not sold the house. So not all the stories are success stories…unlike FTH. Kemp has a book called “Flipping Confidential.” Anyone know anything good or bad about it?
Not that I am supporting “Bob” or anything….but really….has anyone here bought the Armondo’s program…..read the entire thing and have attempted to implement what the course tells you to do? I mean that is really what the argument of all this should be based on. That what he is selling, what he has written about either works or doesn’t. AND is what he purports on his website about his books actually true and workable? Until that is answered I don’t think people can have a valid reason for bashing the course/books.
Isn’t this the real question here?? I am not supporting him or condemning him b/c I don’t know. I have heard him quote these ridiculous numbers about his business, like over 1000 homes in 5 years and even worse 30 homes a month. Come on! So based on that I have little faith in the guy.
Actually the more I think about it, “Bob”, I think at the very least Mike Voss and “Steve from Texas” among others have shown in these posts that IF Armondo does what he says he does, then why, one, is there no proof of it in public records and two, there is actually counter proof to all his claims? At the very least these guys have proven him to be a liar. And how many people want to give their hard earned money for some course, that may or may not work, to a proven liar?
And you say:
Back it up buddy. Put your money where you mouth is. I did
They did back it up….actually public records backs it up! And what did you do to support your arguments and “put your money where your mouth is?” And, sorry Bob, but Mike is right….you do sound like a little kid arguing. I am not trying to “bash” you….I don’t really know you. But if you want to post constructive poignant arguments to support your buddy Armondo, then you should rethink the logic of your sentence structures. Just a friendly suggestion…
I’ll take this one with pleasure:
Armando (pretending to be Bob) wrote:
“Why in the hell would I post here if I was actualy Armando.”
** Because you are being exposed as a fraud and are desperate for money since you are in default on numerous properties, owe taxes, and have little income other than your ripoff courses.
The word is out on you and you are desperate for income. That’s why.
“Don’t you think Armando has better things to do and is rolling in cash anyway?”
**Nope, in fact it’s pretty obvious from the 20+ foreclosed houses, the fake rehabs, the past due taxes, and the desparate attempt to defraud the public that Armando has little or no money and is desperate to negate his exposure here as a fraud and thief. People with money don’t buy expensive cars when they cannot even pay for the properties they’ve tied up – broke people do that.
“You want proof that what I am saying is true about how Armando is truthful? BUY THE PRODUCTS YOU CHEAP SO AND SO AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.”
** I already have them. Didn’t cost me a dime because people who got ripped off and want to save others sent them to me for free. In just a few more days, I will tell everyone here just what a worthless pile of nothing they are, and also how to get real information at a fraction of the cost or free from other sources – books and such by people who know what they are doing, unlike you. As they say, the best things in life are free, and you cannot even produce a single person with one good thing to say about your $1000 stuff in 500 posts here.
” How can you say what Armando is doing is a bad thing while you don’t even know what the true offers are?”
** As I’ve said, I know what the offers are- they’re crap. Your desperation gets worse with every ill-formed sentence.
“Back it up buddy. Put your money where you mouth is. I did and Armando is NOT me but he sure as heck has my support. ”
**LOL What pathetic hardcore sales crap – try to intimidate people into buying. You loser – go rent Glengarry Glenross and learn something. I think everyone here can see that I’ve backed up every word I say, and that you haven’t backed up a single one. As I predicted, you were lying about knowing me or anything about me, lying about who you are (post your identity – you can’t, because you’re Armando), and you can’t post any useful info from Armando’s (I mean your) course because there isn’t any. I HAVE backed it up – I’ve exposed you as a liar by demonstrating you cannot substantiate your false claims or even your identity. You, however, have backed up zero.
“Again, negative nanny death and taxes everything sucks. That’s what you seem to be all about. Nevermind that some people in this world actualy take a good thing and make good with it.”
** No, what I’m all about is that the truth stands on it’s own against lies. You posted a pack of bs, I challenged you on all of them, and you did not substantiate a single one. I think anyone here will agree that you’ve been exposed as a liar and the fact that you would make such a pathetic attempt to defend Armando can only mean that you are him, because nobody else has any reason to defend him. There’s PLENTY of good out there, and most of it is free and FAR better than your worthless crap. TIck Tock – that’s the clock ticking down to the last sale of your courses as more people learn the truth every day.
On a personal note, Armando, you’re a coward. You might be able to intimidate some poor subcontractor or your brother or wife, but trust me, I’m way out of your league pal, so quit while you’re behind.
Mike Voss
Sloan,
Re: “Kemp has a book called “Flipping Confidential.” Anyone know anything good or bad about it?”
I read it and I thought it was pretty
good!
Sloan – your points are all valid. When I call flipping an illusion, I am specifically refering to the kind of things shown on FTH, most of which have, consequently, been shown to have been faked. Most people in the real universe aren’t shooting 3 week projects for TV ratings – people need to know the difference before giving away their money. I’ve been approached by at least 2 of the shows talked about here – I turned them down because I had work to get done, which was my priority, not making tv.
With respect to Kirsten Kemp and her show and book, I have a lot to say about that and will do so in the review I am preparing to post in the next few days as I have alkso read her book and seen her shows since they began.
As you have suggested, I have thoroughly reviewed Armando’s $100 course and have the experience and background to tell everyone what is/ is not viable advice in it. Some of it can be used, some of it could land you in prison instantly. It has taken me a while to write the review because I am being very thorough. As you might expect, though, everything that has been discovered through research about The Montelongos and their past work is borne out in my review – those who have been paying attention/doing their homework will not be surprised, and a lot of people will save a lot of money and find better alternatives going forward.
Best regards,
Mike
Katie Sleuth ; )
Nice job!
No there’s a reality show I’d like to see!
“Mike Takes “Bob” to the Wood Shed” lol
Sloan’s post was very informative. As a budding flipper myself, I found it very useful. Has anyone reviewed the home flipping package created by Than and Paul of CT Homes LLC? They seem to be a lot more legitimate than Armando. Their courses are being marketed at http://www.fortunebuilders.com.
Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hehe. Want to hear an hour of complete bullsh*t?
“Interview With Armando Montelongo!”
http://www.retuexclusive.com/
I’ll say this though. The book “pimp” Brian said this at the end that I DO believe…
Brian: “Armando gave unbelievable information.”
Oh, and Armando has cut back to 5 to 8 flips a month (from 25-30) “several months ago” because of “all of the TV stuff and the book” doncha know. And, he’s looking for a second “beach house” in California! LOL
Mike Voss:
I’m unclear on how to contact you offline. I think I have some info that would be helpful to you.
Everything Armando said on that webcast “SOUNDS” great, on paper it “works”. Unfortunately though, it doesn’t mesh with reality in the real world.
One more thought… “You buy a property for 30 cents on the dollar and sell it for 70 cents on the dollar”. Nothing to it!
Dream on ; )
RayMass – I can be reached at contact@hyperion1.com
Best regards,
Mike Voss
Folks,
I live in San Antonio and if there’s something I can do to help y’all out–let me know.
Katie
Steve in Texas wrote:
No there’s a reality show I’d like to see!
“Mike Takes “Bob” to the Wood Shed” lol
That’s out of line you mother F’er. Go on and trash the Internet with your useless garbage. As far as I am concerned, you can all go have a “lets trash good people and make ourselves look good party”
Slimes. Leaches. Degenerates. You should all be ashamed of yourselves talking out of your arses with zero FACTS.
F you all. Track my IP webmaster I ain’t in Texas
no but i bet your in one of his affiliate locations
Hello, first time poster looong time reader. My wife is so mad at me for being on here so long lol. I love how you can read this blog then click a link then another then another and get so much info so fast. I have to thank Al Gore for building the series of tubes and switches and things we call “internet”.
First off Mike V. and a couple others are calling a lot of folks on here Armando. In posts 23, 24, 25 the webmaster edited them to show the IP address of the posters but has not done so with any of the post that were called “shill” posts since. Any chance they might be other people? My next comment is about David Montelongo. I see a lot of people asking about why he left the show but no one has answered why he left and what he is doing now. Just the tribe thing? I would love to see a link or any info anyone has about him. I cant find anything about his departure from the show except for his wifes blog post. I knew the Texas and Altanta shows had alot of staging but I couldnt of guess it would be so deep. My wife and I were embarrased for Armando when we watched the show. Especially the show where he was beating on his chest and talking about how he was not going to let that peticular house beat him. It was like a car wreck. I wanted to look away but I just couldn’t. OK my last thing is about all of these workshops and real estate information kits that are available. DO NOT FALL INTO THE TRAP!!. I was surfing around late night TV one night and I saw this infomercial for http://www.nationalgrants.com/. They had a free 2 day seminar here in Indianapolis and were giving away 4 free booklets just for attending. So I went and sat through a 4 hour sales scam just to get the free items. Well I came back the next day just to hear what they had to say and it sounded awesome!! The guess speaker spoke alot about being a Christian and making so much money he helped his church out with. So being a Christian myself I was like how can this be fake. At that time I was really looking for some help getting started in real estate so I bought what I though was their full program. They said my counselor would be contacting me within a week. Well it turned out that the “counselor” was a salesmen and that my $1000.00 was only the limited package and to get actual help from the national grants staff would of cost another $4000.00!!
There really is no feeling like finding out you have been scammed by someone.
Type in national grants conference in Yahoo search bar and look what comes up in Yahoos “also try” suggestion above the first result: it says national grants conference SCAM!!!!
No Joke!
Also a friend at work ordered one of the highly promoted on late night TV real estate kits and gave it to me to check out and it just had very basic common sense information in it. A waste of money.
The fact is if you want real estate information go to the library and get books free. My locale branch has dozens of them and you dont have to pay a dime.
Take the lesson I learned and steer clear of Armando Montelongo’s junk.
sorry for the long message
Jeff
Hi Katie,
Any chance you can get a copy of this doc?
http://www.co.bexar.tx.us/webapps/html/DKLITDSP02.asp?txtLitIsn=0004363996
Bob wrote:
Slimes. Leaches. Degenerates. You should all be ashamed of yourselves talking out of your arses with zero FACTS.
Public records are not facts?!?!?
YOU have not posted ONE fact that can be backed up. The only thing you have done well is name calling.
Speaking of which, lets take a good look at what you said…
Slimes. Leaches. Degenerates…
For a second I thought you were speaking about the Montelongos. Armando does excel when it comes to speaking out his arse.
Richard and Montelongo are great at their respective jobs. Everyone should stop pointing the finger at Montelongo and look at themselves. I’m sure if anyone was followed around with a camera all day, and spliced it for the maximum response on television that they would also not look so pleasing on T.V. I have been buying and selling real estate for 5 years and have found the shows extremely helpful. Just remember everyone posting hate messages that “Ignorance is Bliss.”
