How Important is a Mentorship when starting out?

Toledo, Ohio
Starting Out
3yFollow

How Important is a Mentorship when starting out?

Richard Darnell
Investor · Toledo, OH · Member since 2023 · 2 posts · 2 votes

Hi everyone!

I've been immersed in studying real estate investing, particularly wholesaling, but also fix and flip, and buy and hold strategies for the past six months and I'm dedicated to making this a successful venture. However, lately, I've been wondering the importance of having a mentor in this journey and wondering if I’m missing out on some serious growth without one. 

My current career is a travel nurse but I‘ve taken time off to work full time in the real estate investing world and I would greatly appreciate your insights and experiences on this matter. 

While I've been diligently educating myself through books (Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Richest Man in Babylon, multiple books on flipping houses by J. Scott, Mobile Home Flipping, and many more), YouTube resources (like the bigger pockets podcast, both on and off market wholesaling strategies by Jerry Norton, Jamil Damji, and Flip with Rick) , and forums like this one, I can't help but wonder if I'm missing out on the valuable guidance and support that a mentor can provide. I understand that investing in real estate, especially in the beginning stages, can be overwhelming, and having someone who has been through it all could potentially save me from costly mistakes and help me accelerate my progress.

So, I wanted to open up a discussion and ask: How important is mentorship when starting out in acquiring properties? Have any of you found success without a mentor, or do you believe having one is crucial? What specific benefits have you gained from having a mentor, if you had one?

Here are a few points I'm particularly interested in:

  1. Practical knowledge and expertise: Did having a mentor provide you with hands-on knowledge and practical tips that you couldn't have learned from books or courses alone?
  2. Networking opportunities: Did your mentor help you establish valuable connections within the real estate industry, such as with contractors, agents, or other investors?
  3. Accountability and motivation: How did having a mentor keep you accountable and motivated during challenging times? Did they push you to take action and strive for success?
  4. Avoiding pitfalls and costly mistakes: Were there instances where your mentor's guidance helped you avoid common pitfalls or costly errors that you might have otherwise made as a beginner?
  5. Accelerated learning curve: Did having a mentor help you shorten the learning curve and achieve your goals faster? Did they share valuable strategies, resources, or insights that made a significant impact on your success?

I genuinely believe in the power of mentorship, but I also understand that everyone's journey is unique, and what works for one person may not work for another. I'd love to hear your experiences and opinions, both from those who have had mentors and those who have succeeded without one.

If you have any advice, please feel free to share as well. Your guidance can help me and others who are considering the same path.

Thank you in advance for your input and support!

Best regards, Richard Darnell

2Reply
188 views

Most Popular Reply

Bob S.
Real Estate Consultant · Cleveland · Member since 2020 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
3y
Quote from @Richard Darnell:

Hi everyone!

I've been immersed in studying real estate investing, particularly wholesaling, but also fix and flip, and buy and hold strategies for the past six months and I'm dedicated to making this a successful venture. However, lately, I've been wondering the importance of having a mentor in this journey and wondering if I’m missing out on some serious growth without one. 

My current career is a travel nurse but I‘ve taken time off to work full time in the real estate investing world and I would greatly appreciate your insights and experiences on this matter. 

While I've been diligently educating myself through books (Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Richest Man in Babylon, multiple books on flipping houses by J. Scott, Mobile Home Flipping, and many more), YouTube resources (like the bigger pockets podcast, both on and off market wholesaling strategies by Jerry Norton, Jamil Damji, and Flip with Rick) , and forums like this one, I can't help but wonder if I'm missing out on the valuable guidance and support that a mentor can provide. I understand that investing in real estate, especially in the beginning stages, can be overwhelming, and having someone who has been through it all could potentially save me from costly mistakes and help me accelerate my progress.

So, I wanted to open up a discussion and ask: How important is mentorship when starting out in acquiring properties? Have any of you found success without a mentor, or do you believe having one is crucial? What specific benefits have you gained from having a mentor, if you had one?

