Owning lots of rentals isn’t the goal.

Owning rentals that give you lots more income and lots more time is.

Too many investors spend years building a “retirement portfolio”, only to discover they've built themselves another demanding full-time job. The bigger the portfolio gets, the more their freedom disappears.

Lindsey Jensen believes that's completely backwards.

In this full-day workshop, she'll show you not only how to continue buying rental properties creatively, but also how to build the systems that let you own them without your business owning you.

The morning focuses on creative acquisitions, including master leasing, subject-to purchases, lease purchases, cash strategies, and the marketing that consistently attracts motivated sellers, including:

• How to structure creative acquisitions using master leasing, subject-to, lease purchases, cash, and seller-focused negotiations
• Marketing strategies that bring motivated sellers to you instead of chasing listings

Then, after lunch, Lindsey shifts to the part few investors ever learn: creating operating systems that allow a rental portfolio to grow without consuming your life.

You'll discover:

• Why “passive income” isn't passive at first—and how to make sure it eventually becomes what you really wanted
• The tenant screening, leases, and expectations you should have (they prevent many problems before they start)
• How standard operating procedures, delegation, and AI can dramatically reduce your workload
• Which responsibilities belong on your desk—and which shouldn't

Lindsey knows whereof she speaks; she built a portfolio valued at more than $12 million in less than eight years, and today manages more than 70 rental units in just a few hours each week. She'll show you the practical systems that made that possible—and how you can begin building a rental business that creates freedom instead of another job.

Think you own a real estate business?

If everything still depends on you—finding deals, following up with sellers, booking appointments, managing properties, answering messages—you may actually own a very stressful job.

In this all-day, hands-on workshop, REI BlackBook founder and CEO Damon Remy will help you stop puttering around with AI and start using it to build a Real Estate Operating System that handles more of the day-to-day work without your constant attention.

And this isn't a day of watching Damon demonstrate cool AI tricks.

You'll be building alongside him.

You'll learn how to:

• Determine what AI systems you really NEED—this is all about your vision for your business and what YOU do in it. If you don’t have such a business vision, Damon will make sure you know how to get one, because otherwise all this AI stuff is just a toy.
• Find motivated sellers sooner using AI and predictive data.
• Automate lead follow-up to keep prospects engaged and help book appointments.
• Automate property-management, communication, and follow-up tasks that eat up your time.
• Turn scattered tasks into repeatable systems that don't depend on you remembering and handling everything.
• Start building your own Real Estate Operating System so the business can keep moving when you're not working in it.

THIS IS A WORKING WORKSHOP—BRING YOUR COMPUTER

To fully participate, bring an internet-enabled laptop, iPad, or similar device. You'll be creating AI-powered systems for your own business in real time.

You'll also need REI BlackBook to follow along. If you're not already a user, you'll receive a link for a free 30-day trial before the event.

The goal isn't to spend a day learning about AI.

It's to start building a business that can keep working when you aren't.

EVERYONE

We’re giving up on the fiction we know exactly what Pete Fortunato is going to say when we give him an hour to talk. We don’t. Even when he’s given us a title, we still don’t. Even when we’ve asked him to address particular topics, We. Still. Don’t.

And we're fine with that.

Because Pete has spent so many decades studying our industry, thinking about real estate, talking to sellers, solving problems, and structuring deals that we'd rather give him a room full of investors and let him decide what they most need to hear.

So what will Pete talk about this year? Whatever the hell Pete wants to talk about.

It might be real estate philosophy, how to treat people, why the government is your nastiest partner, negotiation, problem-solving, deal structure, or one of those deceptively simple Pete observations that makes the most experienced investors in the room suddenly start taking notes.

He’ll decide by listening to what people have been talking about at the Summit, by paying attention to where investors seem to be stuck, and by watching what’s happening in the market right now.

And then he'll teach.

That's the agenda.

If you've never heard Pete before, come because you'll get a chance to watch a deeply experienced creative dealmaker think out loud.

If you have heard Pete before, we don't need to tell you to come, because we know you’ll already be there.

If you’re a really smart, really experienced investor, and your main goal these days is to find rooms full of investors who are even smarter and more experienced than you are, this is your room.

The minimum requirement is five years of full-time investing experience and at least 50 completed deals, but that still doesn’t really describe who attends. Our typical participant has more than 20 years of experience and brings a depth of knowledge and hard-earned wisdom that’s pretty stunning.

And the topic is…whatever you want it to be.

Year after year, it’s 50 of the most experienced independent investors, sitting together all-day, talking candidly about the challenges they’re facing, the opportunities they’re seeing, the deals they’re doing, the problems they’re trying to solve, what’s working now, and what definitely isn’t.

For 20 years, the DealMaker Forum has been the place where hyper-experienced investors go to build relationships, learn new tactics, and improve their businesses in a room full of people who really “get it.”

$597 includes the Thursday DealMaker Forum and admission to the entire National Real Estate Investing Summit.

Out of respect for the intent of this Forum, do not sign up unless you’ve been a full-time investor for at least 5 years, and have closed at least 50 deals. If you do, you’ll be removed from the room, and your investment will NOT be refunded.

Most real estate investors think almost exclusively about buying properties. But that's only one side of the business.

Notes can generate passive income, reduce management headaches, diversify your investments by geography and asset class, and put capital to work while it’s waiting for the right property to come along.

