Where Have All the Real Estate Gurus Gone at Your Local REIA Group?

Do you old time REIA group members remember back when real estate gurus used to attend their local REIA group meetings on a regular basis? Where have all the local real estate gurus gone? Why don’t the real estate gurus attend their local REIA groups anymore as part of the general membership?

Even though Atlanta, Georgia has many local real estate gurus, the only time I ever seem to see them at local REIA group meetings is when they are occasionally invited to come speak and sell a product or service. There are a few notable exceptions, but this seems to be the norm. As far as national real estate gurus go, your average REIA group will parade a new real estate guru before you each and every month at your main REIA group meeting selling a similar, and often more expensive, product or service. As a result, many of these real estate guru’s sales fall far short of their desired sales mark at such REIA groups and they don’t seem to want to attend or speak at REIA groups as much anymore.

Identifying the Real Estate Guru / REIA Group Dilemma

Many  real estate gurus seem to be burnt out on REIA groups as much as the REIA group members seem burnt out on the monthly sales pitches from the real estate gurus. I think there are several important reasons for this Real Estate Guru / REIA Group Dilemma:

1. Too Many Real Estate Guru Sales Presentations at REIA Group Meetings.
   REIA group members are tired of being sold real estate guru products and services each and every month at their REIA group meetings. Many REIA groups have become nothing more than monthly pitch fests for expensive real estate guru products and services.
2. There is Not Enough Real Estate Guru Trust Among REIA Group Members.
   REIA group members don’t like buying products and services from real estate gurus they have never seen, met or heard of before. They have become leery of real estate gurus and no longer buy the very first time they hear a real estate guru speak. Many REIA groups don’t do a very good job marketing the real estate guru to their membership prior to the guru’s sales presentation and it shows.
3. REIA Group Members Can’t Afford Expensive Real Estate Guru Products and Services.
   REIA group members, on average, don’t have as much discretionary income as they as they did a few years ago to buy expensive real estate guru products and services on a monthly basis. When REIA groups ignore this fact and continue force a new real estate guru upon their membership each and every month, expecting members to shell out thousands of dollars, it not only drains their member’s wallets, but it also drains their energy and morale.

As a result of this Real Estate Guru / REIA Group Dilemma, everyone suffers. Real estate gurus no longer want to attend REIA groups since they are no longer fun or profitable. REIA group members grow weary of all the sales pitches, get confused from all the mixed real estate guru messages and quit doing deals and attending REIA group meetings as a result. The REIA group suffers from decreased sales, poor attendance and severe member dropout rate making it difficult to keep its doors open. Many REIA groups have been forced to permanently closed their doors as a result.

Solving the Real Estate Guru / REIA Group Dilemma

I’m absolutely not suggesting that there is no place for real estate guru sales presentations at REIA group meetings… quite the opposite in fact as you will see. But when such frequent and expensive sales presentations become the bulk of your REIA group meetings and experience, perhaps it’s time for a change. Not only a “change you can believe in”, but change you can actually see and experience right now!

Real estate investors in Atlanta are uniting once more to become part of a new member-focused REIA group in town… the Atlanta Real Estate Investors Alliance also know as Atlanta REIA. At Atlanta REIA, you not only get everything you liked about your old school REIA group, but also everything you would love and expect from a new school, 2010 REIA group.

To solve the Real Estate Guru / REIA Group Dilemma, I offer the following suggestions:

