The secret to finding the best deals, the best team members, the best support and even the best partners and lenders is to get active in your local real estate investing clubs. It’s something so many real estate investors overlook – especially ones with a bit of experience – yet it’s a gold mine filled with opportunity if you have an open mind and even an open heart. Here are seven ways my husband and I have benefited by attending local real estate clubs and why it will probably help you too:

1. Learning local information: You’ll need to understand real estate investing fundamentals to succeed as an investor but you’ll also want to know what is happening in your local market. Did you know that most of the houses built by Builder XYZ have had this problem with a leaking pipe? Have you heard that the basements are flooding on John Street because of poor drainage on that street? Are you up on the latest law changes that are creating new challenges or opportunities for real estate investors in the area? These are all things you might hear about at a local meeting. 2. They are your colleagues: Most of my long time friends don’t really understand what we do. It can be quite an isolating feeling. And until I started to attend local club meetings, expand my network through social media communications and build friends that were doing what I am doing I didn’t really feel like anybody but my husband – who is my investing partner – really understood me.

3. Connecting with experts: Because of the intimate setting (aka smaller size) you often can get in front of an expert and get a few questions answered. And most of the time if an expert has taken the time to speak at a local club meeting they are there to give back so they will be happy to help you out. No matter what you never know where that connection may lead.

4. Finding joint venture partners: We have spent a lot of time offering our deals to friends and family who would politely listen, say they’d think about it, and then never ever say yes to doing a deal with us. It was frustrating and it was actually emotionally draining. You see, we would first have to convince Uncle Glen that real estate was the best place for his retirement savings (not the 27 different mutual funds his financial adviser put him into because he would make a ton of fees off my Uncle). Then we would have to present our opportunity to my Uncle in such a way that he knew we weren’t asking for a favor. Even if he wasn’t remotely interested, he wouldn’t tell us to “pound sand” he would politely ask for time to think about it. So we would be left following up and following up only to realize he never had any intention of doing anything. It sucked.

Then we stopped one day and looked at the previous six or so deals we’d done with joint venture partners and realized the easiest, most fun, and quickest deals to put together weren’t the ones we’d done with family or friends. The deals that came together the easiest and that we felt the best about were the ones we had done with people we had met at local real estate investing club meetings! They already knew they wanted to put their money into real estate and they knew they didn’t have the time or expertise to do it well themselves, so they found help in the form of US! These people came to us not the other way around. Once the partner had completed some due diligence on us and the deal we were offering them, the rest was smooth and easy.

5. Helping others: If you have already purchased a property or two then you can be an invaluable resource to someone else at the club that is just getting started. Even just the smallest gesture of assistance, like giving them the name of a great inspector, can help someone just starting out. It’s a nice thing to do. And for me, I love how doing something for someone else gives me so much satisfaction and good feeling.

6. Building your team: We’ve been investing in the same city since 2001 and there are still times where we find ourselves in need of a professional that we’ve never had to hire before. For example, we recently had to hire someone to draw up the plans for a legal secondary suite we’re adding to a property. We’ve never had to have plans drawn up. We found ourselves calling everyone we know in the area to get recommendations. Ultimately we went with a guy that the City inadvertently recommended. They are not allowed to recommend anyone so we said “Who do you see a lot of plans drawn up by?”. We ended up with a great guy that the City loves – and ultimately the plans were for the City to approve so it worked out really well. But, sometimes your fellow investors will be the best source for a referral. For us, if we didn’t already have two really fabulous mortgage brokers on our team, we’d be chatting to the ones that come to the investment club meetings because they are more likely to understand what we need as investors.

7. Do more deals: Your local club meeting is a great source of buyers, sellers, and lenders who will provide opportunities to do deals! Establish your network, let others know what you have to offer, and it won’t take very many meetings before you’re looking at more options that you ever had before. Most of all – attending a local club meeting is an action step. This is especially important when you are a new investor, but I think it’s always important. You need to consistently take little action steps to move yourself closer to where you want to go. Attending a local club meeting is a simple action step that says “I am a real estate investor” to your mind. That alone should motivate and inspire you to take bigger steps forward. So if you can think of no other clear action to take right now, go to a club meeting!