David: Welcome back guys, this is the discount property investor post, your host David Dodge, and Mike Slane.

Mike: Hey guys

David: We are going to be talking about networking and REIA's today. Very, very exciting topic, we do -- want to also mention that if you are in the St Lois area and you are looking for deals check out freewhoelsalercourse.com, as well as discountpropertyinvestor.com, we have a subscribe button on the discount property investor on the top right-hand corner of the site. Please opt in and get our emails if you are looking to buy some deals. So again we are talking about REIA's and networking today. Mike? I am sure you have a lot of information about REIA's and networking. I love going to local REIA's and networking, that’s how I first started out doing deals. And we would highly recommend and suggest anybody to check out all the local REIA's to do some networking.

Mike: Absolutely. So let’s start with answering the question; what is a REIA? I mean we like to start with the assumption that you are starting from square one. So REIA is just an abbreviation for Real Estate Investment Association. So here in St Louis, there is -- oh gosh I don't even know how many of them. But quite a few.

David: I think there is over 20.

Mike: Yeah, I believe it.

David: You got to think, that some of these are small. Some of these are lunches with 7-10 people.

Mike: Right. So how do you find these REIA's then? I guess that is the next question, and what's the benefit? That is what we are going to try and answer today. So the easiest way is meetup.com. If you have not heard of meetup.com you definitely need to go check them out. You can sign up and then type in any interest that you have. If it is real estate investing you can type that in; you are going to find a whole bunch of different clubs and meetups that are advertising on there. They are just saying, hey come check it out, get together, do some networking about real estate. Or if you are into Chihuahuas you can type in Chihuahuas and I bet there is a Chihuahuas meet up in most major cities as well.

David: There are meetups on everything, guys. Mike and I went to a meet up about a week and a half ago on podcasting. I have been to several meetups on such random topics like -- about a year and a half, two years ago I was really into Bitcoin when it started getting popular and -- I found a lot of others guys that were also investing and building -- machines to mine them, and all that stuff. Just on meetup.com.  So meetup.com is definitely an awesome resource, I would definitely recommend it, highly recommend it. Go check it out, there are real estate clubs in every little tiny city, every town -- if you don’t -- if there is not one in your town; start one. I think you can start a meetup on a meetup.com or a REIA on there, for probably less than $50. May even be free, I think there is a charge --

Mike: If you are hosting it there is a charge, but it's not expensive It's really no big deal. I think that is a great point -- if you are in a decent sized community if there isn't one start it. Be the local expert, be the guy that does it. There is almost instant credibility in your real estate investing right there because you are hosting the event.

David: Right.

Mike: So anyways, all you do, go out to meet up, type in real estate investing, I am on their website right now, I just pulled it up and within ten miles I have a list. There are events almost every day for networking events. So again it is a super easy way to find events. So why go to REIA's then? Well, what is the benefit of going to REIA's? A lot of people think, oh man I am going to have all these other wholesalers and all these other investors -- they are looking for these deals that I am trying to find, that is kind of like mingling with the competition. So --

David: Or just go in there to find strategic partners.

Mike: Right, what I was saying though, is that is the wrong mindset. These are not your competition; these are probably your greatest allies. These are the people you are going to learn from and -- the people -- your strategic alliances. Dave is absolutely right -- that's the mindset we take when we go out and network is -- anyone who is a wholesaler, another wholesaler or looking to wholesale, we are happy to meet them, happy to work with them, help them get a deal. If we can partner that's great. But who knows? Maybe they are going to find a deal one day they don't want and pass it over to us. We might be able to make something of it. Or we partner with them, it is a win-win.

David: So we actually created a product, and if you are in the St Louis area check it out, if you are not in the St Louis area -- we would be -- more than happy to hear some feedback about it, and or -- let you copy our model guys. This is not property by any means. But we have a product called 'Let's co-wholesale'. That is L.E.T.S.C.O.Wholesale. Letscowholesale.com and all this is, is a form that other wholesalers can go and put their property into. Then it dumps it into our [00:05:32.24 - inaudible] and we then vet the deal. We will help that other investor, that wholesaler sell that deal.