To Bob:
First of all, I do address you directly, not “all of you..””
Second, I am not your buddy, as I am not drinking beer with you (God blessed!)
Third, I am not cheap, NEITHER I am stupid to buy such a shit from such an idiot like Armando.
If you are so “rich” do whatever your brain tells you, and support whomever you want. As well as I will always have the right to tell you that Armando is an idiot. So back up yourself!
I do not need to prove anything neither to you nor to other idiots who think that Armando is at least a penny-worth human.
I do support everybody on this site who is not as dumm as you and can use internet IN A POSITIVE WAY and find out that Armando is nobody else than just a scammer, liar and shiit for flipper. If you missed out proof of how he never flipped anything – your loss, I am not your mother or teacher helping you finding a way all paople see anyway.
I do notice grammar just because of my profession and interests. So instead of correcting it you choose pretending like everybody here is just trashing negative stuff and you and Armando are so positive and nice… Do you treat your wife (if you have any, or your girlfriend) the same way Armando treats Veronica? I do not consider her a woman at all – just a female. Forget about lady (to everybody). Just a trash attached to a male dog. You did miss out how Armando treats people or you are just lazy to read those who knew the people suffered from ambitions of Armando’s sick imagination? A kind of Hitler sickness… I HATE people sitting on welfare. Moreover, Armando Montelongo is a piece of fricking shit (sorry to all ladies and gentlemen reading me) sitting on welafare and making his business on your tax money, Bob, too, if you ever pay taxes.
I think such a shit should not even be shown on TV flips, but rather in a show how he looses welfare.
I am negative in some parts of my note, sure I am. I am discussing a piece of shit Armando Montelongo – why shpuld I be positive?
I can be positive about those who deserve it. And if you again missed out what everybody here is talking about – keep it up, there will be more to talk about. And if you are not as cheap and bought a book, be also not cheap and pay your sucker Armando welfare from your rich pocket. Or is it too much for you? Are you that cheap??? If you like him do support him in all ways, go on… more tax money will be given to normal people.
Jeff brought up a very good point – Its all at your library. I was given the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book a few years ago and decided to read the rest in that series. So being money smart, I went to the library and checked out all the books. I found so much information at the library, that I never bought a “course”. It is all common sense. I think the major problem people have is that fear and they are willing shell out money to the experts to tell them “they can do it.” Heck I was scarred the first investment property I bought. But after the 3rd, its gotten pretty routine.
I’m always looking for new ideas and techniques to help in the process. In fact, I love going to the “free” seminars to figure out what their angle is and then I just research it. Its really not worth paying these experts.
In fact Kiyosaki once said that there is a so called real estate expert out there who only makes money on his systems rather than actually buying real estate. I believe he was talking about Robert Allen, the “nothing down” guy.
My partner and I were talking about writing our own e-book about flipping and doing lease options. Then we would sell it for like $5 to shut these experts up.
I’ve always offered information to those who’ve asked for it. I would rather help someone out of a finacial mess than to charge them for my knowledge.
There are some great books out there – however many of them are fluff pieces to promote boot camps or mentor programs. Even the Rich Dad book is a fluff piece for the cashflow game he made.
I’m reading the flipping confidential book right now and its a nice overview of things to look out for. Pretty straight forward. Glad this site reccommended it. Any others?
As for Armando – he just sent out another email to buy his course for half off. Guess the sales have slowed down.
I bought and read Kristen Kemp’s Flipping Confidential and its very good. Some other books which I has a lot more detail are Flipping Houses for Dummies and Real Estate Investing for Dummies. Get these 3 books for about ~$50-60, and you will get tons better information than you will ever get in any Infomercial seminar scam.
Why is Armando on air to begin with for a real estate related show? Totally clueless about real estate investing and makes A&E look bad for airing that garbage.
Thank you, Mike, for the info on Armondo. He’s a disgrace and painful to watch. What IS A&E thinking?
Mike,
Ah…yes…I see now what you were referring to about flipping being an “illusion”. Yes, that is an illusion…that it can be done successfully and with quality in like 21 days (oh and with no permits too! I love it when they do that!)
Thanks
And thanks everyone for the info on the Kemp book…I’ll check it out.
Bob,
2 Simple questions…no name calling, no arguing:
If Armondo is so successful why do public records show he declared Chapter 13 BK and is still requesting financial reorganization from the BK courts? (And if you say that is some sort of financial strategy….do you think its an honest one?)
And secondly, how come if Armondo buys and sells all these properties, the public records do not support that?
Steve from Texas has pointed this out to you several times…but you seem to rather get all defensive and call people on this site names.
So can you constructively answer those 2 questions about Armondo, who you so vehemently defend?
Steve in Texas about #476:
I have a copy of that case. In a nutshell its a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) filed on the morning of April 3 (appx. 2-3 hrs before the foreclosure sale)- primary the property on 4719 Castle Rose.
He was seeking 10 more days to get funding for that property and pay off VCH Funding in full.
I’ll have a copy of that posted om my site this week.
If Armando is so rich (as he claims), why he doesn’t use $50,000 of his company money and pay off this loan?
I am so glad I found this thread .. I was really looking to buy the Armando montelongo book. I went to his website and the cheesy infomercial presentation and mentality of it was an instant turn off so I looked further and found this thread… THANK YOU THANK YOU .. Of cour I WILL NOT, I repeat.. WILL NOT purchase the Armando Montelongo book or anything … I will say the info I learned here! in this thread has been invaluable. Thanks again 🙂
You are all right, and wrong. The truth is that there is money to be made flipping houses, but it is not as easy as shown on T.V. There are actually some shows on other networks now that I really like that show people that are making money, but also those who are losing money. What is sad to me is that it is the financially desperate people with absolutely no knowledge or experience that are taking out second mortgages on their own homes and assuming huge risk of loss. Here is the facts about flipping and real estate in general.
1. If you can’t afford to make the monthly payments and sit on an investment for a year or more without additional income, you can’t afford the project period. Simple answer, DON’T DO IT!!!
2. There is no easy way to get money. You either need an invester which is always the best option since they will not forclose on your own home if the investment sits for too long, or most folks have to borrow against their own house which I do not recommend. Risk capital needs to be liquid, not borrowed. Unless like I said you have the income to support the additional payments until the house sells.
3. There are different markets for flips. Low Income, Middle Income, High Income. Each of these markets need to be treated differently. I agree with much of what Mike Voss has been saying but it all depends what market you are flipping in. The bottom line is that poor folks need a place to live just like anyone else. It needs to be dry, clean, and safe. But there is an absolute cap on the amount of money you can put into one of these properties. You can’t dump $200,000 into a property to make it perfect when the market will only support a $100,000 house. This means that some corners will more than likely have to be cut. No one wants to do that but sometimes tough decisions need to be made. Otherwise no one would fix up the house at all, entire neighborhoods would fall apart and the housing that poor people have to live in would continue to degrade since they cannot afford to do the repairs on their own. Make sense? So for low income housing you need young contractors just starting out and will to work for less, still get an acceptable end result but realize it won’t be perfect and really it doesn’t need to be. On flips in the housing market of around $100,000 you should be happy with a profit of around $5,000.00 or less. If you get $5K you did good. If you are well organized you could do one per month a make a decent living.
In middle income markets the game changes some. You need to obviously up the quality standards and along with that your budget. In this market to make money you ALWAYS buy the worst house in the best neighborhood. This is not easy and the deals are very hard to find because insiders usually get this info and close on the properties before they ever make it to the market. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t out there, it just means they are harder to find and you need to be picky. While you need to spend the money to make things right, you have to be careful to not over spend and put your house value outside of the market. House values are essentially created by the banks who borrow the money to buy the houses. Market values are created by recent sales usually within the last 6 months within a 3 mile radius of the property you are trying to sell. If you buy a house for $160K, overspend and put $100K into a house for a total of $260K in a market where the comparables are going or $210K you have created several problems for yourself. The first is that someone with that kind of money more than likely won’t want to live in that neighborhood. Second is that the banks won’t borrow the buyer the money for the house unless they have a down payment large enough to cover the gap between the sales price and the market value. Most buyers in that market don’t have large amounts of money saved to cover those kinds of costs, and if they do it is because they are savers and not spenders which means your house will be out of the question anyway. In this market to need to buy low, do quality work and upgrade to match the rest of the neighborhood, but don’t over do it. If done right you could profit $10K to maybe $20K per deal. But realize that only a few months on the market could take that profit away in a hurry so look and consider all offers and don’t get greedy. Take your profits and run to your next opportunity.
Here is the part you all don’t want to hear, the rich get richer! There is very large amounts of money to be made in high end real estate, commercial real estate, and multiple units. You need a large amount of liquid assests to make these deals happen. It is possible in this market to buy a house for $400K, stick $150k into it and sell it for $650K and make a $100k. You need to know what your doing and you need the money to do it. Most people with this kind of cash started from the bottom and worked their way up over the period of many years. This is possible because in luxury markets people are able to buy what they want as opposed to what they can afford. It is also possible because of the large value differences within the local neighbor hoods. One house may sell for $400K and one down the street for $550K and yet another for $800K. This wide spread allows you to buy low, make the improvements you need to bring the value up and sell for a large profit and not over price for the neighborhood. These homes also tend to have good “bones” as we call it. You are much less likely to be sticking money into structural fixes that don’t add value. Strucural fixes don’t add value, it is money down the drain, unless you point it out to the seller before you buy, get the purchase price down to reflect the gap, and get the work done for cheaper than you expected. This is never easy though because most sellers need “X” amount of dollars to pay off their mortage to be able to sell the house so they don’t have the ability to come down that far in price.
I don’t agree with selling get rich quick books, cds, or whatever for $1000 or more, but one thing I give Armando credit for is his drive and work ethic. I have that same drive and work ethic and that is what makes me successful. My biggest beef is that if he really promised himself that if he pulled himself out of the ruts that he help others, he wouldn’t be charging $1,000 for information that is on the internet for free. The information I just gave you folks is real estate 101 and you just got it for free. The rest comes from experience and doing it everyday.
The only thing in this world that will make you successful is you. You need drive and guts. You need to wake up everymorning asking yourself, what can I do to make my life better today? I have no sympathy for those who sit around blaming others for their problems. Get off your butt and make your life better and realize that it won’t happen over night. If things were that easy everyone would be doing it. There is only one true formula for success no matter what business or personal endevour, DEDICATION, MOTIVATION, SOUND DECISIONS, & PURE GUTS.
This could make some mad but it is just the truth. Some people just are not wired for the high paced life required to be successful. Spend time with your family and be grateful for what you have and don’t waste money trying to get rich because it just may not happen.
