As you consider making a donation, take a minute to read our story.

Firstly, thank you for considering a donation to Friends in Real Estate!

When I (Randy) started Friends in Real Estate back in 2017, I had several reasons for doing so, all of them phenomenal. I didn’t come to the Dallas CRE scene with a network or access to one. Knowing I needed one, though, I spent several hundred dollars on joining networking organizations and attending various events just so I could maybe make one new friend per event.

There came a point where I thought that there had to be a better way to go about it. In November 2017, I decided to invite 8 of my new friends in CRE out to what would become our first FIRE happy hour at Armoury in Deep Ellum. We had so much fun that a few of us stayed up, we decided to do it again the next month, then the next, and the next… Now, we’ve grown to an invite list of over 600 of our friends having dozens of happy hours along the way.

In all that time, FIRE has been a labor of love. People tried to convince me to charge membership fees or event fees to make the organization profitable but to be honest, it felt like a betrayal of what FIRE was intended to be - a place to hang out with friends. What kind of person would charge their friends to hang out with them? How could I start just looking at my friends as just part of the bottom line without losing my soul? My conclusion was that it’s impossible…

FIRE has been a huge part of my life for close to 7 years and I’m grateful for all of the support y’all have given along the way and for that, I resolve to never charge you membership fees. But, as we continue to grow and do small things, we’re spending more money and time in the hopes of continuing to grow and do more cool stuff for y’all. So, if you’ve ever wanted to give back, if FIRE has brought anything of value to your life, here’s your chance to show us some love.

If you’re feeling it, even small monthly donations would make a huge difference and help us keep the ship running. Again, we appreciate every single one of you and the part you’ve played in starting the FIRE so thank you and we look forward to having a drink with you!

— Randy Streig and Nick Clark