Looking for some opinions please

Had a guy contact me an is looking to become a landlord an is taking me to lunch Monday. Got my name from the city

I am not sure what to say or do

I am 44 an have 45sfh so I am still buying an looking

Would you team up an buy one if I like the guy an brings something to table?

Or just not help him?

I'm small-time landlord, so take my opinions with a grain of salt... but, is there ways for YOU to benefit as much as him? For instance, many posters on this forum ask about how to manage things when life throws curveballs, or ya just want to go on a cruise.. would having 'a friend' in the business as a back-up plan benefit you? As a short Grandma, I sometimes have my husband help with two-person tasks, but he's working full-time. I have a handyma'am friend that i hire occasionally. Were she a fellow landlord, we'd probably just swap help. ( Reminds me, she and i need to go for tacos 'n margaritas soon...)

And, then, there is just having someone to ...(treading on Plenty's area here, I'll stop...)

And, of course, being friendly to him could yield results to you, should started, then get tired of the biz, and want to sell three or four properties that are mostly rehabbed. Yours might be the number he calls.....

For a up front fee, you'd like to help them....Say they pay for lunch and pay you $100 an hour for advice.

Point 'em in another direction.

Why would ya wanna spill your guts

just to suck the life right out of ya ?

Years ago I reached out to a LL from our local Apt Assoc. We went to a seminar together and then another and another after that? We regularly email now when we want a local or other opinion re: real estate or our properties. We lift each other up and calm each other down when we're needing it. Spent all night texting last night. I appreciate her. She's on Mr. LL from time to time.

GO to lunch, let the guy buy it. Form an opinion. See if you like him. No partnership. But if the chips are down or something happens, he may turn out to be a life raft.

No absolut;y not.

you have that much on your plate to what end?

I'm hearing a bit of a scarcity mentality here. Are there really so few properties in your area that you can't share with anyone else? Think of all the knowledge that has been freely shared on this forum and how you've benefitted from it.

Wow, some of you are very unhelpful which is completely opposite from your stance here on this forum.

Jason should be flattered and honored that someone is coming to him for his wisdom and experience. Give him your advice. Tell him which books are your favorite. Tell him to come to this web site. Tell him it is never to late to start. Tell him all the reasons you love real estate. Tell him the good and the bad and the amount of work it takes.

I've helped 1 person in my town buy his first duplex. I've talked to several others who don't have the drive to make it happen.

There are more deals than anyone person can close on.

As far as partnerships go, why jump the gun and assume that is even on this person's mind. If he is interested in RE he can get his own loans. If he can't get a loan RE isn't in his future.

No big deal. Have lunch. Help him out with some answers. If you do have REALLY good tricks like where to find the best deals...then sure... reserve a little info.

But surely you're not so arrogant to think you can't learn something from him, too?

this is not grammar school.

you would be training your compititio. whats wrong with that? seriously?

Been there done that. you give some advice and all of a sudden now there at the court house bidding against you.

I agree with those who say let him buy you lunch and tell him what you know. Favorite books, etc. Just as Bonanza suggested.

As far as partnership with him, "that is the only ship that doesn't sail". NO WAY!

Heck yes I would go test the waters!

I only have one local guy that I talk to on a semi-regular basis. We swap prospective tenants if we can't help them. On occasion we have swapped favors or a little labor.

He is competition but not thru and thru. He specializes in managing while I own. He also seems to have mostly lower end properties which I gave up on years ago.

I tried to sell a duplex to a guy who wanted in the game. Didn't work out for him. 6 years into a 12 year note and he gave it all back. I rented the empty side out in a week and sold it to a different investor in under a month.

Some people are not cut out for it. Some want it but lack any concept of what it takes.

I have another investor that wants to do lunch. He has fewer properties but in bigger cities. When I talk about the rents I get I think it confuses him because it's not an apples to apples comparison. I have shared some with him and will continue as he asks.

I would help them out........based on the percentage of the deal that they would be giving away to me though. My time isn't free.

There are lots of folks who dream of doing real estate, and many need someone with experience behind them

I don't mind giving people information they can get from any book. I wouldn't necessarily be a mentor or a guru, and give away my deepest, darkest secrets for free, and I wouldn't necessarily invite competition into my backyard. But I don't mind talking in generalities and saying, "There was this one time where I did this, and this is what happened..."

If it was me, I'd start off with one of my most basic generalities. "Who do you want to do business with? Where do they want to live? That's what you want to buy." And then I'd let him talk about what he wants to buy. It's no good for someone to buy a cheap house, if they don't want to deal with the type of people who want to live in a cheap house. It's no good for someone to buy an upscale, expensive place, if they're not willing to cater to the demands of people who live in upscale, expensive places. If someone wants to rent to students, but buys a place that's in the wrong zip code-- they're not going to have a successful time of it, either.

So chat with him about who he wants to do business with. Blue-collar? White collar? Students? Seniors? Does he want to create a development of tiny houses, or concrete houses, or park cabins, or an RV park, or some other kind of unique living situation?

Let him take the lead, and have him talk about what he sees for himself. Intersperse the conversation with "There was this one time" or "I remember this guy" or "Once upon a time, I tried that, and this is how it actually turned out" or "I still remember" or whatever. Bring your actual experience to the table--- without giving away trade secrets for cheap.

So, we might talk for an hour--- and a big chunk of it might be, "Yeah, I remember how DH was watching YouTube videos for our first four or five renovations. We didn't have any extra money for a handyguy; we could only afford to hire professionals for specialized things, but for most of the grunt work, it was nights and weekends after the day job. So he learned how to seat toilets, and lay flooring, and paint a room efficiently, and hang a door, and install windows, and hang a ceiling fan, and so on. Our emphasis was on saving outgo, since we didn't have a lot of cash at that point. At first, we thought it would be useful to... but then we discovered that..." and so on. And it might be "we just painted everything out-of-the-bucket white, but it turns out, out-of-the-bucket-white formulas change once every 3-5 years, so you might as well go for a formulated color. Or, we started off by buying clearance flooring at fifty cents a square foot, but when it was damaged, we couldn't match it. Or whatever is appropriate.

I’ve met and had supposedly new investors buy my lunch and come to find out most never pull the trigger.

Definitely don’t team with him, but as far as helping, might be good. Years ago I helped a couple

There are two kinds of people in this world.

There are givers and there are takers.

The person who wants to meet with you seems to be a taker. He wants free information and is using flattery to get it.

I personally would not waste my time, free lunch or not.