All those signs would make a nice pair of wings... ~Bm Several thoughts: 1) You say 95% of people realize these are scams. The percentage *among your readers* must be much higher than even that....so why this story explaining in detail how scammy it is? An expose where you actually attend a sales pitch (or maybe you did and I missed that part?) would have been a little more interesting. 2) That said, I can definitely see how someone might be sucked in against their better judgement. I know that any time I don't have a job and funds are getting low, I view this kind of thing somewhat less skeptically. My only thought is: "If only there were some way to get a LOT of money REALLY FAST". 3) The part about the sandwiches wasn't really fair. Sure, the Nouveau Cuisine people are driving up prices, but so would a "legitimate" sandwich middleman venture. Driving up prices is just how capitalism works (or "works") and isn't really part of the scam. 4) I'm always amazed that people can just put up signs in any old place and not get fined for littering or signage malplacement or whatever. (You'd think a real estate "company" in particular would be sensitive to property rights.) Does Sacramento have any laws regarding this? Oh yes, they are all over the place in Tampa, FL I like your point about the "hotdogs". My husband's father is involved with a scam like that. He wastes money (that his wife is earning at an HONEST job) and when everyone tells him that he is wasting his money, he thinks we're all morons who know nothing about making money! Also he blabs on and on about ebay to us and we're like "WE KNOW. WE KNOW ABOUT EBAY." and he just drones on about this and that that he could sell and make a lot of money. Ugh. That GUY. I've never seen them here, but real estate is pretty weak ... certainly not a market like CA. Glad I read down a bit. I almost sent you the $5K for the secret of wealth. Nouveau Riche might be new, but the real estate techniques they're likely teaching are not. The following site might be of use to you (it's a resource about real estate scams and scammers): http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html Said site also has this about the founder of NR: "James Phillip Piccolo filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Phoenix on 8/27/90 (petition #2:90-bk-09050-RGM). On 6/16/92, a Phoenix grand jury indicted James Phillip Piccolo for “Theft, a class 3 felony and Trafficking in stolen property, first degree, a Class 2 felony,” namely, the theft of a 1981 Mercedes Benz and the sale of its parts (No. CR92-91584). Piccolo pled guilty on 12/7/92 and was found guilty by Judge David L. Grounds of the Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa County." (all of which supposedly stemmed from a divorce fight) Keep up the great work; love the site. John Hofmann Vicksburg, MI No known signs in Brooklyn, NY. Also, I was under the impression that the term "Nouveau Riche" was meant as an insult. too many clickthrough pages to generate ad revenue, without any real content. Your herbalife story exposed and helped, this story doesn't tell us anything. Hovercraft What?!? This is a scam?! Nooooooo!! Hey Rob, can I borrow $5,000? I'm a little behind in my bills after I paid... tuition. -- Daniel Just wanted to say cheers to the fact that you actually put a 5k paypal link on their, all you need is one and you can fund the next big prank. You're a hero Rob! May the giant donut of happiness fall lovingly next to your coffee mug. The Super Bowl Prank is a rip-off!!! ;-) Seriously, when are you guys going to reveal the *real* prank? I've seen them around the Seattle area. Same exact pitch. I drive by one every day adn I consider getting out and defacing it. But, I never do. I lack conviction. I guess I wouldn't be a good apprentice. I've seen it around the greater Chicagoland area. It seemed to be relating it to the Apprentice TV show. Hi Rob, Haven't seen these signs in Nova Scotia yet. I seem to being seeing a lot fewer of those damn Herbalife signs, though. And I see "I buy houses" signs everywhere and the same stickers plastered over payphones and drive-through windows. I assumed they were house flippers looking for a good deal. Just over a year ago I was living in Valencia, CA (about 30 miles north of LA). I saw the poorly hand-scrawled versions of the signs and wondered who would be foolish enough to respond. I now live in Lincoln, NE and haven't noticed any signs here. Like any fad, give it 18 months to make it to the mid-west. Have you sent this to the FTC? I appreciate your efforts to debunk these scams. Thanks! I've seen these quite a bit in my area, in Provo, Utah. Most of them are hand written. There are numerous "schools" running this same scam, not just the Noveau Riche Acadamy. I did some computer tech support for a couple of these companies here in Utah. I loved your expose on Herbalife and Amway, and I think you've done a great job here, too. I never really noticed this stuff before and now I see scams being advertised on the radio and latenight television, just like this. Thanks for the in-depth reporting! I've seen a few in the Orlando, FL area... love the site Wow, what a scam. If the signs are there they must be generating income. It is incredible enough suckers exist to give them money. I work for local govt. in the property mapping department. Now and then we get these numbskulls that are just looking for property, any property, because they have BIG PLANS. I've always suspected those late night real estate schemes on TV. But maybe these signs are the antagonist I have been hunting for. I have worked here for 7 years, and real estate is just like any other investment. I know of one person that won the land lottery, bought a property for an insanely low amount and then turned around and sold it. I have heard of many more almost losing their shirts, or barely escaping with a bit of profit. As with business, the easiest way to make money is the illegal, unethical, or morally challenging path. Slum lords and people willing to take advantage of others in desperate situations are the only people that make easy money as land barons. If you buy a piece of vacant property, expect to sit on it for a long, long, long time before it will make you a substantial profit. If you buy a dilapidated house and you seek to “flip it” you had better have substantial experience in the construction trade, and expect a slim margin of profit unless you are in an exploding market, which is rare and volatile. Most of those house flipping shows on cable television are filmed in SoCal for a very good reasons. Not up to your usual high standards. No comidic value, you sound legitimatly upset with these people. Might you be a "Fired" Apprentice? Personally, I like the Google ads that appear at the bottom of this report... "Earn $3000-$5000 per week Turnkey System" (makeamill.info) "Sign up now for the Free Real Estate Investing Success Series!"(reinvestingsuccess.com) Assuming Google has "monetized" your site, then you're potentially making money off the same scam! Ironic, wouldn't you say? Thanks for your report on these, Rob. In Logan UT, I've only seen one, maybe two of these signs so far. I've been wondering what they were about, but haven't been motivated enough to look into it myself. I think you're doing a great service for us, helping educate the regular person. Yo Rob Cool. I have wondered about those signs. You are the man. Hope things are well. Dave The secret to being rich is well exploited through this idiom: A fool and his money are soon parted. I've seen these signs. I pulled several out of the ground and used them for various projects, including my Halloween costume, and those metal stakes are awesome for holding your own Garage Sale signs. -Sean Call me a goddamn liberal, but when "normal" families can't afford to own homes, buying houses just to flip them seems greedy to me. Of course, I'm not the one putting the money into the flipping, etc., I get it. But when everyone has a safe, warm home, then selling them for pure profit makes sense to me. Everyone likes a get-rich-quick scheme. I live in north San Diego County, and I have seen these signs here and there, though not as many as you see. Don't you think all these people could put their time, money and energy into something a bit more edifying? --Christine I have seen these signs up herein tacoma washington as well as advertisments in the paper. I don't know why an actual real-estate investor would advertise in the paper for an "aprentice" and take some yahoo off the street... If it were me, I would mentor someone I already knew, or my own kid or close relative. But like you said, 95% of the people wont fall for this, and with 300,000,000 people in this country, thats still 1.5 million that are suckers. These signs have been all over Los Angeles for years. I left work one day and went down to the parking garage to get my car and head home. A "Real Estate Investor Seeking Apprentice" sign was under one of my windshield wipers. I figured this proposal was dubious at best, because I live in Provo, UT. Between Brigham Young University, Utah Valley State College, and a number of beauty schools, massage therapy schools and technical schools, the area is saturated with bright young people and if a legitimate Real Estate investor wanted to find quality apprentice applicants, chances are they wouldn't have to put some flyers on cars in the parking garage for a business office. Of course, those same bright young minds probably do not have $3 grand to shell out, so at least now I understand the motive. Now I feel sorry for whoever it was that bought in, attended the academy, and now is stuck trying to have an income from this. Thank god I live in Mexico... I mean Colorado and only have to deal with Mexicans taking over the country. This was very interesting, because I saw one of these signs in Portland (OR) last week, and I wondered what sort of scam it was. Nope, must be a West Coast thing...nothing here in the midwest yet. YET. They are all over the place in Las Vegas... probably because the housing boom hit big here too. I think the popularity of shows like "Flip that House" are also increasing people's ideas on how easy it must be to make money in real estate. It upsets me that so many dishonest people benefit financially from the weakness of others. Especially deceptive crooks like these. Boo greedy jerks! You should go to somebody in the california government about this. I mean, it is a fraudulent offer and it smacks of pyramid schemes whcih have long been illegal. Seen in San Jose. At the 880 and The Alameda offramp. I sent an e-mail quite a while ago about how I saw these signs in two separate states. (That was actually what caught my eye intially to wave it off as a scam.) But I had to mention this time that I saw a new sign in a third location. What made me take notice was that there was another sign kitty-corner from it with an identical phone number but it read "Make more than Diamonds and Doctors". I thought it was funny actually, it almost seemed deperate. However I feel bad for the poor soul who doesn't realize they are the same scam. Very interesting! I see these freaking signs all over the freeway ramps down here in San Diego. I always laughed at the signs and figured the $10-20k per month was how much money they wanted from you, not how much you could make. It looks like I wasn't too far off! Luckily this crap has yet to pop up in Portland Oregon! Nouveau Riche University. What a lame name. I mean, seriously. The signs are all over Livermore. Good article. -- Neefer only 5k? what a deal!! i got 2 These signs are all over Las Vegas as well - ridiculous - hard to believe people are that clueless. I haven't noticed any of those signs in my area (near Trenton, NJ and Philadelphia)... guess we're lucky! Then again I think people don't really put up signs like that around here because police take them down. scams suck. Can you get an interview with Chris Record or the other NRU promotors? It'd be good if you did more investigative work on this company. I've seen the signs in SF and Oakland... hey that's the way to get rich, sell the damn signs!! Great writeup. However, when you made your comic book analogy, you forgot to look at one thing: a lot of people buy an affordable home in the city to start, and then as they have kids and get sick of city life, they move to the 'burbs. These people would be happy to have someone drive up the prices of housing around town, then buy in the suburbs, where it's much less likely that these MLMs are operating... -phil Yes, Rob, these signs are all over the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. The professionally printed signs are goofy enough...but how are we supposed to take seriously the handwritten signs promising $20,000? ("You, too, can make $20,000 with a Sharpie and some posterboard!") It's like quick weightloss schemes: people want success fast with no effort so they're willing to believe anything. The signs are all over Orange County, CA - mostly on freeway offramps. They look just like the yellow signs you've posted, except for the hand drawn ones, which make me laugh when I see "make 20k" written on a $2 piece of cardboard. I like how it says "real estate INVESTOR" seeks apprentice, seeming to say that you will be learning how to become an investor. Well how hard is that, you just pay money. If it said real estate AGENT seeks apprentice, it would be something different, but no, all you the apprentice will do is learn how to invest, WOW, BIG DEAL, I learned how to give someone money. What a scam, I can't believe people fall for this stuff. Keep up the good work mr. Cockerham. I liked the superbowl prank, props on that. --William-- You're almost as good a sleuth as Veronica Mars! Great to see yet another scam-exposing article. You should write up variants of these for mainstream newspapers, and help society better itself :) Hey Rob. There used to be one of those on my deilvery route, but I'm pretty sure its a different sign now. For some reason i remember it being about aquariums, but that doesn't seem right. Yes, these signs have spread to Portland, OR. The one I saw was handmade. I was suspicious as it seems to me that if the apprentice truly could make $20K per month then they wouldn't need to put up a crummy hand-made sign. People would be banging down doors to get your apprenticeship. Plus, doesn't the real estate investor realize that he can find the Apprentice on Sunday nights on NBC? There's a sucker born every minute. That's all anyone needs to know to start one of these schemes. I've seen them everywhere in Seattle, WA I have never seen this... Thank you, Rob. Thank you for spending your time taking (or collecting?) these photographs and posting the information you researched. You are a peach. Yes, I said it: a PEACH! I have definitely seen these signs in the Norwalk/Stamford, CT area and was curious what they were all about. Thanks for telling me. I will now tell 2 friends, who will tell 2 friends, and so on and so on. What I want to know is why some people have nice professionally printed signs, while others have hand-letter crap. I have seen those exact signs in Orange county for 3 or 4 years. I think the very first one caught my attention because I thought some local businessman was actually looking for an employee. (I misread the dollar figure and thought it was 20k/year.) However I paid it no mind because I have no experience in the field and no interest in a career change. Soon I began to see more signs, and realized that the dollar figure was way to high for any legitimate job. In my experience, there is normally a correlation between the salary a job pays, and the amount of skill/experience required to do it. Thanks for the research and uncovering another scam sales outfit. would you actually accept the $5K if someone paid thru the paypal link? what would you give them? I'm asking this way in the hope of saving myself the $5k... The signs started sprouting up around San Jose a few months ago...thanks for the exposay ( I can't type an accent egoo with my Wii.) I wake up in the morning and piss excellence. I see them every once in a while on the freeway offramp in Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 This must be a west coast thing, as I haven't seen any of this scam in NY state. Someone could probably make a killing being the first one to introduce this scam to NY, as we're known for being less than patient and relatively gullible. Really interesting. I love your stories on scams. I particularly love the idea that some founder of the Nouveau Riche University is lloking over this story right this moment and going "Fuuuuck." ;) Yet another shining example of your service to the public, Rob! Well done! The signs have been popping up all over Seattle the past few months... Got 'em in Chicago and the requisite suburbs. Those @%Y%&^&$#~~!!!!!! signs are a scam and an eye sore. You should do the world a favor and tear one down whenever you see it I go to Colorado State University and I had a sign up list passed around one of my business classes for this. I didn't give them my info but most of the class did. I haven't seen these. Just wanted to know, since reading your site, I have become extremely wary of any roadside signs promising anything. Also wary of those commercials that have a different website at the bottom every time. (www.hbb794789237.com or whatever) Thanks for this. Although I'd like to think I've always been too smart to fall for one of those in the first place. :) Nouveau Riche University...the new Herbalife! great work. I live in Miami and have seen these in various random places. They disgust me and I shall en devour to tear them down whenever I can! I suppose it is possible that the real winners are the ones cashing the tuition checks and not the ones writing them. Naw, that can't be right. There is just too much real estate out there and too few really knowledgable investors with three, five, ten or twenty days of solid education. so what's the answer? how do we stop this? I have seen them in the suburbs of Chicago, IL, including Lake in the Hills, Crystal Lake, and Algonquin, IL. argh. i hate all these company's. kudos to you, rob, for exposing them for the bullshit they are. all i have to say is i hate those damn signs, they litter up the road and make California ugly ): Hey Robert, are you ever going to finish the chart with the heigth/weight chart? TS I think this is a pretty straight forward review, and from my experience with NR everything you said is pretty accurate. I've started seeing them here in Garland, TX. Thanks for the info. Great job! I live in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and have seen these signs or something very similar--maybe not a whole lot, but rather regularly. (Usually they are hand-written and contain at least two spelling errors.) I have wondered what they were after, exactly, and I found your article interesting. i saw them when i lived in tucson, az, but i have not seen any in the providence, ri area (i moved here in 9/05). Thankfully, these things haven't hit Podunkville where I live yet. But, I really appreciate you going to all the effort to write about these kind ofthings. Now we just need to teach people to READ these! And thats my little spring flower for you, fresh from Moab Utah. What will you do if someone actually buys that secret for fame and fortune, but mostly fortune than fame? Hm... quite similar to the Herbalife scheme. Good article, I like ones like this. A few months ago one of my clients handed me a DVD about investing in real estate and told me that he was now investing in real estate. I put it aside and never viewed it. I just read your article and then scrounged around my desk looking for the DVD. Guess what? The label reads: Nouveau Riche University "The American Dream Realized". I know one in tigard, oregon off the top of my head, on an offramp, it made me think of your herbalife piece when i saw it. I'll keep an eye out for more I'm just happy that I can click on the "Investment Opportunity" google ads on your site, and maybe you get some of their money.. 