Bigger Pockets

By Tracy Percival, Real Estate Editor       Tracy's Bio      Print Article


Last month I wrote about the International Builder Show in Florida. The NAHB touts that almost 104,000 housing professionals were in attendance!! Wow, that’s a lot of opportunities! I hope some of you were able to attend this incredible networking event.

This month I will be spotlighting the fast growing world of Internet Based Networking. I was invited to check out 2 different websites that focus on online networking for individuals interested in Real Estate. This month I will share with you an awesome site called Bigger Pockets.

At first look to this site, I felt a little overwhelmed by the amount of content on the home page. I almost didn’t know where to look first. I started roaming around the site starting from left to right. I soon became hooked on the informative content, and before I knew it an hour had gone by, then 2 hours. I finally had to stop myself!

This site was created by Joshua Dorkin, and was specifically designed for Real Estate Investing. Whether you're a newbie or seasoned professional, you will find a ton of information and networking opportunities. Mr. Dorkin states "This site was started as a site for Real Estate Investors, and now has become more than that...it is a site for everyone."

Bigger Pockets uses education, as it’s main ingredient. Here you can learn about wholesaling, pre-foreclosures, foreclosures, REO, landlording, rehabbing, land investing, commercial and residential real estate investing, to name a few!

Some of the things this site offers you are investment property listings, news, articles (my favorite), and more. Every weekday at 9pm EST you can join in their chat room for some online discussions. Each night has a different topic to discuss strategies, insight, etc.

Their forum is has a mix of new investors looking for answers and experienced real estate professionals willing to offer any help and advice requested. All is free, but being a registered member has its privileges! Registration does give you access to more forum topics, such as "Real Estate Deal Analysis." This is the place to find help analyzing your real estate deals. There is also the "Make Deals, Find Partners, Mentors & Birddogs" thread. Here is where some of your networking can be done, by looking for strategic partners and mentors. You can also network by contacting members using private message or emailing anyone you interested in doing business with. With over 5,300 registered users and over 50,000 monthly visitors, networking opportunities on this site are abundant.

You can easily get lost in time, with the number of interesting Blogs and Real Estate articles that are being offered. Their newest feature is the Real Estate Wiki, which is a directory covering everything and anything related to real estate. Check out their free, yes free, property analysis tool for rental properties. It quickly calculates the real estate cap rate, yield, gross rent margin, cash flow, rate of return, etc. A future endeavor for Bigger Pockets will include services for Landlords and Tenants.

Josh Dorkin is an innovative thinker and is proud to offer everything on his site for Free. With all of the informative content already offered on this site, I still feel the best is yet to come from Bigger Pockets, so stayed tuned. I know I certainly look forward to networking with the members of this great site.

So relax, go to www.biggerpockets.com, and get lost in thought for the next 2 hours (or more!). I did, and I loved every minute of it.

Wishing all networking success.

 

Please contact Tracy at TracyP@TheNationalNetWorker.com.