Course Confusion!!!!
Let me predicate this post by saying how awesome this forum is.
Although there is priceless info here on REI, for a newbie it's a little overwhelming. I hear a lot of recommendations to "read everything here and start working". Well, that's a lot of info--a lot of unorganized info. I am sure that there are those who can do just that.
But, for those of us who need a more structured and organized way of learning--is there a comprehensive course that we can take to learn this info? Most of the highly recommended courses are niche-specific (Sub2, L/O, etc.). I have heard good things about Locke's and Conti's/Finkel's course, but these courses arent comprehensive enough. I need a thourough course, accompanied by good access to teachers that is going to teach me SPECIFIC, RELEVANT info on the most used CREI techniques--enough info that I don't need to buy ANOTHER course to learn to apply specific techniques, save reading books (which should be a neverending thing for REIs, i believe). In other words--can you recommend a course that will teach me everything I need to know to get started making money--without limiting myself to one technique? Once I start, then I can discover which niche I like best and then read, read, read and apply.
Sorry to drag this out--but I've been struggling with this for weeks.
Thanks!!
I like the "<u>Baptism By Fire</u>" training course the best.
Although I do invest in books, manuals and training courses, I have learned over the last year in particular, that nothing beats just doing it.
Go to your local investor groups meetings for a while. You'll get bored after a bit but you will run into some helpful, experienced real estate folks, contractors and such. Get to know the players.
Go to your foreclosure auctions - not to participate in the auction, but to meet the nice people who HAVE money to help you get started.
Don't be impatient but don't procrastinate either. You will get there so much quicker by doing.
C-
I am somewhat like you in that I usually want to know EVERYTHING there is to know about something before doing it. Just part of my nature. And while there are merits and benefits to this, it can also handicap me sometimes. I can spend vast amounts of time learning before doing, while, like in an apprenticeship program, I could be learning and getting paid for it at the same time. I do not know of a good course with an indepth study of each area of real estate investing because most course writers found what interested them, did it, and are successful at it. Since I don't know of what you are looking for, you might find some satisfaction in doing what I'm doing - writing my own "book" to satisfy my need to know about it all. I'm reading and studying here and on other sites and compiling my information on the different techniques (even though new ones are constantly being invented) and documenting success rates in different areas. I've found that even if you find the ultimate success route, it may be difficult in your area because of the real estate climate there. So I have to find the formula that I like, feel comfortable with, and think I can make money at. I haven't bought any courses yet. I think I like Subject to's and I think they can be found and worked successfully in my area. So I will probably start there and buy a course to fill in the gaps of my independent study. I will probably take another course someday in another area when I get bored and want a new venture, again finding one that will work for me in my area.
I think that it's just part of the job to organize data into your personal format. Don't be overwhelmed. Develop a simple outline/database and fill in the information as you read. You're already dong the reading, just document it to help you really learn it and it will become familiar to you. I can hear someone talk about something all day, but until I put it into action, I don't really learn it. Like in school, you learn things, but you don't really know it until you put it into real life situations.
Don't mean to preach and I hope I'm not off base, just telling you my way to look at REI hoping it might be what you're looking for to that might help you. I think we each have to create our own structure and organization if we don't immediately identify with someone else's. I wish you all the success you're looking for!
Terry
I copied an intro from some material that's available on this site. It may address your question.
Happy Thanksgiving.
In most major TV markets, late night viewers are invited to “get rich quick” with little or no effort while working part-time from the convenience of their own homes. They’re asked to plunk down their hard earned bucks for the latest entry into the foray of real estate investment courses, books, tapes, or seminars. They’re told that they’ll learn the ‘secrets’ of buying discounted real estate including land trusts, sub2’s, lease options, muni tax liens, or any number of techniques heralded as, “the best method of real estate investment’ as pitched by the TV infomercial gurus. Is any one method of real estate investment superior to all others? Should one technique be used above all others? Will the mastering of any single technique, including “short sales” make one rich? No. But I do think that each investment technique or “tool” that’s learned will better enable a real estate investor to identify and capitalize on more opportunities.
The more tools you know how to use, the better prepared you are when faced with opportunity. Most casual speculators overlook property(s) that appear to have little or zero equity.
A successful short sale can create equity and opportunity where none previously existed. But, you must be both clever, and professional in your approach.
