Buying Properties With A Mentor Who Puts Up The Money

[Mordchai Lunger]

I have been doing lots of research on this site, and i have seen many people recommend going to your local REI club. So you can connect with other investors, so i contacted my local club which is BREIA. They offer a mentor program i was curious if this was what many of you recommended i start with. I spoke with one of the mentors and he was explaining the program they supply 100% of the funding and the mentor goes through every step with me. All of this sounded great to me but of course there is a catch first we split the profit 50/50 which i am fine with but they also charge a fee of $7,400 to get started with this program. Is this common for a mentor to charge such a high starting fee. Im always hearing not spend money on these guru or programs they just want your money. Do you think this is the same thing it is a lot of money but it will also make things so much easier for me.

Is this worth it or should i save my money, has anyone gone through this same experience, with a mentor or REI club has it worked out ?

[Maria Torres]

@Greg Grant, 

Like you, I've been considering the BREIA Mentoring Program and while doing my due diligence came across this thread. I see the other BP members who might have been interested in the program in the past have not been active here for quite some time. What about you?  If you don't mind, can you share if you ever went through with the program, and if so, what was your experience? 

[Lucas Machado]

"Gurus" get a negative connotation because in many cases they lack on the ground local experience. It's easy to sit in some webinar or fly people in for some course and charge $2,000. I think of "gurus" like that and that's why you are throwing your money away. These people either don't know the local market, local players, or quit the game for a reason. 

If a person has serious deal experience - and you can easily confirm this by just asking them about a few properties they've owned, or a few references for transactions they've worked - 50% 50% is MORE than generous if they are bringing the money.

If someone brought me a lead, and I was bringing the EXPERIENCE and MONEY - I wouldn't give 50%. Doesn't make sense. Perhaps others out there are willing to put up all the cash and manage all the work for a 25% cut, but that seems shady to me.

If a person told me they were going to pay for a deal and manage a deal, and I just had to bring the lead/contract for 50% profit share and do nothing else, that would be my new business : )

I think the BIG issue here is - not whether the $7,400 is worth it or not worth it. It's whether you will actually find deals. No mentor is going to do that for you. So if you're paying $7,400, and don't have any marketing or MLS strategies to find good priced deals, then yes you probably are throwing away 7.4k.

[Maria Torres]

@Lucas Machado,

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your feedback. You made some great points, and I'll definitely keep them in mind as I decide whether to do this mentoring program or not.

[Jeremy Hobbs]

@Maria Torres,

Hi, I'm choosing between BREIA and CFREIA.  I noticed BREIA marketing they are #1 mentoring program in the country so was wondering if you or anyone on this thread signed up with BREIA and/or the mentoring program?a

[Maria Torres]

@Jeremy Hobbs,

I have not signed up for any REI mentoring program (at least not yet), but from the research I have done, if I were to sign up, I would choose the BREIA Program. I attended their 2-day bootcamp a couple of months ago and found it very helpful, got to know them better. I've also spoken to several of their mentoring students, some who had previous experience with national "guru" programs, and they all seemed very satisfied with the level of education and support they receive from their mentors at BREIA, telling me the experience has been like night and day. Having said that, it is tough, at least for me, to cough up almost $30,000 for mentoring with of course no guarantee that I will find any deals, which is why I have not jumped in yet...but I guess it's a risk you gotta take, and trust that if there are other mentoring students finding deals, you will too. Also, in all fairness, I have not checked out the CFREIA mentoring program, as they're a little too far from me, so not sure how the two programs compare. Good luck with whatever you decide!

[Ali Langston]

hi i know this is pretty old, but i can speak from experience. I was a mentor student in the BREIA mentor program. The program was great.  When they first start putting up the money for deal this was a game changer. I was their 1st student to get a deal and did many more. It is well worth the money. They actuall help do most of the work for you. showing you how to do deals and find properties as you watch along side of them.