Good luck to all of you, Brendon
After reading the comments on this website I’ve come to the conclusion that the people posting here can’t stand the fact that a Hispanic family has actually made an name for themselves through hard work and has proven that we are not a bunch of lazy slobs collecting government checks. I can’t believe I wasted my time by reading this garbage and will try to to have nightmares kowing that this site exists.
Goodbye and God Bless.
I forgot to add that you don’t need large amounts of money to be successful, you just need to be happy and take care of those around you. That is what makes someone successful. Take Care, Brendon
This like everything else in life is a big lie.
Ultimately its a battle within: Do I choose to be greedy or not?
Without fear of reprisal most people will tend to act without regard to others.
Both the people who are posting against Armondo and those who support him are clueless. Simple.
Bob must be on the rag, I follow this site because it is funny and interesting.
I remodel house in Tyler Texas and do 4-5 a year. Less if they are big houses. If you clear $25,000 on a small house you are doing great and most of the time its $15,000 or so. For those of you looking to remodel you had better learn codes for your area because if you get a crappy contractor he will not do anything to code and its you name and money on the line. Do you research and this is not easy and you are not going to get rich in a week either. You’d better have some gloves on and want to work.
Love the site
mike
“Retail is $97.00, but you can BUY IT NOW for a huge discounted price!!!!
Once item is paid for I will email you THE ENTIRE 5 EBOOK SET!! This is an opportunity to turn your rags story into a story of riches and set you and your family on the path to financial freedom!”
Too funny. That’s on eBay. What you’re ‘buying’ is an email! LOL I’ve seen a few buy it and then stick the same offer right back on eBay for sale, an email. I guess Armando isn’t getting any of that $$$.
Tick – Tock, just like Mike said ; )
Steve in Texas,
As per your request on that particular document…let me see what I can do.
Will let y’all know.
K
The package is 97.00 not 1,000.00!
it looks like armando’s site is down..weird huh?
melanie,
Re: “The package is 97.00 not 1,000.00!”
The ‘cheese’ is 97.00, the ‘RAT TRAP’ the cheese is on is 997.00 ; )
the site is back up and there are 2 packages one is 97 and the other $997
“Everything Armando said on that webcast “SOUNDS” great, on paper it “works”. Unfortunately though, it doesn’t mesh with reality in the real world”
It meshes for people with common sense, a little bit of smarts and ambition.
It doesn’t mesh with people that are wannabe detectives and spend most of their time arguing on chat boards.
“Public records are not facts?!?!?”
What some of you Barney Fifes are stating as facts are not in the public records, as demonstrated here:
“boyson wrote:
Steve in Texas about #476:
I have a copy of that case. In a nutshell its a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) filed on the morning of April 3 (appx. 2-3 hrs before the foreclosure sale)- primary the property on 4719 Castle Rose.
He was seeking 10 more days to get funding for that property and pay off VCH Funding in full.”
You see, Steve thought he found a juicy tidbit but when in reality it was a common business move.
If Armando is so rich (as he claims), why he doesn’t use $50,000 of his company money and pay off this loan?
You never, never use any of your own money if you can borrow it instead. Business 101.
Lee,
Let me repeat this for you very s*l*o*w*l*y. On 4/2/2007, VCH Funding “Repoed” a multitude of properties and then they were actioned off on the courthouse steps the next day. Actually, you don’t need to see the injunction details to see that because it’s clearly stated in filings by VCH Funding AFTER the injunction was sought, and AFTER the auction on 4/3/2007 did in fact, happen.
Sooooo, again. Is that covered in the course? ; )
About “comment” #489 by “Andy from San Antoni”:
Yes, not all hispanics are a bunch of whatever. But I just can not stand shit like you who does not bother learning English enough to spell your own city correctly. You deserve the nightmares then…
Unfortunately, MOST of “people” like Montelongo and you are “a bunch of lazy slobs collecting government checks” -from your words it sounds even more true than from mine.
I do recognize people mistypying…but not being able to type your own city! Why on a hell did you and your idiot Montelongo are neeeded here at all!
By the way, I am a recent immigrant and proud that I am not like a bunch of you and your tribe members shitting in this country and walking with mexican flags proving some shit nobody cares for.
Of course, you would not bother checking Armando Monteshitlongo’s status – you’d prove to yourself that he is from that bunch fed by taxes of real Americans. If you have no clue who made A name (not AN as you “write” like Monteblongo writes on his site, too) – Armando made his name of an idiot, lazy ignorant piece of animal being and just worthless NOTHING!
If you are so defensive of hispanics – where is your defense towards those hard-working mexicans screwed by your assmando montescrewlongo???
Hope, you’ll have Armando in your dreams…. 😛 :):)
Lee,
That’s around 21 properties, plus or minus by my quick count just now. GONE! TAKEN! TOTAL LOSS!
Some real estate ‘Guru’ ; )
From Montescrewlongo’s site:
“Learn by my Failures. When you see me on television, you get to see my successes. What you don’t see is all of the failures that I have had before I started flipping houses. It’s very easy to share your success, but much harder to share your failures with the world. However, I believe in being dirt honest and by doing so, I believe that sharing my failures will actually help you be more successful.”
I bet it will!…He is definitely right about Dirt :):)
We, obviously (by all these posts and valuable researches of many good people on this site)
did not see any of his failures…. :):):) like one failure being a descent human being to at least YOU OWN PEOPLE :):) OR WIFE :):):)
Thanks to everybody for great research work and letting us know more about this idiot Montescrewlongo!
—————-
Lee,
Re: “You never, never use any of your own money if you can borrow it instead. Business 101.”
Let’s zoom in for a closer look at that, um, K?
“Interest rate on hard money
The rate is not dependent on the Bank Rate. It is instead more dependent on the real estate market and availability of hard money credit. Currently and for the past decade hard money has ranged from the mid 10% to 16% range. When a borrower defaults they may be charged a higher “Default Rate”. That rate can be as high as allowed by law which may go up to or around 25%-29%.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_money_loan
“Bob finds a house that needs some cosmetic repairs and possibly a new roof. The owner is selling it for less than value to get rid of It at a current price of $200,000.00. Bob gets a list of repairs needed and prices them out. After negotiating with contractors the cost to repair the house completely including a new roof is $35,000.00. Bob currently has $20,000.00 to put into repairs. He wants to buy the property but conventional banks will not give him a loan for the purchase due to the condition. He knows that once he fixes the house, based on current similar homes in the same neighborhood, the home would sell for roughly $350,000.00. In order to make $100,000.00 off of the property, he decides he needs a loan for $235,000.00 from a hard money lender. Since the property will be worth $350,000.00 after repairs, Bob can use the future repaired value to obtain a loan for 65% of $350,000.00, totaling $227,500.00.
Gary is a private money lender that specializes in helping out people just like Bob. Gary decides to loan Bob the $227,500.00 for 6 months to a year with INTEREST ONLY payments and a small loan fee. While Bob has the money to purchase and rehabilitate the property, Gary is receiving interest only payments from Bob for 6 months to a year.
In the end, Bob was able to sell the home quickly for $320,000.00, Gary was then payed back the full amount of the loan at the time of the sale and Bob walked away with over $92,000.00.”
http://houseflippingloans.com/houseflipping.html
Unfortunately though, If “Bob” didn’t sell the house by the “six month or one year drop dead date” and make the interest payments on time, then what? “Bob” loses $20,000, PLUS, all interest payments he’d paid and other fees on ONE house! Not to mention the time he wasted ; )
So, Lee. You never, ever, borrow money like that if it limits your options when you buy a property, i.e. refinance it after repairs and 1) live in it yourself
or 2) rent it or 3) or lease/option it.
That Lee, is ‘Common Sense 101’ ; )
Steve in Texas–bravo!
Yikes! Five more filings today…
MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC
Litigant Type: PLAINTIFF
Style: MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC
vs VCH FUNDING CORP
Date Filed: 08/07/2007
Docket Type: INJUNCTION
Case Status: PENDING
2007CI11751 MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC 08/07/2007 PLAINTIFF
2007CI11750 MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC 08/07/2007 PLAINTIFF
2007CI11749 MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC 08/07/2007 PLAINTIFF
2007CI11748 MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC 08/07/2007 PLAINTIFF
http://www.co.bexar.tx.us/webapps/html/DKLITDSP01.asp
Steve in Texas:
I just scanned case 2007ci04979 and posted it on my website:
http://www.flipthisforreal.com/records/FTH/montelongo/foreclosure/2007ci04979.pdf
Boyson,
Interesting. That was just for ONE property ; )
You never, never use any of your own money if you can borrow it instead. Business 101.
Not entirely correct, using other peoples money can be a great tool, however, borrowing money is an expense and can be quite expensive if you do not have good credit and/or made poor business decisions (eg cut corners, fail to notify lenders of transfer of deed (mortgage wraps), have sufficient funds to make payments if you renter/buyer bails out, fail to pay property taxes on time).
This can lead to the situation that the Montelongos went though in April-May of this year.
If it’s Tuesday, it must be a busy day at the ‘Sheriff’s Sale’ on the courthouse steps, again ; )
Great! Thank you Boyson and Steve in Texas!
Hope Rob(ert) and the rest of the retarded Montelongo’s cheerleaders (including the last mexican idiot) can read and shut up!
Steve in Texas on #506
The five cases you listed are in the filing room and will be available either Wednesday or Thursday.
BTW, in July 2006, he filed a TRO to stop a foreclosure sale on a property located at 1126 King, San Antonio, TX.
Although he managed to sell the property, he lost the hearing held July 17, 2006 and forfeited the $500 bond he posted to Waring Investments’ attorney.
As you said, what chapter is this technique covered Armando’s course and will this house be included in the David and Melina Tribe Workshop bus tour in September?
http://www.flipthisforreal.com/records/FTH/montelongo/1126_king/2006ci10190.pdf
Boyson when will your website be live?
Re: Post #506
Steve,
Today (the first Tuesday of the month) was the foreclosure sale day on the Bexar County Courthouse steps. Probably more attempts to stop foreclosure.
“Lee,
Let me repeat this for you very s*l*o*w*l*y. On 4/2/2007, VCH Funding “Repoed” a multitude of properties and then they were actioned off on the courthouse steps the next day. Actually, you don’t need to see the injunction details to see that because it’s clearly stated in filings by VCH Funding AFTER the injunction was sought, and AFTER the auction on 4/3/2007 did in fact, happen.
Sooooo, again. Is that covered in the course? ; ) ”
VCH Funding nor any other business can auction off houses on the courthouse steps.
House that get auctioned off on the courthouse steps are owned by the state for deliquent taxes.
You are not understanding what you read.
Armando is borrowing money from VCH funding and is missing deadlines to pay them back, therefore VCH files an injunction against the house(s) to get Armandos attention to pay them. Armando then counters back getting an extension or whatever. It’s common business practice.