12 Milionaires Help You Get Rich, It's Fun, Teleseminars Learn New Multi $MM Secrets Weekly They're seen locally (Chandler, AZ area). Some are handwritten, so I'm not sure what that's about. Most are these awful plastic signs on offramps, but I've seen a couple here in the burbs. I think they might be confused as to the definition of "Apprentice" Good piece. I wish you could go further in depth as to what a scam this is. You really hit the nail on the head when you said they promote it as being so easy anyone could do it. If you're not successful, it's your own fault. If it was truly that easy to be rich, everyone would be rich. Clearly, we're not. I have seen this sign at the Hazel offramp in Gold River (Sac County) and knew of course it was a scam of some kind. Thanks Rob, for your in depth investigation! Just like the countless emails for Viagra, Hoodia, and everything else. Someone must be responding or they wouldn't keep sending them! The idiots of the world are making my life more annoying! Makes you want to shake them and say Stop Falling For This Crap!!! It makes it worse for all of us, you moron!!! Anyway, thanks again... Ken I've seen a few of these around the south bay too :( could i be an apprentice to your knowledge classes? is that what this article was about? i was linked to your page from some other page. this type of post is much more interesting then feedback only posts, or look i'm selling my booger on ebay. it's nice and informative, somewhat. i've seen these around the San Francisco Bay area. i forget where I saw it; around berkeley I think. why is it called "real" estate? Nice writeup, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Haven't seen these exact signs, but will keep a lookout in Cambridge, MA (housing mkt has cooled down here so perhaps not as many suckers to be found). Enjoyed the article, Rob... keep 'em coming! -These are all over the Chicago subburbs. At least the Herbilife signs went down a year or so ago... chriso Real Estate is gay My weiner is much longer than necessary. I always wondered what those were, but knew it was too good to be true. Just a small remark : actually, it is "Nouvelle Cuisine" and not "Nouveau Cuisine", because cuisine is a feminine name. Nevertheless, insightful and interesting article ! Hopefully we don't get these ugly signs here in France. Au revoir ! Vincent from Paris vincent@tual.fr Just a small thing : could you please remove my e-mail address on my comment above (I don't want to get spammed) ? Thanks ! It's sad that people fall for this crap. I really wish there was some way to ban MLM programs, but there are always people willing to exploit any quasi-legal loophole they can find. I'd like to see more Expose's like this! I've never seen these signs in my neighborhood, but then again I don't get out much. You always do such good detective work. Every time I see a Herbalife flier these days, I rip it down. I'm tired of people taking advantage of other people. I'm tired of people being taken advantage of. I'm tired of spam. I'm tired of scams. I'm tired of people not doing one simple thing: treating others the way they want to be treated. How much of the worlds problems would go away if everyone was just *fair*? I live in the dorms at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and once I got a rather wordy flier slid under my door about a real estate investor seeking an apprentice. Hi Rob, As a Realtor, and as a regular guy, I totally applaud you exposing this kind of scam. As Realtors we have more than enough bad press than we can handle! Thanks for your hard work! I have not see the Real Estate signs down in the San Francisco area, but I do see tons of the signs advertising dating sites. SanCarlosSingles.org, BurlingameSingles.com, etc. They put the signs all over the freeway on/off ramps. All of them point to the same site and most of the domains were registered by some guy in Dallas. It's a scam where they get you to pay to join the dating service and make it very hard to get out. Meanwhile they are deducting money from your bank account every month. Maybe you can write about them? I live in northern Illinois and frequently travel into the Kenosha, Wisconsin area. I have seen these signs at many, many street corners, particularly on county roads through rural (farmland) areas. I have been watching "Flip That House" for the last couple of days on A&E, and I believe the reason that I have been punishing myself in this way is to remind myself why I hate type-A(sshole) personalities. There's no secret to this stuff; buy low, sell high. And schemes and scams like the one you've described are worse than the house flipping sharks themselves. Keep it up, Rob! d Perhaps I should put a similar paypal button (pg 9) on my website. A couple of errant clicks and I'm in the money. And it won't cost me anything. Thanks for the idea! I've read several of your articles on scams, and what I find really disturbing is other scams that go after people who aren't trying to "get rich quick." For example, I was considering teaching English in Korea after college and discovered that there are many scams run where people end up deported or abused or cheated. I appriciate your site. good stuff Great article! No scam is safe. Here's a rose for you,Rob. Way to let people know the truth about these scams. I've seen the signs in my neighborhood, out in Las Vegas. They always amused me, because I was like "If you're making 20 grand a month, you can't invest in something a bit better than magic marker on posterboard?" Rob- Thanks for finally giving me the scoop on these signs. I am in Mesa, AZ and have seen the signs every where. Hi rob! Love the site, I've been coming here for a while (ever since i found your link through the solar death ray site). Just wanted to let you know, I've seen these signs in my town (a teeny tiny place in rural Oklahoma), and got a chuckle out of them just because no one around here's financially well off enough to even order a month's worth of DVDs etc. Keep up the good work, Dan. those things are so annoying! "Real Estate Investor Seeks Apprentice" signs are taking Las Vegas by storm. I've seen the hand-written type for about a year, with the fancier plastic ones coming recently. I've been wondering what they are about, and now I know! Love the site, thanks for the many hours of entertainment. Perhaps the real trick is to build some sort of structure, perhaps a garage or a kick ass waterslide, with these signs to increase property value. I pity the people around there who are actually trying to buy real estate for themselves/family. :\ I saw one of these in Cincinnati OH yesterday for the first time. At first glance I thought it said "Earn $15 to 20K PER YEAR." I thought some real estate flipper might need an assistant to make copies, go for Starbuck's etc. Then I reread and saw "per month," and i said to myself "Scam." I wondered how long it would take you to tackle this one. Answer - 1 day. Nice work. I can't help but notice that the "Ads by Google" posted in the middle of this wonderful article advertises similar offers through the internet. I gather you are trying to expose this type of scam through this series of pages, but why turn around and stick advertisement that pays you for traffic? It seems to me that you are partaking in the benefits of shady real estate operations. Again, I thoroughly enjoy your website, this time I am pointing out irony. Your thoughts? Joe P. Cedar Rapids, Iowa nubi78 at yahoo.com You rock, Rob. Really. I love what you do man, keep up the good work! I saw the same hand-written sign in Lafayette, CA. I saw it and thought "How could anyone be so stupid?" Then I thought about tearing it down, just in case. We have them in Gainesville, FL. We are the home of the University of Florida so housing and real estate can get pretty pricey because of the high demand to live near school, so I wondered if they were legit because they were at a lot of places, but not so many to be an obvious fraud. I am glad you investigated it. I feel like I know their secret and can explain why it is a scam and not just agree that it is with everyone. these ppl make the scams work because of greed, its that siimple... these ppl make the scams work because of greed, its that siimple... the only people getting rich are the printers making all those ugly yellow signs... I see these signs all the time. They are constructed of a cheap, flimsy plastic. Their color is most disagreeable to the eyes. Thank you for exposing this scam. I've seen these ads on city buses here in Sacramento! I have seen them around the University of Central Florida here in Orlando. They promise 20k a month. Hey Rob, I work in the Title industry, and I can tell you these houses they buy also usually cost extra to get the title worked out because of foreclosures, liens, etc. Just another added expense before you become a millionaire. I just play the lottery. I wonder if I could sell that as sound financial advice. It beats selling referrals or herbaproducts, as you actually have a chance to get rich, but not scratch offs, those things are a ripoff. -Mark Austin, TX I live in Fremont, CA and have seen the same signs around this city. Well done Rob. Another great investigation. I first saw these signs in Southern California a few years back. Around the same time a friend called me and tried to sell me on the New Rich philosophy. I was working in the Real Estate field at the time and saw right through the scam. My theory is that if the people running the company knew how to make good money in real estate they wouldn't be spending their time creating 'education' materials. Guys like Robert Kiyosaki, Carlton Sheets, et al are pros at this. They hardly deal in the business that they claim to be pros at. Anyways, nice work. Keep it up! Tyler Jorgenson www.JorgensonProperties.com Rpb, Could you please report this to CA Attorney General Jerry Brown's office? (http://ag.ca.gov/) Maybe you want to print out all of these pages and send them to them by mail. Or report it to your local DA. See this page for links, and look under under SALES -> Pyramid Schmes. I seethem onthe way to school in San Jose, CA. A proliferation of them in Miami Florida. All the ones I have seen are hand printed on poster board. Hard work, educated risk taking. These are things that cannot be taught in any Get-rich-quick scheme. This is great. You make these scams visible to all! We love j00! I have seen this sign on my freeway exit (Santa Ana, CA), so I'm guessing they're on several around my city. The sign people also like construction zones. It's so obviously a scam -- what are we, medieval Europe? Nobody actaully *says* "apprentice" anymore. We call them "unpaid interns" or "saps". Kidding. Anyway, thanks for the story -- I continue to be fascinated with the fact that there are people out there who will see this as a solution of the "You gotta spend money to make money" sort. Interesting. I have never seen a sign. Let's have a contest on who can collect the most Real Estate Investor signs! The only people who win this game are the sign makers. Let's recruit Cockeyed fans to collect all of these signs and either ship them to Nouveau Riche HQ or drive them there and dump them in their parking lot. they haven't made it to madison, wi yet, but we don't generally get anything from either coast until ~2 years after they get things, so give it another year, and they'll likely pop up everywhere 1126am friday Regarding your question of "Why do people fall for this" (it's my question, too): A friend of a friend moved here from Iran and got involved in something similar. We tried to explain to him how it was a scam, and nothing he should be involved in, but he just couldn't grasp that the well-dressed, well-spoken man who led the meeting he attended would be allowed to make these claims if they weren't true. It always made me wonder what percentage of the people who fall for these scams are new to this country. Those signs are indeed here in Massachusetts. I've never seen the signs in TX, but I appriciate the fact that you are always on the lookout for scams. I live in Puyallup, Washington, which is southest of Tacoma. The signs are everywhere here! I work for a real estate investor, but he is legitimate and buys properties for his own profit. Thank you for pointing out that they aren't getting a license to sell real estate through the classes. You may also want to advise that the requirements differ in each state. You do not need a license to purchase property or sell FSBO, but you are limited in your marketing sphere and face paying a commission selling through a real estate agent. Seen lots of them in the previous summer and fall in the NW suburbs of Chicago. Not so many this winter. I guess even the gullible know to stay out of the cold. This is great. I loved Herbalife and this continues in the same vein (or vane or vain or whatever). I especially like that you can write in proper English. Cheers Rob. The "Real Estate Investor Seeks Aprprentice" signs are all over the place in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Rob, I bought the $5000 key to success but I failed. I am sad now! I love the fact that you take the time to try and help people by revealing some of these scams. My girlfriend and I found ourselves in a tight situationa and considered another MLM system, herbalife. Unfortunately, we lost about a thousand dollars on that deal, but were able to get out before the big damage was done. Thanks again. Frazier Thanks again for your sleuthing! My dad said that he saw a sign in someone's car on his way home tonight. "The love of money is a disease with them." Believe it may have been Jerry Rubin that said that. Sure doesn't seem to be much honor amongst the citizenry anymore. There's usually one (it disappears and reappears) in Bellevue, WA at the offramp from 520 near Microsoft. I always wondered what that is about... now I know! -Michael from Seattle I'm glad you're tracking this sort of thing and writing about it. I wonder... if the program encourages the "investors" to buy certain properties? If lots of people were buying land in the area around a property owned by the scheme organizers then that property might increase in value. It's disgusting, anyway. I'm not sure how people get rich, and I wish I knew, but it's not by being a sucker. Great job again. (I liked the Superbowl thing too) Hey Rob, There are indeed a few "Real Estate Investor Seeks Apprentice" signs in Norwalk, CT. I figured it was a scam of some kind. Kudos to you for uncovering it. Just as with MLM this indicates to me that there are a lot of fools in the world. I worked for an MLM company (for the actual company, not as a distributor) that tried to make MLM a viable distribution model for their products. The objective was not to make top tier distributors filthy rich, so the plan was not very aggressive. Needless to say, companies with inferior product but more aggressive compensations in the top tiers did much better. This "Nouveau Rich" business is filthy. It should be noted that in Europe to call someone a "Nouveau Riche" is pretty insulting. It means someone who has money but no class. I think the manufacturers of corrugated plastic signs should start their own scam and jack up their prices exorbitantly. I have not seen any of these particular type of signs, but I live in Saint Louis Missouri, and I see a lot of "Finally! Affordable health insurance for the self-employed!" signs. Gotta be some sort of scwm. Why don't poeple understand that peope who advertise with tacky, annoying street signs are not taking the best avenue of advertising? -Toad@704d.com I have seen them in my neighborhood (Riverwest) in Milwaukee, WI. Thanks for the information! I live in Corona, California and I see them here! quite common in Rockford, IL area Thank you Rob, for finally putting this one to bed for me. I live in Orangevale and I see these signs everywhere. I figured it was some sort of scam, I just didn't know what kind. Thanks for shedding light on the Herbal Life scam too. And congrats on the Superbowl prank. Well done to you all. - Keith in Orangevale. ripvw_70@yahoo.com I have seen them all over dallas for quite a few years now. In the nicer parts of town they are even made of plastic! Fancy. Ugh. You were so close to the answer, but wimped out. People are drawn to this scam because they are told, over and over, that wealthy people are just lucky. There is no hard work or training or long hours involved; it's all a scam, and billions of dollars are just raining from the sky... you just have to stick your hand out to catch some, as long as you have the right keycode. These beliefs are promoted heavily by those who hate corporations, which tend to be laden with trained, working people. Becoming trained and actually working is a big bummer for a lot of folks, especially when they are told that their work efforts are just "enriching The Man." Better to buy lottery tickets, answer sleazy MLM ads placed by people who make you feel smart, and blame The Man. And don't forget to vote Democrat -- they promise to offer you good welfare benefits in the meantime! I"ve seen them here in Seattle....anyone that has to advertise for a job that way is bogus. 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They're everywhere! I just feel a sick pity for those who get sucked into this. I know a man who fell into a MLM scheme and still insists it his own fault because he idint have the drive to succeed. Any efforts on my part to explain how its a set up are met with a disdain that I just dont understand how it works and if he only could get the right attitude he still could do it. Its sad really. Chicago, IL - We have tons of those signs all over the city and suburbs! I haven't seen these signs, but because I live in San Francisco, I think the likely audience of gullible people is too small for this to work. Anyone who lives in the city knows that real estate here costs a fortune, and people who have funds to invest aren't going to look for an apprentice. This whole thing seems no better than a Ponzi scheme, with any "profits" simply being skimmed from new investors in the venture. Also, I think I may have visited the "campus" of Nouveau Riche university on my last visit to Arizona. It looks exactly like the business complex where Charles Schwab (and Merrill Lynch) have offices - either they have a lot of money coming in from new apprenti, or they got a darn good deal for an office there. I hope that some of these students have the courage to go to the Better Busines Bureau or try some other way to go after these people for deceptive marketing practices. I think the main reason they use these hideous signs is that it keeps them out of the US Postal Service's fraud rules - you can't go after people for mail fraud for signs and internet websites. Keep up the great work Rob! PS: What the heck was the superbowl message? I haven't been able to make out any of the words. I am conflicted. I believe people have rights as individuals to do as they like...to blow their money on stupid shit like this if they are stupid enough...but when I see people taking advantage of the susceptible nature of the oppressed, I get a feeling like I should be getting involved. I like that your website exposes these scams. I assume the popularity of this idea is also spread due to the "Flip (This/That) House" series on A&E/TLC, respectively... R Cline Petaluma I've seen these in North Orange County for over two years. Lately, there have been a series of (714) and (949) (local area codes) as well as several (800) and (866-877) numbers. Thanks, cockeyed, for saving me the effort of dialing this laugh-a-minute hotline. I've happily never seen any here in northeastern Arizona. But I'm always on the lookout for things that are too good to be true! Thanks for a fantastic website, I've been a fan for years. Investigate the founder of the "school" a bit more. Rumor has it he is a convicted felon or has some sort of criminal past. And good job on bringing attention to this scam. i like that you are now #2 on the google search, hopefully this will make a difference! Perhaps you should explore the connection between Casey Serin (iamfacingforeclosure.com) and Nouveau Riche. (Chris Record hired Casey after convincing him to spend ~$20,000 for a NRU real estate course, after he was already in foreclosure proceedings and could have used the $20k more productively elsewhere.) I was going to edit the Wikipedia page for Nouveau Riche to explain the connection, but my username was blocked shortly after I registered it. What a bunch of soundrels! I think I saw some in Las Vegas at the end of January. Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. I also wish to sign up several more people and be reimbursed for the cost of my newsletter subscription. In my town, I have been gathering these signs. Additionally, I have been calling their numbers and signing up with fake names. I have been asking questions for hours on end just to tie up their lines and take their time away. I plan on showing up to the University the first day and greeting people to tell them they are being scammed. It should be fun. Wish me luck in San Diego. They started popping up in the greater Seattle area some time ago (at least a few months). I've always wondered what the scam was. Now I know. yes I'll keep my eyes open for them, in and around Pullman, WA and get back to you Why people fall for this: it's desperation. Recently I read "The Crucible of War" by Fred Anderson about the "French-Indian War". He talked of the post war times and how many businessmen and farmers were finding that things were not as rosy as they were in the war. There were no more guaranteed contracts. So to deal with this uncertainly they took more risks, some made it some did not. George Washington also took big risks to pay off some 2,000 pound debt. Almost lost the farm as it was. people today are uncertain of their future so they are taking risks: Gambling, wild stock investing, and falling for cons. Years ago I worked for a guy who did buy, fix, and flip. He says he makes lots of money buying from want-a-be's who have sat through a two day class. the fix is the expensive part. it's a risk. They are on the corner of Route 150 and Mattis Avenue in Champaign, IL. Ours promise 30K! Wow, a raise! No, but sheesh, my former mother-in-law and her dumbass husband got involved in this a few years ago. They were going to make a fortune flippping houses; instead, they are losing money selling products and going to "seminars." It is a good thing you will have more signs to make more of your awesome costumes!!! Haven't seen these yet in Fresno, but I'm sure I'll notice them now if they are here. I'd love to be rich like the next guy, but I feel sorry for those who get dragged into these scams. good article you is favoritest human! I have not seen these signs in northern NJ. I like your expose and commend you for the coverage. Scammers should be revealed. Shame on people who prey on others for profit, doubly so those scumbags who try to scare you into buying their product service, like old people being told they need monitoring or white folks being told they need house alarms. Maybe they do, but factual statistics marketing is the way to go. Meanwhile, there are lots of wealthy people that not-so-wealthy folks perceive as successful, which is foolish. Money is not the answer. Possessions and wealth are for fools who miss out on the true beauty of life. Thanks for letting me voice my opinions. YES! another scam exposed-the falling housing market in the US must be due to the collapse of this MLM system-there is less of a demand to move houses so prices drop. I was thinking the exact same thing at about page 4 or 5. -GRW in Lesspropertytaxes, NY Didn't see the signs, but one of my "friends" got me to go to a class. You missed the part about the founder Jim Piccolo, who is a convicted felon and has a chapter 7 bankruptcy. I haven't seen any signs in my neighborhood. That's why I'm banging one in the ground right now! Does Carlton Sheets ring a bell?? You place signs like that in my neighborhood and you'll be Nouveau DEAD! That Superbowl prank was DUMB!! Those reviews of that book Spank the Monkey are unreadable!! The Koolaid is bad! Don't drink the NR poison Koolaid!!!! :) I have not seen these in Eugene Oregon, but there have been a bunch of signs like "My dad buys houses"(In childish print with backwards "s's") and "Audra buys houses" (both with the same phone number) that I have wondered about but not bothered to call. Are these part of the same scam, or a different scam? I saw some on a trip to Palm Springs, but none here in NY. Might just be a western US thing? That said, this was an interesting read. My underwear are too tight. They are kind of riding up and making it hard to concentrate on my work. Every time i get through a few lines of code, BAM! I notice my underwear riding some awkward way. I've been thinking about moving to boxers to try and give myself some more room, but i just don't know if i feel comfortable with my boys just hanging loose. Maybe moving up a size would work. I guess it all depends on the brand. Anyway, thanks for listening. Have a good day. Great reading thanks. We have the NR signs up all over Joliet and Plainfield Illinois. Every new investor in the club I attend www.wcrt.org asks about NR early on. We discourage them but tell them to do their homework. Thanks for all the information. I live in Reno,NV and saw the sign on the entrance ramp to I-80 and called the # to see what it was all about and got a male on an answering machine on the other end. I thought it seemed fishy to begin with, but thought it was worth checking out. I appreciate the insight, you saved me a lot of time in doing research. Thanks! Rob, So far these things haven't started sprouting up in Portland, OR. I'll keep my eye out though and hopefully have my camera with me if I see any. I'll forward you any pics I may get. Keep up the great work with the website. Thanks for helping me waste time at work. -Nate (myspace.com/n8_b) Hahahaha, tooo funny It would be nice to know who to report these signs to. They are a blight and I seem to think there is a fine involved for this type of advertising They are in Champaign-Urbana, IL, as well. Bill We've got plenty of them down here in Orange County, CA. If I were still a college student with time on my hands I'd probably go around and stencil SCAM in big red letters on these signs. These guys are all of what is evil in the world. They are Vultures that prey on those who are seeking a way out but are too gullable to resist a "hammy" sales pitch. Shame on them That SUPERBOWL PRANK SUCKED THE BIG ONE!! These signs are all over the Phoenix area as well. Thanks for doing stuff like this. Even if it's not actually getting anything done, people tend to just ignore these scams and you're shining a light