You’ve seen the informercials.
You’ve been bombarded at real estate seminars.
You say to yourself, “this sounds great, but can I do it?” With slick presentations that often leave out, or gloss over, the really hard parts, you’re lulled into spending your hard-earned money on hope. A hope that you can do it.
“Is it right for me?” you ask yourself or your spouse. These are the same questions I asked myself as I saw the $5000 price tag in the Fall of 1999 during the beginning of my post-doctoral position. We were down to the last $5,000 we’d saved for graduate school. I got a Ph.D., not to make money, but because I love the field. But money is what you have to make to raise a family. So, in the way that I quit my full-time job at Texas Instruments to go to graduate school, I did the same thing. I put up the money and headed to Phoenix, AZ for a 3-day course in buying real estate. When I got back, I pursued what I’d been taught with vigor. Within a few months, I’d made back the $5,000. Within a year, I’d bought a house which I sold for double that amount a few years later. I promptly re-invested that money in two more properties.
But….the larger question is: will it work for me? I would answer the following questions first.
- Are you self-driven?
- Are you goal oriented?
- Are you disciplined?
- Are you able to stick with tasks?
The answers to these questions will dictate how successful you will be buying a course and your long-term success. In the end, these are the characteristics of successful people.
So, it’s not really a matter of what course you buy. It’s what kind of person you are. The course is being sold because someone was successful at a particular technique. BTW, don’t worry, most of my successful friends in real estate don’t have a Ph.D., either.
Is it worth it? Well, when you buy a real estate course, you’re basically buying experience. Yes, you could do it all yourself and learn the hard way. This can be very helpful, but it can be very expensive.
I took a very expensive course in partnering when I had to let a lease option expire worthless in a property I’d invested $40K into. I could have saved myself that money if I’d partnered up with someone who had the money to refinance that I needed. Is a real estate course worth it?
What I’m really trying to say is that it’s not really a matter of what course you buy. It’s what kind of person you are. The course is being sold because someone was successful in a particular technique.
I got a very expensive course in partnering when I let a lease option expire worthless for a property I’d invested $40K into. I could have saved myself that money if I’d partnered up with someone who had the money to refinance. Is a real estate course worth it?
Is a real estate course worth it? A lot depends on you and your temperament. When you buy a real estate course, you’re basically buying experience. Yes. You could do it all by yourself and learn the hard way which can be very expensive. What you’re trying to do is optimize your expenses by reducing the learning curve.
Will it cost more to try to do something without the course? Is the course so prohibitively expensive that you’ll never make up the money? An example of the latter case is billionaire Dan Pena, AKA, the $50B man, who charges $25,000 to attend a one-week event. Pena doesn’t guarantee you anything. Is this a scam? Some people say yes, some people say no. But, if you spent $100,000 getting an undergraduate degree in English Literature. Education is usually worth the money, just be cautious.