There are a whole range of educational courses, seminars & workshops and other products including home study courses available at prices to suit most people’s budgets.

Now these courses, seminars etc sort of fall into two categories or cover two subjects:

1. What is “buy to let”, what makes it work, what are the pitfalls etc.

2. How to do deals, be it no or low money down, plus the more esoteric arts of lease options and the like, plus learning the skills of negotiating, be it with the vendor of estate agent, generally with a bit of motivation thrown in, which is no bad thing.

We, with our Masterclass, fall firmly into the first category of courses.

Whilst I touch on doing deals, the majority of the course is devoted to understanding how the numbers work and interact and how to produce a product (property) that your customer (tenant or buyer) wants in the toughest of markets like today, 2009.

How to develop a strategy, and no one strategy is right because the aims and objectives of every one of us differs, and so must our strategies.

Regard my course as general education before you go on to specialise in a specific area or maybe location that suits you.

This approach is how most people are educated.

First of all a load of GCSE’s then a lesser number of A Levels followed by one subject at University but still within that one subject there will be even more training necessary for the specialist areas.

Our Masterclass is probably at the University Level.

Is it worth it?

Well I have delivered over 30, as part of  the 3-day Buy to Let Advanced Training Course for Tigrent Learning UK, the new brand or corporate name for the Wealth Intelligence Academy (WIA) or Whitney UK as was, as well as a probably another 30 or so to students that have booked direct, over the past 7 years.

With Tigrent Learning UK, 40 to 60 students attend on each occasion, never had anyone walk out or ask for their money back, and at the end I generally average over 90% in the student evaluation sheets for both course content and delivery and a number of my students now deliver Advanced Training for Tigrent Learning UK or have gone on to develop their own training courses and feature on this site.

But you will still need further education in specialist areas.

Take BMV or Behind Market Value, all the rage today.

In the top 10 is Glenn Armstrong, with his 1 day BMV course, see our review, who falls into the 2nd category, how to do deals, as do Property Cow, but with a wider curriculum of courses, again see our review.

But Glenn works almost exclusively in the Milton Keynes area and his success and the success of his techniques may be in part due to how well known he is in Milton Keynes and, probably more relevant, how well he knows Milton Keynes, see Research on this site and how important it is.

Into much the same box as Glenn you can put Progressive Properties with Mark Homer & Rob Moore, who operate in Peterborough and doubtless know that location very well.

In the case of both Glenn Armstrong, GA Properties, and Mark & Rob, Progressive Properties, they will also do the job for you and I will be looking at their acquisition services under Investments later.

Property Cow on the other hand do not offer to buy a “property acquisition” or “build a portfolio for you” service  and therefore you might consider their courses to be more objective rather than a means of recruiting clients into their acquisition service.

I have to say that our Masterclass and Distressed Property Workshops generally result in our being instructed to do the job for Armchair Investors and are priced accordingly. 

If HMO, Houses in Multiple Occupation, is what you are after doing, then Glenn’s course is of limited use and you should possibly consider a 1 day course with Jim Haliburton of HMO Daddy fame, see my thoughts on Jim, who will teach you all about it but won’t do it for you .

Lease options, another strategy, don’t go to Glenn or Jim, you need to think possibly about Rick Otton, though I was not impressed with a presentation by his UK representative David Lee at a Steve Foley Conference in 2009, or Property Cow with John Lee, no relation, which is obvious when you meet them, and a wider or more in depth curriculum.

Most of these courses are designed to put you on the streets the following day able to do deals that conform to the principles or techniques developed by the course promoter, and they do differ, even though they are trying to achieve same end result.

A lot of people slag off training courses as being a waste of time or money or both.

But don’t be fooled, most of the promoters & trainers involved are real hand’s on investors who are now teaching what they have learned from their, often bitter, experience.

This whole business has got a whole lot tougher in the last 2 years or so and a few pounds, even a few hundred, could prove to be the best investment that you could ever make.

Educate yourself before you risk your money on some property deal that is probably too good be true.

There are plenty of deals out there today that make sense, deliver good returns and are good investments, both short & long term.

You won’t see or find them unless you know what you are looking for and how to assess them.

Check the list of the main players opposite, we have included some comments and in some cases attended a course and included either our review or the review of one of their students.

To access the content you will need to Register with us first.

These courses can be a bit of a minefield to compare as to cost and content because some appear to be free whilst others can cost hundreds or even thousand’s of pounds.

For example a number of course providers, Tigrent Learning UK for example, offer a free 2-hour property investment course/seminar at which they, the provider, will try and sell you a more advanced 1 to 3 day course.

Other providers will deliver a taster at an exhibition, conference or network evening in the hope of selling a full day or number of days course on the subject matter. We tend to fall into this latter category.

In some cases you cannot book onto a course without first attending the freeby or taster. We do not fall into this category.

We will be adding to the list of courses  & seminars listed under Other People’s Courses & Seminars and either attending the course, in time,  and reporting accordingly or “seeing and hearing” at a Networking Event or exhibition or conference.

If anyone would like to comment on any course that you have attended, whether I have listed the promoter or not please email  courses@buy-to-let.com. Include in the title of the email, “Course Comment”.

If I publish your comments I will get your permission first.

Costs:

Making a price comparison between the educational courses listed under Other People’s Courses & Seminars can prove difficult, so we will be trying to calculate the daily rate for one person attending plus the minimum cost which can be quite high if there is any sort of package being offered, for example a multi course or a single course with ongoing support.

Cost though should not be treated as a guide to quality.

The most expensive may not be any better than the cheapest and vice versa.

Data Base Marketing:

Many of the sites listed are desperate to get your name and email address for marketing purposes.

Most, if not all, promise never to sell your name or pass it on to a third party.

We also do the same but not quite so desperately, at least I hope it seems that way.

In one case, a book offer comes with a load of freebies, if you try to leave the site without buying the book they will still offer to send you all the freebies if only you register before leaving the site!!