Mission accomplished! I have returned from my meetup in one piece. Overall, the 2.5 hours was a enormously worth it and the event itself was a huge success. Here's how it played out-
I arrived on time and people were still filing in. I put my name tag on, and walked into the upstairs floor of an Irish Pub of maybe 25 people. Banquet tables everywhere with nobody in the seats. Everyone milling around engaging in conversation. Not knowing anybody I walked around awkwardly for probably 30 seconds before someone saw my name tag and said "Gabe! Come over here meet my new friend Peter, I know you guys know each other!" Of course we didn't but what a great icebreaker. This is how the next 45 minutes went. I had my notepad and met a Financer, a lawyer, husband/wife Real Estate combo, a flipper here, a buy & hold like me there, one guy was just starting up as a wholesaler. People were looking to investing local, across the country, doing single-family, multi, condos etc. You name it and someone was hustling that angle. All in all there were 75 people by the end of the night. Maybe 20 were new comers. Great, great crowd.
The hosts introduced themselves and what they do, then they had two Hard Money lenders talk for about 30-40 minutes about that whole process. I learned a good amount. We as a group were interviewing them. I learned about their rates, what qualifies, what stipulations are common, and what to look out for as red flags with Hard Money. Most importantly I learned that there is a person and a business behind Hard Money that (when done correctly) wants you to succeed and will assist you during the origination process to ensure the deal won't fall through. Just incorporate their 12 month interest only balloon prices into your model. They serve a purpose for some situations.
The hosts then showed a quick slide for each of the 5 local flipping deals they had available. We wrapped up and networked a little afterwards. I may have found myself a RE agent. There is another guy that is flipping houses in my area that I want to take to lunch one day, so I'll email him tomorrow. 16 houses in 24 months. That's who I want to answer my questions for sure! A financier who's been in the business for 40 years, one of the old timer types, who I may run ideas by. I got a better idea about REO's as well talking to a couple.
Lastly, I got some great tips from the host's project manager on how to up my game (starting from zero here people) to estimate rehab costs and how to work with your agent to estimate ARV. Admittedly, these are my two most-glaring weaknesses, so I will have to work hard to drive those points home.
What I learned:
- I am more outgoing than I thought.
- I know more than I thought! I kept up every conversation I had as well as the entire Hard Money discussion and have been consuming investing information for less than 4 months. I was expecting to be confused at least half the time, but that definitely was not the case.
- I have something in common with each person in that room regardless of experience, so plopping myself in front of people with a smile and a handshake was the best way to start the conversation.
- Everyone, literally everyone, wants to talk about real estate and hear how you might potentially fit in.
- I realized after 5 minutes that I had way overthought my elevator pitch. Keep it simple stupid
- Don't underestimate your notepad
- 10 out of 10 will go back next month!
Thanks for the advice heading into this.
I hope this thread can help someone take the plunge and get to a meetup to talk about their future.