on it. They are in Bellevue, Washington now. Yep I've seen them, and like you knew it was no good. You go, I am actually a real estate investor myself. I have spent way to much time and money chasing down some of these scams. It took me a while but I finally built myself a team of professionals who can actually help my wife and I achive our real estate goals. And no we are not talking some huckster who SAYS that we will be making 10k a month in 2 weeks. We are talking Lawyers, Paralegals, Real Estate Brokers Accountants and Mortgage lenders . All of whom have experience guiding investors to good deals. These scams smell of get rich quick. And real estate is not a get rich quick game. It is a get rich slow game. Thanks for the Good work C I don't like paypal. Can I just send you a check for $5,000? I want to know how to be rich. E-mail with the address you would like the check mailed to. My e-mail is fullmetalpanic21@hotmail.com. Thanks Mr. Cockeyed I think that the reason these scams are so successful is because everyone has heard the saying "You've got to spend money to make money". As far as I can tell, there is no actual basis for this statement: there is a significant difference between 'spending' and 'investing'. Scam or none, you can spend as much as you want on buying education to improve your ability to invest money, but what you are buying is knowledge, not wealth. You are learning all about what to do with the money you don't have anymore. And even at that, you aren't really doing much to reduce the risk. People take this "cart before the horse" approach because they are afraid of making the wrong decisions and ending up on the losing team. So they try to improve their chances by taking courses and listening to advice. But no amount of advice will make you rich. Control your fear of the unknown and invest your money, don't spend it. Interesting article! Especially timely for me as I just saw a pick-up truck with this exact verbiage etched into the back glass (now that's commitment!). I thought he might be an investor looking for scouts (or birddogs), but now I see what he was doing. As you know, this is nothing more than classic MLM gone awry. When you're making more money bringing people into the cult--er, um..."fold"--than you are by practicing what you preach, that's never a good thing. P.S. I like your writing style. Thre's a sucker born every minute. The problem I have is with those parasites who prey on them. Sign spotted in Evanston, IL! Just one block south of Northwestern's campus.... too bad the plowed snow knocked it over. The sign was hand-drawn in the writing of what looked to be a 5-year old. They are all over in Chicago and clearly a scam I have seen lots of the signs. (I live in Utah, which, sadly, seems to be the capital of all pyramid-type schemes.) I assumed the signs were Herbalife's newest approach. :) Thanks for tracking down the source. I've seen them up here in Portland, Oregon. Hey Rob, another great article. I've been seeing a new sign here in Boise offering to buy used rugs. That's gotta be a scam too. Cheers, Joe I am so glad to see your investigation on this. My brother-in-law, a 22 year-old moron with dollar signs in his eyes, is involved in one of these scams. I worked in the mortgage industry for six years as an underwriter so all my alarms were going off when he told me he paid $16,000 for a "school" to learn how to make money off of properties. I sent him a few links: http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Articlenewhome.aspx?cp-documentid=546052 http://www.fbi.gov/page2/sept03/buy092403.htm but since he had already signed the dotted line he didn't want to read them and didn't. He has been "edumacated" and now tells me that he is going to make it big having people sign over their homes to him, keeping the mortgages in their name but they will make "rental" payments to him and he will pay the mortgage for them until they can get back on their feet. Then he inflates the price of the home when they say they want to buy it back, viola, he evicts them, holds the deed and they are screwed. It's a big mess and highly unethical. His signs are all over the place in my area. (Happens to be near Scottsdale!) Get rich quick, huh? If something seems to good to be true, it very well might be. You could end up in JAIL. Do your homework before getting into these scams! End rant. :0) I am in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, and I have seen these signs all over, more so in the last few months, even though the housing market is sinking around here. seen them in san jose. smell those letters! As a self-made millionaire in my mid-30's, my formula for success has been to save rather than spend, and to understand the risks of anything I get into. I think this is the most important thing for investing or creating opportunities: Knowing how to find the sweet spot between too risky and too safe. Hint: a lot of it is the psychological work of controlling greed and stoking motivation. you don't see them around here Not sure how to feel about things like this. On one hand, I despise all scams, and want those who create them to die horrible, firey deaths. This encourages me to tear down every sign like this I see. On the other hand, the people who put up the signs are only trying to make back money they lost, they generally aren't the ones who originated the scam. I've recently run across these signs in Rockford Illinois (home of fat wallet.com!). I was quite surprised to see them in this area at this time, especially since the subprime market recently imploded. Cool article Rob. Thanks for looking into this. The sign that's always at the corner of Folsom and Alhambra has piqued my curiosity. I should have known... Have any of you with negative feedback been to any of the gatherings held by Nouveau Riche? This is not a real estate AGENT school.It is for investors. There are two sides to there program. They have a marketing side and an education side. You do not have to do the marketing. The education along tops anybodys I have ever seen. Instead of teaching one aspect of investing their university teaches over 25 classes on real estate investing business. It leaves no stones unturned. Before you talk negatively about someone you should do deep investigating. The school credits do transfer to over 1100 universities. They are acquiring land now for a university. This is not an MLM marketing scam. People are not earning a percentage off of your efforts. Once you go through training and get 3 people to join all future profits go to you. However, you do not have to market at all. The education is worth it's weight in GOLD. Never knock anything until you try it or have done a thorough investigation or talked to somebody who knows what they are talking about and not talking about how something appears. I just figured it was Donald Trump. Dear cockeyed.com, Those signs are all over north central Florida, major real estate investment capital of the PLANET. I like the handscrawled ones the best. I don't know where our outpost of the Nouveau Riche world campus is. Thank you so much for this review. I was blown away by how little real feedback there is on this company.... My email is Tiffany.routon@investors.com If you have any additional info. I would love to hear about it. I live in Lodi & work in Stockton. I've seen these signs popping up all over, too. It's ridiculous. I actually worked with the wife of Steve Clegg, the regional vice-president of NRU for northern California. She just left her job at Kaiser to do NRU w/ Steve full-time. Of course, she's trying to get everyone else in the office involved. I started looking into it, but as soon as I realized it was MLM, & thanks in part to rei.com forums exposing NRU for what it is, I turned & ran the other way. I can educate myself thru forums on rei.com & other sites, reading books, & just plain getting out there & doing the legwork myself, talking to investors, atty's, etc, who are already investing in real estate in the real world, in my backyard! My mistake--the website I used was "reiclub.com", not "rei.com". I thought the proper website should get the proper credit... I live in northern Utah and I see signs like this all the time. I don't think I differentiate between these and the herbalife ones (I learned about on your site). I appreciate that I can come here to find out instead of calling the number myself. Love your website! I haven't seen the "apprentice" signs, but there's been several radio ads here in Maryland for InvestorsUnited.com. They advertise themselves as a real estate investment school. I tried checking out the pages, but all the links crashed my IE… Keep up the good work! Brandi I've seen these in Dallas... that is all. I pass one in Woodinville WA (a distant rural suburb to Seattle) pretty much every day. The most shocking part to me is the money they put into the sign. It's heavy plastic, much nicer than any campaign or other homegrown item. Kinkos must love these guys! Cheers, Sarah sarah.lally.brown@gmail.com You seem to know a whole lot about NRU. What uis the real deal? Are you upset about something? That was quite an article, all that time you spent researching and taking pictures, could have been spent learning about real estate investing, and could have resulted in some wealth. Instead, you are compelled to tell people they CANT make it, before they even try. -Way to help us grow. Conrad Chase conradchase@gmail.com 630-445-3867 I think seen an ad in our local paper in the rather upscale town of Stowe, Vermont. I've seen those signs, too, in Chicago and the suburbs. Nationwide, baby! If I had a hot idea, would I have to put silly signs on telephone poles on intersections? No, I'd have my pick of who I'd mentor. I'd be like the Playboy centerfold in a nightclub on Saturday night. But there's a lot of people desperate for that break, that's why states make mad money on lotteries, too. Dante should have offered a circle in hell for false hope sellers. nice work as usual, we shall see how this thing lasts as the bubble bursts Sure did and my husband called. That is why I am researching the school. I am sad to hear that this is a rip off, but not surprised. Robert Kiyosaki offers most of the info. that they do on his CD's at a lower cost. Thanks for the warning.... I have seen the signs in my neighborhood, citrus hieghts area. But my spin on real estate is a little different since I have made over a million dollars buying and selling houses. of course I never paid anyone anything to learn, I just bought a house and then sold it, then kept going from there. j2@max5.com Large meat-lovers pan pizza please. Hello, You're website was brought to my attention today by my lawyer and also my Google rep. While I resepect and appreciate your viewpoint as I am a disabled veteran and fought for your right of freedom of speech, I can not allow you in good consence to use my name to advance the advertising on you're webiste. I do not allow use of my name without written permission. Also so you understand my postion, I have been a student with NRU for over 2 1/2 years and have done over a million in Real Estate deals during that time without having money. As far as selling the products my income was 98% less than what I made in my Real Estate Deals. People call me because of my background in Real Estate and I work with many investors who are NOT students of NRU. It is just an option for those who want to attend classes which are first rate. I take it you never really went to any NRU College classes or your viewpoint would be much different) We are ACE certified as well. I have done well with NRU and recommend it because of that reason. As for you using my name "Wallace Hobbs" on your website I will first respectfully request that you remove my name from your site. I don't post any signs anywhere and I did not give you permission to use your name to advertise on your site. I respectly request to have my name and my websites that I own and have copyrighted to be removed with in the next 48 hours from any and all sites you are in control of. You may e-mail me at CEO@RealEstateWins.com when you have done so, and I will consider the matter closed at that point and wish you the best. Expect Success, Wallace Hobbs yeah i saw it The signs are all over the place here in San Diego. I just saw a "stop being a wage slave, invest in real estate" type sign in Boulder, Colorado. I have seen one of these signs at least more than once. In fact, the last time was a few months ago along a major intersection on my way home from work. The findings mentioned on this website relfect my experience when I first responded to such ads. (In addition to those promoting business opportunities other than real estate!) Next weekend I plan to attend one of NRU's free seminars to be held at a community college campus for to gain more information, but not without doing my own research first. I'd be happy to share my findings later in the future. As this site mentioned earlier, "...education doesn't cost, IT PAYS!" Sky Thank you for all this information. I'll definitley be more cautious about what I read. Thank you for all this information. I'll definitley be more cautious about what I read. There's no way this would go down in NYC. We're more apt to making money the old fashioned hooker way :p I find it interesting that in part of your article you suggest that Nouveau Riche says that you will get a real estate license by going to their school. In reality, they never offer that. They make it clear that you don't have to have a real estate license to go to school. And of coarse they are not accredited. Do you know how you become accredited? You have to have the basic classes such as math and english. This school only offers specific classes to do with real estate investing. It is ACE certified. Does that count for anything in your book? Do you understand that real estate brokers, lawyers, etc., can go to this school for their CEU's? Did you know that 7 credits will transfer to 1100 different universities? Doesn't sound like too much of a scam to me. This company also isn't a MLM company. Yes, your first couple of people go to the people above you because they are independant advisors and the school isn't paying them a salary, but then everything after that is yours. They don't get a residual downline for eternity. And the choice to market is totally up to you. You can sign up and just go to school without telling a soul if that is what you choose. I am curious if you have ever been to any of their workshops or Intensives to get more information, or are you just basing this on other peoples' opinions. I think it's great that there's a company out there that wants to see people do well and teach them how to do it themselves. I guarantee you it's also a lot cheaper than what some of the real estate "gurus" have to offer. It's education. Whether you want to be a real estate investor or a brain surgeon, it requires education and knowing what you're doing. I don't expect to change your mind, I only ask that you get all of your facts first and then form your opinion. I don't recall when you printed this article, but the company no longer allows these signs to be put up. I guess this makes you the Nouveau P.T. Barnum in recognizing there is a "sucker born every minute," and that this minute's sucker won't be you. Great work Rob! Good job with your research! i have....and your interpretation is horrible. i happen to be involved, indirectly with this organization, and understand the real estate market. do you know real estate, or do you just know how to write? i commend you on your writing skills...very good syntax, but your research was completely bias. if you can afford it, fly to chicago and i'd be more than happy to teach you a little about what this is all about! Hi There, Saw your website and just thought I'd tell you that I'm in the Nouveau Riche program, and it has changed my life. Five figures worth of income, 4 development deals, and one property later I am now a full time real estate investor, all thanks to Nouveau Riche. It is by no means a scam, and I indeed did join and am being mentored by a successful real estate investor. Anyone who is interested in getting a real opinion of Nouveau Riche from one of its actuall members can feel free to reach me to ask any questions. You can email me at nonpareil7@sbcglobal.net. It would be a shame for folks who like to be negative on the internet to steal your dream of something that can truly change your whole life and financial outlook like it did mine. Good luck to all! -Maya (nonpareil7@sbcglobal.net) I enjoyed the info you have compiled. I have seen these signs in my hood last summer. I did call, because I was so intrigued. I saw the NRU presentationa dn found it refreshing. The real scam was when I bought Ron Legrands "guru" Crap. I joined NR and became an apprentice if you will as an entrepreneur working as a rep for the company. I used (key word) to make 24k a year and now make that in a month, and it did take some time and effort, but under 12 months of my encounter with the sign I was free from being a rat raced employee. I continue to find success and fullfillment helping others, and I have freed others from there rat race too. I sleep good at night. Thank you for reading. sell out!...you have scam companys advertising on your site..just like the ones you make fun of..yuk! I've seen these signs here in Gainesville, Florida. I was curious what they were about. Glad to see someone looked into it. I wish there was a business in our area that would look into things like this and let us know what is going on in our community, maybe even put it in print form. I would pay for that. I'm in Charlotte, NC and my office is located in the "Little Mexico" part of the city. I noticed a couple of these signs a while back, and now they seem to be on almost every corner and telephone pole. Thankfully, the light rail project runs adjacent to the main street which leds to many signs getting pulled down by city workers. Next time I'm out and about I'll try to snap some pictures. Keep up the good work Rob, Mikael great site! Such an obvious scam deserves this careful tearing-apart... I think (but I'm not sure, though) that such a thing would be illegal in my country (France). Keep up the good work! Abie Your web copy shows a complete lack of insight into real estate investing and the industry surrounding real estate investing education in this country. I'm sure you're just a broke geek programmer webmaster kinda guy with no woman in your life, so I actually feel kind of sorry for you. Nevertheless, you will be hearing from some lawyers very soon. The education offered by this company has enabled me to purchase investment properties and make back all of my tuition on my first real estate deal. I didn't earn back the cost of tuition through the referral program, I did it through using the methods of real estate investment that the classes teach. The referral program is not MLM as your website states. Do you even know what MLM is? You must not or you wouldn't have compared Nouveau Riche to it. The comp plan that NRU uses is the same compensation plan the many insurance brokers use to train their new sales people. The classes have an ACE credit recommendation. This means that they are transferable to over 1000 colleges and universities throughout the country for college credit. The company does not have classes on becoming a real estate agent and they do not advertise to have such classes so students know that coming into it upfront. This is not a school for real estate agents nor does it claim to be!!! It is a school that teaches real estate investment strategies and techniques. The classes they teach are extremely valuable and everyone should at least learn how to purchase passive income investment properties correctly so that they have some kind of retirement to live off of (because social security and pension plans aren't a sure thing anymore). I think that people like you who have time to create a whole website slandering a legit education company that is giving people an opportunity to get out of the rat race are ridiculous and need to get a life. You obviously have no life. Where did you get your education? Heres the amazing thing....if you want to buy a franchise, like McDonalds, which people do all the time, it costs $1.5million dollars ,and in the contract it states you will not make any money in the first 5 years!! Wow, so you slam a business opportunity that you obviously have a problem with. So what is your point here, you have not really brought out anything bad, people are making money, including myself who after 6 months now make not $20k/month, but $50k/month. I quit my corporate job, bought 11 properties and am investing all over the country. I also have my parents involved who have changed their lives and are investing because of the college. I received my degree in mechanical engineering making $4853/month, but can you live on that in California? No...so while you bash a program and an education, try to find me one person who has joined that you know who thinks it was not worth every dime, and then lets talk. You must make minimum wage and be a democrat as it seems you live in the Bay area where most people up there detest anyone trying to make a living and live the American dream! Your ignorance is amazing!!! Have you called and talked to any of thge instructors...have you? You are a major loser and I will think of you while I drive my new car and travel Europe due to my education at Nouveau Riche. Be bitter, as a matter of fact, move to Mexico or another country where living in poverty is the norm..you obviously like that part. Why don't you confront us you small minded San Francisco loser!!!! Post your name, email and number and lets debate. Bring it on Mr Comic. Get a life and go protest the government and smoke your weed. Have you gone to a meeting? Have you looked into what NRU really offers? Just curious. Your report is quite interesting and from an argumentative style essay, it is quite good. However, many of your assumptions are incorrect. One aspect of NRU is being able to purchase property out of state that have positive equity and cashflow. Who does that hurt? NRU has turned many lives around by educating people how to invest in real estate. I have made more money investing, not selling NRU, and it has secured my family's future. BTW, NRU has a credit recommendation from the American Council on Education. Look that up. And, as a Realtor in California, I can take some of the courses offered for continuing education credits. Also, with an investing education, I offer a more well-rounded and comprehensive service to my clients as a Realtor. As for the detriment to society that you proclaim investing produces, consider this: for every house that is worn down and unsellable, an investor goes in an fixes it so that it is not a blemish of the neighborhood and sells it to a homebuyer who doesn't want to fix houses. And it isn't sold at outlandish prices, it is sold at market value and many times below market value so as to move it fast. To simply buy a house at market value and then sell it to the unsuspecting consumer at above market value defrauds the lender and the consumer and is called illegal flipping. We do not do that. We do not do anything that is illegal. Investors are a vital element to the economy. Look at any business and you will see that it does not exist without investment capital. Other countries invest in America. Our government