Episode 110 - Building a THRIVING Real Estate Community: Insights from Kathy Portley With Tulsa REIA

Today hosts Braden Cheek, Brian Duck and Joel Thompson bring on special guest Kathy Portley to discuss the importance of networking in real estate and the recent expansion of the Tulsa Real Estate Investors Association.

All right, how is it going? And welcome back to how to invest in commercial. What is uh we have a super exciting show. As you can see, we have another guest on actually in person this time, which I kind of like, I like seeing people, you know, we're not in the COVID bubble anymore. It's nice to have people in the studio. But anyway, before we get to Kay, our amazing guest, I wanted to give a quick update criteria has been doing a ton of deals this year, we have a ton of deals in the pipeline, but this last week, we were able to finally close on the Marine Creek Development, which is our, our Starbucks and Shipley's Doughnuts um build a suit down in Marine Creek which is a suburb of Dallas. So we closed on that last Friday. We're super excited to get going on that um really cool project. Anyway, thanks to everyone who got involved in that. And obviously, if you didn't get involved in that, you're not signed up on our investor list, which if you're not signed up on the investor list by episode 100 a lot, you need to do it. It's so easy go to our website. But anyway, Kay, thanks for coming on.

Kay is with the Tulsa Real Estate Investors Association. Did I get all of that? And she is a local resource here in Tulsa that I personally didn't even know about which I'm ashamed about. But tell us a little bit more about how you got into not only commercial real estate but this Tulsa Real Estate Investors Association and, and kind of what it is. Yeah. So uh the real estate Investor Association, we say Tulsa Ria for short. Uh So Tulsa Ria was started by someone in, oh gosh, early two thousands. Uh he passed away in 2017. It was passed along. I came along probably 2.5 years ago and took it from uh just a few people meeting in a room to, you know, just how many, how many members do you have now? So I started out uh we had 2100 members and we just reed 9200 9200 people in Tulsa Real Estate Investors Association that we didn't even know about. And you, you got it that large and what year did you take over? Uh about 2.5 years ago?

So, gosh, what is that? Uh 2.5 years ago, you took it all the way to over 9000 people. I feel like I asked the question before we get into anything else is. Ok. What do you think we keys or the differences to get it from 2000 to 9000 over the last 2.5 years, I think the, the community building was really the biggest part of it, you know, just, uh, giving, uh, an opportunity for people to chatter about a certain topic, you know, um, their, their trends, you know, in investing. So when it was method, you know, we would, you know, gear it toward the conversations to, would be toward, you know, methods. So people got to ask all their questions. I don't know what that means. What is that? Yeah, that is buy, buy, rehab. Yeah, renovate rent. All right. I know what that is. Yeah. So that, that was a, a trendy method at the time, interest rates have changed, you know, you know, we talk a lot about interest rates or, you know, uh people doing wholesaling, there was a period of time when that was a, a prevalent conversation, you know, now we're um you know, we're in a, we're a different part of the cycle and now it's, you know, sub twos and, you know, taking over loans with, you know, not using uh a lot of your own funds.

You know, lending is always a topic, you know, so we just, you know, provide uh a platform for people to get together and, and ask those questions and, and get together and, and make deals happen together. How often do you meet? So we meet in person. Uh Once a month, it's second Tuesday of every month. We do have a, a location now for the next 24 months, for sure. It's the looney comedy club and event center. And uh they're at 65th in Memorial roughly. Um So we meet there. Uh First net first hour is networking six pm to seven. And then we bring in a, a speaker 7 p.m. till whenever they stop, you say in person, do you have other events or? Yeah, so um we do have some networking events that will, you know, just, you know, take some space at a local bar, you know, kind of a meet up kind of thing. How have we not sponsored this? I'm just saying, I, I just love the fact that it's at six pm at a bar and instead of like 7 a.m. every Wednesday or so interesting story when I first got into real estate and I had no idea what I was doing.

