Has anyone else gotten burned by the scam Startup Essentials and A-1 Leasing?

Never heard of them . Why did you or someone you know ?

No, I’m not an idiot.

Lots of people fall for all types of scams, they are not all idiots just desperate for whatever the scammers offer!

You’re an idiot if you don’t do basic research before throwing your money at something.
With these types of scams, it’s fairly obvious.

If you google a1 leasing and the first hit is a website warning people of the company… That’s a pretty good indicator to run like hell.

Wouldn’t the word be naive rather than “idiot” tho it is rather silly for someone to fall for such traps, but they are desperate for what the scam offers and will not think twice about it . Tunnel vision

You call it naive, but naive implies they couldn’t have known better.
In fact, we all do, and some are just so ridiculously desperate that they forgot all the lessons they must have stumbled through in life to make an idiotic decision.

So yeah, idiot.

@asmonet
We got into Startup Essentials, who used A-1 Leasing, while they were still listed with the BBB in Texas. They still want us to pay for services that they are not providing. Piss on that. We are closing that bank acct. and starting a new one so they get nothing else from us.

My father-in-law joined. So far they haven’t been able to get him a home. They only want him to pay for the school. Every answer they have given him is textbook and not a secret.

The BEST advice they gave in their seminar was to go to the REAL PRO’s when you want advice. People who have REALLY been there, done that.

Here’s the TRUTH! This program gives a person some motivation to get into real estate investing. There are other groups out there doing the same thing. You attend the meeting and pay $3,995 to join. Then they give you some reading materials and put you through three days of teaching you the ropes. They give you a list of web sites to go to to search out properties. Then you still don’t feel strong enough to go it alone so you then pay an additional $10,000 and they will give you a years worth of support for as many homes as you want to buy and sell.

I’m a Real Estate Counsellor. I have a Real Estate license and act as a Realtor. I work with several banks, financial advisors and lenders. I have sold millions of dollars worth of homes. I invest in Real Estate. Here are a few things to consider.

They claim that you can do this TAX FREE. But you’d better know the laws. Tax free is only for properties that sell every two years. So, you have to keep the property for two years and you have to live in it for that time (you can’t rent it out) to get the tax “exempt” equity from your home. An investment property is different. It is taxed based on your income level. If you sell it in under a year your tax could be 28% however if you sell it in over a year your tax could be 15%. Either way you are allowed to keep 5%, yep ONLY 5%, as tax free. Therefore they will try to tell you to take it easy and only do a few homes at first. You will find yourself “rolling” the money into another home and you will discover that if you don’t then you will pay dearly at the end of the year.

A bank will hire a Realtor to sell a home, even if it’s NOT on the MLS it will be represented by a Realtor. The Realtor had to pass a national and state test in contracts and law that is why they are trusted by the banks. So you will deal with a Realtor in a short sale situation anyway.

I suggest that you keep your $15,000 in your own pocket and hire a Realtor and a licensed Financial Advisor. The Realtor and the Financial Advisor will agree to only get paid when you do. No risk there. You can do this but you don’t need to lose $15,000 for a few books and some flash-in-the-pan hype.

I have all the websites that the students of these programs paid 1,000’s for and I didn’t pay a dime for them.