Pros/Cons of Hiring Mentor?

[Chinyere Orie]

Hey everyone! So I'm just starting out in REI (and by just starting out, I mean I'm looking for my first deal). I'm focusing on buy and hold multifamily investing. I've heard great things about getting a mentor to really excel in investing. I have a mentor in mind who does a lot of business in my local market (Baltimore MD); the person mainly focuses on buy and hold and multifamily investing and has had great success. Should I start out with a mentor? Or should I do a few deals on my own before I hire a mentor? What should I look for in a mentor? Anyone have any experience with mentors, good or bad? Any feedback, success or non-success stories, and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[Joe Villeneuve]

If you have an opportunity to learn from a successful person, versus, learning from doing it on your own and making mistakes, take the successful person every time.  Either way you're paying for that knowledge.  The difference is, when you learn from making mistakes, the only knowledge you gain is how "not to do it".  When you learn from a successful person, you add how "to do it" to your knowledge as well...and I bet it will cost you less too.