Franklin Squires

[TheInvestors]

Hey All,

I don't know if anyone has received, or even subscribes to, the Creative Real Estate Lifestyles magazine. This is where I saw an advertisement from Franklin Squires (who I believe is affiliated with the magazine).

My question is... has anyone had any experience with this company.  I am not new to investing but I am always willing to learn more in real estate investing.  I just don't want to get suckered into something.

If anyone belongs to the company or has had any experience, please let me know.

Thanks,

Clifton

[stitchenterprises]

Seems ethically shady and legally borderline to me, but never personally dealt with them.  They essentially use your credit to strip equity out of a property.

[jryan2355]

WOW Stitchenterprises! Those are pretty strong assumptions for never personally dealing with FranklinSquires. I am personally involved with FS and though I have only been with them for 2 months, I PERSONALLY know people (people I associate with almost daily) that have become prosperous and wealthy without using their credit or stripping the equity out of a property. FS is a great company to be associated with, but do not plan on making thousands and thousands of dollars in a couple of months, they are not for those looking to "get rich quick" they teach the true principals of prosperity and how to create value. I would highly recommend going to their website www.franklinsquires.com and register for one of their presentations, unlike other presentations or seminars, you will learn a lot, rather than get sold for 4 hours.

[stitchenterprises]

and I did preface it by saying I hadn't worked with them personally.  However, my best friend growing up does work for them and tried to get me and others I know involved and the sales pitch he gave us was all about equity stripping with our credit, so I only know what he sold me on...

[jryan2355]

Stitchenterprises- I'm sure I came off as slightly defensive, not intensionally let me assure you. One can only base their knowledge on something as far as they know or have been told. I would suggest to anyone to go to one of FS's seminars and listen to Freecapitalist radio as well. I know personally, before I was involved with FS, I wasted time and money with other companies. Some of the methods used by FS might seem " ethically shady or borderline legal" but when you truely understand what FS teaches you, it makes a lot of legitimate sense. It is really outside of the box thinking, (though many claim their methods are as well)  

[Franchise]

I am aware of FS and live just 5 miles from their offices and even closer to all of their horrific billboards with Rick Koerber's face plastered all over them.  Gosh, he wears terrible suits ... looks like he stole Dwight Schrute's style.

Anyway, I fully expect to see an indictment of FS within the next year.  Where there is smoke there is often fire.  I think this one is about to burn down.

I know way too many people that got involved in this and one of two things happened:

1.  They are being taught to commit fraud.
2.  They are stupid and interpret FS teachings to encourage fraud.

Either way, every story I hear about them has something to do with artificially inflating property values, borrowing money with falsely stated income, and stripping equity to put into a "mill."

Google C. Rick Koerber and you'll see that the guy already got pinched for fraud in Wyoming.

[propertymanager]

Jryan2355,

I don't know anything about Franklin Squires, but I did look at their website.  I found it full of guru nonsense and lacking in anything substantive.  I couldn't even tell from the website what they are selling - other than a dream (complete with video of a sailboat on a lake).

Have you made money as a result of Franklin Squires and if so, HOW?  Why not enlighten us instead of simply promoting their business?  What will I or anyone else get from Franklin Squires that makes it worthwhile?

Mike

[tatertot]

jryan is selling hard. It makes me wonder if it is one of those multi- level sales things.

[jryan2355]

