What Education is Necessary for a Successful Real Estate Career?

Question

A large majority of people new to real estate and wanting to make some aspect of real estate their full time “career” get it all wrong.  They’re misled by the hype from the “cult” created by would be mentors advertising via YouTube, webinars, lead capture websites, free newsletters, start up kits, and general misinformation.

Spending $40k on a mentorship/information class on wholesaling, subject, fix n flip, etc. does not create a sustainable career. Even in the rare case where the subject matter did lead to a profitable job (business), it’s not sustainable in an increasingly fast changing, niche dominated, location dependent, law changing, environment.

The people that I’ve met who have long term sustainable real estate investing career have been those who have, through either formal education or “on the fly “ learning became knowledgeable in

1. The principles of real estate

2. Real estate law

3. Real estate finance

4. Real estate investing, financial, and market analytics

Most coursework in preparation for real estate licensing exams cover the first two pretty well. An alternative is to either read a Principle of real estate text book and a real estate law textbook, or to take one of many classes offered by various colleges, organizations and affiliates of the NAR.

Back when I got my start in real estate investing, ( mid to late 1970s) there were some “gurus” that made sense - their offerings were relatively inexpensive, their teachings relevant, and they always prefaced that they taught one or two “techniques” that could be used in connection with obtaining a firm basic knowledge of real estate principles and finance. I got to know a few of these personally, Jimmy Napier was a personal friend, and these teachers were eager to hear about deals I was structuring and often asked if they could use those as examples in the classes/seminars they put on.

It all began changing in around 1979 as a few companies organized for the sole purpose of putting on seminars began to recruit professional actors ( ones that were not well known), provided them with scripts, and paid the. A percentage “of the gate” including “back of the room” sales, which were usually workbooks and video/audio tapes for dale at $899.00 but today only can be had for the one time low price of $399.00, with a set of steak knives. It was a short hop from there to “the personality cult”, I don’t think that any of the people selling mentorship’s today have any any quantifiable success as real estate investors.

Chris Seveney · Answer

@Don Konipol

I vomit when I see the $20-$40k courses from these gurus. I spent $30k on a masters in finance from what I think is a good school and it taught me some valuable insights and I was able to learn from career fund managers, CPA’s and attorneys.  While I think it was a lot. I got my w2 to pay for 1/2 of it and I do believe it added value. Most of these courses people sign up for are all hype and “ take action” no meat on any bones

Shimelis Roro · Answer

Hello Don,

Thank you for such helpful information. This upfront payment for mentoring seems a waste of hard-earned money.

Chris Seveney · Answer

For those who are new to the business reading this, if a guru has enough time to mentor you one on one, then they are not doing what they preach. As it is far more profitable to be in the game than mentoring someone. Of course if they are charging $30k and get ten suckers, i mean students then $300k a year when they have no money even though they claim to have done 1,000's of deals is not a bad idea.

I always like to reference the guru note teacher who owed over $2M in judgments and is still out there training. Just this past week we had a handful of loans under agreement and the buyer was taking 6+ weeks to close. I sent the broker who was brokering the deal an email that stated "guarantee this person took the guru training of gettnig assets under agreement without the $", low and behold we get the name from them and B-I-N-G-0 I was right.... Hey atleast they did buy a few but spent $15k probably to learn the way how NOT to do things.

Don Konipol · Answer

The course providers will tell you it’s really their “mentoring” you’re paying for, the course work is merely the foundation.

I wonder if it’s a shock for the “students” when they find that the mentorship doesn’t consist of the “guru” providing a “one to one” learning experience; instead it consists of a person who couldn’t make it selling the gurus products converted to a “wealth counselor” role with absolutely no experience in either real estate or finance, and answering questions from a provided script.

We shouldn’t be surprised since compulsory education in this country has no room for finance or business study.  I attended an introductory sign up for my mentorship seminar at a local REIA from a well known former television reality star fix n flipper. During his wife’s speech (they’ve since divorced) she unbelievably relayed that they had just filed bankruptcy last year because their fix n flip business went broke; that he was sitting around the house in a state of depression, and that they decided to go to Las Vegas and get a mentorship program together based on his “success”. And, after much to my shock, people were pushing and shoving to get in line to pay $30K for his mentorship because he was “limiting” the number of mentorship’s he was selling. Than again in a. Country where people take medical and retirement advice from Joe Namath, I guess I shouldn’t be shocked.

Joshua Amezcua · Answer

Interesting parallel here between your list and Robert Kiyosaki's 4 skills for building Financial Intelligence:

1. The principles of real estate (understanding markets)

2. Real estate law (the law)

3. Real estate finance (accounting)

4. Real estate investing (investing)

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

of course I am biased since I started as an agent then a RE broker . then became a mortgage banker

Being and agent your in the game .. you work with those in the game daily.. its a huge deal in my mind.

and of course there are many different paths to take in RE  but coming up through the ranks is a great way to start.

Or you simply need a very well paying Job and make your investments in the assets or in notes.. that will work over the years as well.

Joe Villeneuve · Answer

1 - How to analyze markets, not individual properties, markets.  Markets are made up of common properties.  That's what defines them.  You don't buy properties, you buy pieces of a market.

2 - How money works.  This is another way of saying you need to learn and develop as many strategies as you can.  Not all strategies work ion every market.  The more strategies you know how to use, the more problems (non-deals) you can turn into goldmines.

3 - How to design and stick with a financial REI plan...based on a series of financial events with each event leading to the next aiming towards your financial goals.  Retiring, "getting out of the rat race", etc... are NOT financial goals.  They are what you can do as a result of achieving your financial goals.  Financial goals are very specific, and they all have $$$ in front of them,...not %%% behind them

What Education is Necessary for a Successful Real Estate Career?

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