Investor offered me ride-alongs instead of a fee for my first few leads. Is that a deal or a discount?

Take it, with one change. Ask for the fee schedule in writing now, applying from lead four onward, and ask that the three free ones convert to a fee if any of them closes above some number he picks. He'll either say yes, which costs him nothing today, or he'll say no, which tells you what "we'll talk about a fee" means.

I'd want to know how many walkthroughs fifteen houses a year actually generates. If he looks at eight to buy one, that's over a hundred walkthroughs and sitting in on even a quarter of them is a serious education. If he looks at two, the offer is three ride-alongs and a coffee. Ask him what his look-to-buy ratio was last year before you decide what you're being offered, @rigging.

Working through the licensing course right now and the thing I'd flag is what you're doing on those seller calls. Sitting in and listening is fine. If you start talking numbers with the seller because you're in the room and he hands you the phone, you may be in territory that in some states requires a license, and where exactly that line falls varies by state, so it's a question for an attorney where you are. Worth settling before the first walkthrough rather than in the middle of one.

The trade sounds fine to me and the part I'd push on is who controls the calendar. Unpaid arrangements collapse on scheduling. He's busy, the walkthrough is Tuesday at 1pm, you have a job, and after the second missed one nobody mentions it again. If you can't make his hours, you're not getting the thing you traded the fee for.

Learning how money moves has cost me a lot more than $1,500 in wasted reading, so I lean toward taking it. But I'd separate the two things he's offering. The ride-alongs are worth something. "He'll go through his numbers on the ones he passes on" is worth more, and it's also the piece he's most likely to skip, because explaining a pass takes twenty minutes and there's no deal at the end of it. If I were you I'd ask for that one in a specific form, like a five minute voice note on every pass, rather than as a general promise.

@thicket's conversion clause is the right instinct and I'd tighten it. Don't tie it to a spread number, because you'll never see his real numbers and you'd be arguing about them later. Tie it to the event. If he or any entity he controls closes on a property from one of your first three leads, a stated fee is due within ten days of funding. Simple, checkable against the recorded deed in most states, though a handful don't make sale prices public at all so don't count on reading the price off a record.

Also, three is arbitrary. Ask why three and not one. If he says it's about seeing whether you can find anything usable, offer one free lead and full ride-alongs, then fees from the second. Most people asking for three will take one.

Went through this thread twice, same as always. Nobody said take the fee instead of the ride-alongs, they all said take it and get the terms written down. Is that just the room's bias, or is it really true that the education is worth more than $1,500 at this stage?