# Those outlandish infomercials **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028 "2009-02-16T03:03:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MizQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MizQuirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizQuirk)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028/1 "2009-02-16T03:03:58Z")
Does anyone know what those middle-of-the-night infomercials are about–the ones with the ‘real people’ who’ve started making thousands of dollars in the first week or month by using Joe Blow’s wonderful plan that we should call and order right now? Do you suppose those are about real estate, or what? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028/2 "2009-02-16T03:06:15Z")
Probably real estate. I have noticed that if you watch very late night TV you probably need these things: To find Jesus To lose weight To make a lot of money in real estate. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028/3 "2009-02-16T03:15:18Z")
Actually, I think they’re more about selling “Joe Blow’s wonderful plan.” ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028/4 "2009-02-16T03:32:30Z")
Apparently you can make a chicken salad sandwich in 1, 2, 3 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028/5 "2009-02-16T05:45:06Z")
They’re probably about Internet Marketing. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028/6 "2009-02-16T15:03:46Z")
I was watching one this morning waiting for the Dead as Me marathon to start . It was some guy I can remember doing an infomercial about how to flip houses before the crash … now it is all about buying lots of houses, fixing them up and renting them until the market crash is gone, then selling at a high profit … his main selling point about buying and renting them out is people cant afford mortgages … Um, hello? To make renting out worth doing, you need to actually charge MORE than the mortgage … if they cant afford a mortgage, how are they going to afford the rental? Not to mention you have teh costs of maintenance, any damage caused by the tenants that you cant get them to pay [in the case of deadbeats] and all other sorts of fun [a friend of mine rents apartments in a small building she owns, she actually had a tenant drop dead and not get found for a while … :eek:] ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028/7 "2009-02-16T15:27:06Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Probably real estate. > > I have noticed that if you watch very late night TV you probably need these things: > > To find Jesus > To lose weight > To make a lot of money in real estate. Or valium. Sometimes I fall asleep and awake to these things. For some reason I find them very depressing, and immediately turn them off. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028/8 "2009-02-16T19:19:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Um, hello? To make renting out worth doing, you need to actually charge MORE than the mortgage … if they cant afford a mortgage, how are they going to afford the rental? Not to mention you have teh costs of maintenance, any damage caused by the tenants that you cant get them to pay [in the case of deadbeats] and all other sorts of fun [a friend of mine rents apartments in a small building she owns, she actually had a tenant drop dead and not get found for a while …] Most people who can’t afford a mortgage right now can’t afford one because their credit rating is in the crapper or they don’t have a down payment. If they have a crappy credit rating and you have a good one, the difference between the interest rate they get and the interest rate you could get could be as much as several hundreds of dollars a month on the same property. Landlords have been making a profit for centuries. Not that anyone should go buy some middle of the night infomercial program. It’s just that the basic landlord model can work with care and rental volume. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-outlandish-infomercials/486028/9 "2009-02-16T21:15:47Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > To find Jesus > To lose weight > To make a lot of money in real estate. Don’t forget cleaning, cooking, and penis. I caught a bit of one with a buxom foreign lady talking in euphemisms about penis enlargement. During one part it showed several pictures of ladies looking distressed and the caption said: “Actual distress” Then it showed several men looking embarrassed and the caption said “Actual embarrassment.” You can’t make this stuff up.