All Forum Posts by: Lori Greene

It sounds like you already have a good idea of how to be valuable to a mentor. And good for you for wanting to give as much value as you get.

There are lots of ways to be valuable in relationships. You touched on trading with them and it sounds like you have a lot to offer. You can also simply hire a mentor. If you are paying them for their expertise, then there is no need to give them further value.

Or you can partner with another investor and learn from them as you go. But do stay away from mentors who offer apprenticeships as if they will teach you in trade for work but then ask you for money to fund their deals. Try to keep those worlds separate. Either trade, or pay for mentoring or partner with another investor. But don't mix those together, don't partner and put up money until you are more experienced and have relationships you can trust. In a partnership, let them put up the money and you do the work with their oversight. Or, if you're not ready for that then start by finding another investor properties for a fee then learn from them as you watch them do their thing with it. BP also has some great articles on how to find a good mentor.

@Nicole Parnell

I don't really use the phone app. I go to BP on my computer. On the desktop version, you can just click on the search icon at top right of any page, then type a city and state and choose members from the drop down. You won't be able to use additional filters unless you have at least a Plus account, but all members from that area will show up in a list below. (maybe you can do the same thing on the phone app?) Then just start sending connect requests. You can only have 30 requests at a time so, go through them often and delete the ones who didn't accept your request.

Using BP to build your power team is one of the most productive things you can do to have success as an investor and that's why I teach it to all of my students. If you've read all of the posts in this thread, you'll see several members saying that what kept them from progress in the beginning was not having a team and that as soon as they built relationships and started networking with others everything changed for them.

So besides searching members and sending them colleague requests, there are other things you can do to build your team as well:

1. Make the most out of BP. Ask and reply to questions often. Be engaged as much as possible with others, vote on the posts you like, follow others you like. Send direct messages to others to discuss things further or to thank them for voting for your posts, for following you or for sending you a colleague request or to ask them who they use for agents, contractors, etc. The more you engage on BP, the more people will want to connect with you or follow you. This will help a lot with building your team.

2. Ask BP members where the local REIA Meet-ups are. You can also find some online at sites like REIClub.com and REIClubDirectory.com. You can also build relationships on ConnectedInvestors.com, although it's not a great place for education and discussions like BP, but is good for making connections. Once you connect with others on there, see if you can find them on BP too, where it's easier to talk to them, learn from them and get team referrals from them.

3. Go to the local REIA meetings and local auctions as often as possible just to build relationships with other investors. When you start doing this, you'll see that all kinds of opportunities, referrals and possible partnerships will open up and you'll learn so much at the same time.

4. Search for local neighborhood I Buy Houses and For Rent signs and local classifieds and make a list of those investors and landlords. Shoot them a text or email saying you want to connect. Start a conversation about what they're into. Ask for team referrals if you need them.

The kinds of team members you should be building are agents, attorney's, title co's, CPA's, lenders, contractors, inspectors, appraisers and other investors.

Team building will open up a whole new world to you.

What kinds of team members do you have so far?

@Nicole Parnell

@Jan Kerr

Since you're both going to be needing a good RE CPA (jan because yours is retiring and Nicole because you don't have one), BiggerPockets is a great place to start. Ask other investors in your area who they are using and why they love them. And ask other investors at local REIA meetings and auctions. Have either of you started looking yet?

Jan, this is such a helpful post. Thank you so much for all of the detail. I'm sure it will not only be helpful to Nicole but others reading this thread as well. Does your accountant specialize in real estate investing? 

@Jill F.

The trick is to type the @ symbol and start typing the persons name, then wait until the pop-up with names that match it and choose from the drop-down. Try it.

The other thing you can try is to click on the 3 dots at the top right of a post and choose quote, then type underneath it.

Another weird thing to note is that when you use quote lately, if you start typing your reply directly under the quote, it just adds reply to the quote so it doesn't show. See what I mean by scrolling up a few posts to @Karen Dixon post where she quoted you but her reply doesn't appear unless you hover over the quote and click on Show Post.

