All Forum Posts by: Kristi Tietz

I hear you about being bombarded with many options all wanting your money. When I got started, I could have paid $25,000 to get a mentor from a big guru that was in town. Problem is, I wouldn't have learned from the Guru. I would have gotten someone less experienced who may or may not have been actually doing deals. What I did instead was I spent time on the internet researching what to do. I did a lot of free training on Youtube. I followed what they said and learned a lot. However, it wasn't until I went to a local REIA and met a local mentor, that I did my first deal. The mentorship was $5000, but this was a successful investor in the area who I could work with one on one.

I would suggest doing the same. Use Youtube, Spotify, and Biggerpockets to do trainings on topics that interest you and learn as much as possible. Start to implement what you learn to find some deals. Also, find a local REIA, signup, and attend. Look for a local mentor. If you don't want to have to spend a bunch of your money on this mentor. Ask them if they need any help. Offer to bird dog some deals or work as their assistant. They might say no at first, but if you are persistent and they see your level of desire, they may hire you. Then you can learn for free or get paid to learn. This doesn't always work, but I have seen others do it, so I know it happens for some. Anyway, good luck.

@Kristi Tietz Follow Ashley Hamilton BP guest podcast #331 she's from Detroit & is a Real Estate agent, lender & has an educational platform giving FREE knowledge to those who want to learn more about REI.

@Kristi Tietz Unfortunately there has been more bad advice than good advice on this thread.  But it is hard to know the difference until you have been immersed in the subject.  

Let me qualify myself so that you can know where my advice and perspective comes from. I have been an investor for 11 years. I have several different real estate businesses and several partners and I own about 220 units consisting of about 80 single family homes, 6 mobile home parks, and about 20 units across 2 states.  The advice that you received about not paying for classes or mentors or coaches is correct if you want to buy a rental property or two.  You really don't need help to buy a rental property.  All you need to do is get an agent and make an offer and use your money as a down payment to buy the property and then hopefully the property will cash flow after you rent it out. And then, after 30 years or so, you will own an asset that is hopefully worth tens of thousand or hundreds of thousands of dollars.  You don't need a mentor or coach to do this.  

But if you would like to become a real estate investor that makes money every time she buys properties then you may want to consider a real estate coach.  Coaches are there to help people get better results than they can get on their own.  But I wouldn't recommend a coach unless you are serious about becoming an investor and scaling a portfolio.  Again, you do not need a coach to buy a property or two.  And what @Melissa S Vrobel stated about real estate coaches making more money on coaching than on real estate investing is just not verifiable and is probably not true (unless you are talking about the highest level of coaches).  Let me give you an example. Last year I coached 10 newer investors.  Nine of them bought properties and their net worth went up an average of 20k -30k for each property they bought.  One student purchased about 26 properties and his net worth went up by over a half of a million dollars while I was coaching him.  I earned about 30k from coaching fees.  My real estate portfolio increased in value over a million dollars during the same time.  So this is an example of advice that you may get from beginning to intermediate investors that don't believe strongly in scaling or growth.  Most of the investors that I know that perform at high levels all higher coaches and surround themselves with mentors.  The key is finding mentors who are currently doing what you would like to do and that have a good track record.

As far as finding mentorship or a coach in your area, I think that can be great, but it is not necessary.  And it can be limiting.  Let me explain.  There are principles to real estate investing that you can apply across the country.  If you only think that you can do well at investing if you get a local mentor or coach then you are dependent on that person in order to invest well.  I would say half of my coaching clients are local and the other half are not local.  I have coached people out of state buy properties in a state where neither of us live.  The way you do that is through learning real estate investing principles.  That way you can invest wherever and you are not limited to just your own state.

So in summary, if you want the best advice for investing, go to people with the best results.  The type of results that you want to get.  Be careful of taking advice from random people that you don't know where you can't see their results.  And if you want to invest in real estate as a hobby and you only want a property or two, then you don't need a coach or a mentor.  Just get information from the forums, podcasts, YouTube, or books.  But if you want to become a serious investor and create real wealth through the vehicle of real estate, then build a relationship with a mentor or hire a coach.

@Kristi Tietz Unfortunately there has been more bad advice than good advice on this thread.  But it is hard to know the difference until you have been immersed in the subject.  

Let me qualify myself so that you can know where my advice and perspective comes from. I have been an investor for 11 years. I have several different real estate businesses and several partners and I own about 220 units consisting of about 80 single family homes, 6 mobile home parks, and about 20 units across 2 states.  The advice that you received about not paying for classes or mentors or coaches is correct if you want to buy a rental property or two.  You really don't need help to buy a rental property.  All you need to do is get an agent and make an offer and use your money as a down payment to buy the property and then hopefully the property will cash flow after you rent it out. And then, after 30 years or so, you will own an asset that is hopefully worth tens of thousand or hundreds of thousands of dollars.  You don't need a mentor or coach to do this.  

But if you would like to become a real estate investor that makes money every time she buys properties then you may want to consider a real estate coach.  Coaches are there to help people get better results than they can get on their own.  But I wouldn't recommend a coach unless you are serious about becoming an investor and scaling a portfolio.  Again, you do not need a coach to buy a property or two.  And what @Melissa S Vrobel stated about real estate coaches making more money on coaching than on real estate investing is just not verifiable and is probably not true (unless you are talking about the highest level of coaches).  Let me give you an example. Last year I coached 10 newer investors.  Nine of them bought properties and their net worth went up an average of 20k -30k for each property they bought.  One student purchased about 26 properties and his net worth went up by over a half of a million dollars while I was coaching him.  I earned about 30k from coaching fees.  My real estate portfolio increased in value over a million dollars during the same time.  So this is an example of advice that you may get from beginning to intermediate investors that don't believe strongly in scaling or growth.  Most of the investors that I know that perform at high levels all higher coaches and surround themselves with mentors.  The key is finding mentors who are currently doing what you would like to do and that have a good track record.

