{"id":85517,"date":"2020-02-16T05:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=85517"},"modified":"2021-03-16T12:18:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T18:18:55","slug":"mentor-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/mentor-lessons","title":{"rendered":"4 Life-Changing Lessons My Real Estate Mentor Taught Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no question about it\u2014everyone in this industry needs a mentor<\/a>. I can truly say that if I didn\u2019t have the mentor that I do, I wouldn\u2019t have made it this far\u2014if not just for his teachings, but for his moral support during my freakouts.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say the latter has been the most important, but all the while, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel either. If someone has already done what I\u2019m trying to do, why would I not listen to that person and save myself the time (and headache) of making the same mistakes?<\/p>\n

When I started thinking of some of the best things I\u2019ve learned from my mentor, a couple specifics come to mind. If you\u2019ve read any of my previous articles, you\u2019ve probably seen a couple of these things already. But even if you have seen them before, read them again. They are that<\/em> big of game-changers! (They were for me, at least.)<\/p>\n

I hope these four life-changing lessons I learned from my mentor help you in your real estate investing career as much as they have mine.<\/p>\n

4 Life-Changing Lessons My Real Estate Mentor Taught Me<\/h2>\n

1. Don\u2019t take advice from someone you wouldn\u2019t trade shoes with.<\/h3>\n

This is my favorite quote in life. My mentor didn\u2019t teach me this quote, but instead, he demonstrated it. The reason my mentor is my mentor is because when I first met him, I wanted his life. He was working his own schedule, we met at his rooftop pool deck overlooking downtown L.A., he didn\u2019t have a briefcase or a notepad or anything formal or fancy, and he was wearing flip flops!<\/p>\n

After we met about a real estate contract I had been going over, I paused and asked him how I could have his life. Because I wanted his life, I was very willing to take everything he said seriously. I took advice from someone I would trade shoes with (or in this case, flip flops).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny to me how many people want to force their advice on me and yet they aren\u2019t living any kind of life I want to live, so why would I take them seriously?<\/p>\n

Another example involves a mentor of mine that I\u2019ve never actually met\u2014Robert Kiyosaki. People can knock him left and right, but I would trade shoes with him all day long. So, I pay attention to what he writes in his books (and it\u2019s worked for me!).<\/p>\n

The point is, find people who are living the kind of life you want to be living, and take their advice seriously. Be leery about advice you receive from anyone else.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> 7 Ways to Find a Real Estate Mentor for Free<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

2. Don\u2019t ask \u201cif\u201d you can do something\u2014ask \u201chow\u201d to do it.<\/h3>\n

This was huge piece of advice for me from my mentor. He said this exact phrase to me a few times. He was right, too.<\/p>\n

So often you may ask if you can do something, and people are very likely to say no. Why would they say that? Either because they couldn\u2019t do it themselves, they weren\u2019t willing to look for creative solutions, or maybe they simply weren\u2019t too excited about you succeeding.<\/p>\n

If you know deeply that you want to do something, don\u2019t ask whether you can or can\u2019t do it. Start asking how<\/em> you can do it. You can ask people that directly, but you can also make that your intention\u2014to figure out how<\/em> to do whatever it is you want to do.<\/p>\n

Now, a caveat: just as I talked about reinventing the wheel before, use some judgment on this. If one or more experts in a field are telling you something that goes against what you want to do, take a moment to assess and think about whether they might actually know what they are talking about. This is not to kill your dreams; it’s to make sure your dreams aren\u2019t going completely against reality.<\/p>\n

Going against the crowds and making things happen how you want them to is one thing (and a cool thing!), but trying to force something completely unrealistic will be frustrating and potentially time-wasting.<\/p>\n

The trick is\u2014how do you decide if something is a good thing to be pursuing despite any naysayers or if it\u2019s actually completely unrealistic? I\u2019m not sure how to answer that other than to say, “Be as educated as possible.”<\/p>\n

With education, you can know whether something is doable or not\u2014even if it may require some creativity!<\/p>\n

Also, assess who is naysaying the idea. Are they educated? How well are they doing things? Are they doing things that you want to be involved in? What\u2019s their credibility?<\/p>\n