Here are a few points I'm particularly interested in:

  1. Practical knowledge and expertise: Did having a mentor provide you with hands-on knowledge and practical tips that you couldn't have learned from books or courses alone?
  2. Networking opportunities: Did your mentor help you establish valuable connections within the real estate industry, such as with contractors, agents, or other investors?
  3. Accountability and motivation: How did having a mentor keep you accountable and motivated during challenging times? Did they push you to take action and strive for success?
  4. Avoiding pitfalls and costly mistakes: Were there instances where your mentor's guidance helped you avoid common pitfalls or costly errors that you might have otherwise made as a beginner?
  5. Accelerated learning curve: Did having a mentor help you shorten the learning curve and achieve your goals faster? Did they share valuable strategies, resources, or insights that made a significant impact on your success?

I genuinely believe in the power of mentorship, but I also understand that everyone's journey is unique, and what works for one person may not work for another. I'd love to hear your experiences and opinions, both from those who have had mentors and those who have succeeded without one.

If you have any advice, please feel free to share as well. Your guidance can help me and others who are considering the same path.

Thank you in advance for your input and support!

Best regards, Richard Darnell

 Incredibly important, THROW way all your books, I know I know everyone is going to bash me for saying that. Sure you can pick up a thing or two but in NOWAY will it provide reality for you. I have done 100sn and 100s and 100s of deals, never once reading a RE book or going to a seminar and have done it all,,, Hands on is where its atl

Good luck

BTW its ALL about numbers nothing else. Lastly its PRICE PRICE PRICE, not location location location, to a point, again I will get bashed for saying that LOL 

6Reply
See this reply in the discussion

31 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Sheri FluellenBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Cheyenne, WY · Member since 2020 · 122 posts · 64 votes
    3y

    @Richard Darnell, great post!! You're asking some important questions, which shows you are seriously trying to find your best path forward! For context, I've been an investor for 16 years, with a $10M + portfolio. I'm also a Psychologist and Certified High Performance Coach and have facilitated masterminds around investing (and other topics). I am IN the field of support because I've experience how much growth comes from intention work on oneself and their goals.  I've been the benefit of mentorship & coaching (and I do it every week with others).  Here are my thoughts:

    1. You can learn a lot from books, and I think reading is a must always. What a mentor can do is help you apply that knowledge in the most practical way.  They will see pitfalls and challenges that you can't simply because you are in new territory. I've had investors look at a challenge in my portfolio and give me a solution that left my jaw dropped because I hadn't thought of that or because I never even HEARD of that solution before!

    2. Success is about who you know.  I've advance my investor life more in the past 3 years, once I made the commitment to start getting to know people who are like me.  A few key people have made introductions that have been very fruitful!  If the mentor is plugged into some good communities, they will have a good strong reputation that you can build off of.  Trust takes time.  But being able to piggy back off someone else's trustworthiness is the only "shortcut" I know.

    3. This is one of the best aspects of a mentor or coach.  In many businesses I've been part of, I get frustrated and discouraged when things don't go they way I expected.  Did I mess it up?  Are things actually going right and I just need to persevere?  Do I change course?  These are hard questions to answer solo. So having a knowledgable person to consult, bounce ideas off of, and to help YOU stay accountable to YOU.  As a Coach, I don't hold people accountable.  I help them be accountable to themselves.  When they struggle, we work through the why and the how to honor oneself enough to do the hard things that you are committed to.

    4. I was a General Partner on a Syndication last year for a period of time.  There was a significant lack of communication and I was feeling less excited about it.  After talking to two good friends in the business, I made the hard decision to back out of the GP.  Turns out, almost a year later, the main GP is having serious problems with multiple syndications.  LPs are losing millions.  And I am able to sleep well at night knowing that I was guided by friends and mentors to do the hard thing that my gut was telling me.  I dodged a bullet. And I'm not sure I would have done that if I didn't have good counsel.

