Traditional REI Is Dead? FREE Pop-Up Class Discusses

Prices are too high. Interest rates have barely budged, despite all the predictions we hear to the contrary. Sellers are still stuck on 2022 prices, even in the face of rising inventory and longer days on the market. Property taxes, insurance, and maintenance are chewing through profits.

Is traditional investing dead? What are smart investors doing to make money?

Cincinnati investor and educator Vena Jones-Cox is holding a free pop-up class on Zoom Wednesday evening, Sept. 17, to break down:

• Why traditional buy-and-hold, fix-and-flip, and even wholesaling strategies from 2019 no longer cut it
• What top investors around the country are doing to adapt in today's low-inventory, high-cost market
• How deals are being found right now, even when MLS and mailers are coming up dry
• How to make properties cash flow despite high prices and rates

If you're still trying to make 2019's strategies work, stop. Join us and get real-world insights that can actually work in this market. Register now to get your Zoom link.

John Mays Previews September Main Meeting

Looking for deals? You need to attend KREIA's September main meeting, featuring the Investor Squad! KREIA President John Mays tells us how Dennis Erhard, Alisha Higgs, and Derek Bottoms from the Squad are going to show us how to source off-market deals in their "72-Hour Deal Pipeline" presentation. Plus, John reminds us that bidding is open for KREIA's 2026 Platinum Sponsorship.

Looking for Deals? Find Them Off-Market

If you're finding it difficult to find deals lately, maybe you're not looking in the right place. Come to KREIA's main meeting on September 25 for a quick level-up in finding properties to wholesale, flip, or BRRRR – how to analyze them, how to make offers on them, and how to finance them. REGISTER NOW

The team from Investor Squad (KREIA's current Platinum Sponsor) is taking the floor in September to show us how they are mentoring other investors in finding success in real estate investing. Watch as they demonstrate how they work the math in deciding which houses to make offers on. And listen as they describe how to talk to motivated sellers.

After their presentation, they are opening up the floor to Q&A with their Expert Panel of investors. Bring questions!

Meet the Squad Members who will be speaking:

• Dennis Erhard
• Alisha Higgs
• Derek Bottoms

5:30 p.m. Early Meeting: Crystal Stoudemire, a property manager with KREIA sponsor LREI, is headlining the Early Meeting with tips and best practices on working with Section 8.

KREIA's 2026 Platinum Sponsorship Up for Bid

Would you like for your business to be KREIA's next Platinum Sponsor? Please visit this Platinum Sponsorship  page for information on how the program works and for the link to the bidding form. Please note that bidding starts with a minimum bid of $5,000.

Please Verify Your Info for Member Roster & Yellow Pages

Have you moved recently? Got a new email address or phone number?

We're working on KREIA's 2026 Member Directory & Resource Guide, and we need your help! Please confirm your contact info that'll be included in the Member Roster (the "White Pages"). And also, please follow the link to the "Yellow Pages" form, where you can tell us — and everyone in KREIA — about all the products and services you offer to fellow investors, whether as your business or a side hustle.

KREIA members love to do business with other KREIA members, so please help us do our job better in connecting everyone.

Members, please visit our members-only Directory page, which has links on how to edit your contact info and reach the Yellow Pages form.

Why Now Is the Best Time to Join KREIA

Any time you decide to join KREIA is a good time to do it. If you're a new investor, or someone who wants to be, what you learn through KREIA can propel you toward financial freedom. If you're already investing, the networking opportunities you'll find in KREIA are golden.

But NOW is the BEST time to join KREIA, and here's why:

• Because we're a little over a month out from sending our mailing list of active KREIA members to the printing house we use to produce our annual directory. If you're on that list, you'll receive your copy of our 2026 Member Directory & Resource Guide soon. And we only mail them out once a year. (If you're not on the list because you join after the mailing, you'll need to show up at a main meeting to claim your copy.)
• Your membership includes your invitation to attend our monthly L.O.T.S. programs — to Learn On The Site. We host 10 of them a year. It's like going behind the scenes of your favorite house-flipping TV show.
• Your membershop includes a monthly newsletter full of educational information and ads from investor-friendly businesses that offer products and services just for real estate entrepreneurs. Members also have access to past newsletters going back to 2014.
• Your membership includes access to videos from past KREIA events. (We're catching up on posting videos, but there's a back catalog of members-only videos from dozens of educational main meetings, L.O.T.S. events, Lunch & Learn meetups, workshops, and more.)

If you join KREIA right now, for only $125/year, you'll be getting SO MUCH value — you'll get $100 in free lunches at L.O.T.S. events alone! And that's before we even get to the other benefits, which include deep discounts at Home Depot, and also rebates from Home Depot that could pay for your KREIA membership many times over.

It's like WE'RE PAYING YOU to join KREIA to learn how to become financially free through real estate, right here in Kentuckiana.

Read more about KREIA and why it's the best time to join!

Q&A With Nan Upton: Past President Shares Journey

Nan Upton started out as a teacher, and in her time on KREIA's board and as KREIA President (2005 - 2006), she was able to help others learn how to use real estate investments as a vehicle for reaching financial freedom.

We sat down to lunch with Nan one day in 2024 and plied her with many questions, which she graciously answered. Her journey as a single mother working hard to provide for her children — and navigating the '80s and '90s as a woman competing, and winning, in what many considered a man's game — is an inspirational one.

She has many tips and life lessons to share. And she describes how medical crises bookended the most active period in her investing career.

If you're a KREIA member currently logged into your account, you can read the full interview here.

Code Enforcement Lien Waivers? Louisville Is Doing It!

Investors, have you been frustrated in your attempts to purchase and renovate vacant and abandoned properties? By code enforcement liens that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars?

Start your engines, because Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg has launched a code enforcement lien waiver pilot program for investors who rehab vacant houses for resale or for rent. Are there rules? Yes, a few.

Watch this video interview with the Mayor and KREIA President John Mays to find out more about the program, how to put in an application, and get ready to help the Mayor reach his objective of rehabilitating "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds" of houses!

KREIA Co-Founder Noble Roberts, 1925-2025

KREIA was founded in 1978 by three men — Noble Roberts, Gene Dyson, and Rue McFarland. Noble was named our first president. From KREIA's beginning, with about 12 members, we have grown strong to over 800 members, and more join every day.

We would like to thank Noble Roberts for leading us, inspiring us, and for helping so many men and women learn how to invest in real estate. Following his example, many of us have reached financial freedom, allowing us to secure our families' futures. And we'd like to thank him for showing us how to provide safe housing for so many other families.

Noble lived 99 abundant years of service to his country and his community. He was a soldier in WWII, a professor of biology, and a leader in his church.

Noble Lafayette Roberts, of Shelbyville, Kentucky, died on Sunday, January 19, 2025, at the age of 99, just a few months shy of reaching 100 years old.  Noble was born June 10, 1925, in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

Please see his full obituary here.

Help the Children: Help the Home of the Innocents

The Home of the Innocents is a Louisville organization that takes care of abused, neglected, and medically fragile children. Even though we presented our annual check to the Home at our Holiday Party, the need for our assistance continues. Please make a much-needed gift to the Home through our fundraising page. (It's tax-deductible for you!) Or by purchasing something the children need that's mentioned on their Wish List.