Quote from @Evan Polaski:
@David Cianci, I would ask for referrals from people who joined but are no longer a part of the group. In general, I would say in a space where you are thinking of writing checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars to get deals, $6k/yr is not that much.
To me these all come down to a few factors: what do you "need" out of a mastermind course vs what are they actually offering?
Is the "guru" actually someone that is active and successful in the market, meaning are they someone you would want to learn from? In my limited experience, the most successful people (those that I would want to mimic) don't run guru courses, because they are making more money from doing versus "teaching" others.
And in this case, where their value proposition is the network, my assumption is you are going to be in with a lot of other beginners. What are you going to get from other people who are in the same position as you? How is this guy confirming, before taking your money, that wealthy people are actually in the room? And if they are, what is this group doing to help YOU build a relationship with them versus everyone else who pays $500/mo.
At the end of the day, real estate is nothing unique. You can learn the operations of real estate very easily on YouTube, podcasts, books, bigger pockets. And with syndication, you would be better off understanding marketing and persuasion more than real estate operations, since marketing is where the syndicators who have billion dollar portfolios and collecting millions in fees are better than the real estate operators.
Evan,
I Appreciate you providing in depth feedback to my question!
I had asked for referrals from people who joined but were no longer a part of the group, but I was not given any because they had ceased contact. Not sure why, but I was only given referrals to people currently in the group. They provided me with some valuable feedback, but I agree that it would have been helpful if I had could have a conversation with former members for their opinions.
This guru/owner of this academy seems to have definitely had past success in the real estate market, and I am not clear to whether they are still active in the market because they have built two other businesses they seem to be focused on, I would assume to actively get out of the market and create something else instead. I would agree this guy seems to be currently running his two businesses one of which is this academy teaching others while simultaneously making money. Not sure how much doing he is actually doing except for building his two businesses.
I believe the premise of the network as a value proposition is with the beginners I would be matched with in groups, we could work together to build our own separate businesses together based on our skillsets or partner with each other and build up together. It seems to be these wealthy people in the room are either teachers who teach you how to run/operate specific types of business or are involved with overseeing you operate and formulate the deals you put together since they would be providing the capital for you. Ultimately, it seems like it is purely up to me whether I would like to build a relationship with anyone in the group and whether I will get anything worthwhile out of the group based on what I put into the connections present in the group.
What specific types of marketing and persuasion tactics would you recommend I research to become well versed in those areas to potentially operate a syndication in the future?
