Found a possible Mentor. Along with a possible deal?

[Travis W.]

So, I didn't intend to find a mentor initially.. I was just looking for some advice from someone I knew who did real estate and seemed successful to me.. So, I called my old landlord I had back in college about 6 years ago. Well, turns out it was a great decision..

We met up and grabbed a bite to eat and talked real estate, and about life a bit ( I don't know him too well). He showed me resources he used, talked about how he had bought his properties and how I should approach investing. All very invaluable to me as a beginner. Seeing someone who clearly was on-point with their paperwork and research was inspiring.

It humbled me they would take the time out of their schedule to meet and I of course paid for the meal as I should. And he said if i need anything i can email him.. Awesome. I think every person trying to get into RE should definitely look for some form of a mentor. They don't need to be a millionaire I don't think, but they just need to have a solid grasp of it. From there you can work on doing better..

As far as the possible deal goes, he owns a fourplex for about 9+ years now.. Self-managing them from about 100 miles away.. which is no small task. But, he said he has a team and he rarely physically goes to check out too much. He uses them for student rentals. Seeing as I used to live in one of these buildings, I am familiar with his process and was happy to learn that his turnover, was not actually ever too bad.

Anyways, he wants to find a property manager badly I think. He has been looking at professional PMs, and he indicated he wants to go South as he is tired of the cold. He hinted that I could maybe do it, but I wouldn't be paid much. Which I am ok with. Heck, I would do it for free if it meant I get a foot into successful investing.

There is this catch, I am 3.5 hours away working fulltime with my own house payments. I could maybe pick up and move closer and rent out my $100 CF, barely break even CF, house :/. This would afford me some experience though..

If he was open to selling, the real estate is essentially in a great spot. Its by a college, it makes a little under 50k a year for him. I have a family member who would maybe even potentially lend me a lot of cash to get a foot in. Up to 200k essentially. But, I don't even know what a house that is giving him that much money a year would be worth. Even if 20k were expenses, a year...which I am sure it's not.. I don't know why he'd ever even consider selling it.  Maybe many many years from now if he gets tired of it, I would maybe have first pick? No idea.. just speculation on my part.

Does anyone see any way this could be mutually beneficial for all of us? I am new to RE and I am not sure being a property manager with no experience is a good move especially when I am just trying to get my own house to work. But, I think the experience and what I could learn from helping him would be priceless.

Side note

My current employer does exist near my possible mentors 4 plex.. so I could *maybe* transfer over there. I would just be stuck driving back to my own house to manage it if I put renters in.

[Tyler Watts]

I was in a similar situation not to long ago. I knew my end game was buy & hold real estate. I had the W2 job, but was pumping every dime I could scrap up into buy and hold deals. During this process I came across a seasoned investor who seen my eagerness to grow and my hunger to get after it. At the time i never knew he was into real estate. I knew him for 5 years before discovering this.  After discovery I picked his brain on anything and everything. Fast forward 2 more years and we are now investing full time together. 

There's a lot more details in that story, but the moral of it is: HUSTLE

There are more than enough people who are willing to mentor, but they first want to see your drive/grind/hustle. 

I was basically being evaluated and didn't even know. I'm not the smartest or have a million to toss in a deal. What I do have is a hustle that that is second to none.  You can't teach hustle, but you can teach real estate. 

Determine your goal. If buy and hold is it or  you think it could be, network and go all in with Hustle. Listen to every podcast/go to real estate meetings/network with agents/brokers/investors.  Educate yourself, better yet consume yourself in real estate from all angles.  Seasoned investors know they can teach you the in's and out's but they want to see that your hungry. Hustle a deal for this guy or put him touch with someone that would benefit him to show what you can do.  Make yourself valuable to him

Over time, hands down it will pay off tenfold. 

Hustle wins at the end!