Finding A Multifamily Real Estate Mentorship Program in 2021

[Jeffrey Donis]

Hello BiggerPockets. I’ve been seeing a few posts about finding a good multifamily investment mentorship group. I thought I’d start a conversation about finding a good mentorship in 2021.

When my brothers and I first started in multifamily real estate, we knew it was important to find someone who was much more successful than us to team up with. We wanted to shorten our learning curve, and find a mentor who could help guide us through our first few multifamily deals.

We got on a few calls with different multifamily groups (most good, a few bad).

Here are a few tips for finding the right multifamily real estate investing program for you.

First, write down some bullet points on what you want out of the group.

Do you want something with lots of structure, weekly check up calls, and an accountability coach? Or, are you okay with a more laid back program? What kind of mentor do you want? Are you okay with having a coach who works under a major, usually more successful investor? Or, do you want to have direct contact with the investor whose brand is on the face of the mentorship program? Do you just want education, or are you looking for a partner who can help guide you on deals? Do you want to leverage someone’s credibility, or are you simply looking for information? Do you want to build relationships with other students, or are you indifferent about meeting other people in this industry? Also, make sure you understand what kinds of deals you want to do. Are you hoping to start small, and scale up? Or are you looking to go big, or start as a passive investor?

We wanted access to a credible investor who would partner on deals with us, as well as a group of investors to network with. We also wanted to do big deals, and skip smaller multifamily deals. This helped us narrow down our options, because not every group offers a connected network. In fact, one group said they did not allow their students to talk to each other (a MAJOR red flag). We wanted to be part of a great community of entrepreneurs. That is what we found with our group (Think Multifamily with Mark and Tamiel Kenney).

Make sure you understand what you want out of any mentorship program, especially when it comes to group culture. Finding a good partner/mentor can help you a lot by cutting your learning curve tremendously. Depending on what the program offers, they could partner on deals with you, you could leverage their credibility, they can help you get financing on loans you would not be able to qualify for alone, and if the group has a network of people that collaborate you get access to awesome people all working towards similar goals.

If the mentorship group seems too sales-y...run! A great, high value mentorship group should not pressure you to join them. Their quality and value should be evident in their reputation and program details. They shouldn’t need to “force a sale.”

There was one particular program that had a pushy sales representative who tried to rush us into joining. After doing some research, we realized that the program had a questionable reputation. This leads me to my second red flag and tip: Always do your own research.

Biggerpockets is a great place to find reviews on mentorships, and to connect with current members of various groups. That’s what we did when we were researching mentorship programs. But don’t overlook the importance of extensive research. Hop on Zoom calls with current group members, and ask good questions.

A good program should give you direct access to the syndicator. In my opinion, they should be willing to partner with you on the deal and essentially "walk you through" your first deal.

We ultimately decided on a group that met our needs. We wanted to join a group that did bigger deals, and we wanted direct access to the main mentor. We wanted to join a group that was big enough to network with many investors, but still provided an intimate, family-like culture. Also, having a mentor who partnered on deals with us was crucial. This was our criteria, but yours might be different.

If I can help you on your journey to the mentorship program that is right for you, please reach out! And if you have any comments or additional gold nuggets you want to share, please feel free to do so below.

Happy Investing!