How to Choose a Real Estate Investment Training Program that Delivers

Are you thinking about getting into real estate investing? The real estate shows on TV make it look easy to buy homes at low prices, remodel them and then sell or rent them at a markup. Or maybe your brother-in-law has made some money by buying homes at wholesale prices or short sales and then selling them for a profit. The reality is that learning how to earn a substantial amount of money in real estate investing is a complex process that requires considerable time and effort. Dozens of real estate investment training programs and seminars promise to help you become an overnight millionaire — but most fail to deliver what they promise and end up being a waste of time and money. Here’s how to avoid wasting your money and find an investment real estate training program that delivers.

Understand Which Real Estate Investment Strategies Will Be Taught

Most of us are familiar with “fix and flip” (remodel and sell) and “buy and hold” (rentals) investment strategies. Many programs promote “wholesaling” as the best way to get started in real estate investing. Wholesaling means finding a home where the owner needs to sell quickly and will sell it at far less than the fair market value (FMV) — and then finding a buyer willing to pay a markup price. “Short sales” is another strategy that means the lender (bank) will sell a home for less than the outstanding mortgage balance.

Another less-known strategy is owner financing — but it happens to offer the best opportunities for wealth and prosperity for investors. Owner financing means that instead of a homebuyer securing a traditional loan, the homeowner loans the money — and collects interest for years on each sale, which leads to considerable wealth for the owner/investor.

The other four investment strategies fail to provide short-term or long-term passive cash flow, require significant upfront cash or credit, or allow you to become financially secure by helping others out of desperate situations. In fact, they often take advantage of people who have experienced a devasting life-altering event such as illness, job loss, unaffordable repairs or divorce. Owner financing offers short and long-term passive cash flow and requires no or minimal upfront cash. It also helps desperate homebuyers avoid foreclosures (and irreparable damage to their credit scores), and homebuyers buy dream homes even when they can’t secure a traditional loan.

Learn more about how owner financing works on our blog post What Is Owner-Financed Real Estate Investing

Before you sign up for a real estate training program, be sure you understand which strategies you’ll learn. Look for ones that include — or better yet — focus on owner financing.

Be Wary of Programs that Promise Overnight Success

You may remember some of those gimmicky plans where someone would ask 1 million people to send them $1 to learn how to become a millionaire, and the advice was to ask 1 million people to send you a dollar. Plenty of self-described real estate investment “gurus” work similarly — they promise to make you a millionaire overnight if you pay to attend their seminar — but fail to deliver any actionable advice. Learning how to find homes to buy for less than fair market value, accurately estimating remodeling costs and finding qualified buyers or renters willing to pay the markup costs are just a few things you need to learn. It takes time and ongoing learning opportunities to become genuinely successful at real estate investing.

Many programs promise you’ll learn all you need to know in an expensive weekend seminar, and then they’ll send you on your way. You’re left knowing a little more about real estate investment strategies, but not enough to know how to get started. Or worse, you’ll know enough to get started but then make costly mistakes and end up losing a lot of money.

Avoid training programs that make promises of instant success with minimal effort.

Determine If the Trainers Are Proven, Successful Investors

Would you want to learn how to run a restaurant or a hotel from someone who had never owned or worked in one? Probably not, so you should also make sure you’re learning from someone who is a successful real estate investor. Investors who have earned a sizable income have learned from their successes — and their mistakes. You’ll benefit from their real-world advice on how to avoid pitfalls and overcome obstacles.

Make sure any program you consider is designed and taught by experienced investors.

Look for Programs that Offer Hands-On Applications and Ongoing Training

As we’ve noted, most programs offer lofty, academic lectures and then send you on your way with no follow-up opportunities (especially if traveling real estate “gurus” taught them). A program that offers hands-on, real-world training better prepares you than ones that simply provide theoretical scenarios. You’ll also benefit far more with one that offers ongoing learning and networking opportunities — and mentoring after the official training ends. Being able to ask advice and shadow experienced investors as they transact real estate deals sets you on a path to incredible wealth, security and prosperity.

Look for programs that offer opportunities to build ongoing relationships with experienced investors.

Owner Finance Academy’s real estate investment training program focuses on win-win owner-financed investment strategies. Experienced real estate investors strategically design and teach each session using real-world scenarios and hands-on applications. Best of all, as a graduate of Owner Finance Academy, you become a lifelong learner with opportunities to build long-term relationships with its experienced investors.

Yes, I want to learn more about Owner Finance Academy’s Programs.