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Than Merrill is a real estate investor, author, television personality, and the founder and CEO of FortuneBuilders, one of the better-known real estate investing education companies in the U.S. Born in Fresno, California, Than attended Yale University, where he played football, and was later drafted into the NFL, briefly playing for the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before a knee injury ended his professional football career.
28 reviews
Rating breakdown
4.4 · 8 reviews
The Real Estate Wholesaling Bible is a 272-page comprehensive guide to wholesaling real estate from start to finish, published by Wiley in 2014. It is structured in two parts: the mechanics of completing a wholesale deal, covering finding, analyzing, financing, and selling properties, and the business-building side, covering how to build systems, scale operations, and stop trading time for money. It is widely used as a foundational reference for new investors and carries a strong reader rating across major retail platforms.
3.9 · 10 reviews
Tax Lien & Deed Training is a focused, niche course from FortuneBuilders covering how to identify, evaluate, and secure properties through tax lien and tax deed investing, a strategy many investors overlook. It includes seven video training modules, a state-by-state online auction guide and calendar, sample direct mail letters, and a companion manual. Rather than a broad real estate curriculum, this is a single-topic training meant to walk a specific niche strategy end to end.
3.8 · 10 reviews
The Free Real Estate Class is a one-hour live training session developed by Than Merrill after more than 20 years of active investing. The class covers how to get started flipping houses in your local market, how to acquire cash-flowing rental properties, how to use other people's money to fund deals, and how to invest successfully on a part-time basis. It is the entry point into the FortuneBuilders ecosystem and draws directly from the systems featured on A&E's Flip This House.
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Based on FortuneBuilders' own materials, Than and his co-founders continue to actively manage residential and commercial real estate investments alongside running the education business, rather than being educators only.
Yes. He played college football at Yale, was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001, and played briefly for the Chicago Bears before a knee injury ended his NFL career.
We don't know for certain. Public estimates range widely, from roughly $25 million to $100 million, and none of these figures appear to be independently audited, so we're not able to confirm one for you.
Based on independent reviews of the company's programs, the day-to-day coaching in FortuneBuilders' flagship Mastery program is generally handled by a team of trained coaches rather than Than himself, though he remains involved at the leadership and events level. We'd recommend confirming current coaching structure directly with FortuneBuilders.
Public sources indicate he is married to Cindy Merrill (also referenced as Cindy Phillips) and they have a son together, though we can't independently verify current personal details beyond what's publicly reported.
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