Utah Real Estate Investors Association

Executive Committee

Geoff Dearing

President

Geoff has been in real estate for over 18 years. He began by buying a duplex, and has worked on hundreds of deals and millions of dollars worth of real estate since. He has coached with gurus like Robert Kiyosaki and Carleton Sheets. Geoff has extensive experience with real estate investments specializing in commercial and residential cash-flow property. He has taught these concepts to thousands of students all over the world! He currently invests in storage units, apartment complexes, SFH's, and development. He created the Utah Real Estate Investor's Association in 2013 and currently presides as the President. He lives in the greater Salt Lake area with his wife Rebecca and son Lucas. Feel free to contact him at 801-232-9500 or gwdearing@yahoo.com if you would like help finding or selling real estate!

Geoff is a licensed real estate broker with Return Real Estate, Inc.

E-mail: gwdearing@yahoo.com

Phone: (801) 232-9500

Jeff Rappaport 

Vice President/Education Chair 

Began investing in real estate back in 1999 through an infomercial.  Quit my job of 9 years as a Youth Director in 2000 to become a full time real estate investor.  I borrowed $2,000 to live on while I started my new business.  Began by buying and holding properties with no money down and taking over existing debt.  In 2003, became an expert at negotiating short sales with banks on defaulted properties.  My business continued to expand into rehabbing single family homes, commercial and land.  Bought some land in 2005 with hard money and sold it in 2006 for a $2.1MM profit!  During the real estate crash I lost everything!  All of the properties I owned were foreclosed.  I was left with nothing.  I was broke!

I was out of real estate for 2 years before I decided that was my calling.  I had no money and most of my real estate network was no longer in that space.  I decided wholesaling was the best route this time around.  Over the last 6 years I have built a wholesaling company comprised of 4 core individuals and a VA.  We specialize in many different asset classes – single family homes, multi-family, land and commercial.  We work in markets all over the country.  My niche is creative financing and I use it regularly in my business. 

I am the Vice President of the Utah REIA, run two Meetups each month, part of several Mastermind groups, have an Apprentice program and have been doing a Creative Financing Podcast for over two years.  I believe in education and have spent more than $400K on my real estate education and continue to do so to this day.  I have experience in teaching real estate dating back to 2004 where I did seminars to now where I have several platforms including our Apprentice program and my Creative Finance program. 

E-mail: jeff@weofferoptions.com 

Phone: (801) 209-2945

Cathi Hughes

Membership Chair

Cathi Hughes is Principal Broker for Abundance Realty & Staging Company. She and her husband Shane have been part of Salt Lake Valley's real estate industry for over 20 years as realtors and investors and love helping people buy and sell homes. This power couple is always scouting the market for investment deals for their clients and short-term rentals for themselves. Cathi is also certified as a Freddie Mac instructor and professional home stager. She loves teaching and her passion for helping others extends to the community where she has created several successful networking groups to help fellow business owners enjoy saving time, making more money, and creating more freedom. 

E-mail: cathi@realestate-888.com 

Phone: (801) 518-9121

Rebecca Dearing

Executive Director/Marketing Chair

Rebecca and her husband Geoff started the REIA in 2014 in response to a need for a Utah Chapter of the National REIA.
As Rebecca held experience from managing memberships, marketing, and events for 3 different Chambers of Commerce since 2003 - she was up for the task of organizing and implementing a structure for which the Utah REIA could thrive.
As a result, the Utah REIA has surpassed 675 members, held 6 Annual Expos, 10 Biannual Workshops, more than 80 Monthly Meetings, sponsored more than 50 Meetups and continue to look for opportunities to increase the value in experiences for the members.
Rebecca is natural at networking and is always eager to share referrals.  In addition, if you need help finding a deal, looking for help in realizing the benefits of membership, or you just want to talk through your goals, please reach out to Rebecca.  She is here to help!
Rebecca lives with her husband of almost 18 years, Geoff, along with their toddler son, Lucas, in West Jordan, Utah.
In her free time, Rebecca loves to power tumble and trampoline as well as figure skate on the adult competitive circuit for United States Figure Skating.

