John R Burley's Investment Properties

Are we to believe John Burley's claims about himself - that he, as he is so fond of saying, “walks his talk”?

Back in 1997, while in Australia with Kiyosaki, Burley claimed, “I have 133 houses right now that pay me an infinite rate of return.” His promotional materials variously tout that he has done anywhere from 600 to 1000 “completed transactions.” As a skeptic, my first reaction is, “Yeah? Prove it!” Since Burley clearly has no intention to back up his claims with verifiable evidence, I took it upon myself to do a little investigation of the public record and then share what I found. I have to admit that I am a little surprised at the results.

Now, one could take issue with Burley’s usage of the word “have,” since many of the properties I found don't actually seem to be owned by him - and what the hell should we credulous fools consider a “transaction”? Buying a pack of gum at the Circle K? Also, his bragging about an “infinite rate of return” is no doubt calculated to really impress the neophyte investors in his audience, but when you think about it, it’s a meaningless claim. For example, I’ve got a job that pays me an infinite rate of return. Whoop-tee doo! And Burley’s claim that he doesn’t consider Burley & Associates to be a job rings very hollow to me. Managing 100+ glorified rental properties may be lucrative, but it can’t be a cakewalk.

But I guess it’s ultimately fruitless to be quibbling over semantics. In compiling the list below, which is as complete as I could make it (for the time being) I discovered that, in fact, the rabbit hole goes very deep. Indeed, one may never be certain to have found the bottom.

If you are seriously considering sinking $5K into a Burley “Boot Camp,” you might want to take a peek down that rabbit hole for yourself. I’m sure you’ll arrive in Phoenix armed with endless lists of questions—all of which will probably be shouted down as verboten “Psychobabble!”

The people named are what John Burley describes as “Investor Partners.” Below their names are the Burley investment properties I have so far been able to find associated with them.

Adrian Barrow

2413 W San Miguel Ave.
4824 N 81st Dr.
5635 N 62nd Ave.
6336 N 40th Dr.
5037 W Cambridge Ave.

Bill Burley aka William E Burley

Is Shari L. Burley married to two people, or are John and William Burley the same person? That is a very odd document.

3023 N 57th Ln.
6844 W Windsor – Why was William Burley about to be foreclosed on?
7003 W Verde Ln.

Bill Tyma aka William Tyma

4843 N 80th Dr.
6727 W Mariposa Ave.

Charles Y Norris

6232 W Keim Dr.

Mr. Norris appears to have a lot of recorded documents that seem unrelated to investing with John Burley, or even using his methods, though they do seem related to real estate investments.

Christian Cluff

8239 W Earll Dr.
8406 W Glenrosa
37244 Walnut St.

Donald Burley

1110 W Glenrosa
6980 W Wolf Rd.

Folded into the Little Girls LP.

Donald and Debra Quinn

7340 W Heather Brae

Frank Batmale

2935 N 40th Ave.

Folded into Old Southwest LP in 1996.

Gloria Iorio

Gloria is the one investor I've found who actually recorded her joint-venture agreement with Burley.

8812 N 36th Dr.

Folded into Bubba’s Treasure Chest LP in 1996.

James J Mullaney

6501 W Clarendon Ave.

Joan Kaufman

5735 N 32nd Ave.
7750 W Windsor Blvd.

John McCants

3308 N 62nd Dr.
3320 W San Miguel
5448 W Northview
5526 N 68th Dr.
8820 N 8th St. #204
11444 N 21st Dr.
13238 W McClellan

Mark Hoose

4440 N 49th Ave.
5420 W Mulberry Dr.

Michael Rossum

5936 W Monte Vista Rd.
6726 W Palm Ln.
8402 W El Caminito Dr.

Monte Bosch

Many of Monte Bosch’s later properties are apparently not managed by John Burley or Burley & Associates. It appears that Dr. Bosch—a dentist in Sun City, by all appearances—was an excellent learner and decided he could go it alone. As such, a few of these properties are not associated with John Burley. Dr. Bosch has a number of others that I have chosen not to list.

1515 W Grovers Ave.
2473 E John Cabot Rd.
2801 N 69th Dr.
3638 N 88th Ln.
4206 N 109th Dr.
4625 W Sheridan St.
4627 N 82nd Ln.
5474 W Osborn Rd.
6346 W Ocotillo Rd.
6517 N 61st Dr.
7245 W Brown St.
7402 W Becker Ln.
8019 W Campbell Ave.
8443 W Roma Ave.

Richard K Cottrell

8123 W Indianola Ave.

Robert E Aikman

3806 N 72nd Ln.

Robert Kiyosaki

Yes, this is the Robert Kiyosaki, of Rich Dad fame.

13237 W McClellan
6916 W Virginia

Shari Burley, No Investor, or Investor Unknown

I’m pretty sure this is an incomplete list. I still have more than a dozen or so documents to comb through.

2202 N 84th Ave.
2476 E Cactus Rd. – This must have been one of Burley’s earliest deals. Look at this contract!
3439 W Michigan Ave.
6928 W Pierson St. – Another very early one.
7027 W Kimberly Way – This is Burley’s home, actually.
822 E Carol
3844 W Caribbean Lane – This may be the very first property that John Burley purchased in the Phoenix area, althought title company records differ significantly from the records in the Maricopa county recorders office. According to Transnation Title, the house was purchased on March 1st, 1989, for $60K (loan $55.5K). County records, on the other hand, seem to indicate that the property was purchased in November 1991 by Shari Burley. What is perhaps even more interesting, though, is that Burley lists the house as "sold" on his ez2own1.com web page, even though he just recently borrowed $148K against it, and I can find no documentary evidence that this place has ever been one of Burley's "wrapped" houses.

Sukan Makmuri

7274 W Highland Rd.
10625 W Turney Ave.

Thomas E Bartlett

11377 N 113th Ave.
3632 N 88th Dr.
6801 W Windsor
7023 W Highland Ave.
7802 W Minnezona Ave.

Thomas Bartlett has several other properties described in the recorded docs, but I’m not sure they are investment properties.

Todd O Severson

2542 W Missouri Ave.

John Burley began transferring properties into Nevada Limited Partnerships, under the GP umbrella of the Southwestern Endowment Fund, in 1996, and this process accelerated in 1998, as Burley’s legal entities proliferated. At that point, Burley’s contracts became more sophisticated and allowed for more privacy, making the finding of Burley houses difficult or impossible. The list above, as a result, is not a complete list of all the properties I have found and am still finding as I search the public record.

Rather than list all the couple dozens or so properties here individually (frankly, I've already spent way too much time on this post - my friends are starting to call me "obsessed"), below I've posted links to all the related recorded documentation I could find. I invite you to explore on your own from here.

Southwestern Endowment Fund
Bubba's Treasure Chest
Corumn
Maxwell
Old Southwestern
Wabo Cabo