You've probably been thinking to yourself, “This Rob guy seems to have a lot to say for himself – and hey, he's also arrogant enough to have a massive photo of himself on his website! I wonder if he's got the cash to back it up…”
I get it. To be honest, I often wonder the same thing about other people online.
Well, in this article I'll give you the answer…
What is Rob Dix's net worth?
OK, I'm not actually going to tell you – I just put this page up to amuse myself because I noticed that a lot of people were searching Google for “Rob Dix net worth”.
Luckily I don't offer any kind of coaching or mentoring, and I lend money rather than asking to borrow it – so I don't have to answer any questions!
I've never made any big claims about what I've done or what I can help you to do: I just share information, and you can decide for yourself whether I know what I'm talking about or not.
Like anyone, I'm going to be wrong sometimes – either due to some kind of bias or blind spot, or just because I'm uninformed. So for anything important, check with a professional – and preferably get multiple opinions, because professionals can be wrong too.
If you're not too concerned that I might be broke, you can check out my books here.
Or, take my free 8-part email course to discover what's working in property right now.
BUT, the question about net worth does raise a couple of important points…
How important is net worth?
If you knew someone's net worth, it could be a useful measure of whether someone is “walking the walk”. If someone claims to have had massive success in property, you could expect that they've made some money from it.
Unfortunately, there are three problems with this.
Firstly, if they've got any sense they won't tell you. Their company accounts may be public (with very limited information), but their personal tax returns aren't – and even if they were, that would only tell you about flows of income within the year and not any assets they already own.
Secondly, even if you did know their net worth, this doesn't tell you how much money they made in the first place – only how much they've kept. It's possible that they're a property genius who's made a fortune…but they've also got a nasty gambling habit and have had to sell off all their assets to pay off the mob.
And there's more…
Thirdly, experience and net worth aren't necessarily correlated – and it's probably more their experience that you're interested in really. For example, I know one person who's got absolutely immense property experience over 30 years – but was made bankrupt after the last crash, and now has relatively little in the way of assets.
He's totally upfront about his bankruptcy and has learnt from it, so his experience is extremely valuable – but you might discount what he has to say if you equated knowledge with money in the bank.
Here's what to look at instead
Stories are easy to spin, and wealth is easy to fake: some property “gurus” have literally been known to hire supercars for the day while they film a video or have photos taken.
So what can you look at instead?
If you want to know someone's background for the purposes of lending them money:
- Ask for copies of their recent credit reports
- Ask to see their last few months of bank statements so you can see how they manage their money
- Insist that the loan is secured against a property, the charge and loan document are drawn up by a solicitor, and you have a valuation for the property
- If you're lending to their company, insist on a personal guarantee too
(This is the bare minimum. And if someone who you only know online or have met at a networking meeting approaches you for money, it's far safer to just walk away completely.)
What if you want to establish their credibility for coaching, mentoring, joint venturing or similar?
- Ask to see relevant case studies, and check the Land Registry data yourself to make sure the numbers match up
- Ask for addresses of their properties, and randomly select a couple to download the title deeds from the Land Registry to make sure they really are the owner
- Get a list of 10 people they've worked with in the past, and randomly select a couple to call for a reference. Dig as deep as you can: they could have just given you a list of family members or associates…
- Google their name (and any company names), and go through as many pages as you can bear – in case there's something buried down the list somewhere…
In short, it's great to be trusting but a bit of paranoia can be a lifesaver. And even if everything seems to check out, don't neglect gut instincts: if anything feels wrong, just pass.
And if you just want to know someone's net worth because you're curious…well none of this helps you – and I am too!