From Homeless Teen to Building an Affordable Housing EMPIRE

this is the Bigger Pockets podcast show 883 hey everyone I'm here with my good friend Henry Washington for a very very powerful investor story today man that's right Rob we are here talking to terica Smith terica is single-handedly solving affordable housing in Louisiana while turning a profit this is one of the best episodes that I've ever been a part of is an understatement Tera is an investor Who start Ed out with nothing like in terms of resources in terms of finances in terms of understanding what real estate investing is we hear all the time that affordable housing is is this puzzle that no one knows how to solve and she is literally doing it right now in her backyard and started at Ground Zero where a lot of new investors find themselves right now without money and without knowledge and so if you are in that boat where you know I want to do something extremely powerful with real estate and I just don't feel like I have the resources to be able to do that this is the show for you because this is somebody who was in your shoes and is now changing her community and is now changing the lives of the people within her community and Building Wealth while doing it and she's solving affordable housing for Louisiana and actually turning a profit which just makes this whole story all that more inspiring so you're going to definitely want to stick around until the very end I know you're going to love it and without further Ado let's bring in Tera Tera to start the show can you tell us a little bit about your upbringing in New Orleans oh yeah absolutely so um for those who don't know my name is ter ly Smith um I'm a real estate developer um and coach and so um I actually got started in real estate back in 2005 and um that was the year of Hurricane Katrina um we were trapped in the city um and honestly thought was going to die you know um it I thought it was the end of the world during that time and so um I had two kids at that particular point in my life and I knew that you know I did not want to leave them here you know without a mother I also didn't want to you know lose our lives because we didn't have any money and so it was a life-changing moment for me you know being trapped in the city and I said if I can get out this city then I'm going to work and not rely on the government ever again in my life and that's what I did I we relocated to foreign city called Lafayette Louisiana I didn't know nobody you know um didn't have no referrals I had nothing I started with nothing um and I ended up um at Century 21 and I got started you know selling real estate I think the the the key point of that though is I didn't just go get my real estate license I knew absolutely nothing about real estate at this time I just knew I was trapped in the city for a few days and I did not want to experience that again I wanted to be able to fly out the next time a natural disaster happens and so because I knew that and I knew because I didn't have no money I couldn't leave the city I was one of those people who was poor in New Orleans at the time I had to do something um to be able to better my life for my children so you mentioned you didn't really know much about uh real estate or anything like that what were you doing what tell us a little bit about some of the careers or some of the jobs you had growing up well well I was homeless at 17 so I didn't really have like no career I didn't go to like college and have like no fancy degrees or anything like that at that point in time in my life um I was working at a temp service during Hurricane Katrina and you know I would hold stop signs at the construction sites early in the morning to be able to let people know when to stop and slow down and do different things like that so I absolutely knew nothing about real estate but before hurricane Katrina I actually traveled the road selling magazines going door too and I would ask people what they did for a living and these people would always say that they were in real estate so the term real estate always stuck inside my head because I didn't you know I never knew what it was I always thought it was buildings I never knew it was actual dirt so after Hurricane Katrina and being trapped in the city when I realized I needed to find something to be able to make money I remembered all those people doors I was knocking upon and they lived in these big beautiful homes and they all said they were in real estate and so for me that's why I ended up going into real estate because of the simple fact you know I was a door kner and that's how you know that's really how I got my starting real estate you know I think that's super cool is a lot of people who get their start in real estate because they through whatever profession they have see uh people closing real estate deals and they end up on that like I've talked to people like you know like title agents they you know they're closing transactions all day long and they all of a sudden they're like I want to be receiving some of these checks like how do I do that and then the same thing people see real estate agents they know they get commissions and that kind of what gets them in it's interesting too that you were knocking on doors because as Real Estate Investors that's still something we have we have to do when we're getting started sometimes um so I wanted to kind of clarify you you you you said you were trapped in the city during Hurricane Katrina I just want to clarify for the audience what you mean by that you don't mean trapped in