Posted over 6 years ago

Education and Mentoring is Key to Success in Real Estate Investing

This is a response I wrote to a Bigger Pockets member, who expressed frustration with his current financial situation and lack of capacity to invest in real estate. He felt he needed an opportunity to learn from an experienced mentor. (I had indicated my interest in establishing an online education program of my own).

Here is my response.

Thanks for your comment. It really resonates with me. Before I discuss anything else, have faith that you will overcome your current situation if you want to. It will be a growth experience for you! Look PAST now or you will never reach a dream.

What you are desiring and recognizing the need for, is a Mentor.

Your suggestion of having internships is an awesome idea, and I wish I could actually do that. Of course, that would necessarily serve only a very limited amount of people like yourself whom I could help, in person. Hundreds of thousands ? of others just like you, would be left out. That would make me sad.

Which is EXACTLY what I am going to try to do, virtually, online with RentalRich.com. I am working on it right now, in the early startup phase, so participating in a discussion like this one, with you and others, is literally helping me create my program.

A Typical Day's Ride Along With Me

If you had been with me today, for example, you would have been involved with a ton of educational activities, including but not limited to: cleaning out an apartment of abandoned furnishings, negotiating a rent increase with an existing tenant face to face, lining out an employee (Mentee!) on another unit’s paint prep for turnover in a triplex, spoke with 7 prospective tenants responding to an ad listing for a basement apartment, arranged settlement date and approved the Settlement sheet numbers for a HUD house I bought a week ago, sat down with one of my property managers for a half hour in her office to discuss several units and ask her advice on how to handle a sticky prospect with 4 “therapy” animals who wants to apply for a NO PETS listing, did an in-person unannounced unit inspection visit with a psycho drunk terror of a woman tenant I inherited with a recent 4 plex purchase, visited the police department to discuss the history of same above-mentioned terror tenant, policed up garbage on two lots of a triplx and a 4-plex, visited a 7 unit apartment building to empty out the coin op laundry coffers and check in with my “resident mgr” tenant, drove by 9 other of my properties along the way to check on them as a drive by, delivered a hard copy of a lease to a new tenant, wrote about 20 pages of content for my in development RentalRich.com Coaching Program while driving (on a voice recorder), picked up some materials at the building supply, listened to 2 hours of a business audio book while driving, Negotiated a new lease deal with an out of state tenant prospect- received her payment online and will e-sign a lease tonight, had a nice lunch with my bride of 37 years who was with me all day, as usual, and got home and checked my emails and FB and Blogs, which resulted in my writing this response to you here. And it is only 8 pm! So lot’s of time left to accomplish more tonight. This is a typical day for me, in my 20th year of “retirement.” I LOVE it.

You are hitting on a few very important points

First, you know yourself – both your skills and weaknesses AND your ambition. Eyes wide open is KEY to becoming a success in anything. Second, you are acknowledging that knowledge and education matters. It is hard to develop a belief that will carry you to your dreams if you do not have the vision, and to have the vision, you have to understand the game and all its components. Third, you appear both motivated (by a frustrating financial situation you feel trapped in) and hopeful that there MUST be a better way, a solution, a path to success. Bravo! That is essentially a recipe for change, brother! Awareness of situation, dissatisfaction with the situation, and the belief that there has to be a better way.

Learn from others who have done what you want to do

Like most of us, the surest, quickest and most efficient path to success, is to walk in the footprints of those who have already done what you want to do. You recognize that you would most likely benefit from education, training, and coaching. Again, BRAVO! People will not change until the pain of remaining the same, outweighs the pain of change. You seem to be at that inflection point.

Now, you have MANY choices as to how to proceed, and many of them will work and actually result in you achieving the success you desire. Many will not. We all have to find our own path in life, and in business.

Real Estate Investing - the BEST

“get-rich-for-sure” lifestyle business

However, you apparently have an interest in real estate investing. I believe that is probably the most promising, and realistically doable way for most of us to become Millionaires. I do not know everything, even about narrow segments within the big RE Investment Space. But it is what I chose and have spent my whole life studying and practicing. And I believe it is probably the BEST “get-rich-for-sure” lifestyle business opportunity out there, period. You choose your own time horizon for making a $Million, and I can help you clearly see a very achievable pathway to achieving that in Rental Real Estate, or other RE strategies as well. Do you want to do it in 5 years? 10 Years? 15 years? 20 Years? All are very doable, depending on your own level of effort and the resources you can bring to bear. No BS. And THAT is what I intend to do with my planned, online real estate coaching and education business. No hype, no scam.

I would be happy to discuss your particular, personal situation with you at no charge, and see if I can help. PM me and we can chat.