6 Reasons to Attend Your Local REIA

Delving into the fast-paced world of real estate investment? Putting aside studying up on BiggerPockets forums and podcasts, a great place to dig in is at your local real estate investment association (REIA).

Besides general networking benefits, there are many reasons to attend your county’s REIA. Here are a several reasons you might not be thinking about.

Learn Local Practices. Real estate is, obviously, local. Rules, practices, trends vary market to market. Studying generally can be beneficial, but successful habits in one market do not always translate to another market. Pick the brains of local investors as to what’s working for them, or not working for them. I recently was working a New York deal, contacted some local players, and was stunned how different it was relative to South Florida.

Reputable Investment Players. If you’re flipping houses, you may need a general contractor. If you’re renting, you may need a property manager. If you’re wholesaling, you may need cash buyers. If you are on limited budget and analyzing for sale properties, you may need a realtor. Regardless, you probably need financial support. No matter what strategy you are employing (if not a mix of all of the above), you can collect valuable references from people actually investing in your local market.

Meeting Wholesalers. Networking with wholesalers is beneficial in quite a few ways. Good wholesalers can source rental or flipping deals below market. If you’re beginning as a wholesaler, you can find wholesalers to help work together on wholesale deals you source.

“On The Ground” Mentoring. The best “coaching” is from investors on the ground doing what you want to do. Let’s be honest: what made someone rich 10 years ago is very well completely irrelevant to success today. What works in California may not work in Texas. Additionally, courses and books have it’s place, but abstract at the end of the day cannot compare to actually working deals for education. At your REIA, you find perfect candidates to help you work real local deals.

Lenders & Financing. We all need more funding to scale. If you’re content with a few rentals or happen to be born with $20,000,000 in your pocket, great. You might not need funding. The rest of us need cash and large quantities of it to advance (with the exception of wholesalers, but still they need marketing funding). Whether that’s a hard-money lender or an experienced investor willing to fund good deals you bring to the table, you can find those resources at your local REIA.

Local Education in Your Market. Although I’m a bigger fan of learning by working deals, certainly the best place to get more abstract education is local training verses a national program. Most REIA’s offer regular training, some free and some very affordable.

Don’t just show up at your local REIA to chat and pass around business cards. Understanding your goals and what you need to maximize your time there.