the city in terms of like you couldn't get out cuz traffic was bad you mean you were trapped in the city because you just financially didn't have any any way to leave is that what you're saying right both so when I say trapped in the city I mean that um one we did not have no money to be able to leave ahead of time to be able to evacuate when they told us to evacuate if you don't have much money and you living on you know welfare that is a lot of money when you have to up and leave and you have that small amount of income so not only that you know it took us three days to be able to get to a city called B Bridge Louisiana which is only 2 hours away from New Orleans that's how bad traffic was and that's how long it was taking people to be able to evacuate because you know people was running out of gas the gas stations wasn't opening so we stayed trapped in the city literally in the same area until we was able to um get assistance with the um the police the Army and all those different people that came in to help um help us evacuate but we literally was trapped in the city okay so so so essentially what you're saying is because of the conditions and your financial situation there was no other options for you and then you kind of put two and two together and said I know all these people that have this money are in real estate and I never want to put myself or my family in a position where I can't get away from trouble like this if I need to due to my own Financial circumstances so you said I'm going to get into real estate because of those situations absolutely I didn't even let me tell you this they were asking for our city council and all these different people and they were like yo they flew out already so it just planted a seed when I heard that right so we ask him for help from our leaders but they not there they already gone so it's like okay well I don't want to be here next time something like this happen so it it just really resonated to know yo people really did leave and if we would have had money to be able to leave we wouldn't be in this situation you know um and so it it was a big eye open for me like I just you know you never know what you need until you really need it and at that time if we had the resources to be able to evacuate and I'm talking just a few hundred I'm not talking like thousands of dollarss if we had a few extra hundred we could have left and evacuated and stayed at a hotel again you know for those who don't know what evacuation is you got to literally leave your house you got to go and stay at a hotel room you got to be able to afford the hotel room you got to afford the food when going to that so it's not just oh up and leave and go by a cousin or a relative it's it's also you know counting the cost of that as well absolutely it's hard I think it's hard for anybody to move so you put in any kind of Financial constraints or stress and it it's super super difficult um so uh thank you so much for sharing that with this t i I want to move along a little bit in your story because eventually you do end up getting into real estate and uh you know did you know getting into real estate when you were doing this did you know what it would become did you have an idea where you like this is my way out or were you like I'm going to try this and see how it goes bro I was poor with a negative bank account okay let me just be clear I just needed some money at the time I didn't join real estate because I was going to be Warren Buffett or Donald Trump I joined because I needed some zeros in my bank account and I seen people with big houses and it looked like they put zeros in their bank account with real estate you know I faed that exam seven times I could not pass that exam I did not know what a mortgage was a lean was an encroachment and incence I knew no real estate terms so for me to literally know nothing be the dumbest one in the classroom asking the most simplest questions to those who got family who's been on in real estate it you it's it's unheard of right so I I I had no clue that I would be you know um a leading woman in my area um pioneering you know um smart grow I just didn't know that I didn't my mind didn't comprehend that it comprehended I needed a few more zeros at that time so I started where I was cool and give us a little bit of clarification when did you go to Real Estate School give us like what was that time frame relative to Hurricane Katrina and yeah give us some some context there that's a great question Rob so um I got started in real estate I started so Katrina was in August of 05 so in um right after Hurricane Katrina we got relocated to a place called Lafayette Louisiana by December I was already going to Real Estate School I was sitting in the class trying to figure out what the heck real estate was and just trying to figure out how to pass exam and early ' 06 I got my license and um I finally passed it got my license and I became a real estate agent during that time got it okay and you said you took that test a few times seven okay seven times let's not dismiss that seven okay okay okay and I love that by the way uh most people would not do that so it just honestly just goes to show your tenacity and how much you wanted this you get you you pass I'm sure that's a really big day for you and you get into your first year of being a real estate agent what was that like I made a whopping $5,000 my first year I could have made more money working at McDonald's is what my exact thought was I never forget that moment I just knew when I passed that exam Harry like I just