All Forum Posts by: Immanuel Pierre

Quote from @Immanuel Pierre:

I have been real estate investing for about a year now and have ran across a few mentors. I personally feel like I look for ways to bring value to mentor but, struggle with finding the right mentor for me that is aligned with the goals I am trying to accomplish. I guess to get a discussion going is if you have a mentor how did you connect with them? How did you find one in the particular area that you are interested in? Or how did you find a mentor who you truly value and strive to emulate?

 I found my first few mentors through The Ohio State University. Through their RE program, they set each student up with a successful investor. I actually still meet with them to this day. I like the book "Good Leaders Ask Great Questions." By John Maxwell.  One question is, "Who do you know I should know?" I like that because it can open up their network for you. Every month or two here in Columbus, I try to reach out to a successful RE person to just pick their brain on whatever I can. I will pay for their lunch or whatever I can do to get time with them. This allows me to learn from their experience, learn from their insight, and shows me how I can grow. I encourage you to keep asking people to meet until you find the person who fits well with you. 

@Immanuel Pierre "when the student is ready, the teacher appears". If you are "figure it out", start by doing that, and in the process of figuring, you will meet people. It's kind of like a new kid at a school asking the cool kid to be friends. That's not how it works, usually. Relationships are formed over time, so put yourself in situations where you can meet the kind of people you aspire to be, and don't ask for anything. Hang around long enough, and continue to improve, and you will find your mentor.

@Immanuel Pierre I can provide examples of how I added value. I became part of the project by investing in a project that I was interested in learning about. This is how I became involved with condo conversions. I told the primary developer I was there to be her grunt. Whatever was needed and any way I could lighten the load I did. There were signs that had information regarding the city hearing on the property which needed to be posted. Without her knowing I took those signs and posted them all on each door. The developers saw my drive and hunger and they started assigning me more stuff. I picked up supplies with my truck; I let inspectors and contractors in various buildings; I  helped keep the grounds clean to prevent us from getting fines. It was a rough part of town and I was familiar with it so I would keep an eye on things and let the team know where potential chaos could arrive. Crack heads would break in and I would clear the grounds and board stuff back up.  I attended the hearings and ANC meetings with the team. I would pick up blue prints for our architects. I leaned the process from end to end. They had enough confidence in me that they assigned the project management piece of installing the entire commercial grade electrical system. In short, I made myself available for anything which freed them up for stuff. Even if I didnt invest in the project I would have contributed the same effort because I know I could add value to what they were doing. It's much more but that is a brief synopsis of how I picked up substantial knowledge of this specific process! I am open to anyone to answer questions and provide free guidance but many are not. There has to be some kind of trade off because things can be so intense with dozens of moving parts, they really are not interested in educating people for free. Time is so valuable and with the little bit of free times some have, they will not consume it for nothing. Also, there are tons of people who claim they want mentoring and when they get it you can see they are full of sh*t. The best way in my book is to add some kind of value or support they can use so each side is balancing out with something! 

Best of luck! 

Quote from @Immanuel Pierre:

@Joe Villeneuve @Joe S. From an outside looking in. What can either of tell me about being a good mentee? I am open to some constructive criticism because it feels as if what I posted as what I can offer is not enough. I am fairly new to real estate investing only own one property in the process of buying my second. My full time job is a staff sergeant in the army so I do not have unlimited amounts of cash. The biggest thing I have to offer is my time and drive. I can learn anything and I get things done stuff I learned from the military but, maybe I place those traits to high of value ? 

First, I thank your for your service.  I never grow tired of saying that, and you should never grow tired of hearing it.  Based on your military background, I have no doubt regarding everything you mentioned as things you bring to the table as highly valuable.  However, all of those items are highly valuable to you.  They are not interchangeable in a value sense to someone that you want to mentor you. 
The education needed  to start and be successful in Real Estate investing is enormous.  You will get many here that will tell you to "just jump in and learning as you go is enough".  They will also tell you that you will "learn by doing".  Well, that may be enough for them, but I did it both ways, and what I learnt when I "just jumped in" was I should have started with a Mentor.  Now, I paid for my mentor (and I'd do it again), and there are many here that would tell you you can get all you need online, but that's just an example of not knowing what you don't know.
Sources like the internet will only get you disjointed info...not knowledge.  In other words you're getting pieces of info, that sounds complete, but lacks the connections to the rest of the info you are getting.  It's like trying to put a puzzle together, with the pieces upside down.
As far as what you have to offer a mentor, unfortunately the items you mentioned, although highly valuable, are not that valuable to a mentor...mainly because the mentor would get the use of your "traits" only after they have trained you.  In other words, they would be investing their time and possibly even money to teaching you, with the possibility that after you are trained, and don't need them, you're gone.  Besides, all of the traits you are bringing to the mentor, will require the knowledge the mentor is giving you before they can become useful to that mentor.
Now, the positive news.  If you are good with tools, a paint brush, a lawnmower, a broom, a shovel, etc...you have a lot you can offer to a REI mentor.

Why do you need a mentor?  Is there something specific you are trying to accomplish?  Lots of people to real estate investing without a mentor.

I had a mentor.  Wouldn't leave home without one.  One of the mistakes you may be making is thinking you have something a mentor needs that you can offer them.  What do you think that is?

@Immanuel Pierre, my first mentors were simply coworkers.  We all worked at a commercial real estate company, and a couple had been buying single family rentals, which I wanted to do, too.  They were never formal mentors, but just people doing what I wanted to do, that I could bounce questions and thoughts off of.  

I also always had in mind going bigger.  And in that mindset, the owners of the company I worked for were pseudo mentors.  While I did have some access to them directly, just the ability to be on the inside, get my hands into various aspects of the business, and learning their backgrounds and stories both from founders and early employees was beneficial.

I would start with both what are your goals, and what are you lacking in your pursuit of those goals?  If it is motivation, a real estate mentor may not be the most appropriate source (although many paid mentorship programs do include a life coaching and mindset component).  If it is purely knowledge, there are a lot of free and paid educational courses out there.