5 Keys to a Multifamily Investing Mentor

Discover the 5 keys to a multifamily investing mentor. Every successful multifamily investor has a mentor so the question is not “if” you should get a mentor, but which mentor should you hire? This will help you determine what to look for in a multifamily investing mentor.

Smart People Hire Mentors

Smart individuals hire mentors to help them succeed in fields that they are not experienced. The following are 4 examples of intelligent people that hired a mentor for their multifamily endeavors:

Chris: Chris is an airline pilot. The very first multifamily deal he did was a 90 unit apartment building, as described in detail in this video: How Chris Became a Millionaire in One Year. After completing a cash out refinance of his 90 Unit, he acquired a RV Storage Facility that is now worth more than $5 million. Chris is now worth over $12 million through mentorship in our Protégé Program. While Chris is a very good pilot, he understood that hiring a mentor was the best way for him to get into multifamily real estate investing.

Bruce & Renee: Bruce and Renee had been learning about real estate investing for decades. They had even attended a seminar by Carlton Sheets way back in the day. They managed to acquire 10 single family rentals over the course of many, many years, but yet they still couldn’t not retire and they knew they needed to get a mentor if they wanted to go into multifamily. After joining our Protégé Program, they sold their single family rentals and acquired multifamily. Today, one is retired and the other is investing in multifamily full time. While Bruce & Renee had spent decades learning about real estate and had even managed to acquire 10 single family rentals on their own, they too knew that a mentor was needed to make the leap to commercial.

Jacob: A 26-year-old former waiter, Jacob’s first deal was a 90 Unit Apartment Building with No Money Down, that cash flows very well and has given him a net worth approaching a million, all thanks to us as his mentor. Jacob did very well in college and could have attempted to learn multifamily investing on his own but he understood the power of a mentor.

Ivan: Ivan was a successful small business owner. His first two multifamily properties were both 6 units. A few years later, those 12 units earned Ivan $750,000 profit. Ivan credits his success to joining our Protégé Program. Ivan had already proven himself in the world of commerce by building a thriving small business but he too recognized that his shortcut to multifamily success was in having a mentor.

If those intelligent individuals needed a mentor, then so do you. In fact, every, single, successful multifamily investor has a mentor! Therefore, the question you should be asking yourself is not whether or not you need a mentor, but instead, what mentor should you hire. What characteristics or traits are most important in a multifamily real estate investing mentor?

5 Keys to a Multifamily Investing Mentor

Key #1: 20+ Years of Multifamily Investing Experience

I’ve been investing in multifamily since Bill Clinton was president, so that tells you how old I am! But here’s the key; no matter how much experience you have, your mentor needs experience in all market cycles, not just one. Most people who are teaching real estate have only experienced one cycle, and that is up, at the peak. They haven’t experienced the recession and recovery, where there is adversity. And as we know, adversity is life’s greatest teacher. So your multifamily investing mentor must go through adversity and come out on the other side thriving. A typical real estate cycle from one end to the other takes about 18 years. Which means you need to make sure that your mentor has been in the business for at least 18 years and experienced the four phases: expansion, the peak, recession, and recovery. Phases three and four, recession and recovery, is where most of the money is made. So having a multifamily mentor that has successfully navigated through the recession and the recovery is key.

Key #2: Experience in ALL Markets

Your multifamily investing mentor must have experience in all markets. Not just one, not just a few. They need experience investing across the nation, whether it’s a big city, small city, or rural area. The reason they need experience in all those different markets is because there’s no such thing as a national real estate market. It’s all divided into little submarkets. For example, North Carolina has dozens of submarkets that are all different. Texas has the high, down to the low, all in one city. You must know those areas. We have real-world experience in the submarkets of all fifty states, which gives us real-time data on all the prosperity trends from all the properties that we have purchased throughout the years. And this data shows you where to invest, and more importantly, where NOT to invest.

