Coach with a big portfolio versus coach who is good at teaching, which one would you pay

Question

Sat through two intro calls this week for the same price band, roughly $4k for six months of group coaching plus office hours.

The first guy owns a real portfolio, small multifamily, been at it fifteen years, clearly knows what a bad basement smells like. He was also hard to follow. He answered questions by telling a story about a deal he did in 2013 and I couldn't extract the rule from the story. When someone asked how he underwrites vacancy he said it depends on the street, which is probably true and completely useless to me right now.

The second one has a much smaller portfolio, four doors, and said so up front. But she taught. She took a question about vacancy and put a number on the screen, showed where she got it, showed what happens to the deal at two other numbers, and asked the person to say back what they'd do differently. I understood everything she said. My worry is that in eighteen months I'll be asking questions she's never had to answer because she hasn't been through a real problem tenant or a lender pulling out at the last minute.

The cases seem symmetrical to me. Big portfolio means the answers exist somewhere in the room and I have to dig them out. Good teacher means I learn fast up to the edge of what she knows. I have no idea which failure hurts more when it's my money in a deal.

Curious which way this room breaks and why.

angela_burke · Answer

Small operator who can teach, and it isn't close for me at your stage. Four doors is enough to have felt every mechanic you need in your first year. Screening, a turnover, a refinance conversation, a month where the numbers don't hit. The fifteen year guy's advantage shows up on questions you can't even form yet, and by the time you can form them you'll be able to pay for one hour of the right person instead of six months of the wrong one.

The thing that would change my answer is what she does with a question she can't answer. Ask her directly. Say what happens when someone brings you a problem outside your experience, and listen for whether she has a named person she sends it to. I run a four person team and I do this with a lender and an attorney I trust, and the students who get value out of me are the ones who use those referrals. If she says she'd figure it out with you, that's a real cost.

One more thing beacon. It depends on the street is an answer, and it's the correct answer for vacancy, but a teacher follows it with here is how you find out what the street does. He didn't. That tells you something about the six months.

Coach with a big portfolio versus coach who is good at teaching, which one would you pay

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