Properties can create cash flow, appreciation, equity, and long-term wealth.

Knowing when—and why—to own one, the other, or both can make your portfolio stronger in changing markets.

After more than two decades investing in wholesales, renovations, rentals, and private lending, Darrin Carey has built businesses on both sides of the equation. In this session, he'll compare the strengths and tradeoffs of notes and properties so you can decide how each fits your own investing goals.

You'll learn:

• The practical advantages and limitations of owning notes versus owning real estate.
• Different types of note investments, including options for investors with modest amounts of capital.
• How performing notes are evaluated and where investors find opportunities.
• Why combining notes and properties can diversify both income and risk.
• A practical framework for deciding which strategy best fits your current stage of investing.

If you've only thought about growing your portfolio by buying more properties, this session will introduce another tool that may deserve a place in your long-term investment strategy.

Sponsored by

Most nonprofits spend an enormous amount of time and energy raising money. There are grants to write, donors to cultivate, and fundraising events to plan. Before long, the organization can find itself spending almost as much effort funding the mission as fulfilling it.

Brian Buckelew believes there's a better way—at least for real estate investors who are passionate about a mission.

Drawing on his extensive experience leading organizations focused on human development—from childhood through aging—Brian will show how nonprofits can strategically use real estate to generate income that supports their mission and creates long-term sustainability.

You'll learn:

• How nonprofits can use real estate investments to support mission-driven work.
• Why asset ownership can create greater stability than relying solely on donations and grants.
• When housing-related businesses and programs may be appropriate within a nonprofit structure.
• Common legal and tax considerations, including situations that may trigger Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT).
• How to evaluate whether a real estate strategy aligns with an organization's mission and long-term goals.

Whether you're already involved in a nonprofit, serve on a board, operate mission-based housing programs, or simply want to understand an overlooked intersection between real estate and social impact, this session will challenge the traditional fundraising model and introduce a different way of thinking about sustainability.

If you really believe that real estate investors make money by finding and solving problems, you should consider this one:

Today, plenty of would-be homeowners can qualify for a house. The problem is that they can't afford the house they actually need—or want—at a monthly payment they can live with.

What if you could invest in residential real estate, benefit from long-term appreciation, depreciation, and mortgage paydown, and have someone else living in the property who treats it like their own home?

That's the idea behind equity-sharing agreements, a creative real estate strategy that was popular back in the 1970s, when rising home prices, inflation, and interest rates were creating affordability problems for buyers.

In this session, Dave Corsi, a 30-plus-year veteran of creative real estate investing and president of Metroria in New Jersey, explains how investors can partner with homeowners and prospective homeowners by providing down payment funds or equity in exchange for a share of the property's financial benefits.

You'll discover:

• How equity-sharing agreements work, and how they differ from traditional rental ownership or simply lending money to a homebuyer.
• How to structure partnerships with homeowners and prospective buyers that help them get into homes they might not otherwise be able to afford.
• How investors can participate in long-term appreciation and mortgage paydown while the homeowner occupies and cares for the property.
• How depreciation and other potential ownership benefits fit into the equation, depending on the structure of the agreement.
• Why this older strategy deserves a fresh look when the cost of buying a home is keeping so many potential buyers on the sidelines.

If you're looking for another way to build real estate wealth while helping people solve a very real housing problem, Dave will introduce you to a strategy that's been around for decades—and may deserve a place in your investing business today.

You're running a real estate business. You're finding deals, managing properties, raising money, and making investments.

So why are you still using a retirement plan designed for somebody with a regular job?

Or worse, not funding a retirement plan at all?

If you're self-employed or own a business, you may have access to retirement plans that allow you to set aside substantially more money than a standard IRA. Depending on the plan and how it's structured, you may be able to invest those retirement dollars in the same kinds of assets you already understand: real estate, notes, and private lending.

The trick is knowing which plan makes sense for you—and following the rules.

In this practical 45-minute lunch and learn session, CPA, real estate and note investor, and MidAtlantic IRA founder Jack Kiley will explain three retirement plans specifically worth considering if you're a business owner: the Solo 401(k), SEP IRA, and SIMPLE IRA.

You'll learn:

• Which plan fits your business: How Solo 401(k)s, SEP IRAs, and SIMPLE IRAs differ, and why the right choice depends on your business and employment situation.
• How much you can contribute: Why business owner plans can allow substantially higher contributions than traditional or Roth IRAs, subject to eligibility and IRS limits.
• Why timing matters: How plan establishment and contribution deadlines affect what you can do for the current tax year.

Jack will also explain why choosing the right retirement account provider matters when your investments involve actual real estate transactions instead of publicly traded securities.

If you're building wealth through real estate but haven't given the same attention to how you're building retirement wealth, this is 45 minutes well spent.

Sponsored by

Lunch will be provided for attendees who get lunch tickets from the sponsor’s table.

There comes a point when some rental property owners realize they still like the benefits of real estate just fine. It’s the tenants, repairs, vacancies, management decisions, and ongoing responsibilities they could happily do without.

Selling everything may solve the management problem—but it can create another set of decisions about taxes, reinvestment, income, and what comes next.

In this 45-minute Lunch & Learn, Jay Fordice and Andres Ichaso of JRW Investments will explain ways investors can transition from directly managed properties into passive real estate investments, including using a 1031 exchange to acquire interests in Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs).

