Would you join a real estate investment club if it helped you achieve financial security?
“I can sleep well at night knowing our financial future is secure.” – real estate investment club member, Kim Bosner.
What if your investment club could teach you how to successfully invest in real estate? Making it possible for you to create real wealth–the money and the freedom to live life on your terms?
If this sounds like a dream come true, here’s the truth: investing in real estate is one of the best ways to create real wealth. And the process is simple
- Calculate your total monthly expenses.
- Invest $50,000 to $100,000 in income property that will generate enough passive monthly cash flow to cover these expenses.
- Use your monthly cash flow to free up your time, and create the life you want.
It really is that simple…if you know how, where, and when to invest. If you don’t know how, where, and when to invest, joining a real estate investment club might be a great option for you. Keep reading to learn more about the pros and cons of joining an investment club.
What Is A Real Estate Investment Club?
Real Estate Investment Clubs bring together real estate investors to network, and learn about industry trends. You don’t have to be an experienced real estate investor to join a real estate investment club. You just have to be eager to learn. You can expect to meet plenty of seasoned investors who have been in your shoes, and are excited to show you the ropes.
This type of environment is a great option, especially for new investors who don’t know where to start, or don’t know who to trust.
That being said, not all real estate investment clubs are the same. According to Bigger Pockets, “there are many real estate clubs designed to sell you. They bring in “gurus” who sell either on stage or at the back of the room, and as a result, the clubs typically profit to the tune of 50% of the sale price of the product, bootcamp, or training that is pitched.”
Ask yourself, does my real estate investment club have my best interests at heart?
Why Should You Join a Real Estate Investment Club?
People choose to join a real estate investment club for a variety of reasons. Why should you? In order to answer this question, it’s important for you to consider your why factor. Why do even want to invest in real estate?
5 Signs That Real Estate Investing May Be Right For You
Here are a few signs real estate investing (and specifically passive real estate investing) might be right for you:
- If you want an investment that will help you create real wealth, which is defined as having the money and freedom to live your life on your own terms.
- If you want an investment that will help you provide for your family, gain financial security, retire comfortably, pay for college, worry less, quit your job, and/or take control of your own life.
- If you want an investment that will free up your time to travel around the world, climb Mt. Whitney, learn to meditate, or even just spend more time with your family.
- If you want an investment that is less risky and more profitable than the stock market.
- If you want to own an asset that pays you month after month, whether you are working or not.
If you answered yes to any of the above, you should definitely consider becoming a real estate investor.
4 Reasons to Consider Joining an Investment Group
Now, here are a few reasons you might also consider joining an investment group, like RealWealth:
- If you don’t know how to start investing in real estate.
- If you don’t know where you should invest.
- If you don’t know when to invest.
- If you don’t know anything about real estate investing and you don’t know anyone who does (at least not anyone who is willing to teach you).
If you want to become a real estate investor, but need help getting started, you should join a real estate investment club.
Things To Look For In Your Real Estate Investment Club
There are a lot of things to look for in a real estate investor’s club. Here are a few big ones to get you started:
- Investment advisors should be real estate investing experts who are succeeding at exactly what you are trying to achieve right now.
- Affordable, and preferably free real estate investing education, training, and networking that empowers you to make the best investments.
- Your real estate investment group should be able to provide real estate success stories from real members. This isn’t to say that every member needs to be making a million dollars a year, but there should be (at the very least) a handful of real people that have made it work. At the end of the day, trust your judgement. If someone’s story seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- Your real estate investment club should not be charging high fees and exorbitant commissions for their services. Before you buy, make sure your club hasn’t tacked on an extra 15% (or more) in service fees.
- If your REI Club offers access to wholesale properties and/or turnkey investment services, they need to provide real documentation about the quality of these services.(Just to be safe, make sure your real estate club has an A+ rating at the Better Business Bureau – check the turnkey company’s BBB listing too.)
Warning Signs to Look For in a Real Estate Investment Club
A lot of investment “gurus” will tell you to buy now in x market. A good investment club will tell you why the market is trending so that you can learn to identify hot markets for yourself. At the end of the day, a good real estate investment association won’t just tell you a particular property is a good investment. They will teach you how to calculate the ROI on any given investment, so you can know if it makes sense for you.
