Formal Real Estate Education?

[Evan Hunsberger]

How many people have received a formal education in Real Estate before doing any sort of investing, deals, etc.? Would you recommend it or are you a school of hard-knocks, learn as you go sort of individual? 

[Elizabeth Nourse]

Hi Evan- Good question!  I'd say that in my experience, the best investors typically have a minimum of a real estate license, as a licensed agent, and they have the education that comes with it. Roughly 80% of advanced investors usually will have their license (or their business partner does).  The most advanced investors I know (or people in this industry in any context) tend to have more education and it is formal.  Personally, I have a Master's Degree in Real Estate focused on Development, from Johns Hopkins University.  This was a very good investment and I'm glad I did it. 

Further, the best people tend to have worked professionally in real estate for other firms, prior to doing their own thing, as entrepreneurs.  For me, the many years of real world experience in development, brokerage, and real estate consulting working for others gave me a great perspective of how larger organizations conduct their analysis and make decisions. It's invaluable if you want to be truly an expert at this.  

In Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland (where I operate my brokerage)  many of the best investors are not on this site.  No knocking BiggerPockets- it is great!  But I've found that it tends to attract more newbies/ small individual investors than the industry as a whole.  The pros in real estate are working for the big firms and putting together huge deals which are many times outside the scope of what is discussed on this normally.  So the sample on this site won't really reflect the real world that well....

If you're serious about real estate, I strongly encourage you to consider getting your license, just to have a "seat at the table".  It's a great way to learn and a MUCH easier way to get started than wholesaling, which seems to be pushed a lot on this site by some folks and can be very expensive if you're planning on using direct mail.   Hope this helps!