1. More Real Estate Guru Participation with Our REIA Group.
   Our REIA group, Atlanta REIA, is calling on local and national real estate gurus (especially local gurus) to come out and join us once more, support us and become a part of our general membership. We want real estate guru’s to join Atlanta REIA as a Business Member (business memberships starts as low as $150 per year) and participate as often as possible at our meetings, webinars, networking events, parties and conventions. We want to get to know our real estate gurus better and allow them to get to know our members better. We want to develop long lasting relationships between our real estate gurus and our REIA group members. We really do want real estate gurus to enjoy attending our REIA group functions and not treat them as one time money making opportunities.
2. Fewer Real Estate Guru Sales Presentations at Our REIA Group Meetings.
   We want to have fewer real estate guru sales presentations about our main monthly meetings. In fact, we want to go back to old school REIA group principals of only having one real estate guru sales presentation per quarter at our main monthly meetings. Doing so will make the real estate guru sales presentations special once more and make it an event not to be missed. It will also make our REIA group members more likely to purchase a real estate guru’s quality product or service when presented.
3. More Affordable Real Estate Guru Products & Services for REIA Group.
   Due to the current state of our economy and our industry, we want and expect  real estate gurus to offer our REIA group members more affordable products and services as well as special discounts that non-members wouldn’t receive. As a result, the real estate guru’s product or service becomes for affordable for REIA group members and the guru would make up the reduction in price by an overall increase in sales volume.
4. More Real Estate Guru and REIA Group Member Opportunities.
   In lieu speaking at one of our four coveted  Atlanta REIA Monthly Meetings  per year, real estate guru members will have a wide variety of opportunities engage and participate with our REIA group members on a regular basis. Here are just a few advantages of being a real estate guru member of Atlanta REIA:

• Real estate gurus members will get a biography page on AtlantaREIA.com.
• Real estate guru members can also write articles for our REIA group members to be posted on our website each month.
• Additionally, as an Atlanta REIA Business Member, the real estate guru will get a listed in our Atlanta REIA Business Member Directory.
• As a Gold Business Member, the real estate guru would get an Enhanced Business Profile Page linking to the guru’s website, FaceBook page, Twitter page, YouTube channel, etc.
• Real estate guru members can have rotating banner ads on our website for year round promotion and marketing.
• Real estate gurus can offer their products and services for sale on our website throughout the year.
• Real estate gurus can speak on our Atlanta REIA Monthly Webcasts such as “An Evening with an Expert”, “What’s Hot in Real Estate Investing” and “Real Estate Business Opportunities”.
• Local real estate guru’s can have a vendor table at our monthly meetings.
• Real estate gurus can hold workshops and seminars for our REIA group members.
• Real estate gurus can have their non-Atlanta REIA events posted on our real estate guru calendar.
• Real estate gurus can speak at our sub-chapter and sub-group meetings, conventions, cruises and other events as they develop.
• Real estate gurus can be our guest VIPs at our networking events and parties.
• Out-of-town real estate gurus, can let us know when they are in town so we can plan a special REIA group get together if time allows.
• And the list of possibilities goes on and on…

We want to promote our real estate guru friends and members to our REIA group on a regular basis whether they are selling something or not. As I said before, we want to focus on building build long lasting real estate guru / REIA group relationships and not one-time sale sales opportunities. In conclusion, I think an new approach such as this will go a long way to resolve the Real Estate Guru / REIA Group Dilemma and be a real win-win for everyone involved.

Real estate gurus will get more frequent, higher quality visibility among our REIA group members. This will give the guru more credibility and better short-term, long-term and repeat sales. Real estate gurus will make more money by selling more affordable products and services rather than only a few higher ticket items.

Our REIA group members will benefit by having these highly experienced real estate gurus around on a more regular basis, constantly sharing new ideas and new information with them. In fact, our members will have more opportunities to get to like, know,  trust and learn from our real estate guru friends than ever before. They will also have more opportunities to purchase affordable products, services and training from these real estate gurus.  As a result, they will become better investors and have a much greater overall sense of satisfaction with real estate gurus and our REIA group.

Our REIA group itself will benefit financially from more stable sales of real estate guru products, services and training; higher attendance at monthly meetings, webinars and networking events; better member retention all due to the overall improvement in real estate guru / REIA group relationship and the increased sense of satisfaction, motivation and energy that this new relationship creates. It really is a win-win for everyone involved.