All Forum Posts by: Sean Henderson

Just wanted to share 2 really cool education websites that I have found that you may find helpful. Now these are not directly related to REI but they have great sections on business and other topics like entrepreneurship, marketing and branding.

The first site that I wanted to share is AcademicEarth,org... I found this site while doing research for a paper in one of my college classes. It is like youtube but for college lectures. If you look into the Entrepreneur section of the sight there are a lot of interesting lectures taped at universities like Stanford and Yale.

The second site I really like is Bnet.com.. There are tons of articles and videos on business that may be helpful to you!

Anyway, just though Id share. Oh and the best part is they are both free sights! Free education works for me!

Let me know what you think and please feel free to add any websites that you may have that are similar!

Sean :D

Maybe I can offer a bit of insight on this... I am currently finishing up my Associates Degree at a Community College in Colorado and planning on transferring to a 4 year school to complete my bachelors this spring.... I too looked at all the different schools before I took the CC route...

Here is my advise from what I have learned from different advisors and other people that I have spoken to about what school I should attend.

1) Unfortunately it doesn't matter how great the schools curriculum is, its the image that people have of the school that counts. I say this because I personally know a few people who are taking classes from the University of Phoenix and I have seen how challenging and in depth the classes are. The problem they are having is that the University of Phoenix is still seen through most peoples eyes as being what I would refer to as a "Daytime TV College" (You know the ones that advertise between episodes of Judge Judy and tell you about how easy it is to get a degree in your spare time). This is hard for them because they spent a lot of money on school and the degree that they are earning doesn't hold its value because of the name. The other issue with these schools is that they are not accredited. If you have to transfer out because you need to move or something the credits you have earned may be useless.

2) If you take the Community College route make sure that the classes you are taking will transfer to a 4 year school. This is very important because at least in Colorado the 4 year state schools do not have to except any classes that they have not designated as a "Guarantee Transfer Course".

Also the CC route may be best if you decide that maybe later in life you would like to come back and go for a Masters Degree. If you earn a bachelor degree from a school that is not accredited, you may not be able to get into a quality masters program.

The other thing that sticks out to me is the price.. 550 a credit is a lot of money to pay for a non accredited class. That is much more than most state schools in Colorado. I think the University of Colorado is only like 330 a credit for instate.( Could be wrong).

If I were you I would go the community college route and work hard to get a high GPA and try to get into a private school to finish your bachelors. That way you can get into a very highly regarded business program and I think the quality of education will be much greater than that of a school like Devry.

Sorry this was so long but I hope that it helps!!!

Sean

Originally posted by Kyle D.:

Sean,
What did you find out about the IRR mentoring program?

As far as the IRR mentoring program I cant say enough good things. I ended up signing up for the program last minute and I don't feel like I could have made a better choice. It was a 6 week program taught by Andrew Bacon and Brad Podhajsky that was full of great information that has set me up to begin my investment career. The value in my opinion though isn't just from the information given in the class. A large part of the value to me is in the network that I was able to build within the class and how Andy and Brad provided access to their extensive network of people. If any one is interested in the class please let me know. They will be offering another program soon and I would be happy to give you my honest opinion on the course. :D

Jeff, my goals in REI are at a constantly evolving state right now. My long term goal is to own large apartment communities because I like the idea of being challenged on that scale. With that being said, what I am trying to do know is build a smaller investment company that will over time provide the capital to make the leap into larger projects. The challenge now that I am dealing with though is my age and how my student loan debt is effecting my debt/income ratio. Its making it very hard for me to move forward right now. I believe that I would be able to secure a hard money loan for example to rehab a single family home but if It doesn't sell my debt/income ratio may not allow me to qualify for a traditional loan to turn it into a rental. I'm not sure how to approach this so If you have any advice I would love to hear it.

Thanks so much!

Sean Henderson
Polished Property Group

One way that you could get all the programs to work on your mac depends on what version of Mac os x you are using. If you have leopard ( I think 10.5.6) you can run a program called bootcamp and it allows you to partition part of your hard drive and install windows on it. You can then boot your mac in either windows or os x based on what program you need to use. I loaded windows so that I can use all of the different programs I need for school. If your interested google bootcamp and installing windows. It works great for me.

Hope this helps! (I love the power of Macs)

Ross, thank you for the advice. After reading your post I started digging around the internet a little and I found that IRR has a mentor program that has classes starting next week. I set up a meeting on Monday morning to speak with a gentleman named Brad Podhajsky to discuss details. Im interested to hear what they have to offer. It sounds like it would be a lot more hands on than what I would be doing with the program offered through Carei.

John, the thing that I am most concerned with is exactly what you said, “tends to be pretty basic stuff, but covers a lot of detail. The thing that I keep noticing over and over is that everything that I have seen that is for sale doesn’t seem to have all of the info. If I were to purchase the courses I would be looking for something that has a complete in depth lesson on how each transaction works and the paperwork necessary to accomplish this. I know that these courses will not make me money them selves, I have to go out and accomplish that on my own. Which I have to say I am excited to do!!! What I want is something to fall back on the way a writer can fall back on a dictionary. I want to have all the information that I need to make deals successful. I want to be able to understand that part of the industry like the back of my hand. My ultimate goal is to focus all of my time on real estate and create a business that has great growth potential with a solid foundation.

Now with that being said, do you feel like the course are more like a flyover of the information, or is it down in the dirt where I have all the facts and it’s my job to put them into motion?

If you know of other options for courses or in depth books like this please tell ;)

Also, thank you Richard for the suggestion about IRR. I will check them out also

Thank you for your input!

John, as far as the meeting in Westminster tomorrow night I will definitely be there. Im glad to hear that it is a smaller meeting because when I went to the meeting in Aurora 2 weeks ago I was shocked to see how many people attended.

With his mentor program the main thing that I was looking for was the course content that is offered. From my understanding the courses that are offered come with very detailed instructions on structuring deals and protecting yourself legally. I believe they also come with all the forms and contracts to make the deals go smoothly.

Because I am new at this I have what I feel to be a great understanding of the general idea of obtaining properties to either flip or hold. I also feel like I have a strong enough understanding of the marketing end to start working toward getting that first deal under my belt. The piece that I feel like I really know nothing about is the paperwork side. Is there another way that I can learn the legal and paperwork end of the deals that you can suggest? I would love to hear any ideas of suggestions that you can offer.

Thanks for your time!

Sean

Hello Everyone,

My name is Sean Henderson and I am fairly new to the investing community and biggerpockets.com. After searching and searching through these forums and through different search engines online, I cant seem to find any objective opinions of Bill Bronchicks mentoring program. I am hoping that someone here has some personal knowledge of his program or knows someone who does. If anyone does, please let me know what you think of it in terms of the three levels offered and if you believe it is worth the money.

My biggest concern is that I have read that most of the learning is in the first few months and then the rest of the time will be spent making things happen by applying what you have learned. Because of this, is it worth paying for the full year of the program or just paying for the 6 months and working hard to make things happen early enough that you can have the guidance early on. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I do live in Denver Colorado so I would be able to apply his knowledge of the local market to my plans and goals. That being said, part of me wonders how much information you can really get from a mentor because in essence, if a mentor teaches you all they know, wouldn't that be counter productive to their succesful business because now they would have strong local competition? just a thought!

Thank you for your time!

Sean