Posted by Rob FL on December 27, 1999 at 12:55:51:
Most of his techniques are the same ones taught by others. So, I can’t really spell out a specific technique. All I can say is from every course, book, or tape I have used, I came away with some new information.
As far as partnering with him. Ha! I never bothered trying anything like that (I don’t think he partnered with anybody anyway. That is part of why he is in the slammer now.)
William McCorkle - Posted by Stephen
Posted by Stephen on December 23, 1999 at 05:39:52:
Did anyone else get suckered into buying William McCorkle’s RE package? A few years ago I did. Not long after my purchase the guy and his wife show up all over CNN for tax evation and fraud and a host of other charges. I think they later went to jail. I’m not sure if I spelled his name correctly but wanted to know if anyone else ever tried his system.
He basically toted a waiter to riches story by buying out homes that were up for foreclosure. He would strike a deal with the owner by covering what the owner owed to the bank, say $10,000, to avoid foreclosure. In his arrangement with the owner, McCorkle would then add a bail out fee, say $5000.00 (total $15,000.00) and then the owner would have to agree to a very strict payment plan with McCorkle. If the owner were to miss even one payment, the title/deed to the house would be turned over to McCorkle.
It was McCorkle’s intent to find foreclosured homes whose value far out weighted what was owed. He was betting on the owner, for the same reason’s the owner not making the mortgage payment to the bank, being unable to keep up payments to McCorkle. Once the owner failed, McCorkle would turn around and sell the house at market value. Generating huge profits.
When you bought his system, you became a partner with him. First you would find the property advertised in newspapers or in court registers, go to the property, find out the market value versus what was owed, and then call up McCorkle. If McCorkle liked the deal he would cover the money owed by the owner to prevent foreclosure by the bank again say $10,000), then give you $2500 as a finders fee remember the extra $5000.00 McCorkle tagged onto the example above). You would pay nothing. Then, if McCorkles gamble paid off and the owner failed to make timely payments to McCorkle, McCorkle would leagally secure the title of the home, force the owner out, sell the home at market value, then give you half of the profit.
These were usually homes that had many years of equity in them in areas of the country where market values exploded. It was a business that played on people’s desperate attempts to save their homes that they had lived in for many years and were suddenly down on their luck for one reason or another. I got as far as going to the court looking for foreclosure listings, but found it very time consuming. It wasn’t long before I gave up.
Has anyone here tried his system out? Were you ever successful at it?
Here’s a newspaper report on him and his wife’s indictment:
Infomercial gurus to forfeit $10 million
ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 6 (UPI) An Orange County, Fla., jury has ordered infomercial gurus William and Chantal McCorkle to forfeit their $10 million in assets to the federal government.
The McCorkles were convicted Wednesday of fraud and money laundering for defrauding consumers out of millions of dollars. Late Thursday, jurors decided the couple should lose their home, four cars and more than $7 million in cash that were seized in a May 1997 raid.
Some of the cash was to be used to pay their attorney, F. Lee Bailey.
The McCorkles used television infomercials to peddle bogus get-rich- quick real estate invesment programs, and prosecutors said they delayed sending refunds to dissatisfied customers.
The couple denied misleading people and contended that they refunded millions of dollars. They did not testify on their own behalf.
U.S. Attorney Paul Byron estimates the McCorkles will get between 21 and 30 years each when they are sentenced in late January. They will remain jailed pending sentencing.
When the jury’s guilty verdicts were read Wednesday, Chantal McCorkle wept uncontrollably and her husband passed out, went stiff and then jerked awake.
He was taken by ambulance to an Orlando hospital where he was admitted overnight and marshals were posted outside his room.
Doctors said he likely had suffered an anxiety attack, but observers said it had been another dramatic performance by the stylish entrepreneur, who projected an image of wealth and the high life on television commercials nationwide.
It’s people like the McCorkle’s that reinforce the notion that “If it sounds too good to be true, than most likely it is.” Unfortunately many people, including myself, get caught up in the fantasy of getting rich - quick. The truth is, unless you are born into money - without a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears there is no other LEGAL way to do it - unless you just happen to luck out.
