How many of you started out with a mentor in RE?

I keep seeing so many topics about mentors and how some people can find them and others can’t.

I want to know how many people have been successful in REinvesting without a mentor. I want to know if you started out without a mentor, are you successful today? And I mean successful by being a full-time investor and that being your only form of income.

I want to start in RE in the new year, (I have some debt I need to pay down before then) and I don’t have a mentor yet.

I don’t want that to stop me. I know what I want to focus on in RE investing and I’m getting my ducks in order. I’m pretty good with numbers being an accountant and actually working in property management for both commercial and residential.

My question is: Do I need a mentor before I even do my first deal??? I’m not opposed to help but I don’t want to wait around for a mentor before I start this journey. I would think I would find one along the way as I grow in the business.

Thanks for your help!

Everybody has a mentor. Ben Franklin is one of my mentors although he has been dead for 200 years. Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki are my mentors although I have never been in the same room with them.

I talk to everybody that does real estate that I can find and I take success learning from them all. They are all my mentors. I caution you not to talk to people about mistakes they have made, just successes. Ask them how you did x or how does y work. Mistakes are war stories and you can find out 1,000 mistakes and still have no idea how to do it right. I did run into a guy that had over 100 rent houses that told me how to do a lot of critical things, but he never took me step by step through a deal and I have done a bunch of deals.

Like you, I was a business manager for a major company and made investment decisions for decades so had the basic understanding of what I was trying to do. With your background I would not let a mentor stop me from starting.

Thanks Bluemoon06. I have been reading alot and even bought the one book from PropertyManager and it all makes sense and has helped answer several questions. I guess I do have some of the same mentors you mention like Trump and Kiyosaki and a few other.

I have a pretty good head on my shoulders and have a lot of business experience and sense. I still need to learn alot, but I feel like I understand the basics of RE investing.

Currently I feel like I’m moving in the right direction even if it’s going it alone at first.

Just a little scared and nervouse because I don’t have a mentor as I dive into this.

The problem when you get a mentor is that you only get one persons opinion on how to do things. And every deal you come accross there are about 10 different ways to get it done. Not to mention that I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this or not and I hate to break it to you if you don’t. The economy kinda sucks right now and there are more deals then you can shake a stick at. So don’t do a deal just to do a deal. Be careful and picky not everything makes sense. If you do decide to get a mentor make sure they are doing what you want to do and more important make sure they are really doing the business and not just getting others into bad investments. Before you pay anyone for Mentorship call others that have been with him for at least 6 months and make sure they are still happy with there service.

I’d also be careful that you don’t qualify someone as successful or not based on whether they have a day job or not in addition to REI. Bluemoon still works another job as do many others on this board. That doesn’t make them any less successful than others who are living entirely off their REI income. Everyone has their reasons for keeping or leaving their jobs and it’s not always money based.
You’re an accountant so you know numbers. Use common sense math to make sure something is going to work for you. Don’t trust Realtors telling you “positive cash flow” for that rental bringing in $500 that they have listed for $60K. Those numbers just don’t make sense.
I didn’t have a mentor starting out, but I knew basically what I would need our first building producing to pay the basic monthly obligations. What I didn’t know was truly how much or how little to estimate for repair/maintenance costs. Our first deal had what I thought was enough room left over after paying mortgage/insurance/tax/water/sewer/trash/common area electric that I felt comfortable enough proceeding.
I didn’t find this board until about 7 or 8 months after we started investing. I’ve adopted propertymanager’s 50% rule and now we’ve done enough deals that I don’t have to break out a calulator to see exactly where we’ll be based off the 50% rule.
If you’re going to do rentals, you need to read everything you can off a few of the forums here. You don’t need to pay for a crutch (mentor). If you need a cheerleader for REI, this probably isn’t for you.
Everyone’s a little nervous the first time. It’s something new and you’ll have some money at stake. It’s ok to be a little apprehensive going into it.

Boy, I’ve been down this road before! Before my partner and really had ANY idea what we were doing, my partner got suckered into buying a “mentor” program from some guru that I’m sure no one on here has ever heard of. Long story short, several thousand dollars and several “mentoring” sessions later and we were no closer to accomplishing our goal of buying RE than before! Our “mentor” had good intentions and did have REI expereince, but he was across the country and there was really no incentive to follow through, CUZ THEY ALREADY HAD OUR MONEY!

We’ve been much more successful partnering up with a local investor who we bought a house through that was nice enough to help us through our first deal, point us in the direction of some good contractors, and answer any questions we had during the buying process. find somebody local, scratch their back, and maybe theyll scratch yours.

I recommend finding someone who is a master in the strategy you wish to do and partner, birddog, wholesale this person deals. Learn and become a master at this strategy. You are not reinventing the wheel, the quickest way to become successful is to work with someone who is already successful in that strategy. Make it a win-win. You can find these people online, at REIClubs, and by networking in your target area and in your target strategy. Best of luck!

I’ve given this advice before. It was good then and it is still valid. If all possible try and hook up with a mentor in your local area. By hooking up with a local mentor, you will be dealing with a person who knows the market you are working in. The national mentors have hundreds if not thousands of students so they can’t spend the individual one on one time that a local mentor can.

I just got my first deal done on 12/30/09 while in debt, with courses I bought on E-bay and some dumb luck. I got a deal rolling by finding a seller, negotiating a good deal and finding a buyer for a profit and then found a local RE Investor that knew how to get everything together and keep it together and cut him in on a portion of the profit so he would be willing to make sure it worked so he would get paid. I think that it’s important to DO SOMETHING that would make someone want to help you, not just try to have them steer you in the right direction. Get something going and prove you’re worth helping. Hope you can do the same. Good Luck.

You certainly can eventually become a successful real estate investor without seeking the help of a mentor.

But why would you do this?

There is so much help available to those of us who want it.

Even if it’s just buying a book on real estate investing at Barnes & Noble.

Take advantage of this incredible information age we live in.

If you would have told me that I could pay someone (who’s already been incredibly successful) to teach me what they know and I could then put that info to use in my own business, I wouldn’t have believed you.

You certainly have to know what to look for when it comes to mentoring, but when you find the right person, the experience will take your business to the next level.