Use your judgment. Either way, if you know <\/em>something can work, spend your time figuring out how to make that happen.<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t speculate.<\/h3>\n

This advice started out being strictly about the investment-buying realm but it eventually trickled into other things, as well. I\u2019ll get to those in a minute.<\/p>\n

As far as investing, though, my mentor doesn\u2019t buy for appreciation, nor does he support it. I will say, however, that I do believe buying for appreciation can work in a lot of ways, so I\u2019m not going to tell you I\u2019m completely against speculating. I believe there are educated, smart ways of doing it. But there\u2019s the key\u2014educated and smart.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t just run around buying properties assuming appreciation is coming your way. There are market fundamentals involved, timing strategies, and most importantly, contingency plans. If you are buying for speculation, don\u2019t buy something you can\u2019t afford if it doesn\u2019t appreciate. If you\u00a0can<\/em> afford it without appreciation, go for it. And then if the appreciation happens as planned, excellent.<\/p>\n

But if you really can\u2019t afford the operating costs of a property while you wait for appreciation, you are putting yourself at a lot of risk, assuming said appreciation is guaranteed to happen and within some guaranteed timeframe.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t believe me, ask investors how well 2009 treated them. The option instead of speculating is buying real estate based on solid fundamentals\u2014numbers, market factors, known exit strategies, and with known risk mitigation.<\/p>\n

Now, for the second version of speculating that I learned not to do.<\/p>\n

\"hard<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> 4 Rookie Mistakes That Drive Potential Real Estate Mentors Away<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

4. Life works better and is less stressful when we constructively work together.<\/h3>\n

Guess what causes people to \u201cjump off the ledge and go bananas\u201d? Emotions. Guess what most often leads to emotions? Speculating.<\/p>\n

Speculating on someone\u2019s intentions and speculating on what is really going on when you don\u2019t actually know are far too common. This is true for life, but it\u2019s especially true in real estate investing. The fact is, real estate investing has nothing to do with emotions. It\u2019s about facts and numbers, period.<\/p>\n

There are two things I recommend for keeping sneaky emotions from creeping in when it comes to your properties. First, don\u2019t speculate on numbers or facts about the property. Instead, get as much fact as possible.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter a seller\u2019s intention\u2014it matters about the property itself. It either passes the due diligence test or it doesn\u2019t. If you do full due diligence (cough, cough\u2014be educated and actually know how to do it!) and something goes wrong after that, none of it\u2019s personal, it\u2019s just a thing. No room for emotions there.<\/p>\n

Second, if something does go wrong, give everyone involved a chance to speak. Ten dollars\u00a0says it was nothing personal against you. Even if someone totally sucks, it\u2019s not about you. It is what it is, and you move forward.<\/p>\n

As much as I\u2019m normally an advocate for supporting anyone\u2019s emotions (and I fully support everyone having their own emotions), in the case of real estate investing, it really will behoove you to understand that none of it is personal. Reacting out of emotion is unlikely to help you get closer to resolution.<\/p>\n

Certainly, if something happens with your property and you become livid or whatever else you might feel, feel that. But feel that first and process it, and then respond. Respond constructively and concisely. If someone does not respond to that, stop doing business with them and move on.<\/p>\n

Though I say all of this, I am the first one to react emotionally to something stressful regarding my property. I immediately get pissed, and I immediately think someone seriously blows for letting whatever “it is” that happened happen.<\/p>\n

However, in the years I\u2019ve been in the industry, I’ve realized none of it is personal and assuming anything of anyone is pointless. I just need to state the problem, state what is necessary to remedy it, and go from there. I now save my emotional freakouts for venting to my mentor. Or my dog.<\/p>\n

I hope these things that I learned from my mentor help you in your real estate journey. Realizing it all has certainly helped with mine. My mentor has been an integral part of my career, and I really don\u2019t think I would’ve survived such a bumpy road had it not been for him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What are some of the most key learnings your mentor(s) have taught you?<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me know with a comment!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finding the right mentor can easily mean the difference between success and failure. Here’s what one investor learned and would like to pass on so others don’t repeat her mistakes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":782,"featured_media":114570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-investing-for-beginners"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}