INFORMERCIALS are designed - DESIGNED - to capture your attention and what little money you may have and they are making millions doing it. Even Carlton Sheets, whose package may work for some people and not for others. You know, he says in his infomercial that he sells his package “because he enjoys helping others - not to make money.” Give me a break!!! If you are sincerely wanting to help me - don’t charge me $180.00 for something I know very little about!!! He has a 30 day unconditional money back guarantee. They all do! They are betting, and the odds are in their favor, that you’ll get the package and put it down and never really look at it until way after the 30 days is up. We all do it. I did it with McCorkle’s package. So he’s charging me $180.00 for this package “because he wants to see me become successful.” Right. Tell you what. Send me the package - lets say for the price of shipment. If it works and I am successful at it - THEN I’ll pay you $180.00. I know it doesn’t work this way - but come on!!
The guy is making millions just on these packages alone. I’m not saying that the information is not valid, but ask yourself this. “How or where did he learn to do it?” He didn’t just make up laws and regulations so that only he could get to where he is at. Information is power people.
With the internet, information is not limited to the elite anymore -it’s all over. That’s not to say that information on the Internet is always accurate, but it is the medium by which you have the power to make sure it is so.
Cheers!
Re: William McCorkle - Posted by BJ
Posted by BJ on June 17, 2011 at 23:24:21:
I was foaming at the mouth back in 97 watching these infomercials, late at night, 21 years old and down on my luck. Watching them standing in front of their lamborghini, helicopter, leer jet and huge mansion and here I was so broke I couldn’t even pay attention. But at 21, working 2 jobs and wishing for more time in the day for a 3rd job just to help pay bills, I remembered thinking “this is it” I borrowed the money from my father, ordered it and waited for it to arrive. Once it arrived I was so excited, but once I got it and started reading it, going to the courthouse, doing the things he told me to do, I was more broke than before because I still owed my Dad the money I borrowed for this. Now a days, I realize that they knew the people that were wanting to do good in life, out of work, looking for something good, would spend their last few dollars to be part of something that sounded so good and so easy. I never made one dollar, and I never heard of anyone that did from this. I remember when they got arrested and my Dad said “hey, didn’t you buy that?” But its good to know I wasn’t the only one LOL. Wonder if william is back working as a bus boy now!!!
Re: William McCorkle - Posted by Bob
Posted by Bob on December 05, 2001 at 09:25:07:
Another part of McCorkles scam was with the seminars that would be held to get you to buy his course. I live in Iowa and my wife and I attended one of these seminars. After sitting for over an hour listening to some con-man (Not McCorkle) tell us how people are making fortunes in partnerships with McCorkle. When they were done with the presentation, then came the time for you to make a “commitment” to making your fortune. You had to buy McCorkles program in order to get McCorkle to put up the money for real estate deals, for the low low price of $1800 dollars you could be on your way to becoming a millionaire just like William. My wife and I briefly discussed it and told the man that we could not afford $1800, then he started talking about maybe setting up a payment plan. We told him that we would think about it and maybe get back to them by phone sometime in the near future. About a month later my family went to Chicago to visit my Mother. I was sitting there flipping thru the channels on the TV when I saw one of McCorkles commercials. It was different that the commercial that I saw in Iowa, they weren’t asking you to attend a seminar, they wanted to sell you the course right there. But this is where I should have known it was a scam, the same program that they tried to sell me the month before for $1800 was now being offered to people in the greater Chicago Metropolitan area for $59.95. I decided to take the chance and buy the system on the chance that it might actually have some merit. About the time we received our program in the mail was when the McCorkles were indicted for there illegal activities. I put the books off to the side and that was that. I had consoled my self to the fact that I only lost $60.00 and not the $1800 that they wanted at the seminar. So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Sincerely,
Bob
Re: William McCorkle - Posted by Roy D.
