Going to REI Club tomorrow -- any advice?

Have fun, and bring lots of business cards! The REIA I attend has a haves/wants segment at the beginning of the meeting where people stand and say what they either offer or are looking for. If yours has something like this, SPEAK UP. If you feel really uncomfortable doing that the first time, just observe and take notes. Notes on what catches YOUR attention (duplicate that), notes on who the wholesalers and the buyers are, notes on who the PMLs or HMLs are. And then network like CRAZY! Make yourself known, and try to rub shoulders with the leaders. If you want to assign contracts, gather business cards from the buyers and keep track of their criteria. Hope you have an awesome first-time experience! Enjoy!!

Rina

Hey Rina,

Thank you! We will definitely have cards and notepads handy! As far as the format, it's actually going to be the club's annual "vendor fair", but there's no admission fee this month, so our plan is to get in and start making connections while the opportunities are open!

Vincent

I agree with Rina, The one thing i learned was to have a pen and a little note pad because you end up meeting and talking to so many people, when you get home you forget who gave you what card and the people you were really interested in are kind of lost in the deck of cards you have ( happened to me ). so you can either write on the card they give you or write in your pad. when you get home you can staple their card to a page with the info you wrote down.
good luck and enjoy the meeting.
jmo
Richie.

Thanks, Richie!

Vincent

I hope your meeting is a success; i'm sure it will be. I was scared to death when I first went; like a deer caught in a headlight! I had to force myself out of my comfort zone and talk to total strangers-and it was a little weird. But i made the effort and to my surprise-mentioned this site and deans books as my motivation; and actually met a fellow deangraziosi student that was on this forum; so you never know who you're going to run into.
I also had in my mind to GET BUSINESS CARDS And I emailed EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS CARD contact I got with a "thank you" and "enjoyed meeting you" type of email; and told everyone of them I was building my Buyers List -and could I add them on; and what type of properties were they looking for. It was the start of my Buyers List; and all kinds of possibilities can start from that. Be yourself and have a great time.

your welcome, also you may want to make up a flyer, photo copy it and hand them out with your cards attached. You can put some info on it, like if you get a house locked up, put the pic on a flyer with the description and price as well as the estimated repair costs. I actually wrote a letter, I had it on this site but lost it in a bad moment when I deleted it, but it said something like this in it.
Dear investors why waste you valuable time and money looking for properties. Wouldn't it be great if someone brought you great deals instead of wasting your valuable time and money looking for and researching them yourself.
Thats where we come in, we wholesale great deals and deliver them to you at a great price well below market value. They will be under contract and have estimated repair info with arv estimates. All you have to do is go to closing.

It was a little more put together but that is some of it off the top of my head.
hope that helps.
Richie.

Are you coming out to the South Jersey Investors meeting? If so I look forward to meeting you there. I will introduce you to some of my peeps...lol!

I have invited a few more DG members as well. We can all network. The meeting will be rather large this week since it is a networking and vendor meeting. Bring some business cards and flyers with any deals that you have.

See you there!

Im hoping to go to FLREIA Florida Real Estate Investors meeting on Thursday and trying to build a buyers list also. Craigslist is not going as planned I got in touch with a couple of WE Buy Houses people and they want me to go find Forclosures for them so they can do short sales and are willing to pay $500 for leads that the are able to get . Not what I was intrested in doing They said its a bad time for Buy and Hold with renters because the market is expected to go down another 32% here in Palm Beach County and I would end up upside down even if I got a killer deal OK.... Any opinions?

I would love to meet DG family in Palm Beach,Florida area PM me

Dodge,

Keep digging around here on the forums, there's tons of advice on ways to find buyers for your buyers' list!

Vincent

Make sure to not only get the buyers contact info, get their criteria as well. Too often our focus is a "Meet & Greet". Be sure to ask the following questions:

About the buyer
How often do you buy homes? (Frequency)
How do you normally close on a home? (are they qualified to purchase)
How soon can they close? (cash buyer or not)

About the property
Type of neighborhood?
Price range?
Equity?
Size of home? (# of beds & baths)
Repairs? (what kind and how much)

Gathering this info doesn't take longer than 5 minutes.
Caution: Don't just introduce yourself and say "I'll call you next week to get your criteria." They may never return your call or email because you're not currently building their business.

So, find out what they need right there if you can and then go out and get it!

collecting information is what its all about. then taking action on the information that is gathhered

Keep keepin on

Later

Thanks, Jeff! I have to always remember those keys! My mom and I will be going back the Tuesday after next!

Vincent

I can't wait to see you guys again! It was great meeting you and drawing from your excitement.

See you there!

I have been to two different meetings in two different areas and in both cases the people are VERY friendly and willing to share their knowledge. You will be able to figure out who ar the top performers so be sure to intrduce yourself to them . Also see if they have a web site, one of my reia groups has a very active website where members post their houses and if the deal is good the houses are grabbed up pretty quickly!!! Great source of buyers!!! They also have speakers who have wonderful information to share! Enjoy your self!

Thanks, Carol!

Just saw Dean's weekly blog and it was great to watch!

Vincent

I am glad you liked it Very strange seeing myself on video though...lol!

See you next week!

Hi my name is Terri Rhodes and my husband and I are new DG members and are currently going thru his institute courses. We're very excited. We are waiting for our business cards to come in before we going to a real estate investment club. But I have seen a "we buy houses" ad and I want to call. I'm just so nervous that I wont say the right thing, so I havent called yet. But I will!! Just kinda scared. Anyway I just wanted to introduce myself. Ya'll have a great day!!

Hey Terri,

Welcome to the family! Call the number, tell them you are a real investor who is just starting out. Talk to them a little bit, find out what kind of properties they're looking for (single-family homes, apartment buildings), what situation (short sales, fixer-uppers), what neighborhoods, what size homes (beds, baths, square feet), what price range, how much equity (difference between purchase price and fair market value). Don't worry. I called my first FSBO the other day and I sat on the line for 10 seconds after I said hello and the only thing that came out was "uh...". Once I started talking, though, things started to go smoothly. Besides, even if they end up thinking you're crazy or ridiculous, you are ridiculous because you're part of this family of ordinary Joes and Janes who thinking they can ACTUALLY make money investing in real estate!

Vincent

Hey there, when you're either on this site, or out there looking for properties, just absorb all the information and take notes like no other. It's alot of information out there, but once you have it down and study it repeatedly, and apply it. It will all fully pay of for you for sure!!!

Here is a phone script that you can use when you call the "I buy houses ads ...

Hello my name is ____________.
I noticed that you buy houses in the __________ area.
I often come across deeply discounted properties in your area, would you be interested in receiving information on these great real estate deals?
If Yes, Can I add you to my email list of buyers?

Of course you can tweek this a bit to whatever you feel comfortable with.

I also have a phone script for sellers... http://birddogphonescript.blogspot.com/ It is on my blog.

Good Luck to Everyone!

Now go make some calls