All I was doing was calling on uh newspaper ads for cheap houses. And then one day I got one under contract and I'm like, now what I don't, you know, I don't know who's gonna loan on a North Tulsa house that's in bad shape. And so I ended up going to this real estate uh investor deal. Um I think we met in a hotel at the time. Yeah, that was before my time. But yeah, they did. And uh they happened to have uh like this kind of expo that night where people had booths set up for their services, uh title services, maybe home inspection survey, whatever. And like a buffet for you. And so for me, I had no idea. And so I started talking and one of them was a lender kind of a mortgage broke that specialized in kind of alternative type housing. And I ended up uh finding him, he uh gave me the loans on the first two deals. I would have never gotten those done without him. Chris Bashford, I think was his name uh oru graduate. And so, you know, these, these meetings, you're just like we've always said, you're one contact away and one piece of information away from doing a deal in commercial real estate.

And so, uh I'm an example of that, but now there's 9000 people there for you to go and potentially meet and gain information from and partner with and stuff. So I, I think it's great. Yeah. Well, and, you know, in, in those events will have probably anywhere between, you know, 40 to 50 people to 200 people, you know, on any given night, you know, everybody has families, the soccer practice and that, you know, that kind of thing. Some people aren't, you know, as local to the, the community, you know, maybe they're in Oklahoma City or, you know, even outside of the state. We've got some people that are, you know, a little further away, but they invest here, you know, I assume you have a website where people could go on and see what the subject is and see if that's something they want to attend. Is that right? I do. However, my web developer is working on arranging some things here. So, OK. So how do you get the message out to the 9000 people? Is that a Facebook group? What is the, the easiest method of communication, easiest method right now? Is that Facebook group? Um I know not everyone likes that at everyone batch tagging feature, but that's, that's, you know, I try to use that very sparingly, you know, to, to let everybody know that we've got something going on or I'll, I'll put out the entire month worth of content, you know, topics um website, you know, coming online, you know, I, I want people to be able to go and use that.

You know, it's something like um you know, there's a, a membership feature, there's a, a deal board feature, there's, you know, resources and education features. Is there any cost associated with any of this? Yeah, so uh we, the Facebook is entirely free. You can have an entire existence and, and be an investor without ever having to buy a membership. There are some features that you buying that $250 annual membership does provide a little bit more, uh, tailored experience. Yeah. But I, I think most of these groups, I mean, a lot of them you have to pay to attend and not, not necessarily pay to attend. I go to so many luncheons where I'm not a member of the organization, they'll charge me, you know, $20 for showing up to the meeting or, or whatever. But I think you, you said something earlier that really struck with me. It's like I didn't know what I was doing. So I just started talking like you saw all these people, he maybe had an opportunity in a deal. And I think we've all been in that position where we've had this opportunity. We saw this piece of crap house in the paper, we drove by it and we're like, man, I could fix that up and make some money, but they don't know where to go, right?

What I'm here to say is it's that Expo that probably changed everything, right? I mean, you, you, you said that I'm, I'm not saying that you said that. So it's groups like these where you can walk in and there's, there's title companies, there's lenders, there's investors, there's people who've bought crappy houses and crappy apartment complex and crappy storage unit buildings and crappy industrial buildings and you have to walk in there not knowing anything and, and silent, right? You, you gotta go in there and say, hey, I'm really interested in this opportunity. I've, I've maybe got this opportunity. Do you happen to know anything about finding a lender on a piece crap house in North Tulsa or do you know anything about industrial buildings? Maybe you can help me or do you know somebody I can talk to network a little bit? Right. They're gonna be holding a beer at the event. They're gonna be like, oh, you need to talk to that lady. She's the industrial warehouse or? Oh yeah, that dude writes uh loans like like crazy, you know, go talk to him if he can't get you a loan, you're, you're out of luck or whatever it is, right? You've got to go in there and, and kind of leave your, your pride at the door and say I've got this opportunity. I don't know what to do with it.

