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Working With Real Estate Investment Groups and Associations

Posted on 14. Apr, 2011 by Marc Courtenay in Articles

A property manager’s best friend may be her own imagination and creativity. Yes, nothing floats like experience, but sometimes we have to go out of our own “comfort zones” to fish in unchartered waters.

Recently I spoke to a group of real estate developers who formed a Syndicate for investors to participate in their projects.

They are specifically building Memory Care Facilities for the growing number of Alzheimer’s patients in the U.S., but they represented to me an often overlooked genre of “owner-developers” who may need property management services.

Whether we focus on Syndicates, Partnerships or Real Estate Investment Trusts (a.k.a. REIT) there’s a world of opportunity for the property management industry.

A growing number of analysts suggest a looming shortage of rental residential units in many regions of the country. Yet the development costs are very high and the availability of financial resources to borrow has been greatly reduced.

That’s why these groups and associations have formed to pool their resources and share in the potential opportunities and profits.

Syndicates, by the way, are used in conjunction with many types of assets including real estate. The simplest definition of this term applies to any form of organization which allows two or more investors to participate in the ownership of an interest in real estate.

If you want to locate any of the above-mentioned real estate investment groups, you may want to start by speaking to local loan officers or mortgage brokers. They often know about them or know who to speak with to find them.

There are also social networks such as The Real Estate Investment Association and many of you know of other ways to network online by category through social network sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Before you begin your search for a Real Estate Investment Group to offer your services to, you may want to freshen up your best self-promotion literature and website to use as your calling card.

When you do discover the groups in your area, you can then follow up by putting your best foot forward and illustrate your proficiencies.

You might consider sponsoring a seminar for these Investment Groups or for individuals who want to start one or join an existing one. In so doing you inadvertently will become a go-to source for all interested parties. That often leads to finding new clients as well as receiving profitable referrals.

By being aware that Real Estate Investment Groups and Associations exist and discovering where they are in your area, you’ll locate a whole new subset of potential owners to work with.

One final tip; find the group organizers, not necessarily the individual investors. Typically they are the ones (often referred to as General Partners or Managing Members) who are most likely to make the decisions and need your property management help.

Tags: investing, Real Estate