Just got a mentor. What should I do?

Question

Kim Younkin · Answer

You're welcome @Russell Ballard Jr! I will play Devil's Advocate and disagree with Jacob on the payment issue -- if your mentor is a busy person (as most successful investors are), time is money, and outsourcing smaller tasks for pay is a good business decision. I worked for free to learn when I was younger, because sometimes that's a good business decision, too; just don't rule out that you can get paid for this kind of work.

Jared Watson · Answer

Take everything with a grain of salt

Remember: it's just an opinion

If they can't tell you why, they usually full off $&@"

David Faulkner · Answer

This is an excellent attitude and way to approach things! Other newbies take note ... Russell is approaching his mentor looking for what he can do to help and add value, not just what he can get out of it or what his mentor can do for him. Bravo! Keep up this attitude of service to others first, and you will go very far in this business. I would ask your mentor what you can do to help, and whatever he asks you to do, no matter how seemingly trivial, do it exceedingly well and knock it out of the park. With time he will trust you with more responsibility and will invest more of his time and knowledge. Sounds like you are doing that already, so I want to encourage you to continue to do that. Under promise and over deliver.

Carlos E Zapata Jr · Answer

I'm pretty new and found that partnering with someone that is experienced is like get paid as you learn. The broker I work with is busy but when I find a deal he makes his time available to walk me through the whole closing process.

Jacob Pereira · Answer

@Kim Younkin, I don't think we really disagree here. That's why I said, "unless you have a specialized skill." If @Russell Ballard Jr happens to be skilled at hanging drywall, is a CPA, or has a master electrician's license, he should absolutely get paid. I saw you mentioned making cold-calls. There may be something to that one. It doesn't require a lot of skill or knowledge, but it's so unpleasant that someone might be willing to pay an unskilled person to take care of it for them.

Oh, and Russell, I'm in Austin too. I'm actually working on a little condo in East Oltorf-Riverside if you want to come take a look. I'd be happy to talk you through how I do things, but I'm still not going to pay you for it ;).

Jacob Pereira · Answer

If you were closer, I'd let you follow me around and see what I could teach you, but 3-4 hours is a bit far to drive for that.

A word of warning: If you're looking for paid work, a real estate investor is probably not the avenue you should be looking. There are plenty of people who would be happy to teach you for free, but unless you already have some kind of specialized skill, they're not going to go ahead and train a future competitor and pay for the honor of doing it.

Kim Younkin · Answer

Hi @Russell Ballard Jr...I really admire your motivation and drive...awesome. If you're not shy on the phone, you could offer to make phone calls to motivated sellers for your investor. He/she might have lists of such potential motivated sellers and could walk you through a call so you know what questions to ask. You could also offer to help him/her mail what's referred to as "yellow" marketing letters (you might have heard of them) to people to get motivated sellers to call in on their own. And if your mentor works on flips, you could offer your handy skills, because I hear investors say all the time how doing fixer work themselves really helped them in their business (experience is the best teacher and all that). Much success to you!

George P. · Answer

give me some details about the mentor... i am curious.

what does he do

how many properties does he do per year

what does he need help with

what do you want to help with

etc, etc

Just got a mentor. What should I do?

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