I’m of the opinion that the fastest way to become a competent real estate wholesaler is to have a great mentor as your ally throughout the learning process.

When I first began to dabble in real estate investing, having a mentor would have saved me tens of thousands of dollars at a minimum. Beginners’ mistakes aren’t inevitable when you have a thoughtful teacher. And, with a few chestnuts of wisdom from a mentor along the way, I would have learned how to discriminate between worthy investing partners and people looking to make a quick buck by cutting unequal deals far more rapidly than I did.

As it turns out, I picked up the skills of the trade along the way without a teacher, but you certainly don’t have to. Now, I spend a lot of time with my junior associates to make sure they’re prepared to meet the challenges of the property market with clear eyes and a comprehensive understanding of the risks. Especially if you’re just starting your real estate wholesaling business, a mentor is one of the best assets you can have, but you’ll need more than money alone to find the right one.

Why You Need A Mentor

Turning a profit while being a real estate wholesaler is challenging when you’re just getting started, and that’s the biggest reason why it’s worth having a mentor.

In case the other benefits of having a skilled teacher aren’t obvious, consider that a mentor can:

• Help you avoid common but costly mistakes while starting out
• Guide your intuition about property valuation and the pace of your deal flow
• Advise you regarding where to find leads on sellers and buyers
• Provide referrals to other trusted real estate investors
• Be part of your real estate investing network
• Partner with you directly on deals
• Point you in the right direction to find additional financing

No matter what market you’re planning to be a wholesaler in, there’s a very good chance that someone else has been doing it for a lot longer in a very similar niche. If you’re willing to accept that someone else’s experience is relevant, it’s not a stretch to say that you’ll be better at finding deals and making profitable connections between buyers and sellers when you have the benefit of a mentor at your side.

Of course, real estate wholesale mentors aren’t all the same. Some mentors may prefer to work with you in the context of a partnership, whereas others might want you to act as a junior associate without direct participation in deals. Others still may prefer a solely advisory role, giving you the freedom—and the risk—of cutting deals completely on your own, with sparse support.

No matter how you and your mentor end up collaborating, you’ll be much better off having the relationship. Without a mentor, you’ll need to be doing a lot more trial-and-error than what your bottom line might be able to support.

Finding a Great Mentor Can Be Tough

When you’re looking for someone to guide your career in wholesaling, you should be aware that not any real estate wholesale mentor will do. In fact, there are a few unsavory characters who might try to take advantage of a junior wholesaler.

Typically, these predatory arrangements take the form of joint ventures. But, any imbalanced situation can be problematic, regardless of whether the inequality between the two parties rests in the level of working information or the burden of the financial commitment.

A good mentor could be an equal partner in a real estate wholesaling deal, taking on the same amount of risk as the mentee while agreeing to share in the profits within the proper proportion. Or, if the mentor is taking the lead with a deal, they might agree to limit the learner’s risk exposure accordingly. In contrast, a poor or predatory mentor could withhold or distort information about a deal or offer biased terms to ensure that the learner takes on a disproportionate amount of risk or responsibility.

If you don’t know your mentor beforehand, it can be hard to judge their true character before many thousands of dollars are on the table.

And, as well-intentioned as many mentors may be, not every investor has the time to walk their junior associates through all of the ins and outs of every aspect of wholesaling. So, it’s important to match yourself with someone who has the time and patience to teach you and meet you where you are in terms of your knowledge. If your senior expects you to keep up but you haven’t learned the basics yet, it’ll be a problem for both of you.

Aside from these issues, you’ll also need to find a teacher who you can rely on and click with on a personal level. Building a good rapport is a major component of the learning process.

Starting the Search

Now that you’re aware of the pitfalls that you may encounter when hunting for a real estate wholesaling mentor, you’re ready to start the process of looking.

There are a handful of places to look for real estate wholesale mentors, including:

• Your network of real estate professionals
• Local real estate companies and investor associations
• Real estate wholesaler forums on the internet
• Job listings by senior wholesalers who are looking for an entry-level associate

Of these options, it’s highly preferable for your mentor to come from your own network or a local business. The more social, economic, and geographical ties you have to a potential mentor, the lower the chance there is of getting taken advantage of.

Still, there’s no guarantee that there will be any suitable investors to mentor you in your local area or in your professional network, so don’t be too afraid to broaden your search.

Getting The Right Training

Real estate wholesaling mentorship is only one piece of the larger puzzle of how to become a trained and skilled investor. If you’re just getting started, having a rigorous wholesaling training program is a great way to learn the ropes before getting hands-on help from a teacher. Given the risks of finding a worthy mentor, however, it makes sense to get your training and your advice from the same source.

Investing in a HomeVestors® franchise is one of the easiest ways to get the knowledge and access to experienced mentors that you’ll need to succeed as a wholesaler. With HomeVestors®, franchisees undergo a rigorous, initial training curriculum before touching any deals. Then, once their initial training is complete, investors are matched to some of the most skilled mentors in the entire real estate business.

At the same time, franchisees get access to property valuation software, an on-demand financing portal, and a source of quality leads for deals. As franchisees grow their businesses, they develop working relationships with their mentors and build their professional networks too. In sum, investing in an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchise can help you avoid a lot of the common problems with finding the right wholesaling mentor.

If you’re considering starting a real estate investing business, request information about becoming a franchisee today.

Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.