Renatus Investment Coach/ Mentor
Engineer · Chicago, IL · Member since 2014 · 8 posts · 7 votes
Hi Everyone,
Last night I went to a real estate invest presentation.
I responded to an ad on Craig’s list and was invited to a presentation. The presenter was really entertaining, he went over the company (Renatus), offered courses that would help to educate potential investors for a fee (between $2K - $15K depending on the your course selection). The program is designed to walk new investors through different real estate tractions with an experienced investor. It was presented like a win-win...
My question is, have anyone heard of this company? I have done some research and I am finding mixed reviews. This idea of a one stop shop is appealing, but I don’t want to put myself in a hole falling for a gimmick.
Please help …
Hi Marisa,
I may catch some flak for this, on this site. I'm a current Renatus student in Chicago, based at the same Downer's Grove office you probably visited. I've just been a student for a little over a month. I believe, personally, that it's the right fit for me. But I'm not going to say that everyone/anyone NEEDS a Renatus education to succeed in Real Estate. It's true as other posters have stated, that that there is a LOT of information right here in the BiggerPockets community. In fact, I usually listed to BP podcasts on my Thursday commutes to the office for study groups.
What Renatus and the Downers Grove office study groups give me are the comprehensive, structured education, followed through in study groups, and a community of students and mentors who have gone through the classes and have gone on to make a number of successful deals. There is a group accountability to complete the classes, there are discussion groups to make sure concepts are covered, there are regular events (these events are NOT visiting "gurus" whose appearance is aimed at selling additional products).
You would be with people whom you will be in a 'graduating class' with, have had education together with in study groups, and will be able to do deals with. I've gotten to know several of the other students and instructors pretty well in the short time I've been with them. There are a number of other activities hosted by the Downers Grove office: Today after work I visited a fix and flip in Barrington that's about to go on the market - where Renatus students who participated are going to make a ton of money. After that, I traveled down to Downers Grove and in a small group I played the Cash Flow 101 game. This is a "Rich Dad" product aimed at training you how to think about real estate investments at a broad level. (Other Chicagoland REIA's also host "Cash Flow nights" for the same purpose).
If you do not pursue Renatus education, you can find communities of Chicago investors through REIA groups, including Meetups which are listed here. I'm sure Brie Schmidt has already reached out to you if you have made an introduction here, and she can probably steer you to her REIA group. If you tend to work better with some structured education and with a group of people who will motivate you, hold you accountable, and keep you from procrastinating, and if you can commit to traveling to the Downer's Grove office on at least a weekly basis (Thursday nights), then Renatus may be a good fit for you, at the $2k "Essentials" level.
Renatus DOES have an education marketing side, which is completely optional. Myself, I'm not focusing on that. In fact, when I was first introduced to Renatus, the education marketing side gave me red flags, since I perceived it to be a MLM. I like to steer far away from MLM's and have had a couple MLM's pitched at me which I've declined in the past. I feel education marketing is 180 degrees from what I want to do. But I can understand their argument that you need to learn to market to be successful in real estate anyway -- whether it's marketing yourself, your abilities, your properties for wholesale, for rent, for sale, etc. The company's arguments for giving students the option to market its education are: 1) it keeps the money in the community where it can be reinvested rather than sending it to ad agencies or other advertising vehicles, 2) It allows students another mode of cash flow so they can build an operating/investing budget with which to start their RE investing 3) It helps train students to become salespeople, and this discipline is valuable in real estate.
I personally think that Renatus' idea to market the education this way also gives them a terrible image problem, considering that I resisted the first opportunity to join because I checked up on Renatus online and concluded it was an MLM scam, and you can see that there are many who bring up the "MLM" label in regard to the education sales. I personally am not focused on selling the Renatus education. You'll see that I do not have any kind of link in my bio or in this message pointing you at any kind of place you can register. In fact, this post is the first time I have ever mentioned the company on Bigger Pockets.
Whatever your decision, I wish you all the luck in your investing career. If you sign up, I will NOT get a commission based on your decision - that would go to the person who recruited you through the Craigslist ad.
Hi Marisa,
I'm a Renatus student in Atlanta. I agree wholeheartedly with Scott's post. Whatever you choose to do, you want to do your due diligence, but my experience with Renatus has been a very positive one.
One of the posts on here said "why would you pay for information you can get for free?". Well, I've got two comments about that, 1) You usually get what you pay for, and 2) Why would someone buy a McDonald's franchise if they already know how to make a great hamburger? You buy a McDonald's franchise for the SYSTEM.
I recommend you do ONE thing... MEET some of the students who are CURRENTLY doing some LOCAL deals, and ask to see PROOF of those deals. If you were in Atlanta, we would be able to do that for you EASILY. As a matter of fact, we have a property caravan happening at the end of this month where we are going to take interested students around to show them some of the local deals that are being done (some Wholesale deals, some Fix & Flips, and some Lease Options).
Renatus is not an MLM, and Renatus does not follow the business model of many of those other "guru's" (i.e. 1) free afternoon workshop to sell you on the 2) paid 3 day workshop to sell you on the 3) expensive Mentorship program to just 4) give you an 800# and leave town). Just last month, I was with some of the investors I've met through Renatus and we attended one of the local foreclosure auctions where I got to witness them bid on and purchase some properties.
So, I wish you the best in your real estate investing endeavors. Just as Scott said, I don't get a penny from you joining Renatus. So, I've got no vested interest in whether you become a student or not. It may be for you or it may not. There are plenty of companies out there that are great companies, but they are not for me (that doesn't mean that they are not still great). I just like it when people are able to make an INFORMED decision based on CORRECT information.
Hope this helped,
Stephan
Are you still active with them currently?
I'm not agreeing to either side, but if a majority of people who are willing to borrow student loan debt of $20k-$100k for an educational degree to work at a job and climb the corporate ladder. Why is this educational investment any different?
First off Renatus is an Educational company. So keeping that in mind, they only offer the optional educational tips on how to be a real estate investor. Yes the education has a high price. But I believe if you compare it to "college" (which by the way you cannot learn in traditional college how to be a real estate investor) it is a tremendous savings. When you join Renatus you are not only having access to the education, but mentor-ship and a community of REAL and ACTIVELY PRACTICING Real Estate Investors in YOUR local market that you network with and can help walk you through transactions side by side. Absolutely nowhere have I ever seen this. Nor have I ever seen anyone outside of the Renauts system help their team in this way. So in that sense what you are given from Renauts is really PRICELESS. But it is solely up to the individual if this works best for their situation. Everyone and their situation and beliefs are different, so there is no simple answer.
After two months (November & December 2017) of personal in depth research and being VERY skeptical I did decide that this was the program for me personally (January 2018).
Hi,
Anybody here ever join the Phoenix, AZ Renatus group? Alliance Investment Group?
-Sean