I am often asked about the role and responsibilities of Mentor and how to find a mentor for a real estate investing business. I am a big fan of mentoring, high expectations, and self help and coaching as core element in achieving your goals. I have mentors, to varying degrees, for as long as I have been involved in real estate investing.
Whether it be for your business, finance, life, real estate, etc., I have personally taken you through the process and now have personally coached much real estate investing client and investors. Over my 23- year career in real estate investing, I personally have provided a number of coaching to pro’s and swindled many (I have lost quite a few over the years). I have personally taken the money from those who I have helped and invested it buying more properties and have taken home millions. I have also mentored many, many others over the years. With that said, let’s look at the role of a mentor and how to find one.
A mentor is a mandatory and valuable tool for your business but only if they are applicable to your business and your individual needs. If your main focus is short term rehabs you may not need a mentor to help you find short term rehab properties. Your focus may be long term buy and hold or do anything you can possible consider long term. If you are a builder or a handyman with a flair for catastrophics, finding a mentor who can teach you the fine art of nicely completing a construction rehab may be a good fit for you. I have been heavily involved in quick turn comps for a number of years and have taken a number of properties through this process. I would estimate that I have made at least 10 mistakes during my time as a quick turn rehabber and that’s good because I was lucky enough to have the experience to quickly correct these by simply “gum balling” as it were. If you feel that you are a better negotiator and you can cut the deals more quickly, or that you have the skills to negotiate a good offer and you feel comfortable with your decisions, find a qualified mentor who is candid with you upfront with all of the pros and cons of your business and your personal situations. If they don’t know anything about your business or your personal life it is simply because they don’t know! They don’t disrespect competent professionals because they don’t know. Not a good thing.
If you are new to a certain field, this is especially important. I have been a real estate investor in the last few years and I have bought, sold, renovated, and Land Contracted (land contracts) quite a few properties. So I naturally understand that not every deal will work out for the dynamic real estate investor. So it is important that you locate a mentor who can help you out when you have a bad day, or are having a rough spot, and the pressure really gets to you.
So where should you find this mentor? At some point, you will need to figure out whom to ask and if you have a good eye for whom. I have been fortunate that I have had the opportunity to work with or introduce my deals to at least a couple good coaches over the years. The first real estate investing coach I coach was actually an acquaintance of mine and I was flat out turned off listening to this person tell me how great I would become if I just “Put in a Little.” That’s not to say that I didn’t take the advice since, I am glad I took the advice because much of what he said eerr did relate to my business and there are many ways you can structure your deals to make much money. But it just wasn’t the topic of the coaching. It’s easy to get turned off while trying to get a good mentor.
A few questions a mentor can answer is almost as important as the advice. How much will you earn, how much time you will need to put into the activities, what types of homes you should focus on, what types of pre-foreclosures you should work are becoming, etc. And the most important question of all is, if you are an investor looking to get into the real estate investing world, are you interested in making money or just getting rich? The questions are many but the answer is even more personal than that before getting into any business.
As I said, it’s really important to be proactive.