Posted by Roy D. on October 15, 2000 at 13:21:49:
I realize this is pretty far out of date now but felt I have to add my two cents to the pile. My wife and I bought the smaller package course, and tried out several of the methods described for turning money into more money. Result? They worked, and worked well. The folks who are looking for refunds will likely get nothing now that McCorkle is behind bars - the lion’s share of his estate will be swallowed by the government and little will get to the disgruntled. I honestly don’t see why folks would be dissatisfied with the course - if you read the books and check them out with your own leg work locally it really does work! If you still have the books sitting in your garage collecting dust, take them out, and read the methods. You CAN find goods being sold at auction for pennies on the dollar if you get out and look. You CAN find distressed real estate and make a nice profit on it - if you get out and look. All business has an element of risk, and you will have to put some of your own money at risk. The price of the course may seem high to you but go find out what it costs to become a plumber, a mechanic, or a truck driver - all of which cost money with no guarantee that you will make money from what you have learned. McCorkle offered a money back guarantee and nowhere did he say that you would become an instant millionaire or even get rich quick. How many training courses offer you a money back guarantee? None. I suspect that folks felt jealous that McCorkle was able to sell his system and make a tidy profit on it. Using his system we have bought distressed real estate for under $100 and sold for 65 times the purchase price - with the only work we invested being to remove the garbage and cut the brush back that had grown to ten feet high. The buyers were thrilled to get a parcel so cheaply, and we cheated no one - the property had sat for years untended and abandoned. People cannot see opportunity in real estate if someone left piles of junk on it or let the brush grow, yet these can be corrected with a little labor. Our total investment of labor on that particular parcel was less than 17 hours in total, including the trips to the courthouses and banks and even showing it to prospective buyers. As with any method of making money, you have to be in the drivers seat, getting out there and making it work, you cannot simply pay for a course and have piles of money start rolling into your lap.
The subject was touched upon that some 29% of rich folks were born into it - if you look at that simple statistic, you can see that the other 71% (or the majority by far) did NOT get the money handed down to them. Success stories are not hard to find, as was pointed out, all you have to do is look.
Our attempts with McCorkle’s system have all worked, though we never did seek out any partnership. The real estate system has always turned a nice profit, in the past year we bought and sold over a dozen properties with each time producing a very nice profit. The auctions of surplus goods also worked but not with the same multiples of return, for one example we bought a pair of gold coins for $100, and sold them for $120 each. You could do this too if you read his books and get out and do the local legwork - and have a bit of money to work with. There are even very real homes that can be bought for exactly one dollar, and you do the repairs. They are usually inner city and very run down - you have to go investigate it for yourself. Even then there is a risk - you could buy it, clean it up, and not be able to sell it - losing your investment in the process. Risk and loss go hand in hand with profit and gain - if you doubt that try your hand in the stock market for a year.
Suppose you are unhappy with the course and now cannot get a refund - how much are you out? Would a few hundred bucks have changed your entire life? Honestly have you not lost money before? No one pulled the wool over your eyes - and some folks did honestly make some real money using his system. Even using his system it takes ambition and drive to make it work, these must be supplied by you. Did we become millionaires? No - but we have made much more than the investment in his course, and I can see how one could become a millionaire using the system if you stick to it and diligently keep turning the money over. By that I mean to say you reinvest your profits and multiply them. At any step of the way you could lose it all, that is risk.
I hope I have not ruffled anyone’s feathers or insulted anyone, no offense was intended. If you are one of the unhappy ones holding a set of his books, why not take them out and read it over? What do you have to lose by that?
Our books from McCorkle now sit in the garage gathering dust, not because we are unhappy with them, but because we have learned how it works and do not need to reference them. Once you have learned how to drive a car you no longer need a driver’s instruction manual.
Re: William McCorkle - Posted by Lorz Raphael
Posted by Lorz Raphael on June 08, 2000 at 09:51:25:
I would really like to know who to contact in order recuperate the money that I spent buying that guy’s program. I always had the feeling that I got robbed, but I never knew that he was prosecuted and put in jail. One of his courses, he talked about certain auctions he would revealed where people can buy very valuable assets for a dollar and resell them for thousands of dollars, which never happened. All together I spent $1800.00 for auctions materials and realestate documents.
I would really appreciate any information about how to get my money back.
Lorz Raphael
piky@prodigy.net
Re: William McCorkle - Posted by Lorz Raphael
Posted by Lorz Raphael on June 08, 2000 at 09:42:30:
I would really like to know who to contact in order recuperate the money that I spent bying that guy’s program. I always had the feeling that I got robbed, but I never knew that he was prosecuted and put in jail. One of his courses, he talked about certain auctions he would revealed where people can buy very valuable assets for a dollar and resell them for thousands of dollars, which never happened. All together I spent $1800.00 for auctions materials and realestate documents.
I would really appreciate any information about how to get my money back.
Lorz Raphael
piky@prodigy.net
Re: William McCorkle - Posted by al
Posted by al on December 28, 1999 at 10:09:38:
complainers,others get rich,this is a ripp off. Just a few of the comments I see all the time on this web site, its always been a mystery to me. I wished for a place like this when I first started out investing all of this motivation,how to article HOW TO ARTICLES!! SUCCESS STORIES(THERE IS A STORY FROM A 12 YEAR OLD GIRL!!)I used WILLIAM McCORKIES course and got a few (3 properties) from the education in the courses,It wasnt the best course I used,but I was so motivated at the time it helped push me on.It probability took you some time to type your WILLIAM McCORKLE subject I know it aint easy but take a deep look at where you are at and where you want to be and start moving forward!
