REIA Meeting Format/Tips

[Jesse Houser]

Hi Everyone,

A friend and I are considering starting a local REIA meeting and I wanted to reach out and see what was working well and what was going poorly in your meetings. The main areas I'm trying to get input on are:

1. What format does your meeting use? (Start to finish/schedule)

2. Does this format work well for you? What do you wish was different?

3. What is one thing you feel your meeting absolutely has to have to be successful and beneficial to those attending?

4. Who attends your meeting and how do you market it? (Do you invite/have contractors, agents, banks/loan officers, etc)

5. Any other tips or thoughts you might have?

Thanks all! I appreciate your input!

[Nancy DeSocio]

Hey Jesse!

I've only been in our local REIA for about a year (RIREIG...you can google it to see a sample agenda for the next meeting), but it's been around for a long time. It's somewhat formal in nature as far as how it's run, but it's a well-oiled machine. The general agenda is typically:

Hour 1: Beginners Session
Hour 2: Educational Session 
Hour 3: Networking

The first two hours are educational, and that's the value I was looking for when first joining the group.  Now that I understand the importance of networking, the third hour has proven to be just as valuable!  

One of the advantages of Rhode Island is that we're so small, and because this is the only RIEA in the whole state (as far as I'm aware), we have a diverse group of real estate professionals at the meetings (investors, hard money lenders, accountants, contractors, realtors, home inspectors, etc).  

I think I only answered questions 1, 2 and 4, but those are my initial thoughts.

Good luck getting your group up and running.  Looking forward to hearing about your success by next Tuesday :)