mentoring programs- worthwhile or not re: information obtained.

[Hampton Logan]

Is anyone familiar with or had any experiences, good or bad, with the following mentoring programs, specific to the Atlanta area: Clever Investor out of Arizona, Vekselman Coaching in Atlanta, or Freedom Mentor out of Florida. Please give me you input if you have any. Thanks.

Hampton Logan

Alpharetta, Ga. 

[Shiloh Lundahl]

@Hampton Logan In my experience many people on BiggerPockets are anti-guru programs.  It was through one of those programs that I paid for and attended that found this awesome website.  

I don't know anything about the companies you mentioned and I believe some are probably better than others.  For me, I paid 75k for a year long education program including 4 3-5 day trainings in California, Arizona, and Las Vegas, and a year-long weekly coaching program over the phone.  Many people say that I was stupid or insane to spend that money and that I could have used that money to invest in a deal or two and I could have learned that way.  

Let me share what my program did for me.  It just propelled me forward quicker.

In 2015 before the program I flipped 3 houses for a total gain of 17k among all of them.

In 2016 while in the program I flipped 6 houses and did 1 seller finance deal for a total gain of 95k.  We also purchased 3 duplexes and I single family residence out of state.

My goals went from doing 4 flips a year to now doing 20 flips and getting 10 buy and hold deals a year.

Things I gained through my education program:

1. Connections with other students in the program which opened us up to new markets out of state

2. Spending time and eating lunch with very successful real estate investors

3. Focused direction on how to begin investing

4. How to open up money sources (we went from 200k to 750k available personal and business credit)

5. Contacts to banks that are investor friendly

6. Hand holding through deal negotiations

7. Weekly accountability

Here are some of the things that I gained out of my education program.  Could I have learned and gained all of this experience through the BiggerPockets forums?  Yeah, probably.  Would I have been able to do it as quickly?  Definitely not!  Could I have invested the 75k and done some flips or bought some buy and hold deals, probably.  With the education that I had at that time, what would my profits have been on the 75k I invested? Maybe 15k - 30k if I had earned 20-40% on my money.  Would I be where I am now with the systems I have in place now?  Absolutely not!

If you are someone who wants to have a more hands on experience learning and you value education to the point that you are willing to spend money on it, and you have the means to do so, I would encourage you not to listen to other people who don't share that same values who think paying for an education is stupid and who would rather be self-thaught - like being self-taught is some sort of badge of honor.  I am glad that when my wife or kids or even myself go to the doctor for an operation that we see people who have done hands on training rather than being self-taught.  The biggest difference is less mistakes.

With all this being said, there are successful investors in the areas that you may be interested in investing in.  These people may be able to be great mentors to you.  So if you don't want to spend money on a guru type program, you could go to them and ask if they will teach you how to do what they are doing and you will help fund their deals just for the opportunity to learn.

This is my 2 cents. 

Good luck to you.