Real Estate Schools and Training
With the housing market becoming red hot in many areas of the country the last few years, real estate and real estate investing has recently become a popular career path. Since we’ve already established that education is the first key to unlocking your potential to a successful real estate investing career, let’s look at the educational programs currently available.
The best training offers hands-on instructional strategies using in-the-field real-life situations. As mentioned in a previous article, in this type of training, you actually practice the techniques used by investors and receive personalized support for your new business. Some people, however, forget the fact that real estate investing is a business.
If you look at the world of academia, you’ll find that many colleges and universities now offer real estate investing classes and some have even established real estate degree programs. BusinessSchools.com lists 194 real estate programs at colleges and universities across the country. For example, the University of Southern California has a Master’s degree program titled Master of Real Estate Development. Their curriculum states, “The USC Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) program prepares graduates for key positions in real estate development.” These programs are geared toward “employee” positions. For example, a graduate of this MRED program is on the career path to employment with a large corporation or developer.
At Universities.com, Peirce College offers an online Bachelor Degree in Real Estate Management that focuses on preparing students to “develop, buy, sell, appraise, and manage real property” upon graduation. This is a non-traditional program since the Internet is used as the instructional method of delivery instead of in-person classroom instruction. The Real Estate Management program at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, however, takes a more traditional classroom approach preparing students for a management position.
In the final analysis, it all comes back to the fact that the benefits of hands-on training are much greater than the other types of training for the individual looking for an entrepreneurial lifestyle. This type of training allows students to experience success through the eyes of actual investors. A nationwide reality-based school like Wealth Intelligence Academy offers hands-on training across the country; Internet classes that allow students to ask questions and interact with instructors; and, a mentoring program that focuses on students’ local real estate markets.
To determine the best education for you, you have to keep asking yourself these six questions:
1. Which method gives me the best chance for success?
2. Do I want to be taught by professors who learned real estate investing from books?
3. Or, do I want to be taught by successful investors who live investing, who are willing to share past mistakes with me, and who are committed to my success by mentoring me in my own local real estate market?
4. Do I want instructors who share my passion for real estate investing?
5. Is my definition of success defined as becoming an employee or becoming an independent real estate investor?
6. And finally, do I want a full-time life or a full-time job?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll have your own definition of success and be able to choose appropriate classes for either the employee career path or an entrepreneurial lifestyle.