knew that I was going to be rich okay like I just was like oh my gosh I got the paper that everybody been getting to get these big houses and my first year I I was a wob I call that walking around broke okay I did horrible my first year but I didn't give up I went back to my roots I found my nits in real estate I you know um I door knocked for business you know what I'm saying I door knocked to sell magazines I door knocked to get my real estate doors and I went on to be Century 21 um Rookie of the Year top producing agent and then they um honored me with the Centurion award and different things like that so you know my second year was um a lot better I did over a million dollars in sales wow okay that's a big joke when you said you said uh wob walking around walking walking around broke walking around broke that's right I was a w around broke man it it it made me chuckle cuz I'm like I think there's a few like Real Estate Investors online right now who look like they who look like they got it but they they they wobbin around too yeah that's it um but no so so you know you kind of you talked a little bit about 5,000 the first year and then the second year Rookie of the Year and all these Awards so obviously a lot went into like how you go from one to the other but um what you said to yourself I could have made more working at McDonald's like what made you stick with this plan that didn't work like you thought it would in the first year versus just going ahead and saying you know what I'm going to go get a different job like what was that what drove that decision for you so I'm um I always tell people this right I'm Street strong it take a lot to break your girl okay like I've been through in back I feel like you know you literally got to kill me to take me out this game and so I refuse to go down I refuse to be defeated you know I didn't get this far just to get this far and I knew that if I went and took that test seven times and I eventually pass I can eventually pick up how this is supposed to go into real estate and start making money from it so I I I was always um you know very conscious of my mindset and the um and the way I thought about things because the moment I I say I'm done with something the moment I don't want to do something I'm done and I'm not doing it so I had to be very careful not to let those words come out my mouth because I would have walked away if I would have been like oh I give up or I quit or you know you know I made $5,000 this year this is horrible but when you see people around you you know doing one two three five1 million you like they're no different than me and I've always told myself that I'm no different than the next person other than they just kept on going to the next opportunity if I stop here I won't get to my next opportunity so I think that's what was different for me there's a lot of value in what you just said there's a lot of lessons for for new investors in what you just said cuz cuz what you express is really the mindset that people need to have when they're not just approaching real estate but any new business venture like it ain't supposed to be easy like it's not supposed to be easy and the only thing in my opinion that sets apart successful investors from those who haven't found success yet it's not that the successful people found the super secret sauce or super secret Bag of Money nobody else found or the super secret deal Source nobody else found it's just that they didn't quit like there's they didn't quit when it got hard they didn't quit when they didn't make any money they didn't quit when they spent money and didn't get a return they didn't quit when a tenant you know destroyed their property they didn't quit the deal fell apart at the closing table like it's just it's the tenacity and that that I don't when people say you have to have the right mindset I think a lot of the times it kind of just goes in people's one ear and out the other that's huge not allowing yourself to say hey this isn't going to work or hey I'm done with this even even playing it within in your mind can really change the actions that you take so I I love that I think that's valuable lessons for people I mean I I think pretty much what it comes down to is like we all suck when we get started at something and the Really successful people are just willing to be bad at something for a lot longer and that's really the the big difference in this in this world I I think people look around at Real Estate Investors and they say oh they're all smarter than me but it's like what are the chances that every single successful Real Estate Investors actually smarter than you and it's like zero they're all just regular people that they're willing to be bad at something for a long time until they're good um so t i I don't want to gloss over this this whole thing I mean you you said the first year you made 5,000 bucks um it sounds like you know this rough math here but that means you sold roughly 150k worth of homes that first year then the second year you said you did about a million dollars in sales which rough math here would say you almost 10x your your revenue or your your closed sale so what was that what what happened what was the big moment there that was like oh okay I'm just going to like 10x the amount of output that I'm doing this year I've always been big on um research and education um I have selftaught myself a lot of things um and and literally it's by giving myself access to information and I remember um the big change for me was um buying this CD it was like a comeback