E-mail: rebecca@utahreia.org

Phone: (801) 647-8862

Tate Siemer

NREIA Benefits Expert

Tate Siemer is a passionate real estate entrepreneur, creating value and opportunity for investors through innovative multi-family projects. He is committed to developing affordable, eco-friendly housing that enhances both the community and the well-being of its residents. Tate’s real estate background consists largely of sweating it out on single-family flips that yielded modest five-figure profits.  In 2018, Tate and his partner, Carl York, “saw the light”, left single-family flips and began their ventures in multi-family investing by purchasing two new-build, luxury townhome projects in downtown Salt Lake City.  They next flipped a twelve-unit apartment complex, followed by two raw land purchases which they progressed through entitlement to “shovel-ready” building permits.  Tate recently created GreenLight Multi-Family Properties focused on direct-to-owner apartment acquisition and value-added equity generation. GreenLight creates compelling opportunities for investors to participate in both short and long term scenarios with maximum return on minimal risk due to asset ownership.  Tate loves helping fellow investors and is available for further discussion at: (801) 699-4532.

E-mail: dtsiemer@gmail.com 

Phone: (801) 699-4532

Roger Jacobsen

Networking Luncheon Chair

Roger bought his first flip at age 22. As a carpet cleaner he realized that the cost to pay contractors to do all the work on his house would cost too much, so he decided to get "into" construction. Roger became a Concrete mason, then moved into Ironworking, Finish Carpentry, Cabinet Install, Cabinet Building, Framing, Wood Siding, and finally became a contractor in 2001. He has specialized in high-end Finish Carpentry and Remodeling since. He has worked on The McCune Mansion, Jon Huntman Jr's house, the Largest and Longest Houseboat in Utah and many other awesome projects. Roger bought his first Buy-and-Hold in 2011 and still owns it and 2 others. Roger became a RE Agent in 2016 and works under Randall Wall at Equity Real Estate. Roger is becoming a Wholesaler and is Loving that more than any of his other "jobs." Roger is a member of UtahREIA, UVREIA and SLREIA. Roger loves helping people with ALL their questions and needs.

E-mail: rogergixxer@yahoo.com

Phone: (801) 694-0564

Shane Hakala

Home Depot Benefits Expert

I started working with an investor out of Ogden back in 1996 as a "grunt" I help with over 30 projects over a 2 year time span, After asking him to "show me the ropes" he stopped having me work on projects with him and I moved onto other opportunities outside of investing but the bug has always been with me. Late 2014 after 15 years with Greyhound bus lines I was out of work. In April 2016 with the support of my wife Christina we created Soarin Home LLC and started investing. As a company we have completed one full fix and flip and a handful of smaller construction jobs. We are always looking for wholesale or fix and flip deals. We plan on adding buy and holds to our portfolio soon.

E-mail: soarinhomeutah@gmail.com

Phone: (801) 413-3616

Rebecca Belnap

Government Actions Liaison

Rebecca Belnap is a loan officer with Castle & Cooke Mortgage, LLC.  She has been a real estate investor since 1999. Before getting degrees in Accounting and Business Management, she taught a Finance Lab class at UVU where she developed a love of educating people about their finances.  Since then she has been a consumer credit counselor, Realtor, managed rental properties, owned a kitchen cabinet business, and has switched from flipping homes to mostly buy and holds.

Outside of work, Rebecca enjoys spending time with her husband and 3 adult daughters.  Her hobbies include home remodeling, writing fiction, cooking, helping at her weight loss club TOPS, and running.  One of her proudest moments was finishing her first half marathon.

E-mail: bbelnap2@gmail.com

Phone: (801) 400-6426

Rebecca Jensen

Meetup Coordinator

Rebecca Jensen is an accomplished sales and marketing professional who has leveraged networking to achieve great results. She has built strong relationships with clients across multiple industries with her Win-Win approach. Rebecca has a collaborative spirit and lives by the motto “How you do anything is how you do everything”.

Rebecca joined Jeff Rappaport in 2014 after a career with Skywest Airlines, Worldmark Resorts and ESPN Talk Radio. She immersed herself in learning and development with multiple boot camps and mastermind groups. The knowledge imparted on Rebecca by Jeff and these other leading Real Estate professionals was so impactful that she was anxious to pay it forward. In addition to helping run and organize two monthly Meet-ups for Utah REIA, Rebecca created the mastermind group W.I.N. (Women Investing Now).

Rebecca’s professional drive comes from her greatest gift and accomplishment, her daughter Isabel. Together they enjoy golfing, hiking, skiing, bicycling and the beach.

With networking and mentorship as the keys to her success, Rebecca looks forward to connecting with everyone at the UT REIA monthly meetings and the Utah Investor and Wholesale Meetups.

E-mail: rebecca@weofferoptions.com 

Phone: (801) 865-4167