uses investment capital to run the country. So, investor is not synonimous to "bad". So please don't paint everything investor related with the "negative" brush. You sound like an intellegent person. I would advise you to open your mind, release your cynicism for a bit, and look at the benefits NRU provides. You say $16K is bad for 2 years of education. Try the late night gurus fee of $90K for a one week boot camp. NRU is so different from the gurus. The Guru's model is a scam worth writing about. As for the signs, you will see less of them until finally they are no more. The reason? Communities don't like seeing them and from their response, NRU will no longer advocate them. You see, NRU is a repitable company that offers the ability to change your life for the better. It is a community of like-minded investors striving for good in the world. Yes, the model does attract some of the bad people, but through their own actions, those people are removed from NRU and not permitted to participate. Those people then go on to write slanderous remarks on the internet. I know that you are not one of those, as you do not know enough about NRU as apparent in your report. I encourage you to go deeper in your fact finding Mr. Jr. Detective. Actually visit a meeting and ask questions of the mentors and students. See how it can change your world. Do I have any financial benefit for this note to you? No, I don't. I simply believe in what NRU is doing as it has changed my life forever and by paying it forward, we are changing the lives of those who would like more out of life. You see, with lack, we cannot give back, but with abundance, we can. Please do not be afraid. Attend the meeting, go to an Intensive, check us out. We do not bite and will not "hard sell" you into anything. Ultimately the choice is yours what you want to do with your life. We are simply an opportunity, a vehicle to use to achieve what you want should you choose to do it. Good luck and thank you for your interest. I previously mentioned I was planing on visting one the local meetings for NRU. I just went today and found them to be quite different from what I expected. - The speaker addressed the realities of the business, no pushing get rich quick schemes - They offer an inhouse network of professionals to support their investors - Didn't over exaggerate about learning methods over night - emphasize the importance for indviduals to run it as a business. Overall, it was a friendly and professional environment. I was more impressed by my local representative's patience, knowledge, and undrstanding than the numerous success stories they can pitch. It also pays do your own research before considering any opportunities seen or heard anywhere. sky No wonder the US is getting into worse times as a recession continually looms over head for years waiting to swoop in and devour our poor. Which is nice because driving up the prices of houses and scamming people that need money out of it are two things that will make more poor to feed the machine. Thank you for another excellent article. I haven't seen any here in New Zealand yet, but if I do I'll let you know. Cheers GR I would recommend putting an index.html page in all directories that copies or redirect to your main index page. You can propably get more traffic by 'alt' your images or labeling them so google images can 'understand' them. Let me know if this is helpful. I would be curious as to how well this site is creating revenue for you (in addition to a great vent), and if you want more feedback - please email me at dchristianson@357.com Hi Again Rob, I don't know if I've seen those signs in my area, but It seems like Littering to me. What really perplex's me is the "We buy houses CASH" can you help explain those too? pk@phillk.net Rob, I live in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I've seen these signs spreading across my neck of the woods like the plague. They tend to hang out around highway exit ramps and shopping centers. I've been wondering what was behind them, especially since there is a free radio program locally in which the host gives out real estate investment tips - one of her most frequent tips is to not spend money on scams like this one! Thanks for another good read! Rob Updegrove ghoosdum@gmail.com They are here in Austin, Texas Thanks, i just found your page after seeing an ad on craigslist. Although I cannot afford the $5,000, i hope someone can...! I'm glad to see this article. These signs have recently popped up in my neighborhood (Bremerton, WA) and I was wondering what kind of scam it was. - Sonja (parity13@gmail.com) Plenty of these signs going up around Portland, OR over the last 6 months or so. I do my antiscamming on 419eater.com forums. Fun! :) Great site. I've been looking at these stupid signs for months (maybe years) here in the Salt Lake City area. Obviously a scam, but tonight I finally decided to Google them to see how the scam works. Your site came up. (Bonus: I grew up in Sacramento and enjoyed the Sacramento references and photos.) Nice job. Thanks! I just went to an investor's briefing today. Not sure what to think about it. I definately agree that the advertiser is a salesman seeking customers. The had some testimonials there but I'm not even sure if they are for real or simply acts. The people sure look like the "average Joe". I would like to hear from some people who have attended the class. From what I heard today, it sounds like something I definately want to do as I do want to learn much more about real estate investment. However, the fees are steep and I'm not ready to fork out this kind of money. "Education does not cost. It pays". Maybe so, but I will hold off on this one. I've seen some of their programs for sale on Ebay! i'm glad i'm not the only one bothered by this quazi ponsi scheme. thanks for putting the word out so that other people can know aboyth these scams. All over Henderson in Las Vegas area.. Thanks for the great info. These signs are popping up everywhere and I did a quick search and found this website. What bothers me most is that I consider this to be littering. A fine is in order. Dave in Utah Within a week of reading about the "seeks apprentice" signs, I saw two of them in a small town about 12 miles from where I live (Kalamazoo, Michigan). It's one of those areas of Michigan that is still pretty rural and rednecky and blue collar. For what that's worth. saw the signs in bartlett, il. I wonder if you know whether these signs are related to the "I made $xxx,xxx using my 720 credit score!" signs ... which I find equally offensive and twice as hard to ignore I saw one of those signs here in Auburn, Alabama this week. This investor must have a low advertising budget, because the sign was handwritten with a black marker. these signs are everywhere in our neighborhoods and in and around orange county "real estate investor seeks apprentice 1-888-455-3959"...i called it and a serious sounding man left a lengthy recording and then asked you to leave a message with your name and number....YEAH RIGHT! Hello! I live in Gainesville, FLorida, and I am not affiliated with Nouveau Riche, but have some friends who are. We are all school teachers, and over spring break, they buy properties, fix them up over the summer, and re- sell them in July (Prime selling time) for about an average profit of 10-20K per property. They are all smart teachers with Masters degrees from excellent Universities, I don't see a problem with it if you're smart. I do feel bad for dumb people who get involved foolishly and end up losing money because their eyes ae bigger than their brains. Anyway, thanks for the info! Have a great day. Go Gators! NRU is building a campus and has set up a charity called "Frank Edward Piccolo Foundation". Your absolutley correct in saying that you cant get a license through NRU, but thats not what we are here for. Its our goal to train real estate investors not realtors. Through NRU i have already purchased and sold my first foreclosuer. I found it, helped the person get out of thier situation (his wife died and he was unable to make payments with a single paycheck) made him 9k after close and make 6k formyself and partner and the re-habber will make roughly 7-10k pending on how good he is. also we are A.C.E. acredited. Ever heard of ACE? it stands for the American Council on Education. We opperate just like an insurance company and deal in direct sales, not MLM. We are strong believers of pay it forward and teach each other how to create wealth by investing. Our community is growing and people are seeing value in this so please dont trash our name, we did nothing to you. My husband almost divorced me over not wanting to sign up for this deal. The couple who tried to sign us up are very nice and told us to take out a student loan for 20,000.00 to do this investor school. They said for every person we then signed up we would get half of their tuition which would be 10,000.00. They showed us their recent paystubs and they had not yet invested in any properties. My husband begged and I refused. We are from Orange County California. Thank you, Anonymous Nouveau Riche University is the best education I have ever received! In fact, I just attended classes this past week and received very comprehensive, detailed, step by step instruction and education on multiple real estate investing (not real estate licensing) strategies dealing with acquisitions of property (buying) and exit strategies (selling). Ihave all the information I need to successfully structure and execute my own deals on Monday morning, plus if I get stuck and have questions in the middle of a deal, I can call or email the instructors for additional support. Each instructor is a real estate investeor first specializing in their specific strategies or subject they teach, their time is very valuable yet they take time off to come teach; they truely understand that givers gain, paying it forward, and the law of reciprocity. Every instructor advocates being ethical, honest, and fair to create Win-Win solutions for each person involved in a real estate transaction, unlike what many late night TV "Gurus" suggest as standard practice. Everything from helping sellers that are in default and unable to make payments, by saving them from the foreclosure process. Foreclosure damages their credit for 5-7 years and makes it difficult to buy or rent a new house or apartment. You would like us investors trained at Nouveau Riche University if it was YOU or your Mother that we were helping out of foreclosure, saving your credit, getting you back on solid ground by helping you move into a new place that is more affordable, purchase new furniture if needed, and get you a couple thousand dollars to help start fresh again; much better than going into foreclosure and what the "Gurus" teach, they tell you to strip all of the equity from a property and leave the homeowner broke with no place to live but with their credit still intact. What good is credit if you got nowhere to live and no money to repay a debt even if someone did loan you money? Also, each class teaching how to acquire (purchase) property, teaches how to purchase them at a discount or below Fair Market Value, hence Real Estate Investing. From there, each individual investor has his own choice as to what his strategy will be; make money from the property or create wealth (which are two entirely different things, one gives you a paycheck until you go work for another paycheck, the other lets you stay home with your family spending quality time raising your kids to be decent human beings while payhecks come to your mailbox). Read the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosoki to better understand the difference. If a propety is purchased below Fair Market Value from a seller willing to sell low or at a discount from a bank willing to sell low, one could make money (like a paycheck) by reselling it below Fair Market Value for slightly higher than the purchase price. This is what any retail store does with products everyday, even restaurants, gasoline, etc. Or, instead of selling it, the property could be kept for long term (many years) being rented out for positive monthly Cashflow, and because it was purchased below Fair Market Value that means it has equity (the difference between what is owed and the price it can sell for); buying multiple properties like this that have equity and produce positive monthly cashflow creates wealth. Nouveau Riche University teaches exactly how to go do both of these things ethically, honestly, and legally, creating a beneficial event for all sides of the deal! As for referring the Education Tuition for additional income, the company is a Direct Sale or Referral Sale model (I call it Paying it Forward); I could get $100 by referring people to a nearbye Apartment complex, good for me, better for the complex. Nouveau Riche University gives us 50% as our referral fee (remembr Win-Win), which if you remember the prices, is a very good paycheck - which helps purchase positive monthly cashflow properties to hold long term and build wealth!!! At the end of the day, it is all about real estate and building wealth. I find it a bit ironic that so much work went into your pretty negative and inaccurate depiction of Nouveau Riche University, the only Real Estate Investment Education system that has received Credit Recommendation from the American Council on Education, ACE www.acenet.edu When this week you could have applied that same time to learning how you can make money AND build wealth through investing in Real Estate by attending classes like I did. The majority of the world only makes money, trading time for dollars working for paychecks, and living from paycheck to paycheck which is why it is so hard for them to improve their financial situation and rarely do improve it or become wealthy. You either believe in free enterprise, or work for someone who does (Again, read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"). As for education, you will always pay for it in one of two ways, trade dollars to learn how to do something correct and go do it successfully from then on, or go do it wrong enough long enough until you have learned from your mistakes. I have done both, the latter is much more expensive in both DOLLARS and TIME! Dollars and Time that could both be spent helping others or on own families. Keep doing your research til you get it right about Nouveau Riche University and let us know when you want to buy your Regents Tuition and as a result change your life for the better! SEE YOU AT THE TOP! -NRU Student I live in Las Vegas, Nevada and I see these signs everywhere. I wish those losers would get a *real* job and stop littering! But I suppose that they feel like read idiots for falling for such a scam and want to get some of their money back by scamming others, too. I guess they figure *someone* has to be as stupid as them, right? I live in Las Vegas, Nevada and I see these signs everywhere. I wish those losers would get *real* jobs and stop littering! But I suppose that they feel like real idiots for falling for such a scam and want to get some of their money back by scamming others, too. I guess they figure *someone* has to be as stupid as them, right? After listening to successful Real Estate Investor and buying at least one of the $1K packages I have become more educated in the possible investments to be made. I wouldn't necessarily call this a scam. I would call it misleading. Some people will learn and put the information to work. I think the school on which you speak is too expensive. Also, these types of classes are not to be a real estate agent. Real estate agents learn to sell real estate at retail. This is completely different than investing in real estate. Most people probably don't understand the difference. No, I wouldn't invest my time or money in this misleading sales campaign. Thanks so much for taking the time to investigate and post the information. Patman What account receives the money for the Secret of Being Rich paypal button? Would you just send the money back? Hello my name is Andrew. I'm 26 and I've become a real-estate investor thanks to Nouveau Riche University. I've only been a member for 1 month and i'm working on my first wholesale deal. I ran across your page and I noticed that if it wasn't for a sign like the ones you have on your page I would have probably kept my 9-5 job. I am a RE apprentice, so I took special exception to these ad's popping up around sacramento. I hope the company gets investigated by the SEC or HUD or somthing mean and nasty happens to them. Orange County, CA has TONS! Someone has taken to sticking big "SCAM" stickers over them recently. I am located in Frederick, MD and similar signs are everywhere, "RE Investor Seeks Apprentice". The one key difference between the signs you show and those here in MD are that the signs I have seen make no mention of specific profit amounts. I was curious, so I did an internet search, which led me to you site. I attended a NRU presentation last week in San Diego where they are starting to really gain a following. The commissions are 50% for each person you sign up to do the classes by the way. Have you been to a presentation or attended any other events? Karen karenorell@prepaidlegal.com I am a member of Nouveau Riche and I have attended the university. This entire institution has changed my entire life. There is NOTHING like it anywhere else. You seem to be so down on people getting ahead by learning to invest in real estate, (do you also begrudge Donald Trump his fortune) and you have some ill-conceived notion that it is wrong to buy and sell houses and to have professional people teach you how to do it. Who else should teach the classes? YOU? Do you know enough to teach me how to do a fix and flip, or help a family in foreclosure? The teachers at this school taught me how to not take advantage of the homeowner in need just to make a buck, and how to give them a new beginning. NO other program I have ever bought has done that. And believe me I have bought a lot of them. Furthermore, I have never made a dime using the techniques in any of those other programs. I have been out of school for 2 weeks and I'm getting ready to close my first deal AND pocket $50K plus. It is a program that works if you use it. The fact that it annoys you...well, things like this and people succeeding used to annoy me. Then I realized that the negative way I was got me nowhere in 36 years, I wasn't going to make it 37. You also compare this to MLM though it is not in the traditional sense of the phrase. But if you look at life in a different light you would see that everything is an MLM. Even at McDonald's they have the owner, manager, assistant managers, cooks and cahiers, then janitors. It's like that in every single business in the world that has employees. THe difference with Nouveau Riche is that you own your own business (120+ tax deductions, 159 if you invest in real estate)and once to become certified no one else makes money off of you. Maybe you should check it out a little more, it could change your life! ahhh who pays this sort of money for all this? They say a fool and their money is easily parted. In this case how did the fool get the money to be parted with it?? I've seen them around. I pay as much attention to them as I do banner ads on websites. Now if only AdBlock worked in real life... I have seen only a couple. I have been to see the owner speak. I turned around and began to invest myself. I currenty make about 1,900 positive cash flow. I think one can learn by doing. Education is important I agree, however I feel that one can do it on their own as well. After all there are many wealthy real estate investors that attained their wealth long before Nouveau Riche ever existed. Yes, I have seen them. They are on the off-ramp I take to get to work. I wondered what the scam was. Thanks for investigating. I have seen those signs in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. What a great overview! Informative and funny. We haven't seen those signs, but some dude down the street drives a Hummer wrapped in Nouveau Riche University advertising. He and his wife (30 years old and retired, of course -- such an MLM cliche!) recently held a neighborhood party trying to lure us in. We all know it's a scam. I did see one sign but I attended one of this classes playing the cashflow 101. After the hoopla, then came the marketing plan. No longer was the emphasis on investing but on marketing your family and friends to buy the big deal of $16,000 for the college and then another $3,500 for the books and cds. What is the advantage of the two? I think this is more a multi-level marketing scheme using your family and friends. One person got his two siblings and they are in it for $60,000. Then the person that brought them in gets $8,000 back...how? Sounds too good to be true and they do hipe this up and make it so easy that it can be done. Am I on the right lead...I am a skeptic because there are no get rich quick way of making money. Thanks, Not sold on this. Yes I have seen the signs, no I have not called. However, your ability to give a critique about this was lost when you admitted to never attending the overview meeting. I have looked into several other very well respected real estate classes and the prices do not differ much from those you listed. Based on what one can make in learning real estate investing, the cost is not unfail----I paid many times that for my college education and one can easily make MUCH MUCH more investing in real estate then by working a job with a degree (in most cases). You make an issue about not getting a real estate license. Does the recording say you will? I know a number of real estate investors and while some have a license, others do not. I ask that you at least attend the course and apply the principles taught before you condem it. Then you can make a fair critique. hey there - thanks for the time and effort putting together the "Investor Seeks Apprentice" pages. I wanted to update you on some stuff about Nouveau Riche. Nouveau Rich Univdrsity is now the only real estate investment education company to have achieved the American Council on Education (ACE) college credit status. 