CD and like it was literally being able to get over every single objection that a seller and or a buyer would face you with and I would listen to that like it was the Bible like how I read my Bible from sun up to sun down soon as I get in the car I get the car you know um if I'm in the shower I have the cassette playing in the um in the bathroom like I'm constantly doing it and I'm constantly role playing so now when I get on the phone I need enough tenacity to be able to get prepared for these noes I'm about to get because I already know Miss Jones is about to tell me no I already know I'm about to get like 10 of them NOS right so I got to prepare myself to be able to get to the yes with all of those Nos and for me once I had that mindset I was like yo that's really cool the second thing was was when I door knocked I ended up getting my own subdivision from a lady because she was impressed with me door knocking she wanted me she wanted to know why should she go with me versus going with the top agent that she was going to go with and I said well I can tell you number one I have time okay I got way more time than anybody I'm out here knocking on doors trying to get your business okay your real are not knocking on doors that's the first thing the second thing is you're not going to be a number to me you're going to remember me so I made my relationships more personable with the sellers I treated them as if they were actually a friend of mine and that their property was the only property in the world for me and it landed me my first subdivision so hold on really fast T what do you mean by that when you say it landed you your own subdivision is it like one of those subdivisions where you like a lot of them are pre-built and you're just the exclusive agent yes at that point in time yes this was a lady who had um she had I think it was was like 60 Lots or something like that and so she literally allowed me to be the listing agent for that Community every single property she built I was the listing agent to be able to sell those homes back there wow whoa yes so that went for me I think people and this is important for those that's on here that's in real estate I went to a foreign place I knew nobody I was not a tibo A risho or a buo I didn't have a popular last name I didn't have no referrals in pipeline I literally just started with what I was good at and some of us have superpowers that we just don't access but I think if we start accessing the superpowers that we have we'll realize our talent is more than enough so what a cool well first of all the story is amazing but you knock on the door and you kind of have this this lady kind of gives you your your moment right she said okay tell me why you and like there's not many people that can like point to a very specific moment that probably changed their life but that like 30 second elevator pitch right moment right there was probably extremely life-changing for you because it it it seems like and and I'm and I'm speculating here but it sounds like you being the listing agent for this uh uh developer probably gave you a lot of insights and education into the other side of the of the real estate World on the investor side is that is that kind of how you transitioned well yeah absolutely so this is a funny story that goes into this right so of course it gave me name recognition in the area right when you have a whole subdivision of course people going to see your names real estate is its own world so everybody know everybody in real estate who's doing something if you ain't doing nothing nobody know you right well long story short um I had started working with investors only I realized there was a niche for investors that agents wasn't really working with and so I would start working with investors and I remember sitting at the closing table with one of my investors and I literally would do all of the work on these projects for them meaning I would find the property I would bring the contractors in to fix up the property I would oversee the contractors pick out the paint colors I would do everything um list it sell it everything right and I was sitting at the closing table one day and the attorney gave me the folder the closing folder which was supposed to have my commission check in it as a realtor now I should be grateful because I have investors that's letting me you know come in or whatever and they're buying it with me they're selling it with me you know I should be very grateful well they end up giving me that investor folder and when I seen those zeros in his folder I couldn't unsee what I see I was like yo now mind you I said oh I'm sitting at the wrong end of the table I need to be I need to be on that end where they getting the big zero and doing you know the least amount of work and so I had a conversation with all my investors at that time um and I said hey I'm going to work for you guys but we're going to split it 50/50 and I'm not putting up no money I'm not putting up no money I'mma do all the work and I'm going do everything I've been doing but you got to split it with me 50/50 I lost all my investors except one one investor stayed with me and me and him did about 10 homes following and then he started telling all his friends about me and guess what when his friends came to the table they knew if they was going to work with me it was going to be a 50/50 deal and I wasn't putting up no money okay all right so let's go back cuz I love this so you're basically saying I want to use OPM I I want to use other people's money to fund my real estate uh