@Patrick Kane
"What is the typical format for these meetings? Things to look out for?"
Format
I've been going to one of the local REIA meetings for a little over a year now. This is what I've seen. Keep in mind that probably every group does it a bit differently; this is all my own observations and opinions.
The meeting is held once a month at a local hotel, in one of the bigger conference rooms. There is hotel-conference-room type food available starting at 6 PM. (What I mean is, don't expect steaks and sushi and Scotch. :D Think fried chicken, ravioli, meatballs, water, iced tea, stuff like that.)
There is an admission charge. You can attend one meeting for free, and then pay for meetings one at a time, or buy a quarterly or yearly membership. The yearly membership at the one I go to is $100. I'm sure the REIA makes a *little* money on this, but I think it mostly goes for the food, renting the room, etc.
The "formal" program doesn't begin until 7 PM; from 6 to 7 you can grab some food, wander around and talk to people, check out the vendors (see next), or do whatever you want.
There is a "vendors" area next to the conference room. This consists of a set of tables where various people/companies advertise their products and services. Some of the vendors have a slick trade-show-booth setup and sometimes it's one person with a stack of flyers. These vary a lot: I've seen hard money lenders, turnkey providers, wholesalers, building contractors/tradesmen, suppliers (flooring, cabinets, appliances), companies that offer tenant screening, property managers, etc. Home Depot was there once explaining their "pro buyer" and paint discount programs. There is also a table in the vendors area for people who don't have a whole table of their own, but put out flyers, business cards, brochures, etc for their business. The vendors are always there from 6 to 7 PM; some of them stick around after the formal presentation and some don't.
At most meetings, there is a small meeting for total newbies (people who are there for the very first time) from 6:30 to 7. This happens in a smaller room or in the corner of the big conference room. The head of the REIA group will briefly explain the group, what it is, how the meetings work, etc.
At 7 PM, the formal program begins. Everybody sits down and the head of the REIA group welcomes everyone and makes announcements. Sometimes they talk briefly about some issue that might affect everyone, like changes in state laws. They often mention other REIA group meetings that happen in the local area. Also, each of the vendors comes up and gives their 30-second pitch for what they do. This whole part of the program takes maybe 10 or 15 minutes.
Then, the head of the REIA group introduces the main speaker for that evening. This person usually talks (and takes questions) for 60 to 90 minutes on one particular topic. Some of the ones I've seen include: a local landlord giving tips and "lessons learned" from their experience renting out houses; a representative of a company that does self-directed IRAs; someone who was pitching a guru program. In my experience, some of these were good and relevant to my interests; some were good but were about a type of investing or financing that I'm not interested in *right now*; some were sales pitches. (It's OK to leave if you decide it's just a sales pitch.) Occasionally there will be two main speakers... in that case, usually the first one has a short presentation, like 20 or 30 minutes, and then the second one has a longer one.
After the main speaker is done, some people leave and some people hang out and talk. The conference room "closes" at 9 PM and some people then adjourn to the hotel bar. :)
In the December meeting, there is no main speaker... instead they set up a long line of tables and we do "speed networking", like speed dating. Basically, half the people sit on one side of the tables and half on the other. When they say "go", you have 90 seconds to introduce yourself and give your pitch, and then the other person has 90 seconds to do the same. When that's done, everybody moves one chair to the left, and does it again. Most people bring a stack of business cards (or flyers or whatever they have) to exchange during this process.
Things to look out for
There should be a mix of people there. What I mean is, if everyone there is brand new to investing, you might be at a sales pitch. At a "good" REIA meeting, there will be some newbies, but there will also be people that own a few rental properties, people that own a *lot* of rental properties, money/finance people, wholesalers, real estate agents, lawyers, etc. The focus will be on meeting different people who you might be able to work with when investing. For example, you might meet a wholesaler who has a good deal on a house that fits your criteria, and someone who can help you with the financing on it, and maybe a contractor who can help with some of the rehab. It works both ways... if *you* have a house to sell or money to lend or whatever, *you* can look for/talk to someone who might be interested in what you have.
If the person who seems to be in charge is affiliated with the same company that the "main" speaker is from... you *might* be at a sales pitch. (It wouldn't be totally unheard of for the person in charge at an REIA meeting to also spend some time talking about their own business. If their message is "everyone in the room needs to give *me* money" - sales pitch. If their message is more like "this is what I do, if you're interested, come see me later... now on to the rest of the meeting", then that's more legit, in my opinion.)
One progression I have seen a couple of times is that the "main" speaker will talk for 60 minutes or so "for free", and then pitch a 1-day or 2-day session on an upcoming weekend that costs $50-$200 or so. If you sign up for the weekend session, you will probably learn some things you didn't know before, but you may also get pitched to sign up for further training that costs a lot more (thousands).
I am less sure about this, but having to spend between 5 and 20 bucks to get in the door seems to be a sign of a "good" REIA meeting. The sales pitches all seem to start with a "free" meeting. Again, this probably varies more than I know about.
What I've done at the meetings
Mostly I'm there to network, but sometimes the speaker is interesting as well. (The landlord that talked about their experiences gave some good information.)
I laser-print my own business cards to give out. The front has the usual contact information. On the back, I print a short blurb about what I'm interested in. I also usually put the name of the meeting and the date on it. The very first ones I gave out, last year, said "New to real estate in 4th quarter 2015. Looking to purchase and rent out a single-family home or duplex in Blue Springs, Lee's Summit, or south Independence, Missouri." on the back. You could also get nice professionally printed cards and then print your own sticker to put on the back, if you want.
The reason I do that is that it's kind of common to get lots of business cards at one of these meetings, and then have a hard time remembering what that person *does* when you look at the card later. Advice: when somebody gives *you* a card, compare what's on the card with what they've told you they do or are looking for. If the card doesn't have the same information, immediately write a few short notes on it with a pen, so you can remember later. Like, "wholesaler, north side, single-family", or "looking for multi-family in Exampleburg and Somewheretown", or whatever.
I hope this helps!
Matt R.