28 courses in the Nouveau Riche curriculum each offer one hour of college credit in the Associate-Degree category for Real Estate or Business Administration at over 1,000 colleges, nationwide. My name is Jerry - I just attended a Nouveau Riche seminar at the Anaheim Convention Center in Orange County, CA. - I was entertained, I was educated by their keynote speaker Mark Kohler, Asset Protection instructor. I walked away without buying anything. I have attended a number of real estate seminars since December 2006. Donald Trump Summit, Robert Allen Enlightened Wealth Institute, Russ Whitney's Focus on Foreclosure, to name a few. Most have something of legitimate value to persuade you to choke up $$$ averaging anywhere from $9,000 to $16,000.00 to take advantage of a basic limited minimum package. Nouveau Riche offers most everything offered by the competition in an all-inclusive package - all 28 courses which you may attend twice if desired, materials, blah, blah, blah for the one-time $16,000.00 - you may be down on real estate seminar flim-flams in general, but if the situation is that you can't get this education in current standard colleges, Nouveau Riche stands out in a good way as far as education goes. In regards to the commission for recruiting other signups, the commission is miniscule in comparison to the yields in finding and completing real estate investment deals, which was and is the main objective. I have found negative testimonials on all the aforementioned real estate seminars except Nouveau Riche, so far. Your pages are a commentary but not a testimonial of someone having gone through their program. I will continue searching. I'm a Licensed Real Estate Broker. Why hasn't NRU been reported to State Attorney Generals & the "Feds"? Deceiving advertising = False & Misleading advertising for one & two, it seems to me that Scams like this should be put out of business! Claude DeMoss San Jose, CA I see tons of them around my neighborhood in Utah. Whats worse is I'm actually trying to buy a house for my family and the costs are up ridiculously from when we looked just two years ago -- a $130,000 house two years ago (the same house we looked at) was bought and is now back on the market for $225,000 with no significant improvements! I enjoyed this series. The signs were all over San Diego about a year ago, but I haven't seen them for a while. I figured that anyone who was paying someone $240K a year could probably do better advertising than street signs :) I love this essay! I wish I wrote it! Bravo! Einzige Greetings and an enormous Thanks for your effort in putting forth the facts in a consise and easy to flow manner. I especially loved your illustrations. Moreover, I have friends who are considering forking out $20K to attend this bogus university. If it is indeed true that knowledge is power, perhaps, EMpowerment is the result of putting knowledge into ACTION.I will most certainly forward this data to time. You truly are a champion for truth and common sense. Thank you for sharing your petals of knowledge within this complex garden of life. Regards, Rick Moss sounds pretty accurate...i saw the same sign in orlando & then listened in on a conference call while following a online ppt presentation. People from Pittsburgh, Michigan and other places around the country were on the phone as well. I then went to the semenar to see what it was all about and it seems like you hit everything. Most people who are selling these educational materials and classes don't even use the material themselves. Tons of people signed up after the presentation. Definitely a scam and a waste of money. Very interesting, believe it or not, I was looking and expecting a review like this. I just heard of Nouveau Riche and wanted to do my homework. It does sound too good to be true, but that little piece of you always hopes it is. This is a great site with great perspective. If you happpen to come upon any information that you feel is valuable, please send me an email. Until then I will continue my homework. Thanks, Brad Taylor cpltaylorusarmy@yahoo.com Concord, CA p.s. I haven't seen the signs, but my fiancee has, I came acrossed an ad on craigslist, called thge number and attended the free 2 hour introduction, it sounded promising and lucrative, but we both know that isn't always so. "investor seeks apprentice, $20k/mo" sign in lake forest 92630. off 5 freeway at bake parkway I have read your comments, and feel like you should REALLY do some investigating before you make uneducated comments about NRU. Maybe interview an ISA or two, oh, you don't understand the term? Just like you don't understand NRU, in any compacity. The saddest thing about people like you, is sometimes, you steal the vision and the dream away from someone who just wants some great knowledge with your comments. Why don't you come sample the college? Why not interview some of the students, who, like me are experiencing amazing success through marketing the tuitions, and through investing in real estate? Jeff Sinclair Zillionairesinc@yahoo.com I haven't seen any. But thanks for the heads up. I have seen the signs, I have attended the meeting and I have to admit, it got me excited. Granted the red flags started going up in my head once I listened to their well coordinated schpeel (sp?) but after I asked the questions all of my doubts were laid aside, except for one. I had the money, but would it be a better investment just to attend the local real estate investor association meetings and seminars at a fraction of the cost? I had $16,000 but why not spend $200 for the annual dues and attend classes for free or pay less than $99 for other classes. I guess I liked the idea of them holding your hand through some deals, but again, I can pay a coach for that. I have no doubt you can be successful with their system, but it does tend to pray on the broke/gullable to take advantage of them while providing a service. The rest is up to them. I sadly fall into that category... Here is another site to add to your list. http://www.megapolitanmoney.com/index.php "real estate investor SEEKS TOTAL BUFFOON" Understand everything you're saying except that the graduates from this school are affecting the real estate market and causing prices to go higher. Sorry, but there is a lot of investors out there. One school of graduates is not going to do that! Thank you! You just saved me 16k!!!!! I personally think that you do Not Know Exactly what you are talking about. I definately recommend that you go to the college if you are really investigating a company to make sure that it is a scam before you put up this cheezy website. I agree that you have some good information about the company which are facts for example tuition cost and so on. That is true.. The students of this college are not telling anyone that they are not going to pay for the classes. If you were selling your website today for a million dollars would you waste your time to tell them the price if they don`t know the features and benifits or more importantly they are not interested in buying it? This is like punching a 12" nail with your bear hand with all your power concievable and don`t espect the nail to go through! scary huh. People are getting scammed legally by the 401k, mutual funds crap every day!!!! There is not a way out of this slavery because they are looking for the scams in the wrong places. When people like you don`t do enough leg work and come shouting scam or so called money making scheems - MLM ....You are not doing these people any good, In fact you are working against them. By the way, do you work for the police-Government or for the just ones? Go to the college find out more . This is only for those who want it not for those who don`t. Guess what? I got to go I spent enough time Writing to you who needs more info see ya wouldn`t wanna be ya... Those signs are now illegal. Nouveau Riche DOES NOT claim to be an accredited university. It is the ONLY real estate education program that has earned recommendation from the American Council on Education. Education minimizes the risk involved in real estate investing. Also, this is not an MLM company. The compensation is based on an "agent model". Please do your research before making accusations. Why are you so focused on these signs? If they bother you so much, stop looking for them!! Excellent report, keep the good work going on. I am in Orange county CA, the signs are all over the place here, what a shame..... Thank you, Thank you for uncovering-solving this signs mystery..... wish you 1000000 fresh flowers... Sylvester. I had a fried get involved 20K and they can finance it- he wanted me to but being a little older and wiser and said are you crazy.. went to one of their parties at Fox Sport Grill in Scottsdale and it was a bug RA RA but realize after speaking with some of these people they really didnt know what they were doing accept invisting other people to join. My friend said he get 10K for anyone who joins under him and so on.. He said he not even in it for the education but to get people to join> not sure if this is legal, maybe because they call it a school they can get by with it.. CH. Hilarious!! I know someone that has invested in this and it is a pyramid scheme overall. He is attempting to recruit more people which is not going well, and owns a few properties that have section 8 tenants that are trashing the property. Sounds great!! Haha- great site! Hilarious!! I know someone that has invested in this and it is a pyramid scheme overall. He is attempting to recruit more people which is not going well, and owns a few properties that have section 8 tenants that are trashing the property. Sounds great!! Haha- great site! I wish I had found this website before I joined. I just got back from "college" and while the classes are decent, there's nothing there that you can't get from a good book on the subject. $16,000 is total rip-off and I feel like I got scammed. The reason you don't hear complaints more often is because people like myself are embarrassed for falling for something that seemed too good to be true from the start, so they just shut up about it and move on. At least that's going to be my plan for the moment. ya we do I actually talked with Chris Record yesterday. I almost went to meet with him until I researched the company and read articles such as yours. I have seen these signs more and more. It may not be a true MLM system but it is too close for me to invest in. With todays current market situation it would be very difficult to "flip" properties anyhow. Perfectly good properties are sitting on the market for 3-6 months. The interest rates have also gone up, forcing some foreclosures. Im a mortgage broker, so I have some insight on this NRU not working out so well in the long run. Thanks! Good advice and wise council. Hey, great page you have here. I actually came across an ad for an "RE Investor Apprentice" on craigslist.org in various cities such as Las Vegas, Sacramento, Seattle, etc. Don't worry I haven't been duked but the ad did get my hopes up as it was worded in a way to lead me to believe that I could work with investors with a reasonable return. It did not, however, mention anything about the classes or how expensive they are. I spoke to one of their agents, Loni Nahinu, and she also failed to mention any of these things but emphasized the need for serious people with high income expectations. The next step is for me to go to a free seminar but I just don't see the point. I want to get into the field but there are just too many scammers out there and impossible to know where to turn. Anyway, good and informative site. Best Regards, Runar I recently received a flyer with all the foozy adverts. Thanks for your posting, it helped me avoid a BIG mistake. ---Freddie , Oak Lawn Il. right on I am a Nouveau Riche Student and I applaud the effort here.... very objective. PS. I have made lots of money in short term deals and the refferal opportunity... it is what you make of it! thank you. when i went to the dog and pony show last night at the urging of a "friend", i saw the graphics that looked suspiciously like...a ...pyramid....i ran out shortly thereafter and looked up your site. what a crock! cheers your poor for a reason!!! dipshit dipshit Your information about Nouveau Riche University was very interesting. My wife and I just attended a seminar this past weekend and it seemed like all our friends were dropping 20k to join. However, I wanted to do my research first before dropping 20k of hard earned cash because of a hiped up seminar. But if someone purchased some of the courses from NRU, could they still make money or is this whole thing a scam? I have seen the "Real Estate Investor Seeks Apprentice" signs, I called, it was a long voice mail message. I left a detailed voice mail message in return. I asked to be emailed documents that would prove this is a sucsussful (I cant spell) company. I asked for income staements from the investor, possible stock ticker symbols for the investor's company, and what firms the investor was associated with. I never was sent anything. I now enjoy calling this mysterious sign regularly. I especially like to call after I have been binge drinking all night and I tell the sign that I just cant wait to become an apprentice. I could smell scam from the beggining, I just call to take up space on the voicemail. These signs are all over Florida that is whre I live. I actually copied the advertising tactic for my own business, I cant believe the exposure these signs get my business. I put my own advertising signs out the city pulls them a few days later, but I still get a huge amount of exposure, its a great way to advertise, I get each sign for $3 and it draws arround 20 phone calls each. I need to meet this investor and thank him/her for the great idea, I would still love to be the appentice someday, maybe I will be lucky enough soon. Yes Ive seen these signs and my co-worker asked me to attend a meeting for this real estate school. It sounded fishy and so I told her it was probable a scam. She asked me to look into it "NV Riche" and I found your blog thanx for the info and safing people from getting ripped off. Thanx Stephen Santa Rosa ca I was researching this because my nephew works for this company. His testimony is on the web site. I didn't know the company name that he worked for, so I googled his name and found it. I became concerned for him because this hasn't sounded legit from the get go. Then, when I saw his car plasted with those stickers "Earn $25 - $50,000 in one month. Ask me how." I grew more concerned. Now, I have googled the sites you mentioned and have found out that he isn't even a licensed realtor. What is he thinking? He is highly educated. Thanks for the info. Rob, I'm been a fan of Cockeyed for a few years now. I really enjoy your site. A friend of mine is getting into this stuff. He asked me to come to one of the presentations as a favor. So he could get my impressions. After the presenation, my girlfriend and I were floored. The guy running this thing suggested ways to pay for your tutition. Such gems as max out your credit cards, take out a loan on your 401k, enroll at a local college and get student loans to pay for your Nouvea Riche tution (which violates the terms of your loan), and the ever classic signature loan ("Take two! You can take these loans out all day!") For this guy's sake, I was there for a friend and, as such, didnt' want to embarass him. However, we did manage to throw a few stumbling blocks in his way. One time he tried to call me out, or something of that nature. "Sean! Are you ready to be a millionaire?" I hesitated to answer the question. He then phrased it "If you had the chance to be a millionaire, would you take it?" to which I replied yes. Who would say no? "Sean, are you ready to get into debt on your way to becoming a millionaire?" and this came with a quick and short "nope". He then proclaimed I wasn't ready to be rich and pretty well condemned me to working 40/40 (40 hours a week, 40 days a year or what?) for the rest of my life. Maybe we should stage some kind of guerilla task force to go to these meetings and trip them up by giving the wrong responses? Needless to say, I referred my friend to your site, among others. I only hope he can see Nouveau Riche for what it really is. -Sean Wow! I've already experienced looking at the bank statements of a very successful team 212 member. His total on screen at the time was $245,000 in a six month span, so I'm on board with this scam. I welcome the change! I mad $14,000 last year working about 200 hours per month give or take, so somethings got to give in my life and I like the company incentives, and structure. It actually motivates the individual to give it his all, and do his best to serve the greater good of the community. We're just a different bread, we'll never see eye to eye, and it's a damn shame really, cause you probably deserve this more than anybody else, but somehow you haven't been invited back into the community. We seek out helpful, compassionate, cooperative, and pleasant individuals, so I've fallen for this scam, and I know I'll make more money this next year than last! This company structure has pretty much prevented me from committing suicide. I could go on an on and on, but like I said, we're never gonna get anywhere with any of this back and forth bull....... Hello, I am a real estate agent in Morgan Hill, CA and I attended a meeting last night for this program. I admit, I am impressed with what they have put together as it appears to be a turnkey system. Also, the room was filled to capacity. My friend who brought me is also in the real estate business and has already purchase properties with a positive cash flow. I appreciate your article as you have pointed out various points that need to be explored. As of yet, I have not seen any signs in my neighborhood. I would be interested in finding out what other feedback you have received. I am an analytical person and I check out things before I go forward. That is how I found your article. Thank you for your time. Neil J Forrest neil@buy-list.com I have seen the signs and even attended a presentation but believe it to be rather unseemly. Their answer to any insightful questions that seem to poke holes in their presentation is "You can be right and I can be rich" Hey there. You probably don't want to hear this, but I'm a student at NRU and couldn't be more pleased with the caliber of education. Not trying to make any money by telling you...just thought you should know that if you're putting up a site this negative you may actually want to do a little more due diligence... it's everywhere! ahhhh they're taking over miami! THank you for your diligence in maintaining this site. How interesting! I have seen these REI signs posted out in 29 Palms, CA. I must say I was slightly intrigued and curious. Then last night I attended my first Nouveau Riche "Sale" in Woodland Hills, CA. And now the mystery of these little signs flowering the landscape is solved! (Love your pictures.) I politely sat through the entire presentation since I made the mistake of not sitting close enough to the door. After, I told my host that I was between "Still have questions/Not interested. A 2 and a 3. Then I hit the web this morning (since the information was SO VAGUE prior, I didn't know what to look up) and DUG DEEP to find the "nays" on this group. And so glad I did. My gut reaction was right. I've sat through enough of these sale jobs and have succombed to a few in my naivite. But NEVER for this audacious amount of money!! Their presenters are smooth talkers but I was finally savy enough to recognize what was going on. In conclusion, NRI is about selling the SCHOOL not selling REAL ESTATE. I'm not interested in doing their work for them. Never heard of students being asked to sell the school and then spending an inordinate amount of the presentation time on this aspect of your enrollment. Before you have even experienced their product! And this "click and buy" business, sight unseen - in another state. Jeeeeez. Note: if the imagery up on the screen takes the shape of a pyramid, well...nuff said. I have seen this exact information but placed on a small business type card and placed inside the real estate books at Borders book stores Karl, CA thanks for the info. I found a buisness card in a book at Barnes&Noble, led me to a Nouve Riche salesperson. You're awesome, nice site. I hope you removed the signs after taking the photos. It is actually littering. Disgusting. Thanks again. We have it in Riversiode, CA I was invited to the seminarby a friend of mine. Everything you said and promises galore to riches, but no guarantee. A total scam. The signs had to be removed signs there was a possible legal issue pending. The signs were miss leading and made people seem that they were apprentice and not paying for a 16k school. I also attended the program in Sacramento and was not happy with the service they described. Scott There's another one of these scams in the Chicago area that goes by the name of Foozy Investments (foozy.ws). you are so right on thanks for sharing..these guys are just another scam trying to make a buck I called a guy on craigslist about bird dogging for investors. I'm a broker and I have done this before for a little quick cash. I have a little window into that market, so I wanted to share this with a cash buyer. I wanted to see if this guy had any idea how to work with my resource. He was kinda busy, he said, so he had this other idea. Come by this investor meeting. So now I'm smack in the middle of the sales pitch and I was really let down that this is what I walked into. But, you know, make the lemonade. So I was shopping my idea around and nobody there had ever bought a house and they were talking a bunch of fancy mortgage talk, but the moderator assured that if I showed up again after the college was over (everyone is going to Phoenix this weekend to learn some more great stuff) that all these savvy investors would know the value of my source and be scarfing that stuff up! I really just felt like an idiot for going there and I got really sleepy about an hour into the pitch. $16,000!!! Damn! Started seeing handwritten signs appearing in Addison, TX close to a year ago. I have seen the signs in Santa Rosa, Calif. Sadly I have two relatives in So. Cal. who have signed up with this company. I have seen the type of MLM before in the 1990's (see TPN The Peoples Network). A few will make money but most will not & it will start to die off soon enough. I only hope my relatives benefit from the "education" courses & learn enough to be able to invest wisely in real estate. Thanks for your article. I've seen them in Kenosha, WI Thanks for the article and links. I have a friend who is trying to sell me on the program and he is a decent fellow looking to make money. I'm always wary of get rich quick schemes and these signs start off the process with a degree of suspicion and lack of credibility. I have seen them in my area also (Oakland, CA). Your work is appreciated. Yes, I don't like the "apprentice" thing. Sounds misleading. I paid the $20,000 anyway and got my money back big time with the real estate education that I got. I don't have to recruit if I don't want. So in the end, I am very happy. I just wanted to mention that I've seen these ads all over in the classifieds and online classifies like craigslist.org. They're quite annoying. Nice article! I'm getting into Nouveau Riche, already bought the Encyclopedia sets and am reasonably confident that it is more than just marketing. I've seen and talked to the people within this organization and they are making money from investments and are willing to help others do the same. There may be people who are only interested in making money off others but I have seen some that are eager to help new folks succeed. I could be wrong but it seems legit. Hi Rob. I live in the Salt Lake City area and see these signs all the time. I became sick of the deception and lies. I have taken it upon myself to stop on the side of the road, and cut the signs down, and place them in the dumpster at my work. Some days I can collect up to twenty signs in a five mile stretch. I am just doing my small part to rid the community of these yellow 'eyesore' signs, and to 'squash' an outrageous scam. Regards, ShotgunChamp. i see these signs frequently on antelope road in antelope/c.h. i always figured it was a scam.... I read all 10 pages and noticed you mentioned you saw the signs in Sacramento. Are you in Sacramento? I am, and work with a person who tried to pitch me into going to NRU. I've been to a wealth of many of these MLM "presentations" and know how to identify one immediately. I haven't paid attention to these signs as I drive. But