You’re an up-and-coming landlord, and you’ve fallen in love with your career.
But sometimes, you can’t help but wonder what you could be doing better. You see that other local landlords are reaching success faster, finding better rental properties, and making more money. And you want to learn the secret to success.
What’s the best way to do that?
Find a mentor. A mentor can help you figure out what is hindering you from greater success while encouraging you to always improve your skills. Their knowledge can be a huge asset to the growth of your career.
But maybe you’ve already thought about connecting with a mentor, and you haven’t done it simply because you can’t find one. If that’s the case, keep reading – we’re going to tell you exactly what you need to do to find the right landlord mentor and how get the most out of your experience with them.
How to Find a Landlord Mentor
Before we talk about ways to find a good mentor, let’s talk about a few qualities you should look for in a mentor. That way, you can make a more informed decision about who to choose.
What to look for in a mentor
Not every landlord who has been in business for a while will be a suitable landlord for you. You should look for these qualities:
- Honesty – The last think you need is a mentor who sugarcoats everything when giving advice. Look for someone who is willing to tell you about your strengths and your weaknesses. That’s the only way you’ll improve.
- Enthusiasm – For best results, look for a mentor who is enthusiastic about their job and helping you learn the ropes. An enthusiastic mentor will help you stay motivated when you face the challenges associated with being a landlord.
- Goal-oriented – You want a mentor who knows how to set goals and reach them. That way, they can help you figure out goals for your own rental property business and advise you on the best way to achieve those goals.
Keep in mind that you should also consider a landlord’s reputation before you choose them to be your mentor. You should focus on finding someone who can serve as a positive influence and role model.
Don’t be easily swayed by a landlord just because they have a nice car or fancy clothes. Just because someone has found financial success as a landlord doesn’t necessarily mean they will be a good advisor.
Now, let’s talk about 3 methods you can use to find the right landlord mentor.
1. Use a landlord-focused website to ask for help
If you’re new to the world of investing in rental properties, you’ve probably been looking around online for information on how to get started. What you may not realize is that you can take your research a step further and find a mentor online too.
Try a landlord-focused site like BiggerPockets to start. BiggerPockets has a forum where people discuss real estate investing and real estate in general, so you can create some posts there asking for help.
When you start to receive answers to your questions, you might consider reaching out to one of the people who answered you for mentoring.
If you want to be even more direct, you can simply create a post that asks for mentoring help. You’ll likely draw in some responses if you explain a bit about your situation in your post.
Whatever website you decide to use, make your personal safety a priority. Remember that people aren’t always who they say they are online, so it’s best to meet up in person with your mentor in a public place as opposed to a private place like their home or office.
2. Search LinkedIn to find successful landlords in your area
This method is pretty straightforward – all you need to do is log in to your LinkedIn account, type “landlord” into the search bar, and hit enter. From there, you can narrow down your search by location. For example, if you wanted to find a mentor in Baltimore City, you could simply type that location into the advanced search options bar.
Once you find some potential landlord mentors on LinkedIn, start looking through their profiles to see if they have done any mentoring or real estate advising in the past. If they mention this kind of work on their profile, there’s a good chance that they’ll be willing to help you too.
After that, you just need to connect with your potential mentor (be sure to personalize your message!) and send them an InMail or email to set up a phone call with them. On the phone call, you can let them know that you admire their work experience and explain your passion for investing in rental properties. Then, once you’ve built a rapport with them, you can check to see it they’d be interested in mentoring you.
If you do choose this method, remember to reference the qualities outlined earlier in this post before you make a decision about who to contact for mentoring. Success alone does not automatically make someone qualified to mentor you.
3. Join a local landlord association or Meetup group
If you want to meet lots of local landlords, one of the easiest ways to do that is by attending meetings where they hang out.
If you’re a Maryland landlord, check out this list of Maryland landlord associations to figure out which meeting you can attend. You’ll also want to search Meetup to find out what real estate investing groups are popular in your area.
Whether you’re in the Baltimore City area or somewhere else in Maryland, you should be able to find a group of landlords near you using these two resources. Then, when you find an event to attend, you can start making connections and eventually find a seasoned landlord who is willing to mentor you.
Tips for attracting a mentor
When looking for a mentor, you’ll can’t simply approach a stranger and ask them for help – that won’t work. Instead, work on building a rapport with them and supporting them online by sharing their latest LinkedIn posts, re-tweeting their latest tweets, etc.
By doing this, you’ll build the foundation for a healthy mentor/mentee relationship where both parties gain something valuable.
Another thing you must do is be someone who is coachable and enjoyable to mentor. Put yourself in your potential mentor’s shoes, and think about what kind of person you’d want to mentor. Chances are, you’d want a hard-working, positive, supportive mentee, so that’s what you should strive to be.
What if you can’t find a mentor?
Sometimes, finding a mentor is easier said than done. If you’re tried all of the tips outlined in this post and still can’t find a mentor, there are other things you can do to improve your skills as a landlord, like:
- Buy books – Search Amazon for books that help new landlords, or ask a colleague to give you a good book recommendation.
- Take courses online – With a bit of searching, you can find a rental property investing course and take it at your own pace. Just make sure the course has good reviews before you spend a substantial amount of money on it!
- Participate in group discussions online – You’d be surprised how much you can learn from being active in online forums like the Landlord SubReddit.
That being said, don’t give up on your goal of finding a mentor. Sometimes, it can take a while to track down the right one, but when you do, you’ll realize that finding the right mentor was well worth the effort and the wait.