Is having a mentor important?

We have pretty much gone it alone so far, in the short time we have been on PC we have learned quite a lot and it has allowed is to refine our plan. Also going to one of the meet up's provided us a wealth of knowledge.

The next step for us is building a reliable team for purchases into the future, we haven't exactly been blown away by the services of conveyancers, brokers etc. in the past (haven't used any from PC yet)

Is it important to have a mentor? We have sought the advice of a few successful investors outside PC but in all honesty most weren't interested in giving on-going advice/keeping up to date with what stage we were at.

 

Yes, I think it is important to have a mentor. But not in a formal capacity - I think most of these are scams and not operating with your best interests at heart.

Going it alone is certainly possible and many have done that well.

There's people who's advice I've sought in my journey and some that seek my advice now. It's just an ongoing 'pay it forward' type mechanism, because we're all on this rat race together.

 

Do you check in to see how various people are going? The last gentlemen who helped us with some advice over coffee replied to our first email update with a bit of advice (dodgy/improper advice) but a few months later when we gave another update he didn't bother getting back to us.

 

I haven't got a formal mentor but there are a few people I follow, including DT because I can't stand bs. I don't like the whole personal development mentoring stuff, but some do. I find the people worth following will refuse to mentor you ( too busy enjoying their success) but will keep in touch and share all they know. Definitely find and keep in touch with mentors, even if informally. I've been slow to do this but seen massive impact when I reached out.
Agree alot of brokers are too busy, have easier clients and I just diy these days.

 

I agree with @D.T. And @ellejay - I find informal mentoring highly beneficial. I've found a group of people on property chat who are very knowledgable and experienced and give great advice. I'd call them friends rather than mentors.

 

When I first started I had a friend who just loved talking about property, It was great. Looking back now, I see my way of doing things is very different to his. But that's ok. It was enough to just have someone to bounce things off and to raise things I didn't want to face or to think about what he'd said and decide it didn't suit me.
Having Property Chat is a great resource.

 

We are doing well in the personal/life in general department so we are in a similar boat.

I can relate to what you say about brokers. We thought we had found a good one but she quickly lost interest once our last loan was going through the motions.

We are yet to find a mentor who A) keeps in touch and B) genuinely wants to help (all have been family contacts so far who we have sought out for advice)

 

Yes, the whole brokerr thing is interesting. I eventually stumbled on an amazing one who doesn't post here. I can ask him if he wants another customer if you like. I'm also enjoying RAM just now.

I can't help re mentors because I follow 2 millionaire guys in nz who would have no time for the whole Aus -geared, ,low yield stuff. They won't mentor but end up sharing far more for free, including some off market deals. Anyway, agreed network is everything.

 

As in RAMS? @MTR suggested them for us because Chrissy is self employed and will only have one year's worth of financials come June 30.

High yield is what we need due to our serviceabilty situation. I wouldn't rule out NZ, I work with 2 former NZer's who always hype it to me, I just haven't looked at it seriously because I have never been there and know nothing about the areas or how the market works.

We want to buy and hold so anything high yield and stable fits with our strategy.

 

I want to give them a try but our hands are tied until we see how Chrissy's first year of trade panned out. It's only a part time business but that coupled with a small pay rise and increased savings might see us through to another IP. Our big dilemma come the end of the year will be fixing up the new PPOR (about $20-$30k) vs. Saving another deposit.

 

Always a dilemma, but you'd want to enjoy today in a nice home unless you find a killer ip deal

 

It depends how you define mentors. You could say I'm the town bike of mentors
I have lots of them - to me they are all people I look up to (easy I'm 5'2"), are able to bounce ideas off, will be honest with me if they don't agree (but civil) and most important are able to give me some of their time.
None of them are paid/contracted mentors and all I would happily help in return in a heartbeat
Some of them don't even know that I consider them a mentor Like @Paul@PFI - I look up to his accountancy skills, his grasp on reality, his undodgyness and I try to absorb everything he types.

 

Our main issue is we will need wardrobes and a few other expensive additions (everything multiplys with 4 kids). The main cost will be building a new shed at the rear for Chrissy to run her business from. I will probably DIY it but still a big outlay.

#thestruggleisreal #iknowhastagsdontworkonpropertychat

 

I guess our main issue is finding someone who is interested in our journey. We help out a lot of family and friends with various things but a lot of the time when we are in a bind there is no one in sight! I heavily rely on the PC community when advice is needed

 

A lot of people resort to them unnecessarily as they're not willing to take on their brokers suggestions.

 

I had the same thing, couple of friends from work that were interested in property and even though they invested in properties that I wouldn't touch, they're in it for the same end goal as me and the conversations have been invaluable for all of us. I found PC/SS useful to reassure what I was doing from the view of people who didn't know me personally and therefore had no vested interest in me as an individual, though more recently I've now met a few of you at a couple of meetups.

 

We will explore a few more options come tax time, in all honesty I would prefer a broker because I buggered up the last DIY finance job, trying to fix it now. We went through 3 brokers in 2015, none worked out great.

 

We went to the Western Syd meet up in Jan and plan on being at the March one but it's hard to link the usernames with the people, hence our username and photo

 

Yea, I've used a couple in my time. Glad I have one I really like now. I think different people just gel with some and not with others.

 

The first two simply couldn't get it across the line with the lenders they used, one in particular was unreliable and would seemingly drop off the face of the earth for weeks and months at a time.

The third who got our finance through Liberty seemed promising, was going to make a plan for us so we knew what to do to keep investing. Once we got our docs to her, pre-approval etc. it never eventuated.