journey I suppose so you go you're a listing agent and you're starting to talk to investors and basically you come in um I don't want to say making demands but you come in with your terms you say hey I want this and you had a group I think you said of 10 or so investors most of them said yeah those terms don't work work for us thanks but no thanks they all left and then one person was like actually I'm good with this and then that is the that was kind of like the the beginning of of working with someone to to fuel the the Empire is that did did I hear that correctly yeah it was way more than 10 investors I lost all my investors except one but that one investor went on to do 10 deals with me and that got the attention with his other friends and the draw for the investor was you were the Workhorse you were them the property managing the build the renovation the contractors like all they had to do was show up and get paid essentially that's it okay I like this were you negotiable at all on this or were you like this is this is what I want Rob Rob have you been on this interview do you think she was negot Rob let me just tell you something I I mentioned earlier right I said I'm Street strong if one thing I know how to do is make it out of a struggle so if I had to struggle back from the beginning with zero to get to where I'm at I was willing to do it and pretty much I did I only had one buddy that stayed with me you know um shout out to him we Still Rock together to this day you know well it's I asked because most of the time we are really you know we're like hey this is what I want and when someone's like no thanks it's always like oh okay well I mean what do you want and then maybe I can come down a little bit uh but you did CH I love it it's it's sticking to your guns this guy did 10 deals with you MH uh of those 10 deals it was a 50/50 split for you and him but he didn't have to do any work and and so you said you did 10 deals but you guys are still working together now is the relationship different like what oh it's much different yeah it's much different cuz I'm a developer now so um you make him do the work I think I I think I'd imp passed him on his um on on what he's comfortable with you know doing you know um but yeah no we still work I mean we still hang out we go out and eat you know we do things like that um but you know um I'm pretty aggressive in this market so you know um I don't you know I like fet meon so that mean I like you know I like to eat good in this market and um you know he still does a lot of the um fix and flips and reyolds and you know from here there when I feel bored you know in developments I go dabble over there we go you know make it like old times but for the most part you know we're just really good friends okay so that's uh you you keep revealing just massive aspects of your story that I'm like hold on wait what so you're working with these investors you do the work you split it 50/50 and then there comes a moment in this I guess transition of doing renovations and flips where you're like I want to start developing tell us a little bit about that what was that moment or or that change in your career um so what happened was um wait let me guess every transition in her career it's because she saw somebody was making more zeros she said I'm going to I'm going to go figure out how to be better than you at that and get them zeros that's right that's right so um I was um I was at a builder meeting and I didn't um I was sitting on the UDC board um which is the urban development committee right and that's a committee where all of the builders and developers and everybody like that join together they give input on what you know ways that they can get different um developers to come into the areas and things like that and so I was sitting there and one Builder was talking about the new home he was going to now mind you I never thought about building new homes at this point in time I'm just a fixing flipper and um he was saying how he was buying lots and he was just putting them up in different communities and I'm like wait you building new homes in older communities I never even thought of that so I went and partnered with a builder um and what that partnership looked like was I went I found the lots and I paid for the lots and then I had the Builder come in and we would build on those lots together and we would split the profit 50/50 the reason why I did that was because I needed to understand how to build new construction I knew nothing about it and being in a Fix and Flip you pretty much you know depending on the the type of home you're pretty much rebuilding it anyway so I knew that I could possibly do it but I wanted to make sure that I had some type of experience from someone with experience and so I partnered with a builder we built four homes in an existing Community um we sold those homes before we even finished building them and I'm like yo this is some really great money so then I was like okay if I can do this then I'm sure I can I can be a developer but I didn't know how to be a developer until one of my friends at a dinner said hey I'm putting my grandchildren name on the street sign and I'm like what you can put people name on the street signs I didn't even know that was a thing like I didn't know people sit down and have conversations about that right somebody it's about being in the right room and having the right access to the right information you start learning these things so me being being who I am I'm like I want my children name on the street sign too so I go