Is a Personal Coach advisable?

Question

I have been approached through the company where I got my initial training about hiring a personal coach to help jumpstart my business. Does the BP community recommend hiring a personal coach to work with you? If so, how much would be a reasonable cost for a coach that would be available only by phone or video conference?

Larry Turowski · Answer

@Gary Eaker coaching is great but you don’t necessarily have to pay for it. You can get a lot of mentoring just by talking with other investors. You could probably talk to 20 other investors this week and get a lot of information. Most are happy to share.

I’m generally against paying a lot for coaching because most people will not get their moneys worth out of it.

What has the coaching you already bought gotten you so far?

Brenden Mitchum · Answer

Hey @Gary Eaker, welcome to the BP community!

Wow, I'm surprised this thread hasn't already blown up into yet another BP coaching disagreement!

But seriously, there are just soooo many opinions on the subject from folks who have and have not gotten coaching. Also, you have a lot of veteran investors on here who provide coaching services so they quickly get offended by the coach-shaming.

My opinion likely won't be very helpful for a couple of reasons: 1. I've never paid for "coaching" & 2. My thoughts on the subject lie somewhere between "You're wasting money if you do" and " You're wasting your time & money if you don't."

I think the truth is that you'll be just fine either way. If you are really passionate about real estate, spend some $$ to get a coach that will teach you the ropes. But, if you're really passionate about real estate, you'll find your way without one too. Maybe it'll take you longer, maybe it won't...there's no real way to nail down the ROI there because every coach and every student is different so the results are not predictable.

Whether or not it will help in a big way likely depends on how much of a go-getter and self-motivator you are. Will you take the time to teach yourself or would you learn much faster with coaching?

Personally, I love real estate & learning about it. I also see that BiggerPockets is a fantastic source of information and mini mentors. So, instead of going with a coach, I leaned on the community here and asked questions anytime I had one. I've also been lucky to have some great mentors in my career thus far that have taught me a lot because they saw the value I was adding to them and others.

That being said, I would go hire a coach in a heartbeat if I felt that it would result in a huge ROI in my career. Keep in mind though that hiring the right coach matters too. It may even be smart to hire multiple because just listening to everything one person says might not be the wisest, not matter how wise they are. Multiple points of view are always better than one, even if some of those aren't technically correct.

Hope this helps a bit! Please, feel free to reach out anytime if you have other questions or just want to chat!

Brian G. · Answer

@Gary Eaker everyone absolutely needs mentors and can greatly benefit by learning from others in the biz but most investors don’t need paid coaching. Of course there is a huge value in education of all kinds (webinars, classes, REIA meetups, bootcamps, etc). What type of investing are you pursuing? It seems to me that paid coaching (which isn’t cheap) makes the most sense for those who have plenty of capital and/or are determined to pursue REI as a full time career path.

Joe S. · Answer

If you got the right coach that taught what your looking for then it could actually help you. Do you even know what niche you are looking for? A good number of years ago I was going to pay for a coaching program the coaching company put me on a call with some young kid that owned zero properties. I called back the company and wanted a different coach they put me with somebody that was not a fit either. I called back and asked for another coach the third coach actually provided some value. :-)

Gary Eaker · Answer

So far it has bought me a lot of work in the classroom and access to non-MLS marketplaces. It has taught me different strategies for acquisition and long term investments using tax liens and tax deeds, and they taught me a LOT about how to properly analyze properties. Probably stuff I could have learned on my own, but I think you could say that for practically anything you go to school for. I would say the value so far has been excellent, but I haven't yet recouped my initial investment.

Gary Eaker · Answer

Right now I am just getting started, but I have chosen this as my full-time pursuit. After losing my job and changing location, we were about to buy into a franchise when I attended a seminar on tax lien investing. One thing led to another and we decided REI was much more appealing than any of the franchises we were interviewing, so we bought advanced training, paid for the Rich Dad Cashflow course, and joined BP. I have one deal in the works through a tax deed marketplace that I got access to through the company I paid for the training. Lots of other possibilities, but nothing solid. I haven't really locked down a niche yet. My goal is to get into large multi-family complexes, and I intend to start small - although I just started inquiries into a small MH park I found out is for sale near me. So I guess I am sort of all over the place when it comes to direction - just analyzing a lot of deals right now looking for cash flow and CoC ROI.

Is a Personal Coach advisable?

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