California: Benefit of Real Estate Classes?

[Account Closed]

My local community colleges offer courses in

Real Estate Principles, Practices, Finances, Investments, & Legal Aspects of Real Estate

Do these courses offer any benefit besides fluff knowledge? Like specifics?

Or if Possibly attaining a Brokers' license (my career is in a different field)?

Or is it better to focus on acquiring property and maintaining them? I'm based in Northern California targeting 4plex properties & looking to build my portfolio into commercial centers with no formal education in business/real estate/finance.

[Max Gradowitz]

These courses will likely not help you out in your goals at all.  They are focused on passing the license exam.  It takes a decent amount of these courses to become licensed, then you have to pay expensive yearly fees to keep your license.  You have to declare a broker you are working under.  There are continuing education requirements too.  Most investors that I work with, even ones that buy a lot of properties every year, do not have a RE license.  It's simply not worth it to them because it's too expensive and time consuming to maintain.

It's best to get RE investment knowledge from investor-focused sources, like BiggerPockets forums, blogs, YouTube channel, etc.  Commercial sources should be focused on if that's your goal, as that can be tricky.  Pick your market and have a great investor-friendly agent to do the work full-time for you.  It's also good to know a good real estate attorney in case you get into any complex issues, want to form an entity for legal protection on your RE, etc.