REI clubs

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I'm a newbie although we do own two duplexes and land that we would love to build on if we can improve our financial picture. Two questions:
1) Because real estate markets are slow, aren't the people who attend REI clubs all in competition with each other? How do you know who to trust when you're a newbie? I guess I have scarcity mentality.

2) Is there a formula for assessing how much risk is smart, not in terms of comfort level but balancing the numbers, such as: how much credit card debt you have and years to retirement. I'm torn between selling one of our properties and paying off our credit card debt or using our equity to make more money and be able to pay off our debt. But we're in our fifties.