Your safest bet, according to Forbes Magazine is to, “[d]o your homework. Take the extra steps to ensure a workshop’s credibility or a property listing’s authenticity, be it cross-checking different listing sites and verifying a broker or company’s licenses. It’s amazing what a simple Google search can yield. Review government websites for recommendations, tips or search for complaints.”
No matter where you’re located, we welcome you to learn more about RealWealth: California’s #1 REI Club.
How Does Your Investment Club Operate?
Every real estate association operates differently. To make sure you find the right fit for you, it’s important to understand how your club operates.
There are two common investment strategies: 1) members can buy and sell investments as a group, and 2) members can invest independently. I’ll describe each strategy next.
Real Estate Syndication Investments
In this type of strategy, a group of investment club members make an investment together. This is a great strategy for busy professionals or new investors who have the money, but don’t have the time or experience to take advantage of the market. Returns on these types of investments are generally much higher than what banks offer, your money is fully secure, and your investment is often professionally managed to meet the needs of the group.
Real Estate Self-Directed Investments
Investment club members who focus on self-directed investing will not invest alongside other group members. In this strategy every investor buys property independently.
7 Questions To Ask About Your Real Estate Club
Here are some great questions to ask yourself before you join.
- Is the club set up for education and networking?
- Is the club for-profit or not-for-profit? Either structure can be legitimate, but you should know what you’re getting into.
- Will people making sales pitches for books, seminars or services hammer me?
- Does the club focus on the kind of real estate I’m interested in?
- How many serious investors belong to the club? Are they more experienced than I am, or are they mostly newbies? You’re likely to learn more from experienced investors.
- Have the club’s investors done well with investments over time?
- What are the dues? Most clubs charge between $50 and $200 per year. More than that could be the sign of a scam. But you should also take a look at the club’s other sources of money. If the club receives a commission from speakers who sell products or services, then the information from those speakers might be biased. Slightly higher membership dues might mean that you can get unbiased information.
How To Find Your Local REIClub?
The best way to figure out if a real estate investment club membership is right for you is to attend a meeting. If you’re looking for a California Real Estate Investment Club, we’d love to meet you! RealWealth hosts free real estate seminars in the Bay Area and Southern California every month.
Meet our co-founders, Kathy & Rich Fettke by watching the following short video. Learn more about our mission and goals, and get a feel for what we’re all about.
We love our Real Wealth members, but even more than that…we love helping people find a route to financial freedom through real estate. Depending on where you live, it may not make sense to join a California real estate investment group.
Sound like you? Don’t worry! There are a ton of real estate investment clubs around the country that you can choose from. Here are a couple of great resources to help you find the best local real estate investment club for you:
CRE Online – Real Estate Investment Club Directory
National REIA – National Real Estate Investors Association Directory Listing
REI Club – Find your local real estate club (REIA). Comprehensive state-by-state listing of real estate investing associations.
California’s #1 Real Estate Investment Club: RealWealth.
Real estate investing is all about what you know and what you make of it! That’s why we started RealWealth, and why we created the Real Wealth Investor Academy.
At RealWealth, we focus on helping our members build and secure their wealth by getting the right price, on the best investment properties, in the strongest U.S. markets. We know what it takes to be successful in Real Estate, because each member of our team is a successful real estate investor. We’ve seen first hand what it takes to make it in this industry, and we’ve seen what causes huge losses.
Over the past 10 years we’ve grown to a whopping 13,000 members. Each of these members has a different background, and level of experience. We love teaching new Real Estate investors the old tricks just as much as we love helping seasoned experts continue succeeding.
RealWealth Member Benefits
If you join RealWealth, you’ll receive free instant access to a wealth of real estate investing education. No strings attached. These benefits include:
- Unlimited access to our webinars, weekly wealth reports, articles & podcasts.
- Access to information about today’s best investment markets.
- Exclusive access to view & acquire cash flow investment properties at wholesale prices.
“We increased our income 6 times with 1 Property.”
Conclusion
We believe that many mistakes investors make could have been avoided if they had been properly educated. We know real estate scams are out there and we know what to look for in order to spot one before it’s too late.
Kathy Fettke, RealWealth co-founder, has attended many real estate seminars. It didn’t take her long to learn the truth: she was paying tens of thousands of dollars for outdated and pointless information from real estate “gurus”.
It quickly became clear that something simple, yet important, was missing. No one was teaching how to make money in real estate – at an affordable price.
Until now…
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