IS REI Vault worth the Money.

Is Chris Chico’s REI Vault worth the money or is it a SCAM?

First of all let’s talk about what REI Vault is, a lot of this is taken from their website so you can review it if you want more information, reivault.com

According to the REI Vault website they provide “an army of highly trained virtual experts to do all of your marketing, lead generation, follow up, CRM Management & and More.”

Chris Chico’s REI Vault says it is not a simple virtual staffing company or an automated software tool they bill themselves as a ‘dedicated business support team’ and say they come up with over 150,000 leads per year for their members.

Looking at some of what we offer we see:

1. Secret Mailing Lists.
2. Proven Advertisement Copy
3. Automated Mail Fulfillment
4. Something called “No Seller left Behind”.
5. Working Systems.
6. 24/7 Virtual Assistants

In fact they have a whole page dedicated to letting you know what all you get; which they should based on what you are charged.

You even have to take a small test to see if you are qualified for their service, which I think is somewhat of a waste of time since I cannot image a way you would not be qualified. I completed it a couple of different ways and always seemed to be qualified. Maybe I am just good like that.

After that there is an interview phase in which you will discuss goals, what you are currently doing, how to get started, have the chance to ask questions and general stuff like that. I would not call this a high pressure sales call, but I also cannot see any way you could ‘fail’ the interview unless you just really gave off the wall responses.

As usually, you can see a number of reviews on their website which talk about how good their service is. Of course, would you not expect that? I mean why would you have bad reviews on the website promoting your product.

We spoke about this a little already but there is a 5 step process to sign up which I am going to copy almost directly from Chris Chico’s REI Vault website so you can see exactly what they say.

1. Apply. The initial application allows us to screen for the best candidates for REIvault. This step is critical as it allows us to understand your current business and determine if your’re a potential member of REIvault. Our initial screening process is designed to be fair to both you as a potential member and for us as an organization. We’ll review your experience, your available marketing budget and confirm that your desired geographic market is open to new members.
2. Schedule. You like what you’ve seen in our (on demanding) training, listened to our success stories and read through the FAQ’s and it looks like becoming a member of REIvault can add massive value to your business. You’ll schedule an appointment and we’ll begin the interview phase of our process.
3. Interview Call. On our interview call, we will review your application together and answer any questions you may have about REIvault. Additionally, we’ll share our insider” knowledge of the real estate market and help you analyze your current business model and marketing budget to determine the best strategy for success. Finally, we discuss your level of contribution to the group and the value of helping each other grow and prosper.
4. Signup. It’s official! You’re ready to take your business to the next level and we both agree that there is potential for massive mutual benefit and you’ve been invited to join the REIvault community. This is when you become a member and we begin the process of intergrating you into our “shared” systems and processes and prepare you for new leads and opportunities that will help your business grow!
5. Launch. You’ve provided us everything we need to move forward and have begun the process of integrating our many systems including: mailing campaigns, phone #’s, lead management systems, and virtual assistants. You’ll be ready to start having leads rolling your way in about 5-7 days. During this time, you’ll be learning our systems by watching some required training videos and getting ready for all those new leads!

Who is REI Vault designed for:

1. Active and serious investors. You will have to be both if you want to cover the cost. This is not for investors just playing around.
2. Investors that understand the need to scale a business and grow.
3. Investors who understand how to talk to motivated sellers.
4. Investors who are tired of doing the ‘grunt’ work and can afford to pay someone else to do it.

They call this an Invite Only service but I doubt you would be turned away.

So what are you REALLY paying for? To REALLY simply this, with REI Vault you are paying for a virtual assistant that has specific training and a program designed to help you generate and follow up on leads. The biggest advantage I see to using Chris Chico’s REI Vault is that you get a pre-trained virtual assistant with a system designed to back them up as opposed to hiring and training our own virtual assistant.

You can go to Chris Chico’s website chrischico.com to see some other products he offers and his introduction of his “Virtual Wholesaling” product.

Certainly sounds great but is REI Vault worth the money?

Maybe, bet you liked that answer.

You will probably spend about $1,500.00 per month on the service. You will get some marketing material and other benefits besides just the virtual assistant. You can get a virtual assistant much cheaper but remember you are paying for a trained virtual assistant as well as some other marketing material with REI Vault.

Chris Chico is a real estate ‘guru’, that does not mean that REI Vault is a scam but I have had bad luck in the past when other guru’s branch out into other more expensive top end products so I am somewhat skeptical when they do this.

Most of the things you see on the site you can learn yourself via books, YouTube videos and other free training. I highly recommend biggerpockets.com if you want to have a community to reach out to concerning real estate.

I do not like the way it is hard to find out what the system costs without making the call. To me that makes it seem more like a scam even if I would not normally call something a scam. It just does seem honest to hide information that let’s face it, we want to know. They would probably argue that they do not want to scare anyone off with the price until they fully understand the benefits. Maybe, or maybe you just want to get my contact information so you can try to sell me. I am not necessarily talking about a ‘hard’ sell here, just a passive follow up sales contact. I don’t really like those but I respect that it is not a hard sell.

As I did my research on Chris Chico’s REI Vault I also read what a lot of other people thought the service. There are a number of good and bad reviews. One thing I will say from my research is that it appears most that like the system stress that it is for ‘experienced’ real estate investors and if they take the time to review REI Vault they seem to have glowing reviews.

I would say this is not a mentoring or coaching program, you need to understand what you are doing AND what exactly you are buying here. If you do then I feel comfortable saying this is NOT a scam but it is also not for everyone.

Joining REI Vault is a business decision and should be consider and reviewed as a business decision. You then have to review the value of the service based on the opportunities it gives you. With REI Vault you are effectively bring on back office overhead to help you grow your business. You MUST be prepared to take advantage of it under those conditions. For the cost of one person you effectively get a team.

You can go the route of getting your own virtual assistant and paying a much lower rate, just be sure to take the time to train them and FULLY outline what they are to do. This in itself can be quite a task to take on. As a part time investor myself, I can say that if I wanted to pursue real estate investing full time then I would seriously consider Chris Chico’s REI Vault as an option.

Just remember the service is only as good as your ability to fully utilize it. It is not for everyone.