and um I develop a community it's called madin Cove and then I put my son name on the street sign now I didn't just come become a developer what I did was I actually um worked with the builder we built a few more properties and then I eventually ended up in a few more development Partnerships with other builders who wanted to be developers so I was able to witness on the back end that um operation and then I was like okay I feel confident enough to be able to go do my own development and that's how I was able to start Matlin Cove and put my children name on street signs uh first of all I think you're you're just a good good Storyteller because within these stories there's so many great lessons for people if they're wanting to get into real estate or into development um and I think one of the lessons that we're we're hearing ing here is you didn't just say I'm going to go be a developer and jump off the cliff because there's a lot of risk in being a developer right especially if you have to go acquire the land and you don't know what that land has use for or if you can even do what you want to do and the cost of build like there's so many variables and so much money gets spent with development before you know a 2x4 is ever put in the ground and so what you did that was super smart was you said I'm going to go part with somebody who knows how to do this and I'm going to structure it in a way that's beneficial to that partner and myself so that I get a lesson while I make money and um you know I always stress to people if you're going to get into something that's not your bread and butter there are people who are good at it and there are ways that you can set yourself up to partner with those people or be successful you need to bring them the thing that they don't have I wanted to do a self- storage deal I wanted to do one so bad and I thought the only way I'm going to do a self storage deal is I got to go find a self storage deal because if I get a self storage deal I know I can find a guy who does self- storage to come be a 50-50 partner with me and that's exactly how I did my first Self Storage deal I got a lead and it just so happened to be a lead on a self storage facility that this guy had been trying to Market to and so I call once I got the lead I called him and I was like hey I think this is a good deal how do we take it down and if we do do you want to be 50-50 partners and that ended up netting us our first storage deal so I think that there's a valuable lesson there and find someone who's doing it and bring them some value and you can get a deal and then you worked with this developer you built this relationship you did a few projects until you felt like okay I know how to go do this and then you wouldn't found your neighborhood to put your family's name on is that what I'm hearing that's absolutely correct gives me goosebumps yeah it's it's amazing so can I ask a little bit about this the details of of sort of working with the developer I think you mentioned you found someone you said hey uh let's split this 50/50 how does that work like do they have like a fund or do they have like a commercial line of uh credit that with the bank and then they fund it all through there and they're they're basically on the hook for that commercial loan financially and then yeah basically after all that loan is paid back and you make your sale you're just splitting profits from there is it is it that easier or is it even more complex than that no it's not even complex right so um I think it all depends on you know the Builder SL veler whatever whichever route you want to go for us we had a relationship with a local bank and so um the developer whenever so this is how development goes right whenever we find a partial of L and we do the subdivide and we do all of our civil we are already pre-selling Lots so by the time we get to 50% sold in our community before we even do shovel like before we even shovel ready we're already 50% sold we go to the bank and we pledge that book of business with the bank and they see the um the Lois the letter of um commitments we have letter of intents but the letter of commitments we have from other builders in the area who has agreed to purchase these Lots from us and then they give us the financing for the hard cost to be able to get started with the infrastructure and then of course you got your lot allocation with the bank where they're going to you know um you know they're going to have a certain portion that's due on each lot every time you close you got to pay down your your loan on it and then from there you know we able to split the profits now how you come in as a partner like for me I'm adding value is I'm going to do all the City Council meetings I'm going go to all the Civil you know um most developers they want to do that anyway but if they have somebody that's going to be in the weeds with them that is you know it's a great partnership opportunity you know um and so I'm also going to put in whatever the bank requires for that 20% down I'm going to come in I got to bring in my 10% of the portion if I want to be an equal partner in that deal um and that usually look like me bringing in other investors on the back end of under me creating some type of gplp situation to be able to get um my 10% if it's you know a multi-million dollar development for anybody at home that may not know what that is that's General partner and limited partner thank you rob thank you yeah and so you know we put those together and then from there you know we're able to go and um acquire it and