How to Find a Local Real Estate Investing Mentor

Let me tell you a story…

My first year investing, we came across a motivated seller who owned her property free in clear. It was a single family home in pretty good condition (needed $8k in cosmetics… mainly paint and carpet)… on Morningdale Drive in Mount Pleasant, SC.

The seller wanted to move back home to Virginia to be with family and did NOT want to list her home with a Realtor. She didn’t want to deal with the hassle of people coming in and out of her property to look at it… so we made her a low all cash offer.

She didn’t accept the offer at first, we followed up, and three weeks later had a signed contract.

Only problem… we didn’t have the $112k in cash to close the deal.

But we knew that if she accepted the offer, it was such as awesome deal, that we would figure out a way to fund it.

Long story short, we got a bit desperate and decided to go door knocking on all the realty and mortgage brokerage offices in the area… and showed the deal to anyone who would listen.

Finally after much persistence, we found Barry. He took one look at the deal and said “I’m in!”
We partnered together on the deal and bought, renovated, and sold it in less than 60 days. And doing that deal with Barry was great, but the relationship that we formed… is what became one of my most valuable resources the first 3 years in the biz.

Even though my primary REI mentor was Lou Brown, Barry became my local mentor.

He had been flipping properties for over a decade, was a Realtor and mortgage broker, and knew the local market inside out.

Barry said that anytime we had a deal that we wanted to pass by him (whether we were looking to partner or just looking for his opinion and feedback)… he would check it out and let us know what he thought.

A few months later, we got another property in Mount Pleasant under contract and thought we struck GOLD!

We were moving quickly towards closing and decided to ask Barry if he’d come take a look at it.

He took one step inside the property and said…

“NIGHTMARE!”

There were both structural issues and problems with the stucco… which would have cost around $80k to fix.

Whew! That was a close call.

Having a local mentor can be an invaluable asset.

3-Steps to Finding a Local Real Estate Investing Mentor

(this is one of the things we cover in our  Certified Strategic Investor – training program… along with many other foundational business building techniques and strategies)

First, I want you to know that you don’t have to do a deal with someone for them to be your local mentor. That’s how it happened for me… but there are a few simple steps you can follow to find yours.

Step 1 – Determine what qualities you want in a local mentor 

Always begin with the end in mind. Take 5 min now to write down the ideal qualities your mentor will have.

Step 2 – Where to look

Here are a few good places…
– your local REIA
– foreclosure auctions
– tax sales
– meetup groups related to investing (check out meetup.com)
– call investor marketing… bandit signs, newspaper ads, etc

Step 3 – Ask, “How can I help you?” 

This is the part that most people really screw up.

The mindset of the average investor is WIIMF (what’s in it for me).

You want to put 100% focus on the other person and see how you can help them. This brings the law of reciprocity into your favor.

As Zig Ziglar says, “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

For example…

One of our Platinum members, Jason Tooley, made a great decision to work for free for a couple local active wholesalers in their biz.

He understood the incredible value he would receive working side by side investors doing exactly what he wanted to learn… even if he wasn’t compensated monetarily.

After joining our program, Jason locked up $970k in private money in 26 days… and then I helped him put together an $8mm dollar package deal.

Hmmmm do you think it was worth it for Jason to “work for free?”

Yeah, I’d say so.

Happy Investing!

– Patrick