networking

As the Investors’ Realtor, the success of my business hinges on continually finding new prospects that are interested in purchasing residential real estate. One of the avenues that I have found extremely effective in this regard is the real estate club that I founded 2 ½ years ago. The Real Estate Insiders Club of Las Vegas has provided me, through bad markets and good markets, with a consistent venue in which to place myself in front of investors in the Las Vegas area. Whether you are a real estate agent working to grow your client base, an investor looking to share ideas with other investors in your area, or another professional in a real estate related trade, starting a real estate networking club can provide a valuable resource for the growth of your business.

Here’s how I did it:

As with any new project, the first step to success is creating a mission statement or a list of goals…what do you expect to achieve by starting a real estate related club?

I started the Real Estate Insiders Club with five goals in mind. The first was to network with other like minded investors. The second was to educate investors on the ever changing real estate environment through a rotating cast of speakers delivering talks on a wide range of topics. The third goal was for the club to provide a platform for presenting real estate opportunities to interested investors. The fourth was to turn a profit and add a stream of income for myself, and the last goal was to be able to put myself in the spotlight and use the platform for my own marketing purposes.

After establishing your goals you need to form a list of questions that must be answered in order for you to move forward. These questions should include things like: How often do you plan on meeting? Will you meet weekly or monthly or some other time frame? Where will you meet? What time of day? What types of attendees will you be targeting? How many people do you hope will attend? How many people need to attend in order to make the event profitable? How much money you can realistically afford to invest in the event? With a budget in mind it will be easy to decide on where you can allocate your expenses toward the club. If you have speakers pitching products or services, you will need to decide if you will be co-oping with them or charging them to speak. Will you be paying to bring in featured speakers? Will you offer monthly membership only or add annual memberships as well? Will you do other sponsored events and co-op with other seminar groups? Will you be providing food and drink as part of the event? Will you be filming the event and using the clips on Youtube and other marketing venues? Pay careful attention to all of these considerations…I lost money the first year of the club and afterwards had to make several changes in order to move forward and create a profitable meeting.