Morgantown REI Network
We held our first Meet-n-Greet at the end of April 2017, and had about 12 people attend -- was a good mix of investors and those just starting out!
I'm curious to hear more from people on things like:
Dates: Paul expressed doubt whether, as the weather improves, we may have poor turnout on Saturdays. I'm more than willing to switch to weekdays but it would likely be evenings. (Email me if that would completely count you out...)
Discussion Topic Possibilities: we mostly took up the 2, er, 3hrs(!) doing introductions which led to interesting/helpful discussions! Even for our second meeting we may not yet 'need' a discussion topic to fill the time if we have enough people attend who couldn't attend last meeting - lol! That said, I'm considering both the idea of speakers and/or articles to discuss each month, that could be emailed out a week beforehand. While a book may be most beneficial, unfortunately, doing a 'book group' format may take a year to get through one! But there are great long-form articles on specific-enough topics that may be of benefit to those attending (existing investors and those interested in REI). Ur thoughts on Speakers vs. Articles/Topics...!?
Note about "Education": While I certainly understand newcomers desiring education from the group, that sort of broad-scope education is best found from books. If you need recommendations, I plan on sharing a GoogleDoc with plenty of books to choose from as well as bringing my stash to the next meeting for anyone to peruse and order if they'd like. Books truly are the BEST baseline education to help you choose the right REI method for yourself and the lifestyle you're trying to create. The ONLY replacement for books is a Mentor in the specific area you want to be in (Wholesaling, LeaseOptions, Flips, etc). The only other teacher I know would be the Hard Knocks school none of us wish to attend.
So, look first to books, and/or audiobooks! Generally speaking, podcasts are more like "info-tainment"...in that the time put in doesn't return the value that books would. Podcasts are also usually narrowly-focused, and geographically-specific discussions that may not actually add any REAL value to your knowledge base even after an hour of listening! I'm also a firm believer in how there isn't a ton of 'new' strategies happening in REI other than say, AirBNB! MANY, MANY books have blazed the trail for us on almost all other topics.
So even if you are new, but have read some books, bring your specific questions that came up for you while reading, into the group to get your answers!!
K, that's all for now. Getting late, but wanted to post some thoughts thus far...