Help me and all these people are going to help you for free like they're just going to talk to you. So you wanna follow up on that. Um So tell us some examples of some of the classes or the speakers or the topics that maybe some people might uh learn if they showed up. Sure. So earlier this year we had a community, I'm sorry, partner Tulsa came in and they were telling us about all the uh the opportunities that they have uh with commercial lender or sorry, excuse me, commercial investors. Uh you know, land investors, they have a lot of resources that they get from, you know, various different sources, funding sources outside of Tulsa that they lend into the community here for redevelopment. You know, there are, there are some initiatives that the city has and they have partnered with Community Tulsa or uh partner Tulsa that um they give those uh those resources to people who are specifically in multifamily, specifically in commercial or industrial.

And they're, you know, trying to revive some of those uh those developments. We've got, you know, a lot of investors that do the single family or small multifamily, that's not really what they're focusing on. They are really focusing on those uh those more established investors uh earlier than that. We had. Uh Brendan was doing credit card stacking, you know, kind of, you know, let people know how to use points and stacking, you know, for purchasing real estate or for, you know, uh for travel, for free and we say for free, but you know, it, you get the, the credit card, you spend the money, you get, earn the points. I don't know how free that is, but you know, that certainly you get some rewards that you might not think about. Um uh this last time we had uh Greg Laman from API exchange came and we're talking about 10 31 exchange features that from the IRS code. So, uh you know, those are, those are some recent topics. Uh Next month we have um Lindsay Barber, she's with CCK strategies. You know, she's a real estate tax strategist, you know, to help people plan, uh, how to not wind up at the end of the year and, you know, have to file your taxes and then wish you would have done something.

She's actually a strategist before we get to the end of the year. And do you record these and, like, post them online or? Yeah, I, I'm working on a better technology, uh feature. Yes, we record them so far. The, the what I've recorded has not not been made available. They maybe my, maybe my technology needs to improve. Ok, interesting. I just think like over time you're gonna build up a database of a lot of different episodes. And if you had on your website, you know, where people could click in about the 10 31 or whatever, I think it would draw a lot of traffic. That's the plan. I uh just the execution of that. You know, I, I don't wanna say I'm a one man show. I do have some, some really good help. You know, I have a couple of board members that are really good at helping advise, you know, I'm just trying to build the right team and, and you know, you were asking, you know, how do we get from 2100 people to where we are now? It's building the right team. It's having the right conversations with the right people that can execute with the vision that you have.

So that means that, you know, I've got to communicate that, you know, what that looks like going forward. You know, I, I think about the website, bigger pockets. Uh kind of, it kind of reminds me of what, you know, this Tulsa Real estate Investor Association could do on a smaller scale where it's a total resource uh for everything, real estate, not just commercial but single family and they just, they log so many articles and, and information on there for people to go and see. Yeah. So my plan for the website, what it does look like is a little bit like bigger pockets, a little bit like Angie's List, a little bit like investor lift, you know, something like that. But for the more local market, regional market, maybe, what about people who might be listening that aren't in the Tulsa area? Are you familiar with uh the same organization or, or real similar organizations? We've, we've told our listeners before. They, they need to find something like this here and we didn't even know it was in our backyard. But because you're in this position, are you aware of, of similar organizations all over the country with other uh real estate investor associations, other areas?

Yeah. So uh Joplin and I are actually working on um a local conference that we'll put together and, you know, uh for, for people here regionally, you know, if that can be repeated, then you know, that, that was one to invest in Joplin, weren't you, Brian? That's right. Um, let's see. Um, also, um, so let's say somebody, uh, you had, uh, an event and the topic wasn't someone, something that someone was interested in? Would you encourage them to come anyway? So that they can network? I mean, does, does, does, do your events, uh, lend or meetings, lend time for that or what, what's your comments on that? Yeah. So I do encourage people to come even if the topic doesn't seem to apply to them right now. One, they're going to meet people, you know, that have that, that topic might appeal to them and you might need, you know, a conversation with that caliber of person. So, absolutely, the networking is invaluable. I think that uh going to a meeting where the, the topic is maybe over your head or not down your lane is, uh, you know, an opportunity to ask questions, you know, or it might spark some questions for you.