And typically whenever you are doing joint ventures with other wholesalers, you are going to be a 50:50 split; we have kind of wanted to incentivise other wholesalers in our marketplace. We are offering 60%, so if they bring us a deal, we will give them 60% of the net profits; we will keep 40.

Also, another thing that we offer in our joint venture agreements are non-exclusive. So we say, hey we are here to help, if we can find a buyer for the deal, we will take 40%, we will give you 60. If you find a buyer for the deal before we do, great! We are happy for you, we get nothing. We have been working this deal or offering this product I should say for -- I don't know three or four months now. And we have probably done six or seven great deals just from helping other wholesalers in our market, by marketing their properties -- essentially they are leveraging out buyers list, and we are leveraging their marketing efforts, to go out and get these properties under contract.

So whenever they fill out the form, we just ask for basic information; who you are, give us some information about the property, we have a little link for you to drop in your photos. Then, we can send them a joint venture agreement. If we know the person; we typically won’t ask to see their contract, if we don't we may say, send us that so we are covered. But again, it is a great product and -- if you are not in the St Louis area -- and if you are interested in doing something similar to this. Check it out, copy our model. It's a great model and it's going to allow you to do extra deals, do more deals; because you are leveraging the -- other people in your marketplace.

Again, these people are not your competitors; make them your strategic partners.

Mike: Yeah, so two things on that. First off; the reason we are here and we only have it in St Louis, and we are not trying to expand it elsewhere, is because -- what we consider one of the biggest buyers list. I was just kind of joking with somebody else; oh we have the biggest buyers list. Somebody else, oh we got the biggest buyers list. It's whatever -- we have got a lot of people on the buyer's list. We have cemented it, we have sent properties to people that are interested in the properties and got stuff sold. That is the bottom line; we wanted to help other people starting out to sell their properties. So that’s sort of the first thing.

The second thing on lets co wholesale; is -- since you brought it up, let’s talk about the power of networking. So we recently did an awesome deal from networking.

David: Really awesome deal.

Mike: I don't think we pushed them into lets co wholesale but again, this is networking and the co-wholesaling is a part of that. So I think it is a great segway to talk about that.

David: Right.

Mike: If you want to take the lead? Or do you want me to go through it?

David: Go ahead, I will just kind of chime in, go for it.

Mike: Sure, so our partner Ray, --

David: I just fell out of my chair.

Mike: I will leave names out of it, just keep it a little bit more vague. But -- had an interested person, said -- hey I am looking to do some off market deals, I believe he is a real estate agent and -- he has got people bringing him deals here and there. And he came across these two properties that someone had started rehabbing, they were down in a pretty good part of time, down by one of the parks. He said you know what? Here are these two deals, I don't really know what to do with them, I would list them. But, they need a lot of work and I don't know what to do with them. So send them to Ray, and Ray said, these look like great properties -- here is what we are going to do; let's go ahead and write a contract on it, we are going to split the profits with you and we are going to bring a buyer, that's all we are going to do.

So we ended up getting the properties under contract for -- Dave, do you know the numbers on this one?

David: I don't know the exact numbers.

Mike: So, long story short; we got the two properties under contract, we sent it out to our buyer's list, we bought a handful of buyers through, and we were able to net close to $100,000 on the deal. Now there is a third piece of the story. There was another person who ended up being involved and helped us sell one of the properties. We ended up paying them out as well. So the JV -- the joint venturer, we ended up making $100,000 on the wholesale of two properties. But we ended up paying out $20,000 to one partner and $40,000 to another. So we had to pay the 20,000 off the top just for helping and then we split it 50:50 with the other guy. So there is $40,000 basically that hit our bank account from networking or from joint venturing. This lets co wholesale concept.

David: Right.

Mike: So it's happening every day, we absolutely love it. Again, I prefer to do most of our deals that way, it is more fun to be celebrating your successes with other people.

David: It is, it's a really good point, Mike. Celebrate your successes with other people, and we didn't have any expense in acquiring those deals. Typically we are spending anywhere from $800 to $1200 in marketing to get yourself a deal that we can essentially turn around and make 6,7,800 dollars on -- so you have to spend money to make money in this business. Especially if we are talking about wholesaling, you have to market to get properties and leads to come in. You vet through those and then you can get the deals.