          I can see your perspective of me trying to just promote FS -which I wasn’t necessarily trying to do- but I guess my patience ran low with stitchenterprises and his/her assumption of what they do. Personally I have not experienced any questionable techniques/strategies that would be considered “borderline illegal/unethical” nor “equity skimming”; am I saying they do or don’t do it? No, I don’t know, I just know I’ve never been encouraged to do anything illegal while investing in real estate utilizing their strategies nor have I seen it go on within them. 
          I have made money working with them and also working without them, utilizing the basic premise of what they teach and other techniques/strategies I have learned from other professionals including from this website. What can you or anyone else “get” from FranklinSquires? I guess that depends, it has more/less evolved (if you will) into American Founders University (I am not trying to promote). They have courses you can take, specifically regarding real estate, they have: Creative Real Estate Acquisitions, Retail (or Credit) Real Estate Acquisitions, Real Estate Liquidation and Utilization, Real Estate Risk Management.  So simply stated they teach: how to find motivated sellers, how to identify “good opportunities” or properties, how to analyze properties, how to determine what to offer, how to negotiate offers, how to submit offers, how to acquire properties, what to do with the property(s), how to make them profitable, how to utilize your credit in purchasing real estate, how to liquidate real estate, why you may want to do certain strategies with the property, etc. That was kind of a long description, and I want to be very clear that I am not trying to sell anyone on FS or AFU or any of the affiliated companies; I am promoting research and due diligence in any venture or education anyone chooses to pursue that is why I suggested in my prior post attending a FREE seminar or listening to the FREE radio broadcasts (I know FREE events are how they get you there, but you have a choice to continue and pay for the service or not) so you can look into it for yourself, rather than take the opinion of someone who says “Seems ethically shady and legally borderline to me, but never personally dealt with them.  They essentially use your credit to strip equity out of a property.” I think most of us have been to real estate seminars and are continually trying to learn more about real estate and how to be on the forefront of what’s going on in real estate. I do not feel like FS or AFU replace all the other real estate resources, networks, and education/training organizations, I have a personally had a good experience with them, but I believe it depends on the person/investor. I think reiclub is an awesome resource to learn how to invest in real estate and gather a wide range of perspectives and knowledge and I promote the hell out of this website. (Still waiting on my referral fee’s ) but I do it because I have found this website very valuable.
          Anyways, hope this helps to clear up my perspective on FranklinSquires.

Thanks for the post.

[Bluemoon06]

So jryan2355 I see you drank the Kool Aid.  In general I believe in finding someone doing what you want to do and imitate them.  I would follow them if I wanted to start a guru business.  I would find a local real estate investor where I am and do what he is doing to make money.

[jryan2355]

       I don't know about the kool aid, I believe in learning from people that are doing what I want to be doing too; I guess I just prefer more than one person or perspective, shame on me for expanding my knowledge. I feel like the more people I learn from the more I'll learn. But I am glad to see you were able to find the one local RE investor that knows it all and you were able to imitate him/her.
       
       Thanks for the post.

[dr_white]

Franklin Squires, along with some of its sister organizations, including Rick Koerber himself, are behind on payments and taxes with most of their real-estate acquisitions (literally several dozen just in Utah alone), including Rick Koerber's own home in Springville, Utah. Some of the organization(s)' properties are scheduled to be auctioned January 18, 2008. Rick Koerber continues to host his radio talk show and his seminars; two are scheduled for January 17 & 18. It might be a last ditch effort to get some money to pay on the organization(s)' defaults. Whatever the organizations' "strategies" might be, defaulting on multiple dozens of loans and property taxes, doesn't sound like succesful real-estate investing to me.

 Dean

[Mdhaas]

Whatever the organizations' "strategies" might be, defaulting on multiple dozens of loans and property taxes, doesn't sound like succesful real-estate investing to me.

But it looked good on paper!!! 

The presentation looks good on paper...it's just the practical application that's a bunch of BS   

[dr_white]

Franklin Squires has quite a "following" at this point. Huge blog on what has/is happening with them. If you scroll down to about 3/4 - 4/5 of the page, there is a link to a court case filed in Colorado. I'm rather interested in this stuff because I live right about in the middle of Rick Koerber and Joseph Gabriel - the two heads of this organization. Actually, I've just started door contacting them and their associates to do short sales on their properties. Most of them aren't interested even though every day that passes is a day closer to foreclosure.
From one point, this whole thing sucks because it gives us all a bad name from the questionable activities of these few. From another point, its good that they are getting their just reward for playing Cashflow 101 with other people's real-life money.
Anyways, enjoy the HUGE read!

http://franklinsquires.blogspot.com/

 Dean

[Equity]

Here’s a rather informative thread that even Rick Koerber participated in:

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/sdcia/vpost?id=1821780&highlight=franklin+squires