All Forum Posts by: Sheri Fluellen

@Richard Darnell, great post!! You're asking some important questions, which shows you are seriously trying to find your best path forward! For context, I've been an investor for 16 years, with a $10M + portfolio. I'm also a Psychologist and Certified High Performance Coach and have facilitated masterminds around investing (and other topics). I am IN the field of support because I've experience how much growth comes from intention work on oneself and their goals.  I've been the benefit of mentorship & coaching (and I do it every week with others).  Here are my thoughts:

1. You can learn a lot from books, and I think reading is a must always. What a mentor can do is help you apply that knowledge in the most practical way.  They will see pitfalls and challenges that you can't simply because you are in new territory. I've had investors look at a challenge in my portfolio and give me a solution that left my jaw dropped because I hadn't thought of that or because I never even HEARD of that solution before!

2. Success is about who you know.  I've advance my investor life more in the past 3 years, once I made the commitment to start getting to know people who are like me.  A few key people have made introductions that have been very fruitful!  If the mentor is plugged into some good communities, they will have a good strong reputation that you can build off of.  Trust takes time.  But being able to piggy back off someone else's trustworthiness is the only "shortcut" I know.

3. This is one of the best aspects of a mentor or coach.  In many businesses I've been part of, I get frustrated and discouraged when things don't go they way I expected.  Did I mess it up?  Are things actually going right and I just need to persevere?  Do I change course?  These are hard questions to answer solo. So having a knowledgable person to consult, bounce ideas off of, and to help YOU stay accountable to YOU.  As a Coach, I don't hold people accountable.  I help them be accountable to themselves.  When they struggle, we work through the why and the how to honor oneself enough to do the hard things that you are committed to.

4. I was a General Partner on a Syndication last year for a period of time.  There was a significant lack of communication and I was feeling less excited about it.  After talking to two good friends in the business, I made the hard decision to back out of the GP.  Turns out, almost a year later, the main GP is having serious problems with multiple syndications.  LPs are losing millions.  And I am able to sleep well at night knowing that I was guided by friends and mentors to do the hard thing that my gut was telling me.  I dodged a bullet. And I'm not sure I would have done that if I didn't have good counsel.

5. A good mentor or coach will help point you to the right info, share their mind, and most important, help you develop an improved internal system to increase your momentum.  For example, the style of coaching I do helps people organize not just their investing but their whole life.  It helps bring everything into alignment.  What I've seen is that often investors don't stay stuck because of lack of knowledge.  But rather because something else in their life is off.  Sometimes it's a lack of confidence (and when you're working with someone, you can "borrow" their confidence), and sometimes it's things like not having a spouse fully on board with investing or having a job that is pulling you away.  There are great ways to help improve these areas!

Lastly, I'll comment on mentor v coach. Mentor's are people who have "done it". They can shine a light on your path so you have more clarity on your next steps.  A Coach is someone who has the capacity to help you think and act more expansively, creatively, and effectively. They help you grow so that you are the person you need to be to have the success that you want to have. 

Ideally, you'll find a coach and mentor in the same person.

@Preeti Kale, I feel your pain!! I've been investing for many years and often it's hard to find something cashflowing on the front end.  Don't be discouraged!!  Some simple things to think about- can you charge back utilities to tenants?  This has made the different on some of my properties.  Can you start with one of them as a furnished rental?  This has significantly increased my income (although there is an additional learning curve). Can you create another unit somewhere- like in a basement or create a large bedroom into a small efficiency?  Be creative and that helps!

I would first suggest you compare your options.  One of the most important equations those of us (and you) can use when determining what to do with properties that have equity is the "return on equity". This is your annual cashflow divided by your equity.  For example as is, $36,000 annual revenue divided by $850,000 (I'm just guessing that is your current equity position so plug your real number in) is 4.23%.  If you did owner financing, you'd have to figure out your annual net revenue divided by the equity still in the property.  If you sold it outright and put the entire amount of profit/equity into another instrument (such as an LP positon in a standard syndication) at 7% pref, you'd get $59,500 in a year.  My example is simplified, but I hope the concept is clear.  This is a great way to really determine with clarity how you want to get your best return given your equity.  Personally, unless there's a reason your house wouldn't sell, I'd sell and put the money into a different investment option(s).