I won't be suprise if everyone I know suddenly hears about Nouveau Riche Univeristy within the next 2-5 years. There are other 'companies' that have spanned within the last years of the housing boom, but have obviously gone fade out of conversations. Everyone is taking advantage of the housing industry and trying to get hold of get rich quick 'jobs'. Many of these have legal standings but with manipulative/deceptive system/operations to making money. These opportunities mostly spread by word of mouth through friends and families. Yahoo 2by2, a non real estate company yet with same MLM principles of pyramid scheme...it unfortunately made quick money out of vulnerable attendees of their presentations but also quickly faded out within 3 years I heard of them. Thanks for the article. I almost responded to the ad on Craigslist.com today at http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/rej/418055855.html which referenced http://www.re-cashflowproperties.com which in turn had the number for nruniversity.com, and I found your site from a Google search on nruniversity. Thanks for saving people a lot of time and possible disappointment. I send positive thoughts your way, whoever you are. I found your take refreshing. These signs are all over Las Vegas as well. I know one person who spent $8,000 and went to classes in Phoenix. I felt I already knew what he learned by reading a few books, participating on several good investor bulletin boards, and networking with people who know. I too think this is an overinflated idea, and can't imagine why people are still paying these outrageous fees to learn something that can be learned with a little effort for a fraction of the cost. So, I wanted to tell you about yet another place the signs are cropping up. I bought a book from Barnes and noble. It was in the finance section, and I was flipping through the book and out falls one of those signs. I deided to google it and this web site is the first thing that popped up. You are doing a good thing here. Its people like you who make the world a little better. Am an appraiser in Las Vegas, have invested in property as part of my portfolio since I was in my teens. These signs are all over town and on vehicles. Generally they look like an add for an employee...Any way you look at in, in the current market you need good credit and cash to make things work. I hate the signs. I personally think they do not do justice to the opportunity. I am a student of Nouveau Riche, and am eager to introduce this program to my friends and family. But, I want them to succeed like I am. (I have attended the college twice, and now own two cash-flowing properties). True success will happen over time as my knowledge, experience, and fearlessness increase. I truly believe that what I am doing can be duplicated by a lot of people if they have the desire and are willing to just get started. I was introduced to Nouveau Riche by a good friend. A friend I trust. And that trust has proven itself to be correctly placed. All I can say is that if you truly want success in real estate, Nouveau is a GREAT place to get your start. Paul Harker It is very interesting to say the least. A scam, through and through. As a commercial banker, and former mortgage banker... I understand MOST of the tricks of the trade... I expressed interest in finding good deals on properties with my own money... they guy was pissed when I told him I could care less about the whole 'university' thing. Hell, if I want to make $200K in a month, I close a $20million dollar deal... that deal would take up about 20 hours of my time... to achieve $200K in a month NRU style I would have to find 25 idiots to buy in... they would have to do the same... the people on bottom, don't win... it should be shut down. I was introduced to this by a friend about a month ago and paid $20,000 for the total program with the intentions of signing up all my friend and family. Fortunatly for me there was a 7 day money back clause in the contract. After a few days of thinking about what I was going to do to all my friends and family to get rich quick I realized what you were really paying for was a legally disguised pyramid scam. I am now going through the internet to see what other people are saying about it and what you have said here reflects the same conclusions I have come to also. Thank you for puting this on the internet as you have confirmed what I did was the right thing to do. Eliott in AZ says - As your other AZ fans have probably attested, these signs have been everywhere for a few years, now. Of course, knowing that the "school" is in AZ too, makes a whole lot of sense. Now to shed some light on the off ramp mattress sales... Thanks for saving countless people their time and money. I see these signs all the time in Maryland but they read a little differently. "Learn Real Estate Investing, 1 on 1 training" I cant figure out what they are selling but its caught my attention. It is probably along the same lines as this crock! The bottom line is I know it will cost me! I have seen signs and I am actually meeting with an ISA tonight for drinks to talk about this. I'm truly skeptical, but want to know more. Maybe I should bring along a lie detector test, plug it in, hook him up, and then let him talk. I want to make money in real estate, but maybe you're right, this might not be the right way to do it. OR, it may be a great way to make some money while the market sucks other than my measley salary and sell the program to innocent buyers myself. Hard choice to make I suppose. I would like to say, that the classes are NOT $1,000 a day. Take 16k for 2 students, for 2 years. That is 4k a year each. Then take the 120 credits. 1 full day class is 6 credits, so that is 20 full days. You have to take the 120 credits within a year, and you are able to repeat them free for another year. So total cost for each class is $66.67. That is less than $100 a day, based on a two year tuition, using the credits in 1 year. Thank you. They are all over Las Vegas, NV I hate it when folks are just trying to make a buck on others without really, really helping or teaching. Have folks visit or listen to Dave Ramsey. Go to www.daveramsey.com Lots of them in the San Bernardino County area in SOCAL. I called them after I sawfor a big billboard in Fontana, CA. How much money can they be making if they can put up a sign like this that costs probably $ 5,000/month. You're right. I went to a "free" seminar where the sales pitch was heavy. Sign up for this "university" education was all that we heard. Then to get you really excited, some of the more successful investors pulled up in their Mercedes, Porsches, and Corvettes. Interesting scam they got going. Pyramid, pyramid, pyramid! I read through your site, and I would have more respect for your arguments if you actually were a product of NRU'S education and services. I have been a part of this organization for only four months, and have already invested in two properties that have resulted in $8500 on one deal and close to $22,000 on another deal. I understand this company is not designed for everyone, and we don't expect everyone to like what we do. The fact of the matter is MULTI-MILLIONAIRES teach our community how to do real estate deals PERIOD. Instead of overthinking what this company is why don't you do something more constructive with your time, like finding a job, because that is going to be the only thing you will be able to accomplish in your sad excuse of a life. Watch me get rich bitch. I have been to the meetings and the training. I am well versed in real estate investing seminars, classes, multilevel garble, and all else. I have seen the company make serious efforts to get across to people that setting goals, action plans, and working together in a community of people is important and the only way to succeed-using the education learned to invest. I think it is a matter of how you look at it. I clearly do not like the fact that the commission is 50% of tuition. I realized though that most people do not have what it takes to be investors nor pay for the classes- i.e. income. So the sales system is set in place to help those who need a way to make massive income to sell the services and education and also make enough money to become investors. The company does not approve of the "Apprentice" signs anymore. The Educators are in fact successful people. Many have degrees in other professions but they all have something to offer with their experience in real estate. My colleagues have gained new knowledge that they put to work everyday in their business. The fact that I cannot market my own credit repair business to the other students bothers me though. There are pros and cons!!!! So far I have only met people who have succeeded in making money selling. I have not met many who have made thousands or even millions in real estate investing through this company. I think it is the positive, take massive action, community that draws people to it. Few people have the drive, ability, and power to be great. Those that are great succeed and do well because they push themselves. Anybody who knows anything about investing should realize that retail investment is not only short-term, but ridiculously unstable. Now more than ever, it does not make sense to make a longe-term career out of investing in real estate. I've seen the signs and attended a seminar which was rather complling much like a Pre-Paid Legal meeting, all enthusiasm and fluff. they both boast that the Bay Area is reaching "Critical Mass" and "those here tonight (at the seminar) are in a position to become very wealthy" Disheartened, Luis S. I enjoyed your article so much I'm almost sobbing (with joy). It is probably the best depiction of what people subject themselves to become "rich." The reality in my mind is that the reason these schemes work is because people will pay a lot of money for hope. These people are selling hope and hope comes in many shapes and sizes. Anyway, I'm glad a came across your article. It made my day. Matt I have not seen the signs but there is a seminar that I was encouraged to attend here on Maui! Ohhhhh Nooooooo I think your page would be a lot more useful if it weren't so biased. It is quite obvious you are not a fan of the program. Instead of presenting both the good and the bad, you present the entire company as merely a scam. Let's be honest, if it were truly a scam, the FTC & AG would have shut them down around '04ish. It's not a scam, you simply don't like the price-tag. Are Gucci sunglasses scams? How about the $4500 Salvatore Ferragamo suit that's sitting in my closet; have I been hood-winked? Expensive doesn't equal scam; expensive doesn't even equal expensive, it's all subjective. You made one really good point, if it were such a scam where are the angry people? Answer it, don't right it off with silly accusations that every who would be mad is holding it inside so they can sell it to get their money back. That would mean that of the thousands of people Nouveau Riche has apparently "scammed" NONE of them have the integrity to stand and say "I've been scammed." How silly does that sound? At least ONE would take a stand and maybe even file a lawsuit; but it hasn't happened once. Karma I find all these commentaries that scrutinize this organization to have one thing in common. None of you have actually attended the 'college' I have been involved for one year ... I chose to enter into this community with my eyes wide open, even after reading at least 10 sites like yours. Here's the skinny : I find that NRU delivers what it presents at these intro briefings and their intensives. The follow up support is there for the taking on several fronts. I spent my first 2 colleges interviewing people and found a common thread amongst those that had attended 2 or more... total satisfaction. When you actually do the math and consider that NRU allows 2 students to attend for the one price per tuition, ie: for the top shelf tuition the Regents it comes to $200/day for the entire 2 year period. I find this price fair. The quality of presenters I have found professional, dedicated, very much the 'teacher' and some are excellent at bringing an engaging atmosphere to what might otherwise be dry info. I have implemented into my life some very important information from the classes and I do have NOW investment property that I might now have had and have a more confident approach to investing and one that I see is a never ending learning curve. PLUS I have met many many people who have been able to prosper and invest more than they ever dreamed possible because of NRU. They are making $30K/month and hurray for them. I'm more interested in the college and am more than willing to recieve compensation for networking it to any other sincerely interested investor students. Stop being the person who likes to be a dream killer. NRU will succeed even with your rants. At least they are doing something to relieve alot of financial pressure for a whole lot of people. Everyone is free to make a choice and they do have to work toward their success. If they don't than people like you have a field day in bringing down an organization that is making a big difference for enough good folks out there. LIKE ME all the best to you, I imagine you could better use your time in building up than tearing down. TG my next door neighbor is an ISA and has the goofy signs on his Toyota FJ and he is passing out the NRU DVD's. What a joke. Thanks for examining this situation. It could save some people from losing money. And ususlly the people who are joining this are those in a tough spot and can least afford to be scammed. Orangevale, California Mr. Cockeyed, sir: Your overview of NRU was not as negative as I assumed it would be and you have basically covered all the (perceived) bases. Although I joined NRU recently, I have not purchased any of their course material or attended any of their classes. I cannot speak to the quality of the information, but let me say this: My wife and I have spend well in excess of $25,000 for RE training products and services by a couple of well known seminar gurus (Lou Brown and Robyn Thompson) over the last 2 or 3 years. The fact of the matter is that professional real estate training can be very expensive, but when you consider that a typical real estate investment deal can easily generate a $20K-$100K NET profit, the dollar cost of a good REI education becomes a "no-brainer". Even at the $16,000.00 level, the NRU "cost" is not necessarily a "bad" deal. They realize what the market will bear for good REI information and charge competitively. I will probably purchase the training at some point and compare the information to the TOP-SHELF, contracts and information received at Lou Brown training events, but choosing to market the training to others in order to raise investment capital to get started in NOT the worst idea I have ever heard! Larry Ft. Lauderdale, FL You're jaded man. Instead of being so pissed about some "signs" around town.. why don't you actually SPEAK to someone who is utilizing Nouveau Riche's education. You called some of the phone numbers... did you actually view a presentation? Did you attend one of the free seminars? Did you ever speak to a live human being? You might actually gain some valuable insight that obliterates your current negative cockeyed "beliefs". I have seen them on the off-ramp heading east on I-80 exiting at Reed in West Sacramento. The promised income is crotch-grabbing but fails the smell test. I did not bite. Yes i have seen those signs all over southern California, also cropping up all over are signs that read, "Dont worry about your house foreclosing! We can Help!" Which i called and found that it was also a Nouveax Riche University students ad. I've been to 4 NRU seminars. And while they dont tell you to go out and put signs all over the roadsides, they suggest "creative ways to advertize and getting people to come in with you.. (the signs on the side of the roads) People are doing this on thier own trying to make their money back from investing in NRU I am a student with NRU and have nothing but the best to say about the quality of their education and their instructors. Yes, they do pay their students very well for referrals but you don't have to participate. I have referred my friends only because they want the education and I believe in it. I don't personally place these ads you are showing on your website and yes, I have seen them but what is the big deal? NRU's education and their referral program is awesome and first-class. But I guess there are always people out there to try to ruin a good thing. It is so sad that our society is so leery of everything, even when it is a good thing. All of you negative people obviously have not had first hand experience with NRU otherwise you would not have websites such as this. I have a date with a Nouveau Rich meeting tonight. I asked the guy for some information or the website prior to the meeting so I could do some research. He told me he would give it to me AFTER the meeting. Hmmmm...so I yahoo searched the info and here at your site....I found enough for me. I laughed so hard I almost peed myself. But the good news is...it saved me from attending the meeting. You have saved me...so perhaps you should sell salvation. Hello: I respect your opinion, but happen to disagree with it. Before I knew that NRU existed, I believed that real estate was the best investment. The only problem was that I had no money or influence or any of the like. I still tried to start out by wholesaling properties. Shortly thereafter, I was introduced to Nouveau Riche. I had been in MLM before and NEVER wanted to go back to that again. So I said forget it and moved on. I attempted to network within the local real estate investment community. I attended every group I could find, paid mentors by the hour, hired a realtor, talked to everyone remotely associated with real estate and ended up with the same response. "Sorry, my time is valuable, I don't want to waste it with a novice." The people of Nouveau Riche were the only ones who offered asssistance, guidance and mentoring despite the fact that I had not joined. They were the only ones who returned my phone calls and emails. They also never had to "pre-qualify" me in order to do a meeting. It took four months, but I finally decided to join. I don't know if I'll recruit others or just enjoy the income from my wholesale business. However, the choice is mine. In terms of the cost: I agree that initially I thought $16,000 was too much. But I looked at it a different way. I took out student loans in the amount of $30,000 for a college degree that afforded me a $35,000 per year career. I believe that paying $16,000 to be educated in a business that could net me hundreds of thousands is actually a bargain. I do agree that in some circles, there is a lot of hype. I do regret that. I personally do not do business that way. I happen to believe that our community speaks for itself without embellishment. Finally, I personally have been discouraged from using the apprentice signs. But I have heard from mentors outside of NRU, that they are highly effective. I would not know. I don't use them. In any case, I thank you for the opportunity to voice my opinion. Best wishes to you. Sincerely, Amy J. Bartola I recently read an article that stated the people who are the wealthiest actually live quite frugal lives and those people with the Mercedes are actually in the minority of people. I have just been invited by someone who lives in my small town (a suburban township outside of Dallas) to a day-long workshop this Saturday. I presume the workshop will be led by this person's upline/"mentor". I did some quick search on the Internet and judging from what i have read so far about NRU, I don't think I will attend the workshop. I have tried it in the past a few times and have realized that MLM marketing is just not right for me... I am part of Nouveau Riche and also do not agree with the 'bait and switch' type of advertising. You probably know by now that it isn't allowed anymore. They have to say "student". Plus there is so much littering that comes with it! I just had a friend try to get me into this--thanks for the research! Thanks for the informative site. I was considering answering one of those ads on Craigslist but thanks to your investigative research and explanations, I suppose I'll pass. Nice work. These showed up for awhile in Austin, TX, a few years ago, but didn't last long. Frank www.causs.org Love your site. Similar signs come and go in Dallas area depending on which guru puts on a seminar. Newbie (not) www.causs.org Hi! Thanks for the informative article, I got a simular advertisement with a book I recently bought. So they are branching out in their advertising!! what u say makes sense. The next thing is that, 50,000 new investors will come in the next year thanks to the signs. Like real estate agents, investors will be a dime a dozen. they are passing out flyers with the same sales pitch directly on your car. they also encourage getting a private student loan to pay for Nouveau Riche. Since it is not accredited you cannot get a student loan for Nouveau Riche, so the sales people encourage you to lie on your student loan application Hi, I live in Chicago. I saw the real estate investor seeks apprentice sign for the first time 18 months ago. I did not have a good impression about it. However my husband and I were very interested in real estate so we called the 800 number. We had a similar conversation to the one you are talking about, So we decided to go to one of their meetings and to be honest I thought they were not very professionals.However the lady we called offered us to go to a 2 day intensive workshop,so we could see more about the education. I had the opportunity to talk to one of the instructor in my native language (spanish) and I got all my questions answered. My husband and I decided to move forward with Nouveau and went to the college a month after the intensive. After we bought a several properties, My husband decided to quit his 130K IT consultant job and since then we have acquired $6 million worth in real estate. We are not doing single family homes now, we are doing multi-units now. About the marketing opportunity. When we joined Nouveau Riche we were not interested in the marketing because we thought we weren't sales people, besides we had to prove it before we could sell it. However after 6 months my husband decided to do it. I have to say that it was not easy, this is not a get rich quick, but now things are much better for us. We made our first 40K month not too long ago selling the education. I agree with you. The real estate seeks apprentice was not good at all.Some times the presentation might be a little cheesy. It is up to you if you just want to do real estate. You don't have to market the education or you can do both things. It is up to you. Nouveau Riche is not for everybody, not all of the people have the same success. This business requires work, effort and dedication. I wanted to share my opinion with you because the money we spent in the education was worth it. By the way, I apologize if my grammar is not good enough. I am still very new in this country. If you want to contact me, here is my email juliespitia@yahoo.com.mx Please don't think I want to sell you the education, because that is not my intention. Have a great day. Julie I would love to know if youn have sampled the education at all. I have a friend who has been to the college and says she would have saved thousands on the few investment properties she already owns if she would have known then what she now knows after taking the classes. Where do people get the money to attend? If I had $20k laying around I would put it into a house not a MLM. We conduct actual training workshops on Foreclosures. We charge $100 for the training and sell NOTHING at the workshops. We have had people standing outside our workshops handing our fliers for the "Free" Nouveau Riche seminar. Not only are the dishonest, they are LAZY! Thanks for posting this - my curiosity got the better of me and I googled the signs and saved myself a phone call :) hey, there. congrats on your baby boy! so on thanksgiving, my boyrfriend's dad picked us up in San Diego (Pacific Beach neighborhood, where everyone is between the ages of 20 to 30 years old, and is either 1)a beach-going drinker/partier or 2)an up-and-coming entrepeneur). On our way out of town, i noticed a hand-written sign on a post in someone's front yard (seemed like a house being used for an office, sort of): "Real Estate Investor Seeks Apprentice". We drove by quickly, so i didn't notice the pay, or if the phone number was local or a toll-free deal. Being jobless, i keep an eagle eye out for any job opportunity, especially if it looks small and personal, because i am sick of working retail after 15 years. Anyway, as we hit the freeway, i forgot all about the sign, because my grandma was a realtor, and frankly- not a very nice lady, so i'm a bit prejudiced ;) Anywho, long story short: i love your site, and when i saw this story i was insanely interested. You are absolutely right about everything; essentially this is a pyramid scheme. The classic "Step on others on your way up" deal. Kudos for your informative article. Keep up the good work :) any names for the baby, yet? and which picture was he?!?!? i'm dyin' over here!! ;) ``heather m. your links to other sites are no longer valid, time to update your information Sounds like you are an unhappy customer. Or just someone that critizes everything that is true. Like bob synder says in his interview, knowledge isn't power. It is only powerful when applied. David All I can say is that I'm not clear if you ever went to a briefing or not, but you are clearly a skeptical person. This is for real, and you are missing out. If you want to real scoop, call me and leave a message. I'll be happy to call you back and share my story. 