Tom Vu claimed to be a
Vietnamese immigrant who made a lot of money dealing with no money down real
estate. Most people think Tom Vu is just a scammer. Tom Vu was
popular on TV with his infomercials. Most infomercials showed him sailing the
seas on a big boat with many scantily clad blonds. The idea of this was to
portray his wealth but all it seemed to show was how cheap anyone can get to
sell his or her product. The women in Tom Vu’s ‘infomercials’ didn’t
make any sense especially since he wasn’t selling lifestyle products.
Like most real
estate gurus, Tom Vu sold many products based on false claims and
beliefs. Essentially, he sold several books and courses that promoted no money
down real estate. His basic idea was to hold real estate not own it. The idea
was to go out, look for the distressed properties, and offer barely 10 dollars
as an initial down payment on them. The aim was to quote at a price much lower
than the market price. The distressed owner would agree and you could then
spend about 2 months looking for a suitable buyer. You could offer a
competitive rate to the potential buyer since you anyway bought the property at
a huge discount. If you did not find a buyer then you could save yourself with
a few fancy clauses that got you out of the deal without any penalty.
All this sounds nice
and it did to the several people who bought Tom Vu’s courses at $400 or
attended his seminars for almost $1,000 a day. Most of this were a decade ago
and these books have long been trashed since they were neither useful nor gave
any ethical tips. In the real world, no money down real estate is nonexistent.
It is hard (read impossible) to find a single distressed owner who is willing
to sell below market price. It is even harder to get anyone to accept the meager
down payment and then agree to clauses that let you get out easy.
Tom Vu’s programs did not
work. The only person who made money out of them was Tom Vu himself.
Sadly, he did not get much of a chance to enjoy his wealth since he was booked
for malpractices, fraud, and unethical advertising. Tom Vu is currently
serving time in jail.