You’ll learn:

• How a DST can qualify as replacement property in a 1031 exchange and allow an investor to move from active management to passive ownership—plus access different property types, geographic markets, and larger real estate assets.
• Why retiring, burned-out, and out-of-state property owners may consider DSTs—and the important tradeoffs, including illiquidity, lack of management control, and investment risk.
• How UPREITs can potentially provide another path toward diversification and partial liquidity.
• Why due diligence matters before deciding whether any of these strategies fit your goals.

If you’re considering selling properties because you’re ready to simplify your life—not necessarily because you’re ready to leave real estate—this session will introduce alternatives worth understanding before you make that decision.

Sponsored by

Get your lunch ticket at the JRW Investments Table!

Insurance costs shouldn’t be something you have to guess at before you buy.

Weather-related losses, regional risk profiles, available coverage, legislative considerations, and underwriting decisions can all affect what coverage is available and what it costs.

And if you're buying outside your home market—or simply assuming that what worked on your last property will work on the next one—that's something you need to understand before there's a problem.

Nathan Guthrie, NREIG Director of Sales and Business Development with nearly a decade of insurance industry experience, will break down the geographic side of investment-property insurance: why location matters, what risks investors should be looking for, and how those differences can affect your insurance decisions.

You'll learn:

• What factors can influence property risk, coverage options, and insurance costs from one region to another.
• How risk profiles differ across geographic areas.
• Practical steps that may improve insurability of properties in higher-risk locations.
• How geographic considerations can affect the coverage an investor needs.
• Legislative considerations that can affect rental properties in particular regions.

If you own in multiple markets, are considering investing outside your own backyard, or simply want to better understand how location affects the protection of your portfolio, this session will give you a more useful framework for asking the right insurance questions before you buy—and while you own.

Sponsored by

Lunch will be provided for attendees with sponsor lunch tickets.

You already know how to find deals, put them together, and get them closed.

The problem is that your “business” still depends on you to do nearly everything—and the more deals you do, the busier and more overwhelmed you get.

So what would change if your business could do more deals, manage more properties, or find more clients without requiring any more of your time?

The Business-Building Mastermind isn’t really about real estate. It’s about creating the systems, people, and processes that turn your real estate investing into an actual business—one that can do more deals without requiring you to personally do more work.

This is only for active investors who already have the experience and knowledge to do deals, but who want to scale without spending even more time working in their business.

This mastermind is where you work on the issues holding you back from having the business of your dreams. You’ll choose the challenge to bring and work on, such as:

• What should I systematize first?
• How do I turn what’s in my head into a process someone else can follow?
• Who should I hire, and what should I have them do?
• How do I make sure the work gets done correctly without constantly checking it myself?
• How do I scale without creating an even bigger job for myself?
• How do I do more deals in less time—and build a business that can operate when I’m not there?

This is a true mastermind, not a canned presentation. Each of the 12 participants will get dedicated time to bring their biggest business-building challenge to Bob and the group—and leave with ideas and next steps for solving it.

Limited to 12 active investors. This is an all-day event, and you must attend the entire day.

Registration: $597 per person.

You’re investing in real estate for your “today” income and wealth.

Why isn’t your retirement plan doing the same for your tomorrow?

We’ve heard all the reasons: “I don’t know how.” “I don’t have the spare cash to put into a retirement account right now.” “My 401(k) doesn’t let me invest in real estate.” “I don’t have enough in my account to buy a house yet.”

Give John Bowens 90 minutes, and he’ll show you why you can and should be using your retirement account to invest in real estate, no matter who you are or where you’re starting.

He’ll share:

• Why the money to fund your first retirement investment may be hiding in plain sight.
• How investors use retirement accounts to buy rentals, fund rehabs, make private loans, purchase notes, and participate in partnerships—the same kinds of investing you’re already doing, with tax-free or tax-deferred potential.
• Why even a little money—think as little as $500—in your retirement account can lead to meaningful wealth if you use it right.
• Common misconceptions that prevent investors from getting started—and why getting started now with a little can be better than waiting until you have a lot.

This session is designed for investors who are newer to using retirement funds to invest in real estate and notes. If you're looking for clear information and examples of how to get started, be here!

Sponsored by

There's a little-discussed secret in the multifamily market. It sits between the residential finance world of 1–4 unit properties and the bigger apartment complexes that attract syndicators and larger commercial loans.

And that's exactly why Barukh Rohde likes it.

Over the last nine years, Barukh has grown his own portfolio to 85.5 units in three states, focusing on 5–19 unit properties. In this session, he'll explain why these not-quite-small, not-quite-big properties have become his bread and butter—and what an experienced rental owner needs to understand before buying one.

He'll dig into the actual mechanics, including:

• How financing changes once you move beyond four units, including 5–8 unit DSCR loans, small-bank financing, global DSCR, and how the options compare.
• Where to find 5–19 unit properties, from wholesalers and on-market listings to direct-to-owner prospecting.
• Why these properties can offer useful economies of scale while still being small enough for hands-on management.

Whatever you might have learned about apartment investing in the past, 5–19 units deserve a serious look, and this is your chance to learn from a real-life investor who understands the pros and cons.

Ask three real estate investors how you should hold title to your properties, and you'll probably get five answers.

