A couple of weeks ago, I was at a local car wash waiting for my truck, & I called a mortgage broker about some info I sent him to get pre-qualified for a loan. A man standing nearby overheard part of my conversation, & when I was done with my call, he asked me a little bit about my conversation--was I was buying a home, etc. Then he offered me his wife's business card, who is a mortgage banker, & mentioned something about the difference between mortgage bankers vs brokers. The broker I was talking to is somewhat of a friend, more an acquaintance, but I wasn't interested in using anyone else, so I didn't pay too much attn to what this guy was saying, but I was polite & engaged in conversation. During the course of the conversation, he mentioned that he purchases foreclosures, used to do REO's but doesn't in the current RE market b/c once you put in a bid, there will be 10 other higher bids for the property (just fyi, this is in Stockton,CA, the foreclosure capitol of the US) & it's just too much of a headache working w/ the banks, etc. He also mentioned he was rehabbing a property to resell. At the time, my mind wasn't in the mode of looking for a mentor, & I had to return to my j.o.b. But what he said stuck with me the whole afternoon. So, I decided to try & get in touch with him, just to pick his brain a little bit about how he finds his properties, how to find buyers, etc, with the intent of getting info to use for wholesaling. I called & left a message on his wife's voicemail the next day. After a couple days of not hearing back, I decided to send an email to her email address, & if I didn't hear back from that, I'd drop it. Well, a few days later, he called back, & after a few days of phone tag, I finally connected w/ him yesterday.
The call couldn't have gone better, from a newbie point of view. He probed to find out what I was looking for (wholesaling, leading to rentals, possibly some flips), what my present situation was as far as income, money to spend on re (none), family (was cognisant of the fact that I have kids in school, so I'll be busy w/ family/school activities). He then started to tell me some of the first steps I'd need to take to get into re investing, the first thing being able to access cash to purchase properties. He asked if I had any friends/relatives/business partners to borrow funds from, asked about savings, 401K, etc. I basically have no cash to work with at this point, so he said what I'd need to do is start applying for credit cards, at a slow pace so as not to ding my credit score, until I have about $100-150K avail to use. He suggested I start keeping any cc offers I get in the mail over the next couple of weeks, go online to one of the sites that compare cards & search for cc's w/ 0% int rate, recommended cards w/ airline miles, etc. Then in 2 weeks I'm to call him back so we can get together for 15 min or so, & he'll tell me which ones are good offers, what to stay away from, & it'll show him if I'm serious about working w/ him, & whether or not we can go on to the next step. He seems genuinely interested in helping me out & teaching me, not rushing into it (he stressed to NOT quit my job, that I can get started & work at the same time until the income justifies leaving). My job may be outsourced w/in the next yr or two, so I'm looking about a yr & 1/2 to 2 yrs ahead to get some sort of business up & running. It may not be able to replace my income by that time, but it'll be a start.
I'd like to know what red flags I should look for as we go forward in developing a working relationship. So far, it seems like a dream match--a chance meeting, he's actually walking the walk--not promoting a book or course--he's been as helpful and nice as everyone on this forum has been so far. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything here. Any suggestions? Questions for me? Questions I should be asking him? Feel free to pm me.
Sorry for the lengthy post. We talked for about 45 min, and we covered a lot of ground in that time.
