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Tell us about yourself.
I’m a Chicago kid, through and through. I was born and raised up north near Welles Park during the Michael Jordan era and have lived in the city for 23 of my 29yrs on earth. Right now, I sell cloud-based business applications to large corporations for a publicly-traded software company called Workday, coach youth basketball for the Demons AAU program, mentor young people, and serve on the Board of Directors for Chicago Votes, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that is building a more inclusive democracy in Chicago by empowering young people. I also own four small multi-family buildings – 11 apartments in West Woodlawn (one of which I live in) and 3 apartments in South Shore – and those real estate projects are a pretty big part of my life, too.
What led you to become a real estate investor?
My path to real estate investing didn’t start with building ownership. It started with a passion for history and fair housing in Chicago.
I went to Michelle Obama’s alma mater – Whitney Young Magnet High School – and the diversity there opened the borders of a segregated city for me. At that time, I was more focused on becoming a Big Ten college football player (I played fullback for the University of Wisconsin Badgers), but having friends and teammates on the South and West Sides of the city made me aware of issues I’d never had to think of before. After an injury led me to transfer to Colgate University, I became more interested in the world around me – and in figuring out who I was without football.
I studied history at Colgate, and threw myself into politics. I slept on the streets of New York City as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but my experience the next summer in Mexico really got me focused on housing. I lived with an indigenous rebel army in the jungle of Chiapas and an urban social movement in Mexico City, and was inspired by the way both movements used autonomous control over housing and land to create power for their constituents. Seeing people organize around housing in Mexico made me more interested in understanding how housing shaped the city I grew up in – and so much of my lived experience.
After I returned to Chicago, I had a chance encounter in a barbershop that led me to make a documentary film project about the dismantling of Chicago’s Cabrini Green Public Housing Project. The film used residents’ memory of the neighborhood to raise questions about race, place and identity amidst the changing landscape of urban America. The film did well. My co-producer from Cabrini Green and I traveled to universities across the U.S. and London for paid speaking engagements and CNN featured our story as part of the Chicagoland series in 2014. I ultimately went on after college to write a master’s dissertation on the subject of housing in Chicago at the University of Oxford in England (yes, that’s ironic – I know). But the relationships I made in Cabrini Green transcended the film, and ultimately led me away from academia, towards a more practical application of housing: real estate investing.
I came to believe that I could make an impact in Chicago by reinvesting in the most disinvested communities of our city, and by doing what I could to create jobs in the neighborhoods. There’s a huge shortage of high-quality affordable housing in safe neighborhoods in Chicago, so right now I transform vacant multifamily buildings into high-quality housing for good people and keep as much money in the neighborhood as possible (ex. local labor, local suppliers, etc. wherever and whenever possible). It’s not easy to source locally and it amounts to a drop in the bucket, but keeping a community-first approach to spend is important to me. It’s a core value of mine that I’d like to help scale.
My ultimate goal is to build a venture capital fund that reinvests cashflow from my growing portfolio into other local businesses, entrepreneurs, and neighborhood real estate investors, who also live on the South Side, too). I’m at the very beginning of my real estate journey and my vision is certainly far from perfect, but my hope is that by working together with my neighbors we can offer a more equitable and inclusive vision for urban development in Chicago.
It’s a pipe dream for sure, but I feel like it’s worth a try.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced as you were getting started?
History taught me that control over housing in America begins and ends with capital, so I came to a rude awakening at Oxford when I realized that I had none. I graduated $20,000 in debt with no job and no credit, and while I had big dreams to reinvest in Chicago (and still do), I knew that nothing would come to fruition without money. Being broke was challenge #1, so I needed to find a career that would allow me to maximize my earning potential before I even think about buying property – enter software sales.
Challenge #2 was that I didn’t come from an immediate family that knew much about money, let alone multifamily real estate investing. I had to teach myself financial literacy so that I could build enough credit to act on my dreams. Even though I made a comfortable living selling software in my mid-20s, I still lived at home for more than two years, so that I could keep my expenses low, pay bills on time, and save money towards the purchase of my first multifamily building.
Still, a little savings and decent credit score don’t guarantee success in real estate. You need an investment thesis and a solid financial model, so challenge #3 was not knowing anything about finance, let alone real estate for that matter. Fortunately, I’ve never shied away from networking, and all that time I spent studying history made me a good internet researcher. I used the internet and social media to find other people with common interests, and they pointed me to great resources like Biggerpockets.com. I learned about low downpayment programs like FHA loans and the Home Possible Program for first-time homeowners, and realized that if I could owner-occupy a building that would allow me to avoid paying rent (and save that money every month instead), then I’d be able to owner occupy another building (#2) as soon as I was eligible to move again … and so and so forth. It was an ‘aha’ moment.
The problem for someone with a demanding career though is that I knew being a landlord takes time – and that was challenge #4. My ability to realize my longterm vision depended (and still depends) on rapid accumulation of capital, and even with four buildings (as well as investors now), my biggest source of income is still far and away my career in tech. If I have to step away from my job to manage buildings at this point, then I’m moving further away from my goals. That’s why finding the right technology partner was so critical for me.
What challenges are you currently facing? And what problems has Avail helped you to solve?
Avail makes being a DIY landlord possible for someone with a demanding career. I can’t imagine working my full-time job, and still having time to post listings to dozens of apartment search sites, check each site for inbound leads, aggregate prospective into excel, schedule showings, create rental applications, send and receive background checks, call references, draft Chicago leases, send leases for signature, create move-in checklists for tenants, set up payments, send payment reminders, knock on doors for checks, etc. … And thankfully, I don’t have to. Avail automates all of that!
