So much of real estate investing is about forming relationships. One relationship that can be invaluable, especially if you’re new to real estate, is a relationship with a mentor. A real estate investing mentor can help you by sharing their experiences and expertise, answering your questions, steering you away from the mistakes they’ve made, and giving you an insight into how the industry operates. If it’s the right person, a mentor can be your teammate for a long time.
Almost every day, someone asks me to mentor them. Over the years I’ve had to learn to resist my knee-jerk reaction to say yes. There are only so many hours in the day. While I’m unable to personally mentor people, I still wanted to create a space for newer investors to ask their questions and get support. This is why I made the forum at KenMcelroy.com. Click here to check it out. I’ll be answering the questions you post on there, but it will also be a place for you to have access to another valuable resource: each other. There are new and seasoned investors in the group, so I encourage you to engage with each other too, and you could even find someone to mentor you there.
There are many other places to meet mentors: networking events, meetup groups, real estate investing clubs, LinkedIn, and even real estate investment companies. When you introduce yourself please remember if they don’t know you, you’ll need to make the case for why mentoring you is worth their time. How can you do this? It depends on you and what you’re good at. You can offer to work in their real estate investing office part time as an intern. Yes, that means working for free. Or at least, not getting financially compensated. What you can learn could be life changing, so you’re getting something in exchange.
Some other, less conventional ways for meeting investors include starting your own real estate investing networking group. If you are the leader of the group and you’re organizing fun or interesting events, people will be more apt to help you. You could also start a podcast and have real estate investors as guests on your show. You have to be creative, so put yourself out there, and offer people something useful. Honestly, that alone will go a long way toward inspiring someone to help you.
I understand that some of you may be deterred by the amount of work involved. And you’re right, when you’re getting started you really do need to keep a lot of plates spinning. But for any business, and especially one with potentially high returns like real estate, the work is absolutely worth it. Starting a business is a lot of work. You’re welcome to put off the hard work, just don’t be surprised when you’re still in the same spot a year from now. Those that put in the work and make an effort to make themselves known are the ones that can really thrive in this industry.