• “Put every property in its own LLC.”
• “No, use a land trust.”
• “Set up a Wyoming LLC.”
• “Don’t bother with all that asset protection stuff, just own it in your own name.”
• “Whatever you do, don't do THAT.”

No wonder investors are confused.

So how about you get your information from an actual attorney who’s also an actual real estate investor, instead?

In this half-day workshop, attorney William Bronchick will help you sort through the competing advice and understand what LLCs, corporations, land trusts, and other ownership structures actually do—so you can make the decisions about how to hold and protect your real estate that work best for you.

You'll explore questions including:

• When an LLC makes sense—and when another entity may be more appropriate.
• Whether you need a separate LLC for every property.
• What to consider when deciding which state to form an entity in.
• The differences among LLCs, S corporations, C corporations, land trusts, and living trusts.
• How land trusts fit into an investor's overall ownership and asset-protection structure—and what they can do other than hold title.

The goal isn't to create the most complicated, multi-tier, multi-state plan you can; it's to understand what each tool does, what it doesn't do, and what questions to ask when you structure your own portfolio.

If you already own real estate—or you're about to—this workshop will help you have a much smarter conversation about how you should own and protect it.

We’ve all seen them (and sadly, some of us own a few): properties that “work on paper” but don't produce enough rent to justify owning them.

Shared housing offers a different way to think about those properties. Instead of renting to one household, you create housing that serves multiple residents while potentially generating substantially more income from the same asset.

So yes, you make more money—but you also provide more affordable housing and create a business that’s impactful and scalable.

In this session, Tiffani Ray will explain how the major shared-housing models work, where they fit, and how investors can determine whether the strategy makes sense for their market, properties, and goals.

You'll learn:

• How occupancy optimization can increase income compared to traditional rental strategies.
• The differences between licensed care homes, unlicensed shared housing, and PadSplit-style models.
• How operators work to reduce turnover, stabilize occupancy, and create more predictable income.
• The systems, staffing, compliance considerations, and support services involved in scaling.
• How to determine where you fit in the shared-housing ecosystem as an investor, operator, landlord, rehabber, or entrepreneur.

This session is designed for investors looking beyond traditional rental models who want to understand a strategy that combines housing demand, operational systems, and cash-flow potential.

Everybody looking for apartment deals seems to be chasing the same thing: the property. And they keep finding the same thing: sellers still want a price too high to justify in the current market—often because they owe too much to sell for the right price.

But what if you approached the opportunity from a different direction—and went after the debt instead?

Sri Gan specializes in off-market and distressed acquisitions across mortgage notes, multifamily, and commercial assets. In this advanced session, he'll show how matured and otherwise defaulted commercial mortgage notes can create opportunities investors who only search for properties never see.

This isn't “buy a bad note and hope something good happens.” Sri will dig into the underwriting and due diligence required before you commit your capital.

You'll learn about:

• How Sri sources distressed and non-performing mortgage notes directly from sellers and servicers.
• What he investigates when a multifamily or commercial loan is in financial or technical default.
• How payoff analysis, unpaid principal balance verification, title and deed research, and estoppel review help uncover risks before you buy.
• Why you still need to underwrite the underlying real estate—and verify the seller's numbers rather than accepting the stated NOI.
• How to think through multiple possible exits instead of underwriting a deal around one hoped-for outcome.

Sri will also draw on his multifamily acquisition experience, including a recent 59-unit deal where his analysis found that the seller's stated NOI was overstated by nearly $100,000 because property taxes and insurance expenses had been excluded.

If you're already looking for apartment or commercial opportunities, this session will give you another place to look for them: not just at the property, but at the paper behind it.

Bring Your Deal. You’ll Get Funding, or You’ll Get Answers.

Got a rehab that needs hard money? A rental that needs long-term financing? A new build? A deal that needs a private lender, a partner, or something more creative than a conventional loan?

Bring it.

Fund My Deal is a live, interactive funding session where Summit attendees bring actual real estate deals in front of a panel representing different sources and approaches to real estate financing—including hard money, private money, DSCR lending, and creative funding.

You’ll present the deal. The panel will look at it from their particular funding perspectives. And then we’ll find out: Who might fund it? With what terms? On what basis? What questions do they need answered? And what, if anything, is keeping this deal from getting financed?

And that last question may be the most educational part of the session.

Because you won’t just see the slam-dunk deals that lenders love. You’ll see deals they won’t fund—and hear why. Better yet, you may learn what could be changed about the deal, its structure, or the funding request to turn a “no” into a deal that has a better shot at getting funded.

By watching real deals get evaluated in real time, you’ll get a better understanding of:

• How different kinds of lenders look at the same deal.
• Why a deal that works for one source of money may not work for another.
• What makes a lender interested—and what makes them back away.
• How the structure of a deal or funding request can affect its financeability.
• What funding possibilities may exist beyond the first lender or loan product you thought of.

Bring a real deal that needs money, or just come ready to watch other investors put theirs to the test.

Either way, you’re going to learn a lot about what makes a deal fundable—and meet the people who can fund them!

Finding great deals is only half the battle. The other half is having access to the capital to actually close them.

Most of us find one funding source—the bank, a hard money lender, seller financing—and hope it fits every opportunity. Nick DiFederico will show you a more flexible approach: building a funding toolbox that combines multiple financing options, including unsecured business capital, to help you preserve cash, increase buying power, and pursue more opportunities.

