How Mentors Have Helped My Real Estate Business

Have you felt like you wanted a deal so bad you could taste it? I know the feeling, believe me. I’ve been the real estate business for more than 15 years. It wasn't until I set my sights for multifamily that now I’m always looking for my next killer deal.Show more

The other day, someone reached out asking me about how I got started. I'll sum it up in one word: mentors. Your success in the real estate business depends on your knowledge, experience, and your network. When I started out in single family, then transitioned to multifamily, I leaned on mentors to make sure I wasn't making any big mistakes and show me the way to make the most for myself and my investors.

In real estate, like any other business, you will be entering into the unknown. You will need to leave your comfort zone and face challenges that are new and unfamiliar. Mentors will be a huge asset to your success. The great thing is that on the other side of your comfort zone is the future you are seeking.

My mentors have been a big part but my whole business. Even to this day, I lean on in-person and virtual mentors to help me with everything from real estate acquisition to business management. By virtual mentors, I'm talking about masters in the respective field that I follow on YouTube and Facebook as well as books of people no longer around today. There’s no way I could have done this without guidance from others.

When I was getting into multifamily, my mentor said I needed to find a property management company with experience and scale that I can lean on. I listened to him and found a group that is doing a very good job. From there, I continued to build out my team of brokers, inspectors, and contractors.

Aside from the steps, here are the six things my mentors taught me:

1. Keep a positive mindset and believe in yourself. Stay away from negative people and surround yourself with can-do, no excuse action-takers.
2. Follow systems that work. Don't reinvent the wheel. Use proven systems to underwrite and run your properties.
3. Listen carefully to your mentors. Look to people that are 10 years from where you are today and do what they say to do. They are successful for a reason. Follow their advice.
4. Understand that persistence brings success. Absorb materials from only 2 to 3 mentors. Go deep with all their material. Line up your team and build credibility and take that first step.
5. Don’t ever quit. There will be days that things just don't work out. You must stick with it. If others have built fortunes doing this, you can too.

A mentor will also tell you that can't do it all by yourself. Investing in real estate needs support from many different professionals. There are property managers, brokers, inspectors, banks, attorneys, investor partners, accountants, and even mentors. I'm sure you heard of that old adage that you are only as good as your weakest link so choose your team carefully and never forget the first thing I told you about negative people.

Getting in multifamily is a business and the dollars you are leveraging is substantial. You want to make sure that your team members have the same ethics, morals, and business philosophy as you do. This is not to say that you will not make mistakes and or changes along the way but when you start out defining the qualities you want in your team, it makes identifying the team members much easier. For example: If your goal is to get to 500 units, you are not going to use a real estate attorney that is just starting in real estate. You want someone who knows the business and has the experience to look for pitfalls. Rather, you can ask that attorney if they would like to review the contract after your primary attorney reviewed so they can get the experience.

With that said, once you establish your team, be loyal to them. For example: If you do some networking and someone hands you a property you like that they want to sell. Most people would just work directly with the seller. Let me suggest you call the broker on your team and let them go to work for you. By allowing the broker that closed 10 transactions for you in the past year go to work, they will get you the price and terms they know you are looking for. In addition, you will be the one they call when they find a deal that has to be sold fast. This is something I know from experience. If people know they can rely on you and you watch their back, they will watch yours.

Anyway, I hope that this will help you in getting you started.

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