Well, with the joint venturing, so, for instance, our product lets co wholesale; we -- are out spending any of our money to get the leads. We are going out to the local real estate investment clubs and -- different Facebook groups and just saying, hey guys we have -- great buyers that are hungry. If you have deals, contact us and we will help you move these deals. Actually got a text last night from my friend who has a 7-plex and we are going to do what we can to help her sell that and -- hopefully we can both make some money on it. It is definitely a great way to do more deals and not have the expense of going out and marketing those deals, absolutely.

Mike: You bring a great mindset to networking which is always -- these are my strategic partners. I have heard you say it a number of times and it's -- I don’t look at anybody as competition. Because they are not, they are somebody else trying to do something and that's great, and we hope they all have success.

David: Yeah, absolutely. There are plenty of houses out there -- it's not like this guy is doing a lot of marketing, I need to up mine. Well yeah, up yours if you want to do more deals, -- there are tens of thousands of houses in every city, every country -- there is plenty of room for everybody in this business to make money. Again, I just don’t look at anybody as competition. I look at them as strategic partners.

There have been people in our marketplace that I haven’t really been fond of -- not necessarily didn’t like them, just not been fond of them. But sure enough, after a couple of months, they may send me deal to buy or they may buy one of mine. It's like -- awesome. This person who I didn't think would ever be doing business with, I am doing deals with them now. So it's like ok, this is great.

Another point I do want to mention, Mike is that -- sometimes when people will bring us deal, like we had one just a couple of days ago where a guy had a deal, he brought it to us and we -- realised that he didn’t have the contract directly with the seller -- there was another wholesaler involved who had the property under contract, and then he was shopping that property to us. I was just like, full transparency is the way to go on this deal, maybe we can help, maybe we can’t, but I need more information before we can do anything. So sometimes whenever you are doing the daisy chain, where you have your seller, you have your wholesaler and maybe another wholesaler in there who tries to wholesale it to us, who then tries to sell it to the end buyer. It can convolute the situation. But, as the example that Mike just mentioned, our $100,000 wholesale deal; there was three people involved in the middle of that deal. That is exactly what it was, there was a seller, there was another wholesaler, and there was us, and there was another guy who helped find a buyer, then we found another buyer. So there were literally three people that we able to split that $100,000 and it worked out. Sometimes that $100,000 may be only 2000. Then when you have three people in the mix, it's like ok, this is getting spread real thing.

Mike: This is another place you do really want to be careful because you could get yourself a bad name if you start marketing properties without people's permission, don’t do that, absolutely don’t do that. Call their wholesalers say, hey do you mind, I got somebody for this one. Get a joint venture agreement in place, just so you have an interest in the property. Don’t just be marketing people's properties blindly, it gives wholesaling a bad name, going to give yourself potentially a bad name if you start doing stuff like that on a big scale

David: Absolutely, another good point on that is -- reach out to these other people if -- you are new to this business and you don’t have a large marketing budget. You can add value to another wholesaler by helping them market those properties. You just have to do it the right way. What I say by this is -- A. Don't just start marketing their properties, that's illegal. You need to call these people, send them an e-mail, pick up the phone, call them and say, hey -- I think I can help you sell this, do you mind if I market it? 9 times out of 10 they are going to say, no I don’t have a problem, go for it. Get an agreement in place -- we use a simple joint venture agreement. I think there is a free on up on the free wholesale course.

Mike: There is.

David: That you can download. And it just states that, hey we are going to try and sell this property or work and help you, and I’m  going to market it for you. The one thing I do want to really highlight and point out here is; make sure you are on the same page with that person. Make sure you have an open line of communication -- don't try and market that property at a different price. Don't try and add money onto it, don’t try to reduce that price. Because if people see that same property online in today’s world; you can search GOOGLE and find anything on anybody or any property --

Mike: Just about.

David: So if you have a property and you are marketing it for 2 grand less than the guy that actually has the contract on it -- people are going to see it in different places for different prices and it is going to confuse people and turn people off.

