Property Investment training courses vs IFA fees
jimjames
Posts: 17,611 Forumite
Difficult to know where to start with this one but interested to get some thoughts from others. I have a mix of investments that I've built up and learnt about over the years. I also have a couple of properties that I rent out to give some balance. Everything I've learnt I've found online or from books. Something I've noticed recently from various friends is a number spending money on training courses for property investments and strategies.
I'm always cautious about things like that because I worry that the person doing the training is more interested in selling the training than the actual doing. If I had a secret method for making money then I think I'd keep it quiet and make money rather than sharing with the world and having competition. I'm on a few forums and groups and I've see posts asking for advice about what to do with an amount of money like an inheritance.
One was asking for how to invest £100k and was advised to spend 20% on training. Many of the replies have shocked me as this was repeated by several people. It really puts IFA fees into perspective here and IFAs are regulated. As far as I can see there is no regulation of property training seminars and whether any advice given is suitable or not.
Someone I know needing a larger property has moved into rented house in order to raise capital for a property investment to build their equity. Unfortunately while they've been getting "trained" the market has moved on and they can't even buy back their smaller original house and in the meantime are burning their capital on rent. As an outsider to me it just looks like they're being ripped off.
Has anyone else come across such training or had any direct experience of these courses being useful? It just seems their entire focus is on selling the course for many thousands rather than actually getting a benefit. Is that a fair assessment or am I missing something? It also doesn't seem to give a balanced view of investment so missing any pension or S&S options.
Is there any similar training for share or fund dealing? I'm sure there used to be day trader seminars so I guess it's something like that but with the likes of monevator.com I can't see it being much help.
I'm always cautious about things like that because I worry that the person doing the training is more interested in selling the training than the actual doing. If I had a secret method for making money then I think I'd keep it quiet and make money rather than sharing with the world and having competition. I'm on a few forums and groups and I've see posts asking for advice about what to do with an amount of money like an inheritance.
One was asking for how to invest £100k and was advised to spend 20% on training. Many of the replies have shocked me as this was repeated by several people. It really puts IFA fees into perspective here and IFAs are regulated. As far as I can see there is no regulation of property training seminars and whether any advice given is suitable or not.
Someone I know needing a larger property has moved into rented house in order to raise capital for a property investment to build their equity. Unfortunately while they've been getting "trained" the market has moved on and they can't even buy back their smaller original house and in the meantime are burning their capital on rent. As an outsider to me it just looks like they're being ripped off.
Has anyone else come across such training or had any direct experience of these courses being useful? It just seems their entire focus is on selling the course for many thousands rather than actually getting a benefit. Is that a fair assessment or am I missing something? It also doesn't seem to give a balanced view of investment so missing any pension or S&S options.
Is there any similar training for share or fund dealing? I'm sure there used to be day trader seminars so I guess it's something like that but with the likes of monevator.com I can't see it being much help.
Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
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Comments
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I think your tagline sums up the situation
Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is. .
20% rake to help you make money? !!!!!!? Bargepole, do not touch with...
Your buddy with the rented house made his own property investment error, you'd have thought the training would have warmed him up to the issues of being outside an essential asset class and the effects of leverage on that. He clearly didn't get value for money.
Run. Fast. In opposite direction. Do not look back.0 -
Shades of Trump university.'We don't need to be smarter than the rest; we need to be more disciplined than the rest.' - WB0
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drop the L
'vote for me and all your wildest dreams will come true'
that's what got him the presidency.
The 'university' was nothing more than a scam, unsurprisingly.'We don't need to be smarter than the rest; we need to be more disciplined than the rest.' - WB0 -
I think you have hit the nail on the head here, I seem to have somehow been signed up to some mailing list about property training which gives me the same impression as the point you made.If I had a secret method for making money then I think I'd keep it quiet and make money rather than sharing with the world and having competition.
I don't think so - everyone I know uses sites like this, monevator etc. for information.Is there any similar training for share or fund dealing? I'm sure there used to be day trader seminars so I guess it's something like that but with the likes of monevator.com I can't see it being much help.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/ sometimes has interesting posts too0 -
If you want to pan for gold, somebody has designed a gold panning kit. For a few dollars more, you can get the deluxe version, with the mule harness to carry it all.
Is there a Bitcoin trading training course going, I wonder?0 -
I'm always cautious about things like that because I worry that the person doing the training is more interested in selling the training than the actual doing.
I quite agree. I used to look at various on-line "marketing" gurus who were publishing video after video about how to succeed in online marketing, become an internet entrepreneur (if a training course in how to become an entrepreneur isn't a contradiction in itself) and could never figure out what they actually did to make money, other than sell their training.
Some years back I went to a short presentation by "Inside Track", who were property investment specialists until they went bust. A large proportion of the evening 2-hour presentation was about selling the £4500 weekend course, and from what I can gather a lot of that was about selling their various other services. I was tempted, I'll be honest, because it seemed a good way to get into what seemed at the time to be a lucrative investment opportunity with zero knowledge about property - for a percentage, they'd source the property, do the deal, find a tenant, look after the property when anything went wrong. To someone like me with zero knowledge on the subject, that's appealing. I suspect that had I gone on with it, the falling margins would mean that only they would make money on it.
I can see why someone who makes a reasonable living in one of the "hot" topics like trading might think they can make some more on the side by selling training courses while the demand is there. A room with fifty delegates paying £600 a day each isn't a bad return, even if you don't try a hard sell on them to ramp it up. If you've nothing else to do, £03k minus some expenses is worth doing.0 -
I've still got a large collection of "how to invest in shares" videos that a friend had bought at a seminar and later gave me, all nicely packaged in a smart case. I looked at the company's website (they'd had to change their name), was amazed at how much they'd cost, and which was enough to persuade me they weren't worth looking at. They now live in the loft somewhere. I was motivated, but more specifically, to keep well clear of the 'get rick quick' scammers. They'll always be around but a decent book would be cheaper.Is there any similar training for share or fund dealing? I'm sure there used to be day trader seminars so I guess it's something like that but with the likes of monevator.com I can't see it being much help.0
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