888-865-9968 They are all over the place here in Miami... they are either an offshoot or a copy. They are going to far as to advertise as an actual job posting in WorkSouthFlorida.com, which i what prompted me to Google the phrase and find your site. Thanks for the heads up... looking forward to 'playing dumb' when I call their 'recruiter' and having a little fun... :) I totally agree with your point of view and story. This company is actually taking advantage of people's ignorance. They are simply generating an idea by transfering a person's money into another person's hands. Whenever money moves , somebody profits. They are not selling realestate concepts because you could easily get those info from the library or any books stores. There aren't any REAL secrets or information given that could justify the cost of what NRU sells. NRU is simply selling a $16000 promise that would require you to participate in a malicious effort in taking advantage of human curiousity. Just like the popular theory about fortune telling. If there is even such a thing about telling the future , than the future has already been altered because you already saw it.Same goes with this system of so called realestate investment tactics. If EVERYONE knows the secret of realestate investment , than it wouldn't be considered a secret eventually. What happens then? Is this a short term money generating tactics? Are people only in it for the fast money?If you could deal with that fact that you are just in it for yourself and only yourself, then this method(NRU system) is perfect for you. This system will eventually self distruct because students are encouraged to get more and more recruits but they will end up fighting eachother for the same property either on the concierge website or the suffering areas where foreclosure are readily available. Eventually, if each and every single one of us are in this system , then who is LEFT to rent the properties. In other words , are we just racing to the finish line with no remorse on how the rest of the world is gonna be. Please do not talk about HELPING others and this and that. They are basically creating a legalized mafia which will eventually cause a massive impact on the lives of hard working Americans in a negative way. This company is no different than the terrorists our country has been fighting for centuries. Someone once told me that the person selling the gun , is more dangerous than the one using it. You obviously have done very little research and a whole lot of speculation when it cones to Nouveau Riche. Do you think that the company is promising a free ride or some secret information that will make you rich overnight? Some people may actually believe that because they have manifested that in their own minds. Most rational thinking people realize that nothing worth having is come by easily. Are you an investor, do you own any property, do you ever plan to? There is risk in real estate. There is a little economic principle called 'risk vs return', read about it. I know you understand 'supply and demand' from the examples you gave which were totally illogical and ridiculously simple. Do you have any idea how much supply there is out there right now? I am a real estate agent so I know very well. There are currently 2000+/- ISA's in NR right now in northern California. If each one bought 10 properties it would not make a dent, much less drive up the values. You are what is commonly known as a 'hater', definition: someone who hates the success of another. Generally because they lack any self worth or personal achievement. Nouveau Riche and network marketing in general is about self growth and personal development. You should create something worth while, hell, if its good enough maybe some idiot will create a fantastic 10 page blog about it. Think about it this way, people pay 16k for real estate education that may make them nothing if the property is a terrible deal or the market falls out on them. But what if the education saved them 50k in losses? Is that worth the investment? Any fool who thinks there is money to be made without sacrifice is doomed to poverty, even its poverty on a higher level. Believe me, I was there for a while. Enlighten yourself before striking out at something you obviously know nothing about. I can tell this just by what you have written. You have probably caused at least 10 families from experiencing a greater sense of financial freedom and joy this winter. I hope you can sleep at night Scrooge. I would love to invite you to partake of the free education and see the reactions of the visitors. Not just current ISA's but visitors. I went to my first event and sat next to a man who thought he knew everything about retirement accounts. He started the day with his arms folded leaning back in his chair with a smug look on his face. As the day went on I realized that his demeanor was changing. He gradually uncrossed his arms, then went the smug look, next he picked up his pen and started taking notes. The pen started moving at a feverish pace as he tried to keep up with all of the information being presented. At the end he actually 'high-fived' his wife and said these words,"This is going to change everything!" you think I made that up?? My name is Richard Walker, I live in Stockton, CA. My email address is realestaterich.ebc@gmail.com. My phone number is 209-952-4694, please contact me, I must speak with the person who went through all of the trouble to bad mouth a company with such a revolutionary concept it will enrich the lives of countless people and their families for generations to come. I must know what you have done to better society. Thank you for your time sir, I bid you adieu. Im in Western Washington State, and have seen numerous signs. My mother just returned from a week long NR class in Arizona. She has talent for finding similar schemes and persuits. Sort of an addiction with her. I ran accross your blog while researching NRU on the net. For christmas she sent me a Nouvea Riche Sweatshirt, which I'm sure must've have cost her a good $80 dollars. I enjoyed your blog... Regards, Kevin Miller THANK YOU!!! yeah, I saw the signs a long time ago, contacted Jim at NRU and he and Bob, make it a rule that no rep of the company can use them anymore. So if you see one now its old and you should remove it. I went to NRU 2 1/2 years ago and learned a lot myself about Real Estate Investing but rather than whine it did not work for me. I worked hard and put the knowledge to use. To date I am not a billionaire or do I make $20K each month.... but I do own 7 properties bought with the knowledge, I learned and not selling packages to folks. One guy like 8 months ago got the home study course and I worked with him and he has bought 4 propeties (Quit Claim Deed) each worth over $440K each with very very little money down, to wholesale them and make about $60 off them. Over all about 10% of the folks I met in NRU are actual investors (none of the ones listed on your site links - not surprised) but I live near Philadelphia and have not met but ONE other NRU student with-in 500 miles of me. Anyway, It is like anything else I guess, if you go into it to Learn and put it to use, it is worth the money. I spent about $21K on education with NRU and have made a little over $425,000 more than when I started. So I like it pretty good. Oh well that is my 2 cents worth. "That Real Estate Guy" Have you tried the business yourself? If not, you should before you jump to conclusions. Just a suggestion. I have personally seen this company change dozens of peoples lives from zero to hero including my own. I pray the negative aspects of your site are looked over by the person that truly deserves to have their life changed with this company. I've seen them in suburban chicago, il and in wisconsin as well. They're spreading. Strongly considering setting up a prepaid VOIP number and making my own signs explaining the scam. I firmly agree with your article, I am a real investor that helps homeowners ang bails out people with cash. I did sat down and signed upt as an ISA just to see, the truth is that is all a scam they do not do any transactions they are all sales people that look fo potential customers to buy the program. Thanks for your article is very good. I read your ten pages and saw a bunch of signs but no where did you tell us they were outlawed Jan 2007, like you're title yes i have my friend brought me. i think its crap. we brought a slam dunk deal to them a no brainer. anyone who had the spare money like the "pool of investors" would do it whats the problem? I am about to invest in and join nouveau riche, and I came across this posting. I agree with a lot of what you are saying, and I DO think it is tacky to advertise this on all of these signs. It reminds me of all of the HERBALIFE signs back in the 1980's and 1990's! But I have to tell you that you are WRONG about this not being an "apprentice" type deal. It truly is! My brother has been involved with this company for about a year now, and he has been meeting with people a few times a week for the past year. They are teaching him all of the ins and outs of the business. If this isn't being an apprentice, I don't know what is. So, I really like your skepticism, I think it is a healthy thing. But please make sure you really understand all of the elements before telling people. Other than that, I think it is good to be cautious about any business opportunity. Hi! I recently answered an ad on craigslist which turned out to be from an "investor" who advised me to check out NR University on the web. At my age, I've learned to check thoroughly for blogs, warnings from other websites and on wikipedia, etc. Thank you for your website... you've saved me from a lot of grief. I won't be going to the "hype" meeting this Thursday night. Thank you so much! Judy b I feel that you made this website, because you dont feel that you deserve to earn this type of income. Maybe your bank account cant handle it. Maybe you're just too scared to go out there and create this type of income for yourself. I have been with Nouveau Riche University since October 2007 and have made $40k in three months. If you're interested in making this for yourself, call 888-455-2999. I attended 2/5/08 Nouveau Riche meeting and the highlights of the evening were: "Investor Concierge", "Click of A Mouse Buy a House", Access to CPA's and Accountants, and others I can't remember due to boredom of little things they mentioned that I'm well aware of that work within RE such as Profiting on Foreclosures. They try to sell the idea having access to rental properties that are set up with tenants (which is considered cash flow) at a below market value. This property is supposedly at a set negotiated price and has equity. Now as I am a Mortgage Consultant. . . I questioned Why does these people need to re-sell these courses with Nouveau Riche to others and they have access to such opportunities. As the speaker did say that there are investors waiting for Nouveau Riche members to use their money? They had several locals come up and speak about their success and it's believable if you can sell their courses to others . . . . yes the profits or "wealth" is attainable. However, if you are educating people instead of presenting actual investment opportunities why are you luring in people that are thinking or have read signs or adds stating that you will make money selling foreclosures or that they will be apprentices, and/or RE investors. Its BS and their marketing and presentation strategies are sloppy. I haven't read the material but hope it's worth the people's time whom are willing to invest $3000 to $16000. How about this for thought . . .it seems like they are re-selling the same thing that various others are such as Carlton Sheets, Dean Graziosi, and the really short guys selling RE tips under $500. Check this out Myspace.com/dcnr why is there a rock band with the same name? Nice research. We have friends that just went to Nouveau Riche in December and came back motivated and excited. They are currently giving us the hard sales pitch (in a low key but pushy way) and are claiming that they are putting offers in on million dollar investment properties. My wife and I have been skeptical from day one. It's interesting that our friends have been spending a lot of time expressing the benefits of the program and keep spending more money, rather than "working" the program. If one can make so much money with the newfound knowledge, why not concentrate on implementing it rather than wasting time selling it to others, hence creating more competition for properties. We live in Long Beach, CA and have seen lots of these signs and laughed at them. We particularly like the hand-written ones...very professional and conveys an air of wealth! Thanks for the info. I recently responded to one of those ads on Craigslist. I was resecheduled to come in this Friday, to check out how they do real estate. So what are you saying about them? Are you saying that they are a scam. And that people should stay away from them, from what they told me I don't have to participate in the school, but I can start right away getting involved in the office and start getting trained in all the different areas of Real estate. They said that I don't have to pay them anything, nor go the school. So I they seem to be good and honest. so I will check it out as long as I don't have to pay them anything. I didn't see the signs on the streets, but I saw it in a local ad. I called the number, went to the seminar, and realized it's multilevel marketing scheme. So, I wanted to learn more about the company. That was how I've got to read your article. Thank you. sfbay.craigslist.org check jobs then real estate there's a few in there wow! if you put this energy towards something productive, you would probably be somewhere!..... then again, there would probably be a mini-you craping all over it. good luck dude I like the report. Very detailed, entertaining and well thought out. I too despise the signs and would never fall for them. C'mon, a plastic sign??? BUT, after spending two hours with a couple (on a plane ride) who spent the $19500, I am doing my due diligence research. Not so that I can be an "apprentice" -which IS a horrible way of marketing this, but so that I may be able to learn strategies for money management. Keep in mind that I am skeptical and critical of EVERYTHING!!! If, however, I see that this is benefitting people who are just like you and I (making a living ever day), then I may pay attention to what my 20 grand might get me. I like education! Am I a fool? Not any more! Good product? Maybe. Does NRU control all of its' peoples' marketing techniques? Unfortunately not! I'm in the research stage... if it appeals to my long term financial goals and is realistic, maybe I'll join? You be the judge. i appreciate you putting your time into this information. I recently called a number from a sign in tulsa, oklahoma reading real estate investor seeks appretice. I really was looking for someone in the tulsa area who is currently working in real estate investments that would like to hire me as an assistant, therefore learning the trade. instead, in the past week i have been to two meetings with those involved in nouvaeu riche. they even bought me a book at barnes and noble that they recommended I read, which is very thoughtful, but now I am researching online and they will make $8000 off of me if I sign up. I am still looking into it, but I am thankful that I saw this. Please contact me, i would love to talk to someone who has more information. 918-231-1725 r. washburn Excellent report but you fighting an army of nru students who don't want people to know this. As everyone in the US can't be real estate sellers the pyramid must stop at sometime and then the vast majority will be the ones who paid the 16k and couldn't recruit students. Keep posted throughout 2008 for when NR gets its accredidation... reinvestoraccess is another. A guy tried to get me on this after I responded on a p/t craigslist job posting. I did some research, the guy had just lost his job cause he was one of those perverts msnbc told to take a seat. I went to one of the meetings seemed like every other MLM scam out there so I didn't sign up for anything. Have seen the signs, obvious scam. 20k per month... Good investigate work, always wondered who was behind it. NRU ROCKS COCK Hi cockeyed! I found a "real estate investor seeks apprentice" note in a copy of Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Ecker. Did a google search first to find out what it was all about. Glad I found your website!! Liz, from Los Angeles, CA hey this site was great, they might be trying something new! I went into learn about the program and they called it an interview I didn't know they asked for a resume I didn't have one. 2 other people were there all dressed up for an interview. During which they talked about foreclosed property followed by NRU stating that NRU pays for attending, someone asked if they were NRU the speaker said no but they work with them. They then said once you get your student loan they reimburse it with a check the very next day! I went to a follow up meeting and that was not mentioned again, seems like a lure to get you more interested. I like this site, it's funny... just comical! I just got a call from someone trying to sell me this. I have a mortgage company and this person picked up card and started asking me all these questions. So I gooled the name and you came up. Thanks, you've saved me! That alone is worth the $5,000.00 Luis I'm getting involved with NRU and although I don't really like the Invester seeks signs the time you spend on pondering the wording, you could actually be making some CHEEZE!! I got the bank statements to prove it! WE all see these signs everywhere. I happen to have a friend that has become quite well off using the techniques here. Not really anything other than a quick rebuttal, your statement about the students being encouraged to buy and sell driving the housing prices up, this is a bit rediculous as investors have been doing this since the beginning of time! Another thing, what other biz op allows a person to finance the opportunity? What a deal, I think I'll be hoping on board tomorrow. I'll enroll all the foreigners that qualify for grant money....YEA!! Just attended one of their recruitment meetings. Clearly a multilevel scam. The only good thing about this falling real estate market is that it will probably take these thieves out in the next few years. this is simply a scam. If the gentleman who runs this business has experience as an MLM representative why is he doing this now. Did he fail in Amway? was he terminated by management? He obviously knows how to build teams, but I think that the majority of the students will not make money. You are not seeking an apprentice, you are looking for people who will pay your expensive life style there aren't any in texas this is hilarious....I can't believe someone spent all this time taking all these pictures and then posting a site about it. You must have some grudge. I got into an earlier scam with these same folks back in the late 90s: Travel Dynamics. Their brazen disregard for the financial ruin of untold numbers of people is morbidly fascinating. My wife and I were lucky; we only lost a few thousand dollars in TD. Some people invested their life savings and lost everything. Meanwhile, Jim Piccolo, his wife Mary, Marc Gleeman, Bob Snyder and others...they just continue to scheme up new ways of fleecing people. They've got it down to an art form! And they sound SO convincing! Sick bastards. These have made it to the Greater Chicagoland area, though they've been mercifully removed in recent months. We should be getting everyone of to call on these adn demand to see 4-6months of income statements based on Real Estate deals adn when they can not comply compain to the local enforcement adn then to states attorneys office. If they get flooded with this question they will have to change and the proseutors will have to react I just got a call from these guys and looked them up, and I'm glad I read this... thanks. I think the reason you can't really find anyone who has anything bad to say about it is because the education is fantastic. How many people goto college and spend way more and make way less. You should at least have gone to a gree intensive and make an educated statement. Im at tsirkin@yahoo.com Cheers, tony the "real estate investor seeks apprentice" is called marketing. it attracts people that are already interested in learning real estate. yes.. it's pitchy, but it pre-qualifies the individual as opposed to saying "earn 10-15k a month.. call now." it's just a filtering process. yes, i'm a NRU student.. a friend did refer me to the program, and if you'd examine the quality of the education for the price versus any of the guru seminar methods you'd realize that this education is quite cheap in comparison. there are 16,000 of us in the community, 4,000 of which show up at every live college. 