I’ve read what there is to read on it and spoken with at least 5 people who traveled to SC to attend presentations on it. To date, none of them can tell me what it is either. All I’ve heard Richard Davis or anyone else say is that it’s “not franchising”, but everything I’ve heard about it indicated that that was exactly what it was intended to be.

I’ll be very direct here - Richard seems like a nice guy on TV, but, let’s remember, he produces the show so you see what he wants you to see. I’ve spoken to him in email once or twice and he seems nice, but my experience is that he didn’t follow through on things he expressed interest in. Many people have asked me what I think about this program and if they should get involved. I’ve told them all that I just don’t see it, whatever it is supposed to be, and I would never advise anyone to get into business with someone spending all that time/resources into things like minor league baseball teams. As I’ve said many times, real estate is a regional business, so the idea of applying Trademark’s principles to every other city in the US doesn’t really fly. That combined with a nebulous definition (kind of reminded me of how Amway reps will never tell you it’s Amway….) made me tell those who asked me to wait and see.

Well, it’s a year later, and still nothing and no real answers. So, does anyone actually *know* what the Trademark Area partners program is/was supposed to be and what state it is in, or can we assume it was just a half-baked idea that died on the vine? I was skeptical from the begining and I believe time has borne that skepticism out. It never made sense to me and still doesn’t.

Mike Voss

liquidationsensation.com

to me, the operative word here is “announce”. that means to make public, not just privately contact each organization selected. So, here it is Feb. 6… a month past his self-stated deadline and still no “announcement”.

Monday December 31, 2007

Hello to all Prospective Area Partners,

Today is last day of 2007 and the beginning of what will be the best year in the history (to date) of Trademark Properties history, merge together tonight at Midnight! Happy New Year to all, wherever you may be today! We have eight plus months to have an operating area partnership in place in all 50 states, the time is now!

I want to thank everyone who has waited very patiently to see where Team Trademark has decided to START our roll out. I want to emphasize START because the first ten Area Partners are just that, a starting point - we will obviously not be drawing a “line in the sand” after the first ten if we are to be represented in all fifty states by August 23, 2008. We need to be focusing on the big picture of the finished product of having our Brand and Business Model in each tertiary market where it will make a difference for the future Team Trademark members and the community as a whole, WE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

We will announce the first ten Partnership selections next week, we have many great people and many great areas and we have put A LOT of time, research, resources, and applied some “gut feel” in these initial choices - which we are excited about, but the next forty and then the next few hundred after that are just as important and quite honestly MORE IMPORTANT to the future communities that Trademark will enter because as we all know, LOCATION means LOCAL and that is what this business model is all about.

Some of you expected us to move faster, which I understand but my business model was created in 1990 to take advantage of a down market - while all others will be jumping out, we will be jumping it. The down market, I like to call it an OPPORTUNISTIC MARKET, is the fuel for the engine we have built.
There were many people who wanted to start a partnership immediately, six months ago, right when we walked out of the speech. I have received numerous emails from people who “HAD TO MAKE A DECISION IMMEDIATELY” because they had a great deal on a property and couldn’t pass it up while waiting for the Trademark logo. I passed up on many possible Area Partners and the opportunity to act expediently, knowing that the best was yet to come, now I ask you, when was a better time to buy assets, then or NOW? Do you think you missed out? When is 80 cent on the dollar better than 50 cent on the dollar?

Think of it as this, when the local skateboarders in your community asked to use the local pool to practice their craft, didn’t it make sense for them to patiently wait until the water hit the BOTTOM of the drain before jumping in? Same pool, same location, better results for waiting for it to HIT BOTTOM, right? OK, so let’s not let a bunch of skateboarders outsmart us Real Estate types, right? Does anyone here think we have hit bottom yet? Is it about to get fun? Are there going to be great opportunities to liquidate national portfolios because TEAM TRADEMARK has a network of AREA PARTNERS ready, willing and able to handle surplus or distressed properties in all fifty states? Time to finish putting the Teams together, the game is about to begin and it’s going to be a wild ride. IF you think the game has passed you by in the last year and we missed it, trust me you have been playing the wrong sport, the season hasn’t even started yet!

I want you all to have a wonderful NEW YEAR’s EVE, enjoy friends and family and I want you to be ready for 2008 to be the best year of your life, the one when you get to be affiliated with the most incredible rollout in American business! THE TIME IS NOW, thanks for your patience!

Enjoy the Bowl games but when they are over, don’t forget to Strap your OWN helmet and cleats on, because IT”S GAME TIME!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Richard

Poor girl.