Every real estate investor should always look for new opportunities to enhance his/her knowledge and skills. One of the most straightforward ways to do that is to take real estate classes. Regardless of your location, there is usually a wide range of real estate classes accessible to everyone, either online or in an actual classroom. So, there comes the question: Are real estate classes online as good as those in a classroom? Or are they potentially even better? What are the pros and cons of online real estate classes? Well, let’s take a look at the main advantages and disadvantages of this option for enriching your real estate investing experience:
Real Estate Classes Online: Pros
We should never underestimate the power and quality of anything online – from bill payments, through shopping, to all sorts of educational classes. This holds true for real estate classes online too. They have many, many advantages including:
1. More variety
No matter where you live, after all there is a limited number of classes available in your area at any particular point in time. That’s not the case with real estate classes online. You can enjoy a much wider variety of options throughout the year, covering all aspects of the real estate business and designed for all levels of learners. Even real estate investors abroad can easily enroll in US-specific real estate classes online to prepare for their future investments in the US housing market.
2. More flexibility
If you decide to participate in classroom classes, you have to commit to certain times of the day and certain days of the week for a certain number of months. At the same time, real estate classes online give you the flexibility to go through the educational modules at any time of the day – or the night – that is convenient for you: before work, after work, or during work… It all depends on you. This flexibility is particularly important for part-time investors who have to navigate between their full-time job and real estate business.
Related: Why investing in real estate and having a full-time job is a good combo
3. More convenience
If you live in a large city like New York or San Francisco or Seattle or Boston, you might have to spend a couple of hours just to get to the location of your classes and then another couple of hours to come back home. Now, the coming back part might need to be late at night as most classes are likely to be in the evening to suit the needs of working people. On the other hand, with real estate classes online you can do all the learning about investment strategies, real estate investing resources, real estate investing tools, and recent real estate market trends from the convenience of your home. Put on your pajamas, make a cup of tea, and enjoy your trip to becoming a better real estate investor and making more money in real estate.
Related: 6 Must-Have Real Estate Investment Tools
4. Lower price
In general real estate classes online tend to cost less than such in a classroom. That’s only logical taking into consideration that you don’t pay for an in-person teacher and for the venue. This price advantage is very important for new real estate investors who are still not making any significant money from real estate and need to be especially considerate of their expenses.
5. More efficiency
In classes in a classroom shared with other students, you have to adhere strictly to the curriculum and the schedule and to keep up with a pace which allows everyone to follow up. Meanwhile, if you go for real estate classes online, you set up your own learning pace. Maybe the time estimated for the return on investment module is 4 hours, but you manage to engulf everything about cash flow, capitalization rate (cap rate), and cash on cash return (CoC return) in 2 hours. Well, you will have saved yourself 2 hours, and time is precious in the real estate investing business. Alternatively, if you need 6 hours instead to go through all real estate terms carefully, you have the absolute freedom to do that.
Real Estate Classes Online: Cons
Real estate classes online must have some disadvantages if classroom classes are still existing. Here are the major ones:
1. Need to motivate yourself
Most people tend to find it easier to maintain their motivation when they commit to attending classes at a certain time and place, to interacting with fellow students, and to showing progress to an in-person teacher. If you opt for real estate classes online, you will have to boost your own motivation and make sure not to fall behind. Some people find this very hard.
2. More boredom
Different people learn differently, but most students learn better when lessons are interesting and exciting. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with real estate classes online, where you have to sit alone in front of your computer and go through hundreds of slides of text on your own.
3. Absence of an in-person teacher
No matter how great the schedule is, there will always be so many more things that you can learn from an experienced teacher and by asking real estate questions which are not covered in the curriculum. Well, you will not have this option with real estate classes online. That’s actually one of the most serious cons of this way of learning about real estate investing.
4. No other students
Directly related to #4, in real estate classes online you will not get a chance to interact with other real estate professionals (other students) either. And there is so much that you could learn from listening to other investors’ experiences, successes, and failures in a classroom setting.
5. No networking
In real estate classes online you also lose the opportunity to build your real estate investment network. In a classroom, you would be able to meet in person and talk to many other real estate investors and other professionals in addition to start building relationships with them. One day, this could be the members of your real estate partnership.
Related: What You Need to Know about Real Estate Partnerships
Unfortunately there is no right answer whether real estate classes online or those in a classroom are better. It depends on your specific goals and on your personality. Study the options well, and make the best choice for yourself. Meanwhile, you can visit Mashvisor for advice on many other aspects of the real estate investing business.