Review: Real Estate Alley — A Real Estate Investing Forum

by Jay Thompson on October 25, 2007

Disclosure: The following is a commercial post

Real estate investing — despite the market downturn, folks are still jumping on the bandwagon. Given that there are some fabulous deals to be had out there, that may not be such a bad idea. But jumping into real estate investing without knowing what you are doing can be a recipe for disaster.

Real Estate Alley is a new real estate investing forum. Their "tag line" is "Learn real estate investing". Running on the latest version of vBulletin, the forum is clean and fast. Categories include: Real Estate Investing, Foreclosures, Rehabbing, Short Sales and Rental Properties. A nice coverage of the big investing topics without crowding the forum as many new forums are inclined to do.

The forum is new, with the oldest posts dated around August 18. There are currently 75 registered users — not a bad number for a new forum in a crowded field. The forum posts are a little sparse — 36 threads containing 98 posts, but that is to be expected.

Some of the users are obviously brand new to real estate investing, but there were many solid answers to newbie questions by what appear to be seasoned investors. I saw no signs of "flaming" or derogatory comments toward rookie investors — a great sign for a forum that proposes to help people learn real estate investing. In many of the larger, more established investing forums, it is often difficult for new members or those less knowledgeable to break into the forum and feel comfortable posting. Not so at Real Estate Alley.

The vast majority of Internet forums die a slow death. New real estate investing forums are up against some very large, and very well established forums such as Biggerpockets.com, REIClub.com and CREOnline (though its format is just awful to navigate). This is going to make it difficult for Real Estate Alley to get a foothold and grow, but if you want to get in on a friendly forum in the beginning stage — whether to learn or to help — then Real Estate Alley could be one possibility.

[tags]Real Estate Alley, real estate investing, real estate forum[/tags]

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Eric@Arizona Discoun

Very interesting read - it's why I love this business... never static and always dynamic. Here is to profits!

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Cashflow Cindy

This is a great time to buy Real Estate with all of the foreclosures. Never before have we had the wonderful opportunites to purchase Real Estate at such remarkable prices. It wonderful when we can all share our experiences with each other.

**Cashflow Cindy´s last blog post..Real Estate Investing - Tenants</abbr></abbr>

Lease Agreements

I checked out their real estate forum, it seemed all right, but it wasn't particularly active. I noticed they don't allow signatures, and they don't allow links until after a seasoning period... perhaps they might attract a broader participant base if they were more lenient with signatures or links.

**Lease Agreements´s last blog post..Georgia Landlord Tenant Law and Regulations</abbr></abbr>

Jenny @ une hypotheq

A "friendly" forum is just what we need especially to newbies like me who knows little about investing but wants to learn more about it. The least I'd expect to get is a sarcastic answer from my innocent questions. Thanks a lot for this post!

Jason

Before investing i always advice my friend to read about it on the internet , from forums or a book by a good real estate expert. One example i can give is www.deangraziosi.com/

**Jason´s last blog post..List of Possible Note Buyers</abbr></abbr>

Ned@BaltimoreRealEst

I like forums and hadn't heard of this one, thanks. i also like the idea of "this week last year" I would have probably not found this post if it weren't for those links.

**Ned´s last blog post..Lessons from Warren Buffett on Real Estate</abbr></abbr>

InvestWithPassion.co

Good luck on Real Estate Alley, like the name.

You are right that there are some big fish in the real estate investing waters. The good thing is there is LOTS OF ROOM. New readers, learners are coming online and around to real estate everyday. You can make it happen.

Good luck and we may stroll threw there from time to time. Us real estate Internet marketers have to stick together.

Hey, would you be open to a banner swap? I post real estate Alley 125x125 and you do the same on this site.

Willing to listen if you are?

Good luck!

Phoenix Townhouses

It looks like the forum needs all the help it can get! Thanks for the heads-up though. Have you ever considered adding a forum to your site?

Joshua Dorkin @ Bigg

Thanks for the mention! I definitely agree that some larger forums can certainly be intimidating to newbies, but we at BiggerPockets make it our mission to make sure everyone feels welcome. Hopefully we'll see you around the site!