Real Estate Cruises, My Favorite Networking
by Pete Youngs
Most any serious real estate investor will agree that one of your most valuable tools in being successful is the art of networking. In many cases the first thing I would advise is to join your local real estate investment club. This gives you access to many like-minded people who like you want to buy, sell trade and rent properties.
I look forward to the annual National REIA cruise and have been aboard for this networking cruise for almost two decades now. As a faithful follower of National REIA, I have become friends and established great relationships with the staff as well as the hundreds of attendees who flock to this unique event. If you have not attended before, you are missing out on loads of opportunities presented here.
Let me give you some benefits of a real estate related cruise that you may not have considered. The cruise is education based and packed full of real estate strategies for you to learn in a relaxed atmosphere. And, the event, if you care to keep receipts and records of meetings and such, is something that may be able to be written off as business and education expense on your taxes (please consult your accountant). There are many opportunities for you to network with others during lunches, dinners, breaks and the many social functions that are planned throughout the cruise.
Since you have all this information and personal contacts, you can easily prepare your years business plan based on what you learn here. I am a national speaker so I use this time to network with REIA clubs to have me as a guest speaker at events all over the country. I also make many priceless contacts to strengthen my wealth team. I find people to buy from, sell to, speak for as well as making lifetime friends at these events. This will lead to multiple business and friendly relationships, some of them will change your life.
My attending the real estate cruises has brought me some of the best friends I have in my life. Though I can’t list them all, or all their credentials, here are just a few of the life changing and lifelong relationships my wife Barb and I have built from people we met on cruises.
Carl and Vicki Fischer have become a big part of our investment team as well as travel partners. Carl is Principle of CamaPlan , a company that handles self-directed IRA’s and 401K as well as many more investment opportunities. They are partners of Barb and I in multiple ways and handle a portion of our portfolio. As friends, we also travel the world together exploring places we only dreamed of.
Mike and Beth Butler are also friends and partners of ours that we met while cruising more than 15 years ago. Mike is an expert on landlording as well as Quickbooks for real estate and has authored many courses and training materials on these topics and more. He also wrote best selling books on real estate related topics. Mike and Beth mentor me on aspects of my career in web design as well as marketing, planning and so much more. Mike and Beth also arrange mastermind sessions with Carl, Vicki, Barb, myself and the next couple I will mention at least once or twice a year so that we can all offer our clients the best and newest information available as we are all national trainers and Mentors.
The next I will mention (as there are so many over the years) would be another long -time relationship. Larry and Pam Goins. Larry is well known for his training courses such as “The Ultimate Buying Machine” and “Filthy Riches” just to name a few. Larry and Pam are also travel all over with all of us . We all enjoy sharing ideas and helping each others businesses grow so we can be the best at what we do. And how could I not bring up our other friends from the Goins Group, Matt and Kandas Broome. Both are great friends and have brought much insight to all we do. Kandas is almost magical at keeping us on top of our game and Matt is our sounding board. What a team!
As for myself, I am known as Mr. Rehab, a general contractor of 30 years turned investor about 25 years ago. I teach rehabbing properties for about 50% off regular contractor rates and give Home Depot tours, estimating property tours, bootcamps and speak for reia clubs nationwide. My latest and best training course is called SWAT. Secret Ways And Techniques. You can read about it at WWW.PETEYOUNGS.COM But enough about me. My brother Tony Youngs brought me into real estate investing. Tony is a Master of Hidden Market properties and unlisted properties no one else can find. He also is one of the top rated one on one trainers in the country and his success rate from students is
Now that brings me to this portion of why you should choose to network all the time, anywhere and everywhere. Carl, Vicki , Barb and I are on a 21 day cruise from Seattle to Australia. And guess what??? It’s a write off !!!
First off, we are both clients of each other. This means that we are taking this as a business related trip and our purpose is real estate as well as investing. At all our dinners and lunches we are making contacts with people who have offered us places to stay for rent in Hawaii, Fiji and Australia as we are stopping at all of the areas. I am picking up the tab on a lot of my clients costs as well as him mine.
We are making contacts to broaden our portfolio’s buy seeking properties at all our stops. We are looking for vacation homes as well as rentals, commercial buildings business opportunities and such. Sure we are having a blast on the cruise and the foods great and the contacts are endless.
In a nutshell, it works like this. No matter what you are doing , make it about real estate or business. Our goal is to find properties in these very desirable areas so that we may use them as Airbnb. We are looking for any thing to build our business deals and our property ownership. Cruises are my favorite way to vacation. Now it is my favorite way to network. And If you can write it off as business with people you enjoy hanging out and working with, Its all good!!!
Pete Youngs also known as “Mr. Rehab,” is a national speaker on rehabbing homes for up to 50% off. He does seminars and bus trips promoting his new training system called SWAT (Simple Ways And Techniques). He is contractor/investor of over 25 years. Click here to visit his website.
For more information about the National REIA cruise, click here.