It doesn’t pass the common sense test that Armando would let a house he bought get repoed if he could have made an interest payment or some kind of payment to VCH.
Again, you are not understanding the county records and who owns what and what the circumstances are.
You’re making allegations and commiting libel.
On another note, I believe I read Armando is of Italian decent, not hispanic??
Has anyone gone to his web-site lately? http://www.ArmandoMontelongo.com has been DUMPED. It’s now directed to “Register.com” Hilarious!!
Has he been shut down?
in simpleton terms what does the 507 post mean….other than he’s a fraud???
obtw…I love this site and I am seeing cockeyed now from reading all 500 posts in one night. My wife and I love the A&E shows, but we had our doubts about Armondo And the Atlanta group. We truely enjoyed Richard Davis’s show and the other one with Kristen.
Thank you all for some good reading, now I must move out of teh way so that my wife may read.
p.s. it’s so obvious that the posts here sticking up for Armondo is truely Armondo. What an F’er, snake oil salesman.
Lee,
Re: “VCH Funding nor any other business can auction off houses on the courthouse steps.”
You are a complete idiot. Read what I wrote again. I never “said” that ; )
Lee,
What a mangled mess you wrote! lol Do you know how to read court docs? How about property records? Do you know what an injunction is? How about the difference between a defendant and a plaintiff? ; )
FTHFan…NOT!,
Re: “Today (the first Tuesday of the month) was the foreclosure sale day on the Bexar County Courthouse steps. Probably more attempts to stop foreclosure.”
No doubt! I wonder if the 5 is just part of a much larger number, again ; ) Since VCH Funding is the ‘lynch pin’ it will be easy to tell once the filings are posted
About #516
Christopher,
It works now maybe not for a long time… to Arando’s miserable pleasure :):) it’s all he has for now :):):)
Ken in Houston: #517
Armando filed a Temporary Restraining Order to stop the foreclosure sale on the property located on 4719 Castle Rose, San Antonio, TX. This is the house featured in episode-27 “Flip 101” on FTH.
Lee,
Re: “House that get auctioned off on the courthouse steps are owned by the state for deliquent taxes.
You are not understanding what you read.”
Wrong again, genius…
http://weberlaw.com/BAPCPA/texas-property-code.htm#51.002
Jeff in Indy: on #517
I hope to have a soft opening this Monday.
There was some security issues I want to test out before making it public – mainly to prevent spamming the message boards.
I have been in the real estate industry for over 20yrs. 1000 homes in 5yrs? lol….come on get real. you need a full time crew of at least 100 people to get that done, and from the looks of the show you dont have it. And if you have done that many deals WHY..WHY in gods name would you make that public, have you ever heard of the IRS?? maybe they want there cut of the supposed 20 Million in profits you’ve made.”your brillant”
Como se diche MORON..however their show is entertaining, its like Investors gone wild on crack in the hood.
Good Luck Armando, Your gonna need it.
A fellow “REAL” Investor,
why haven’t any of the news stations here in san antonio tried to expose the Montelongo clan? I first wrote all news stations when the show first aired. They all lied about the homes selling on the episode with the wives competing against each other. I watched the MLS and niether home sold for another 2-3 months. The other night one of the stations did a live feed from Chachos about the extra 30 cent charges on cheese without it being disclosed on the menu. They can do that but they cant find time to uncover these scam artists? As for David, he and Melina are just as bad ripping people off with thier workshops. I personally think one of the main reasons for the split was Melina wanting to take on a more featured role. Have any of you seen her sites featuring advice and another where she is trying to be a model or host of another show? when it comes to real estate the Montelongos are not qualified to flip a burger much less a house. One last thing, if you want to know where these guys probably learned their scam go to the other brothers web site: paulmontelongo.com
Steve in Texas:
They are indeed TROs to stop foreclosures sales on 4 properties. He filed each TRO in a separate district court.
You keep mentioning 5 cases but I only locate 4 of them. Do I miss something?
Hi Boyson,
It’s 5 by my count. All filed on 8/7/2007/…
2007CI11751 MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC 08/07/2007 PLAINTIFF
2007CI11750 MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC 08/07/2007 PLAINTIFF
2007CI11749 MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC 08/07/2007 PLAINTIFF
2007CI11748 MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC 08/07/2007 PLAINTIFF
2007CI11747 MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC 08/07/2007 PLAINTIFF
Boyson,
I did a reverse check with VCH Funding and
doc #2007CI11747 isn’t there!? Weird!
Boyson,
Here’s the cause number and info.
Cause Number: 2007CI11747
Business Name: MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC
Litigant Type: PLAINTIFF
Style:
MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT INC
vs VCH FUNDING CORP
Court: 131
Date Filed: 08/07/2007
Docket Type: INJUNCTION
Case Status: PENDING
It’s a race to the bottom on eBay! ; )
ARMANDO MONTELONGO – FLIP IT NOW COURSE
Buy It Now price: US $6.99
Tick (no tock).
Thank you for saving me $97.00!!
I saw the “Montelongo Family” on TV and I live in San Antonio. I figured if that guy could do it…anyone can.
I was about to purchase his 5 E-book set when I decided to check out Ebay and see if someone might have a used copy printed out.
When I saw that I could win a bid for 99 cents, I started to wonder why these pearls of wisdom would be so cheap. I did some surfing and bingo..I found this site.
Thanks for saving me some $$ and opening my eyes to the Monte-Loco scam.
BTW: Ebay canceled the 99 cent auction and emailed me a notice. I guess even 99 cents is too much for the books. LOL
Checking my email, I found one from the Montelongo website, it was an auto response type thing that offered me two easy payments of $48 to help me with the cost of the 5 e-books. I went back to the website and used the “Contact Armando” link. I emailed him my story, letting him know how close I came to buying his books. Then I posted a link to this site (which he apparently knows about).
I told him I would be doing some independant searches of my own to confirm his profits and business stability. I will check things on my own (nothing against your own research, but we all know how that goes).
Thanks again!
HELP! I’ve started reading and can’t stop! A lot of GREAT information being shared and the shills, well they are entertaining. Glad to know we understand we can’t get rich sitting around in our underwear listening to some really expensive…what? Shill? Post 428 (Bob): none of his friends like him? hmmmm? I thought friends liked each other! Post 436 (F. Baken): I am sorry you had a bad experience! Buying a home is a huge investment, the largest most of us will make; representation is paramount. I am a Texas REALTOR and have been for years. You make very good, valid points. We are all “independent” and pay a Broker (called a Sponsor) a monthly flat fee, transaction fee or split commission (some times all three) to hold our license unless we personally hold a Broker’s License, own and operate an independent office. CAVEAT EMPTOR! Seeing and signing a Seller’s Disclosure only means the Buyer has read it. Receipts can be “created”; ask for copies of the cashed check payable to the trade. Texas Buyer’s can and should visit http://www.trec.state.tx.us/inspector/default.asp for a list of inspectors. Some cities have formed groups of inspectors that must meet certain criteria to be a member (www.HAREI.com) Some Seller’s are not required to provide a Seller’s Disclosure Notice. Don’t stop at having resale homes inspected; New Homes are built by humans and should be inspected at frame (pre-sheetrock) and before closing NOT MATTER WHAT THE BUILDER TELLS YOU!
P.S.: Post 366: Cost of air fare to South Carolina and Hotel on Debit Master Card under $997.00 – Hearing what Richard had to say…..PRICELESS!
Have a GREAT Day 🙂
Interesting link in the San Antonio Express News about new law concerning builders and house flippers:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA081007.01C.BuilderBill081007.2b098e5.html
Last summer, I worked on a house in N.H for a guy who builds homes in the south. This guy builds over 10,000 homes a year. Literally, 10,000.
SO, is it possible that they flip 20-30 a month? YES, but I still don’t believe it. The afore mentioned builder, his home was worth more than my family tree, he has a $20 million private jet, and more people working for him then most small town populations. I just don’t see a two person oper. with no retained subs doing 20 – 30 a year, never mined a month!!
LOL! My hubby told me,today, we were moving back to his hometown, San Antonio. Aggravated with him that I have to give up my decorating/consulting business to relocate . I thought I would give Montelongos a call. Especially after the last episode of the intern! That had to be staged! I was dumbfounded. I actually felt sympathy for them,All!Contractor, Montelongos and the intern. ( I kept thinking, this has to be staged!)
I like how it showed Armondo’s soft side,believing in the intern no matter how much he screwed up. He believed in the guy. Contrary to his normal character.I was shocked. From day one ,I thought he was an overbearing ,controlling ,pompuos jackass who thought he could intimidate people.
But I can see how $ and power gets to people.BEEN THERE
I don’t know what happened. Half of the writing got lost in cyberspace!Been there.
I hope I am not duplicating this. Sorry if I am. I was trying to make a point , and 1/2 my message got lost.
Climbing the mountain is adventerous and fun, but the way down can be hazardous to your health and livlihood when both of your feet want to go in different directions, because you are uneducated about the journey.
This is why they need to pull the books etc.If indeed they made a mess of the business,they need not be leading .(blind leading the blind)
The Tv shows make it look too easy. Too many families suffer hardships stress and financial ruin over the dillusions of granduer to get rich quick with unrealistic time frames set by the tv shows.
Mike,Steve ,and all who are working on this Thank you for your comments!Keeep it up! This was the first time I heard of it!
MIke you need to do that reality show!
I WAS going to call for employment,until I read this blog.
The Montelongos are in my prayers.And if they made a mess, I pray they make it right.
A wise elderly lady told me. If you are not in God’s will, he will jerk your chain or put you on a shelf.
I think that Armando is a scumbag. I do watch the show for pure entertainment. Not sure if anyone noticed but with that house where he accidentally knocked parts of the mother section of the house down with a bobcat…. when Veronica was asking him to check the address on her so called green house…she did mention several times to him that she didn’t want to keep working on the house if he didn’t “PURCHASE THE HOUSE RIGHT”. That has to be the biggest flag and mis-step on her part. Why would she question that if he isn’t doing shady things.
I presume that the brothers have split as it no longer references them in the open credits. I went to the website to check and see if it says anything about them but nothing. I did find somewhere where David and Milena are giving seminars.
David seemed to have some sort of moral when it came to flipping the houses. Hopefully he can go on and do the right thing and build an honest business.
I was going to purchase this set for my husband who is considering going into the flipping business (not exactly what I call it, but oh well!!) anyway, after much reading of these posts, I think I’ll save my $997 and buy him a new set of golf clubs instead! Thanx for the tips!
I did also notice the flagrant product placements in the current episodes. Very very said if you ask me. I do believe that the only honest and worthy person in these series has been Richard of Trademark. He is defintely building a great company, takes pride in what he puts his name on and seems to honestly care about people and not just the bottom line.
