During the last decade, we had hired a few different real-estate coaches from different organizations run by so-called “real-estate-investment gurus.” None of their programs was geared toward “getting the deals done.” For the most part, all they did was to try to “motivate” us to get things done. In fact, most of them were not even actually investing in real estate themselves. That did not work for me at all because, as my husband would say, “You’re already plenty motivated to do well on your own. What you need is someone to show you HOW to get the deals done!” That was my sentiment, too, exactly.
Based on these experiences, we learned that we needed to specify, up front, what we expect of a real-estate coach. First and foremost, we expect our coaches to be actively doing deals. Second, a coach with whom we would work has to be someone who is focused on teaching us how to get the deals done PROFITABLY. It may seem like common sense but we learned this lesson the hard way.
Since the last month’s blog post, David and I have been mentored by a couple of coaches – a husband-and-wife team. And, oh, what a difference between our prior experiences and this one! Our new coaches developed their program with Ron LeGrand. That says a lot.
Few instructors in the industry, even the well-known names, are capable of truly helping students who are determined to succeed. For the most part, they take a big chunk your money and never follow up to make sure that you have learned to fish (i.e., do deals profitably) on your own. Now you see why I trust very few people in the industry. The only exception is Ron. And our coaches are focused on getting us to do deals – just as we expect. Ron’s monthly calls, too, are focused on answering students’ questions on deals.
In preparation for our weekly calls with our hands-on coaches, based on a set of questions, we are expected to submit reports, indicating the progress having been made since the prior week. What I like about these reports is that one of the first things it asks is how many deals we’ve done. That puts a clear focus – weekly – on why we signed up for this coaching program in the first place. Every weekly assignment is geared toward getting the students to do deals and closing on them.
Before we can get a deal, however, we must do a lot of marketing. So, in the beginning, the importance of marketing is emphasized time and time again. As a result, my focus has been on doing whatever it takes to generate leads. In fact, I even re-activated my real-estate license so that I can have access to MLS (Multiple Listing Service), which is packed full of local real-estate data.
Together with the weekly reports, we are also expected to submit a list of questions for them in advance – so that the time allotted for the weekly coaching calls puts focus on getting your burning questions answered.
As of this posting, it was just about a month ago that we signed up for the coaching program. We are starting to get some leads from our marketing campaign. Working with our coaches has been like playing tennis with a couple of pros – you KNOW your game is improving. For the next five months that remain on the coaching program, you can expect to see what kind of progress we’re making each month. So stay tuned.
I welcome your comments!
Disclaimer: I am neither a financial adviser nor an attorney. My posts are merely reflections of the experiences I have gained as an investor since the year 2000. Before you take any investment actions based on information contained within this and/or any future posts, consult with a fee-only, fiduciary-bound Certified Financial Adviser; a Certified Public Accountant who understands real-estate investing; and/or an attorney who is an expert on the specific investment instrument that you decide to pursue. You are responsible for your own financial destiny.
