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Wait! Before You Buy That Real Estate Course or E-book…

Shae Bynes
2 min read

Before you get the wrong idea about this post, let me start by saying that I am a huge advocate of learning both before and while doing anything new with real estate investing. I’ve invested plenty of dollars on solid education and mentoring over the years and will continue to make these investments for years to come. There are unlimited options available for e-books, home study courses, systems, and mentoring programs. Many of these products are excellent and will provide you with enough education to get started and be successful. Other products? Well, perhaps not so much.

With these seemingly unlimited options, I was truly overwhelmed when I was first getting started in real estate investing. Everything sounded like an awesome opportunity for success and I didn’t know who to trust, what product to buy, whether I should buy anything at all!

I know that I’m not alone here so I thought I’d share a few of my thoughts on what you should consider before buying any system, course, mentoring program, or e-book.

Ask yourself “What was the last training product I purchased, and is it collecting dust on my bookshelf?”

If the answer is “Yes, its collecting dust on my bookshelf” go pick that sucker up, dust it off, and read it again. Unless it’s a complete piece of junk, take action with what you already have available! Grass always looks greener on the other side when you’re seeing examples of other’s success, but try out what you have! Your issue may not be lack of education, but rather fear and/or lack of action.

Ask yourself “Do I get excited and feel inclined to purchase every time I watch a new webinar, see the pictures of huge checks, and read the super long sales pages?”

Do yourself a favor and be honest about this (nobody else will know)! Effective sales letters and videos for products – whether they are awesome or a piece of junk – are designed to evoke emotions out of you. Don’t lose your head! If you’re the type of person who gets excited each and every time and quick to pull out your wallet, you have to be doubly careful.

My advice is to do a little free research online on the various ways to get started in real estate and ask questions (again for free!) in some real estate investing forums first. After you’ve done that, then you should begin to take a look at the product options in your area of interest so that you can follow the lead of someone who was successful in that area.

Once you’re determined your area of focus and are ready to invest in education, consider your available resources

The truth is that you do not need to spend thousands of dollars up front on real estate education. There are so many options available that will cost no more than a couple hundred dollars and can get you started. Once you’re at the point where you have more resources available to you, you may want to consider spending more on an advanced level of real estate education and/or mentoring to help you get to the next level.

Remember, success in real estate investing results primarily from acquired knowledge, a positive attitude, and massive focused action. No course, e-book, or system runs by itself without work from numero uno (yep, that’s you). Once you’ve found something that works for you, don’t let Negative Nellies tell you “I bought that and it didn’t work for me” without questioning them on the actions that they took to be successful.

I wish you the best and encourage any comments or other suggestions below!

Photo credit: dslrninja

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.