If it came down to it I would definitely buy a property from Richard and not from any of the others.
Thanks for this site full of information. I too was contemplating buying the books but I got a bit wary when I realized that something was up when the brother dissappeared and also the excessive product placement recently.
A lot of Armando’s figures on repairs seem very off to me. I recently installed hardwood flooring in my house and renovated my kitchen. No way was I able to spend as little as he does in a house with the inclusion of labor.
“why haven’t any of the news stations here in san antonio tried to expose the Montelongo clan?”
Perhaps because there’s nothing to expose except a bunch of legal manuverings and no scam?
Perhaps because they don’t want to misread the county records and make up lies and be sued for libel?
Perhaps they could contact Steve and some others on here and get an ear full of hogwash and have a good laugh and tell them not quit their day jobs and leave the investigations to the professionals?
Oh, Lee???
“Armando turned himself into a flipping machine, inspiring millions with his rags-to-riches story. In less than 5 years he became America’s largest residential real estate investor.”
http://www.armandomontelongo.com/armando_montelongo.php
Largest in America! ROFL!
Here’s part of one, Lee, just for you! It’s in Java Script so I can’t cut and paste it here. I’ve typed it out…
________________________________
“Note Secured by Deed of Trust
Date: June 15, 2006
Holder: VCH Funding Corp.
Borrower: 114 Repose Land Trust
Date of sale of property: (first Tuesday of month) April 3, 2007
Time sale of property began: 11:19 AM
Place of Sale of Property: South enterance door of the County Court House in Bexar County, Texas
Buyer: VCH Funding”
_________________________________
“Misread” that!; )
Oh, and Lee. When you’re in a hole? Put down the shovel.
Just a thought ; )
What is everyone’s problem with the Montelongos??? Man, you people really need to get a life–for real!
Re:#501 Shell?? You need to spell check your own message before you try to put someone down for their own mistakes—stupid ass! (why ON the hell…)you are definately an immigrant, and you call yourself a real American–bull shit!!! you have no idea what it is to be an American$$$$$! You just hate the fact that a Mexican is making more money than you can count and it eats you up inside, that’s why your life sucks and you will always be in a stand still.
Hey Armando – here’s free advice: when you shill post, try to come up with something new – the ‘get a life’ attack, race card, and ‘your life sucks’ approach all give you away immediately you’ve done them so many times.
You’re a broken (and broke) record, dude.
PS: it’s definitely, not definately, fool.
RE:548 -I am a mexican. my mom came to this contry without speaking english, my father worked downtown selling fruit before joining the army at 16. they worked hard so today all my siblings have college degrees and good professions. You are showing your ignorance and lack of class by insunuating everyone is mad over the Montelongos because they are hispanic and supposedly successful. They are liars. I have access to MLS and the homes are not being sold like they claim. Also, non of the values they claim are anywhere near what comps for the area can support. From day one Armando has been trying to get into books and seminars which is fine, IF you really can substantuate what you claim. I will gaurantee you if the news ever did care to investigate they would expose all the Montelongo claim very easily. I advertise quite a bid with the express and just spoke to one of editors the other day about the Montelongos. there response was they view the show as entertainment.
Armando’s 12 min preview of his DVD today is the same house on tonights episode. Funny how on the video he said he will take $300 for the landscaping and on the show hes putting in $1000. Its also ironic since he said to never put in over $750 for the landscaping…
Realtor4U, all
RE: My post #436
We lost $100’s of thousands of dollars.
I’m devastated. It’s the darkest time of my life.
Sometimes sellers lie and cover up problems, sometimes real estate agents help them or look the other way and sometimes the inspector makes big mistakes. But the worse people I’ve dealt with are lawyers.
Lee,
Because you “asked”, I’m putting a list
together of all the properties “sold” on the courthouse steps on April 3, 2007. And “bought” by VCH Funding.
It looks like it might be as high as 27 properties. It’ a LONG list so I’m just giving you an update. I’m still working on it ; )
Lee,
Just to be perfectly clear, and again, because you “asked” (for it!). I already have the list put together of the various “Land Trusts” etc. What I’m doing now is looking up the Trustees and/or Guarantors behind them. So far, six out of six are “Montelongo”
Just thought you’d like the LATEST update ; ) Still working on it.
Did anyone catch the new episode on 8-11-07? Not to sound perverted, but does anyone else think Veronica got Butt implants? Don’t get me wrong, it looks great, but it didn’t look that good before. Just curious.
Notice Armando piped down after the webmaster posted the ip info?
Love it.
Hey Armando! Banished to reading and not responding? Sweat through another shirt reading these comments and rest assured big brother is watching.
The heat’s on and you’re gonna fry.
Get your books in order, armandick.
Oh my God I just finished watching the show where AM heads to FL to speak at an event. I actually went to google to see where AM may be coming to my area to speak because I enjoy him so much that I wanted to attend a seminar. Well I found this website instead and for the past 2 hrs I have read over 240 comments and you all have confused the hell out of me. I really believed the show was real and I was considering ordering the $97 dollar deal, but after reading ALL of the comments especially from Mike Voss I am scared as hell to do anything because I’m shocked at all of the information you all seem to have. However after thinking about some of the things he is quoted as saying don’t you believe he is merely being a salesman. Also why is writing a book or offering a guide to become rich eating at some of you. Don’t you think it’s smart to market what you do and who better to sell your product but “you”. In my opinion you are saying okay now that you have success don’t pursue the other options that you have. I do not have a negative opinion of AM because I have not taken the time to dig into his personal public business deals, however it seems like he is doing something “right”. What I found disturbing was that he was driving the Mercedes formally driven by his brother and when I didn’t see his brother on the show I said to myself there is about to be some drama. And I too think that “Brandon” might be AM and I also think “Dale” is too.(smile) Well I guess you have to speak out for yourself without causing a riot somehow, huh? I will say that my hopes of becoming wealthy flipping properties is now fading after you guys bust my bubble by “exposing” AM, whether it’s true or not. But you know what alot of us want an easy solution to good ole fashion hard work and determination and AM makes it seem soooooooooooooooo simple even though we ALL know it isn’t or each of us would be doing it if it were that simple. Question: I want to know if anyone can tell me how one figures out what size loan they may qualify for without going through a pre-qualifier to find out. Wasn’t there some easy formula to kind of calculate the numbers yourself ? Okay I am almost 40 and I want to move to Miami. I have never owned a property before. I have 3 children and have been self employed for 5 years, earning about 200k per year. Can I buy a million dollar home ? Sounds crazy but I have no clue. i’m in a 5bd 3bth rental paying $2600.00 monthly. If someone knows please share the answer with me. Thanks
Steve in Texas wrote:
Audrey,
Re: “looked up Armando Montelongo on the Bexar County Assesors website and he and his company do not have more than $200,000 worth of properties – including his own residence
Does anyone want to comment on this?”
***** According to a search on Bexar County Appraisal District (bcad.org), seven (7) houses are Veronica’s name only (??), including their primary home on Jung Rd. in SA:
http://local.live.com/?v=2&sp=Point.nxww7t6sz2m5_4152%20Jung%20Rd%2C%20San%20Antonio%2C%20TX%2078427_Montelongo%20residence__&encType=1
This was the ‘Rancho Montelongo’ house featured on episode 18 in season 2.
HY MIKE VOSS IM GLAD I FOUND THIS SITE THANKS.
IM NEW BUSINESS OWNER IN FLORIDA IN THE EPOXY FLOOR COATINGS AND GOT MY SELF A EXCLUSIVE TERRITORIES 7 MAYOR AREA CODES.
SO I WILL LIKE YOU TO HELP ME WITH MY NEW BUSINESS ON BETTER PROMOTE OR ADVERTISING.
I JUST NEED YOU TO GUIDE ME ON THE RIGHT TRACK IF YOU HAVE TIME.
I WILL PAY FOR YOUR SERVICES IT JUST WHEN I GOT IN THIS SITE AND FOUND ALL THE PEOPLE THAT CARES ABOUT COMPLETE STRANGERS ,YOU BEEN THE CREATOR OF IT MAKES ME PROUD OF KNOWING THAT WE STILL CARE ABOUT EACHOTHER IM SORRY MY TIPPING IS NOT THAT GOOD.
I LIKE WHAT YOUR DOING AND TO EVERY BODY INCLUDING Steve in Texas: GOD BLESS YOU AND IF YOU CAN HELP ME I WILL NOT FORGET.
THANKS MANNY DIAZ
http://WWW.CREATIVECOATINGSYSTEMS.COM
Anne, #548, you are ripping someone because he/she did not “spell check” his/her post, rotflmao, try using it yourself. “definately” ?
Everyone should do plenty of research before making any type of investment whether it is buying a home, going into a new career choice, buying a “get rich quick” kit or buying stock. If there are red flags, then the amount of research should triple at the very least. Sadly, A&E either didn’t do any research or they are totally knowledgeable of the scams involved in FTH. If the latter is true, and my guess is that it is true, A&E is worse than the tabloids printing the “My mother is an alien from Mars” because A&E purports to be legitimate while the tabloids are suspect at best. It certainly causes one to question the credibility of any show on A&E.
What a terrific website this is! I have watched all these flipping shows for a long while…and have to laugh a bit about it. My husband and I also do flips. It’s NOT an easy business, that’s for sure. We’ve made money on some, and lost money on some. That’s the nature of the business. But, I will tell you this…one of the things we pride ourselves on is the care we take when rehabbing/flipping a property. We don’t just “put lipstick on the pig.” When we rehab a house, we really think about the buyer’s needs. Because I’m also a realtor, I WANT that’s buyer’s business when they’re ready to sell that home! And I WANT that happy buyer to tell everyone how much they enjoy their home, and what great service they received from their realtor, and flipper!
I like how each episode from shows like Flip This House notes how much a flipper will make after the house is sold. Ummm…what about all the other costs? There are holding costs, costs for selling the property, marketing costs, just to name a few. All that needs to be added in. It IS possible to make good money at flipping, IF a person knows how to buy a property correctly. But, these shows make it look like easy money. And that’s not really the case.
As for Montelongo’s course, I haven’t looked at it, and don’t plan to. My feeling is…if he’s making such good $$ at flipping, then why do a course? And how would he have time to manage that business, since he’s so busy with his flips? I know from experience that doing a couple of flips at one time is really difficult. Even with good subs (and I do have some, thankfully) it can still be a scheduling nightmare!