As far as finding mentorship or a coach in your area, I think that can be great, but it is not necessary.  And it can be limiting.  Let me explain.  There are principles to real estate investing that you can apply across the country.  If you only think that you can do well at investing if you get a local mentor or coach then you are dependent on that person in order to invest well.  I would say half of my coaching clients are local and the other half are not local.  I have coached people out of state buy properties in a state where neither of us live.  The way you do that is through learning real estate investing principles.  That way you can invest wherever and you are not limited to just your own state.

So in summary, if you want the best advice for investing, go to people with the best results.  The type of results that you want to get.  Be careful of taking advice from random people that you don't know where you can't see their results.  And if you want to invest in real estate as a hobby and you only want a property or two, then you don't need a coach or a mentor.  Just get information from the forums, podcasts, YouTube, or books.  But if you want to become a serious investor and create real wealth through the vehicle of real estate, then build a relationship with a mentor or hire a coach.

@Kristi Tietz Hi Kristi, Congrats on the decision to get started. Obviously everyone's journey is their own and everyone learns differently. Let me start by saying that EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE! You can chose to try and do it on your own without a mentor and will more than likely lose money your first couple of deals while you learn. Or you pay for a mentor and learn from them and their mistakes to be profitable quicker. Either way is expensive. You don't know what you don't know and therefore don't know to ask! My history: I found bigger pockets and spent months reading and learning. Then one day on one of the podcasts someone said the only way to do it is to just do it. So I went out the next day and found a house to buy and flip. At this time I could not find any REI groups around here. Everything I knew I had learned here on BP. I made a good and bad decision of buying a house that was built in 1890! Bad because it needed EVERYTHING! Good because it was a huge learning experience because it needed everything. I lost about $17k (I think because accounting is probably the main thing you need training on) on this first deal. Went and bought my second house, I only lost $12k on that one! BTW I had gone and met with a local mentor that wanted $20k and I thought he was crazy, I could do it on my own. In hind site that $20k could have not only saved me that $29k I lost (probably more) but could have made me a substantial profit on those houses plus gave me a much better education and saved me a ton of TIME! Can you really put a price tag on time? I started looking for people on BP in my area and asking if they wanted to get together. They did! First time we met there were 6 of us. We decided to meet monthly and it turned in to my own REI group which was great! I brought the people that were smarter and more experienced to me. We are starting our 8th year it is called IMPACT and pre covid I was doing 3 meetings a month in 3 cities with over 8k members. We started back in March live with one meeting and are building back up. I found sponsors to pay for the meetings and we provide free networking, dinner and always great education at each event. I don't allow guru sales but do have people come in an teach master classes that people can pay for. I said all of this to say, I WISH I WOULD HAVE FOUND A MENTOR FIRST! I have done it all and taught it all, wholesaling, flipping, BRRRR, multifamily, short term rentals, RV/MHP, to syndications. I strongly recommend what others have said and find a few local REI groups. Start attending and get to know them. Find someone that is either a mentor or willing to mentor. First and foremost make your goals: BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) and back out from there: 10y, 5y, 3y, 1y, monthly, weekly, daily goals to get you where you want to go and make sure you make choices to spend time on it EVERY DAY! Then look at your finances and talk to different types of lenders; hard money, conventional, private, and see what is realistic. (we investors can get very creative with financing) Maybe get a partner! With partners you can do more together with money and knowledge. Don't be greedy you had rather own a percentage of something than all of nothing. Hone in on what you want to do. Don't try to do multiple things in the beginning. If you are going to wholesale then do that, if you are going to flip then do that... become an expert in that and then move on to the next thing. I have so many ways to create income in "real estate" I have posted about them on the forums quite a bit. It doesn't have to be traditional, there are a lot of ways to make a lot more money with less risk as you build your business. (and a lot less competition) I would be more than happy to have a call with you if you are interested. I am in Fort Worth, TX so not trying to sell you anything. Just willing to help because I know how hard it was for me getting started and if I can help you over that hurdle just reach out! Happy Investing!

@Kristi Tietz I think there’s enough free advice on here! I wouldn’t pay for a class. Say the word if you need any pointers.

@Kristi Tietz... Hi Hero. Kudos to you for bringing this issue to this forum. I personally think that you should not pay for a class unless you have more money than time (and too much money). Most make more in their "classes" or "mentorship" than in their real estate. I would love to help but I am in the hold and rent area. I would recommend looking for an area REI or look for someone on here that has already succeeded doing what you want to do and message them. I think that most of us are on here to freely share our knowledge.

Your best source for mentorship is a local, in person mentor. The best way to find this mentor is thru a local real estate group. Either a mentor will be in this group or can recommend one they have personal knowledge of. 

  in my area I have successfully offered myself as a mentor/consultant and it has been a great experience both ways. You need someone that can evaluate the deal, evaluate the property and what improvements need to be made and can help with estimating costs and getting contractors as well as walking you thru the steps all the way to closing.

  With my business, I can either offer my services for a percentage of the profit or as a fixed fee depending upon how much hand holding is needed. A good education is expensive no matter if you learn by trial and error, books and seminars, or thru mentorship. Seminars and books offer the lure of being easy. All you do is give them your credit card number and they will make you rich. Some seminars are good and there are some good books and they may be very well worth what you pay but some are just a gateway to suck more money out of you. 

  Bottom line find a local real estate group. You can often find them on Facebook or on meetup. Join their online groups and attend their meetings. You will eventually find a true mentor.