In this practical session, you'll learn where unsecured business funding fits into an overall financing strategy, when it can make sense, and where it may not.

You'll discover:

• What “unsecured business capital” really is, and how it compares to other common funding options.
• How it works alongside other funding sources for acquisitions, renovations, and business growth.
• What it costs, and what you have to do to get it.
• Why preserving your own cash is often more important than what you pay to get financing.

Whether you're buying your first investment property or expanding an established business, you'll leave with a better understanding of how different funding tools can work together to support your investing goals.

Sponsored by

Most real estate investors spend years building portfolios—but far fewer build a financial strategy that's just as strong as the properties they own.

What happens when you need liquidity? When an opportunity comes along but all your wealth is tied up in equity? Or when you simply want your money working in more than one place?

In this practical session, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Amanda Neely will show you how to build a financial framework that supports your investing business instead of competing with it. Rather than replacing real estate, you'll learn how to strengthen your overall financial position so you can weather market changes, seize opportunities, and build lasting financial independence.

You'll discover:

• How to build wealth beyond your real estate portfolio without abandoning what already works.
• Strategies to improve liquidity while continuing to grow your investments.
• Ways to strengthen cash flow without sacrificing long-term goals.
• Tax-efficient financial strategies that complement real estate investing.
• A framework for creating greater financial flexibility and resilience.

If most of your net worth is tied up in real estate, this session will help you think more strategically about the rest of your financial picture.

Sponsored by

Can’t “make the numbers work” on rentals right now?

It might be time to consider a new business using the same properties: mid-term rentals.

Mid-term rentals serve a very different guest than the typical weekend vacation rental: relocating professionals, traveling workers, families displaced by insurance claims, and people who need a furnished place to live while they’re between homes.

And the good news is, those guests generally aren’t choosing properties because of the pool, hot tub, or Instagram-worthy view, which opens up some interesting possibilities for your ordinary rentals.

Vivian Yip will break down how she approaches 30-, 60-, and 90+ day stays, including how she combines short- and mid-term rental strategies to pursue stronger occupancy and reduce expensive gaps in the calendar.

You’ll learn:

• Who books 30+ day furnished stays—and why understanding the guest comes before choosing the property.
• How to evaluate whether an existing long- or short-term rental could be repositioned for mid-term demand, and how doing so may increase cash flow.
• How systematizing mid-term rentals can make them easier to fill and manage.

If you own rentals—or already operate short-term rentals and are tired of depending entirely on a revolving door of short stays—this session will give you another model to evaluate.

You invested $50,000 in a passive syndication.

So…what, exactly, do you own?

An interest in real estate? Shares in an LLC? Debt? Debt secured by shares of an LLC? And if you decide six months from now that you want your money back, can you actually sell your investment—or are you committed for far longer than you realized?

Private Placement Memorandums (PPMs) and the related investment documents are supposed to tell you what you’re investing in, how the investment is structured, what your rights are, and what risks you’re accepting. The trouble is, they can be long, technical, and easy to skim—especially when you’re excited about the investment or the person promoting it.

Todd VanMeter has invested in dozens of private placements himself, and he has spent decades learning to translate complicated legal and financial concepts into plain English.

In this 90-minute session, he’ll help you become a more careful reader of private investment documents, including how to:

• Determine what you are actually buying and what security you really have.
• Understand important distinctions between equity, ownership interests, debt, and debt secured by other interests.
• Identify provisions that affect whether—and under what circumstances—you can get out of the investment.
• Read dense investment language more critically and recognize areas you need to understand before committing your money.
• Ask better questions when the documents don’t match your understanding of the investment.

This isn’t about turning you into a securities attorney in 90 minutes—it’s about making sure that when you make a private investment, you have a much better idea of what you’re agreeing to.

Don't even think about investing in a syndication or private placement until you've been to this session!

Is this a good time to buy apartments?

Are there still good commercial deals out there?

And if you’re an independent investor who’s mostly done houses, is commercial real estate even realistically within your reach?

For 45 minutes, we’re putting those questions—and a bunch more—before a panel of experienced investors who are actually involved in apartments, commercial properties, and commercial notes.

This isn’t “Commercial Real Estate 101,” and it isn’t going to be 45 minutes of people telling you that everything is a great opportunity if you just think positively enough.

It’s a candid conversation about the challenges, opportunities, and reality of investing in these asset classes in 2026.

We’ll dig into questions like:

• Are apartments overpriced—and if so, what would make one worth buying anyway?
• Where are experienced investors seeing opportunities in commercial real estate?
• What kinds of properties or deals would our panelists be very cautious about right now?
• Does getting into commercial real estate really require a giant pile of your own money?
• What are some ways independent investors can participate in larger deals?
• Where do commercial notes fit into the picture—and when might owning the debt be more interesting than owning the property?
• What do investors who already operate in these spaces wish residential investors understood before trying to make the jump?

You won’t leave this 45-minute panel knowing everything there is to know about commercial real estate, but you will leave knowing who to build relationships with, and with a better sense of what experienced investors are seeing in 2026!

Yes, if you play your cards right, there is such a thing as 0% interest credit.

And yes, if you have that, you can use it for everything from gap funding for your flips to holding costs, marketing, and equipment and tech investments you need to make to scale your business.