Along with experience in all fifty states, and access to real-time data like we do, next you need a proven property management system. Most mentorship companies don’t invest in management training because it’s not a huge money maker for them. But for us, it’s in our financial best interest to train our mentees to operate their multifamily investments with or without a property manager. We teach them management systems for the four Ms:

• Money
• Marketing
• Management
• Maintenance

As an investor in multifamily real estate, you must have expertise and systems in place for all four areas or you will fail. At Commercial Property Advisors, we have experience in all fifty states, real-time data on where the best deals are, and a proven property management system that’s rock solid.  These all work together to create sustainably successful students.

Key #3: Extensive Record of Successful Mentees

A multifamily investing mentor worthy to mentor you should have an extensive record of successful mentees. Our Real Deals provides extensive examples of proteges who have been successful in our program. And they are people from all walks of life; engineers, truck drivers, IT managers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, single parents, husband and wife teams, and the list goes on. So be certain that whoever you hire as your mentor has an extensive record of successful mentees over the last 20 years.

Key #4:  An Experienced Mentoring Team

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”

I love watching the NBA playoffs. Some teams win, and some lose. And as Michael Jordan once said, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” It’s the same with multifamily investing. You need to be paired with a mentor who has a high-level producing team, NOT just one talented person. And that’s what our Protégé Program is all about. We have a highly experienced team. In fact, one of our team members has owned and managed over 3,500 apartment units! Wouldn’t you like to work with them? And I have the privilege of coaching every single Protégé. But some days I am not available. I might be at a closing, so who can they go to? They’re being coached by another professional team member for that day. When you are operating at the level we are, you must have an experienced mentorship team. It can’t be done with just one person. When you work with a team of mentors, you get the benefit of a team of the sharpest people in your industry helping you. Two times a week, our entire mentoring team conducts meetings to discuss our proteges and their deals, strategizing on how to maximize their deals and cash flow, their operations and marketing trends. Twice a week we all come together to figure out ways to make not only our proteges better, but us better as well. It’s about teamwork and intelligence to help our students, that’s maybe you, win a championship with your multifamily property.

Key #5: A Win-Win Financial Arrangement

What is a win-win financial arrangement? It is mutually aligned financial interest between mentor and mentee. Meaning if you make money, then your mentor makes money. If you don’t make money, then your mentor doesn’t make money. This arrangement enables both the mentor and mentee to hold each other accountable, and make sure that each person is holding up their end of the bargain. It also ensures the relationship between the mentor and the mentee is economically productive and sustainable over a long period of time. This is our business model, and it works quite well for both parties. In our program, the mentee and the mentor agree to an upfront investment. The mentee puts up money, we put up our resources, training, and coaching. We also provide our industry contacts on finding money, due diligence, inspections, title, attorneys, and on raising capital. All of that is at your disposal if you join our Protégé Program. Then we split profits 50/50 because our financial interests are mutually aligned. Everyone has skin in the game.

NOTE! Real Estate Agents and Brokers Are NOT Multifamily Investing Mentors
It’s important to understand that real estate agents and brokers are not multifamily investing mentors. Novice multifamily investors often make the mistake of thinking they can hire a real estate agent to be their mentor. However, this doesn’t work because it’s not a win-win financial arrangement. There’s a conflict of interest on how the real estate agent is paid. Some of my best friends are real estate agents, and they tell me, “Pete, I’m not a mentor, I’m a salesperson.” Meaning that they only make money if you close a deal. If you don’t close a deal, they’re not going to spend time with you. That’s the bottom line. They don’t have a lot of time to mess around. So this conflict of interest, how they get paid, is the main reason why they can’t be a true mentor for you. They can be part of your team, but not a true mentor.

Get Your Multifamily Investing Mentor

Every successful multifamily real estate investor has a mentor. Get started investing in multifamily the right way! Don’t learn lessons the hard way, learn from an experienced mentoring team. Get your mentor here: Commercial Property Advisors Protégé Program