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Updated over 5 years ago, 07/10/2019
$20-50k for a mentor?
My brother and and have been studying the business for a month in a half. We are currently attending a 3 day training with great content!!! They are soliciting their others services which consist of a personal mentor with phone number, email and access to their time for a price of $20-50k. Can anyone share thoughts or concerns?
Hey @Brandi Graham! If you are literally just starting out, I would avoid something that costly for now. There are much better alternatives and likely better mentors out there who won't make you have to remortgage your home just to afford them (sarcasm).
@Brandi Graham sure pay me 10k, and I’ll mentor you. What a steal!!!
@Jake Stuttgen thank you for your input! This community has already been so supportive!
@Brandi Graham No problem, but I also wanted to say that this doesn't make paid for mentorship a bad idea, I just think you'd benefit just from networking and learning a bit more on your own.
I personally have a paid for mentor, but it took me a couple of years of learning/networking to find the right one for me.
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- Greenville, SC
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#5 Investor Mindset Contributor
- Investor
- Greenville, SC
Most people don't follow through on expensive mentorship programs and would be better off putting $20k down on red or black on the roulette wheel. Some do follow through though and start real estate careers. We can't assess that from an internet post. It's less about the program and more about the person.
@Brandi Graham
You can BRRRR a property for that price!
@Caleb Heimsoth
I'll do $9,999.00 :)
@Caleb Heimsoth
No, lol, I don't need your services. To the OP, I was offerring that fee
@Brandi Graham when I first started in REI it was tempting to take those classes as well. Until I met a couple at one of the "intro free" classes where they put a hard sell on you to convince you to pay all that money for an REI education. I had asked this couple if they enjoyed the classes? They said very much so. I asked how much have you spent on classes? They said $75K. I said wow you must have many rentals by now? Their reply, not yet. I was beside myself. Long story short, don't over analyze or spend too much on REI education. Join a local REI club. Network there with fellow investors. Also work with a Realtor that is a fellow investor who can help recommend those professionals to add to your team. You time, and money is better spent on closing deals ASAP.
- Joe Funari
@Joe Funari thank you for sharing your experience! This is really conformation of my gut instinct. Can you suggest a good one in the DFW area?
After you spend $50K they will tell you that "You should really sign up for part 2 because part one is only the introduction and to succeed you need part 2. We have a promotion that ends today for only 35K and comes with a lollipop".
Go to local RE meetups where like-minded people give opinions, advice and discus mistakes they made and how to avoid them. Make contacts with experienced investors, pay attention and learn.
Is the mentor doing deals or selling information?
If they are doing profitable deals they do not usually have much time to sell information. When deals get harder to find at the top of the cycle that is when you see these so called system sellers and trainers come out in droves. They try to make more money selling systems and information than doing deals.
They figure if you get 1,000 people to pay 1,000 then you have 1 million before expenses and taxes. You now have up to 1,000 people trained on how to look for the type of deals the mentor is interested in. They then use the trainees to do the heavy lifting to find the 1 in a 1,000 property that is a deal to buy and possibly partner with them on it or provide the funding on it with a loan.
People that believe they will have a multi-millionaires undivided attention for paying 500 or even 1,000 for a program or so called mentoring can be clueless.
Think about it this way. If someone pays me 10,000 to learn commercial retail but wants 100 hours of my time that return is 100 bucks an hour. For that same time if I average 2,000 dollars an hour for my time that is 200,000 return versus 10,000. Why on Earth would I want to do the 10,000? The only way that makes sense is if you have grunts sell your systems or achieve massive volume as a trainer with hundreds or more in the room etc.
Potential investors just need to be realistic on what they will be paying and what they will be getting. There is tons of info on this site you can search for yourself to learn and also cheap books to buy.
Now I do see syndicators offering free or cheap workshops as they want to build their passive investor database to invest on their projects.
I do help my buyers understand the process when buying retail centers but I get paid a lot for it. Example they become my client and learn the process but I get 2.5 to 3% commission on a 4 million retail center for over 100k return on my time.
- Joel Owens
- Podcast Guest on Show #47
@Brandi Graham complete waste of money. They pray on your wants and charge you wayyy more than anyone has business charging to be a "mentor". You can learn everything they are going to teach you through BP, youtube, the community. And getting out there and networking.
Please dont spend that much money on that. It would be much better spent on marketing or skin in the game on a loan!
