Mentorship Programs - value?

[Barry Je]

Does anyone have experience or know anyone who has used mentorship programs in the past?  Any specific ones people would recommend?

The more I learn about this stuff, the more questions I have, and the more research I do.  I worry about the universal headaches and challenges once I take the plunge and with a job that I currently clock in about 65hrs/wk, I wonder if a mentor would be valuable for general direction, advise, and saving time as these roadblocks pop up.

I guess part of the reason I ask is...I just don't understand the motivation behind these mentorship programs.  All of them say they love teaching, but are they using it as a way to find deals that they can partner in on?  If they hold 1 seminar a month for 15 people and each costs 1k, that's nearly 200k for them annually, not including the deals they find.  I'm totally fine with all parties benefiting from the partnership, and I understand everyone has an angle, BUT I worry that mentorships and seminars like these are meant to pad THEIR salaries as delineated above, rather than provide value to me.  I've seen several advertised and some of them look VERY gimmicky whereas others seem a bit more useful.

My current salary is quite high and allows me to invest about 20k/month; however, I believe this kind of income will last about 10 years. Therefore, my goal is to replace my current income after taxes by year 10 (current job is W2, so my tax burden is high). I initially thought about turnkey investments as it seems to have less work, good returns, but I'll need to buy 1 a month for 10 years and I imagine having over 100 SFR's will become a nuisance, whereas 1 apartment building a year for 10 years after taxes (and depreciation) may net me the income to replace my job comfortably.

[Andrew Johnson]

Barry Je You’ll get about 100 responses and it usually degenerates into three groups: 1.) people pseudo-selling coaching/training/education, 2.) people who hate it and say “learn for free on BP”, and 3.) the people who are currently liking their mentor but usually can’t talk through concrete returns on those education/mentorship investments.

If you have no time (and it sounds like you don’t) you can go the publicity traded REIT route. Even a syndication will involve time assessing the quality of the sponsor, the deal under consideration, etc. And even a quality mentor won’t do the work for you. They might give you some pitfalls to avoid, perspective, etc. but they’re not out there bird-dogging deals.

So if you have the time, spend 90 days learning yourself and see where you think your gaps are. If you don’t know your gaps, how will you be able to assess a mentors ability to fill those gaps? If you don’t have the time you’ll fall into that coaching group that the mentors say weren’t successful but they didn’t work hard enough, weren’t motivated, etc.

My personal advice: Find the individual investors that post here regularly, within a 30 miles radius of you, invite them to Rover’s, Canlis, Herbfarm, etc. and bring a list of questions and hear their story. Spend $1,000 on four dinners and see if you end up with a more defined direction and some good advice.