A couple weeks ago I asked what is holding you back. There wasn't activity under that question.

Landlords overall tend to be cheap. Certain areas like maintenance and training tend to be areas where landlords tend to cut corners, especially if they are stuck in a hovering pattern. Process Improvement should be on going event..

Now some landlords can take that to extreme. You shouldn't be spending more on courses than you do real estate - but we all know those folks too. There was a group of gurus willing to help you invest a mere $25,000 into yourself - and boy did they sound convincing. After all, am I not worth it?

We are going to the Convention, and our son is going with me to the Boot Camp.

Training has to prove itself for me to spend the $ on it. In other words, I need to hear from someone, "I bought this course/went to this guru, and here's how it made me 10x the profit."

The "here's how" is important. A lot of times what you get are vague things about "motivation" and "thinking differently." Okay... such things do exist... but HOW did it help you accomplish the goal?

The problem with RE gurus and training is probably 90% of them are unnecessary fluff. It's the same stuff you can get by watching YouTube videos for free. It's low-level rehash of platitudes and well-worn tropes, sort of like reading a Robert Kiyosaki book.

As with WMH we are only planning to go to the convention and the boot camp this year.

Since we only went to the con last year we are investing more this year.

Spending more money on enhancing our electronic presence as well. That involves more training than initially thought. I still have not worked thru even 10% of the PM package we use.

Sid, I started out reading RK books a long while back. Lots of good from the first one. Need to get another copy for my oldest. I started buying them all, then I noticed the pattern. I ended up selling them to someone years ago. Went to see him at a con in Chicago many years ago as well.

I liked George Foreman's bit better tho. DJT was supposed to be there but cancelled last minute.

The School of Hard Knocks.

Very few dare to walk through the Front Door.

5-6,000

Convention

Robyn Thompson Massive passive course

One difficulty is that "one size doesn't fit all" in ll'ing. What I did in my rural area in 2010-2012 post-subprime-mortgage-crisis with my first 5 houses isn't what I'm doing in the same rural area 10 years later, post-Covid, 2.5 years into some significant chain migration, and with about 30ish houses. What I do in rural Texas in 2024 is not what I would do if I was 100 miles east of myself in 2024. What I would do in a major metropolitan area in Texas is not what I would do in OKC, or Los Angeles, or Philadelphia, or Detroit, or New Orleans, or DC.

One strategy with gurus is to write a book. The goal isn't to make money with the book; the goal is to become perceived as an authority in a field because you have a book, and then you leverage that authority into selling courses or getting people into programs or getting people in your programs to use your special private lender financing or connect them with your houses or whatever. Those are all perfectly valid strategies. That's not a problem. But in general, I prefer to chat with a real landlord, who's focused on running his own biz in his own corner of the world, rather than in consuming content from someone who has something to sell. Which is why I've enjoyed the forums since, like, 2007 or 2008, when I saw it was referenced in "The Landlord's Survival Guide." :)

Went to local rental property association bootcamp in fall. Not buying more properties, so not expanding my little empire. Starting to study up on how to care with a spouse with dementia. His mom had it bad, he’s had a concern. Been seeing dementia related videos come up in you tube and I hadn’t been searching for that, so I know he’s been watching for signs. I’ve noticed some signs for a while, but, we’re both not getting younger. Yesterday was a special concern.

Deanna (TX) you are right but I still like going to some events. Some are useful. Some ideas I don't have the right personality to implement. Some ideas I hadn't thought of and can incorporate into my structure. Buying houses from distressed buyers is not in my wheelhouse. My mid term apartment project came about from an idea at the convention and the fact that I couldn't find houses to buy that cash flow in todays market and interest rate.

Bonanza, you nailed it for me.

To be honest, I'm sad I haven't tried a MrLL conference or cruise, because I do like y'all. :) But I haven't because I've been a mom with small kids for most of that 2010-2020 period where it would have been most helpful. :) Now I'm in a better position to think about those kinds of things... :)

I know I've mentioned the anecdote before, but in my listening area, there's an AM talk radio station that's talk radio during the week, but is basically commercials on the weekends. Again, it's that "be perceived as an authority on x so people will do business with you" approach-- except instead of books, it's hosting a radio show. So if you do car repairs, you have an hour-long show about car repairs that people can call into. Or if you have a certain kind of health supplement, you have an hour-long show about health. Or insurance. Or whatever.

One of those shows was a retirement investment firm. Their commercial was always along the lines of, "If you invest according to our strategies, you won't get impacted when the stock market tanks!" I was driving on a long road trip one morning when I came across their show, and my curiosity was piqued. So I listened for the full hour, because I had nothing else to do while I was driving.

It was an hour of beating around the bush, plugging their investment strategy, come-visit-us, hype, whatever, to keep the first 50 minutes or so rolling. Lots of words but no actual information. Then there were about five seconds where you totally would have missed it if you weren't paying attention--- they basically bought life insurance policies from old people, carried the payments, and when they died, you got paid. And then back to the fluff and the hype.

Ray-

I am not cheap.