Mike: So I will say there is one exception to that; if someone says, hey I got this property but it is super thin -- please mark it up a thousand bucks or whatever so you can make your cut. So there are some exceptions --

David: But again, there is communication.

Mike: Absolutely.

David: The other guy says, hey the deal is thin, mark it up.

Mike: Right.

David: But my point is; if you have the communication and they give you permission to do that, great. Go for it. But in the event that you are just reaching out saying, hey I want to help -- always put the property out with the exact same specs, exact same cost, because it is going to elevate a lot of nonsense down the road and even a potential lawsuit.

Mike: That brings me back -- reach out with the mindset to help. We have another show that we do -- we had [00:16:45.15 - inaudible] come in. He said, one of the best things I think he did for his business was going into the other people -- that you want to know and want to be like -- and just asking them, hey what can I do to help you? What can I do to help grow your business? Doing that helped him propel his career. Something along those lines, so I think it is a great way to look at it. Just, hey I see you marketing this property; can I help you with it? If you just go in with that mindset that you are going to help someone else -- yeah you are going to try and make some money for yourself too -- but at the same time, if you help a wholesaler make 5 grand and he gives you a couple of thousand on it as well -- that is awesome, he is going to want to work with you again.

David: Right.

Mike: There is no reason he wouldn’t.

David: Right.

Mike: It is creating win: wins, that is the whole idea behind wholesaling. I think we are getting side-lined with this co-wholesaling thing.

David: Sure.

Mike: Let's make sure we circle back to networking.

David: Networking and REIA's, absolutely. So you mentioned meetups. Meetups are probably the greatest place, the easiest place and some of the best places to find these local REIA's -- I do want to mention you can also search Facebook. Facebook is an awesome resource to find local REIA's and meetups, and investment clubs as well. Mike, is there any other places you could think -- maybe Craigslist?

Mike: Sure.

David: To find -- these groups?

Mike: Well -- I think meetup is probably the best, then GOOGLE -- Facebook, just look for them in your area.

David: I mean literally go to GOOGLE and type in real estate club or real estate investors club -- then your city, that's it. It is going to pull up all the meetup.com groups as well by doing it that way.

Mike: So let's talk about -- two sizes of meetups. So some of them are a pretty good size meet up. So you know you are going to have 30-50 plus members that are going to show up each month.

David: Right.

Mike: Then you have got the other ones that you mentioned, which is 6 or 7 guys or something that go out to lunch or breakfast.

David: Sure.

Mike: So let's talk about the pros and cons of both of those then.

David: Okay.

Mike: And how you approach those clubs a little bit differently, or if you even do?

David: Alright. Let's do it. Pros and cons so --personally; I like to go to the smaller groups because, I am not bombarded with -- tons of people trying to hand me their business card, or me trying to hand them my business card. The smaller groups -- what I mean by smaller groups is probably groups like 20 or less. Because I can actually sit down with these people and give them a couple of minutes of my time and take a couple of minutes of their time to understand who they are, what business they are trying to get into or that they are already in. For example, rehabbing, wholesaling, landlords and so on and so forth. I can figure out exactly what I can do to help them. If they are a rehabber I may be able to find them deals. If they are landlord I may be able to have a turnkey property or a property that needs little to no work, that I can get to these people and sell to them so on and so forth.

The groups that are really big and massive; nothing wrong with those groups, but -- it is a lot harder to do your networking because there is just so many people in that room.

Mike: Absolutely.

David: That's just my opinion.

Mike: I agree 100%, but then let's talk about some pros of the big groups too.

David: Absolutely.

Mike: So you are -- a new wholesaler, you got a property under contract and there is a big networking group. Well print up 100 flyers and bring them to the group and try to hand one to everybody in that room.

David: Selling deals is a great -- or I should say -- going to your local REIA with a deal is a great way to sell it. Usually, they will have a table at the REIA -- it is called like the deals table or whatever. You can print out 20, 30, 40 flyers of a particular property and you can put it on that table. People will go look at that table and take the flyer with them.

Mike: If they don’t have a table like I said, just keep them on you. Hi, my name is Mike Slane, are you looking for a deal? And just hand them a flyer.