Avail removes the most time-intensive parts of being a DIY landlord, so that I can focus my free time on keeping tenants happy and growing my business.
What would you say to those who are interested in REI but maybe don’t know where to start?
Google “house hacking” and start your real estate journey by figuring out how to eliminate your biggest expense: housing. And if you can’t find a mentor in your neighborhood or network, feel free to text my google voice number: 224-818-6095.
I’m always happy to pass on what I’ve learned.
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]]>The post Effects of COVID-19 on the Economy: Podcast Discussion, Create Your Own Life, Ep. 693 appeared first on Avail.
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There are a lot of questions around whether or not states or local municipalities will enable rent freezes. It’s unclear how this will impact landlords and tenants, them as small business owners and as residents of municipalities where stay-at-home orders have been enabled.
Avail CEO Ryan Coon was recently a guest on Jeremy Ryan Slate’s acclaimed podcast “Create Your Own Life.” to discuss the challenges of the COVID-19 health crisis, among other topics.
Jeremy Ryan Slate Interviews Avail CEO, Ryan Coon
Rated as one of INC Magazine’s top podcasts to listen to, Create Your Own Life is a show that “interviews people who are world-class performers — from super bowl champions to New York Times bestsellers to billionaires — with the aim of figuring out what makes them tick” (Jeremy Ryan Slate, Ep 693). The show then unpacks these insights in a way that the audience can go out and do the same in their own lives.
Effects of COVID-19 on the Economy
Ryan discusses how COVID-19 is affecting the economy and how Avail is not only taking steps to better help current Avail landlords and tenants, but is also using this as an opportunity to better survey the public for further insight into what they’re looking for, understand how this event is impacting them, and gain valuable information as to how Avail can update the platform to better service independent DIY rental owners and tenants.
He shares his outlook of this pandemic as an opportunity to innovate, grow, and help the public move forward because of the ethical obligation his team has to Avail users through this difficult time.
“A lot of the companies that we have come to love and trust and respect today were forged during those times of chaos or uncertainty,” Ryan said.
How Businesses Should Respond to COVID-19
“And for us here at Avail, we look at this really as an opportunity to go out and have those conversations with our target landlords, with the target customers, and trying to understand how they’ve managed properties in the past and how there may actually be opportunities to leverage technology like Avail to do things better, more efficient, and ultimately save time and save money.”
Jeremy also imparts his words of advice on other business owners. “I know that with the outbreak of the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, the world has gotten just a little bit crazy right now. First and foremost, take care of your families — that is the most important thing. Make sure that you’re washing your hands, you’re staying healthy, you’re still working out in your house when you can, [that you have] food stored up, just the important stuff so that your family is handled, but next: worry about your business.”
He added, “Business and commerce cannot stop. It must continue. And it is really up to us to be brave during these times to make sure that it does continue.”
Hear this and more by giving the show a listen:
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Whether you’re having rental property issues and need some answers or you just want an easy way to stay up to date with rental market news, an online community for landlords is the best way to do it.
These are 10 of the best landlord communities online — offering everything from house hacking strategies to apartment building syndication success stories — so you can find the information you need to get the most out of your investment property.
BiggerPockets.com
BiggerPockets is probably the most well-known community on this list. They have one of the most popular podcasts in the world, which brings together landlords and real estate investors from all over to their community forum.
Property Management Mastermind
Made for property managers, DIY landlords, vendors and investors, Property Management Mastermind was created for conversations about all areas of property management. Discussing everything from insurance to conferences to new products, this online community is a great space for furthering your property management education.
REI Marketing Nerds
REI Marketing Nerds is a Facebook group targeted at real estate investors and wholesalers. Focused heavily on marketing, the forum provides tips and tactics to help members grow their businesses and advance their marketing skills.
BiggerPockets Facebook Group
For those familiar with BiggerPockets, they also have a dedicated Facebook group set up by and for fans who want to engage, ask questions, and learn from others in the REI space. This is also a great group for connecting with some of those more senior influencers, real estate investors, portfolio holders, and potential partners.
Real Estate and Millennial Investing
Made for both real estate veterans and those new to the industry, Real Estate and Millennial Investing focuses on all things investing. Robbie Leonard, a podcaster and experienced real estate investor, shares his experience plus the investing experiences and stories of others.
Real Estate Investors Group
Real Estate Investors Group is a platform for professionals, investors, and anyone interested in real estate to share ideas, news, tips, and events in the real estate space. The community hosts posts from landlords, handymen, realtors, and anyone else in the industry who has something relevant to share.
Landlord Round Table
Landlord Round Table is dedicated to helping landlords learn and succeed. Members share tips and experiences, and the community is focused on education and tools for creating better landlords. As the saying goes, anything that can happen will happen in real estate. Landlord Round Table gets dozens of posts daily from investors working through rental challenges and celebrating wins in their business.
Best Ever Show Community
The Best Ever Show Community page offers quite a bit, including advice from experienced investors, opportunity to engage with Podcast guests, a space to network with industry professionals (ie, lawyer, accountant, bookkeeper, property manager, virtual assistants, lenders, and more), and lastly, success stories and pitfalls to avoid.
DIY Home Improvement
While the group is a bit strict on self-promotion, the DIY Home Improvement group on Facebook is one of the most engaged with 30,000+ members and tons of daily posts. Here you can actively share ideas, photos, advice about DIY home improvement projects, renovation ideas, and more.
Avail Community Forum
Avail provides tools, support, and education to make renting easier for responsible DIY landlords and their tenants. The Avail Community Forum provides customers and other landlords with a space to share ideas and ask each other questions. Continue your work as a responsible landlord (or tenant) by joining the conversation!
Know of another great online landlord community that didn’t make the list? Comment below and let us know what it is.
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