It might spark a different journey or, you know, uh you know, a node in the path anyway. Yeah. And you said that the networking starts at six networking at six speaker at seven on second Tuesdays of every month, second Tuesday of the month. And then does it end about eight o'clock, 88 15, 8 30 maybe Brian can be a speaker. He'll talk about winning since that's all I did. Oh, my gosh. Anyway. Um, I think like, we should hit on what networking is. Right? Because I go to networking events and a lot of people suck at networking. Here's what networking actually looks like. You go up to somebody you don't know or you don't see very often and you ask them tons of questions and then you shut up, you let them answer them and then if they're hopefully nice enough, they'll, you know, maybe ask you some questions, but that's not really what you're there for. You're there to get as much information out of all of these people that you don't know or don't see very often as possible. That's a, that's a win. That's how, you know, you want networking when you got a ton of contact information and a ton of information from people you don't know or don't see very often.

And here's another, another tip, you're there to get as much information as you can from other people asking them questions, you know, what do you do? How do you do that? What got you into that? But the, the other thing is when people ask you questions, be uh forthcoming with information, don't be coy and don't be secretive. Uh because so many times people, they don't want to really get into what they're doing or how they're doing it. But that's the whole point. And so, um, you know, if somebody asks you what you do, don't just say I'm in real estate that doesn't give them enough information. I buy multi tenant retail centers and I buy apartments and I started with single family homes. Now I've given them enough information to ask a follow up question, man. How did you get, how did you go from single family homes to multi tenant retail or whatever the question is? And so you know the dialogue, you never know where you're gonna end up in that, in that dialogue by sharing information. The key piece of information that you're needing is on the other side of question four. And if you don't get there, if you're too nervous to talk to that person, then you're never going to get the information. Oh, I love that. The key piece of information is on the other side of question four. That's good. Yeah. OK. Well, uh look guys, I think um this show is about encouraging you to look into local resources.

And right now we've given you a local resource here in the Tulsa Metro area with potentially 9000 connects for you to understand the real estate game better. Uh and to find resources and information uh to get into this game that we are telling you is so lucrative. So uh any final thoughts Kay on, on what people should do to get involved, I really encourage people to, you know, jump on the Tulsa Facebook page that again, that is for free. Um You know, start having conversations, jump into you know, if somebody makes a post jump in and, and, and have a comment and make sure you're giving value whenever you, uh, you, you comment or, or make a post and let other people answer your questions. I think that, uh, just being brave enough to, to get started and have conversations is really gonna level up, uh, your, your, your knowledge base and then attend those meetings. You know, I, I love to see people. Yes, we do charge $20 for, for nonmembers to come to the meeting. That's not the reason I love seeing people coming together and making deals happen.

I'm not even part of at all. You know, just they're, they are making connections and, and building wealth for their families based on, you know, just, just coming to meetings. I love it. Yeah, a lot of real estate is, is what, you know, right. Like you have to, you have to know quantitatively how to do a lot of these, these things, but there's an equal part of who, you know, it's, it's who do you know who, who are you gonna sell this asset to? Who are you gonna buy this asset from? Who's going to lease it for you? Who's gonna manage it for you? Who's gonna lend on it? Who's gonna do the title work? Who's going to do the survey? Who's like, there's a lot of people you need to know. So, organizations like these are fantastic at networking. So thank you for, for not starting but continuing to, to lead that on and 7000 members in 2.5 years. That's, that's a big feed. So congrats on that Cathy, thank you again for coming on and everyone else, we will see you again next week.