Darel Snyder is or at least used to be associated with the James Smith Real Estate organization, and he made a presentation at one of the seminars that I attended. Darel Snyder and PSI Group were selling condos in Phoenix at the Trillium at Union Hills project. It sounded great, had great intro incentives, cash flow and growth looked promising, so I bought it.

The investment has proved a disaster, and now we're facing foreclosure. Can't even sell the condo on a short sale for half of what I paid. Darel says that nobody could have seen the downturn coming, but I have since listened to and talked with a number of Real Estate gurus that saw it coming and had their people out prior to the downturn. PSI Group was still selling the condos at inflated prices even after the downturn had started. The project is nearly 100% investor-owned, which made a re-finance very difficult, besides the fact that it's now upside down. Darel claims to have spent lots of money on research to find the best areas, but it didn't do any good because the project is a flop.

A year after I purchased my property PSI Group sent me info on a bus tour for another property they had in Roseville, CA. I attended that and they were pushing basically the same type of program. Fortunately I lived not too far away and I knew that the market had already turned in CA, so it was not a good deal. But PSI group was still selling regardless of whether it was a good deal for their customers. They were just trying to unload their properties that they got into at the wrong time.

Promises were made about upgrades to the property and other things that would help sell the units when the time came, but they were all empty promises and in fact the property is now under new management and has changed names. Realtors have told me that people will not even look at the properties to purchase them because the sign on the front of the building says "luxury apartments", making it appear that they are apartments rather than condos.

When I contacted a Realtor recommended by Darel Snyder, whom supposedly had not relationship to the project or Darel, they told me that the unit would probably sell for around $265, 000 (I paid around $250, 000). But when I went to actually place the unit on the market for a short sale using a truly independent agent, the estimate was less than $200, 000, and there were absolutely NO comparable sales in the complex. Units in the same complex have been listed in the low $100, 000's and still not sold.

Stay away from PSI Group and Darel Snyder because they are not Real Estate experts -- they are sales experts, and they will sell you a bill of goods.