This is a really good question, especially evidenced by the comments of those replying!! I have been actively investing 16 years and have been a Psychologist and now coach for equally as long. I'll share my perspective and what I'd encourage you to do. Mentorship/Coaching can extremely helpful if you want to shave time off your learning curve. A good M/C can help you focus on what is most important and not get sidetracked or stuck in areas. A good M/C IS an investment. You will likely not see a quick ROI. Although I believe you will see the value of one very quickly. IF you have the desire to quicken the path and would like to invest, be intentional about WHAT you need out of the M/C. Is it someone to tell you what to do, to help guide your thinking process, to bounce your ideas off of, as accountability to doing the work, to help increase your clarity and thus focused action, to help provide framework for investing, or to help provide framework for how to reduce bottlenecks, etc. There are a long list of things that can be helped by a good M/C. But if you can get more clear on what you need in this stage, then you can find the M/C that is more specifically geared to helping solve that problem with you. Also, generally speaking, a Mentor will tell you what you need to do to accomplish X (this is extremely helpful if you KNOW you want to be a general partner in a NNN commercial syndication in the next 6 months, for example). A Coach will typically provide the guidance you need through recognizing your patterns, areas of challenges, and stuck points. Often in the investing space, it also might be helping the investor determine what is the best area for them to focus on first in investing, as it can be overwhelming. And then to prioritize actions and setting targets. They don't "tell you what to do", but understand the principles that are involved in good decision making (and other aspects to life and business) and help you to make your own best decisions. Ideally, having a session with a coach or Mentor to understand their style and their areas of focus is good because it helps you see if it's a fit for you. Hope this helps!!

@Jacob Brooks, welcome to BP!! I LOVE that you've already jumped in to REI. I've purchased using VA a couple times (I'm prior AF) and I am cheering you on!!

@O'Licia Parker-Smith, I'm part of a vibrant and growth oriented online multifamily community that has mindset training, mindset coaching, multifamily mentorship and a few other things.  It's really priced as a tremendous value!  Let me know if you'd like more info.

Hey fellow investors and lenders!! My quick scenerio- I own about 15 properties.  It's time to trade a few of them up, as I have too much equity sitting in the property not working for me.  Among the 3 properties at sale, I'll have about $750k in profit to flip into new properties.  That will give me about $2.5-3M in new properties.  There are a few I've identified already (4plexes, an 8 plex, and an office building).  What I don't have lined up is a solid lender that can provide me commercial loans.  Locally the banks we've used aren't lending right now.  Do you have any recommendations on lenders that are licensed in WYOMING?

@Natasha Lee!! great question!! (BTW, I posted this response to another gentleman recently so I'm reposting it because I think it'll be helpful to you)  I started investing in single family, small multifamily, and smallish commercial properties in 2007 and am experienced. When I discovered the opportunities in large multifamily, I was immediately fascinated. There are many programs, and I cannot speak to all of them. There are 3 that I've had some exposure to. Rod Khleif, Michael Blank, and Collaborative Multifamily Investors Mastermind. Rod Khleif, I've been to one of his bootcamps in person, and a couple virtually. I also have a handful of investor friends that have been or are in his high ticket mentorship program. His community is very "family" feel oriented, from what one of my friends who is in his mentorship has said. She likes the "people" that he attracts. I have appreciated the many pieces of content he offers (such as the ebook on all the questions to ask prior to partnering with someone). I did find his in-person event to feel a bit disorganized and there are some dynamics that I'm aware of internally that lead me to not join the group. I won't put those here, but they are not dynamics that would matter to most people nor would anyone every become privy to them. So they aren't a make-or-break thing. The second mentorship is Michael Blank. I went to his live event last year and have listened to his podcast religiously. I tended to favor Michael's approach in his mentorship and his world. He is very logistically minded. He likes numbers and spreadsheets, as do I. I use his Syndicated Deal Analyzer all the time (spreadsheet to evaluation multifamily deals). He is very analytical. At his live event, he broke down how a GP can make a living at it. This was a mystery to me in the past, as most GPs don't seem to like to say how much they actually earn at the initial close, ongoing, and then upon disposition. Also Michael Blank offers a guarantee that they will continue to mentor with you until you do your first deal, even if that is after the first year.

