Last week, Manolis Sfinarolakis, our Community Manager, headed to New York to give the New York City (NYC) Real Estate Investors Association (REIA) a presentation called Social Marketing for Real Estate Investors as the keynote speaker. Below is his account of the event.
The Drive To NYC
Coming off of an amazing trip to DC from October 9th through October 13th, I now find myself driving from Connecticut into New York to give our highly acclaimed Social Marketing for Real Estate Investors presentation to an eager group of investors. The learnings from the DC event has allowed me to be better prepared for this next group of investors and the feedback specifically mentioned that they wanted to see more examples of how we are using social marketing for Patch of Land's business. I tend to agree with them on this. Seeing it is believing it, so I am ready to give this group of investors an inside look at how they can use social marketing for their own endeavors.
Setting Up & Networking
Getting to an event early like I always seem to do allows for some great early networking during setup. Right as the early birds come in, it allows me to speak with them, learn about their real estate businesses, and to identify some friendly faces ahead of my main event presentation. Just like in DC, the quality of investors in NYC was incredible. Many seasoned investors, private money lenders, and residential and commercial developers were piling into the NYC REIA to learn more about real estate crowdfunding. I also had the privilege of meeting Teresa R. Martin, the head of the NYC REIA, who was a great host to not only me but to all who attended.
Leading Up To The Patch of Land Main Event
Teresa began the presentation greeting all the members and sharing her experiences and wisdom as an attorney and real estate investor. She had such a dynamic way of presenting that it kept everyone's attention. She also shared the benefits of being a part of the NYC REIA, including the National REIA Member Chapter benefits that any REIA associated with national receives. As we are friends with the head of the National REIA, we were happy to see that they attracted such an excellent representative like Teresa R. Martin to be a member chapter.
After her presentation, a few of the sponsors of the meetup came up to share their wisdom, including an investor in buying nonperforming or underperforming notes and bringing them back up to health and a sophisticated investor teaching students about the benefits and how tos of commercial real estate investing. The last thing that happened before the main event presentation was a 30 minute segment of networking among the members while Teresa and I set up my presentation. I must say, this REIA group put a premium on networking as should be the case, and I received so many great connections from the evening.
Main Event: Social Marketing for Real Estate Investors
As everyone took their seats, I had the pre-presentation jitters as always. What got me through them however was remembering the great people I met during the networking sessions and I saw their eager and friendly faces ready to take in what Patch of Land and I were going to share with them. I began my presentation the same way I did in the previous event in DC but then remembered their feedback, "Don't read off the slides, just show examples and speak off the cuff." I quickly adjusted course and started showing them how social marketing worked so well for Patch of Land and for others, and immediately I had the same result, the audience loved it!
This time around however I was unable to reveal all the secrets that I had at the REI Expo. Through our partnership with NYC REIA, we actually are coming back to NYC on November 14th to give a full day workshop that will show all of our social marketing techniques in detail. If anyone is in the area, you can register for the full day workshop here. As I went through the presentation, I realized I was running out of time again but this time, it was a firm stop. I quickly switched gears to real estate crowdfunding as the questions from the audience were also interested in our funding solutions. We answered everyones questions and the attendees who remained also asked me a few more questions before we packed up for the evening.
Once again, the event was a huge success and social marketing for real estate investors, coupled with our affiliate program that will be rolled out soon, is something that we can offer all investors no matter what level in their investing career they currently find themselves in. I am excited to continue to meet more and more individuals who are interested in real estate through the REIA's and provide them both real estate crowdfunding and social marketing educational and collaboration opportunities through Patch of Land's offerings.