David: Right.

Mike: -- and start a conversation, 2 minutes, 30 seconds whatever it may be.

David: Insert your name.

Mike: Yeah. If you want to use my name, that's fine too. They can reach out to me. I am happy to come and wholesale with you as we mentioned before.

David: Right.

Mike: Right, so the point being though, there are pros and cons to each. You are getting to know a lot of -- on a smaller one you are getting to meet people and actually get to know them and build a relationship, which is extremely important. On the larger scale ones, you have got access to more people. So obviously you are going to be able to -- get more eyeballs on your deal. Which I think is extremely important.

David: Right. Another pro and con of the bigger groups are -- the bigger groups will often have a panel of -- a panel discussion, and or they may have like -- a success story of somebody in the group who just did their most recent rehab or did their most recent wholesale deal. They will get up in front of the group and talk about it. So you can actually learn a lot from these other people -- and their experiences, you can learn from their mistakes and some of their successes. Also, they will maybe -- one or two times a year brings somebody in that will pitch a product. Depending if you are in the market for that product or not, it can be a good or bad thing. If you're not it can be a waste of your time. But if it is a product that can help you build your business for whatever it might be; then it could also be a good thing for you. You are not going to get that so much in the smaller REIA's in my opinion.

Mike: I think less often they are going to have the national speakers come in.

David: Just not enough speakers to support it. Because people are trying to sell their product -- and or -- getting paid by the REIA to come in -- if you have 8 people in the REIA --

Mike: There is no value to bring -- to come in with his finance course -- what's his thing?

David: Something about raising private funds.

Mike: Private funding, yeah -- yeah. Which is a great program, I actually attended it. I was at a REIA, bigger group and he came in and spoke and I went and saw his thing. So again, you do get value from whatever you go to -- continuing education is important. So pros and cons of each one.

David: Absolutely.

Mike: It depends on how you look at it.

David: The main thing though guys is get out there and go -- find your local REIA and go. Meet people -- when I first started investing; I should say when I first started wholesaling -- I went to probably 2 or 3 REIA's a week. I still try and go to at least 2 or 3 a month at this point. But when I first started, I would go to every REIA I possibly could. I would hand out business cards, I would meet the other investors -- when I first started I didn’t have a ton of money or a ton of knowledge. But, I was able to find other people in the space that I could -- like Mike said a couple of minutes ago. I could go up to them and say, hey I’m Dave, I am new to this business or at least the wholesaling business; what can I do to help you. 9 times out of 10 the people would say, well I am looking for a deal in this zip code, or I am looking for this. I would say, okay great I don't have that today. But I am going to do what I can to find you that or bring you value. Essentially what I did was, I put together a short list -- of -- big investors in the area, AKA buyers -- that were looking for a specific deal. And then when I went back to the table to draw up my marketing plan; I kind of tailored it around what these individuals were looking for, what they wanted. Additionally -- I met some people they were like, hey -- I remember when I first started, it can be tough. If you ever want to go get lunch time, let know, give me call. And they gave me their business card.

So indirectly, I had like ten mentors, who didn't even know they were mentoring me because I wasn’t bothering them or I wasn’t paying them --

Mike: You weren't asking them.

David: I wasn't asking them for mentoring. But, over a 45 minute or an hour long lunchtime, I may have 30 questions for them, then I will buy them their lunch and spend $15-20. So it was indirectly -- having that coach or that mentor by just kind of picking their brain. And then of course by having a good lunch and a good conversation; I would always end it with, hey thank you for your time, thank you for the information -- what can I do for you? You have obviously just given me some of your time, now I want to return the favor. What can I do for you? Are you looking for deals? Great, where? What kind? Then I would make a mental note or write that down -- three or four weeks later if I come across something like that. Boom there is my buyer they are ready to go, they know me. So whenever I make that call; they are going to answer, I am not just a stranger, hopefully, they have my number saved.

So again, there are tons and tons of value that you can get out of going to these REIA's -- I guess most importantly if you go -- you can't just be a fly on the wall. You got to get out there, you got to -- bring business cards, you have to introduce yourself to people, meet people. Try and make a relationship out of the contacts that you are getting if you really want to be successful and expand -- your business.

