New Member - Coaching for 10K,20K,30K ?

Question

Hi All,

I am a young professional who currently owns a rental property with a monthly cash flow of around $175. I have about 10K in savings and am interested in flipping single family residential properties in the Chicago suburbs.

I recently attended a 3 day seminar, offering coaching to find, fund, flip deals for the tiered prices of $10K, $20K, and $30K.  While I'm sure there could be a value add, I'm not sure that this program is the only option to be successful, as their pitch made it sound.  The whole seminar used emotional tools to lead you to believe you will never be successful without them and was fairly off putting to me.  Worst of all is that they pushed you to make a decision on the spot and suggested maxing out your credit cards and taking on quite a bit of debt to do so.

I have started dissecting the plethora of content on BP and have signed up to attend a local REIA here in Chicago as a first step and feel there is a wealth of information available for free or at minimal costs.

I am interested in building a future for myself outside of traditional investing strategies, but am interested to hear what the BP community thinks about getting started in this industry and potentially partnering with an organization like the one mentioned above. Any thoughts or feedback is graciously welcomed!

Bill Hampton · Answer

Don't do it. Your local REIA is a better investment.

Good luck.

Nick C. · Answer

Different year, same sleazy tactics. This stuff has been going on forever, some things never change, including RE gurus. You wouldn’t be “partnering” with them. You would be one of their many “victims”, which they call “students”.

Angelique F. · Answer

Im no expert but heres what I do know. Hell NO. Do not give those people your money.  This is the BEST site to learn everything you need to know.

Jennie Berger · Answer

@Derrick Hoffman How wonderful that you are open to and considering multiple avenues to further your education!

I am a BIG believer in not only looking at the cost of any investment, but the return. When universities tell a parent their child's education is going to cost $50,000/year, they don't flinch. Most people don't think twice about whether or not the education at a traditional college is worth it. Yet, many people end up going to college (for the sake of going to college) to emerge with a degree in one hand, and a whole slew of debt and lack of direction in the other.

I'm a huge advocate of coaching & mentoring programs WHEN they provide value, inspire and encourage me, and align with my goals. I'm not saying you should go spend 20, 30, 50, 100k on a coaching program. But the cost is 'somewhat' irrelevant to me as long as I know that the return can be multiples of that investment AS LONG AS I implement the tools & systems provided and KEEP GOING.

One key thing you mentioned about the seminar you attended that immediately raises a red flag: "The whole seminar used emotional tools to lead you to believe you will never be successful without them and was fairly off putting to me." That is off-putting to me as well. Any successful and worthwhile (IMO) education, coaching, or mentorship program would not be preaching or insinuating that. Are they trying to turn you off? I know that I am more likely to succeed if I surround myself with those who are successful and align with my core values. But I don't need you, or them, or anyone telling me that I will NEVER be successful WITHOUT them. That's just plain crap.

-Jennie

Jonathan Klemm · Answer

@Derrick Hoffman - I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for in almost all instances except for this one.  Start off using BP to learn and network.

Real estate investing can be simple and easy if you build a solid team and learn from others.

Find a partner or mentor to invest with instead of wasting money on a course and you'll 10X more.

Bob Floss II · Answer

@Derrick Hoffman No, your gut instinct is correct. It's not worth it.

Shiloh Lundahl · Answer

@Derrick Hoffman I am going to present the situation a little different. A better question than “would this program be a good fit for me” might be “would I be a good fit for this program.” Let me explain. There are a lot of programs out there. Some may be pretty crappy and others may be wonderful. It really depends on who you are, who you work with, and the work you put into it as to what you get out of it. The price of the program is less important than what you get out of it. For example, let’s say I spend $2000 on a real estate deal finding software but I either never use it, or it doesn’t work for me even though I use it correctly. Then I over paid. Comparatively, let’s say I spend 1 million dollars on a mastermind group that connects me with Grant Cardone, Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, and other high performing individuals that allows me to participate in high level deals that end up making me million of dollars, then that course would have been super cheap for what I got out of it. The course itself may not be the issue. But it may be where you are starting from. I wouldn’t suggest that you do the program because you only have 10k right now; unless you really just want to do wholesaling. But even then, I still wouldn’t suggest that you use your 10k for the program because you already have a rental and you need your reserve account which should probably be 5 - 10% of the value of the home if you only have 1 property (I just finished making a YouTube video specifically about when an investor is ready to buy a second property).

When people approach me for coaching, I tell them that they need at least 20k over and above the coaching fee of $5200 in order to work with me. And that is because they are going to probably need money for rehab costs or as a down payment in order to get a loan for the property. The problem with using credit cards to go into debt to pay for a real estate education program is that, if you are going to try to ultimately keep the property as a rental rather then flipping it or wholesaling it, then you are going to probably need the bank to finance the property for you (unless you are able to keep the sellers financing in place and you can take the property over “subject to” the existing financing).

So ultimately I would say you may not be a good fit for this program, even if it were a good program. I would encourage you to keep some cash reserve for the property that you currently have and then save 20k over and above those cash reserves. And then, if you are able to find a legit coach, mentor, or program that can show you how to maximize your efforts, then go for it. But in the mean time, like what others have already suggested,  I would also encourage you to join your local real estate meetup groups and continue to connect with people here on BiggerPockets to maximize your learning with the resources that you currently have right now.

Hopefully this was helpful for you. Good luck with your real estate investing journey.

New Member - Coaching for 10K,20K,30K ?

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