We get heat every day from new attendees to  investment workshops and the people who promote the workshops.  In fact, every time I go to a new workshop, I ask the same question. "If it's that easy,  why are you struggling to fill your workshops and sell your products? Why not just  continuing investing?" The answer is always a variation of this statement: "To share  our knowledge so we can help others achieve their goals." Wow - what a  benevolent group of people! Yeah, right. 

We get calls every week from new investors who think they can sit on the courtroom  steps and buy foreclosures for 50 cents on the dollar? Or buy a $500,000 condo for  $20,000 in back property taxes. That's fine. We can sit down and debate the point  one day. Here's our position on the matter. Unless you are an expert (not a  weekend dabbler) in this complicated area of real estate investing, you'll get  crushed by the sharks out there who scoop up the real values and leave the  "money pits" for the investment seminar dabblers to get excited about. 

That said, there are great deals out there. A lot of them. And the credible  investment seminars will teach you how to scout them out. They can take the form of pre-foreclosures, for sale by owners and other scenarios where urgent owners  need to sell quickly, for less than market value. Finding them is work - real work.  Cold calling owners and dealing with massive rejection. Structuring profitable deals.  Protecting your legal interests. Managing service providers and contractors. It is not  for the faint of heart. It's the reason the "experts" are supplementing their real  estate portfolios teaching seminars and writing books. 

Better yet, find an expect agent who understands the market, knows which sellers are the most motivated, which homes are in foreclosure, which are banked owned, etc.  An experienced agent will help you negotiate the best deals and protect your interests in the process.  Sounds like a better deal to me.