Mentor opportunity

**tomcat13t** · 11-19-2011, 08:43 AM

My name is Thomas West and I am 20 years old and this is what is happening to me so far:

A guy at my work tells me that he is a real estate investor. We get to talking and he says that since I am in a bad situation (with my mom in the hospital and bills pileing up with my dad) that he is going to show me how to start my own real estate investment company. He tells me to find some bank owned propertys and set up a showing with them. I find one in my area and he helps me set it up. It is this afternoon. It is a short sale for a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom for $69,000. He wants me to sign a contract with him to take control of the property together. He then wants to fix it up and resell it to another buyer (this is the part Im worried about). He seems to think that he can find a buyer no problem but I dont want to be stuck with some property and no buyer. He says that he has a database of buyers and when he talks to me wile we are working, he never seems to sweat on finding a buyer fast. He says that he is going to get someone to put a big down payment (non-refundable) and then have him pay monthly to own through a "note". He says then we are going to sell the "note" to someone and make most of the purchase price. He says that the comps in the area are around $150,000 and that what he is going to sell if for. Im planning to go today and look at the house but dont want to get conned into puting my name on anything. What should I look out for? Does this guy sound legit? He says he has been doing this since 1985. Please help me, I cant afford to get ripped off especally with this amount of money that is involved. It is pretty scary. Thank you.

**Greg** · 11-20-2011, 05:18 AM

If your 'friend' was so successful at this then what is he doing at work with you? If he actually had a database full of buyers gullible enough to fall for this scheme then he would not need to keep a job. Buyers are hard to come by these days.

There are so many things wrong with this picture that I don't even know where to start. My personal advice would be to avoid this whole thing.

If you decide to go through with this then contact some local real estate agents, without your friend knowing, and run the scenario past them. Houses don't sell for $69,000 if the comps are for $150,000.

**tomcat13t** · 11-20-2011, 07:25 AM

Thank you so much for your response. I am very suspicious too. I do know that he is in the industry and that the only reason he works with me at ups is because it is an early morning job (we get out at about 9) and a lot of the employees there only work there because you are getting paid to workout for around 3 hours, so that I can understand.
So I'm panning on just observing the process that he goes through without actually taking part in it so that I don't have any liability in the transaction. This way I can learn how to buy and sell real estate will not getting screwed in the process.
Do you think that there is anything else I should look out for wile working with this guy? As long as I don't sign anything I'm not liable, right? Thanks again for your responses.

**Greg** · 11-21-2011, 04:42 AM

Correct, don't sign anything and you won't be held liable.

**rpollard86** · 12-08-2011, 06:46 AM

this sounds like just another typical scheme. If these deals were so good, and they are so good at doing it. Why would he need you anyhow? Being a young and very conservative person that I am, I don't ever get involved with people like this. He really might be trying to help you out and get you involved in making some good money but it just sounds to fishy to me to get involved. Go with your gut feeling, you came on here having a feeling that something was wrong. When you have that feeling its usually for a reason. As the saying goes " if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is."