In this lunch-and-learn, you’ll find out:

• How to tap 0% business funding.
• How to use it to get capital for whatever you need it for.
• How to fund more deals and expand faster.

Sponsored by

Lunch will be provided for attendees with sponsor lunch tickets.

You understand what private money is. You know that you need the right contracts and disclosures for your state. You’re already doing deals.

The problem is that you aren’t raising enough private money to do all the deals you want to do.

That’s what this mastermind is designed to help you solve.

This is a true mastermind—not a class or a presentation. Chad Harris will lead a small group of active investors who share the same basic goal: finding more private lenders, raising more money, and becoming better at getting potential lenders to say yes.

Each participant gets an “ask”: time focused specifically on your situation, what’s keeping you from raising more private money, and what you should do next. Then Chad and the other investors in the room will help you think it through, share what has worked for them, and identify approaches you may not have considered.

The mastermind is limited to 12 “units.” You may attend by yourself or bring your spouse or investing partner, but each unit receives one ask.

This mastermind is for you if:

• You understand how private lending works and know that you need appropriate legal documents for your area.
• You are actively doing real estate deals.
• Not having enough private money is limiting the number or kinds of deals you can do.
• You’re willing to talk honestly about what you’ve tried, what isn’t working, and where you need help.
• You want real answers to your specific challenges and are willing to help other participants get answers to theirs.

Registration: $597 per person.

This is an all-day event, and you must attend the entire day!

What if your teenager could learn the money and leadership skills most adults wish they had—while having a blast doing it?

The Youth Academy is a two-day, high-energy workshop for 8th–12th graders that combines serious financial education with unforgettable hands-on activities. Students will gain a strong, lasting foundation in concepts that prepare them not just for adulthood, but for leadership and independence.

In this two-day Academy, students will explore:

• The Cash Flow Quadrant and why the “right side” matters.
• The difference between assets and liabilities—and why most people get it wrong.
• How to think with an investor’s mindset.
• The fundamentals of cash flow, taxes, and interest.
• How to leverage OPT (Other People’s Time) and OPM (Other People’s Money).
• The importance of purpose and generational wealth.
• The value of education, community, and family support.
• How to apply lessons through the interactive Cash Flow Game.

Why students will love it:

Instead of sitting through lectures, students will compete in team challenges, role-play real-world scenarios, and use props, games, and dynamic demonstrations to make financial concepts click. They’ll come home energized, motivated, and equipped with tools that set them apart from their peers.

Why parents love it:

• Students learn powerful financial literacy skills that schools rarely cover.
• Activities like the bucket challenges, wheelbarrow of bricks, and poster board projects make abstract ideas come alive.
• Builds teamwork, problem-solving, and confidence.
• Gives teens a head start on creating independence and long-term wealth.

This is more than a workshop—it’s an investment in your child’s future. Your child will walk away energized, motivated, and armed with tools to navigate money, mindset, and purpose.

Spots are limited. Tuition is $37 per student.

Dress code: Business casual. No T-shirts or shorts; clean tennis shoes or sneakers are acceptable.

Most real estate investors know what’s happening in their own businesses, with their own strategies, and in their own markets.

But it takes working with thousands of independent investors all over the U.S. to understand what’s happening across the entire independent real estate investing industry.

To open the 2026 National Real Estate Investing Summit, we’re bringing together experts from major national companies that collectively see tens of thousands of investor leads, loans, properties, insurance policies, retirement investments, and transactions every year.

They aren’t relying on headlines, social media chatter, or what appears to be happening in one market. They have national data showing what independent investors are actually doing—and where the money, deals, risks, and opportunities are moving.

Together, they’ll reveal:

• Which kinds of deals are still getting done.
• Where investor capital is moving.
• How strategies are changing.
• Which risks and obstacles are growing.
• What successful investors are doing differently.
• Where the next opportunities may be emerging.

There’s no spin here, just an honest discussion of statistics, trends, and predictions you won’t get anywhere else. And it’s all aimed at giving you the answer to the question you most need: What should you do differently right now?

Where should you look for opportunity? How should you adjust the way you find, fund, structure, protect, and hold deals? And how can you position yourself to profit from the changes ahead?

You know what’s happening in your market. Come discover what’s happening across your industry—and how to take advantage of whatever comes next.

Finding good deals isn't enough if you can't get them funded.

Private lenders finance successful investors every day, but they don't say “yes” simply because someone asks. They look for well-structured opportunities, realistic numbers, and borrowers who inspire confidence.

As both an active investor and a private lender who has originated more than 1,000 performing notes, Darrin Carey has reviewed countless funding requests from both experienced and newer investors. In this Lunch & Learn, he'll explain what separates fundable deals from the ones that never get financed.

You'll discover:

• The key elements private lenders expect every deal to include.
• What experienced lenders evaluate before committing their money.
• How to present your opportunity professionally.
• Common mistakes that cause lenders to walk away.
• Practical ways to build long-term relationships with private lenders instead of searching for one loan at a time.

Whether you're wholesaling, rehabbing, buying rentals, or pursuing creative finance, understanding how lenders think can dramatically improve your ability to get deals done.

Sponsored by

Lunch will be provided for attendees with sponsor lunch tickets.

Americans are constantly told to “pay off debt,” “maximize retirement accounts,” “keep plenty of cash in the bank,” and “diversify”—and, increasingly, to ask an AI chatbot what to do next.

