Newbie Question

[Account Closed]

Through a friend I was able to setup a meeting w/ an experienced and successful investor in my area. My goal is to pick his brain and gain any insight on becoming a new investor. What kind of questions should I ask him? How can I best make usage of this time and also make it beneficial for him? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Dell Schlabach]

Good questions to ask are always the ones you really want to know.

What is it you want to know?

Do you want to know how to find deals, how to flip one or two houses a year, how to flip 2 houses a month, how to find funding, how to become a top agent, how to quit your job in 5-10 years and have enough income from rental properties to live on, or do you have a great job that you love and you want to know  how to build a retirement fund with rentals?

The answers to these questions require are very different. 

When I meet with new people, the hardest part is giving advise to someone who doesn't know what they want to do, or someone who wants to be a realtor, wholesale houses, flip houses, and have single and multi family rentals and they want to do it all at once without any money or experience.   

It is typically easier to figure out how to GET what you want then it is to figure out WHAT you want.

I would clarify your objectives and then ask questions about strategies how to achieve them.

Other then asking specific questions about achieving an objective, You could ask about more generic things, their best deal, their worst deal, the biggest lessons learned, what it takes to be a successful investor , what their portfolio looks like today, what the most important skills or traits are, what training education or experience you should get, how long you should expect it to take to achieve certain objetives. 

 A few thoughts you might find helpful.

Good luck, define as good as you can what you really want to know, then ask those questions, no matter how stupid you may think they are. I would rather answer stupid questions, all day,  that people really want to know then vauge general questions from someone who doesn't have a clear objective.