'Find and Flip' housing not easy money

FLINT, Mich. (WOOD) - Than Merrill made a splash on the popular reality show "Flip This House" on A&E in which the former NFL football player showed viewers how to buy, fix and flip a house, turning  profits anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000.

Now, radio ads are pushing seminars by Merrill's company Fortune Builders that will teach you how to make that cash -- and the classes are coming to West Michigan. But can they deliver what they promise?
 
"There's a lot more to this than just going to this seminar and getting their expertise," said Phil Catlett, CEO of the Better Business Bureau of West Michigan.
 
Catlett worries people will think they're going to get rich quickly.
 
The ads claim that "Grand Rapids is the perfect market" for flipping houses.
 
"They're in every town across America, so what's so special about our market that the ads are talking about? Bottom line, housing values are going up, but it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be cheap," said Catlett. "It's going to be very very hard work and you're going to have to be very smart and very fortunate to make it work."
 
Target 8 sat in on a Find and Flip seminar in Flint. The first thing organizers did was ask audience members to turn off recording devices.
 
Then, during the course of two hours, speaker Charles Johnson provided some of the steps house-flipping hopefuls should take, like tracking down cash investors in the community and finding properties even realtors don't know about, as well as how best to stage houses to sell them.
 
Then, speakers provided another option: A three-day class with Fortune Builders that will reveal even more "industry secrets." The class costs $1,197 if you sign up online, but those who signed up during the initial free two-hour seminar got a $1,000 discount.
 
Target 8 asked if the three-day class was a rip-off.
 
"Absolutely not, no," said real estate investor Charles Johnson, who led the Flint seminar.
 
During the seminar, Johnson told a personal story about a disease that nearly left him paralyzed four years ago. Then, he said, Merrill and the class changed his life. He said he is now one of the larger wholesalers in North Carolina and branching into other states.
 
The radio ad says house-flippers can "make money using somebody else's cash." But what the ad doesn't say, the speaker in the seminar repeatedly does: Flipping houses is not easy.
 
Johnson said he makes it clear to seminar-goers that flipping houses isn't easy and that people don't walk away thinking they're going to make thousands of dollars easily.  
 
"You definitely have to do work in this business," he said.
 
Greg Gilson, who already works in real estate, was willing to front the cash for the next class.
 
"He's talking my language, really. If he gives me even one idea, it's worth what I'd be paying for the thing," said Gilson.
 
"You just don't jump in. I'm the type of person you don't jump right in. I'm kind of debating. But he kind of made me lean toward I would take a chance at that," added Eric Earnest, who also attended the seminar.
 
Out of the 93 people who signed up for the seminar, 21 decided to take that chance and signed up for the three-day class, which means Fortune Builders made $4,137 in one day.
 
Former football player-turned-house-flipper Than Merrill wasn't at the Flint seminar, but he spoke with Target 8 via phone and email.

He told Target 8 "people want a lot more education because they realize the risks. That is why we disclose both the pros and cons to investing. There is a lot of risk and the only way to increase your probability of success is to get educated."

The company's Better Business Bureau rating is under review in San Diego, where it is based. The BBB there is conducting an investigation after complaints from other BBB's around the country.

Merrill said those complaints came from people who never attended one of the seminars and that they're wrong.

"We don't have a way of tracking all of the people who are successful from our events. We get testimonials every week from people around the country who are extremely successful. At the same time we realize not everyone is going to be successful. If people don't take action on what we teach it doesn't matter how much you provide to them," Merrill added.

Fortune Builders provides a full disclaimer on its website.

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