Mike: Yeah, absolutely. And again, if you are shy don’t let that stop you either. Just go and make it your goal to talk with one other person in the room. Go out there and embrace your shyness. Sit in the back and talk to one guy in the back of the room. Same thing if you are shy, go to a smaller -- just exclusively visit the smaller REIA's. Just visit ones with a couple of people -- it is easier to deal with a smaller crowd.

David: Right.

Mike: So there is plenty of ways to do it, but yeah Dave is right, you absolutely have to start talking to -- other people and this is a people business.

David: Some of the REIA's I do want to mention -- offer coaching and -- if you are looking for a local mentor or a local coach -- that is probably one of the best places to go find them is at the REIA's. Even if they are paid programs. So Mike and I and our two other partners; we do offer coaching for all things real estate; wholesaling, land lording, rehabbing, private money lending and -- there is going to be some more information on our show notes about that.

But if you are looking for that hands on, in person -- human that is in your market -- go to your REIA's, ask around. There is typically always going to be a few people that have something that they are selling or offering -- that is going to provide tremendous amounts of value to you -- as having a coach and a mentor. Mike and I both have coaches and mentors -- all of our coaches have coaches. Like one of my number one rules is don’t hire a coach who doesn’t also have a coach. So check it out.

Mike: That's a great point.

David: If you are looking to do some coaching at a discount -- Mike and I offer a coaching program. So check out the show notes for some more information about that as well.

Mike: And to get started, I just want to plug our free wholesale course. So you can always go to freewholesalecourse.com and that is a great place to get started. We want to provide you guys with -- as much value up front as we can. Then if we can help you further -- then let us know. We are happy to help you and coach you through a few deals.

David: We are actually going to be starting on our second free course this afternoon. It is going to be the free landlord course that is going to be number two.

Mike: Hopefully by the time this episode airs; it will be published.

David: It will be live. Hopefully.

Mike: That should be our goal.

David: That should be the goal. Check out freelandlordcourse.com. We are going to have an advanced course as well -- that will be a paid course. But we want to provide a ton of value in our free courses -- so check that out, it's going to be great.

Mike: So before we wrap up though; I do want to talk about other networking opportunities.

David: Please.

Mike: So we got the REIA's and you have got meetup where you can find real estate specific meetups. So there are other types of networking that are available. One being -- local chamber of commerce events. So you can go out there and meet people who are not necessarily real estate investors; that you can mention, hey I am looking to buy deals. So there you are just going to be a buyer, you are going to be mostly hunting for deals in my opinion.

David: Yeah. Real estate agents, there are tons of clubs for real estate agents. They can bring you deals -- probably 10% of our deals come from real estate investments at this point.

Mike: We are doing a lot of -- off the MLS listed properties.

David: Even off-market the agents can bring them to you, because they may have a potential listing and -- the home just needs a lot and they know if they list it, it's going to sit. So we have created a ton of relationships with agents. Because we will say, hey if you have a listing we will still pay you your commission. But you don’t even have to take the time or the work or the hassle of going into the property and getting all the pictures, and -- putting it up on the MLS, just call us. If it's a deal, you are going to get paid either way.

Mike: Absolutely so -- yeah real estate agents, then I was also thinking of BNI groups. So I for a long time was a member of -- a BNI, BNI is business networking international.

David: Huge organization.

Mike: It is -- they are international. There are chapters everywhere just about. There are gosh I don’t know -- 50-100 here just in St Louis -- chapters.

David: Is there that many of them?

Mike: There is a lot.

David: 50-100 just in St Louis?

Mike: Maybe 50, maybe I am exaggerating.

David: That's a lot.

Mike: There is a ton.

David: Holy cow. I believe it, I do.

Mike: So each chapter embraces this philosophy of givers gain. The idea behind BNI is that -- if I give business to you --

David: Givers gain.

Mike: You will want to give business to me.

David: That is a great quote.

Mike: It is.

David: Givers gain.