Let’s pretend for a moment that real estate investment is like the game of golf, and an investor is a golfer about to play a round of 18 holes. For those of you unfamiliar with golf, it’s a game played by (mostly) men who wear brightly colored clothing over a course more than four miles long while boasting to friends about how great their business is doing while counting the number of strokes it takes to get a small, round ball into a distant, slightly larger, round hole. If that isn’t challenging enough, the golfer must negotiate all types of weather conditions, stands of trees, great ponds of water, or white beaches of sand, while enduring distractions including but not limited to buzzing wasps, swarming mosquitoes (New Jersey), alligators (Florida) or other loud, obnoxious players (New York).... The golfer strikes the ball with one of about a dozen different, long, crooked sticks. These crooked sticks are called metals, woods, irons, wedges, or putters and are the ‘tools’ of the game. Each crooked stick or tool is designed in such a way as to propel the struck ball with a certain trajectory and distance in anticipation of a desired result. A “wood” will send a properly struck ball about 284 yards toward the green. From there, a wedge will carry the ball closer to the green. A sand wedge will blast the ball from the green side bunker onto the putting surface. An experienced golfer, requiring a club designed for a short and accurate shot would properly select and use his putter to send the tiny, round ball into the only slightly larger hole.
The game of golf, not unlike the real estate business, is as much about knowing the right club or tool to use in a given situation as executing the technique required by each club or tool. What does this mean? A golfer challenged by a course, must know what clubs to use to overcome a set of obstacles.
If the golfer finds himself in a sand trap, he would know to use a sand wedge or another club equally or better suited to move the ball with the desired result.
Similarly, a real estate professional must know what technique or ‘tool” to use to identify and exploit an opportunity. This introduction to unique, complex, but potentially rewarding realty transactions commonly known as a short sale is intended for real estate brokers, brokers' agents, mortgage brokers, real estate investors, or potential speculators who want to learn about the discounted, pre foreclosure acquisition of distressed real estate. If you’ve purchased this primer but do not have a basic understanding of real estate terms, transactions or finance, you should keep handy a real estate and business terms dictionary. Will an understanding of short sales make you rich? No. But once the process is demystified, you will be able to close deals that others are afraid to touch, or don't even realize are there.
This primer will address the technique known as The Short Sale, some Frequently Asked Questions, and several Short Sale Scenarios. This is not a step by step cookie cutter approach to the art of short sales, but will help you to understand what is needed and why. Foreclosure laws, practices and customs vary from State to State, and County to County. This primer will not differentiate security instruments including mortgages, deeds of trust, or security deeds, nor will it address strict foreclosure, judicial foreclosure, or non judicial foreclosure procedures.
A Short Sale Proposal
has got to make sense,
and quickly
identify the benefit
to the reader!
Hi you guys,
And happy Thanksgiving...I too was a bit overwhelmed and excited at the same time of the wealth of information that is available from TCI.
I would have to say that I'm pretty much the same way...I feel that I'm somewhat handicapped or relunctant to really go out there on my own without proper knowledge or training in order to perform my work/job to the
best of my ability. I am taking everyones advice about reading the forums/articles and trying to network and find a mentor who would be willing to take me under their wings and learn the business. I just recently joined a local REI club here in ATL.
So for me, I've been compiling all the reading material, etc that I come across and have categorize them in the folders of Microsoft Word. I will take the best top twenty-five topics relating to my specific interest which is bird-dogging, pre-foreclosures and wholesaling/flipping and put them in step-by-step process manual for my quick reference and start hitting the pavement Dec 5,2003. My goal at present is to concentrate on pre-foreclosures. I actually compiled a list from Novembers foreclosure listing...however, I felt that I did not have enough time since I did not have any investors in place, and I started or actually did not the list until late. But whether or not I feel that I'm not ready still, I am going to push myself regardless, because I've waited too long already to get this ball rollin'...
I have to say that I am nervous, but I know that I will be fine...Because, one thing that I do know and love about TCI is that no matter what scenario you have, you can always post your questions and people will respond. The beauty of it all too is that someone out of the blue can either put you in touch with an investor or offer to partner up with you, etc. TCI is truly a God send...Especially for us beginners!!!!
So, I am greatful to have this type of resource available to me and to you all.
Who knows one day you guys might be reading one of my courses or books...LOL
Well listen, I've gotta get back to my family, it is Thanksgiving! I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving...And I'll be hitting ya'll back tomorrow
Peace & Blessings~
JB
I thought I was wordy, damn you win. Of course you do not remember me but i remember you, I'm the Caddy. Oh now you remember. I am the one that slipped the Tee under your ball as it lay there in the rough. You remember the green where everybody was looking for your ball and I slipt it in the cup. Remember the six times you blasted away in the sandtrap. Yeah I just threw a ball onto the green and told you what a great shot you had made. I am the one that grabed the driver out of your hand and handed you the No three wood for that little par three shot over the lake. You know the one that you plotched three in a row into the water. Remember the smart ass in your forsome that said you better get some balls that float. I am the one that rubbed beeswax on his putter blade. How could you forget, took him four putts to get in.
