Shadowing a investor

[Brandon Burke]

I was wondering if I can be a student to someone who is in the real estate field and that doesn’t mind teaching me the ropes along the way

[Andrew Davis]

@Brandon Burke and @Meca Smith - welcome to Bigger Pockets!

A few suggestions:

There is a wealth of information here on Bigger Pockets about every aspect of real estate investing you could imagine. Before you start looking for a mentor, I'd suggest the following:

- Listen to every BP podcast: you'll learn a ton and figure out what aspect of investing really interests you.

- Get active on the forums and start attending local meetups (or start one!) and maybe join your local REIA.

- Start reading books. You'll find more mentors than you could ever imagine just by reading good quality business, investing and life books. Here are a few lists to get you started:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/04/1...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/12/2...

Once you've done all that, you can articulate a value proposition to an investor that you'd actually want to follow in their footsteps. Then, when you meet a successful local investor, you ask him/her what they need or where they want to take their business and then you can present an actual plan of how to help them get there. You're providing them real value, and they'll actually want to work with you and teach you what they know.

For example, hypothetical successful investor has plenty of cash but is just not finding enough deals that fit their criteria. Good news - you've listened to all the podcasts, and have learned some great strategies to find off market deals and you can help them implement those. Adding value to them and learning at the same time.

Hope that's helpful!