All Forum Posts by: Barb F.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/CarolynD22 Carolyn Dietrich came highly recommended to me. Good luck!

@Lane Kawaoka that's great! You'll be a long way from home :) I'm starting my drive tomorrow, staying in Knoxville overnight, and will hit the ground running on Thursday. I'm nervous but excited!

@Janelle Groenhout I got the name for Carolyn Dietrich from @Rhonda Blue. Here's a link to her website: http://www.carolyndietrich.com/ Good luck!

Greetings, BP family!

I'm a new investor based on of Virginia. I've been doing my reading and just started a meet-up (we didn't have any in my area). First meeting was a success!

This week (Thursday 4/25 through Sunday 4/28) I will be headed to Huntsville, my target market, to get a lay of the land and make some headway on putting together a team. I would like to use my time wisely down there. I'm hoping to meet with a few property managers, agents, local investors, and even contractors while I'm down there if I can manage it. I'm looking at single family homes and my budget is about 50k. I've seen discussion of PMs and realtors around HSV, but I'm hoping to specifically find folks who might be willing to work on what seems like this relatively smaller scale. Since I have 3.5 days (half of Thursday through all of Sunday), I would really like to connect with anyone who is a local investor down there, agents, PMs, or contractors to find a team that feels like the right fit.

I already have connected with one agent / property manager who came highly recommended by a new friend on the forums, so I already have one chat lined up. If you had 3 days in the city you wanted to invest in, while you were a newbie, what types of things would you be trying to do while you're here? What types of questions would you ask of the agents / PMs you talk to? Would you get a list of properties they manage? Would you ask them to take you to properties? I'm still finishing David Greene's Long Distance Real Estate Investing, so I have a chunk of that under my belt, but what other things would you recommend I look for with regards to people to work with as opposed to stay away from?

Separately, I have considered looking at deals via probate courts, because this seems like it's a way to find deals from motivated sellers that aren't on the market, compared to a more traditional real estate agent model. Is there anything I could or should be doing those few days I have boots on the ground if I want to look for deals with probate courts? 

Thanks so much in advance, all!

Sincerely,

Barb

Good morning, all!

Thank you SO much to those who attended last night's first meeting! The turnout, quality of conversation, and friendly tone in the room blew away my hopes for what this group would be on the first day. We had a wonderful mix of the more and less experienced which creates wonderful opportunities to learn from hard-earned lessons as well as stimulate new ways of thinking about ideas that perhaps we take for granted.

I'd like to summarize some of the take-homes about the group format:

1. We're going to aim for meeting on the third Monday of the month from 6:30 - 8:30... and I noticed I already have a deviation from that for the month of May, when we'll be meeting on May 13. Apologies for any confusion.
2. General structure of meetings:
   1. 15 minutes to mingle, catch up, network, and get settled
   2. 45 minutes for a Focused Discussion on a particular aspect of real estate investing. Sometimes this will involve someone (a member or a guest we've invited) stepping up to give a short presentation and Q&A, other times we may try a panel discussion, other times we will do a less structured flow of questions and answers similar to last night's discussion.
   3. 20 minutes in the Hot Seat: Someone will get a chance to present their current dilemma to the group and we will focus on their situation to help them as best we can.
   4. Another 20 minute Hot Seat round.
   5. A final 20 minutes to mingle, catch up, network, and say goodbyes.
   • This structure is subject to change to accommodate our needs!
3. For Focused Discussions to be successful, we need attendees to step up and volunteer to prepare a short (maybe 15 minute) presentation on a topic with which they are experienced. Perhaps you're telling us about nightmares you found after closing, tips on what made a deal go very smoothly, or just a general info session on how you approach presentations for lenders. If you are less experienced, talk to us about what you've recently been learning, because teaching material is a great way to ensure you've learned it well yourself.
   • We'll ask that you spend a little time outside of meetings preparing your remarks. You don't need a powerpoint or handout, but if we settle on a meeting location with reliable A/V equipment it may be an option. Preparing your discussion is a form of respect and an investment in the other attendees, who are choosing to spend their evening learning from you. Let's set the tone for these to be high quality discussions.
4. Meeting location: The Montclair Library worked wonderfully last night, but we had 12 people (hooray!) in a room zoned for 8 people (boo fire code restrictions). I will look into using the Bungalow Ale House in Woodbridge (about 20 minutes north of where we met last night) in the future, but I would honestly be appreciative if anyone else might be willing to reach out and reserve their room for us (delegation for the win). If you're willing to do that, get in touch!

Those are my main logistical takeaways from last night's kick off meeting. I wrote down interests that people wanted to learn about as well as have some of my own to add. If you are willing to prepare a 15 minute presentation on any of these, please reach out.

• Getting back in the game when you've been out for a while
• Overcoming analysis paralysis: How to prepare appropriately for a decision so you can just do it already
• Financing strategies (I feel like various financing strategies could be their own discussions for entire meetings, but perhaps we could do deep dives into one or two strategies and compare / contrast, pro / con discussions too.)
• Bank notes (@Aninze A. I'm looking at you to talk about this when you get back from your workshop in San Fran!)
• Tutorials on how to use various cost estimate calculators (Bigger Pockets calculators, Rehab Evaluator, ROI Signal, etc)
• Coordinated watching of a webinar together, or perhaps a YouTube video where we discuss the content afterwards (e.g. Rehabber Pro in Baltimore)
• Insurance: Which do you need and why?
• How to put together an offer
• How to look up permit history of a property
• Business ethics
• How to check licenses of contractors and subcontractors
• How to put together a presentation for a bank
• How to find motivated sellers
• Discussion of a relevant book you've read to present what you learned
• Real case scenarios you've worked (I think this will be popular!)

