Lots of negativity here towards mentors and I get this is an industry FULL of them. This process of embarking on my real estate investing journey has been something I've been hashing out for several months, including visiting a local REIA that really turned me off, numerous networking meet-ups, etc, etc. I had a list of about 10 mentors that served my area in South Florida I went through before meeting Ryan. Everyone who is on Instagram worked from home, which isn't a bad thing I have plenty of clients in my job of golf instruction who have made fortunes working remotely, but when they won't even meet me at a coffee shop to pitch me and want money over the phone or zoom, I immediately disconnect. I do agree with a lot of the posters here that 99% of the mentors are self promotional and a complete waste of time and money.
When Ryan invited me to his office, I brought up this forum, and went as far to insinuate there may be some manufactured reviews, and really started to question his integrity a bit. Ryan didn't flinch one bit, instead he shared his story about his past, and even showed me photos of David and other students he worked with. His resume, including being the youngest ever president of the National REIA when he ran BREIA, which I see he posted here, is stellar. There was no high pressure selling in his office and I found him to be a very genuine, likable guy. I left with no doubt he's my guy and while I'm figuring out what level I want to commit to and probably won't be ready for a month or more, he was generous enough to invite me out to a site of a home he's rehabbing to see what his processes are. I'm not here trying to promote him or say he is the God of real estate investing, but out of fairness for how genuine of a guy he was during our meeting, how impressive his office was and how organized he seems to be, I don't think the slander is fair, especially from complete strangers, some in other markets with an agenda to troll him. There's keyboard warriors everywhere on social media and when I browse other sections of this forum I don't see that, so I can see the "mentor thing" is probably something that burnt a lot of people.
Say what you want about mentors. If you don't need one and find value elsewhere, that's amazing. Everyone has their preferences and learning styles. I just know what having a mentor in my golf career did for me, and it opened so many doors for me that it just suits my learning style. YMMV of course as we are all wired differently but I feel it's the best path for me.
Thanks to everyone for the constructive feedback, you know who you are. And for those who had skepticism, well, I feel that opened up a lot of new discussions during my meeting so despite your agenda, thank you as well. Loving BP and will be more regular here once I get going, whenever that will be. Have a great weekend and thanks again.
