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Networking with other investors is great. Here is how to find property investors either for networking of for business.
Networking with other property investors is an important step to take if you want grow your portfolio faster and you want to learn more. By connecting with like-minded people you are not only inspired by them but you also learn from them.
Your Friends Probably Aren’t Property Investors
The chances are your friends and your family don’t share the same views or the same optimism you do about your property investing career. Many times in my life I’ll talk to friends or family about my dreams to invest in property going back as far as when I was 14 and more often than not I would actually get shut down.
I would often get told why it’s too hard or I’m too young or it’s not the right time. I think that connecting with people who are going on the same journey as you who are investing in property just keeps you inspired and helps you achieve financial freedom so much faster.
The Easiest Way To Find Property Investors
The easiest way I found to connect with property investors is through online forums.
The two forums that I recommend most to new property investors are Somersoft or propertyinvesting.com which is run by Steve McKnight and his company. Both of these are Australian forums.
In these forums there are so many people coming together talking about property, talking about investing in property and I found from participating in these forums that actually trying to give people helpful advice means I learn more than when I ask questions.
Going in there and being an active member helps you learn significantly but it can also help you network with people. You do need to be careful in those forums because there are some people who are in their A LOT and these people are generally people who are in the industry.
They might be mortgage brokers or financial advisors or professional investors or somehow they tend to make their money through the property market. As an amateur going into these forums saying some wrong things (I speak from experience) you might get picked on by these professionals who are in there all the time.
Just be aware that before you go in you don’t go in making massive claims that you can’t really backup. If it happens you just consider it water off a duck’s back don’t let it affect you too much.
Property Events (Free or Paid)
The second way to network with other property investors is by going to property events. These could be events that are run by for-profit organisation like maybe one of Steve McKnight’s events or positive real estate runs members events people who are members of positive real estate.
There are more informal not-for-profit events that are run by small community organisations or maybe they are just on meetup.com. You can easily find groups of people what are networking together and forming masterminds and to help each other along.
Sometimes they will have a guest come in or sometimes they just put different people in the hot seat talking about their investments, what they want to do, what they’re having trouble with and so looking for these events and going to these events can be a great way to meet people.
You do need to be careful when you go to these professional events because in most cases it’s going to be what I call a “pitch fest”.
That’s where the speakers are just trying to sell their $500,000 property or their $5,000 product and then you run to the back of the room and sign up because this special offer is on today. I suggest going in there either without your credit card or just going in there being prepared to be sold to heavily.
Even someone like myself who knows all about all the different courses and things that are out there still find myself tempted to go run out the back and buy something but I never do. So you just need to be careful because it is so easy to get suckered in.
Membership Sites
Another way to network with like-minded people which is I guess a smaller group of people and more focused is through things like membership sites.
Now obviously I run my own membership site called Get the free eBook but I know that Jane Slack-Smith recently launched a renovation project and she had a membership site and forum access there. Steve McKnight runs one as well. And there are lots of different membership sites. Now you can join in order to get that communication going and to network with other property investors.
Businesses Finding Property Investors
And lastly in your business where your target market is property investors well then I suggest doing a lot of the same things. Going to events either as a participant or even paying to have a stand there just networking with people at those events, get in the online forums give advice to people.
Mostly forums allow at the bottom to have what they call “a signature” where you can link back to your own website. It used to drive heaps of traffic for me back in the day but I find it less effective now.
And obviously there is advertising through things like Google AdWords and there’s also advertising on property related web sites or through people’s email list. Something that I am not doing currently at the moment but I know a lot of property sites out there are so they have some different ways that you can network with property investors.
Truthfully I just suggest that you start on the property forums. It is so easy to get started. You can type in somersoft.com right now and get an account and start looking at what people are saying and you can do this from the comfort of your home and in your own time.
The more time you spend in those forums the more you get to know the different people who are commenting and if you are brave enough well then you can approach them and try and meet in person or try and have a chat over the phone. Most people are pretty open to meeting other people and hanging out so it’s just a matter of trying to organise it.