Please reach out if you want to put together a presentation for our May Focused Discussion (I'll have something as a backup just in case) OR if you volunteer to be in one of next month's Hot Seats!

Good morning, all!

Thank you SO much to those who attended last night's first meeting! The turnout, quality of conversation, and friendly tone in the room blew away my hopes for what this group would be on the first day. We had a wonderful mix of the more and less experienced which creates wonderful opportunities to learn from hard-earned lessons as well as stimulate new ways of thinking about ideas that perhaps we take for granted.

I'd like to summarize some of the take-homes about the group format:

1. We're going to aim for meeting on the third Monday of the month from 6:30 - 8:30... and I noticed I already have a deviation from that for the month of May, when we'll be meeting on May 13. Apologies for any confusion.
2. General structure of meetings:
   1. 15 minutes to mingle, catch up, network, and get settled
   2. 45 minutes for a Focused Discussion on a particular aspect of real estate investing. Sometimes this will involve someone (a member or a guest we've invited) stepping up to give a short presentation and Q&A, other times we may try a panel discussion, other times we will do a less structured flow of questions and answers similar to last night's discussion.
   3. 20 minutes in the Hot Seat: Someone will get a chance to present their current dilemma to the group and we will focus on their situation to help them as best we can.
   4. Another 20 minute Hot Seat round.
   5. A final 20 minutes to mingle, catch up, network, and say goodbyes.
   • This structure is subject to change to accommodate our needs!
3. For Focused Discussions to be successful, we need attendees to step up and volunteer to prepare a short (maybe 15 minute) presentation on a topic with which they are experienced. Perhaps you're telling us about nightmares you found after closing, tips on what made a deal go very smoothly, or just a general info session on how you approach presentations for lenders. If you are less experienced, talk to us about what you've recently been learning, because teaching material is a great way to ensure you've learned it well yourself.
   • We'll ask that you spend a little time outside of meetings preparing your remarks. You don't need a powerpoint or handout, but if we settle on a meeting location with reliable A/V equipment it may be an option. Preparing your discussion is a form of respect and an investment in the other attendees, who are choosing to spend their evening learning from you. Let's set the tone for these to be high quality discussions.
4. Meeting location: The Montclair Library worked wonderfully last night, but we had 12 people (hooray!) in a room zoned for 8 people (boo fire code restrictions). I will look into using the Bungalow Ale House in Woodbridge (about 20 minutes north of where we met last night) in the future, but I would honestly be appreciative if anyone else might be willing to reach out and reserve their room for us (delegation for the win). If you're willing to do that, get in touch!

Those are my main logistical takeaways from last night's kick off meeting. I wrote down interests that people wanted to learn about as well as have some of my own to add. If you are willing to prepare a 15 minute presentation on any of these, please reach out.

• Getting back in the game when you've been out for a while
• Overcoming analysis paralysis: How to prepare appropriately for a decision so you can just do it already
• Financing strategies (I feel like various financing strategies could be their own discussions for entire meetings, but perhaps we could do deep dives into one or two strategies and compare / contrast, pro / con discussions too.)
• Bank notes (@Account Closed I'm looking at you to talk about this when you get back from your workshop in San Fran!)
• Tutorials on how to use various cost estimate calculators (Bigger Pockets calculators, Rehab Evaluator, ROI Signal, etc)
• Coordinated watching of a webinar together, or perhaps a YouTube video where we discuss the content afterwards (e.g. Rehabber Pro in Baltimore)
• Insurance: Which do you need and why?
• How to put together an offer
• How to look up permit history of a property
• Business ethics
• How to check licenses of contractors and subcontractors
• How to put together a presentation for a bank
• How to find motivated sellers
• Discussion of a relevant book you've read to present what you learned
• Real case scenarios you've worked (I think this will be popular!)

Please reach out if you want to put together a presentation for our May Focused Discussion (I'll have something as a backup just in case) OR if you volunteer to be in one of next month's Hot Seats!

Hello, all! Tax Day and the first meet up at the Montclair Library are upon us tomorrow evening! I hope to see you there. As a reminder, beverages are permitted but food is not.

If you know of other locations that might be able to host us, please do get in touch. While we are still all set for tomorrow, unfortunately to use the larger community room, a group needs to be a registered 501(c) organization. I'm trying to avoid places that require spending money such as meeting at restaurants. If someone knows of a community center or even a place of worship that might allow us to use their premises, please reach out so that we can find a regular meeting space. The Montclair Library will be fine as long as we're under 8 people. I do hope we grow past that, and quickly! So let's see if we can't come up with an alternative for May and all future months!

Woof, it looks like that is pretty religiously on the 2nd Wednesday of the month. I have commitments on Wednesdays that are pretty non-negotiable unless they get canceled (by someone who isn't me). Thanks for sharing the link! Feel free to share the two events I posted with folks from that group :)

@Caroline Davis I sent you a private message! I'm interested in single family homes and am just getting started, so this would be my first deal.

CLICK HERE to RSVP for the first meeting on 4/15/19

CLICK HERE to RSVP for the second meeting on 5/13/19

CLICK HERE to RSVP for the first meeting on 4/15/19

CLICK HERE to RSVP for the second meeting on 5/13/19