​Getting plugged in...Twitching and Typing

[Sam Hager]

Firstly, I want to say how grateful I am for all those that responded to my last post - it is a testament to the amazing community BiggerPockets has built in the outpouring of insightful and in-depth replies that I received to a number of questions that I posed in my "I'm new, I don't know what to do - Gurus and Gotchas" post from last week.

This week I continued to focus on a number of beginner hurdles that I am sure many people face when they are diving into real estate investing for the first time. It was clear to me that one thing I needed to do right away was get to a meetup of re investment professionals in my area. So last week I attended a real estate forecast put on by one of the local real estate investment groups.

I was a little apprehensive going to the event because I knew I was a newbie and so did everyone else in the room when they saw the glazed over look I had in my eyes as I surveyed the crowd in hopes of finding a welcoming place to sit. In fact, the hard money lender that I happened to land next to (who was actually very helpful and shared some advice with me....wooden nickels maybe but hey I'll take anything at this point) remarked as much - his first smirking question being, "You haven't been to this meeting before have you..." How he knew that, I will never know (the twitch in my left eye might have tipped him off).

As I listened to the forecast and frantically typed my notes, it occurred to me how many different types of people were in the room (we all had to do introductions - if you have a fear of public speaking I would suggest preparing something ahead of time for fear of passing out). There were people from all walks of life and all sides of the real estate equation. I met a wholesaler, a real estate broker, a hypochondriac and a guy that wants to put up an airplane hangar, to name a few.

My questions to the BiggerPockets's community are:

1) When first starting out, who are the three most important people that you need to meet and develop a relationship with?

and...

2) What are some words of advice for screening different people in the real estate world - put another way, what are some types/people to be wary of or avoid altogether?