FIFI_33 – To get some info on what you might qualify for to buy a home, I would suggest contacting a mortgage lender. If you know a realtor in your area, or if one of your friends has a realtor that they know and trust, that realtor can suggest a good, trusted mortgage lender to you. That mortgage lender can talk with you (without doing a pre-qualify) about the options that are available to you, what loan programs might work best for your situation. They will also talk with you about your fico score. But I have to stress, BE CAREFUL! Don’t allow any lender to get you into a negative amortization loan (those are rare these days, but some places still offer them.) Also, don’t just assume your bank will give you the best options…many times you’ll pay higher fees to get a loan through your local bank. I can also suggest, if you are a member of a credit union, talk with them about a home loan. You can often get better rates through your credit union than you will through a bank, or even a mortgage lender. Lastly, you can find a good mortgage calculator on bankrate.com, which will give you an idea of what your mortgage payment might be. Good luck on your house hunting!
Mike Voss – Good info you’re providing! I just read your posts #74 and #76. They are spot on!
Turner at 558,
LOL I didn’t write that but your post makes it look like I did. Just sayin’ ; )
Did you see the episode last night. I was laughing at the fake and almost scripted banter between him and his current project manager. Can you imagine any boss that would take being called a dick by his employee. Don’t think so. It’s also funny how they showed him and his performance at the learning annex…he was like it’s a sell out. They packed all the people towards the front and only showed them standing…lol. If you look carefully there would have been a good bit more chairs empty when they were seated.
It really does suck how they get away with this nonsense. You have a lot of people that thought that they were being honest about their rags to riches story…yeah right.
It’s ok because Karma is a bitch and it will come back on them. The way he “Fixes” these houses is a down right shame. Can you imagine the poor first time homebuyer that buys his house. For the most part a new homebuyer is a bit house poor when they buy a house. So go figure the shit they end up in after buying one of his houses.
It seriously disgusts me when he goes on about just doing things cosmetically enough so he can get things past the inspectors eye. I hope all or some of the house inspectors in Texas see him and do their damndest to look much harder at one of his rehabs. The last episode he totally and clearly states how he does the cosmetic fix to just get by the inspectors eye so they don’t know any better. What a scumbag. Absolute and total scumbag is what he is.
Partial list of the properties “sold” at the Bexar County Courthouse on April 3, 2007 and “bought” by ‘VCH Funding’. I have 8 so far and 19 more to look up ; )
Bristol Land Trust – Guarantor and/or Trustee – Armando Montelongo
Weidner Land Trust – Guarantor and/or Trustee – Armando Montelongo
1609 Jefferson Land Trust – Guarantor and/or Trustee – Armando Montelongo
San Carlos Land Trust – Guarantor and/or Trustee – Armando Montelongo
Kashmuir Land Trust – Guarantor and/or Trustee – David Montelongo
Gibbs Sprawl Land Trust — Guarantor and/orTrustee – Mandoman Management
Lennon Land Trust – Guarantor and/orTrustee – Mandoman Management
114 Repose Land Trust – Guarantor and/orTrustee – David Montelongo
Re: Angie & A&E
This is a bit off on the thread but I was curious if Sam was busted for this fraudelent stuff as well how come Angie got her own show? Does A&E just think that everyone is a dummy or do they feel that the whole scandal with Sam was hushed up enough.
Here they are giving Angie a show meanwhile how much credibility can she also have if she was working with that guy Sam on another show.
That would be a “Jr.” after all of those listed as ‘Armando Montelongo’. Armando Montelongo Jr. ; )
To Steve in Texas at 563. – Oops, I meant to quote Audrey from 435. 🙂
Kathleen I really appreciate the positive info. I literally just started moving around at 1pm after staying up until 4am raeding all of the different comments. Okay I’m sure I can ask one of my friends for a reference. I’m just wondering as far as the numbers go is my income enough to qualify me for that type of loan. I’m considering 20% down and my credit score was around 700 the last time I checked. Well I’ll take your advice, thanks again.
Wow, some people really get worked up over nothing. You’d think he was Bin Laden by the way you people here talk about him. Calm down, it’s just a show.
Wow…I have been on here for hours and I must say this is something!!!! I have to comment on Steve in Texas and of course Mike Voss…while I do find your information great in many ways, I don’t understand how you both have the time to be on here 24/7 and continue to go on and on. You both have stated your point over and over, and seriously I have to agree with you two…BUT do records and the same old thing and childish banter have to continue? I can see you are trying to protect people from being ripped off but after saying something it …never stops. Mike, I also have to say to you that just because someone drives a Hummer and has a new car that doesn’t pollute like many out there…you shouldn’t be so concerned. Yes, I have one also, and if I can afford one and enjoy it, then who cares? I’m the one that makes the payments and can afford the gas! And my dog loves to hang her head out the window..lol Don’t judge because of that…I have flipped a few homes and got into the Lending business because I was taken advantage of with not knowing enough and didn’t know I could have saved my home years before. I now give back to the community and have that satisfaction of doing so. I know you and Steve are trying to help, I just feel that you carry it too far. So..be gentle on me…lol I don’t mean this in any way to be a slam. Also on Post 437…I can’t believe what you said about “Dog”. I also judged how he looked and his past, but after actually reading about him after he was the one that was responsible for the capture of Andrew Lester…I found him to be someone that turned his life around…I have seen things he has done with a lot of people and where he truly tries to make a difference now. Whew..I never thought I would ever respond to something on here…oh, one more thing, Rich Dad, Poor Dad I felt was a great book as it showed 2 different sides of Real Estate. OK…I am done now. Keep up the good work and seriously Steve and Mike..I do feel you are only trying to help but also had to speak my mind like everyone else…lol Mike…I wonder if you’re related to the “VOSS” water Company….I love that pure water…seriously.
Kathleen,
As far as neg ams go, unless you acutually are a Lender I wouldn’t say they are a bad loan. It really depends on what State you live in. I have about 6 rentals that are in the loan and including my own personal residence. For years I would never do that loan but after really learning and understanding it, I would do that loan in a heartbeat. I am in CA. and while property is down here like everywhere else, it still gives you an option to pay 3 other ways such as an “Interest Only” a 30 year or a 15 year. If the Lender makes sure your margin in index are decent then there is no reason to do that type. I however would never do in TX and a few other States as they don’t appreciate in value as quickly. Just sharing…lol
re: Manny D post 559
“HY MIKE VOSS IM GLAD I FOUND THIS SITE THANKS.
IM NEW BUSINESS OWNER IN FLORIDA IN THE EPOXY FLOOR COATINGS AND GOT MY SELF A EXCLUSIVE TERRITORIES 7 MAYOR AREA CODES.
SO I WILL LIKE YOU TO HELP ME WITH MY NEW BUSINESS ON BETTER PROMOTE OR ADVERTISING.
I JUST NEED YOU TO GUIDE ME ON THE RIGHT TRACK IF YOU HAVE TIME.
I WILL PAY FOR YOUR SERVICES IT JUST WHEN I GOT IN THIS SITE AND FOUND ALL THE PEOPLE THAT CARES ABOUT COMPLETE STRANGERS ,YOU BEEN THE CREATOR OF IT MAKES ME PROUD OF KNOWING THAT WE STILL CARE ABOUT EACHOTHER IM SORRY MY TIPPING IS NOT THAT GOOD.
I LIKE WHAT YOUR DOING AND TO EVERY BODY INCLUDING Steve in Texas: GOD BLESS YOU AND IF YOU CAN HELP ME I WILL NOT FORGET.”?????
My brother, you didn’t ask me for help but I have to give you some anyway. You have to take some writing, typing, reading, english or some kind of class to make yourself seem a little more educated. People will not do business with you or maybe just take advantage of you if they see weakness. Im not trying to put you down, put after reading your post through two times, I still have no idea what you are talking about. Really my brother God bless and best wishes. I hope things go good for you.
Jeff
Yo Steve in Texas
about post 656
what the flip does all that mean? Can you explain all the legal mumbo jumbo pls?
thanks,
Jeff
I know this is in response to a post made over a month ago and most of you have probably forgotten it but I wanted to address something. Dale wrote a very lengthy post about how the Montelongos are the only “real” people on TV and that “everyone in America is too scared to even feel, think or act like a real person. So many Americans in this generation have gone beyond and overboard of being sensitive, politically correct and paranoid!!! It’s called superficial judgmental people.” I am a middle school teacher. My patience is tried on a daily basis but never once have I cussed a student out because they didn’t get their work turned in on time. Even more, I don’t have the desire to cuss them out. Not all Americans treat others like crap. On the episode last night he said that he was really good at being a b****. Not all Americans take pride in that personality trait. You don’t have to agree with the posts on this site but you also don’t have to insult me. I am a real person and I act nothing like the Montelongos.
Btw, thanks for all the real information, not just personal attacks. Public records (most of the time) don’t lie. Thanks for shining light on the truth.
Also, why on earth would you respect someone that destroys a phone, cusses you out, completely defies your authority, kicks in a wall, and then trespasses on your property. Who works for whom????
Jeff in Indy,
Here ya go! ; )
51.002 Sale of Real Property Under Contract Lien
http://weberlaw.com/BAPCPA/texas-property-code.htm#51.002
I found the ‘51.002’ thing on the docs themselves ; )
Karen,
No problem ; ) I’m self employed with a home based business so I’m on the Internet all the time anyway. This is just the ‘Perfect Storm’. The hype doesn’t jibe with the easily searchable property records for one thing.
Actually, I find the Montelongos’ MILDLY entertaining : ) lol
FIFI_33 – While a score of 700 is excellent, I’m not sure your income is enough to get you qualified for that size of a loan. My personal experience tells me that based on the income you noted, you’d be more in line to qualify for somewhere between a $500-$600K property, but that would be for a lender to truly decide, as they’ll look at a lot of factors to make that determination…most importantly, your debt ratio. If you have a lot of extra money to put down, you could make up the difference to get the size home you want. However, if you have that much money to put down, it could be a better decision to buy less home, which would require less money down, and keep your additional money diversified in other investments.
Some items of note…the lender will be looking at the ratio of debt that you are carrying, and how quickly you pay off your balances. Your debt ratio will need to be below their limit…around my area, the top limit typically has been around 36% of a person’s income (with A+ credit), but lenders are tightening up on their qualifiers these days. So, you may find that some lenders will require that you are carrying less debt to qualify for a large loan. That’s where shopping for a lender is important…but just be sure the lender is reputable and is truly interested in getting the right loan for you, the potential home owner. The LAST thing you want to have happen is to lose your home because of a “funny money” mortgage.
Another item to consider…my understanding is that the housing market in much of the Miami area is soft right now. So, you may find that you can pick up a wonderful property for less…which also means you’ll be able to sell that property more quickly when the time comes for you to sell! Remember, expensive homes normally take much more time (and money) to sell, and they typically eat up a lot of money in maintenance and repairs during the time you own it. Again, here’s wishing you great luck in your home search!
