Challenging buy VERY beginner friendly CRE finance certifications?
Hey y'alll. I am a student (Business Administration fall 2022) who is interning for a CRE firm in property management. I am taking a RE finance course. The problem is that the RE finance course is way too challenging. It assumes you already have a firm grasp of financial concepts. It's also a 3-hour night course that meets once per week. In that three hours, we don't finish the chapter PowerPoint (because she gets off topic) before we have a quiz and assignment due. All the quizzes and assignments are completed through Mcgraw-Hill Connect for those who know what I am talking about. The HW assignments are unnecessarily difficult and don't teach the student step by step. Instead, you're just thrown to the wolves. Essentially, it's a "learn the textbook" type course. Our professor even disabled the "hint" button. After completing an assignment, you are shown your score and what you missed but are not shown the steps and solutions to those problems. 

So I don't think I will be able to learn RE finance from this course efficiently, so I might drop it. Can any of you recommend a VERY BEGINNER FRIENDLY RE finance certification course that I can take instead of my university course? Any guidance is greatly appreciated. Cheers.
[{"id": "in8ewmq", "text": "Try Break Into CRE Justin is very skilled and offers courses that are affordable and practical. He also offers loads of information via his YouTube channel. \n\nhttps://breakintocre.com\n\nhttps://youtube.com/c/BreakIntoCRE", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "in8id60", "text": "Adventures in CRE", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "in8ld8p", "text": "I\u2019m an uw analyst for a debt fund that does multifamily, I basically taught myself (didn\u2019t major in real estate or take real estate related courses in college) and can second breaking into cre. Go to udemy though and get the courses on there (cheaper). ACRE, like someone else mentioned, is pretty good too (they have free excel templates and some short tutorials). The cert is kind of expensive. REFM is also a good one once you\u2019ve done breaking into cre on udemy (Justin k)", "replies": [{"id": "inbwdds", "text": "Thanks for the advice. I'm looking into Break into CRE. Seems to be exactly what I am looking for.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "in8pych", "text": "Refm real estate financial modeling", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "in8sgcc", "text": "Im going through A.CRE - worked as a development associate for 4 years but want to transition to acquisitions. The course so far has been amazing . Hope it helps me get a job :)", "replies": [{"id": "inbhm0n", "text": "Hi, why did you want to transition, it sounds like everyone wants to be in development/developer -- thanks", "replies": [{"id": "inesbuf", "text": "Acquisitions for a developer/ re investment firm. Deal flow and and more high level IMHO", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "inbw6op", "text": "Thanks for the advice. Good luck!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "in8uflg", "text": "Breaking into CRE", "replies": [{"id": "inbw8mg", "text": "This one seems to come highly recommended. What was your experience?", "replies": [{"id": "inh3qao", "text": "I really enjoyed it, it\u2019s so well segmented and broken down that it makes it easy to learn piece by piece. Also it\u2019s not as dry as you would think.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "in96c7c", "text": "All of those are modeling classes.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "in9a2br", "text": "Top Shelf Academy", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "in9e4j7", "text": "Break into CRE: not only are the courses affordable, but as a beginner that doesn\u2019t have a great understanding of financial modeling I would highly recommend you take the udemy courses from Justin. He holds your hand through the entire process and explains step by step why you are doing the things you are doing.", "replies": [{"id": "inbvwe5", "text": "I found out about Break into CRE a year or so ago. It seems to come highly recommended. I have read some reviews saying it can be unnecessarily complicated. What was your experience?", "replies": [{"id": "ink07wy", "text": "Also quick note, Break into CRE also offers a \u201cfree tutorial\u201d that you can sign up for on his website. It\u2019s a little annoying that they\u2019re distributed though a drip campaign but you can easily bypass that by manipulating the url. They were labeled from 1-3 the last time I interacted with it. That will give you a better understanding on Justin\u2019s teaching style so you can see if you\u2019re willing to pay the $30 for the courses he offers.", "replies": [{"id": "iom30q0", "text": "I'm a little late to the response but how heavy is he on the theory? That is one thing I think I would be missing with a lot of these modeling classes.", "replies": [{"id": "ip4nzqu", "text": "The ones I\u2019m taking are basically a intro class. Not sure how the more advanced courses he\u2019s offering are. If you\u2019re looking for more concept and theory i would probably recommend picking up some real estate text books like real estate finance and investments by Peter linneman. If you took the course he offers, they\u2019re lectures as well", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "injzhby", "text": "So I\u2019ve actually completed Peter Linnemans REFAI course not too long ago. While that course is a lot more well rounded since they also go over concepts and not just excel work, it moves a bit fast and the material isn\u2019t exactly easy to digest in my opinion. I\u2019ve also only started Break into CRE within the past month but from what I\u2019ve seen so far Justin does a better job explaining the excel finance because he assumes that you don\u2019t have any knowledge on the subject. However, if you want the gold standard of real estate certifications (Justin said this himself), I\u2019d recommend taking some of the udemy Break into CRE courses first and then follow up with the REFAI or REFM courses. Since you\u2019re a student you can take advantage of the student discount that they offer ($500 vs $1k+ from what I remember).", "replies": [{"id": "int5i7q", "text": "Hit the nail on the head, Peter L\u2019s real estate finance textbook is pretty good too", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "inb06zp", "text": "REFM. Break into cre is unnecessarily complicated with those formulas that break.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "indkn1e", "text": "Was a Finance 101 class not a perquisite for this finance class? If not I'd suggest taking one before the Real Estate Finance class. Finance 101 should give you the knowledge to handle real estate finance, none of it is rocket science.\n\nAlso Chegg, getting a subscription to it was the most worthwhile thing I did in college. They have step-by-step solutions for all the questions in most textbooks.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]