REAL ESTATE INVESTORS ASSOCIATION

About Us

A real estate investors association created for professionals coast-to-coast
looking to increase their experience and gain critical investing knowledge.

Our Story

Affordable, local and national real estate education taught by investors and professionals who are actually doing deals.

We started what is now the Street Smart® Online REIA in 2015 as a private coaching and mentoring group. It was exclusively for licensed Certified Affordable Housing Providers®. Members were achieving such tremendous results in their real estate investing businesses; we tossed around the idea of opening it up to other Street Smart® students. That was so well received; the next natural evolution was to open it up to real estate investors everywhere. While we are based in Georgia, our Association serves all real estate investors and real estate professionals at all levels of knowledge and experience. We are dedicated to delivering the highest level of expertise and integrity. Whether you’ve been involved in the real estate industry for years or are just getting started, you will feel right at home in the Street Smart® Online REIA

We are different from other real estate investor associations because we are not bound to a geographic location or limited to meeting only once a month. Your membership provides affordable, local, and national real estate education taught by investors and professionals who are actually doing deals. We also strongly emphasize live events, social networking, and community outreach programs, including many different charities.
We look forward to seeing you at our next REIA online weekly meeting and hopefully at future meetings, webinars, master classes, and in-person training!

Whether you’ve been involved in the real estate industry for years or are just getting started, you will feel at home in the Street Smart® Online REIA

You Get All This As A Member

  • Access to local, national and international experts, trainers and experienced investors who are actively investing
  • Access to vendors and service providers to make your life easier and more profitable
  • Fun, exciting network opportunities with other like-minded professionals and industry experts
  • Ongoing educational opportunities for new and seasoned investors on many different real estate strategies
  • Online community where you can connect with, network and partner with investors nationally
  • A platform to market your properties to other investors and buyers as well as allowing you to be the first to purchase other member properties
  • Weekly live online (and replays if you can’t attend)*
  • Specialty trainings and groups that meet throughout the year at locations nationally
  • Seminars, workshops, webinars, and more to keep you informed on the ever-changing real estate market
  • A full library of previous meetings, including hundreds of Q&A sessions

*There will be occasional weeks with no meetings due to holidays or other events.

Meet the Team

Lou Brown

Real Estate investors in all fifty states across Canada and fifteen foreign countries including as far away as Australia and New Zealand, have long regarded the training, systems and forms created by Louis Brown as the best in the industry,

Quoted as an expert by many publications and authors, “Lou” draws from a wide and varied background as a real estate investor having been buying property since 1976. He’s invested in single-family homes, apartments, hotels, developed subdivisions and built and renovated homes and apartments. Each of these experiences has given him a proving ground for the most cutting-edge concepts in real estate today.

Lou’s widely known as a creative financing genius with his deal structuring concepts. Being a teacher at heart he enjoys sharing his discoveries with others and has served the industry in many volunteer positions such as past President and designated lifetime member of the Georgia Real Estate Investors Association, the world’s largest real estate investor group. He is also founding President of the National Real Estate Investors Association, which serves as the umbrella association of local investor groups.

Husband, Father, Author, Lecturer, Inventor, Investor, Builder, Designer, and Real Estate Expert are all descriptions that apply to SS Online REIA founder.

Bruce Beasley

Bruce is a former commercial pilot who got interested in real estate investing in 1991 and left the airline to try his hand as a full-time real estate agent. He got licensed and went to work for a broker but realized he didn't know very much about investing in real estate. He found out about the Georgia Real Estate Investors Association and decided it would be a great place to learn more about the business.

At one of the meetings, Lou Brown offered training, and Bruce signed up. He really enjoyed it and took a few more training courses offered by Lou. They got to know each other, and one day Lou shared a crazy idea he had about creating guidebooks to teach others his methods to profit from real estate investing. Bruce's wife happened to be an assistant principal with tremendous typing skills, and she offered to help write everything up on an old Apple computer. Bruce got involved after the computer malfunctioned and the files got corrupted.

Bruce used his engineer brain to go into the files, did some hunting and pecking, and over many weeks was able to type everything out again. After that, he and Lou became a team. In 1993, just two short years after meeting Lou, Bruce bought 100 properties. He and Lou have been together ever since. He’s previously helped train other investors but is best known as the “Wizard” behind the scenes, helping keep everything from Zoom meetings to websites to manuals running, updated, and accurate.

Helga Queen

Every successful organization needs someone to catch and manage the rain. For Street Smart® REIA, Helga Queen is that person. She’s been part of Lou’s team since the year 2000 and has seen multiple real estate cycles. Her unique list of talents is long, but she excels at inventing creative money-saving solutions for issues that impact business and real estate investing.

She oversees a portfolio of properties, handles member services, and coordinates live training events locally and nationwide. She is the queen of managing busy schedules and events, ensuring that Lou’s busy calendar is kept organized so he is able to honor the many requests to speak and lead investor workshops.

