12 Jan The 4 Criteria for Hiring a Real Estate Coach
Nowadays, anyone can set up a website, write some fake testimonials, and call themselves a coach. With so many self-proclaimed “coaches” out there, it can be difficult to figure out which ones will actually give you a return on your investment and help you grow your real estate business.
We've been in this industry for a long time now—both the terms niche and the real estate coaching industry—and we have seen many coaches come and go. We also take personal and business growth seriously ourselves. We've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years in our own coaches across different areas like real estate, personal development, business growth, and fitness.
What we're getting at here is that we know a thing or two about how to find a good coach. So here are our top 4 criteria for hiring a good real estate coach (whether that's us or someone else).
1. Are They Doing Deals Right Now?
There are so many mentors and coaches out there these days, yet many of them aren't actually doing the work they're advising their mentees on. They aren't walking the walk.
In real estate, there are “coaches” who haven't done a deal in five, ten, twenty years. Believe it or not, there are coaches out there who have probably never done a deal in their lives. They just use marketing to their advantage and make it seem like they know what they're doing.
Regardless of what industry you're in or what type of coach you need, make sure they are actually walking the walk. It's not good enough to have done some deals a few years ago—they need to be doing deals right now, as they're coaching you.
Things change quickly in real estate. If your coach isn't doing their own deals, how can they advise you on the best things to do in real estate right now?
We are in the trenches week after week, doing multiple deals per month. This allows us to stay on top of everything going on in the terms niche and pass on that knowledge to our Associates.
2. Do They Do Deals in the Niche in Which You Want to Participate?
There are many niches in real estate and they are all very different from each other. Wholesaling, commercial real estate, and the terms niche are three vastly different areas, for example. Outside of the basics, the experience you get in one simply does not transfer to the other.
Just because someone has done thousands of commercial real estate transactions does not mean they will be a great advisor for you in the terms niche. Just because they say they're a “real estate guru” does not mean they're well-versed in every niche (no one is).
You need to find a mentor that is committed to one niche. The more specific, the better. There are so many coaches out there nowadays that it doesn't make sense to hire a general coach when you can easily find someone that is hyper-specific in your niche.
3. Have They Survived at Least One Real Estate Cycle (Preferably Two)?
This question is more or less about making mistakes. You want your mentor to have gone through a few real estate cycles and made some mistakes.
When we look back at our mentors, most of them have made mistakes. Some of them were huge, some of them were small, but every mentor learned from them.
And we're no different. We've been through real estate cycles in the late eighties, early nineties, and 2000s. Chris will be the first to tell you that he made several major mistakes leading up to and during the 2008 recession that nearly bankrupt him and the business.
But as a result of those mistakes, we've learned what needs to be done to recession-proof our business—and we're passing that knowledge and wisdom on to all of our Associates.
The reason you hire a mentor or coach is so that you can learn from their mistakes and avoid making the same ones in your own business. If they've never made the mistakes in the first place, what are they going to teach you?
4. Can You Relate to Them?
This is simple but incredibly important. We are not so naïve to think that everyone can latch onto our style. We take a very direct approach. We are very blunt, and we understand that some people don't like that.
And that's okay!
It goes both ways—you need to be able to work with your mentor and they need to be able to work with you. They may interview you while you’re interviewing them. This is a two-way relationship, and you need to have a mentor that you can relate to.
If you can't relate to them, you'll never get the full value out of your relationship with them.