So there I was one night, flipping channels, and I saw one of those infomercials that comes on late night TV. You know the kind; promising to make you millions in the real estate market. I was already an amateur real estate investor and I figured this way I could learn enough tricks to shed my amateur status and be on the road to financial freedom. Since I still had a full-time job back then, I used my lunch hour to go to the hotel where they were teaching the course.
Well, although I did not learn anything about real estate investing that I didn’t already know, they psyched me up to be a multimillionaire in the real estate investing market. That’s why I paid $2,000 to go to their upcoming weekend course. I thought the fact that they were letting me bring someone else at no extra cost was a great deal. I could see my glorious future ahead.
I learned a little more at this course, but I left with more questions than answers.
A few of the tricks I learned could be used right away, but they quickly explained how their other classes would further help me get the financial success I was after. So I took more courses and spent about $20,000 more dollars. I finished one assignment deal, which involved flipping a property, and purchased two more properties for no money down. Because I believed everything that they were teaching me, I invested in some really bad properties and made some other bad decisions that proved to be very expensive in the years to come. They had led me very far off track, and I allowed it to happen. It was an expensive lesson.
However, this does not mean you should never take a real estate investing course. In fact, I think taking one is a great step for beginners. But there are some tips and tricks to getting your money’s worth from these courses:
– Know Your Objectives. Ask yourself what you expect to get out of investing in real estate (quantify this if you can). What is your risk tolerance? What is your aptitude (can you or do you want to fix things and/or be a landlord)? Write your objectives down so that you have a good idea of what you are trying to do before you look for a course.
– Do your research! A quick online search for real estate investing courses will turn up a lot of options. Go online and look for forums or reviews of the course. Ask friends and family if they know of anyone that has taken a real estate investing course.
– Research the company. You can most likely get information for the company offering the course by mail or on the Internet. Some of the most important information you’ll get is the speaker’s bio. The bio will tell you what makes this teacher qualified to teach the subject. Believe me, people like Robert Allen, Donald Trump, and Russ Whitney do not teach classes like this.
– Leave Your Visa At Home, or At Least Know Your Limits. Before you leave the house to go to the FREE course or the paid weekend on real estate investing, decide what is the maximum amount you will pay for the initial course or any subsequent courses and materials. It’s important to do this BEFORE you attend the course. When you attend the FREE or the less expensive courses, the up-sell is going to be hard to resist, as you will be offered the rock bottom price, but “only if you sign up today”. And every bone in your body might be absolutely convinced that you NEED this to achieve your greatest dreams. If you go in with a threshold of, for instance $3,000, then you can hopefully better control what you actually spend on a future course. Emotion plays a big role in your decision to spend more money, and the programs out there feed on this. Take the “impulse” decision out of the equation by knowing what your objectives are and how much you’re willing to spend to achieve those objectives.
– Use what you’ve learned. All the knowledge or all the classes in the world don’t mean a thing if you never apply what you have learned. You’ve met some wonderful people at these classes and learned some wonderful tricks, but you’re still waiting. Why? If you weren’t planning to buy anything, why did you take all those classes? The real secret to making any class work is to get out there and use what you learned.
I’ve spoken with a few people at different classes who have taken 4 or 5 real estate investing classes and still have never bought a single piece of property. I can’t think of a bigger waste of time and money than not using what you’ve learned. How will you meet your goals if you don’t apply your knowledge?
Real estate investing courses can be valuable – but only if you use what you learn!
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