Greetings-

We have recently moved back to Western Wisconsin after living in Boulder, CO for 6 years. There is no REIA in the area here and I know there are many investors throughout the area with 3 universities in the city & a solid local economy. I have 2 duplexes and am renovating the house my wife and I will be moving into early 2018. My family has 40 years of property management experience and I have a number of friends and contacts who have various interests and activity levels in the space.

Starting a REIA is something that I'm interested in undertaking and have heard it referenced many times in the podcast and also across the forums. I would love any insight that anyone has about how to get one started, a solid place to host, how to spread the word and also how to get a solid crew of active investors and not just people slogging for funding first deals.

Much appreciated & happy holidays.

I wish you weren’t so far away! I wish you all the luck and if you’re ever interested in southeast Wisconsin let me know!

Joe,

I am also interested in getting a REIA started in La Crosse. I put a little legwork in last summer, but I got sidetracked with two of my own purchases. There is a Landlord Association in town, along with the La Crosse Neighborhood Development Corporation. I think there is enough interest in town to support our own REIA.

I have a few ideas for where to host. I'm sending you a colleague request and we can chat in a PM.

If this gets started I would like to know when and where. New to investing I have been reading and listening to the podcasts for a while now. I feel it is now time to pull the trigger. Look forward to meeting up.

We would be interested as well. 

I am interested in helping get this group up and going.  Let me know how I can help.

Hello all.  Just found this thread from a few months ago.  What did you get setup?  I would like to join in!

Jason.  I am pulling a group together in La Crosse in the next week or two.  I will post it here and on Meetup.com

I have a meetup group forming in La Crosse.  First meeting will be June 12th, 6-8 pm.  Networking and a speaker are planned.  I am just finalizing the location and will put it out tomorrow.  Plan to attend if you are in western Wisconsin.  

La Crosse, WI real estate investment meetup group.  

Who:  Any real estate inventors, passive investors, real estate professionals, lenders, insurance agents, and anyone else interested in real estate.

Where:  Myrick Ecopark, Marshview Room.  

When:  June 12th 6-8 pm

What:  Networking and real estate investment presentation. 

Questions please private message me. 

Thanks for organizing. I look forward to meeting you this evening. 

Thanks to everyone who came out for our first meetup.  Great success!  Looking forward to another meeting in mid July.  Details to follow......

Hi, could someone who attended give a 'summary' on how things went, so those of us considering attending have an idea of what to expect? For me it would be almost a 2 hour drive, so just looking for a little 'feel' of how things started out.

Thanks, Dan Dietz

I'm excited to see this getting started!  I'll keep an eye out here for your July event and look forward to meeting everyone there.  

HI All!

I'm originally from Eau Claire, and am looking at investing in the Western WI area.  I'm in town every couple of months, and would love to attend a meeting if the scheduling works out.  I'm also interested in any recommendations for investor-friendly real estate agents in either EC or La Crosse. 

Hi Christine S ...do know I'm an independent Broker here in Eau Claire and as a Realtor help many other cash investors and can recommend a rehabbing team of skilled laboreres possibly too to you.  They often are booked but will try my best.  Painting, flooring layer, even full gut out and rehab if you'd like.

How was the turnout for this event? Glad to see something starting in this area. Is there one planned for July? 

@Christine S. - Brandon Haugen, RE/MAX is a great investor friendly agent based out of La Crosse. He invests in the area as well. 

Thanks Beth and Andrew!  

Christine, Hi... and welcome.

Greetings fellow investors from western Wisconsin. Our next REIA meeting will be Wednesday, July 11 starting at 7:00pm. We will meet in room 3100 of Centennial Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. Centennial Hall is centrally located on campus. Parking in the campus parking garage is free starting at 7pm or there should be plenty of street parking that time of day.

I reserved rooms on campus starting at 7:00pm for the second Wednesday of every month for the next 12 months. The August 8 meeting will be in the same room at the same time as the July meeting. I will post reminders and updates in this thread. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message.

Finally, to ping keyword alerts for other BP members, this meeting may be of interest to anyone looking to invest in La Crosse, Onalaska, Holmen, La Crescent, Eau Claire, Madison, Winona, eastern Minnesota, southern Wisconsin, western Wisconsin, and anyone in the Coulee region.

Lacross is a ways away my friend. Best to you.

Just a reminder that our next La Crosse REIA meeting will be this evening starting at 7:00pm in room 3100 Centennial Hall at UW-L. I hope to see you tonight.

August is here! That means we are one week away from our next western Wisconsin and La Crosse area REIA meeting. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, August 8, starting at 7:00 pm in room 3100 Centennial Hall at UW-L. I will cross-post elsewhere. I hope to see you next week!

@Adam Hoffer , how many people do you typically have in attendance at your meetings? Do you have predetermined topics/speakers? I am always up for networking, but quite a drive for me also. 

Thanks, Dan Dietz

@Daniel Dietz , We are still a small group of ten investors. Based largely on my BP messages, I think we will have more at this next meeting. My hope is that holding meetings month after month will establish a core group of investors and we can grow over time. I understand that it is quite a round-trip drive to and from Reedsburg for a small group meeting. If you want to make it a full-day trip, I'll gladly grab lunch or an afternoon coffee with you.

So far, our meetings have been very flexible on topic. I expect that for about the first full year of meetings, nearly half the individuals in attendance will be first-timers or new to real estate investing. I plan to start with a deal analysis or two. This lets us talk numbers and jargon (cap rate, NOI, etc.) and the newcomers can ask questions and give insight.

Any speakers we invite during the first year will likely be local. Long-run, I actually intend on developing a real estate economics course at my university and I will try to bring higher-profile speakers to campus at that point.