Give me a break. - Posted by Mike
Posted by Mike on December 27, 1999 at 21:53:51:
You stated: “If it works and I am successful at it - THEN I’ll pay you $180.00.”
So I suppose you also think that if you get a “successful” job after attending college, only then will you pay the tuition? Please. Any and every bit of education costs money. Even grade school. CS’s course is…I just said it…a COURSE. One has to pay for courses in college - FIRST…just as one has to pay for courses on REI.
Are you mad CS is making millions off courses or are you mad you did not think of it first? I, personally am thankful CS is making millions off these courses. If he were not successfull at it, I probably never would have bought the course and end up where I am today.
Re: William McCorkle - Posted by Rob FL
Posted by Rob FL on December 23, 1999 at 20:09:52:
I have McCorkle’s course. It was a small version of some of the better courses here, but for the $79 I paid for it, I think it was well worth the money. I have used several of the techniques he mentions in his course.
As for your statement: “The truth is, unless you are born into money - without a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears there is no other LEGAL way to do it - unless you just happen to luck out.” I totally disagree with this statement. Yes many of the rich today inherited their money, I believe the Forbes magazine a few years ago said almost 29% of the rich were born into it. As for luck, I seriously doubt more than 5% of the people actually get rich from lotteries, gambling, or “being discovered by some Hollywood agent.” Common sense tells me that not everyone was born rich or lucked into it. History is full of stories of average people who rose up and became successful. Here are a few names of people who were not born with money: Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, John Rockefeller, Ray Kroc, Jack Eckerd, Conrad Hilton, Andrew Carnegie, Sam Walton. I have read several of their biographies (amazing stories). Read the book “The Millionaire Next Door” if you want to find out about people who have gotten rich.
I won’t say I am rich, but I will say that through a lot of education, time, and hard work in REI and other investments I am beginning to get very comfortable. Read the Success Stories on this site to get some inspiration.
Merry Christmas.
Re: William McCorkle - Posted by Roderick Silva
Posted by Roderick Silva on July 18, 2001 at 01:51:49:
I bought McCorkle’s ‘Fortunes in Foreclosures’ years ago and I don’t see anything different with the system that I see out there today.
His fault was offering to put up %50 on certain deals. He also sold more expensive systems and did not deliver what was promised.
As for the lower-end system: I see nothing wrong with it.
Re: Give me a break. - Posted by Stephen
Posted by Stephen on December 28, 1999 at 06:12:15:
No. Unlike taking a college course, where I get credited towards a degree, certificate, or license I have no where to turn if his system is a fraud. Not that his system is, but look what happened with William McCorkle. I don’t know Carlton Sheets and his program any better than McCorkles - and I got burned by McCorkle! Bottom line is, don’t spend your hard earned money on something that purports to be a “get rich quick opportunity” until you have researched it thoroughly. Infomercials are designed to grab the impulse buyer without him or her putting a whole lot of thought into it. I am glad the program worked for you, but how many out there still have the program in their garage collecting dust? Or opened the package only to be overwhelmed by the complexity of the program? You applaud Sheets for being a intelligent business man and by all means he is. His infomercials have certainly made him richer - maybe more so than the actual real estate business.
Re: Give me a break. - Posted by steve
Posted by steve on December 27, 1999 at 23:29:04:
No one mentioned CS. Surely you’re not defending Billy McCorkle who is doing time in prison for fraud?
Oh, I see, you’re just defending the guru ora in general. I see where you are coming from now. One bad apple logic. That’s fine.
Re: William McCorkle - Posted by Stephen
Posted by Stephen on December 24, 1999 at 03:29:19:
Rob, you do agree with my statement then. To requote what I said “The truth is, unless you are born into money - without a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears there is no other LEGAL way to do it - unless you just happen to luck out.” I guess it may read wrong, but I was stating without a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears there is no easy way to get rich unless you are born into it or just happen to luck out. Maybe I should have written it different, but I am in agreement with you.
As for McCorkle’s program, what parts of it did you use? Did you actually get him involved on particular deals?