    5. A good mentor or coach will help point you to the right info, share their mind, and most important, help you develop an improved internal system to increase your momentum.  For example, the style of coaching I do helps people organize not just their investing but their whole life.  It helps bring everything into alignment.  What I've seen is that often investors don't stay stuck because of lack of knowledge.  But rather because something else in their life is off.  Sometimes it's a lack of confidence (and when you're working with someone, you can "borrow" their confidence), and sometimes it's things like not having a spouse fully on board with investing or having a job that is pulling you away.  There are great ways to help improve these areas!

    Lastly, I'll comment on mentor v coach. Mentor's are people who have "done it". They can shine a light on your path so you have more clarity on your next steps.  A Coach is someone who has the capacity to help you think and act more expansively, creatively, and effectively. They help you grow so that you are the person you need to be to have the success that you want to have. 

    Ideally, you'll find a coach and mentor in the same person.

    [email protected]307-772-1185
    The Titan Real Estate Team, Real Broker52 Reviews
    WebsiteView Page
    0Reply
  • Theresa HarrisPro Member
    Member since 2019 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
    3y
    Quote from @Anwar Nasir:

    Recently I purchase a mentorship program that cost $18,000 using a credit card and that investment has done nothing more than create the fear of destroying my credit if I don't continue paying $400.00 per month. If I don't pay that off quickly over time that so called mentorship will cost $36,000.

    That seemed at the time like a good investment because I was led to believe that I would have a deal in under 90 days and I decided out of financial desperation.


     Anything that claims to make things too easy is usually a red flag.  That $18K would have been a down payment on a house. Find local groups that meet for free or a small fee ($20).

    0Reply
  • John M.
    Investor · Fairfax, VA · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 801 votes
    3y

    @Theresa Harris spot on with the red flag!  @Richard Darnell I will mentor you for free!  The thing I love about real estate is that it's not rocket science!

    0Reply
  • Brandon Mckee
    Member since 2023 · 2 posts · 1 vote
    3y

    @Richard Darnell i just found this post and I'm also in the toledo area starting out. Have you found anyone to mentor you? I have been listening to the bigger pockets podcast at work I think k It was around episode 798 they bring in these 2 younger looking guys and the one said that you could google people that have these multi family apartments and call the owners and say hey I'd like to buy coffee and chat about your buisness and things like that I planned on doing that later this week and keep going until someone agrees to meet and chat about real estate

    0Reply
  • Richard Darnell
    OP
    Investor · Toledo, OH · Member since 2023 · 2 posts · 2 votes
    3y

    @Brandon Mckee, that’s a great idea

    0Reply
  • Anwar NasirPro Member
    Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2015 · 22 posts · 6 votes
    3y
    Quote from @Theresa Harris:
    Quote from @Anwar Nasir:

    Recently I purchase a mentorship program that cost $18,000 using a credit card and that investment has done nothing more than create the fear of destroying my credit if I don't continue paying $400.00 per month. If I don't pay that off quickly over time that so called mentorship will cost $36,000.

    That seemed at the time like a good investment because I was led to believe that I would have a deal in under 90 days and I decided out of financial desperation.


     Anything that claims to make things too easy is usually a red flag.  That $18K would have been a down payment on a house. Find local groups that meet for free or a small fee ($20).

     Sometimes very well crafted marketing material and many annoying  phone calls create a feeling of being pushed or pressured to make a decision that really wasn't well thought out. As a result people are sucked in by what seems to be the answer to there dreams. 

    I have wanted to invest in affordable housing for a very long time. Just like many, I have been waiting for what I thought was the perfect time to invest. I have always been skeptical of those so called mentors and guru's.

    Lastly I clearly understand that I made a huge mistake by not very clearly understanding what I would get for the money. There is nothing wrong with coaches and mentors. You just need to research the source and the product.

    0Reply
Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.
Log InJoin for Free