Looking for feedback on an idea to increase my private lending network.

[Phillip Syrios]

Im a buy and hold real estate investor in the Kansas Cit metro who has consistent deals and private money coming into my business. Im working on expanding my operation to grow quicker but the cog that keeps me at my current pace, like so many of us, is finding more private investors.

Networking has been the most successful way to attract more private investors so I am looking for ways to increase the speed at witch I network with people who are likely candidates to invest with me.

Here was my idea: Creating a flyer titled "Interested in Real Estate? Lunch on Me." The flyer then lists my qualifications and lets them know to contact me if they want to learn more about real estate.

My intent is not to pitch these people when I first meet them, but to just find out their goals find out what they are interested in and help educate them in any way I can. If I think I can continue to help them in the future or if I think my company can offer a mutually beneficial situation I will then offer a follow meeting.

I feel a free lunch can be a very enticing offer to many people, but I really have no idea if this will work, any thoughts on the idea would be great.

Where I am really stuck though is how and where to get these flyers out to people. Anything like this is a numbers game, but I just have no clue how to get these flyers into the hands of the people who need to see them in a high quantity.

I feel this is a good general discussion but here are few more notes that are specific to my situation and the type of partners I can eventually network with:

• We are looking primarily for debt investors usually at 9% interest only.
• Minimum amount for a deal is usually $35,000 up to $80,000. On rare occasion it could be more or less.
• An investor can do as many deals with us as they have money for typically, it can just take a bit of time to find the deals.
• We usually hold the money for 1.5-2 years then refinance with traditional lending and pay the investor back. Normally when this happens the investor then lends the money back to us for a new deal.
• We are very active in the real estate market thus finding anybody else from wholesalers to quality vendors would be beneficial to our company.

Please let me know your feedback.

[J Scott]

90% of my private money has come from one place -- this forum.

I've found -- and I know others have as well -- that building credibility among others in the business is the best path to finding lenders, and if you want to find others in the business, this is a great place to do it (thanks to Josh and Brandon, there are about 180,000 of us now :).

I've borrowed money from people here who have never met me in person. I've loaned money to people here who I've never met in person. I've partnered with other BP folks on dozens of deals. I've mentored people from here. And I've learned much of what I know from people here.

So, my recommendation is to spend time here on BP. Contribute your knowledge. Help others who need help. Learn from others who are experts in other fields. And what you'll find is that, with the credibility and relationships you build, will come opportunities for deals, money and partners.