A single mom with young kids has been coming to our real estate group for several months and has decided she wants to partner/mentor with an experienced flipper.

She is very educated, has a good job, and does not have any money due to the divorce.

She does not have any house repair skills.

Is mentoring a good way for her to learn the business?

What should she be cautious about?

The only partnership that has worked for me has been my wife of 44 years.

I stay away from the rest, from past bad experiences.

As mentioned already:

WHEN is she going to have time to work on Real Estate if she has young children, no money and a full-time job?

WHAT does she bring to the table? No skills, no money, no time.

She needs to do her own homework, her own footwork, her own hard work and bring a deal to the table somehow.

Otherwise, WHY would someone partner with her?

Usually people bring something to the partnership. Sometimes it's money. Sometimes it's time and experience. Sometimes it's pure sweat equity.

The partner with the money is usually the partner who benefits the most financially, because investors with money are harder to find than people with time or skill. When it comes to decisions, a smart investor partner will defer to experience in areas where experience dictates a certain course. A sweat equity partner needs to be content with being humble and following directions until they've gotten to the point where they can be considered experienced and operate as such.

You can learn a lot from YouTube videos, but I've never been good at the physical stuff because I don't have that three-dimensional brain or the upper-body strength of a man. When we started out, I was the person with time-- the gofer who fetched supplies for the people with skill to use them-- and the office lady -- and the communications person -- and the person who showed housing to prospects -- and who gathered information -- and who kept things on budget in terms of income/outgo. For the first five houses, we did our own demo and reno, but except for skilled things like plumbing/electrical/hvac, we were 100% DIY. Most of that was my husband, who worked countless nights and weekends so that we could renovate sad houses for essentially the price of materials.

Fast-forward 15 years and I'm still the office lady/communications/gofer half of things. DH still fronts the money for the initial acquisition. I'm able to hire local handyguys for demo and reno, so no more nights and weekends for my husband.

Fast-forward 15 years and I'm still not drawing a paycheck. What would have been our portion keeps getting plowed back into the biz to grow aggressively.

Our first house was a little 1940's 1/1 for $7k from a burned-out landlord. (We overpaid, but it broke the ice and allowed us to transition from theory to reality.) It currently grosses $620/month. My most recent house is a 1910 3/1 (more like a 2/1 with an office) for $14k where someone had committed suicide in September. (No mess.) I bought it at the beginning of December, and expect to put about $30k into it. It will gross about $1000-$1200/month.

Opportunities are still there, but the hard part is finding a team to be part of. If you have a skill, more people want you. If you don't have a skill, you might be better off starting your own team. Whether that's realistic depends on who you're willing to do business with. If the only houses you can afford are desired by people you don't want to rent to---- it's better to save your money.

If I lived in DFW or Houston/Galveston, I totally wouldn't mess with my niche. But in my poor, rural area, it's the only realistic niche, and I do my best with it. (I'm the step just under homeownership. Some of my tenants succeed and move on. Some of my tenants fail and go back to government housing or slumlords. Some of my tenants are very comfortable where they are and enjoy my stability.)

I wouldn't have messed with it either. 20 minutes after walking through it, I couldn't have told you the layout or the details or anything because I thought there was no way that anyone would want such a crummy house. But DH was willing to risk $7k on acquiring a crummy house, and it probably took about $20k more in materials to get it clean, safe, and functional. We've upgraded it since then-- added HVAC and upgraded the electric to handle it and new metal roof and we're on our second hot water heater and will probably put in our third floor at the next turnover--- but it was what it took to say, "Hey, this is kind of cool--" and "Hey, we can do this 30 more times..."

When we first bought it, taxes were about $150/year and it rented for $300/month. Now taxes are $300/year and it rents for $620/month. If it was 20 miles south or 100 miles west, we could probably get $800-$1200/month for it.

Oh-- as a reminder, my niche is saving houses from the bulldozer. The price to buy a turnkey house, and the price of renovating a neglected house, work out to be approximately the same in my market. Savings are more significant in an area with a higher buy-in. But the competition is much lower, because no one wants to deal with the headaches of a full renovation. 2010-2015, there was a lot of low-hanging fruit from the subprime mortgage crisis. 2016-2024, there are more people with money and nowhere to put it, and a desire to protect investment dollars from inflation by transforming them into real estate. So things are very wonky nowadays. All the good cosmetic-only renos are picked over, leaving behind projects requiring significant structural/systems attention. It's doable, but not as easy/economical as purely cosmetic renos.

The question asked was "is mentorship a good way to go?"

I say absolutely in this situation. The 3 things needed for any successful business are: Knowlege of the business or industry; Energy to perform the work required to run the business; and Capital or money to fund the business.

MMIT, you indicated that she has attended investor meetings regularly, which demonstrates some level of commitment on her part. She is willing to invest in herself.

