I created a survey today using Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey is not difficult to learn. At this time I have a free account so I created a simple survey with 7 main questions. A paid account comes with more options for how the survey works. Maybe something to consider at a later date.

The survey’s purpose is to better understand what people want to see discussed during 2012 at the monthly real estate meetings I run in London (The London Real Estate Buying & Investing MeetUp Group). In November I announced that there will be 12 topics for the year and that I will bring in guest speakers for most of the topics.

For January, I have lined up an investor who operates a number of HMO properties in west London. All the properties were set up over the last year to 18 months. In none of the cases does the investor own the building. He was able to create a strong positive cash flow business with limited initial capital.

For the readers outside the UK, an HMO is a House in Multiple Occupation. Think boarding house with some shared facilities. Technically any property with more than 2 unrelated occupants is an HMO in the UK. Up to a certain point no HMO license is required. Independent of the license requirement, planning permission comes into play once the property reaches a specific size based on the number of rooms being rented.

If you have about 5 minutes, fill out the survey. Even if you have no plans to attend a physical meeting in London, the feedback will help me understand what people want to learn concerning real estate investing (REI). I am expecting to produce a number of articles plus the book mentioned yesterday will also be shaped by the survey results.

As I said, there are only 7 questions so it should be pretty quick. You can find the survey here