How to get started in real estate development?

[Daniel Khan]

Hi everyone,

I am a finance professional in Toronto and I want to explore a career as a a real estate developer. Could anyone who has become a "self made" developer please provide some guidance on how they did it? I feel like there are no formal "development" education or training resources available and existing developers are reluctant to meet for coffee or provide guidance (which is so surprising to me given the lack of supply. I wonder why the government isn't encouraging more people to become developers compared to the money they are putting into VCs

What would be a good step by step approach to becoming a developer?

Any advice is greatly appreciated :)