I would be delighted to mentor someone that is committed. At this stage in my investing career, I have the Knowlege and access to capital. However, I don't have the energy level that I had 20 years ago. Perhaps it would be good to have someone to teach the business side of RE investing in exchange for them performing tasks that require energy.

For example, I know lady who started out in our local REIA who mentored under a couple of experienced investors. She performed tasks like putting out signs; putting lockboxes on properties; helped them with websites, technology, etc.

She learned the business and is now a multi-millionaire. She does a lot of mentoring and coaching as a way to give back. I know her story because she helped educate me along the way.

The partner/lady I wouldn't touch.... she has NOTHING to bring to the table other than a desire to learn. Outside of that, no $$... No time... no skills listed.

I think Vee, said it best “ The only ships that don’t sail are partnerships.

Partner with her? NO WAY! She has nothing to contribute.

But, I would very much welcome her to join me as I renovate In fact, I have offered that to folks at meetings a few times.

She (any newbie who accepts my offer) can learn how to DIY whatever I'm working on, and hopefully come with questions we can discuss.

I know she local investors who charge people pretty significant fees for this, but I'm glad to pay forward the good will and help I received when starting out & ver the years.

Encourage her to save up in the meantime & start with something affordable like a mobile home.

I got going part time, nights & weekends with three kids and a low income, on my own.

It is NOT easy, but can be done - and the equity & experience from the first one makes the next one easier.

Depending on the age of the kids, they can be helpers.

MMIT,

I think the best thing you can do for this lady is to encourage her. Guide her to seminars and speaker who might suit her desire.

I get a call a week asking me to JOINT VENTURE (term of the day) or "can I buy your lunch and pick your brain?" with a newbie.

Our local assoc has a weekly lunch with a group of local LLs so I invite them to join me. The group and I will answer any questions or suggest suppliers, contractors, etc. In all these years ONE showed up.

MMIT,

I think the best thing you can do for this lady is to encourage her. Guide her to seminars and speaker who might suit her desire.

I get a call a week asking me to JOINT VENTURE (term of the day) or "can I buy your lunch and pick your brain?" with a newbie.

Our local assoc has a weekly lunch with a group of local LLs so I invite them to join me. The group and I will answer any questions or suggest suppliers, contractors, etc. In all these years ONE showed up.

How fascinated were we when as kids a new house was being built in the neighborhood; the workers were gone for the day so we went there to play? Sometimes you could hang out there to watch the workers and you learned how a house was built?

How long has she been interested in learning about real estate?

When I was a member of our local LL group I got to know a fair number of members. I was so interested in seeing what others were doing that I asked some if I could stop by and take a look. Many welcomed me.

Like DJ said, suggest she visit some jobsites. She'd get a variety of situations and mentoring while helping at the jobsite.

Generally speaking, I am not in favor of partnerships outside of marriage. Especially for real estate investing.

Real estate investing has a "glamor" about it that attracts people who think it easy money, OPM, and walla walla boohah! Suddenly I go from underemployed, poor, and uncool to faaaabulously wealthy real estate investor who other people admire. A lot of this is due to the no money down guru seminars on late night TV and the tons of books and YT videos and constant emails by website that rhyme with Sigger Bockets. The same people who lap up all that would never consider a "real" business where you have to draw up a business plan, find your own sources of financing, etc. They'd never ask to partner in a new restaurant with no knowledge of how to run one or provide the backbreaking hours to make it successful.

So what you end up with is 1 person out of 20 candidates who MIGHT be a good partner. The question then becomes: do I want to sort through 19 duds to find one good partner?

The answer is: maybe... if the upside is tremendous.

I grew my empire from one small 2/1 bungalow to 54 units of residential and commercial. It took about 18 years. I made some mistakes along the way. Would having a partner have sped up the process or minimized those mistakes? Possibly. Would having a partner also have kept me from being able to implement the right policies and procedures to grow? Also possibly.

Partner may bring good or bad to the table. Does the good significantly outweigh the bad? Often, it takes years to find out.

I look at where I'm at now, and quite frankly I don't see how a partner would have helped much. I believe I'm the secret sauce that has allowed the investment to succeed.

To sum up, no, I wouldn't partner with anyone except a fellow experienced investor. If we made the analogy with credit scores, why settle for a 500 when you can have an 800?

I have done a few flips in my time. Mostly I end up keeping them. I have had people working for me off and on as well.

More times than not I have offered to go into a partnership on a flip. I buy the property, all materials, pay contractors as needed. They supply labor.

None have taken me up on the offer. Instead they worked hourly and when I sold the place they mentioned the profit I made.

These people know what to do but lack the imagination to step to the next level.

I'm happy to answer questions and give advice, if it looks like the person is actually interested and not just daydreaming. But no partnerships

I've never had a partnership work out, and that includes spouses. I've been married twice and as far as real estate goes, my husband was nothing more than a stumbling block who made everything more difficult. Plus, divorce destroys wealth.