Community : Education : Advocacy
Local Benefits & National Discounts
8 STEPS FOR GROWING YOUR REAL ESTATE BUSINESS by Kim Tucker, MAREI Founder
20-year-old Marianne Teigen recently published her first young adult novel, and in only a month, it has reached the New York Times Bestsellers list.
With a membership as large and diverse as we have here at MidAmerica Association of Real Estate Investors, it is very easy to get paralyzed by the amount of information available from the meetings, in the library, on the blog and on all the social media groups that MAREI supports. There is a lot of stuff that you can utilize and it’s hard to figure out where to turn.
process. Why just search and search and not know what to do when you can take action to connect with not only information you need but others in the community that can help you start putting deals together or maybe do more deals. In my own office, we were a team of two for many years, but when we started partnering with other people, we started doing a lot more deals.
With that in mind, I want to show you the new member at MAREI . . . . or possibly a long time member an 8 step strategy to get the most out of your membership dollar and quite possibly help you put together a few deals in the
So for everyone wanting to know where to go and what to do, here are 8 Steps to Utilizing all the Tools at MAREI! 1. You Have to Participate This is pretty much a given, but . . .
Every day I participate in Social Networks online to see 8000 members in the group with 30 people posting information, 10 people actively commenting and participating. Guess what, the 40 people participating are getting business and doing deals, the other 7,760 folks are just watching. The MAREI meeting seems to go in a similar fashion. Out of 650 members, about 120 show up at the meeting along with with 20 to 30 potential new members. Out of those 120, about half actively talk with each other and interact during the networking. The other half find their friend and catch up on old times, but don’t really discuss real
estate or business. Take note that those Active People are the movers and the shakers at the group. So online, go to the Blog Page on the MAREI site or any of the Social Media Pages MAREI Supports on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Meetup. follow us on Twitter. Ask questions, answer other questions, make comments and observations. Not only will you become more visible to your fellow (fellowet?? – I don’t know) member, you will gain knowledge and credibility and might become the go-to person in your niche. 2. Meet with Local People You want to meet with some of the bigger players at the meeting. Now as you know we meet only once a month to network for an hour, however attending a workshop or seminar offers even more options for networking as we often go out for “Happy Hour” after an event, but you have to be at the event to find out about the “Happy Hour”. We also have several members that host their own networking events, so find out about those and attend as well - they are on the calendar. So how do you “meet” or figure out who the players are? Well at a live meeting there is usually one or two people who are mobbed by everyone in the room, these are the people who are putting themselves out there to share their knowledge. You want to talk to them, maybe meet them for lunch and chat about real estate. Ask them questions and ask them who they might recommend you meet. You will also find the shy, quiet person in the room. Strike up a conversation with them. Quite often the quietest person in the corner knows a lot but are too shy
to share, seek them out and find out what they do, they may be your new best friend and have a ton of knowledge in putting together deals and could be a good future partner or sounding board. And ask them about deals. Most of them will have a deal for you. Be sure to check out the deal, just like you would any other deal. However, sometimes the movers and shakers have some great deals, that the end up selling outside of the group. Why? Well I have not figured that one out yet. 3. Get Involved in the Meeting I meet a lot of people who are too shy to put themselves out there live . . . so there is always online. But to connect with people live, you might try volunteering to help at the Monthly Meetings. For example you could offer to help with set up and take down, you will find that some of the movers and shakers arrive early and stay late, and helping to pack and unpack gives you time to talk with them. Or if you want to meet more people, volunteer to help with check in and then you get to meet EVERYONE who comes through the door. No you don’t have a ton of time to talk with them, but you can talk with everyone briefly as they check in and just by being behind the check in table, you gain some of your own notarity. 4. Activate your FREE Website Using your free website you can market any properties you might have and it’s a great way to get your properties not only on the MAREI website, but also get them emailed out to the ENTIRE MAREI general membership of about 3000 or so. Properties go out once on the property leads email and once on the eUpdate our weekly email newsletter. Plus you can
always ask them on every listing to be sure to register as a buyer on your website. 5. Build a Buyers List MAREI is a great place to meet buyers of houses. At the meetings and workshops as you network, take the time to talk to people, find out what they buy, collect their card and add them to your list. Browse the social media pages, blog posts and properties for sale on the various MAREI pages, contact everyone and find out what they do and if they buy and if you can add them to your list. Visit the MAREI.org/Faceook and check out the annoucements as there are two HUGE cash buyer’s lists posted. (Add your info if you are a buyer)
6. BLOG! If you already have an active blog, great. Share a few articles with us at MAREI from time to time to include in our blog and share your best posts on our social media sites. Not a blogger and don’t want to maintain one, you have a bunch of options, share a great case study on your latest deal, have a great live discussion about a topic with a few people, turn it into an article. Then share that article with MAREI to post on the MAREI blog or use your LinkedIn and Facebook Profiles as your blog and post there, then share your post with the various real estate groups on that social media platform, including the MAREI group. 7. Expose Yourself No not that way! By putting yourself out there live at meetings, sharing your time, connecting on social media or however you are participating you get in front of people and then the deals come. For examples, you may know I
