Email Question: What Do You Think About Mentors?

I definitely recommend finding a mentor, or a group of mentors where you can ask questions and get advice.  I’m not big on paying for this however, at least not a lot of money.  It’s also a good idea to find a mentor in your area if at all possible because at some point you are going to want them to help you analyze the repair costs of a potential deal by walking through the property with you.  That was one of the biggest helps for me hands down.

My mentor actually found me through this blog, saw that I needed help and offered to help.  I imagine he took the time and made the effort to contact me because he saw I was serious about making it in the business.  I only got asked to the full fledged coaching program after I offered to help him out to develop his real estate webpages.  He was greatful enough and when I offered to do it for free he offered to coach me.  So I traded my help for his and it cost me nothing.  The normal cost of his coaching program is thousands of dollars per year.  I’m not saying you have to go out and look to build webpages for local investors in trade for help, but what I’m saying is that you need to prove that you are serious and willing to sacrifice to succeed.

The best way I know how to do this is to start marketing and get sellers calling you.  There is no risk at that point, but you will gain experience talking with sellers.  What will also happen is that you will be able to ask other experienced investors (that you’ve met at local REI meetings) their advice on dealing with the specific motivated sellers and their situations.  You’ll be amazed at how willing people are to help you out if you bring up real life calls.  Don’t bombard them with questions though, just ask a few open ended questions and see how much help they are willing to give.  If they are the type of person that loves to help, they will give you even more then you expect.  They also may say something like “Call me tomorrow and we can talk about it.”  if they do, you better call them.

As long as you show up to meetings consistently you will recognize the people who know what they are talking about.  These are the people you want to target and become friends with.  Once they start recognizing you by name, you are in.  Then it’s up to you to continue to work on the relationship by offering to help them out in some way they may need.  Remember you have to give to get.

I hope my answer can help anyone with this same question.  If you need more clarification or need another question answered about getting started, please feel free to contact me.