you know split the profits at the end whenever you know we sell the property very cool very cool so okay this is really amazing by the way I mean I think you know this this is such a cool story you're obviously you're crushing it you go into the development World I'd imagine it's a little competitive so what was sort of your angle or what was your idea for making your neighborhood different or your subdivision different from some of the competition in New Orleans so just so we clear this community is in um a few hours away from New Orleans um you know people be trying to argue on the internet you know but um anyways so yeah I do know unfortunately you know um so I'm big on preventing gentrification and I'm big on um Community projects and allowing um people that come from situations such as myself lowincome Section 8 you know affordable housing subsidy I'm big on catering to that audience so Rob I see no competition in my Lane there's nobody in the United States that can compete and I say this aggressive now this is National Builders if they want to come on down to this level I think it'll be a party for you know 80% of Americans right but there's nobody Building Homes less than $200,000 in this Marketplace today but me you know so I am okay with making you know 40 you know 40 to $660,000 on a um real estate deal new construction home brand new three bedrooms two bath I'm talking a garage I'm not even putting these people in carports you know um granite countertops energy fishing Windows architectural shingles like it's a really nice home that we're building for the people there's nobody who can compete with that and so whenever I'm bringing these communities to these neighborhoods I'm door knocking back to my roots back to my superpower right if you put me in front of you Rob I can sell your furniture back to you when I go to your house that's how good I am right I really believe that so because I know who I am when I go and knock on these people doors and I'm addressing their pain points and I'm letting them know I'm not coming in here to push you out neighborhood I'm coming in here to include you in your neighborhood what is it that you would like to see in the neighborhood oh we'll like to see the violence calm down okay great how about we create an opportunity where one we we create some type of recreational activity where kids have a place to go and play maybe we have a bookstore in the area cuz bookstores don't go into the hood period so maybe I create bookstores that go into these neighborhoods that don't normally get bookstores maybe I create a coffee shop where kids can go sit down study and and want to learn maybe I create these environments that these neighborhoods wouldn't normally see and now you know you're able to address the pain points of what some of these people have another pain point they have is that they don't feel like people hear them they voices are not heard so I'm like not only do I hear you right I am here physically I'm from where you from I come from where you come from so I'm not afraid of these gang bangers and all these other people that may scare people in the area I'm not scared of them like you know I just looked the um drug dealer like I don't care I'll stand up to him like you know period And so because I have that tenacity about me and because I'm that Hometown girl and because I'm not an Out Of Reach developer people in the community they rock with me more you know we went door too um explaining to everyone what we was doing passing out flyers but also you know um just doing neighborhood cookouts community events making them know that hey we here for you guys we want this to be for you and the and my audience the people who I build home for the people who I'm selling homes for is the cafeteria workers in the hospital right I'm I'm I'm I'm focused on that median income of anywhere from 30,000 a year to about 60 to 70,000 a year that's who I'm focused on building homes for because that is what the that's what your M that's kind of like what the middle class in the south is making so if I can focus on providing home ownership to those individuals who's been working at the same job for 10 to 15 years then feel like you know there's no competition in my Lane Rob I hope that answered that question it did it absolutely did um this is I'm I'm just going to be frank like this is why I wanted to have you on here telling this story because all we hear right now is there's no affordable housing there's no way to build affordable housing we can't solve this problem no one wants to solve this problem and you've essentially laid out a brew plant for how people can solve this problem so I think what you're what you're proving is that yeah this problem can be solved right this problem is being solved and what it's taking is for somebody to get down and go meet people where they're at and I think that's where that's what sets you apart from everybody else is nobody else is willing to do that um and you are building home in improving communities without displacing the people within that community and so many times we see people come in and build these beautiful homes and these beautiful neighborhoods and these beautiful amenities but they're not for the people in that neighborhood they pric them at a price point where the people in that neighborhood can't have access to those amenities and you're doing the exact opposite You're Building these beautiful communities but a build building it in a way that allows the people within that Community to have access and I want to commend you