ealways have something new online somewhere and I am in front of the room at MAREI a lot. Way back in 2008 and 2009 when the banks stopped lending and we were having problems finding money to buy deals or worse finding buyers to buy deals, we had a person walk into our office who said he had been watching our business grow for several years and could he bring his money into our business and partner with us to go find, buy, rehab and sell the deals. All because we were in front of the room. Other deals that have came because people put themselves out there. I refer all my mobile home deals to one person and have even lent him money to do a few deals . . . he presented at MAREI many years ago on mobile home investing. Another person who shares how she creatively puts deals together and works primarily in eastern Jackson County . . all of her deals are pretty much word of mouth from people referring her deals. Another investor I met at MAREI does high end rehabs, so all my wholesales that fit his criteria are sent to him before I send them to anyone else. All of these deals are all because we all were willing to Expose Just a bit of our knowledge and personal information with others. 8. Pick Up the Phone It’s great to meet everyone at the meetings or online, but nothing beats a live conversation. Pick up the phone and make some phone calls. I had one investor I met that way. He knew who I was and called one day to see what I had for sale. He needed to “buy 5 houses in the
next month”. I said, “yea, right!” But I sent him my list of REO properties and he bought 2. He called again in a couple of months and bought 2 more. All in all, I probably sold him 20 houses in a couple of years, all because I put myself out there and he picked up the phone to follow up. This was his only form of finding deals, calling everyone he knew until he had the houses he wanted. There you have it — 8 ways to make the most out of your time at MAREI as a Real Estate Investor. But what if I have another business to promote outside of buying and selling, what then? For any small business that directs their products and servcie to real estate invetors, most of these methods mentioned above all work. But you might want to take things a setp further. Lead Generating Item Have a good website and on that website have some sort of free offering - a lead generator. This could be a pre-recorded workshop or an ebook dealing with your area of expertise. Utilize technology to give away that lead generator for contact info. Then at the monthly meetings and on social media you can let people know that to get your free educational item on what ever it is, they just need to go to your website. If they take the time to reach out for the free information, then they might be interested in your product or service. Have a Business Card If you are going to take the time to network, be sure to come armed with business cards. They are your very own tiny billboard. Be sure to not only have your name and contact, but ask people to go to your website for your free
educational lead generation item. And if you are really good, when they ask for that item your technology will add them to your database and follow up with them so you are remembered. Troll Social Media Be sure to join MAREI.org/Facebook and watch the posts. When people post asking for help, you have a perfect opportunity to pounch. Become a Business Member When you become a Business Member you are listed on the Business Directory Online where on an average day there are between 75 and 100 page views. You are also listed in our print newsletter that gets some readership and in our weekly email newsletter that does get a lot of readers scanning for what they need. Be in front of people when they need you and they will call. Host a Vendor Table Every month between 100 and 150 people attend the monthly meeting and MAREI Business Members have the opportunity to purchase a table to connect with these attendees. This is a perfect time to see and be seen, share info on your lead generating item and get your name in people's heads. Your automated system follows up and when they are in need of your product or service they call you. We hope you take the time to get the most out of your MAREI Membership. Those that do have been members for many, many years. Those that don't, most give up on real estate. Learn more about membership at www.MAREI.org.
GUIDE TO MEMBER BENEFITS To access all of your many member benefits and discounts, log into www.MAREImember.com and explore the My Accounts Tab. You can access all benefits from there including the other members through the directory.
MONTHLY MEETING 1
Our Main Monthly Meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 6:00 PM at the Holiday Inn located at 8787 Reeder Road in Overland Park, Kansas. We have networking, vendors, food, fun and an educational speaker(s) every month.
RE INVESTMENT NEWS 2
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MAREI’s Monthly newsletter is provided in digital form and is designed to keep our members updated on the real estate market, changing rules, the latest strategies. the best vendors plus all the events being held by MAREI each month and more.
WORSKSHOPS 3
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MAREI holds and sponsors a variety of real estate workshops and seminars in Kansas City Metro. Be sure to check out our events calendar for the latest training dates. Members save at a minimum of $20 on every event.
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WEEKLY EMAIL NEWS tThe latest on the market, changing laws, investing strategies, events in Kansas City, not just those being held by MAREI, the latest member properties available and our current business providers.
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THE RE JOURNAL TThis is the quarterly newsletter from National REIA and has the latest industry news.
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BUSINESS DIRECTORY We have local and national vendors who know your business. They are one of the best resource at MAREI not only for their services, but also a great place to take questions.
ADVOCACY MAREI works to keep members informed of local ordinances, elections and issues. Plus they work to support members at the state level through Missouri POA and The Associated Landlords of Kansas as well as National REIA.
INVESTOR WEBSITE MAREI Members receive a FREE Basic Investor Website to promote their properties for sale and to connect with Buyer’s and Sellers. All properties posted are also posted to the website and emailed out to the membership.
FACEBOOK MAREI hosts a Facebook group for the members to ask questions and connect online. This also a great tool to connect to the public and with investors from out of the area who invest in Kansas City.
DIGITAL LIBRARY Log in to access forms, contracts, books, ebooks and more on a wide varitey of subjects relating to real estate investing.