Hello Everyone,

I have been lurking around this site for quite a while, but this is the first time I am posting. I know that there are a lot of very talented people on this site so I thought I would look for help here.  I just spent the last 2 days at a well known company's 3 day seminar on Real Estate Investing ( I am interested fix & flips and buy & hold). The seminar vaguely touches on investing strategies and slowly builds you up to invest up to 50K for coaching and their "system" for running it like a franchise. I found this very interesting as well as very expensive. I don't have that kind of cash on hand, If I did I would plunk it down on a property. I am not saying that education is not important, it is. They tried to liken their training to a college degree. Whenever I asked a question to the coaches on hand, I was told they cover that in the Mastery Program. That really annoyed me,however I really like the idea of having the "System" in place and I feel I need a coach to help me jumpstart. I also love the idea of having a scope of work, but  not sure how to put all these things together. How can I find the information I need to move forward.  I am also very interested in  J. Scott's house flipping books which I plan to purchase very soon. 

@Tom Saccente I can write you any scope of work for 1/2 that - deal??

I mentioned this to someone else the other day which is to find a local mentor and see if you can tag along with them and assist them and work for nothing or peanuts doing some of the mundane tasks they may have including even stopping by projects to see if the workers showed up etc. once you get some background the. Most people will say your better spending $50k on buying a property than you are on training.

Once you get your feet wet then you can decide if you want to bring in someone to train you personally based on your needs since we all have strengths and weaknesses. I would never spend 50k on non accredited training

@Tom Saccente literally the reason this site was created was because of gurus charging outrages amounts for education. There’s an astounding amount of information on BP and out there for next to nothing except your time and effort. At some point you’ll learn exponentially more by doing than just reading.

Yes, what @Ryan E. said about the site.  I want to say stay away from those guru seminars, but I cant knock one because I havent tried one.  I have however found a wealth of knowledge here on BP.  The best thing is not the knowledge, its the tips that are offered.  After any move, post a "whats next" type of question in the forums and watch the free and amazing help come right your way.  

Thanks for the information, i will continue to search the site

I wanted to post an update, I am beginning to get frustrated. I have been looking at properties with an agent and nothing is adding up. I've read tons of books, attended seminars and finally got some money together to invest. My agent took me to several properties (mostly bank owned) and after looking at them I had to ask him, "where do the banks/sellers come up with these prices?" All needed total rehabs, kitchens, flooring, baths etc. and all were listed at ARV values with no room for profit. In fact 2 of the properties he informed me that they would sell 10k higher than they were asking. I don't get it! Another property ( a townhouse) I looked at was on the market for 95K in a 115k neighborhood. I didn't have cash then, but it didn't sell. Recently, it came back on the market (still needing full rehab) for $110K, the comps are in the 110 to 118k range. What am I missing?

Timing. That is what you're missing. The market is high right now. Banks price off of market value and then new investors buy them at a high price because they're looking to get started.

@Tom Saccente This is in reply to your update. Unfortunately, deals to be found on the MLS are getting slimmer by the day. Here in my neck of the woods, conventional homeowners are bidding or offering very high on ugly properties just to finally get into the neighborhood they want to be in. This makes it very hard to find deals with any kind of spread.

If you really want to find properties with margin, you need to be looking -off- market. There are a lot of ways to do this, and I've listed many of them in a few biggerpockets blog posts. These methods and techniques are not just for wholesalers, (and I include wholesalers as one of the ways to get deals sent to your inbox) they apply to anyone who wants to find discounted property. It's not as easy as getting a daily list from a realtor, and it requires reaching out to people, but it's likely you'll find the benefits outweigh the discomfort. 

The biggest difference between getting properties from a realtor (and he or she IS an investor-friendly agent?) and finding them yourself is that the realtor presumably runs a CMA for you using comps, whereas if you find your own properties you will need to learn how to run comps and get ARV yourself to know if they are worth your time and money.

Here are some posts that you might find handy:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8814/72016-55-resources-to-find-real-estate-deals-online

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8814/71506-27-ways-to-find-off-market-and-wholesale-real-estate-deals-offline

Best of luck and feel free to reach out if I can help with anything.