Best way to find a Mentor

[Luke Pastore]

Is biggerpockets a good place to get support from a mentor who can share their experiences to someone new to real estate? I am interested in investing in a duplex as my first rental property and would love to connect with someone who has had direct experience on top of my research (reading, researching/just practicing crunching numbers to get it down right. Basically, is it worth looking for a “mentor”?

[Curt Smith]

Hi Luke and others,  Finding who to learn from can be a challenge I agree!   On BP the number of votes a person has is an easy to see crediential for who to listen to.  You can then go to those folks profiles and find their other posts and go read everything that person has posted.  Smart folks, folks who have proven they can add value as shown by their up votes I believe in general have lots to learn from.

But this good tip only goes so far. Most new folks fall down in the "last mile" in their local city, zip codes. What works locally? BPers are largely un-aware of the REIAs, real estate investor associations that have preceeded BP (and youtube and meetup.org REI groups) by 30 yrs. Google your city REIA and check out all the local REIAs. Join them all. They have dues / fees pay them. Its well spent. Go to their now zoom meetings and find which ones best suit you. My criteria for choosing a REIA is; how many experienced investors are active? Or is this org mainly new folks? If there's lots of experienced folks reach out try to ask questions. How open are they to helping? Ask on the group if someone would be wiling to walk a deal you are looking at for feed back? etc etc

I got my start in a local REIA here in Atlanta, GaREIA, that has the most experts and who I've found to be all generous and great folks willing to share what they know and how they got started.

The best mentors are local investors doing their own gig often found i a meetup.org or REIA group. I've never paid these local folks because help was offered as a part of building a relatoinship by my participation in the REIA. I put in face time, showed up, helped to the extent I could.

Now the gorrila in the room;  paid mentors.  I have gone to 2-4 paid weekends or at least a Sat every single year I've started this biz!   At least $2k per year and up until covid started doing around $5k / yr.  Yes these numbers are correct.  The more you know you realize the more you DON"T KNOW.   LOL!!!   And the more you need to find national experts and pay big bucks to be in the room.  Not often mentioned;  when really good teachers have events the room is filled with super smart and accopmlished investors you learn from in the hall way, at dinner in the evening.  I suport paying for education!

But who?

As a new person I would start out with education offered by the local REIA!!! Very important that you learn from "locals" who are currently doing their gig and offer occational educatoin. You need to leran from locals! Not traveling educators flying into town for the $995 event then leave town. Its the airplane educators that have most BPers nay saying re paying for educatoin. Some is true, some not. At my level I will pay $995 for a single sentence, yes just a dozen words that solves a high dollar value problem. I often get a whole book worth of good info but I'm only looking for key helps.

New folks approach education all wrong. They are looking for a one stop jump start. Pay some $$$ and never need educatoin again and poof you are making $5k / mo . Education doesnt work this way, nor does success come in single big steps. Success happens in fits and starts in SMALL steps. And your education needs to be a continuous self investment. Yes yes some $495s, $995's will be better then others thats how it works. Keep investing in yourself by going to local REIA events. And start paying for their education. You will hear from other experts who they pay for education from...

The teachers I went to every year are sitting out this covid period. They only do face to face education and don't want to transition to zoom events... Pete Fortunato, Dyches Boddiford, Bill Cook, add this now virtual REIA OREE Ohio Reia has many national members including me here in Atlanta. Vena Cox is a good teacher hailing from Ohio and is on zoom. Join the local REIAs, put in alot of face time, thorugh your face time you'll earn conversation from local experts....

Good luck with your path.  It took a few years for me to get traction.