I paid $500,000 for real estate coaching (was it a scam?)

So it's no secret that having someone that has already accomplished what you want to accomplish in your back pocket will give you the best odds of success. However, the reality is today it seems like there are more gurus out there than actual successful real estate investors. Of course I'm joking, but today I want to break down why real estate courses and programs are a scam and how to actually level up in real estate without paying thousands of dollars and getting burned. So, through educators that aren't actually experts. Now for context, I've spent around $500,000 in masterminds, courses and coaching, specifically in real estate investing. So I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly of the industry. And I'll add, I've paid all that money with no guarantee that anything will come of it. Because simply I know that just one connection, one nugget is all it takes to pay that off in buying multi family. And if I can pay off the initial investment within a year, I now have a connection or a nugget that that can. I can make the same amount every year again and again for the rest of my life. So it has an infinite return. However, that is way easier said than done, right? With so many people out there selling something now, why am I sharing this? Why am I teaching something for free right now? Because regardless of whether it is paid, coaching or free, everyone has a motive and what's in it for them? Where are they profiting off sharing that information? Everyone has it, right? In fact, you've probably never seen a video like this. And even if you have, there's potentially a wrong motive behind it because no one is teaching something if it does not help them somewhere along the road. For me, unlike most people out there teaching information, I'm looking for a win win situation. Alright, at the end of the day that makes sense of me teaching something for free. And what makes it worth it for me. I'm going to break that down in this video in just a second. But a little background on me is I come from the ministry and nonprofit world helping women out of trafficking. I built a prayer room, a nonprofit coffee shop and and many other ministry initiatives. At the same time I was also investing in real estate on the side. And the ministry is how I met my partner because he donated a house to help us rescue survivors of trafficking. And because of that he was willing to teach me real estate investing, buying large apartment complexes even without my own capital. Alright. Now since then we've also ventured into helping kingdom minded faith based real estate investors scale as well, but my income is not selling courses or information like all of that is free through chat, GPT anyway, right? You don't need to pay for that. In fact, the way Larry scaled his portfolio, my partner, and the way we have built over $500 million in assets under management together with our partners, is because we focus strategically on getting in front of specific people to help us scale. And there are many ways to do that. But today I want to break down two ways to not get scammed in real estate, but level up. Grow your income or whatever your goals are at the same time as actually getting the proper help. Okay. And specifically for those that don't want to pay anything for coaching, I'm going to show you exactly how you can do that. And secondly, for those that are actively looking to pay for coaching, I want to walk you through what to look for so you know that you're guaranteed to get success and not lose money. Alright, so first off, let's talk about the reality that there are scams and why so many people get burnt. Alright? This is the problem and then I'll give you the solution. Okay, so there are typically three reasons why someone would hire a coach, right? One, lack of knowledge. Right. Two, they need accountability. Three, they need they have a poor mindset or they need access to capital or they need access to deals. But listen, let's be real. Why would a new investor be able to get access to high level real estate investors who show them the ropes? Especially if that educator is actually making a lot of money in the thing that they are teaching. Why would they need to start an education arm if they are doing so good? Because let's face it, if someone is actually crushing it in real estate, they wouldn't need to make money off education. They just should keep doing more of that. You need to know what is in it for them. Alright, I'm going to break that down in just a second. But typically most of these gurus are making more off education than they are in real estate investing. The people that are actually at the top of the industry in real estate investing, consider it a distraction to be educating people. All right? They are looking for specialists in the specific roles that they need to get filled in their real estate business. Right? So they can actually scale. The only way you could realistically expect someone who is actually crushing it in real estate is if you are going to work for them. Right? But being that you have no experience, that's unlikely unless you are willing to go in at their lowest level position. And then after a while Potentially years. You level up and then branch off. Like you could go in and cold call sellers. Now maybe that's a bad example because we pay cold callers out of the Philippines four or five bucks an hour and they don't get any of the deal. But my point is, you could learn, say the skills of capital raising and try to partner with someone who is willing to take a risk on you and include you on the deal if you raise capital for them, right? But Warren Buffett, right? Think about him. If you think you can just go up to Warren and say, hey, I'll pay you to teach me something, right? To teach me what you do. No, his time is far more valuable than helping you. And really, what can you actually give him that would mean anything? He's got all the money in the world. So here is the solution. The reality of scaling is you have to find people that are where you want to be and have made the mistakes, copy their model. However, you have to find someone that you are actually solving a problem for and help them in the areas that they are weak in. So problem number two, you hear coaches preach all the time, no money down. Well, what does that actually mean? How do you actually participate in deals with no money down? That just simply means that you are going to learn the skills to get other people to put up the money for a percent of the profits or you are learning the skills to get the sellers to carry part of the loan or all of the loan. But the reality is you have to somehow pay to learn those skills, right? You can do it without a coach or someone holding your hand. But the idea is that to truly no money down is just really not true. Technically it's still accurate in one sense, but it only pertains