Real estate investing is one of the best money-making opportunities available. However, investors must commit to ongoing education for the best chance of long-term success.
Property owners must develop the knowledge to invest wisely, maintain rental properties, manage tenants, and handle insurance, taxes, and other expenses. In addition, when operating rental properties, markets, trends, and strategies can change rapidly, meaning that you have to adapt to keep up.
Fortunately, real estate investing courses online can help you learn about the industry and how to maximize your success! Whether you’re new to real estate investments or you're a seasoned investor, there's a course that can suit your skills and experience. Our Ellenton property management experts look at three of the best courses for real estate investors.
The Real Estate Financial Modeling Bootcamp
If you want to learn how to start real estate investing, it’s best to learn the basics before getting too far down the road. Otherwise, investors increase the potential of losing money right away, which can put them in a financial deficit before ever really getting started.
“The Real Estate Financial Modeling Bootcamp” helps investors learn how to build a real estate investment financial model through Microsoft Excel. While a thorough understanding of real estate investing isn’t necessary to take this course, Udemy recommends having a basic knowledge of Excel to get the most out of it.
A financial model is valuable when crunching the numbers to determine if a deal is worth your time and money before closing on a new property. To avoid bad investments that don’t pan out, run a financial model to analyze properties before buying. The other advantage of this course is that it teaches you how to model for various property types, from single-family homes to apartment buildings.
Although this course is valuable for the financial end of real estate investment, it doesn't cover the logistics of buying, renovating, managing, and selling properties. So, if you're not familiar with those processes, you'll want to explore other courses or books to round out your knowledge.
Fundamentals of Analyzing Real Estate Investments
As we mentioned, the financial side of real estate investing is crucial but only one piece of the puzzle. The “Fundamentals of Analyzing Real Estate Investments” course teaches investors to evaluate different deals from multiple angles. As you get better at identifying high-value properties, you can build a much stronger and more profitable business model.
Some examples of the types of properties a real estate investor will learn to evaluate through this course include:
- Fix-and-flip investments. These deals can be complicated because investors must coordinate and budget for renovations, zoning, and permits. Also, some properties can be a “money pit,” which can become a loss without running the numbers first.
- Airbnb properties. The home-sharing app has opened up new possibilities for real estate investing. If this type of investment fits your goals, this course can help you analyze these deals.
- Rental income properties. As one of the most common forms of real estate investments, learning how to analyze returns for managing these properties is essential!
- Partnership deals. Finding the right financial partners can help you establish the capital you need to buy a property and handle renovations. Learn how to run the numbers when considering a partnership!
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