Paid Investor Training?

Question

Hello all,

I am thoroughly enjoying the wealth of advice and information available on this site. I've truly had my eyes opened to the opportunities available!

What are your thoughts on taking an investor training coarse? I went to one of those two hour seminars where they were trying to get you to take their 3 day coarse. "A value at $6000, but if you sign up tonight it's only $3000!"

It had the distinct aroma of snake oil.

Am I overly cautious? Is this a reasonable price for investor training? Are there any preferred training organizations? What have you all done when it comes to training?

Thanks in advance.

Manny Cirino · Answer

Training of any kind will cost most of the bigger names Than Merril, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Armando[something] etc... are all designed to take your money in steps. First the 2 hours introduction with promises of quick riches. The the 3 day boot camp and finally the 6 month personal mentor program usually about $25k-$40k.

i suggest going down to your local REIA and finding a mentor/coach that knows your area.

Adam Johnson · Answer

I smiled when I read this post and it has my vote!  My wife and I got started in real estate after attending one of the free "teaser's" that are put together to sell these scams.  Instead, we went to the book store, bought some books and started reading.  We also started talking to people and learning from real people.  Sometimes I had to pay for lunch.  I went on to get my real estate license, not so much for the license as it was for the education.  Several years later, I discovered my local REIA, followed a few years later by Bigger Pockets.  The moral of the story is just as Manny says, these programs are first and foremost about lining the pockets of the sponsors.

True story alert - Just a week ago, my wife and I were driving to a local meeting in FFREIA, my local REIA, which I have become fairly active in.  We were headed to a meeting that I co-chair.  My wife had never been to one of these particular meetings and was asking what to expect.  I told her that one of the aforementioned "gurus" had just rolled through town, so the room would likely be full of wide-eyed newbies that had just spent most or all of their salary from last year learning the "magic system" to build your fortune...

Indeed, I called it.  The attendance for that meeting set a record.  My guess is that a MINIMUM of $ 250,000 had been wasted by these newbies collectively, many will never do a deal.  My stomach turns every single time this happens.

I am eternally grateful that my wife and I didn't get sucked in 8 years ago by this scam.  I enjoy the TV shows, I read the books, but I pave my own path.  It isn't rocket science, it is basic business.  Learn your business, practice your business, get good at your business.

You are wise, my friend.  I will admit, I almost got sucked to the back of the room with my credit card in hand.  I didn't do it.  In total, since that time, I have spent less than $ 3,000 TOTAL in REIA membership, buying lunches, getting my real estate license, continuing education, books (used of course), CD's (used, of course), etc. in learning real estate.

When we started, we literally had NOTHING except for a credit card that we had just paid off after running it up with stupid decisions.  Very soon, we will pass the $ 2M mark of real estate under our direct control.  I say that not to brag or boast, but to demonstrate that even a high school educated heavy equipment operator with a little bit of common sense and a lot of gut instinct can do ok in real estate without committing last years paycheck to somebody to get a stack of papers and promises and a "deal analyzer" that promises to do all of the work for you.  BS, it is work, plain and simple.  "It is simple, but it isn't easy" - that lesson cost me lunch and I remember it every day.

Sorry, I will climb down off of my soap box now before I REALLY get going on this...

Steve Babiak · Answer

I have to start off by saying that I am and have been a member of my local REIA for a number of years. Having said that, beware the speakers they bring in because they same kind of silly pitches will be made. I just listened to such nonsense last week. The speaker during his presentation stated that he hated the paperwork associated with the type of strategy he was presenting. When he  made his sales pitch, he said he would personally review his students' paperwork. Sounds like such a good deal LOL :)

Manny Cirino · Answer

@Adam Johnson I agree with everything you stated. The key for me came after reading "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". In the book he spoke about the eternal student, someone who is one who is afraid to take action and becomes a professional student. After read that I open my eyes and stop looking at the though of real estate success as a celebrity and look at it as a real normal person easily accessable. And that allowed me to avoid being so afraid amd take action.

Daniel Phillips · Answer

Ah, so I was right to run screaming from that room! ;)

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Andy Wong · Answer

MY SUGGESTION:

Pick a real estate investing niche. ex: Wholesaling, rehabbing, rentals, etc.

Then, spend as many hours as your brain can possibly take of reading through these forums, listening to the podcasts, and essentially sucking up as much info as you can from bigger pockets. I'm sure that is worth more than any type of "up-sell real estate investing seminar" out there. Trust me I've been to countless ones where they will up-sell an even greater "must have to succeed in real estate" type of product which will usually run in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Hope my input is beneficial, and saves you a few thousand that you should be using for marketing to sellers, or something else that will be utilized effectively.

Mark Ferguson · Answer

Great advice @Manny Cirino

Those programs are almost never market specific and that is what investing in real estate is all about.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

Bill Gulley your correct and the majority of the population works for someone and wants that security. Real estate we are on our own.. pay all your own expense's your own insurances etc etc  no benefits packages. And then when you do this business it becomes a lifestyle.. you don't clock in and out. and you need to be prepared to work 7 days a week.  As I was growing up my Father had a RE company and I learned early on the things that kept people from doing RE a lot of it was family dynamics  when RE is nights and weekends in a lot of cases and some families cannot handle those hours.. especially younger families, so even those that wanted to get in the bizz could not because of family pressures and the security of a pay check

Manny Cirino · Answer

I agree with Bill on a few things. This is business and you have to rely on your self to make your money so you always have to keep yourself motivated but seminars and boot camps are not and should not motivation.

I have always had this theory that one would spends thousands of dollars on programs, boot camps and books. Never to do a deal and one would eventually learn so much about the Real Estate Business in theory that he would eventually find a seminar that taught you the true secret to real estate success was through becoming a guru and selling programs.

All of the gurus use the same systems techinics tactics phrases as if they were all taught by one person. I have one junk email from when i first started that has over 15,000 emails of seminar, and webinar invites. and they are exactly the same structure.

but I also agree that not all are crooks the local coach in my area is a great person yes he charges $2,500 for the home coarse and $8,000 for personal coaching but does not sell dreams of rich's he expains things realisticly. He provides real value by granting access to his personal Real estate attorney, private lenders, CPA, title companies etc... He also will fund a deal as a private lender. But he allows points to be paid on the back end and will lend for repair cost but places funds in an escrow.
I found him because he was at every single REIA in Polk and Orange County and he was the coach to most of the successful people in thier. so just choose carefully.

Bill Gulley · Answer

Don't confuse pod casts, guru stuff, RE strategies, investor's opinions as an education, there is a difference between education and insight to experiences. :)