How and where to find a good mentor

[Tim Carlson]

I am fairly new to the REI world and would like to get into multi family properties. I have been looking at and evaluating deals for some time but now I feel like I am spinning my wheels and don't really know where to go next and how to determine if a deal is truly a good one. So I am wondering how to go about finding a mentor who has been involved in multi family and maybe also has experience in syndication. I would appreciate any advice the community here at Bigger Pockets has to offer. To be clear I am not asking for mentor only advice on finding one (BP rules).

[Daniel Haberkost]

@Tim Carlson I'm not too far from you as I'm down in The Springs and I found mine at a local meetup. The key is to not be too transactional in your approach. 

A little over a year ago the guy who runs the meetup said there was an experienced investor in the room who needed help documenting the deals he had done and that he was looking for someone to help him who would also learn more about RE. I (along with about 20 other aspiring investors) went over and introduced ourselves to him. The investor's name was Rich and Rich gave his cell number to every single person who asked. Basically, Rich was offering to mentor someone in exchange for help organizing his business. 

I (along with several other guys from the meetup) started helping Rich. Within several weeks, all of the others quit (because they weren't getting paid) and I was the only one helping him. It was clear to me that Rich new EVERYTHING I wanted to know and although I wasn't getting paid (in the traditional sense) it was certainly worth my time to help him. This is a guy who had quit traditional employment in his 20s and has spent his life traveling around Southern CA, Vegas, Hawaii, and Southern CO doing real estate deals for fun while building a multi-million dollar portfolio (that's definitely someone I want to learn from!). He's done everything you could imagine including flips, large development projects, acquiring properties through tax liens, foreclosures, buy and hold multi family, buying/foreclosing on notes, land flipping, syndication, buying land and selling it on a note, mobile home parks, storage units, subdivisions, etc. After nearly 8 months of helping him (without pay) we had developed a working relationship and he started to involve me in his business. Now, even if he hadn't, what I had learned from him at that point was invaluable and worth every bit of my time. But since I didn't take a transactional approach and was focused more on building a long-term relationship it began to pay off dividends. 

Fast forward to today and he's introduced me to all of his friends in the business. I do land acquisitions for several of them, marketing, and help raise capital for their projects. I've left my W2 job and my business is moving along quite well. Beyond that, I have a group of guys who have been in real estate for twice as long as I've been alive who I can call anytime with questions or to ask for advice. 

 Every person at the real estate meetup where I met Rich had the same opportunity that I did. The problem was, all the other guys had a transactional mindset (this is a relationship business!) and expected to be paid and had no long-term vision. It was clear to me that the real value was in what he could teach me, not in making an arbitrary amount of money for helping him. 

I know that was long-winded but I hope it makes my point. I go to RE meetups all the time where I meet guys my age (I'm 23) who want a mentor but expect someone to give them all their advice/experience for free after having one conversation. That is not how it works. If you want a mentor, you need to provide value to the person. If you're lucky enough to find an experienced investor to give you advice, make sure you actually implement what they tell you! If you don't take action the relationship will not last long. 

Anyways, I hope that helps some, good luck!

-Dan