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.
Technorati Tags: Real Estate Alley, real estate investing, real estate forum
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Dining Room Set 10.26.07 at 7:14 am
As a learner, I shall take your advise.
Joshua Dorkin @ BiggerPockets Forums 10.27.07 at 10:00 am
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!
Hasan 02.10.08 at 6:41 am
Thanks for this good forum information.
Phoenix Townhouses 02.12.08 at 8:03 pm
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?
Dan 03.18.08 at 8:12 am
Thanks for the Tip. I am going to check them out.
Phoenix Luxury Homes 08.01.08 at 10:04 am
That was a great post. I will have to bookmark this site so I can read it later.