I burnt the silly hat and the pants that used to belong to Harpo Marxs, I no longer caddy on a course that I go around in about 66 but carry bags for duffers who are trying to break 100.
However, I find that the same wonderful things learned from the highly untalented
persons on the golf links are directly applicable to the area of Real Estate Insertions.
I still fullfill the functions of a caddy but I now go by the title of Real Estate Broker. When you come in with the offer that is so low the response from the Seller is an automatic No followed by an instruction to leave imediately. It is I the
Caddy, that stays with the Seller and removes the spit from my face and initiates a counter offer.
You mighty closers are far away, reading your next manuel while I am doing what you are supposed to be doing, negotiating.
I am the one that gets the one minute desertation on the failure of my mother and father to litgitimize my birth. I am the one that writes up the counter offer whle the seller is banging on the table and jumping up and down like a jack in the box. Yes and when I get back with the counter, you are the one that gives me a stern admonition as to my poor penmanship. I mean you try and write something with one hand while deflecting a 45 automatic with which the Seller is projecting his anger at a really stupid lowball insulting offer.
Remember the short sale that you so cleverly negotiated, only to find that the tenants in possession had a verbal lease for a full year at $100 a month and the true rent should have been $1,000.Now who got you out of that one me the ex caddy. True I did make a small profit arranging their purchase for no money down of a house at about 50% of its true market www.value.Conditional on their vacating your newly purchased property. Too bad that big rain storm had the house change zip codes. Ah well the gods do love ex caddy's
Everytime I hear the word Fore I look around for some of my Golfer Clients, now why is it I always want to spell Fore with a W ?????
But I love you all.
Your ex caddy two bag Lucius
great thought-out responses--thanks folks.
Not sure I quite understand the caddy metaphor, but I think you're saying just get off my duff and do it?
Hopefully, this will be a simplified response compared to the booklets above.
You'll never be able to learn ALL there is to know about REI by reading. There will always be changing methods, laws, codes, etc. that only the active participants are aware. Heck, you won't know everything when you're doing it. That's why you network and find good agents, attorneys, CPAs, etc.
I doubt that there is any one book that can effectively cover EVERY REI method, mainly for the reasons mentioned above and the fact that few persons are equally experienced in ALL fields.
Visit your library and pull a few books on real estate investing, as well as reading here. Pick a niche that you think MAY work for you in your area and study it. If then you don't like it, move on.
Last, people get too hung up on learning everything, knowing everything, extra. Regardless of the method you choose, they are ultimately boil down to:
1)Make an offer
2)It's either accepted, rejected, or countered
3)If offer is accepted, go to closing
4)Sell or rent the property as you see fit.
Roger
Hi, I just joined this force of people looking to help others with real estate and make a good living too. I am interested in everything, and everything scares me a little. I read about a course from David Whisnant about foreclosures that is supposed to be the best. Anyone had any experience with it? Love the forums so far. Thanks.
Thanks, rajwarrior
You're right...all these different methods can be a bit overwhelming. I was the same way when I first started out in REI. Through my experience I found out that you should try to learn as much about each and then narrow your focus to one or two methods that will be good for you to start off in. However, don't spend to much time studying and end up doing nothing. Knowledge isn't worth much if you don't get to implement that knowledge. Take action!!
We ordered Carlton Sheet's program, and we've done quite well with it.
For $150 or so, you can order John$Cash$Locke's book or you can go to www.l2p.com and order his book for about the same. Look at both, and evaluate them for yourself.
Carlton's course will cover about 13 creative, no money down techniques; I'm not familiar with the above two, but from what I understand, they're two very good books on lease options.
We've used a partner's money; we have done rehabs; we've used equity in one property to buy another, and we're about to being lease options.
First we got duplexes to give us a + cash flow; now we just strated a rehab which we bought from a bank's REO.
Again, we're rereading and learning all we can about lease options. I'm sure we'll do one in the next two months; as a matter of fact, I have a few houses in mind on which to try a lease option.
Which course? To get in the quickest... with no money... A short sale, lease option or getting a partner with $ would be my suggestions.
Thanks,
OnTheWater
thanks joneso and onthewater!
I like the post by TheShortSalePro.
I'm a relativly new investor. I began in the game looking for long-term rentals. I bought the courses and the books and ended up with a few properties. It's been good to me but my financial needs have changed and so has my strategy. Therefore, I need new tools. So I bought more courses and more books.
Now I'm full of tools...and ready for deals. I don't think a motivated seller could present a deal where money cannot be made by one method or another. This is the theory at least...the practice is sure to follow. I say either learn all the tools then find the motivated sellers OR learn a tool and find your situation of expertise.