With full disclosure, I am a certified high performance coach and a Psychologist. And because of my coaching work and my real estate investing history, about a year ago, a company that I am part-owner of partnered with Michael Blank and now we offer high performance coaching within the mentorship group. It's really been a HUGE hit with the members. Ironically, Rod Khleif used to be a certified high performance coach and often talks about mindset in his podcasts and from stage, but he hasn't been consistent in truly integrating that into his program. Both of these programs, to my knowledge, are $20k+ in cost. But if you can get a deal done in that time, you'll get an immediate ROI. The last one I will share is one that I am also a part of. A coaching peer of mine has also been working with multifamily investors for 5+ years. He has created a monthly program that offers Coaching, some High Performance training, and some mentorship with a multifamily investor. It's all embedded in the program, and the members give rave reviews of the value. The benefits of this program are: if you choose to be involved in all the things AND get one-on-one coaching (which isn't available at the cost of the other programs) for a year, it's less than half the price of the other programs. Also it's smaller and you get much more customized interactions.

I shared all of this because I think there are many good options. A lot of it depends on YOUR needs and where you're at right now. My gut says that since you already are a rock star in the investing world, and you're just shifting your focus, that you might not need as much intense hand-holding as some of the bigger programs offer. But I will tell you, networking is key in the MF world. You can gain that, however, through attending events.

I hope this was all super helpful!! If you want more info, reach out and I'm happy to share. Additionally, If you are interested in attending the Michael Blank Deal Maker Live next week, I am on one of the speak panels and I think I might have a discount code to share! Message me :-)

Best to you in your journey!!!

Real Estate Investors, you are pursuing freedom. You are hustling to make your life, your finances, your future is leveled up to a trajectory that it currently IS NOT at.  I've been an investor for 15 years, and that is me too!  And this is why I shifted from being a Clinical Psychologist for 15 years to being a Certified High Performance Coach.  Because there are research-proven strategies that help us high performers continue to level up ours lives, increasing Clarity, Energy, Productivity, Courage & Influence so that we increase our boldness, purpose, and satisfaction in life.  If this resonates with you, then let's connect.  I genuinely want to work with clients who are a HECK YES to coaching and to the process.  So to determine if we're a good fit for each other, let's do a FREE strategy session.  My promise to you is to make the strategy session valuable.  It is a coaching call, so you'll walk away different.  That will give you the experience to make a decision if working together is HECK YES or No. Here's my calendar link and let's get it started! https://www.drsherifluellen.co...

@Pete Tychsen, With full disclosure, I am a certified high performance coach and a Psychologist. And because of my coaching work and my real estate investing history, about a year ago, a company that I am part-owner of partnered with Michael Blank and now we offer high performance coaching within the mentorship group. It's really been a HUGE hit with the members. Ironically, Rod Khleif used to be a certified high performance coach and often talks about mindset in his podcasts and from stage, but he hasn't been consistent in truly integrating that into his program. Both of these programs, to my knowledge, are $20k+ in cost. But if you can get a deal done in that time, you'll get an immediate ROI. The last one I will share is one that I am also a part of. A coaching peer of mine has also been working with multifamily investors for 5+ years. He has created a monthly program that offers Coaching, some High Performance training, and some mentorship with a multifamily investor. It's all embedded in the program, and the members give rave reviews of the value. The benefits of this program are: if you choose to be involved in all the things AND get one-on-one coaching (which isn't available at the cost of the other programs) for a year, it's less than half the price of the other programs. Also it's smaller and you get much more customized interactions.

I shared all of this because I think there are many good options.  A lot of it depends on YOUR needs and where you're at right now.  My gut says that since you already are a rock star in the investing world, and you're just shifting your focus, that you might not need as much intense hand-holding as some of the bigger programs offer.  But I will tell you, networking is key in the MF world.  You can gain that, however, through attending events.  

I hope this was all super helpful!! If you want more info, reach out and I'm happy to share.  Additionally, If you are interested in attending the Michael Blank Deal Maker Live next week, I am on one of the speak panels and I think I might have a discount code to share!  Message me :-) 

Best to you in your journey!!!