Mike: Yeah. So and it really is a great philosophy -- so you are in a group with a bunch of people and they limit it to one person per profession. So we will have a real estate agent, mortgage broker, a roofer -- but one per profession, one real estate investor if you go.

David: What's the average group size? Like 20 or 30 or is it bigger than that?

Mike: You know --

David: Because I have been to a couple of these, and I feel like they are usually pretty decent groups like --

Mike: Well it depends.

David: Sometimes 20 or 30 people in them.

Mike: It depends, some of the chapters are 10 -15.

David: Right.

Mike: The bigger size chapters I think are 30 plus.

David: Right.

Mike: So those are considered large. So, again what I did there is -- I would just go in and say, hi I’m Mike Slane and I am the real estate investor of the group. You have to have an elevator pitch.

David: Right.

Mike: So you have to have a 30-second spiel saying -- I buy properties, I am looking for properties here and this is what they are. But again, it is another place to go out there and get people hopefully working for you, looking for deals. So if you join the group you have got this whole network of people who are looking for properties for you.

David: That's right, that is a great point.

Mike: A whole bunch of boots on the ground. So it is another networking opportunity if you are interested in it; check it out -- BNI.com or BNI international.

David: Just GOOGLE BNI. Yeah.

Mike: And you can find chapters, go visit, call up the president or the real estate agent in the group. And say, hey I am interested in BNI; can I come out and visit? They will register you and let you know when. Usually, there is a fee for maybe breakfast or lunch or something. Usually breakfast or lunch meetings. Go out there and just network with some non-real estate investors. So I think that is important to do as well.

David: I think BNI's are a great resource. I have not personally -- ever joined a BNI, but I have been to probably -- a handful, maybe 7 or 8 -- BNI meetings as a guest. So people can bring in guests, and I do have to say -- I don’t have a huge fear of public speaking, although -- it is not something I love to do. And -- some of the BNI's I was invited to -- there were 30 or 40 people in the room; these are all strangers and -- usually whenever you come in as a guest -- like Mike said, a 30-second elevator pitch. Kind of go around the room, hey I’m  David Dodge, I am a real estate investor, I buy houses cash, as is, I am the easy button for people that are just looking to get rid of their home. And -- it is a great resource, a great tool to kind of help break that ice of public speaking. Because you have to get up in front of the group and announce who you are and what you do -- the whole idea is that everybody can help everybody else. So again, like Mike said; if you have a mortgage broker in the group, and you have a roofer in the group and you have a real estate investor in the group. The idea is to extend people leads, as you come across them in your own life and own business. In return, they are going to send you leads. What was that quote you just said? Giving is --

Mike: If I give business to you, you will give business to me. Givers gain.

David: Givers gain, exactly. So the more that I can give to the people in the group by providing them leads for their business, the more they are going to appreciate that. And when they come across somebody that in our business for example; has a house they need to sell. Boom, who are they going to call? They are going to give that lead right back to you.

Mike: So pro tips on BNI. So first off, as a new real estate investor if you don’t have a huge contacts -- if you don’t have a roofer or electrician -- real estate agent, mortgage broker that you use, you know and feel comfortable with; if you join a BNI or start visiting one -- instant access to somebody that hopefully is going to be reliable for you. Then again, -- it is very specific to the members and everything. But for the most part, you have got people in there that are trying to grow their business and trying to do the right thing. So you have got instant access to a network of people you can hopefully refer people to, which is awesome. You have got people that are then -- hopefully looking for properties for you. So that was pro tip one, again it gives you contacts instantly.

The second one is if you go to BNI and you are shopping for a chapter for yourself as real estate investor if you are going as a real estate investor -- reach out to the real estate agents. There is almost always going to be a real estate agent in the group. Reach out to them first and find out if that is a real estate agent that is going to be welcoming towards a real estate investor; if they are going to be able to hopefully provide you value in your business.

So the group that I joined, I met the guy, I called him and visited probably 5 or 10 before I actually joined a group.

David: Did you really?

Mike: Yeah.

David: That's good to know.