#3 Investor Mindset Contributor
- Handyman
- Pittsburgh, PA
You should really invest in @Caleb Heimsoth's program. I did it and went from living in a cardboard box and eating out of dumpsters all the way living in a McMansion and pounding down all the McRibs I ever wanted, even out of season.
Originally posted by @Brandi Graham:
My brother and and have been studying the business for a month in a half. We are currently attending a 3 day training with great content!!! They are soliciting their others services which consist of a personal mentor with phone number, email and access to their time for a price of $20-50k. Can anyone share thoughts or concerns?
A mentor would have saved me an absurd amount of money
Find somebody who you know are a referral of someone you know
So they’re not just in it for the money
Originally posted by @Brandi Graham:
My brother and and have been studying the business for a month in a half. We are currently attending a 3 day training with great content!!! They are soliciting their others services which consist of a personal mentor with phone number, email and access to their time for a price of $20-50k. Can anyone share thoughts or concerns?
I always decline offers to mentor people for a fee but man, maybe I need to rethink that.
Originally posted by @Anthony Rosa:
After you spend $50K they will tell you that "You should really sign up for part 2 because part one is only the introduction and to succeed you need part 2. We have a promotion that ends today for only 35K and comes with a lollipop".
Go to local RE meetups where like-minded people give opinions, advice and discus mistakes they made and how to avoid them. Make contacts with experienced investors, pay attention and learn.
The problem with most REI clubs, at least the few I went to when I was starting, is they're full of tire kickers. When I went I had done a few SFH flips. Owed 3-4 SFH rentals and an 8 unit I think. I went to find people to learn from and ended up I was the "main guy".
I really think the best luck I had is running into someone (who became a close friend) who did what I did in my submarket. Having someone to talk to and bounce ideas off was 100x better than any mentor IMO
@Brandi Graham I think we attended the same seminar in Grapevine, TX. My guest and I walked out after the speaker failed to teach any real estate for 3 hours. We realized it was a build up for the big up-sale. Very disappointed, but learned a valuable lesson for $500.
@Joe Funari I was just thinking about this today. The Guru/Mentor industry seems to be based on the newbie enthusiasm phenomenon. Most people get really stoked in their first few months and this emotional energy is capitalized on by the gurus/mentors. I see it, I'm a newb. Any mentor that does a lot of business is well aware of this phenomenon and they know where the mentee is because they've been that person. I'm not saying all mentors who charge tens of thousands plus are bad people, but I do think a good mentor would vet out the newbs that just caught the bug to see if they are truly dedicated. Maybe in their mind $20k+ shows dedication. Figure out which strategy feels best for you, then find a mentor that specializes in that strategy. But I could be wrong, I'm just a newb.
@Caleb Heimsoth tell me about your mentoring program. What is your experience and what strategies do you offer to teach?
@Brandi Graham yeah. Don’t do this. What area of real estate are you interested in? You probably simply aren’t at a stage yet to take advantage of the material. I wouldn’t have been and I was chomping at the bit for a mentor.
Some of the best things to do first are to go to your local real estate investor meetings. Check meetup.com. Many many deals come straight from networking. It’s also a great place to find pre-vetted lawyers, contractors, agents, and investors to partner with.
Check business networking meetups.
Set up an account at your local credit union.
@Brandi Graham you don’t need to pay a mentor program to get one rental; or even a few rentals. However, if you are going to try to employ advanced real estate strategies or if you want to scale up to more than 20 or 30 units, I think finding a mentor is definitely worth it. I like what @Jake S. suggested to continue to learn more and more until you know what kind of mentor you want. I too did a paid guru education program which cost me tens of thousands of dollars, but I did it after I had been a landlord for 5 years and I had purchased a commercial property and I had flipped 3 houses and I was ready to learn more and go to the next level. I have now scaled to where I can go with the knowledge I have now and I will be looking to go to the investor summit at sea next June to network and move myself to the next level.
@Brandi Graham well I am new to this but I have a mentor/ partner and didn’t pay a cent. If he’s a good person he won’t charge to mentor you I wouldn’t if I knew the business and I would want to mentor and help others without changing them of course.
@Brandi Graham-run from it. At some
point there may be a
time but in my
opinion you don't know what you don't know. there is tons of material out there. A GREAT first stop would be your local REIA. Real estate investors Association. lots
of willing and free mentoring