First you'll want to find a group that meets your interest. Go to the main groups page and you'll be able to sort and search our groups there.

In the tabs, Groups Home (sorted by most recently updated), Popular Groups (those groups with the most members), and Alphabetical List, you'll be able to see various groups with a Join Group to the right of the group description. Clicking that link will allow you to join.

You can also join a group by visiting the main page for a particular group. Once on the page, you'll see a section to the right of the page labeled Group Tasks. There, you'll find a Join Group button which will also allow you to join.

Group forums are private discussion areas for members of that group. All group members will have access to the forums and be able to post there.

You will be able to see the last 10 forum topics on the main group page. In the Group Tasks section of the page, you'll see a link that will take you to the main forum directory for that group where you can browse all topics and participate.

Once you join one or several groups, you'll see these groups listed towards the bottom of the main page of the BiggerPockets forums. Here you can easily jump between forums of the groups you're a part of.

Members with a basic account can join up to 20 groups.

If you upgrade to a BiggerPockets PRO account, you'll be able to join an unlimited number of groups.

In order to create a group, you first need to be a member of the site for at least 5 days, and have 5 posts in the main forum that are not "fluff" or junk posts.

If you've met those prerequisites, then simply go to the main groups page and click on the Create a Group link. Please check to see if the group you want to create exists already so we don't have duplicates.

Just fill in the group name, description, group type, and upload an image to match your group, and after hitting the create button you'll have your own group.