Complaint Review: National Grants Conferences - Rochester New York

I would like to mention that this company known as the National Grants Conferences, 803 West Avenue, Suite 209, Rochester, New York, 11461 (Toll Free 888-809-5074 / Fax: 585-464-9337) is abusing these government assistance programs with Real Estate. FYI - The company screen their calls. They will require you to leave a message with an invoice number (voucher #) and contact information. They never answer the phone personally. They will call you back if you are their clients in good standing relationship.

I had joined this two-day workshop (TV ad) on how to get government grants for a fee of $999.00 with the National Grant Conferences www.nationalgrants.com . I signed up because I wanted to know how to get my first home with these Government Grants they were promoting.

It seems I was suck into a misrepresentation about Government Grant on Real Estate. It was not only me, but also about 1000 consumers who participated the two-day seminar (January 24 & 24, 2004) for $999.00 each. I had done some research on my own, after the seminar that Government Grants are actually the Government Assistance Programs. The speaker, David Alexander, did not mention the fact in order to participate into these programs you have to:

1. Work with a particular lender(s) that the City or County officials are working with to get into the government programs. David said it is easy to get the grants. You will get a consultant from the NGC for help with the process. My consultants did not know a thing. I had asked her to give me a list of contacts in my area to get these grants. She said I needed to look for them myself. You would think, if they have students whom they are managing, that they would help me to cut down the time and effort of repeating the process. It seems the consultants were told to wing the questions because the consumer-students are unknowledgeable to recognize the misleading information. My second consultant told me to get into Section 8, after I told her I only made $17,000 in income for the year 2003. So how can I get a grant to get into a home? I told her Section 8 has a waiting list, and that it is closed for any new applicants. She could not give me an answer to solve my problem.

FYI - Section 8 has about 5000 applicants waiting on the list. The Housing Trust handles the programs in my area. http://www.housingtrustscc.org/ So much for my idea in getting into a home.

2. An income is required. David Alexander, the speaker, said no income is required. That was a lie. You do need an income to qualify into government program(s) for your home or real estate investments. Someone has to pay for the loan. I don't know what David was thinking, but it was wrong of him to say an income is not required to do the programs or the Real Estate investments.

The students paid about $1195.00 each for the mentor program. My mentor kept asking me about my income. The last thing we talked about was he suggested to look for a home outside my area. And make a deal with the homeowner to take the loan. There is something wrong with this picture. He already knows I don't have a stable income coming in. How can I qualify to pay for the house. It seems others and I have been had.

3. That you need to be a 501 or non-profit status as well as a developer on housing for low-income families. David, the speaker at the workshop did not mentioned about non-profit status from the IRS. All he said was to get-to-gether with an organization that wants to do government grants. I don't know what this guy was thinking, but why would a company be willing to listen to me (a complete stranger) to get a grant. I found out this non-profit developer have to offer their development to low income families or individuals in order to qualify for these government assistances. (The National Grants Conferences call the government assistances as "Government Grants". A play in words.)

The National Grants Conferences came back here again in California last week. I assume again they are racking up the fees with another 1000 consumers for $999.00 each. - More suckers. I doubt there are many success stories out of those consumers that bought into the programs. The consumers are from Easy Bay, San Francisco and South Bay area. The workshop was on March 13 & 14, 2004. I really would like to see a new law on companies teaching about Real Estate and Government Grants, especially selling information that is no longer available or accurate.

Also, the TV station should not be taking ads on Real Estate from companies who are not Real Estate Agents in your state (Real Estate Agents are regulated). It is usually a scam to get people's money for $1000 to $3000 per consumers. There is no refund on products that don't really work. If there is, it is 3-10 days for a refund. That is pretty unfair in this situation. A person will not find out if a product works until one or two months later.

My main concern about the seminar and workshops are that the speakers are twisting the qualification and information around on these government assistance programs, which they called GRANTS. I could see most of the consumer-students have high hopes of making money. Little do they realize it is not as easy as it sounds. Since this company, National Grants Conferences, is promoting Real Estate and false information about Government Grants, there should be a law to stop people from other states to suck the people on misleading informations for $999.00 or $2199.00. They really should not be selling information that is no longer available or not accurate. Unfortunately, I got stuck in for $2199 ($1199 for a mentor program. They were useless on the Real Estate end, which I was hoping to get my situation solved.)

If you want to check out their website it is at http://www.nationalgrants.com/. This is just an information website for people who bought into the programs. They have a link to the government site (http://www.cfda.gov/public/faprs.htm), which is at the Federal Level. The consumers who bought into the program should really go to the city or county level for the Government Programs. The reason for not at the Federal or State level is because the programs may not be available at the city or county level. The city and county level are the main ones for the public to get the correct information. Funds do run out at the city and county level, and the government programs may not be available in the future.

Personally, I really do not wish this company to come back here and take another 1000 consumers for a ride on Government Programs that are no longer available in our area. The National Grants Conferences should not be charging people for programs that are no longer available or that the consumers have to be a developer with a non-profit status (501 status from the IRS) to qualify for these grants.

If you wish to make another complaint against this company, go to the FTC Consumer Complaint Form.

The company is listed on the Better Business Bureau in Buffalo, New York - http://search.buffalo.bbb.org/nis/newsearch2.asp?ID=1&strBCode=00410000&ComID=0041000012000523&ComName=National+Grants+Conferences

The company headquarter's is at Boca Raton, Florida. Info from the Better Business in Florida - http://www.bbbsoutheastflorida.org/nis/newsearch2.asp?ID=1&strBCode=06330000&ComID=0633000026001441&ComName=National+Grants+Conferences

S

San Jose, California
U.S.A.

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