To get around this issues is to post your reply several lines down from the quote. You can tell if your reply will show or just be part of the quote if you look at the text as you type: If it is light gray as you type, like the quote, it will be in with the quote. If it is black, it will show as a reply under the quote. Try it out to see what I mean.

BiggerPockets is awesome but it seems to be a little buggy sometimes.

How long have you been using BiggerPockets?

@Nicole Parnell

@Jan Kerr has given you some great advice. I agree with everything she said. And I'd like to add that since it sounds like you really want to move on, take what she said to your accountant and see if they can help you to deduct any improvements and get clear on the timeline so you can move this property as soon as possible at the lower tax rate.

Your wish is to sell soon and move out so you can free up your equity, correct?

Ola, I know what you mean. I'm always trying to help investors understand how relationships can make the difference between success and failure. When in your journey did you realize this? What inspired you to start working with others or how did it come about? Who did you assign tasks to? 

@Amelia McGee

The BP calculators are great time savers. But it's best to learn how to run numbers manually on your own so fully understand the formulas and why each element is important. Try to have an experienced investor help you go over numbers. I can help you if you like. Reply with one of your numbers crunches and I'll take a look.

Hi Scott,

Welcome to BP. That's a great story. I really relate to the creative side of your story because I'm a creative person myself (graphic designer, singer/songwriter). REI is something that can help support creative endeavors. I'm also an entrepreneur like you. I haven't worked for anyone else in many years. My first business was a house cleaning business. Now I own and manage a real estate services website and teach life coaching.

We all have a story to tell. Sometimes we tell the story of what we perceive to be our limitations. Maybe instead of telling yourself and the world the story that you can't invest yet because you have too much debt, tell yourself the story that investing is what will help get you out of debt. A smart investor's goal is always to use other people's money anyway, even when you have money.

This  is where learning the art of creative financing could change your life. There are many ways to use other people's money to start investing and making money. You could start with bird-dogging/wholesaling, letting another investor have the deal for a fee so now he is the one getting funding for it. You could do a seller finance with a motivated seller. You could partner with a private money partner so they fund the deal while you do the work. And there are so many other ways to fund deals without using your own money or getting a loan and going further into debt.

The point is, don't make your investing dream something that is out there in the future. Start right now today by owning that you are an investor now, by building a team of agents, attorney's, title co's, contractors and other investors to support you, by finding and analyzing properties and all the while asking tons of questions to the BP community to help you with these things and the questions that come up along the way. Because doing is the fastest way to REALLY learn.

If you want to learn more about creative financing strategies like these ask about them in this thread and I will gladly answer you. And others will contribute their ideas as well.

Have you thought about starting out with bird-dogging or wholesaling? What do you know about those strategies? What questions do you have about them or about seller financing or partnering with someone else who has money?

Randi, I read through the whole thread and I'm happy to see you decided to pass with this guy. The only way I would even consider this deal is to purchase it outright from him before the renovation and only if the numbers work out great for me, if he was willing to sell it to me for smaller profit now rather than flip it himself.

That way, I wouldn't have to worry at all about his shadiness because I did all of my own due diligence (inspection, county level research, property value and numbers analysis, etc.) and I'd be doing the whole flip on my own, with my own contractors, funding etc.

But since you kept repeating, scam, scam, scam in your posts, it's a relief that you followed your own instincts. I would have passed on it for sure, especially because of his pressure and changing terms.

Your best weapons will be to not tell people you came into some money (but just that you are an interested investor) and to learn how to do your own deep due diligence on every property you are considering so you will never have to take anyone's word for it.

I personally feel that partnering with mentors is not the best way to go because it can be a conflict of interest. Stay away from mentors who are offering to teach you, while asking you to fund their deals. It's best to keep those 2 worlds separate. Partner with other investors, yes (not as an "apprentice" or with them as your mentor) and learn from them as you go. But if you feel like you need a mentor to educate you, which can be a great asset, then find a good and affordable one to hire but don't partner with them.