Education and Commercial Real estate

[Marek J.]

Hello, I'm just getting started in real Estate. I been reading a lot of books and articles. I have a question about education, since owning a real estate is a business what education should I get ? Would a MBA with a concentration in Finance be helpful ? Or what would you recommend I realize that knowledge is power. Thank you Marek J

[Eric Stafford]

What area in real estate? Just owning a property? MBA is more managing a business. There are Commercial Real Estate programs. Property Management. Accounting/Finance. 

Depending on the school and its costs, I'd save the tuition cost and use that money towards buying a property. You'll learn more doing than reading.

[Elizabeth Wilson]

@Marek J. - work for someone in a REI field that you are interested in. I have my MBA and found it useless in REI. Only needed if you want to work for a company that requires it. My 2 cents. :-)

[Marek J.]

The only reason why I said MBA is because owning a real estate at the end of the day is a business. I want to get into Commercial Multi Family units / renting them and building cashflow. I am reading all the books on REI and I realize that Knowledge is power, what is the best course you'd recommend ?

@Eric Stafford 

@Elizabeth Wilson

[Elbert D.]

I'll say jump into it. You don't need school to learn about commercial Real estate just like you don't for residential real estate as well. There are certain terms you need to know about like LTV, cap rate and NOI but it's kinda similar to residential. Anything over 5 units is commercial and if you insist on having help I'll say get a mentor. Get with a person who is much more experience than you and provide some kind of value with him/her and get paid with 60/40 split or however they want to organize it. Nothing beats experience.

[Eric Stafford]

@Marek J. I'm in agreement with @Elizabeth Wilson on the MBA. I have one and wouldnt get one if at the time I knew I wanted to get into real estate. To me, MBA's help you get a job or move up a level. For self employed, nothing beats learning from actual experience.

[Orkeem Davis]

@Marek Javorek I'm in some agreement with @Elizabeth Wilson on the MBA.  I have MBA too! My real estate education came from "Hard Knocks Approach."   Taking courses, reading, trying and failing, etc.  You need to be able to structure deals, present deals, and close the Deal.  With that being said, some of my MBA education was helpful with being confident, but I never mention I have a MBA as a selling point.  My 2 cent.  

[Cherie Ganesh]

If you're most interested in multi-family check out some basic classes offered by IREM (Institute of RE Management). You'll learn a lot about the operational side of owning/managing multi family investments. For a great way to learn how to do financial analysis check out CCIM.org and their Intro and 101 financial analysis class. Neither institute's classes are cheap but your learning curve accelerate very quickly. I am a life Member of CCIM and my career was built on the coursework I took plus experience obtained using the tools. Take a look.