Helga has been married to her loving husband since 1979, and they have two adult children. She is a grandmother, and along with her daughter, Kimberly is very active as a volunteer and supporter of NephCure, an organization that has invested more than $40 million in kidney disease research and helped create a landscape where there are now new treatments and more than 60 interventional drug trials for rare kidney disease.

Dennis Gentile

Dennis joined the Street Smart® team in 2008, around the time of the real estate downturn. He was serving investors in another organization that was closing its doors, and Lou had the insight to bring him onto his team before someone else snapped him up.

Dennis primarily oversees the responsibility of advising investors who are looking to grow their skills. He ensures they receive relevant information and invitations to take advantage of any courses, training, and support necessary for their success. Dennis has a mission to help individuals in the often-difficult process of knowing the appropriate next steps to take. He asks important questions and offers guidance based on investors’ goals and where they are on their real estate journey.

He is the father of two amazing boys, a husband, an avid fisherman, and a kickboxer, so mind your Ps and Qs.

Ron Copelan

Ron and Lou met at an investor seminar in Florida somewhere around 1988. He’s been an active investor and primarily serves the Street Smart Online REAI by documenting events.

He is the official photographer and videographer, facilitates live streaming of events, and is part of the onsite travel team that attends industry events and helps bring important issues in front of our representatives at the nation’s capital. You’ll always see him in attendance at the weekly SSOREIA meetings.

Janice Brown

Janice handles all the acquisitions for Trust Properties and serves as the property manager for a portfolio of properties. She also works with families who have availed themselves of the Path to Home Ownership program.

She is also the co-founder and director of The G. D. Sanford Foundation. The Georgina D. Sanford Family Foundation was created in April 2004 in memory of Louis’s mother, who passed away in December 1996.

The philosophy includes the idea of giving back to the community. The Browns, as a family, decided to impact their community with the wealth created through real estate and to increase that wealth for the betterment of their community.

One goal of the foundation is to inspire others to be the neighbor that helps make a difference right where you are and to provide community resources when it takes more than family to get the problem solved.

Tech and Marketing Team

The SSOREIA relies on the skills of our tech team, writers, social media managers, email database experts, and visual/print graphic artists to make the hard behind-the-scenes work look magical and effortless. They include Erica, Jayson, Kim, Tina, and Tony.

Our Members

The amount of collective knowledge alone makes it worth it. Then there is the access you have to a vast amount of resources and connections that would take a lifetime to obtain. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to take their real estate investment to another level.

Matthew Fettik, Jacksonville, FL

Code of Conduct

The Street Smart® Online REIA team has adopted the following code of ethics, and it serves as the expected creed for all members of the SSOREIA

As a member of the Street Smart® Online REIA, I agree to hold myself to a high standard of ethical behavior which includes, but is not limited to, the following:

1. I will remember that all aspects of the real estate profession are represented within our Membership. I will consider myself an ambassador to the real estate industry and the community.

2. I will not discriminate against anyone regarding race, color, religion, age, national origin, gender, handicap, or familial status.

3. I will provide assistance to fellow SSOREIA members and encourage others to do the same whenever practical and appropriate.

4. I will always do the right thing and conduct business professionally, courteously, and honestly and only engage in legal and ethical practices.

5. I will not knowingly make promises I am unable or unwilling to keep, and I will keep the promises I make.

6. I will exercise due diligence in all my business affairs to help sellers get a quick and efficient sale and help buyers and renters get affordable housing. I will help lenders use their funds and get good returns while helping provide more affordable housing for others and the community.

7. I will keep myself current with local, state, and federal laws and stay informed on matters affecting housing and my community and act with integrity in all matters.

8. I will act as a positive role model for our industry when dealing with tenants, the public, the media, government officials, and all others to protect our excellent win-win organization and brand.

9. I will not defame, slander, libel, or impugn the SSOREIA image; I will not misrepresent it or profit from inappropriate personal use of the REIA image.

By right of admittance into the SSOREIA, I agree to abide by the principles in this Code of Ethics. I understand that my membership in SSOREIA and the ability to use SSOREIA sponsored designations is contingent upon adherence to this Code of Ethics.

SSOREIA has the authority to deny, revoke or suspend at its sole discretion the membership of any member that engages in activities contrary to this Code of Ethics or contrary to the best interests of SSOREIA or the real estate investment industry.

Community & Advocacy Work

Lou and Other Real Estate Legends Accepting Lifetime Achievement Awards

Affordable Housing Coalition visiting congressional reps with CAHP and REIA members

Lou presenting the Community Affordable Housing Provider Award to investor in recognition of the outstanding service work to provide affordable housing in her community.

Lou holding his hero award for work in charitable and humanitarian efforts

CAHP Lobbying Congress

CAHP member Tanya Blake with Representative Gonzalez from Texas

Lou Brown had the priveledge of speaking before congress on affordable housing...

Youth in Haiti at Frank McKinney CARING HOUSE PROJECT which builds self-sufficient villages that have housed and provides an existence for 13,600+ desperately poor children and their families.

Lou presenting Kimberly Queen with a check to support kidney disease organization

House for people who are police or fire to stauy in when family is getting hospital care.