to the actual deal. And assuming you have the skills necessary to accomplish this. Like we do this in our own deals all the time, right? Like this 88 unit deal we bought for $4 million, raised $1.4 million, made $2 million in equity, we within 24 months. But we only got there because we knew how to find, structure and raise the capital on the deal. Now, how do you actually not put any money down even to pay for a coach? All right, one is, like I mentioned earlier, you create a win win for another investor, Go work for someone through cold calling, or try to find someone that helps, that needs your help with something that you are strong at and try to spark a partnership with them. Again, this is going to be really hard, but you can level up this way. I've actually Seen several people do this and be the lowest on the totem pole for a commercial real estate investor. And eventually they learned from that investor and they started their own investments. Okay? You can also learn capital raising and you may have to search very hard, but you may can find someone that is willing to help you without paying up front and then they can bring you along in the deal. Again, harder than it sounds. And you still risk finding the wrong person. Because from my experience, the best guys in the industry already have a process and system in place to do those things. Alright? Like most likely if you go this route, you, you will have to find more of like a peer more than an actual mentor, right? Second way is for those that are actually actively seeking to pay someone and want to go faster, find someone that can actually deliver because they are actually an expert, not just an educator. Which means there must be a win win for them, right? Here are the questions you must ask when looking for a coach. All right, Number one, what's in it for them? All right, what is in it for us? The question you have to ask, why do these guys need me? What's in it for them? If their answer is because they just want to help people, look, that's a big red flag. They're just doing it out of charity. I come from a ministry background and as much as that plays a major part in why I help people scale and ultimately brings real purpose to my life. And obviously money never actually brings fulfillment. But look, I wouldn't be helping people if I didn't think there was a way to grow my personal portfolio and income through it. All right? But the question is, where is that growth and money being made in this relationship? All right, Is it just education and their success rate doesn't really matter or are they doing it because they are actually able to create win win situations for their clients, all right? And actually make money together? Because I promise you, if you, if they truly knew what they are doing, that educator, they can make more money from their real estate investments than coaching. But if there's a way to make money together and they understand that the correct answer here is commercial real estate is a team sport, all right, that is what you are looking for. Larry and I both started helping people because of one reason. We realized that by helping people, helping investors, we are growing our footprint around the US and are able to participate in more deals. Commercial real estate is a team sport, alright? And for us, we actually have been able to participate as a loan sponsor, as a boots on the ground, limited partners, all kinds of different things. If we can help people level up, we are now able to branch into new markets and are able to grow our portfolio. Alright? The more people that we get to do that with, the more people want us to help them. And now we are hiring more commercial acquisition directors, we're hiring more staff because we have so many deals that we can't take down our own. And we have endless opportunity to grow our portfolio. Okay, next question is how many deals have you done and how many deals have your clients done? Is there a proven track record and has the company actually partnered on deals with their members? If they don't have examples to walk you through of this type of situation, don't do it. Now, the next point may only pertain to some of you, but it is very important for me and I am looking for someone who is faith based and not just faith based, but actually lives that out. Look, just because someone says they're faith based does not mean that you can trust them. But getting into business with someone is like getting into a marriage, right? You need to have the highest chance at a good partnership and that means your value should align. If the person you're talking to about coaching you does not actually care about your values and what drives you and instead they let anyone in, that means they're not actually thinking about you participating in a deal. How intense is your one on one coaching? Right? That's the question I'm asking. Are you guys in the weeds? Like what does that actually look like? Are there set metrics or KPIs that they will set for me to guarantee that I close on a deal? Right. In a certain amount of time? What are those key metrics? If they don't know or fumble around, you will get a lack of support. Right? You need to know the exact time commitment necessary and you need to hear that there will be a breakdown of each minute of every hour that you need to invest in this endeavor. Right? So exactly what you need to do each day or week. Our internal motto in our company is we drag people up the mountain whether they want to go or not. All right, it is kind of funny, but you need to find someone in your corner that has tenacity and grit and are just as passionate about seeing you succeed as you are. And that is only created through a win win situation. The only thing that in my opinion is a hack in life is for you to get to choose your community. There is someone out there that has already solved the next 10 problems you face. The most important thing is that you find a model. Put your head down and stay focused. The Bible even says the plans of the diligent lead to a profit. That's a promise. Okay, look, last thing. Everything out there is only worth what you spend. You pay for what you get. You've probably heard that before. If you pay a $2,000 price, you're going to expect $2,000 results or at most 10x that return if you work really hard, right? Whether that is in the value of the education or the community or the relationships or if it's in the effort you are going to give to get the results, you're either going to pay in mistakes, years and risk. And it may cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, which I've literally seen people going at it alone, or you're going to be able to pay in money. All right? A community is only as high level as the price of admission. Name one community that you can get in for free. That is that actually has the highest level members in it. All right. I hope that helps and look forward to seeing you soon.