When I first started in this business of Real Estate Investing, I was no different than so many others who also wanted to step forward into real estate investing. I watched an infomercial and thought the free seminar it offered was just the item. Off I went to check out the free seminar and after spending 2500 dollars at the free seminar, I was ready and willing to be an investor! As you probably already know, my first big leap produced a sour deal. You see, a free seminar and 2500 dollars for a “how to” book and a “guideline” to finding properties simply is not enough to prepare a guy in the military on how to correctly invest in real estate.
I wised up and realized that what I really needed was some decent networking with other people in the business. Of course, this was a lesson I learned from another program also advertised on TV. Off I went to join the club mentorship program – for only 500 dollars a month!
(A healthy bit of cash for a person on US Army Sergeant’s pay).
After 5 months in the program and another 2500 dollars wasted, (Sorry I mean invested) I truly changed gears. The mentorship clubbing approach hadn’t made me any smarter and so many of the questions I had when I started the program, were still left unanswered. But there was some good that did come out of it. I made connections with people who were both in and around the club program and who knew of people who had mentored others.
That paid off. I met five men in the business, all who were willing to teach me in exchange for my willingness to work with them and for them. We’ll call them David, Noah, Moses, Sampson, and Solomon. There was no pay to me in the form of cash from any of them, but the knowledge I gained I have used to help build my net worth ever since. Most people would have chosen one of the five, but I wanted to learn as much as possible and from as many different perspectives as possible. And this is the way I did it:
I woke up at 3:30am to go the base and worked until 1:30pm and then worked for one of my mentors from 3pm till about 10pm Monday thru Saturday. One mentor in particular took the most interest in me. Even though he had a bad reputation in the area I worked for him. (I considered even this to be something I had to understand – what gave one a bad reputation and how valid was the label? I had to find out for myself. I learned all the trades in real estate through these guys. I worked at a Mortgage Brokerage Office, a Title Company, a Real Estate Attorney’s office, a Real Estate Appraiser, and Real estate broker. All during my mentoring stage, I learned so much and I pushed myself to learn something new Every Single Day. I truly believe that it is the push that makes you a player. That is the only way to truly be successful. And while I was learning from them, I truly believe they were learning from me. Long story short—
Sometimes you have to pay your DUES. First!!
To sum it all up, a “free seminar” fits in the category of anything that is too good to be true is not TRUE!
Save your money, find a mentor and be willing to pay your dues while you really learn the ropes. You will never regret the experience you gain from this.
I really hope this can help someone....
Respectfully,
Franklin Cruz
www.CruzTradeMarks.com