For real estate investors specifically? Some of that advice is good. Some isn’t. And some of it can actually work against you if you’re building wealth through real estate.

In this thought-provoking Lunch & Learn, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Amanda Neely examines five of the most common financial myths that can quietly limit cash flow, reduce flexibility, and make it harder to grow a successful investing business.

Instead of the one-size-fits-all financial advice you get in the mass media, Amanda will show you how to evaluate financial strategies through the lens of a real estate investor.

During this session, you'll discover:

• Five common financial myths that deserve a second look.
• Why traditional financial advice doesn't always fit investors and entrepreneurs.
• How liquidity, taxes, and leverage work together to strengthen—or weaken—your financial position.
• A practical framework for making smarter financial decisions as your investing business grows.
• Why an AI chatbot's confident answer about your money often misses the one thing that actually matters: your specific situation.

Whether you're just getting started or already own multiple investment properties, you'll leave with a different way to think about the financial decisions that affect every deal you do.

Sponsored by

Lunch will be provided for attendees with sponsor lunch tickets.

You can set up LLCs, trusts, and every asset-protection strategy in the book—but if your insurance isn’t right, one claim can wipe out years of hard work. The first line of defense is making sure your coverage matches your actual risks.

In this session, Kevin Jenkins will break down the specific types of insurance every investor needs to understand, so you can protect your portfolio without overpaying.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• The insurance you need for properties under renovation.
• The coverage required for rentals to avoid costly gaps.
• What’s different about insuring vacant properties.
• How to balance affordability with complete protection.

A lot of investors know the words wrap mortgage. Far fewer really understand how versatile a wrap can be—or the things that can go wrong when you don’t understand what you’re agreeing to.

Anita Johnson has used wrap mortgages as both borrower and lender, and she’s spent years helping investors work through creative deal structures. In this session, she’ll break wraps down systematically so you can see where they fit and what you need to think through.

You’ll learn:

• What a wrap mortgage actually is and how the basic structure works.
• The benefits a wrap can offer in a creatively financed transaction.
• How wraps can be used when you’re buying or borrowing, selling, or lending.
• Examples that show how the strategy works in actual deal structures.
• The watchouts both borrowers and lenders need to understand.
• The pieces that have to come together to create a successful wrap mortgage deal.

If you’re looking for another useful—and often misunderstood—tool in your creative finance toolbox, check out this session.

Direct mail doesn’t fail simply because people throw away letters. It usually fails because the investor mails the wrong people, sends a message that sounds like everybody else’s, or gives up before a seller is ready to act.

Kathy Kennebrook has spent decades perfecting direct mail to motivated sellers across a wide range of situations, building a 7-figure retail and rental business entirely from off-market deals.

In this session, she’ll break down how to create a repeatable marketing process that helps you spend less time chasing unqualified leads and more time speaking with owners who may actually have a reason to sell.

You’ll learn:

• How to identify narrowly targeted seller groups instead of mailing broad, generic lists.
• How the message, response method, and delivery process work together to improve the quality of incoming leads.
• How to pre-screen sellers by phone to quickly identify motivation, property condition, and possible deal terms.
• How to build an automated follow-up system that keeps you in front of owners whose timing isn’t right today.
• How attorneys, vacant-property records, out-of-state ownership data, expired listings, and other sources may reveal opportunities your competitors aren’t pursuing.

Whether you’re looking for your first great deal or your 500th, Kathy will show you how to get the consistency you want.

Most real estate investors assume debt is simply part of the business. The usual goal is to acquire more properties, take on more financing, and hope that appreciation and cash flow eventually create freedom.

Dave Peters took a different path.

In 2011, he made a deliberate decision to build a debt-free real estate business. Over the following years, he combined partnerships, short-term financing, and a focused payoff strategy to reduce mortgage balances by seven figures and transform the way he invested. Eventually, he reached the point where he could acquire rentals with little or no long-term debt and leave his high-paying job years earlier than expected.

In this practical session, Dave will explain not only how he did it, but why the pursuit of debt freedom changed his business, his risk profile, and his lifestyle.

You'll learn:

• How Dave created a long-term plan to systematically eliminate bank debt in just a few years.
• Ways partnerships and short-term financing can help investors acquire properties without relying on permanent mortgages.
• Why cash flow, freedom, and peace of mind can improve dramatically as debt declines.
• How many rentals you may actually need to achieve your personal financial goals.
• The tradeoffs between faster growth through leverage and a debt-reduction strategy.

If your goal isn't simply owning more real estate—but creating more freedom—this session will challenge some common assumptions about what successful investing really looks like.

Buying properties subject to existing financing is one of the most useful creative finance strategies an investor has.

But the way it’s being taught by some of the biggest influencers today? Risky, unethical, and unsafe for both the buyer and the seller.

The key problem is, of course, the due-on-sale clause, and the idea of dealing with that problem by ignoring it isn’t much of a risk-management strategy, is it?

Real estate investor, former attorney, and serial entrepreneur Kathie Russell developed a different approach for herself and her clients—one designed to address the due-on-sale problem rather than simply ignore it.

