4 Steps to Landing a Wholesaling Mentor as a Complete Newbie

In the last year or so, I’ve been approached by so many aspiring real estate investors looking for me to become their mentor. I probably get asked this around 3-5 times a week!

Though it is very flattering and humbling that people recognize me as a real estate leader in Indianapolis, the truth of the matter is, I can’t feasibly handle all of these relationships!

I wish I could, but just on a practical level, with me running a full-time wholesale business and an online community, unless people are serious, I frankly don’t have the time to spare on them.

With all the people here on BiggerPockets who are also seeking mentorship by other seasoned investors, I can honestly see the difficulty they have in acquiring a mentor.

Finding a real estate mentor is the best thing you can do if you are just starting out, but again, real estate investors are extremely busy people, and if you want to grab their attention, there is a right way and wrong way to go about it.

In today’s post, I want to share a few things that are essential for you to do in order for you to better position yourself when asking for mentorship. This will almost guarantee your success with me, and I’m confident it’d be the same for anyone else you are prospecting as a mentor.

Let’s get jump into it!

4 Steps to Landing a Wholesaling Mentor as a Complete Newbie

Step 1: Learn to Analyze a Deal

First, you need to learn how to analyze a deal.

It’s important to learn the foundational principles and concepts of how to analyze a deal, and there are tons and tons of resources here on BiggerPockets for you to check out. One of the first things I’d search for is something called the 70 percent rule.

Step 2: Find a Deal

Then the next step is that you need to actually find a deal or at least a lead that looks promising.

Again, there are a ton of resources to help you do this here on BiggerPockets, and some of these strategies don’t even cost any money.

For example, if you have your real estate license, you could make 100 to 200 low-ball offers a month on the MLS, and I guarantee there’s a deal in this somewhere!

If you make 20-25 offers a day, you might only get one or two deals a month, but it’s something! This is a great strategy if you’re just starting off and funds are low.

Step 3: Find a Potential Mentor

Once you have found a deal, the next step is for you to find a potential mentor. The easiest way for you to do this is by setting up a keyword alert for your preferred market and then keeping an eye out for those who post frequently related to that keyword. Once you’ve found one that you really think you’d mesh well with, send them a private message suggesting that you’d like to met and maybe do coffee sometime.

Step 4: The Meeting

Once you’re sitting down with the potential mentor, don’t play games. Tell them the absolute truth. Say, “I am a brand new aspiring real estate investor who doesn’t know much, but I am hungry and willing to learn. I just need a little guidance.”

Then let them know you’ve already taken action and found a few properties that you think might be good deals, and show them the numbers you ran. Then say that since you’re new, you want them to review the leads and help determine if they are, in fact, good deals or not.

If they’re not (which they probably won’t be when you’re just getting started), ask them if they’d be open to helping you analyze leads you bring them, and then if ever one is a good deal, if they’d help you close it for a 60/40 split (where they get 60% and you get 40% of the net profit).

You’d make it clear that you’d want them to have you be involved in the entire process, so that you could learn.

Make sure that you offer to run errands, write purchase agreements, and perform any additional legwork needed close the deal.

Why This Approach Works

As an established and successful real estate investor, if somebody were to approach me this way, it would be a no-brainer!

Why would I walk away from a deal?

With this approach, if somebody were to bring me potential deals, even if the first few leads they brought me were terrible, I would be more than willing to give them feedback because their success would guarantee my success along with them.

If you approach potential mentors this way, where you’ve already taken action prior to meeting with them and they’ve now agreed to help you, all you have to do is keep repeating the cycle.

Just keep getting out there and finding deals!

For all of my newbies out there, the key is taking action!

A lot of people don’t take action. They read books. They read blog posts. They listen to podcasts, and they eventually end up overwhelmed with all of the information that is out there about real estate investing.

Related: For the Newbie Wholesaler: 4 Tips to Ensure You’re Taken Seriously as an Investor

I promise, you will learn far more by taking action and making mistakes than you ever will by reading a book.

The only way to be successful in learning this business is to suck at it and fail — sometimes epically!

The more you fail, the faster you can get pass that learning curve. The faster you eat that failure and learn how to do this business successfully, the faster you will become successful.

Don’t be afraid! Go after it! Make the mistakes, and sooner than later, you will actually do things right.

What steps are you taking to find a wholesaling mentor and close your first deal?

Let me know with a comment!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.