Experienced PM, moved into Business Development - Actual Networking Results?

[Ford Bennett]

Hello BP!

I started my career in property management 6 years ago as a leasing agent, and moved up the ladder into my current position - Business Development Manager. I've done a little of everything, leasing, AM and PM hats, single family and multifamily, marketing and sales (not home sales, selling PM services), and I'm a licensed broker. 

I've done some networking in the past, BNI, Chamber events, Business After Hours from various hosts, but I never really felt like I was generating a consistent stream of business. I don't want to give the impression that I was lazy, I was active in my BNI chapter and even held a leadership role. Some of those members will be lifelong friends of mine, and several of them assisted me with purchasing my first home. 

My question - where do you see the biggest "bang for you buck (or time)" in regards to networking avenues? I'm looking into a few investor networking meetups, BNI of course, IREM and NARPM, and others. BNI is almost triple the cost of other groups. One local investor group seems to be holding strong, and they are a smaller org, not national. 

What are your thoughts?

[Drew Sygit]

When networking, the question isn't who are the people you are networking with, it's who do they know.

The challenge is networking where there are investors or those that are highly likely to know investors.

For a BNI chapter those would be people in the real estate industry: agents, lenders, title companies, real estate attorneys, insurance agents, etc.

You may have more success though, attending all the real estate sponsored meetings you can. They'll ONLY have those types of people.