RESPONSE from Neil Jenman


Let me begin with three words. Stop, stop, stop.

One day, I am going to write an article about good people like you. The title might be, LAST IN THE FOOD CHAIN.

It will compare what you are doing to arriving at a smorgasbord at the end of the meal time.

Sure, there is food there, but the best bits have been gobbled up by those who arrived earlier. You get the scraps.

I noticed from your message, that the more you wrote the more you started to figure things out.

That often happens when we take the time to THINK. We see things simply. That's the last thing this mob want, they want you to think you need their experience. What rot. You have almost figured it out.

If you'd have kept writing you'd have talked yourself out of it.

But, like so many people, you are too eager to buy and less eager to do the research which reveals that, when you buy from mobs like this, you are last in the food chain.

You asked me if I had any other suggestions. Just one. Don't deal with The Investors Club.

Why?

Well, aside from being last in the food chain, the first thing they do is mislead you.

How?

By their name. They are not a club.

They are a well-oiled spruiking gang charging THREE times the rate charged by most agents.

And, further, they have the temerity to tell you that their services are "free".

Come here, please, lean in close. Listen to this:

If the first thing that a business does is mislead you (i.e. tell you they are a "club"), that, on its own, means you should not deal with them.

If the second thing they tell you is also misleading (i.e. that their service is "free" when, as you have already figured out, their mammoth commissions are loaded into the price you PAY), you should run.

Get out of there now.

If you reckon the same or similar properties are for sale with normal agents, you could almost certainly pay [at least] four per cent cheaper if you bought from an agent.

If this mob are getting $17,000 commission (and, at six per cent, it's going to be more like $23,000), then you could buy from an agent where the commission - which is part of the price you PAY - could be as low as $7,000, perhaps even lower.

So, you have a choice - Pay $23,000 or pay $7,000.

See, what happens when you write things down and think about them? The solution is obvious.

Last week, a major property company went bust. You probably saw it on the news.

It was called Estate Constructions and its fund raising arm was called ACR (Australian Capital Reserve).

The main reason they went broke was because they could not sell enough of their over-priced properties.

On many of their projects, they were offering SIX per cent commission to anyone who could find buyers (read "suckers"). They offered six per cent to everyone: agents, brokers, financial planners, accountants.

And, wait for it, The Investors Club.

Here's what Diana Ford, a sales consultant for Estate Constructions, told a caller just three weeks before the company collapsed: "I'm very ethical, I've been a financial planner for ten years. I've done my due diligence and am very comfortable with the company. We have three hundred million in the kitty, we haven't used yet."

She then boasted: "The Investors Club are coming on board." With 80,000 members they have "2,000 buyers ready to invest now."

Yea, sure.

Diana Ford didn't say how many (if any) of those investors, who have been sadly deluded into thinking of themselves as "members of a club", had bought property from her soon-to-collapse company.


She did tell the caller, however, that, "Jenman is a pain in the a- - -." Aw, shucks, another insult.

But, I have to concede that, for spruikers, that's true.

I try to avoid clichés, but this calls for one - "There is no such thing as a free lunch".


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Footnote: The Investors Club have sent me threatening letters (not sure if it was one or two) in the past (as they do with many others who reveal their shenanigans).

Well, I have written this reply very carefully in order to help you and other investors to understand what it really means to be a sham member of this sham club.

I stand ready to defend not just you but, also myself if I am attacked by this spruiking "gang" (now that's a more appropriate word than "club").

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Further Reading: Read about the company that a self-titled ethical financial planner, had claimed to have done her "due diligence" on. The company she described as having "$300 million in the kitty" which, three weeks later, collapsed. Click here .