Oh, and Karen – That dipstick Lee accused me of committing ‘Libel’, twice! If anyone is going to try to ran that kind of SMACK on me they better be able to back it up. Hence, the property record details ; )
Karen (post #572) – You’re absolutely right, and I probably should have clarified a bit…a neg am loan is not necessarily a bad thing. However, as a realtor, I NEVER recommend them for first-time home buyers. I also have rentals, and I have a couple of variable rate loans with a neg am payment option. I find them perfect for me, as a rental owner. But, so many first-time buyers (and even savvy, experienced buyers) get themselves into trouble with these kinds of loans. I live in Colorado…we are running #3 in the US for foreclosures. Much of the foreclosures are because people got into loans that they could not manage, and they decided to pay only the lowest option, which forced them into a neg am situation. Couple that with a serious rate increase after the initial low interest period, and it’s a recipe for disaster. But…if an individual understands how to handle that kind of loan, it can work just fine. But again, I NEVER recommend that kind of a loan to a first-time buyer.
Despite their best efforts to conceal the identity of the house, I found it.
Armando is trying really hard to cover his tracks, but not good enough.
Either this was a contract flip or he is operating under/with GJ Properties LLC.
They/he took out a 192,371.09 loan (May 15,2007). I guess that covered the sale, rehab and closing costs. Of course this DOES NOT add up to what was shown on TV.
Good luck in getting 235K, comps in the area are going for around 200K. The curb appeal is terrible.
Legal disc: Lot 18 Block 18 New City Block 10065
Address: 219 Shannon Lee, San Antonio, TX
Current Tax assessed value: 135K
Notice some changes on the show:
He is now founder of Armando Montelongo Companies. Veronica is vice president of the same. What happen to Montelongo House Buyers?
I got this vibe that Randy the roofer didn’t want to be there.
Chris the Intern, nowhere to be seen, no loss.
Jeff in Indy,
Here’s how it breaks down easier. ‘VCH Funding’ was their hard money lender on a ton of properties that they, Montelongo et. al., defaulted on in some way. And subsequently lost on April 3, 2007.
Kathleen wow how informative you are. Let me tell you I was looking around for property in Miami and stumbled across Keyes RE website and I saw some phenominal property. I love the nice homes located on the water where you also have a boat slip for those with boats. I also saw some very nice properties in the 500k-600k range as well. I was really going back and forth over the downpayment @ 20% on a million dollar home anyway. So I may just go with one of the nicer lower priced homes. Thanks
Boyson!!!
You ARE good!!! I knew you’d find it ; )
I caught the ‘219’ on the show but that was it
Boyson – On the show…
“The Montelongo Bunch” – Episode 40
Paid $125K
Renov $45K
Overage $4K
_______________
Total Inv. $174K
Asking $235K
Pot. Profit. $61K
Texas Steve
Thanks for the link but I still dont understand a few of the “terms” and “players” in the mix. for instance: what are
Docket Type: INJUNCTION
Case Status: DISPOSED
Guarantor and/or Trustee
who are:
VCH FUNDING CORP
Bristol Land Trust
Weidner Land Trust
1609 Jefferson Land trust
Or maybe you can explain the process of losing your house on the court house steps(something I dont want to experience.)
I know I sound like a twit but I just dont know about all this litigation stuff
Jeff
Steve…totally understand about the Lee comment…all is good here. I feel better just by commenting.
Kathleen…I agree, but I have done 1st Time Buyer’s with a neg BUT they have totally understood the loan and also put 30% down. This was before the market went soft everywhere. They are still ok though, as when someone put’s down that much in CA…the equity they keep is good even in a tough market. Besides, I have faith the market will get better, it always does…You have been wonderful with explaining things though on here, I wish the CA Realtors cared like you do 🙂 Although…I would never tell a client about what the Realtor’s job is and I would never want a Realtor to tell my client about loans when that’s my job to be the informative one. I do understand how many people are not ethical though. I always tell my clients when they ask about something that pertains to the house they are buying…ask your Realtor..that’s their forte’ mine in reagarding the loan. The Realtor always appreciates that. So…best of luck to you and I appreciate all you have said here.
Jeff in Indy,
A contract lien was put on all of those properties due to default.
My best guess would be 1) The contracts had an expiration date for full payment and the clock ran out and/or 2) The interest payments weren’t kept current. That’s just my best guess and ONLY a guess. The only thing I know for sure is that it happened ; )
Correction:
My mistake, GJ Properties, LLC was the (hard money)lender and not the owner. The property is still owned by 219 Shannon Lee Land Trust. The trustee (one of) is still MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT, INC. – Armando Montelongo as it’s president.
Moreover, MANDOMAN MANAGEMENT, INC. failed to file it’s required list of officers with the state of Nevada and thus is NOT in good standing. Then again, he may have moved his company to another state.
Operating a company not in good standing can expose it’s officers to the company’s debts, lawsuits, taxes, and liabilities. This mistake can screw you up big time.
Steve in Texas:
There were way too many tells.
1) I knew Armando was driving on McCullough near Oblate (I saw the bus route number on the side and the school sign) when he was telling us how he found the property.
2) Typical ranch one story homes built in the 60’s located in Shearer Hills or north of the area.
3) When Armando mentioned center of town and behind a major mall. I knew he was talking about North Star mall. The house is located about a mile north of the mall.
4) The basketball court across the street was another tell. It’s still in the driveway.
5) They forgot to cover the address up when Veronica was waiting outside for the Kitchen expert, but I already found the house.
6) The house is a few blocks away from their first featured flip – “Movie Star” episode. Not a tell, just FYI. 🙂
7) Position of the garage and shadows (street going east-west) means it was an odd number address. The terrain was flat and one block away east of a busy street (Armando bouncing the test ball in the street – McCullough Ave). Took about 30 minutes to find it.
Boyson,
Re: “The Montelongo Bunch”
That HUGE yellow background with black letter silk screen thing on it tacked on the house at that end of the show has NO contact phone number on it whatsoever. Same deal with the ‘FOR SALE’ sign planted by Veronica in the yard.
Only this on BOTH of them as a contact. http://www.ArmandoMontelongo.com
And of course we already know that site has NO houses listed ‘for sale’ on it. Only Ebooks and similar “product” unless I’m missing something ; )
Haha. Busted again ; )
Jeff (Post #587),
VCH Funding is a hard money lender in San Antonio. They lent money to the Montelongos on numerous properties. The Montelongos titled those properties in the name of numerous trusts – Bristol Land Trust, Weidner Land Trust, etc.
From the research others are doing it appears that while the property was titled in the name of the trust, many of the the loans were personally guaranteed by the Brothers Montelongo.
While we may not know exactly how, or to what extent, the bottom line is that the loans being discussed went into default and were foreclosed on and taken back by the lender VCH Funding. In other words, the Montelongos had the homes repossessed.
I am told by someone locally that many of them are now listed on the MLS and are for sale by VCH Funding.
Shame on the Montelangos, the Atlanta people, and A&E for continuing to push forth with this travesty.
Shame on my wife for contiuning to make me watch it. 🙂
Armando, if you do read this site…where you are going…don’t drop the soap.
Thanks for the fun read folks.
I sent an email to the dynamic duo about the claims via their myspace pages.
I think the show is a farce. It makes outrageous claims. It makes real estate look like a game for clowns with more time spent with Hummers than anything.
997 dollars is a tax on stupidity. I’m glad for this great resource!
I’m going to make a show called “Flip This Stock” where I’ll drive around fancy cars and yell at others to find better stocks. I’ll throw things and blah blah blah.
Then I’ll start selling $997 programs to pick good stocks as well as I do. I’m successful; you see me on TV!
Successful people DO write books about their experiences. People like to teach. Guess what? I can buy a book by Bill Gates for less than $997 dollars. Oh sorry, CDs and DVDS- what a joke.
Scam scam scam scam scam scam…
“Yo Steve in Texas
about post 656
what the flip does all that mean? Can you explain all the legal mumbo jumbo pls?
thanks,
Jeff ”
He doesn’t know, he’s guessing Armando got some of his houses repossessed.
“Steve in Texas wrote:
Jeff in Indy,
A contract lien was put on all of those properties due to default.
My best guess would be 1) The contracts had an expiration date for full payment and the clock ran out and/or 2) The interest payments weren’t kept current. That’s just my best guess and ONLY a guess. The only thing I know for sure is that it happened ; ) ”
When you have actual facts about what the records mean then come back and post them…until then I suggest you stop giving the impression Armando is a con man and is defaulting on loans, etc, etc.
Armando mentioned in his webinar he recently sold off a bunch of houses and is going to concentrate more on commercial property.
My guess is he had VCH funding sell the houses for him or something like that.
Yesterday I heard, for the first time, a commerical on the radio starring Armondo himself. I cannot remember what he was hawking because near the end he said “Being broke sucks!” I was floored! That is SO professional. And he wonders why people don’t think highly of him. What a joke!
Lee,
Re: “My guess is he had VCH funding sell the houses for him or something like that”
ROTFLMAO!
Boyson,
I figured you saw some landmarks ; )
FTHFan…NOT!,
Yep. “VCH Funding” is the current owner of record on 37 properties according to the Bexar Appraisal District site ; )
Lee:
You said…
“Armando mentioned in his webinar he recently sold off a bunch of houses and is going to concentrate more on commercial property.
My guess is he had VCH funding sell the houses for him or something like that.”
YEAH RIGHT… then why did Armando go through the trouble and file a TRO…not once but SEVEN times (July 2006, April 2007, August 2007-five times)????
Boyson – GREAT job finding that house brother! You should be CIA or a cop or something! 🙂
Mike Voss – When are you going to fill us in on your review of Armandos junk? Or did I miss it???
This kinda sucks guys… I used to idolize Armando… Thanks for the knowledge here! 🙂
Steve:
Other things that could have happened…
1) As of April 2007, all those properties had unpaid property taxes. The note clearly states that property taxes must be kept up to date. On May 31, 2007, the property taxes on all the foreclosed properties were paid on May 31, 2007 by the various Montelongo trusts.
2) Transfer of a portion or all of the interest of the property without getting permission from the note holder or trustee of the lender. Discovery of such transfers can trigger (at the option of the lender) a “due on sale” which the borrower has 30 days to pay the note in full. See Section 16 on the note.
I think number 2 was the most likely scenario. Someone must have notified Texas State Bank (or they discovered) several of their deeds of trust were transfered from the original borrower to another party and in some cases had addition liens (second mortgages) made by the second party.
Many of Armando’s controlled properties show a transfer of deed to another party but there is never a release of lien from the original lender (Texas State Bank/VCH Funding). I suspect he never sought permission to transfer the deed to another person and unfortunately the bank found out and thus triggered a multitude of “due on sale” notices.
Facts:
All these foreclosures in 2007 are being conducted by one lender – VCH Funding.
