your mentor with respect and care. Do what they recommend and share how it worked out with them. Honor their limited time and show appreciation. Do what you say you will do. This is true of any relationship you want to last. With “ A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you than you see in yourself—and helps bring it out in you.” —Bob Proctor
HOW TO EVALUATE A GOOD MENTOR
A good mentor will be happy to share what they know with you if you approach them and their time respectfully. A good mentor should be at least a step or two ahead of you in their real estate investing career and preferably have a similar goal for their portfolio. They should have some setbacks to share with you, and they should be willing to talk about them with you because you will have those same challenges. We all have them as we grow.
Writing and creating content allows me to virtually mentor others as Bruce did for me. Posting and commenting on Bigger Pockets regularly allows me to mentor and share with others as well. The power of a good mentor is they create other mentors like them, which strengthens the entire real estate investing community. Following the suggestions in this article, maybe you too will find a great mentor like I did with Bruce Kellogg. Such a mentor will follow alongside you and share their experiences, connections, and wisdom to accelerate your growth and inspire you to give back and be a mentor like them, lifting up our industry.
Bruce, I always showed appreciation for his time with a handwritten thank you card or expressed appreciation in our other communications. We talked about what was working and what was not working, and he shared his experience and connections with me to help me succeed. He just sent me the book he recently published. I know I will publish a book as well because, through his example, I can see it is possible. As I read Bruce’s book, I will communicate to him the things I connect with, how I will apply them to my life and business, and express my gratitude for the opportunity. That last comment bears repeating: Show gratitude and appreciation for your mentor.
When I emailed Bruce for the first time and told him what I liked about the article he had written, he was open to my questions. We both were investor-friendly realtors, but in different parts of the country. He is in California, and I am in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We both liked building our portfolios with 2–4-unit properties. This strategy provides flexibility in any economy
Thank you, Bruce! •
to rent or liquidate the properties and to (hopefully) always have at least one rent check coming in.
JEFF ROTH
We both believed in content marketing, and we are both regular contributing writers for Think Realty magazine. Bruce would send me articles to help me with my content writing and investing, and he shared his investing experiences with me as well—warts and all. Bruce was the ideal mentor for me at that time in my investing career. YOUR RESPONSIBILITY WITH YOUR MENTOR Your target mentor will likely be as busy as you and probably busier. Treat
BECOMING A MENTOR TO OTHERS
The ultimate compliment you can give some- one is to give back by sharing with others what you have learned from your mentor. In keeping with Bruce’s generous spirit, I try to be a mentor to as many people who connect with what I have to share. I counsel my clients on investment strategy and building their portfolios using my own experience (good and bad) as well as what I have learned from mentors like Bruce.
Jeff Roth is the founder of Arbor Advising in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Arbor Advising is a real estate consultancy dedicated to growing and securing clients’ wealth. They are passionate about helping clients invest, buy, and sell in Michigan. You can contact Roth at jeff@arboradvising.com, visit www.arboradvising.com, or subscribe to the weekly newsletter at www.arboradvising.com/subscribe.
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