In this session, you'll explore:

• Why protecting the seller matters just as much as protecting yourself when you're putting together a creative financing deal.
• How Kathie's alternative structure addresses the due-on-sale problem, and what makes it different from conventional subject-to transactions.
• How this structure has been tested in the real world and worked to protect both the investor and the seller.

If you're already buying subject to—or you've been reluctant to try it because of the legal and ethical questions—this session is a must-attend.

In 2026, every active investor eventually owns one.

A rental that's no longer cash flowing, thanks to increased expenses and vacancy time. A rehab that's fully renovated but isn't attracting buyers.

Most investors respond by lowering the rent or the price, again, and hoping for the best.

But there’s another option that can get you the cash flow you wanted, or the cash you wanted, that’s in high demand, has almost no competition, and is about as tried-and-true as a strategy gets.

Since entering real estate investing in 2004, Jay has worked across multiple investing disciplines, including pre-foreclosures, short sales, rehabbing, lease/options, syndication, self-directed IRA investing, and seller-financed transactions. Through JMJ Real Estate Services, he specializes in creating practical real estate solutions that match investor goals and risk tolerance.

In this session, Jay will explain how owner financing can help investors create buyers where conventional financing falls short, generate income from properties that aren't moving, and transform equity into a valuable note that can later be sold for cash.

You'll learn:

• When owner financing makes more sense than a conventional sale.
• How seller financing can help move rentals, rehabs, and other difficult-to-sell properties.
• The fundamentals of creating a seller-financed note that you can turn into cash easily, if you decide to.
• Common mistakes that reduce profitability and flexibility.

If you have a property that's become dead money—or want more exit strategies than simply listing and hoping—this session will show you how experienced investors create opportunities when traditional approaches fall short.

You bought the property. You pay the mortgage, the taxes, the insurance, and the maintenance bills. So why does some government official think they have the right to tell you what you can—and can't—do with it?

From rental property inspections to restrictions on how owners use, lease, and manage their properties, government regulations can affect your rights, your costs, and your ability to run a profitable real estate business.

And when those rules go too far, fighting back can seem impossible. Government agencies have lawyers, budgets, and the power to impose fines and penalties. Most individual property owners don't have those same resources.

That's exactly why constitutional rights attorney Maurice Thompson founded the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law. Since 2008, the Center has challenged government actions across Ohio, representing homeowners, taxpayers, entrepreneurs, and others whose constitutional rights are threatened.

Maurice has successfully challenged state and local governments on issues involving property rights, freedom to contract, and other constitutional protections. His work includes defending rental property owners against warrantless government inspections.

In this session, you'll explore:

• What rights property owners have when government agencies attempt to regulate, inspect, or restrict the use of their properties.
• Why warrantless rental inspections raise constitutional questions, and what makes them different from legitimate government oversight.
• How local and state regulations can cross legal boundaries, even when officials claim they're acting in the public interest.
• What property owners can do when government oversteps, and why knowing your rights matters before a conflict escalates.
• How constitutional litigation can protect individual owners and challenge government practices that affect entire communities.

This isn't about whether government should have rules. It's about what happens when those rules—or the people enforcing them—go beyond the government's lawful authority.

If you own rental property, buy and sell houses, or operate a real estate business, you need to understand where government authority ends and your rights begin. Because owning property should mean something.

Like many of us, Vena Jones-Cox was brought up in real estate believing one rule above almost all others: never partner with anybody.

After 30+ years and more than 2,000 real estate transactions, she doesn’t believe that anymore.

A good partnership isn’t two people vaguely agreeing to “do a deal together” and splitting everything down the middle. It’s two people who are very clear about what each person brings, what each person does, what each person gets, and what happens if one of them doesn’t do what they agreed to do.

With the right people and clear agreements, partnerships can be way more profitable than private loans—or trying to do the whole deal yourself.

In Partnerships Don’t Have to Suck, Vena will cover:

• Why so many real estate partnerships fail—and what to do differently.
• The two most important things that determine whether a partnership becomes a roaring success or a sucky failure.
• What you need to believe, and how you need to behave, to be a good partner.
• How to divide responsibilities and financial benefits according to what each person contributes and wants.

With today’s property prices and interest rates making “the traditional way” of borrowing money more challenging, partnerships are an opportunity to go deeper and create beneficial, win-win deals with other people.

This session is for both sides of that conversation: the investor looking for a money partner and the person with money who’s considering becoming one.

Inflation, high interest rates, and high house prices have all led to an inevitable outcome: foreclosure activity is up again. Serious delinquencies in FHA-backed loans jumped 54% from 2025 to 2026, and that means more distressed-property leads for investors.

But there’s a serious catch: thanks to low down payments and slow appreciation in the last few years, many of those owners have no real equity.

Most investors just throw away those low-equity leads, but that’s an expensive mistake. Instead, learn to negotiate short sales, where the lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed on the mortgage.

That’s what David Randolph’s half-day session is all about. He’ll break down:

• How to recognize which no-equity foreclosure leads may have short-sale potential—and which aren’t worth pursuing.
• What you need from the seller to get the process started and keep it moving.
• Why property condition, repair estimates, and AS-IS value can have a major impact on the lender’s decision.
• How you can use your short-sale skills to buy pre-foreclosures for pennies on the dollar—and give the seller a better outcome than going through foreclosure.

If you want to understand how experienced short-sale investors look at those “impossible” no-equity deals differently, this session will show you what’s happening behind the numbers.