Moreover, several release of liens (notes paid in full) from Texas State Bank on other Montelongo properties…
Doc #20070151288 $297,500 – Rancho Montelongo
Doc #2007051265 131,240 – “Movie Star” house.
On the “Movie Star” house, the Montelongos had the new owner sign a 170K promissory note. And then the Montelongos sold that note to another hard money lender.
However, there was never a release of lien from the original lender (Texas State Bank/ VCH Funding) but there was a transfer of deed to the new owner. Thus, this property which is tax appraised at 135K in 2006, and sold for 175K (according to FTH), at one time had mortgages totaling more than 300K!
Lee,
You first landed on this thread on July 10, 2007 (post #359) and you said you and your brother were about to buy your first house to flip. After trashing just about everybody on this thread first, of course ; )
Nothing wrong with flipping, nothing. I might do it myself. You had best take off the ‘Rose Colored Glasses’ first though, Lee.
Aren’t you at least intellectually curious enough to get a FREE registration and read for yourself the documents that you keep incorrectly guessing about?
Do it here, right now…
http://www.countyclerk.bexar.landata.com/
If you don’t educate yourself backwards and forwards about what’s involved and think you’ll “learn as you go” on the financial and contractual end, you’re Shark Bait!
Forget what Armando said – “Flipping is like riding a bicycle” – It isn’t ; )
I have been watching the Montelongos for some time. I have always thought Armando was a jerk and treated his wife like a contractor. How can she take this and even the contractors and project managers call him harsh names in front of her.
I like the show but I hate his arragant attitude.
Boyson,
Killer job of pulling it all together! WOW! Excellent!
I was flipping homes before it was actually called flipping. Trust me there is not a whole lot to it. I have purchased over 50 properties all will VERY little or no money down, rehabed them, rented some and sold the rest. You don’t need a $100 or $1000 package from Armando to figure this out……
Karen – Sounds like you know your stuff on the loan side! I agree with you…the market will get better. It’s only a matter of time. And now is a GREAT time for investors to buy and hold properties! I’m trusting you’ve got some terrific loan business coming your way! And I do understand your thoughts…best to leave the loan questions to the mortgage lender, and the realtor questions to the realtor. :^) Here’s wishing you well, too! And thanks for your insightful comments!
FIFI_33 – Here’s wishing you well, too! Sounds like you’re finding some interesting info on properties in the Miami area. Have great fun finding and buying your perfect, first home! (My favorite part is the doing the showings. I LOVE looking at homes!)
Steve #604:
Yes, my brother and I did buy a house several weeks ago, we close Aug 24.
We bought a 1400 sq ft, 3 bedroom house in Grand Prairie, TX for $43k. Assessed value is $74,500. The house needs very little work and we’ll make a good profit.
I didn’t buy Armandos book nor recommend buying it(because of the cost)…but watching Armando has given me motivation to flip a house. I’ve learned a lot from him and still am.
I’m not interested in the Armandos county records because like you I’m not going to understand all the legalities and business manuverings he and his lenders are doing, nor do I care to know.
I’m flipping a house using common sense and a little bit of smarts…and motivation from Armando.
We’re paying for the flip house with cash so no need for financing with someone like VCH financing.
Actually I have a personal line of credit I’m using for my half to pay for the house, like I mentioned before..use other peoples money, I’ll keep my cash under my mattress.
Steve in Texas post 604
That is what I have been doin for two years now. Learning the flipping game everyway I can before acually buying. I am glad I did because, 1. I now know what to expect and 2. the market is changed and I might of taken a hit from the soft market. I live in Indianapolis and our market is not as hot as say, Chicago or Detroit. I read earlier this year that Indys average housing market only appreciates .02% – .75% a year so any negative change in the national rate hurts us alot more then a place like L.A.
Anyway I have been thinking and I came to the conclusion that A&E not only knows about the Montelongos(which includes all 4 of them because David, Milina, and Veronica all had their parts in this lie)but also help them with their lie. Think about it. If they kick them off the show that will me 3 different cast they had to change. That would hurt rating and also slow the sale of people buying they shows online. Not to mention their reputation would be hurt. They are probably getting a Percentage from Armando’s book and cd’s. We know Departure Films were in on the Laccima scam. Also, if they took the San Antonio cast off they would be left with the Connecicut guys and IMOH I dont think they are pulling in the ratings. They are ok but there is no drama or personality on their shows. Its somewhat boring. What would A&E put in that time slot, more Dog the Bounty Hunter? Things just dont add up. Maybe I am reading more into it than I should.
Jeff
Boyson – Great job in finding that house from the episode on August 11, 2007.
I just recently found this website, and I have to reluctantly admit, that I stayed up late last night reading all 600+ posts.
My comments are as follows:
1. I started watching the Flip This House (FTH) series on A&E during the first year with Richard Davis and really enjoyed it, mostly because I am a weekend warrior and watched the show mainly to learn more about home improvement projects. The learning thing is still the main reason that I watch the show.
2. I continue to watch FTH on A&E with Armando, again, mainly to learn.
3. As with all reality shows, my on-going assumption is that alot of the show is “staged”, and take with a grain of salt some of the overacting, especially with Armando. Yes, he comes across looking like a total ass sometimes, but again, I chalk alot of that up to the staging and pure entertainment value.
4. I also take with a grain of salt some of the proposed profits that Armando claims on the show. And, I also seriously doubt that he is able to do some of the flips on the show for the money that he claims he spent.
5. All aside, I view this FTH show as purely entertainment.
6. Mike Voss, I am anxiously waiting on your assessment of Armando’s material, more out of curiosity than anything else. I would never pluck down $1000 of my hard earned money for his material, because as with most things like this, you can get the same expert stuff at the library, or somewhere on the internet.
7. I am not here to try to convince people that Armando is a saint, nor am I here to villify him. With that said, here are my other comments:
a. Why are people knocking Armando for trying to sell his expertise, whether or not you believe he has any expertise? He certainly is not the first so called “expert” to try to sell educational material to the public.
b. Even if Mike Voss finds that most, if not all, of Armando’s material can be found elsewhere, what’s wrong with that? Again, he won’t be the first person to charge for something that is available cheaper elsewhere.
c. This is a case of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). This applies to both the FTH show, as well as anyone contemplating buying his course. As stated before, I don’t believe half of what I hear/hear on the show because I consider it to be meant for pure entertainment only. And for those of you thinking about buying the course material, then wait until Mike Voss’s review before making a decision.
d. Although I have never flipped a house, I can imagine during the housing boom in many parts of the country these past five or so years, that there was alot of money to be made flipping. Now, with the housing markets slowing down, I am also sure that it is now much more difficult to make money flipping. So, whatever techniques are in Armando’s course, those techniques may not work in today’s market.
’nuff said I suppose.
Lee,
Re: “We bought a 1400 sq ft, 3 bedroom house in Grand Prairie, TX for $43k. Assessed value is $74,500.”
Howdy, neighbor! Sounds like I’m about 30 minutes from you ; ) That’s the way I’d do it too. Bankroll it myself. Let us know how it turns out
Jeff in Texas,
I don’t know if there ever was any but any credibility Armando may have had with me flew out the window when he obviously embellishes what he’s done and is doing to the point of absurdity.
20-30 flips a month ain’t happening and never did, IMO, and he also isn’t the “Largest residential real estate investor in America” either ; )
In sales, you first have to sell yourself. No sale ; )
Boyson,
Again, great job! There’s a laundry list of things that can trigger a lien on those hard money loans which is basically anything and everything that constitutes “non performance” and/or deviation of the agreed upon terms.
Lee,
Re: “I’m not interested in the Armandos county records because like you I’m not going to understand all the legalities and business manuverings he and his lenders are doing, nor do I care to know.”
The details of the notes aren’t available to the public. Hence, “best guess” why the default(s)
It’s “Contract Law 101” and that I do get ; )
Steve in Texas:
I agree that flipping 20-30 houses a month has to be a gross exaggeration of the facts. But, as I said before, I consider Armando and the FTH show to be nothing but pure entertainment, and alot of playing up to the cameras. I do learn things from the show just by watching demolitions and some of the reconstruction work.
It’ll be interesting to see if he stays in business, or if A&E continues to air his show. He had to lose a lot of money on that house that had the seriously cracked foundation and resulting “warped” roof. I wish A&E would have showed us how he fixed the cracked foundation.
As for those people who buy these self proclaimed expert’s products, well, there’s a sucker born every minute, or so I hear.
Jeff in Texas,
They leveled the foundation (for now) and “fixed” the roof because it was visible. The ‘bones’ or structure though has gotta be severely ‘tweaked’ with loose nails all over the place I would think at minimum.
Lifted from the TWOP Forum (posted tody). LOL!
“My husband called me on my way home from work yesterday to tell me that a Montelongo SUV was parked at a house up the street from us. I did not notice a “for sale” sign when I drove by nor did I see a camera crew but I will keep my eye on it for awhile. It seems that my husband was almost hit by the same Montelongo vehicle (driven by one of the women) in traffic not too long ago. I sure would hate to see his ass in my neighborhood. If they start filming, we have vowed to drive by regularly and yell, “Armando is a tool and a douchebag!” and other such truths.”
FYI:
It appears The Montelongo Bunch house is still being rehabbed. I drove by to do some photos, but there were contractors outside. The garage door was opened and I noticed a pallet of sheet rock inside. I thought they were finished with rehabbing?
I have the raw jpeg (large 1.5 meg) picture on my website and decide for yourself.
Boyson,
I guess that “potential profit” of $61K is circling the drain ; )
Boyson: RE: THe Montelongo Bunh house still being rehabbed: Undoubtedly all Armando’s work is now being ripped out and done correctly by someone competent hired by whichever investor foreclosed on it, took it back, and is now liquidating it! (yeah Armando, a tennis ball is much better than a level or laser….especially since it has a felt-like exterior subject to flattening or catching – a solid ball would have been a more competent incompetent tool.)
FYI Everyone sorry I am so far behind on getting my review of Armando’s e-books up. Unlike Armando, I actually have to build houses most days and do other things when I have free time! I am shooting for having it up here by the weekend.
Best regards,
Mike Voss
Boyson,
I saw your PDF’s too. So the TRO’s were for…
433 Marquette Land Trust
San Bernardo Land Trust
Jesse Land Trust
Painted Horse Land Trust
boyson wrote:
FYI:
It appears The Montelongo Bunch house is still being rehabbed. I drove by to do some photos, but there were contractors outside. The garage door was opened and I noticed a pallet of sheet rock inside. I thought they were finished with rehabbing?
I have the raw jpeg (large 1.5 meg) picture on my website and decide for yourself.
Look like they got new windows and a nice lawn but the drive way could use some work.
Jeff
To steve in Texas…you go…lol. That gave me a good laugh to think of you driving by their job site and hollering “Armando is a douchebag and a tool!”