Online Paid Course education a good or bad idea?

[Brandon DiOrio]

With so many online courses costing anywhere from 100-1500 has anyone done one before. Was it worth it if so what ones?

[Brian Kantor]

Hi, @Brandon DiOrio. As with most questions in this space, the answer is "it depends". There is no silver bullet solution and yes, @Taylor L. is right in that all of the info you need is readily available online for free.

The issue with the free info online is that it is not necessarily organized in a strategic way and as a newbie, you may not know where to begin. In addition, you'll find may equally valid competing strategies and you'll struggle with the question of which strategy is right for you. This can lead to analysis paralysis and a failure to even start or make any real progress.

The upside of a course is that it's structured, concise and can keep you more motivated.

I now have 4x rental units, and I started with Paula Pant's "Your First Rental Property" course. I found it extremely helpful and am not sure I would have bought that first property without it. Would definitely recommend at least looking into it, and found the ~$1k tuition more than fair.

With that said, to most people who ask me how to start, I typically suggest they begin by reading 2 Bigger Pockets books in this order: "The Book on Rental Property Investing" by Brandon Turner and then "Long Distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene. Those two books alone should get you moving in the right direction and for ~$30 total between them. After your done, if you feel like you need a little more structure, try the Paula Pant course.

Good luck!