I’ve been doing this real estate thing for a little over year now, and I want to share some of the things they don’t tell you. In fact there are plenty of things they won’t tell you. The “gurus” at least. The one thing I can tell anyone starting out, is a GOOD mentor is a must. How can you find one? The local real estate clubs.
Don’t be fooled by real estate clubs though. They are full of noobs, sleaze balls, and money hungry greedy crooks… Okay, okay, not everyone in there is a bad guy. Networking is very important, but you should be careful with who.
My first mentor, I met at the local big club. My first successful -if you can call it that- deal went so bad because of this guy, a full year later, Both buyer and seller are threatening to sue me. It’s okay the problem was taken care of and thats a whole different story for a different time. Being a noob myself a year ago I had no idea what to do, so naturally I did what the internet told me… Go to your local club. I just had a poor choice in mentor, but how was I suppose to know!? Some of these people will just ride you for a quick dollar.
When you let the club know you have a deal and want to work with someone, people will jump on you like flies on s***. Especially if you ask for mentoring. You have to be careful, who you deal with. One thing I’ve learned is you must treat the situation, like you are hiring someone. Don’t let them push you around, especially if you are a young investor. I’m currently 27 years old, and I tend to catch flak from older folks, even though I have ways to make them tons of money with my innovative thinking.
Anyways, I’ve gone through like 6 mentors or something like that? They either screw me, or don’t perform in a timely manner, or lied about things… Oh yeah. I won’t hesitate to find someone else. Essentially you and your mentor are a team. Would you want a rock star quarterback on your team, or a lazy bum?
I’ll tell you one thing however. Nothing drives me more nuts than when these mentors show up late for appointments. Thats my biggest pet peeve. Maybe it’s do to the fact that I’m concerned with my image with my sellers. I’m trying to create a positive look and give my clients fast reliable quality service. Call me a bit anal, but I can’t help that. It works for me, and I feel you need professionalism in this business if you want to stay ahead.
Now coaches are a bit different. Hahaha… I got myself 5 stacks in debt with a reputable company in the beginning days of real estate. Their coach was all the way out in a different state. Being a noob with a coach and not fully understanding real estate went with terrible results. All the coach did was re-read the material they had already sent me. Which I’ll admit the material was so worth it, but not the coach. Now a coach would be worth it these days having way more experience under my belt, and actually having leads to bring to the table. Half of the time with the coach was a waiting game do to my absence in a good marketing machine.
I have mixed feelings about coaching. It’s good, and I’ll do it again in the future, but I feel that $5000 could have gone to marketing, and that would have been the better move.
Now the worst people in the business, are realtors… Do you know how hard it is to find a good realtor, let alone a realtor/investor, that knows what you’re doing? I’ve had so many realtors want to do business with me and never ever follow up or perform at all… I also don’t particularly like the ones that want to charge for comps, when I’m willing to bring them an endless supply of good leads… I’ve been quoted $10 per comp. $25 per comp, and even some a-hole wanted me to pay $500 for a comp!!! What the f***???
Another realtor was trying to sell me some package where I paid a monthly fee for his comp services, and he wanted free leads. He had these stupid package deals, and labeled them “silver, gold, and platinum”. You can guess that each plan had a better benefit to it. He also talked about how great he was. Too bad I don’t care, cause when I’m calling you, I already expect you to be great. All I care about is the terms of us doing business and how can we both win? Talk is talk, but the real test comes to how well these realtors perform during crunch time.
Why the heck would you step over the dollars to pick up the dimes, when it comes to running comps? I’ll give them the fact that they may feel like people like me are wasting their time… I’ll give them that… My current agent does it for free, and I treat him well cause of it. He gets good leads and in return I make $500 or more per listing when closed. He also gets first dibs on my wholesale deals, and our market only has 2 months inventory. If an agent can’t figure out inventory, don’t work with them. Oh and the agents that want free leads, or charge for comps, aren’t worth working with either. That’s a crappy trade off, and my hard work for those leads will not go unpaid for. Some of these realtors claim they can’t pay you. Yes, it’s illegal for them to pay you for leads. But, as far as I’m concerned, they can pay for marketing, and I happen to be in that business too… Heck you can sell them a pencil for $500 wink wink nudge nudge, and things are legal, cause that law has loop holes.
Real estate is brutal for noobs. It also has a high wash out rate. I love it though. It’s a thrill despite all the B.S. that comes with it. But hey? If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and I wouldn’t make as much money. My market is already super competitive as is, and half the competition is bums and dingle berries. I’m going to dominate them, with my vision as I slowly bring it together. I look forward to my second year.
