What type of coaching do you want?

[Marcus Auerbach]

Here is a question I am pondering right now and would love to get your thoughts and feedback.

We are a small group of investors and kind of the core of the Brew City REI Club around @Rebecca Knox . We all frequently help new investors on and offline with all sorts of questions. We all have slightly different backgrounds: from hard money, to new construction, IRA investing, property management to apartment buildings and remodeling - there is probably no question we can't answer well as a group and in the context of our local market. So Rebecca had the idea to start a Training Cafe and offer à la carte coaching - not a guru class from A to Z, but just that one custom piece of local coaching when and where you need it.

We believe the general information is already out there; free and readily available: here on BP, in form of many books and podcasts and at local meetups etc. All it takes is your time to absorb it, there is (almost) no cost to it and anyone has access. Yet, there is a flourishing guru industry that is selling dreams from TV shows for the amounts you can use as a down payment for a great median priced duplex! Brandon Turner just posted a great video about this: The #1 Real Estate Investing SCAM That You Can Avoid!

We think there is a gap between free information and expensive formal education and thought we might be able to close it. It can be a sit down meeting, a phone call, a property walk through - whatever you need. We all understand our local market and we are happy to help, but on the other hand we are all busy running our own businesses, sometimes more than one. None of us needs the money, but there is value to our time and to good advice so we thought an hourly consulting fee would be appropriate. 

Now, it seems like the initial feedback, after the first public kick off event, was that there was a huge amount of interest until it comes to the point, where people have to go and actually book a paid session. Then they pause and say: wait, you won't coach me for free?

I think between a few books, BP and a few session with a local mentor you can get started much faster than one might expect - and be successful from day one! Like one of the coaches put it: all we have to do is make sure the bowling ball keeps going down the lane and guide it a little, so it stays between the gutters. 

I wonder do some people actually like to be sold on an expensive education with all it's promises and glam - and pay a small fortune for it? Is there value in local mentor ship beyond let me pay you a coffee and then quiz you for three hours?

What do you think?