How To Build a Landlord Community with Tim Emery

Transcript

Krista Reuther:

I’m Krista and this is Tim Emery and we’re here to help you be a better landlord. Tim, I’m so excited to have you here today. A local investor and an absolute expert in your field. Can you tell us a little bit about what building community means to you?

Tim Emery:

Well, building community is really about having people involved and to share your knowledge and experience with people. And the reality of it is, is in a real estate investor community, there is a lot of sharing. There’s a lot of information, there’s a lot of knowledge.

That knowledge is easily accessible through podcasts, videos, books, everything. But the reality of it is, is to really get a community, you need to be able to talk to people and explain certain situations to them. And so I think building a community is really important in real estate investing.

Krista Reuther:

Absolutely. And what do you think the main benefits for an average landlord joining a community or looking to join a community that they could glean from that?

Tim Emery:

Just experience levels. I mean, as landlords and real estate investors, we all have been through subjects, been through issues, been through good, bad, ugly, whatnot. And if you’re a landlord right now and you don’t really have any place to ask questions about that or ask specific information, you can’t get a good handle on doing your project the right way and the way it could be done easier or smoother. So having a real estate community and getting involved with a real estate community, especially investor community is second to none and something you need to do and have to do.

Krista Reuther:

Well said. I know that you have run your community, Invest Success, for quite some time. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Tim Emery:

So our community through Invest Success is a couple different levels. We have a networking event called the John Fisher Breakfast Club. And John Fisher was a wise man who started this breakfast club because he needed more community.

He started in 2004 and built it and just grew it. And I found John Fisher and the John Fisher Breakfast Club in about 2010 or 11 as I was starting a property management company. And I found them because number one, I needed more property managers and more investors. I needed properties to manage as I was building that community and my community.

And I needed advice on how to do that. And the Breakfast Club was amazing. Second Saturday of the month, just like clockwork, at that time it was at 6.30 in the morning.

And we had 40 to 60 people show up every month. Unfortunately John Fisher passed away in 2015. Got stage four lung cancer and they misdiagnosed it. So he passed away in September. There were two months without a breakfast club and then we started Breakfast Club again. And then I had the opportunity to talk to his widow and buy the company and buy the Breakfast Club from John. And starting in 2016 just built it and grew it from there. So was really lucky and had that opportunity to be able to share the things that John had built and continue to share today.

Krista Reuther:

Yeah, it’s really beautiful that you were able to pick up that torch and carry it onward. What advice would you give to a landlord who might not have a local community and is looking to build one?

Tim Emery:

You got to find a good group of people, four or five people to start with and then just build it word of mouth. And that’s how the John Fisher Breakfast Club worked.

It was just a few guys sitting around a table and I think either Denny’s or Village Inn and then built upon it. And you really need to share there. You’re not going there just for your benefit. You’re going there to share your expertise or share your knowledge of what you’ve done. So, you know, if you have a certain plumber you like, you share the plumber or electrician. If you’re dealing with a tenant issue that you are having trouble dealing with, you talk about it. You share those experiences and let other people help you with that.

Krista Reuther:

Yeah, so it really becomes a community resource. Yes. What’s the best thing that you’ve learned from your community?

Tim Emery:

I think the best thing that I’ve learned is that we all share knowledge. And really probably the best one thing out of that is there’s always another deal. And people come into this real estate investor world and think there’s not a deal or there’s nothing they can find or something like that. Guys, there’s always another deal. And that’s one of my scenes and my students here all the time.

Breakfast Club here is it all the time. There’s always another deal. Don’t give up. Don’t stop doing this. Just because you lost four deals in a row, the fifth deal may be the one.

Krista Reuther:

Love it. Okay, so what steps would you advise someone to take if they are looking to build their own community? You said start with a good group of people. What would you do next?

Tim Emery:

Start with a good group of people have consistency. I mean if you’re going to meet once a month, you meet at the same time, same place, and keep it going.

We see a lot, I see a lot of people come into my community trying to start things. And they’re not consistent. They do one or two and they’re not there the third month. You know it’s not easy doing this guys, but you stay consistent and maybe at the beginning you show up and there’s one other person there. Well you showed up.

And then the next month there’s three people there, the next month there’s six people there, and the next month there’s twenty people there. You just have to be consistent if you’re trying to build something like this.

Krista Reuther:

I appreciate that. That consistency is key. How do you maintain communication with your group?

Tim Emery:

Email, whether it’s constant contact or any of the mail chimps, you have to be consistent with that as well. So if you’re going to pick out a weekly day to send out something, pick it out and keep it consistent. Keep that fresh content changing whether and bring value. So whether you change an article every week or not. Be consistent even with your communications. That’s really important so people don’t forget about you.

Krista Reuther:

Yeah right you don’t want to do all that work to build up a group and then fall off on one side like with your communication. Okay so I’m hearing start with a good group of people. Be consistent in so far as both your actual event and the communication with your group. Any other tips that you would recommend for someone starting out?

Tim Emery:

Be engaging. Be engaging with every person that walks in the door. To be really to develop these events you have to be able to network with every single person that walks in the door. And you have to say hi. You have to if you can learn their names, learn their names and then also learn something about them and be able to match them with other people you know in the group that you connect with. So they’re connecting with somebody and if you ever see somebody in the corner not talking to anybody you have to go engage them. You have to go teach them and talk to them and you have to engage them bring them something valuable so that they can feel appreciated.

Krista Reuther:

I like that really working to bring everyone into the fold and I feel like that might be a piece that someone just trying to start off a group might not know. So great tip. Any other resources that you’ve used in order to build up your group or to continue what John Fisher started?

Tim Emery:

You know there are all kinds of online tools nowadays. Meetup, Eventbrite and probably half a dozen I don’t even know what they’re called. But the consistency is amazing and giving back from a leadership position is really important and the giving back of value.

If you just show up and you’re doing a presentation on trying to raise money and all you want is money from the audience you’re not going to get anything. There’s no consistency there. You need to go out. You need to give back. Why should they be giving you money? Why is their project better than others? What is special about their project or what could people learn about their project that they can pass on to somebody else? Value in this business is so important. I go to so many events that it’s just their events are about me, me, me, me, me. They don’t last long. You have to give value from the front and the leadership.

Krista Reuther:

I love that. So one final question. Can you tell us more about what Invest Success does and where people can find you?

Tim Emery:

So we’re a local coaching program and we teach Fix and Flip Real Estate here in the greater Denver area. We do have franchises available in other states and if people are interested in working with us we’d love to find leaders in other states and help them develop their systems in their areas. But the reality is we’re out there teaching people hands-on how to invest in Real Estate. 20 years of experience watching Fix and Flip and Buying Holds and watching our rental market go up and down. That’s what we’re really about. The community we have, we meet twice a month at properties being fixed. We have 10 to 15 people in that room. Some are veterans of the industry.

Some are brand new so you get all that information. We have a happy hour once a month on the first Wednesday of the month and included we have the John Fisher Breakfast Club and then we do seminars and events throughout the months. We also have a property tour on Saturday, on the last Saturday of the month and we show people how to walk through a property and estimate the rehab cost. Check us out on our website invest-success .com.

Krista Reuther:

Thank you so much for joining me today. It has been a pleasure learning more about how you built community and how other people might do that as well. If you are out there and you are hoping to implement Tim’s tips but you haven’t yet pulled the trigger, please check out our virtual community Better Landlords. It’s our Facebook group. Sign up today and chat with Landlords nationwide and don’t forget to subscribe.