BiggerPockets

Hello there, newbee's here. My business partner and I are attending are first real estate inveswtment club, it's suppose to be one of the best in the area. Can anyone offer some advice as to what to say, ask, etc? For the first one should we just stay kinda quite and just take everything in? Any advice would be great! Thank you.

A couple of rules that I go by:

1. Remember that you have 2 ears and 1 mouth for a good reason, you should be listening twice as much as you talk.

2. Don't be a know it all...Even if someone doesn't have a clue what they are talking about don't jump in and correct them.

3. Get experienced investors too open up and talk about their biz. People love to talk about themselves.

4. Look for the person in the room that others seem to graviatate toward and get to know that person. If other see that he/she is chatting with you then you are one step ahead.

I've been struggling as well with the best way to network at reia meetings. It is difficult when you're pretty much just looking for guidance and don't really have anything to offer

I made some great contacts at a REI club. I also made the best contacts at a small investors luncheon but for the life of me now I can't remember how I was turned on to the luncheon..... I want to say it was on a real estate forum like this one years ago.

Just keep going and rubbing shoulders like Eric mentioned. Many of the clubs are about pushing products on you like guru's books and courses etc.... but you can still make some good contacts and learn a ton.

great thread and thanks for the tips, richard and eric. i'm attending the next REIA meeting next month.

In the past 12 months or so, the REIA I belong to has covered all of the topics you mentioned except for Code Enforcement. The difficulty with that topic is each little town has their own way of doing things, so it's tough to have one person come in and reflect about everywhere. Fair Housing was presented by people from an organization that sends out "testers" in response to ads for housing. Eviction in general was presented by an attorney.

And other topics get covered also. Insurance, and how to handle the situation of insuring "Subject To" acquisitions; REO purchasing; Self-directed IRA and real estate; plus others.

And we get the guru types as speakers as well. On the days they talk, there often is a line of people waiting to part with their money to purchase the product being offered. Once you know this will be happening, you can simply avoid getting in that line if it's not for you.