REI Clubs in Chicago

[Kyle B.]

Hey everyone,

I had a quick question for BP's Chicago-based investors. Wanted to know if anyone here is involved in an REI club located in the actual city of Chicago. I've done some basic searches for this, but have only found REI clubs that meet in the surrounding suburbs of the city.

Thanks,

Kyle

[Paul Strauss]

I used to run a very large club in Chicago, and I'm not trying to discourage it- but speaking from behind the curtain so to speak, and being blunt- I designed the club to benefit me. It was my time, and I wasn't going to get rich selling $100 memberships to newbies.

So, there were two basic ways I got paid from the club- a good bit of it was by side deals as an affiliate marketer selling overpriced info products to people with more money than sense. At one point I was pulling in $3K to $10K a month from it until I had to stop because I no started taking a closer look at the product and realized it was garbage. The other way was sifting through the membership and taking a look at who could do a deal and putting things together. That happened all of twice. I made all of my real money wholesaling on my own- well outside (even deliberately outside) the club.

I'm not saying you can't benefit from attending these clubs- you can- but I frankly think it's the long slow and low paying route.

Fact is that after awhile what I observed is that people who took action, and got results stopped attending the clubs, and what was left was a room full of tire kickers, and product-buying lottery ticket mentality people.

I've changed a LOT since then- older and wiser. I have this to offer you- if you are interested, I have a small, but highly successful network of seasoned, active real estate investors in Chicago who you will NEVER meet at an REI club, or see writing a book, or doing some seminar. I am, however, quite tight with referrals, so if you wish- PM me and I can determine if I can even help at all. Second, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and what I've found is this- and you can take this FWIW: real estate should be a passive investment. If I can give ONE key bit of advice it is this: find something you love to do that PAYS WELL, do what you do best, and outsource the rest. Don't rehab- unless you like being a glorified contractor, don't landlord, don't spend a lot of time doing anything except sitting there with your pile of dough analyzing deals others put in front of you-- and even better: get a person or a team to analyze them FOR you, and give you two or three great managed income property deals a year and invest that way. Real estate, IMHO, should be an investment, not a job. Has been for me for the last several years, and I don't miss screwing around trying to make it be anything else.