I’ve just started learning about real estate investing.

[Javontai Shamburger]

I went to Than Merrill’s real estate seminar. I was wondering if someone could tell me if those 3 day classes are a waste of time or should I pay and take the class.

[Jim K.]

@Javontai Shamburger

I did the Fortune Builders free half-day seminar and then the three day seminar for $150 a few years ago here in the Burgh. At the time, I already owned some properties, I was beginning to chart my course, and I had $150 to spare for me and someone to go with me (FB wants you to take your spouse).

The real value I got out of that seminar was learning how the real estate teaching hustle works, which is exactly why I wanted to pay my $150. I wanted to see how they were going to try to manipulate me, what techniques they were going to try on me. So I definitely got my money's worth.

The guy who I took with me was my main helper, an uneducated immigrant whom I told flat out that we were going to a sales seminar, and to expect nothing but to be manipulated. During the three days of the seminar, I was presented with the best possible argument for getting a liberal arts college degree with an emphasis in critical thinking that I could have ever hoped for.

On day one, he was kidding me that the FB people were going to get me to drink the Kool-Aid. On day two, he offered to go halvsies with me on the $50K Mastery program. He'd get his half by mortgaging his house and he knew I could get my hands on $50K much more easily than he could. On day three, he complained bitterly, over and over again, that I "just didn't understand."

I literally watched the Fortune Builders seminar leader wash my helper's brain front of me. And of course they did. This guy had never read a book on advertising, on selling techniques, on critical thinking, and of course zero books and articles on real estate investing. He was a prime target for them.

I never went near the Mastery program. I had $150 to waste and three days of my time. $25K? You've gotta be kidding me. Today, I own twice as many properties as I did then and the guy I took with me is still dreaming about buying his first rental and blaming me for not coughing up the money for him to take his diamond-encrusted shot at his dream life.

There is absolutely nothing in the three-day that I could not have learned from Bigger Pockets. I wouldn't expect handholding in the forums here, however. Bigger Pockets, at least in my view, is for motivated readers, self-learners, people who are willing to absorb different ideas and form their own opinions. The forums are the place to ask informed questions, not inane ones that could be answered with some thought and by reading one of the many guides or listening to the podcasts on the site. If you want hand-holding, go pay your $50K and get your nonanswers from people who are paid to give them to you.

There are about a dozen local people that have found me through Bigger Pockets and come to see me in real life. I love meeting people who are motivated and clear-eyed about a future in real estate. Most keep in touch and we become resources for each other: we share new specialized local knowledge about the market here back and forth all the time. People like that, I gladly share what I know, because they're worth helping and I could use all the stout friends in my life that I can get. How many of the Fortune Builders three-day participants ever kept in touch with me? Zero.

Bigger Pockets works because people who know what they know and came by it honestly really do want to give back. Some of the users here are just a priceless resource. @Mike Reynolds up there is one of them. If I ever get down to Nacogdoches, I'm buying Mike whatever he's drinking and asking him questions until he gets tired of me. That's how it should work, and it does.

If I were you, I would definitely go to the three-day seminar. It's a rare opportunity to see how guru training is sold. Focus on every technique used in there to get you to buy things. Here are a few things that I saw. On the first day, they typically tell people to raise the limits on their credits cards, just before they start pushing the Mastery program hard. On the second day, Mastery program shilling gets a lot stronger, and they show you the grand possibilities of making money in rentals. It's the third day that the Mastery program pitch reaches critical levels, when they're talking about flips (rest assured, you won't learn a damned thing about the practical issues involved in flipping houses). And throughout, they'll carefully program you with the code phrases "high-level investing" and "working at the highest level." They'll tell you how smart Than Merril was for going to Yale. After the seminar, they'll follow up for years with emails and the occasional call.

To be clear, Bigger Pockets wants you to buy their books, too. That's an income stream. They want you to buy a pro or premium membership. Yes, another income stream. But nobody here will ever tell you that you should raise the limits on your credit cards because you can't do well without the training that only Bigger Pockets can provide.

I would go if I were you. I would go and see how the system works. See how they're going to try to press your buttons. It's a great 3-day education on the real estate guru education hustle for just $150.