Hey all,

Can you all please recommend some really good courses and workshops for investing in apartments / muti-family?

One of the best values in commercial courses is Ray Alcorn's Dealmakers Guide. At $600 it's not cheap but it is excellent.

I like Dave Lindahls materials. He has good very information but is the typical guru pushing more products on you. Multi Family millions book by him is a good start.

Scott Sheel has a commercial seminar which is an excellent presentation. I think he is a better presenter than Dave Lindahl, but the content is no better and Dave's is more specific to apartments.

If you are serious about commercial property (more than 5 unit apartments are considered commercial property) look into the CCIM program. It is absolutely the best commercial training out there.

I will second @Ned Carey and say that short of an Ivy League real estate MBA the CCIM program is the best education available and much less expensive though it's not cheap.

Although I'm not a fan of people in the guru business, Lindahl's stuff is a good intro but there are several books that do even better and much less expensively:

Frank Gallinelli's book on cash flow is the source for understanding income properties. You can find it on Amazon here: What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures

Frank also has another book called '10 Commandments for Real Estate Investors' that I reread every other month or so as a reminder.

Ken McElroy has two great books on apartment investments and one on property management:

The ABCs of Real Estate Investing: The Secrets of Finding Hidden Profits Most Investors Miss

The Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing: How to Identify the Hottest Markets and Secure the Best Deals

The ABC's of Property Management: What You Need to Know to Maximize Your Money Now

Also see Ken's BP interview on Podcast 052: Buying Apartment Complexes, etc. here: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/01/09/bp-podcast-052-raising-millions-ken-mcelroy-rich-dad/

The best way to learn the apartment business is to get your brokers license and a property management job to feed you while you build your sales. Once you're established in brokerage you can easily move into acquisition and from your property management days you'll know the business from the ground up. If I was starting over that's how I would do it.

Good hunting-

@Karma Senge

I will third both @Ned Carey and @Giovanni Isaksen . Ray Alcorn's Dealmakers Guide is one of the best that I came across so far. Not easy to find on secondary markets, but it comes up once in while.

Also, a good place to start is Ken McElroy's The ABCs of Real Estate Investing; his other book The Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing did not impress me at all (plus the book has many mathematical errors), but I started reading it after going through most of Alcorn's material.

Garrett Sutton's The Loopholes of Real Estate gives interesting tactics in REI.

I have Lindahl's books: Multi-Family Millions, Emerging Real Estate Markets; as well as Apartment House Riches course. The books are good and give good info and guidance. The course, I definitely wouldn't spend full price on as a most material covered in books. You do get some extras, but I a not sure it's worth $1400 upfront. If you look on secondary markets, I am sure you can get one for a significant discount.

Thanks so much guys. I am definitely looking into Ray's Course. And have added all the other books to my Amazon wishlist. Although I already have Lindahl's Multi-Family Millions. Just started it a few days ago.

:)

Ray Alcorn's the Definitive Guide is by far the best I've seen. It goes in significant depth regarding most layers of commercial real estate investing.

Doubling down on Ray. I have spoken with him in the past on a few occasions. The depth of his research and analysis is absurd. I have never seen anything like it.

By CCIM are there several companies teaching this or is this the one offered by the Real Estate Commissions or Kaplan Schools?  Thx, Geo

@Giovanni Isaksen is The ABCs of Real Estate Investing a beginner book? geared toward strictly apartments? Been investing in single family for 10 years want to skip the baby steps. Thanks.

Karma,

Add Steve Berges "Complete Guide to Buying and Selling Apartments".  Highly recommend after reading several books, maybe taking a few quality courses, and hooking up w/local MF groups in your area to take a look at getting a coach that does MF.  You might even break into an opportunity to learn and earn from them.  This greatly speeds up the learning curve.

You don't need a course or a workshop. Just 5 books on the topic. Then the rest you learn by doing.

@Al Beahn I haven't read it myself but I have heard very good reviews. That said my guess is it is a basic book but will have the occasional tip worthwhile for an experienced investor.

You don't need a course or a workshop. Just 5 books on the topic. Then the rest you learn by doing.

Well you are right. You don't Need a workshop, but many people could benefit from one or even a few. Not many books go into the type of analysis that CCIM classes go into. I would jump at the chance, and happily pay, to hear Ray Alcorn speak even though I am not currently doing commercial properties.

see @Anthony Chara s profile, an inexpensive but thorough basics to apartment investing

Rosston,

Yes, reading is part of it.  However, if you want financial freedom and be successful faster, courses and the right coach can accelerate your growth, not just a bit but 10x and more.  I'm sure you can get there w/o courses, mentors and coaches, but why? What's holding you back? Is it cost? your time? your stubborn?, you're uncoachable?  Now if you tell me you're financially independent and did it all on your own I would marvel and say you are the lucky one, not a skilled one.  All the true greats had mentors, coaches.  I recommend taking out the luck, evaluating what's holding you back from your position on it and think about why I'm not financially independent.  I'm proof positive that good 1x1 coaching (not guru/club/group coaching) can move the needle like you have never seen before.

Hi Al, just back from vaca. ABCs of Real Estate Investing is readable for beginners but I read it to find out what McElroy did while he was building his apartment portfolio from the ground up. What I appreciated when I read the book many years ago was that it was written by someone who was actually building a private equity real estate business who started out like you and I, not a trust-funder with an Ivy league MBA (nothing wrong with that approach but that wasn't an option for me).

Good hunting-

Great thread, totally agree that there's nothing like going out there and doing, but so much knowledge can be picked up to refine processes.

There was a book which I read that had a great tip to get a meeting with busy people that I have successfully used a number of times.  

When you are trying to get a meeting, to show that you are respectful of their time say that you only be there for x minutes and if you go even a minute over you will donate $xxx to a charity of their choice. 

Sounds corny and I wouldn't have believed it till I got a meeting with a large retailer in London (Harrods) and the buyer said she was happy to give the time because of this.

So even if a book only has one worthwhile technique that is used, I still think it's invaluable!