4000 people swarm the hallways, meeting, networking, and doing deals. i do currently invest, and 100% of my education has come from Nouveau. we have investors who are just getting started to people that had built 100 million dollar portfolio's before ever joining the community. "You aren't going to be an apprentice. You aren't even going to be working. You are going to be sitting in a chair, paying a thousand dollars a day for these classes." oh no! paying for education. who's ever heard of such a thing?! are you serious? the tuition, $16000, pays for 120 hours of education. education that you can repeat for free. meaning, if you take a full day class, six hours of time, you can repeat that class as many times as you like, for free. it never counts against you again. that tuition also includes your course materials for free. there's no up-sell like you'd find at a 2 day boot camp intensive. so for a day's worth of class that actually works out to $133. you were close. oh and one more thing. you can bring a business partner with you.. for free. now it's $62.50 to be trained by instructors who are moving millions of dollars a year in real estate. as far as value is concerned this is the best real estate investing system you'll find. the instructors are all practitioners making millions of dollars a year doing what they teach, and they partner up with you and do deals with you. they call you back if you need help, and in many instance will talk you out of deals that they see as being too risky. you won't get that at a seminar because it's a direct sales company, i understand that it's easy to cry out "foul!", but getting paid to refer people to a school that teaches ethics, values, and creates a community isn't a bad thing. it would be a bad thing if the owners dumped all the money that they pay into commissions to their students into an advertising agency instead. then, took all the profits from the school for themselves. don't you think it makes sense to make money, then learn to invest? you think you might be able to do more investing if you were getting paid to refer some people? is 10k a good down payment on a nice little buy and hold property? hmm.. maybe. you've prejudged this community based on it's marketing methods. i'm sorry that you see MLM in this, and you are right, this method does create some bad apples, but then again, so does corporate america. through nouveau I've met some to the most honest, ethical, family oriented, hard working, done with the corporate world, individuals. i consider myself to be one of them. the education i'm receiving through this community is priceless and i've been paid back 10 fold, and I haven't made a dime off the marketing. my son is 23 and wants to get involved with Nouveax riche and I am investigating. Thanks for the info. jreyes@nadelarc.com May 19, 2008 At my University campus, these signs are constantly popping up out of the ground. The code enforcement people fine this company for this. Yeah! Go Code Enforcement. I feel sorry for the gullible people who fall for this scheme. Yeah! Cockeyed.com is so enjoyable. Got sucked into attending one of these joke introduction presentations by a loose business connection. Lured me in by telling me it was simply a networking event. Next thing i know I'm getting "pitched" It reeks from the very begining. Unreal when you think about it. Its spreading into Jersey and NYC... How about the IRS? can they get to you? You just don't get it. and you never will. These signs have been sprouting all over Utah. I've tried Round Up but it didn't seem to have any effect. The most effective means of removal seems to require pulling the sigh up by its roots. Hello, Well, I must say that I am a student for the past two years and I love Nouveau! I always wanted to learn how to invest in real estate, but had no one to train and mentor me. Not only are we doing deals in real estate, but we are mentoring others in doing their first deals, our \"apprentices\" who do get paid as full partners for every deal we close together! As for the school, I loved it. Being an academic myself and holding 3 degrees, I must say it was worth every penny I paid. Sorry you don\'t like the signs- They can be annoying I\'m sure. But if you ever get to know our community and that we are really helping people to change their lives, you might tell a different story on this website. In terms of new home buyers, we are finding people wholesale real estate deals well under current market value, unlike many people who will only sell to them retail so they are overpaying. Sincerely, Krista Bloom, Ph.D. Speaking to someone in fort lauderdale florida same signs here.. Looking into it now. I\'ve noticed these signs up a few years ago when \"the apprentice\" first started Im in NYC These signs are all over Frisco, TX now. Seems like a scam. Glad I found your website. Now to write a community blog about this. Thanks for creating this website to make people aware of this scam. I\'ve seen a bunch of these ads on craigslist ny lately and wanted to see if it was a legitimate opportunity, good thing i found this site. yep...saw a couple in Ventura, CA. Hand written on yellow corrugated plastic in felt tip. Was wondering about it, very curious. Thanks for the info. I saw them just a couple of weeks ago in Folsom but they\'ve dissapeared instantly one day. They\'re no where to be found now. Always wondered about them and what they were about. Thanks for clearing that up. thanks for the info on those stupid signs, i have a LOT of knowledge finding distressed homes and fixing them for sale but have no capital, do you have any advice on how to find REAL investors?please let me know zigg2242@comcast.net Great analysis and job investigating these scammers! Makes me wonder why government agencies don\'t shut these operations down. Thank you for putting together this site. I already signed up for Nouveau Riche Wealth Summit for $495. I have no idea whether it is a scam or you are just trying to make money with your 10 page website full of advertising. I am not the brightest bulb.I have gotten screwed before in my life. I wasted time with that pyramid scheme crap right out of college because I had no idea what to do for a career. Then I got into construction management and saved up $25,000 in 3 years. I proceeded to blow most of it over the past 8 months when I quit my corporate America job and traveled the world with some guy because I was \"in love\". Spending $1500 to learn German is a waste of money too but I did it. 2009 is the year of taking risks and maybe wasting money or maybe getting on the road to something better. Everyone wants to pretend like there is an easy answer but nothing is perfect. Like the answer is just that life sucks and you have to work a boring job and just deal with it. I do not want to believe that is true and I also do not want to believe that everything that says something different is a scam. Sometimes getting in with some weird company like Nouveau Riche is better than continuing to work for the most well respected construction company in Washington DC. I already know life with the corporate thing is boring and you feel like a slave with no control over your own life. If you want to know my opinion after taking the class I will let you know but I do think those signs are sketchy. I found out about it on craigslist which is also kind of sketchy and the NR people do have too much energy and seem kind of crazy. Its weird. But whatever...I just do not want to depend on anyone but I do not want to go back to the rat race and accept the status quo. It\'s ok to make mistakes as long as you learn right? I\'ve seen these recently around Southlake, Texas. Our version isn\'t even professionally made, just marks-a-lot on a yellow yard sign promising $20K/month. I\'m sure if the sign-writer is really making $20K/month they can afford a professionally made yard sign, eh? Anyway, thanks for the info. I\'m always amazed at the newest scams out there. Tons in Chicago, I\'ve seen these all my life. You are right. No I have not seen the signs. If I do I will respond. I like your site. From Alltheold aka a big fan thanks, I finally found the time to look into this after seeing more and more signs in my area. After seeing too many signs instead of calling I wanted to check the internet because it sounded like MLM to me. I\'ve been in an MLM and my suspicions were confirmed. Also I invested $500 bucks in a real estate seminar so I won\'t make that mistake twice. Live in northern va. it has appeared in red on a very busy road in rockville md. Nice site. I just tore down a few of these signs in my neighborhood (over in VA). I find it amusing that the crap hasn\'t changed in years. I think it\'s misleading and they mainly rely on selling (and having you re-sell) their educational material. Cockeyed, I stumbled on your site this afternoon. It\'s interesting to read through your thoughts. I am a real estate investor in Philadelphia (you can check out my website at webuyhomes2fix.com) and constantly run into these newbie students from Nuveau Rich and other local & national education programs. I\'m conflicted as I write this. While I agree that these educational businesses look and act more like MLM\'s than a traditional college/university, I think you may be under estimating the value they give their students. I lost over $150,000 on the first 3 investment properties when I entered the business. I happened quickly and I had moved on with other project before I even knew the losses were there. A few thousand dollars is a drop in the bucket for those people that really want to become a real estate investor. Homevestors (currently the largest RE investment franchisein the country) charges a $50,000 upfront fee, requires $250,000 liquid capital, requires a minimum of $5000 monthly marketing fee and charges monthly royalties from all of it\'s franchise owners. What\'s $3000 for a weekend class???? On the other hand, I think these types of organizations too often target the wrong group of people. I see people who can barely balance their checkbook runnning around trying to get involved in real estate. So your points inthis article are well taken. In the end, I think it is important for people to be accountable for their own actions. If they want to pay $3000 for a weekend, good for them. Everyone knows the saying, \"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.\" My company has since recovered from our initial losses. We currently own 34 rental properties and 61 units. It is possible to make wellover $20,000 per month in real estate. I\'ve done it. But as you\'ve pointed out, if you think calling the number on a $1.50 plastic sign is going to get you there, you\'re probably wrong. Thanks for the article. It\'s interesting to hear your thoughts. I appreciate your well documented observation!!!! I\'ve seen these signs in Phoenix, az... no surprise since their headquarters are here... They are exploding all over North Dallas with at least 4 different numbers to call. Thank you so much for your great website. Any info on fighting the sign posters? Betty Signer othernicegirl@yahoo.com http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/-Nouveau-Riche-.aspx http://causs.org/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=6191&mesg_id=6191&page= http://causs.org/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=6191&mesg_id=6191&page= They are in Dallas now. Thanks for exposing this - I was offered a \"job interview\" while unemployed which ended up being a sales pitch to \"join\" Nouveaux Riche University. The Office of the Attorney General for Texas has MANY complaints against the \"school\" - one of which is that it is unacrredited and two that it suggests that people sell and rent other owner\'s properties, a clear violation of Federal Law. I\'m confused, I dont mind paying to learn how to make money, please advice, what school is the best,\"private mentor\", not interested in real estate license, only techniques on how to make some money, thank you I\'m confused, I dont mind paying to learn how to make money, please advice, what school is the best,\"private mentor\", not interested in real estate license, only techniques on how to make some money, thank you I must thank you for going to this trouble to keep others out of it- thank you. yeah i called and went to an introduction seminar. The people were very friendly and supposedly one 18 yr old had made 100.000 dollars in real estate. I cancelled the contract for $1695.00 in the 7 day period because i was skeptical. They said they helped people out of their foreclosures and I wanted to do that and be able to make some money at the same time. I just felt I needed to do more research and that\'s why i\'m at your site. thanks. For all the negative comments ive found twice as much good comments so it\'s a bit confusing. Signs are all over FOrt WOrth,TX. Thanks for your posting. Yes seen it in Mesquite Texas on the corner of On the Boarder restaurant. \"Real Estate Investor seeks apprentice 214-843-1327\". Nothing else. Thank you for this website and spreading the word of what those signs are all about. So do you know if there are any legitimate real estate apprentice positions.... I sure would like one =) Email: eqz7@yahoo.com Thank you! Very good article. I enjoyed reading it...and your sense of humor. Many signs in Fair Oaks and Orangevale. Marlene Seen these signs all over Dallas - thanks for the sleuthing! They are all over Dallas, too. Cropping up all over Dallas TX God Bless America! Please, I hope God still does Bless America. Pepole are so desperate for so easy way out. And the system has become so damn Corupt! that it creates so many money making scams. Some good but mostly full of Big LIES and rip OFFS. Mario These are all over the Dallas Fort Worth area.....I too have driven past waiting for them to go away, I see more so I thought i would google the phrase and found your site. Aaron Loved your investigation. Have seen many of these signs around Dallas & Irving Texas David These signs are everywhere here in Fort Worth, TX, except the ones around here are handwritten. Great site! Enjoyed reading it. I have seen them ALL OVER THE PLACE! Thank you for explaining it all! Sad that so many people get sucked into things like this! In Texas as well!!...I hope folks here don\'t fall for it! Thanks for your post...very interesting....longview,tx..75601 Nice work. I have always wondered where these signs come from! I see plenty of these signs in Dallas. Thanks for making them clear. I\'m also seeing plenty of signs selling homes:\"Home worth 150K. Price 80K CASH\" ... If you are smart and disciplined enough to save 80K, how could you be dumb enough to give it away. If someone was asking for that much money from me, they better not do it on a paper stapled to a telephone pole. Don\'t they see the irony? Good job cockeyed! You\'re right on the money. These leeches should be scraped raw, dipped in jalopeno sauce and left to fry on a hot sidewalk I have now seen a number of them in the Houston, Texas area. They have a number to call which has a recording stating that they are conducting interviews but in the meantime to take a look at youtube videos posted by Lundrin01. saw the the sign. Longview, TX. Thanks for the info. I have seen these signs for years and never believed it...UNTIL I actually CALLED AND TRIED THE SYSTEM! How can you waste your time finding all of these signs and advertising them on your "scam" site with the telephone numbers showing? Hello?? All you're doing is helping them with their advertising efforts! LOL!!!! I am in Houston Texas and yes I have seen several signs and was tempted to call, thanks for the heads up. If you tell me the secret to being rich without charging me $5k then I promise that after I have become filthy rich (defined as a bank account with a positive integer in front of a minimum of 6 zeroes) then I will give you $10k for your secret to be rich program. You can't lose. In fact, I can't lose either. Either I get rich and you get $10k or we're both still broke. So, what do you say? Can I have the secret yet? actually this company offers some of the most sound and accurate training methods, ideas and applications in the market today. The information the students (apprentices) learn from the information they choose to access is life changing and marriage saving...its a pity you waste all your time building a website to do what? make yourself feel good thinking your knocking others down? why dont u find a niche and build something that helps people not add misery to a world that so much needs hope. GODBLESS They are all over the place here just outside of Dallas. I live in Dallas, TX and these signs are everywhere! I looked it up expecting to find a site like this! Thanks for the info! I've seen these signs in Dallas/Fort worth area. Thanks for posting all this info. Nice article / posting - These signs exist in Daytona FL & our new home Dallas TX - I wouldn't be surprised to see them EVERYWHERE. I've seen these around Houston for awhile now. It seemed too good to be true. I've been around RE Investments circles and classes before and know what is required to make that EACH month. But, finally, curiosity has gotten the better of me and I will be meating with the "new" group of investors tomorrow night. I won't be signing up for anything like what's described in this article. That's all free at the library. I would really like for a seasoned pro to take me in as an apprentice though. Apprentice, to me, denotes you're not really getting paid. Instead you're working with a master for knowledge and quicker experience more than you are for immediate financial reward. So, this sounds very fishy, yet I will check out the group tomorrow. Thanks for the information. I agree these signs are absolute crap that will just hurt honest home buyers in the future Wrote a similar article from my experience attending one of their seminars. http://www.reallyrottenrealty.com/blog/things-to-avoid/seeking-real-estate-investor-apprentice--20000-a-month-seriously/ they are popping up all over Dallas near the overpasses. I have seen stoner looking kids jump out of a junky car, quickly jab a crappy sign in the median and jump back in the car just in time for the green light. Just want to thank you for your effort to follow this NRU business. I was very skeptical about their business from the very beginning because if this is legit why do they need to invite people to their seminar just to know what the business is all about. Their business is information and they are selling it to people through CDs, books,and schooling. I've seen a few of these signs in Salt Lake City Every week someone puts these signs up in my area. Yesterday removed eight (15 when counting other pitches and 'for rent') signs. This type of advertising is a problem here. By regularly removing the signage many have finally stoped posting their signs and the visual blight has noticably inproved. The 'real estate' signs continualy reapear. Must be costing someone a bundle. I remove on average 20 signs per week and have been doing this for over three years. My efforts have motivated others to police their neighborhoods to these illegal and unsightly sings. Johnsidenfaden@Hotmail.com Thanks for this info. Not knowing for certain what these signs were, I also decided they had all the markings of a scam. Several weeks ago I started removing these signs whenever I see them. It is a personal policy now. Thanks for the detailed story. I've seen the signs in MD, DC, MO, TX and always thought they were probably investors who have people do telephone scripts for them or something and then cut them in on deals that materialize. Had never imagined it was this. I have seen them. It's crazy people can get away with doing this. It's so wrong, yet people are dumb. I have the fortune of living next door to one of these "investors". He quit his full time job to work on his real estate empire three months ago. Now, he paces the neighborhood with his iPhone waiting for calls. It's actually quite sad. Thank you for writing this article. I have seen these signs everywhere, but obviously it was a scam. I was curious and look it up and read your article. Very informative! oh yeah, they are all over the landscape in southern San Diego, pegged into the waste ground next to or in the dog poop...the City should fine them say $100 per illegal sign! I live in San Diego, CA and the same signs, some handwritten, some printed, are appearing everywhere on freeway overpasses as well! Some well meaning freeway maintenance people, and possibly some angry potential customers, have been pulling them down and taking them away. But they keep popping up anyway. I don't think anyone here is going to fall for this, since CA is a real estate heavy state, and lots of people know at least a few things about it. What a crazy scheme! But I was curious what on earth they could be about. I was thinking, no one is going to pay me that much money, period. I guess I was right to be cautious. Thanks for taking the time to explain it to me! Liz Hi Cockeyed@pacbell.net...I live in Orange, CA. As of right now there is a sign just like the one above,with the phone no# of (213) 342-1736. This sign hangs on the corner of StateCollege & Chapman, right next to the UCI Medical building. I, myslef am looking for a new job and getting very desperate was going to call this number and see what it's all about. First though I looked up what an actual apprentice is, and ran across your site. I was very shocked to see that I have attended one of these Nouveau Riche career nights!! LOL,..Yes,..I was suckered into this!! I went there, and it is exactly how you explained it on here...EXACTLY!!!! Wow!!! I went to this class in Mission Viego, CA What a waste of a night that was!!! :( I thank you again, for saving myself the phone call!! :) Great breakdown of what this crap is all about. A better way to riches: work hard at something valuable. Cool, I knew this was a scam, I saw those sings before but when they poped up close to my house I tore them all down not wanting anyone else to get scamed then I came online to see just what the scam was. Keep spreading the word about this scam. P.S. you should have info of this on google searches that don't include "Real estate investor seeks apprentice" followed by "SCAM".So people who are really interested in the scam don't only see the pich and get scamed. I had to put scam after the search to find this info. My husband and I take the signs down wherever we see them. We live in Salt Lake City, Utah. Have seen these signs in Greensboro, nc. 12/10/2011 Have seen these signs in Greensboro, nc. 12/10/2011, but, now the companies name has changed it is now called Renatus, and it's out of Centerville, Utah. Yes they are all over the place, i actually called on one, had no response as of yet. Thanks for sharing your insight I have seen a LOT of multi-level marketing presentations. They all include some amount of "investment" which is usually countered with some cheap promotional items to allow you to hook another sucker. The only real money from these is kept in the top few people who know what it is... simply a gimmick to get gullible, lazy, and wishful thinking people with a few bucks and big dreams to blow it. Very interesting. I was also curious as to these signs multiplying over the years, and I finally googled about it. It was pretty obvious to me that it was a scam, but it's interesting to read who is behind it. Thanks for researching it!