# What's the community group built around helping each other with rental properties? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-community-group-built-around-helping-each-other-with-rental-properties/797245 "2017-09-25T01:31:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-community-group-built-around-helping-each-other-with-rental-properties/797245/1 "2017-09-25T01:31:46Z")
Years ago a friend took me to a meeting of people who were all giving and taking advice on building up income from rental properties. It reminded me a little of Amway, except they weren’t selling a product. You could go to some paid seminars, but that seemed to be in the background. Does anyone have a clue as to what this group might be? This particular chapter or whatever was meeting in Orange County, CA. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-community-group-built-around-helping-each-other-with-rental-properties/797245/2 "2017-09-25T02:19:43Z")
Same as any investment “advice”. These people realize that can make more money selling an investment system to other people than they can just investing their own money, since it’s much less capital intensive. In reality, anyone offering you investment advice to get into a market that they are operating in is either altruistic (in which case, why are they charging you?), stupid (limits their own investment options), or actually isn’t making any money in the way they describe, but can make it sound like it’s easy to make money that way. I see the same thing with options trading ads on Facebook. Now, if there’s no real emphasis on buying a product, it could just be people with a common interest getting together to share tips since they don’t have the capital to pursue many more opportunities on their own, but might be able to find efficiencies with their current properties. Real Estate investing can be a good gig - but it is subject to a lot of variance. If you can’t get a tenant, or your tenant trashes your place, you can be out a lot of money. If you keep a good tenant a long time, you’ll make a boat-load of cash. Commercial real estate is a much better market than residential as there’s less worry about your property being trashed, but there’s a much higher barrier to entry. I personally have never heard of any such club. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-community-group-built-around-helping-each-other-with-rental-properties/797245/3 "2017-09-25T12:12:34Z")
Typically its being orchestrated by someone who is getting commission (agent runs it ) or even getting his own assets sold (vendor runs it )… or even getting paid for but not handed over. (confidence or ponzi scammer runs it). One thing that happens is that any sort of ‘rent to buy’ or unsecured investment scheme means that if the vendor has to go bankrupt, the creditor is left with nothing. What in it for the vendor ? he kept his own home , and/or other assets, by changing mortgages into unsecured loans. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-community-group-built-around-helping-each-other-with-rental-properties/797245/4 "2017-09-25T12:18:39Z")
I live on the other coast, but there are quite a few of them here. As other posters have alluded to, you can find them on line or on the radio, but why would you want to? If this was so easy and so secure, why isn’t everyone doing it, and why is he giving it away instead of having his company doing it while he sits on a beach with a fruity rum drink? ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-community-group-built-around-helping-each-other-with-rental-properties/797245/5 "2017-09-25T18:34:25Z")
Apparently I misunderstood the group, and I’m glad I didn’t participate at the time. I thought it was more of a self-help group with lots of available free events, but I guess not. > **[Nouveau Riche (college)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_Riche_(college))** > > Nouveau Riche was a multi-level marketing company and a non-accredited vocational school specializing in real estate investing. Class topics ranged from introductory real estate investing to advanced techniques such as creative real estate investing techniques including wholesaling, multi-units, and short sales; examples of course titles are "Fix & Flip" and "Creative Financing." > The company takes its name from the French term nouveau riche, which refers to those with "new money," particularly i... ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-community-group-built-around-helping-each-other-with-rental-properties/797245/6 "2017-09-25T20:47:20Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > Apparently I misunderstood the group, and I’m glad I didn’t participate at the time. I thought it was more of a self-help group with lots of available free events, but I guess not. > > [Nouveau Riche (college) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_Riche_(college)) [Fixed link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_Riche_(college)) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-community-group-built-around-helping-each-other-with-rental-properties/797245/7 "2017-09-26T21:38:32Z")
Such organizations are common in medium to large cities, but they are mostly very local. Common names include Landlord’s Association, Multi-Housing Association, Rental Property Owners Group, etc. Avoid ones that include Real Estate Investment in the name – those are usually the pyramid-scheme type scams. The local groups often can be self-help or common-problem groups, giving each other advice on dealing with common problems, recommendations on good repair/maintenance companies, etc. They often offer help like libraries of sample leases, sample warning & eviction letters, and even sometimes listings of problem tenants. And their meetings include a lot of telling stories about managing their property, and suggestions about common policies & procedures about how to deal with tenants, and so forth. But the local groups often come to be dominated by the biggest landlords, those that own a lot of low-end properties, so that this is their full-time occupation. Commonly called _“slumlords”_. Then the meetings can become dominated by tenant-bashing, political attempts to fight off city inspections, etc., and thus a turnoff to smaller landlords who try to manage their property responsibly. These people may leave, and the group deteriorates into a political pressure group. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-community-group-built-around-helping-each-other-with-rental-properties/797245/8 "2017-09-27T02:54:03Z")
Isn’t that same kinda scam ‘Trump University’ was?