Mike: So anyways, I was shopping for a real estate agent that I thought would be able to work with me as a real estate investor. I found a guy who had a great connection with [00:35:03.15 - inaudible] services, senior services here -- meaning that -- they come across houses. So seniors get put into assisted living and this company then handles the properties. Either fixes them up and resells them or just resells them. So this real estate agent was in charge of listing a lot of properties for them. He knew he had properties that needed work. So it was just an instant – lightbulb. Well this looks like this could be a good relationship so --

David: You could do deals with him a lot or a lot of people in your BNI if you like get maybe one if not two deals a month -- at a minimum.

Mike: Yeah --

David: Sometimes more.

Mike: I get leads.

David: You get leads, right.

Mike: So I position myself --

David: And some of those turn into deals though.

Mike: Absolutely. I have positioned myself in BNI -- as a resource for the real estate agent. So I said -- and to other people too --

David: I am here to provide you value.

Mike: Exactly.

David: I am not here --

Mike: I am not here to steal your deals.

David: Right.

Mike: If you want to offer your clients another service -- which his, hey instead of spending the money to fix up this house. What would a real estate investor offer? So I tell them -- I tell the real estate agent that, and I tell that people that too. I say, hey -- George introduced me; just consider me a tool in George's tool belt.

David: Right.

Mike: I am here to help you make a better decision. You know, 5 times out of 10 -- they end up listing the property and that is great. I am there to provide George value as well. It is the givers gain philosophy, and he has provided me -- many deals as well.

So anyway, that was my kind of pro tips; look for a real estate agent that either you are going to be able to hit it off with and be able to provide you some value. Or one that you know is at least not intimidated by having a real estate investor in the group.

David: Right, I agree.

Mike: That is all I’ve got. Dave, anything else on networking or REIA's?

David: You know -- just get out there and do it, guys. There is no better way to get -- to build a network of like-minded individuals, like-minded investors, like getting out there, meeting them, shake their hand. Bring a stack of business cards with you -- let them know what you do. Let them know -- how you can provide them value and just don’t be scared.

Mike: Don’t let no having business cards be an excuse though. Go out and network anyways.

David: Right.

Mike: I don’t care if you don’t have business cards, go to the meeting. Just say, hey I’m Dave. Trade numbers with them whatever. Write it down on post-it notes for goodness sakes.

David: Absolutely.

Mike: So that is our action item -- definitely -- go out to meet up, find your networking group and go to one.

David: Go to one.

Mike: You absolutely need to start building a network.

David: If you don’t have any in your town, which would really shock me; create one, start one. You don’t need 800 people to have a legitimate real estate investment club or association. A lot of these clubs start off with three, four, five guys sitting in a room, or even at a coffee shop, just talking about an interest that is like minded. Real estate being that interest. But again, there is probably over 100,000 different meetups on meetup.com -- it's amazing so --. Get out there and do it, guys -- there is no better way to be known and build a contact list than meeting people.

One last tip, then we will --

Mike: We are going too long; we got to wrap it up.

David: One last tip is -- if you are interested in -- marketing your business or marketing your deal. A lot of the clubs, you can become a vendor of the club, and or -- if you know that everyone is going to be meeting on a specific Tuesday at 7 pm in this location, you can go and -- you can leave a flyer on people's cars. We do that sometimes too; it's a great way to do a little gorilla marketing, where we say, hey if you are looking for deals, check out our website. Or we may even flag people's cars with a particular deal. We have sold deals and add buyers to the buyer's list by doing that so --.

Mike: Yeah.

David: So let's wrap it up, Mike.

Mike: Alright guys. To get started in wholesaling, please visit thefreewholesalecourse.com. We have got everything you need to get started in wholesaling if you are just starting out. Walks you through how to do a deal basically -- from marketing all the way through to selling your deal.

David: Hopefully by the time this episode airs, freelandlordcourse.com.

Mike: It will be up. Again, I think our focus is always going to be on wholesaling for newbies. I think it’s the easiest way for people to learn to put deals together.

If you are looking for off-market properties, visit discountpropertyinvestor.com, be sure to sign up and we will send you our off-market leads. Our closing quote: "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get others interested in you."

David: Such a great point.

Mike: Thanks for listening guys.

David: Thanks, guys.