Vendor finance Seminars - Rick Otton

Vendor finance is getting propagated as an easy income strategy with no capital investment required. Rick Otton has popularized this strategy with his new book "How to buy a house for a dollar". He foresees a huge market for property options and there are many variants. And I may add and many risks. In his book Rick discloses a number of successful students like the Siaccis http://www.siacci.com.au/ and Dr Gordon Ku (Dr. House). Both students now coach their own followers. 

Some spruikers make property options sound like easy money and suggest that it is common to take profits way above what a real estate agent would be allowed to take, which can be seen as a ripp off. This is still a niche industry with no  regulations on profeteering, but a financial adviser license is required as far as I know.  I estimate that 95 % of the seminar students don't launch, give up early or can't replace their jobs. If you want to hear the stories of ordinary folks you may  visit property forums like whirlpool to learn more. In a growth market it can be "win-win-win" yeah right, but in a flat market winners need to find losers . People get sick, divorced, loos jobs, banks say no and the "Rent to Buy" deal maker may go out of business and people loose all their option money structured into a higher rent and a deposit. We are in Australia, but its worthwhile to watch Michael Moore' s docu about predatory finance. I must say that in the US there is at least one company that is honest in their branding strategy. They are called Condo Vultures. They clean up just like vultures do by paying the absolute minimum. They didn't cause the problem, but they complete the pain. No mercy in business.

Back to Australia. Here are a few more investor links.

Property Investing (Forum)
Active Property Network