for that I think that that's incredible and more people need to see that it it is currently happening and can be done and can be profitable that's that's huge I think I think the lot of people get super scared to go into the affordable housing side of things because they think that there's no money to be made but you said that these are I mean each build is a relatively profitable build that's right and I don't use the government money so a lot of people associate affordable housing with subsidy I don't use government money this is my own money that we use to go to the bank I'm using traditional funding just like anybody else so I'm not getting no tax credits I'm not getting any of that this is literally you know us working with Home Depot and working with the lows around the world and getting corporate discounts and being able to sit down and have these hours at a time meeting to drive the price and down price per square foot so we can build them at the price that these people need need you know um and also not just focusing on Building Homes it's more than that right there's a um there's a food desert you know there's a health care desert you know in the area that I'm building in if a railroad train is passing there's no health care that means you can't get to an emergency room if a train is passing so we're more focused on bringing you know um those type of opportunities back into these communities where these people don't have transportation they rely on public transportation so if we can provide food housing and medical I think that you know um that's a start to getting our community back to where it needs to be one thing you mentioned was that you you go door too and you talk to the people in the community and you ask them what they want um obviously I think strategically that helps you know what to build but are you also doing that because um uh is it a way like you get approvals for the things that you need from the city based on what the the the community members are asking for I do it because they be having my back here like I'm not going to lie people be stealing in these neighborhoods and robbing you blind you know what I'm saying so I be needing a few people to have my back in this neighborhood so if they know Tera you know you know is in here and I'm trying to help them and I'm trying to keep them you know in a in a in an environment that they're used to that they've been there for Generations but I'm just trying to uplift them and and bring them you know better product in their Community then I need for them to have my back but also if if they have a a particular you know um pain Point like for instance you know they want children to be able to have a basketball court or things like that I do put those into my designs because that is so important for them and it helps them know that I'm a woman of my word and that I'm going be true to what they're asking absolutely irritates me every time I go into a community and I see somebody build a park and not put a basketball court cuz and I I know you ain't build that park for the people that's there you trying to push the people that's there out if I see a new park go up with a basketball court I'm like that's for my people right there yes yes so let me ask you terica because you're you're building and you're developing a lot of new homes what does that do to the equity of existing homes does that help them does that hurt them does it build up the entire Community how does that look from like a grander view oh that's such a great question Rob so where I build that nobody want to come at right now anyway unless they want to come bulldo everything down in the area and then just start fresh so everything that I do like where I'm building at before I started building home values have not increased in over 10 years could you imagine not having appreciation in your house in over 10 years right so we took a property these homes didn't sell for more than $30 to $40,000 in this area now they're selling at about $85,000 because of our new construction homes that we're building in proximity not only are those home values increasing now we're increasing the property value in those areas so you just can't come and steal it from nobody anymore you got to pay what it's worth and so now with us having homes that's being built at 175,000 180,000 everything up under 200 right now people are like yo like you know first the bank didn't even want to give us no money rob I didn't tell you that they was like yo nobody's going to buy over there so the first 12 homes we had to build out our own pocket without the bank now they throwing money at us because we can't keep them on the ground it's a high need for it's a high demand you know so um we that's why I say we don't have no competition CU nobody can build and do what we're doing right now they can they just don't want to and I believe that um somebody listening to this is going to be inspired I believe that you are going to light a fire under somebody who's going to hear like oh my goodness this is what I need to be doing for my community this is what I need to be doing in the community around where I live and so um what advice or what would you say to those people who are new and they want to implement a strategy like what you're doing in 2024 I would say this get around people who's doing exactly what you want to do right this is the to me I I mean I can be biased but I think bigger poet is the number one podcast in the world on real estate information I don't know of another podcast in the world that gives as much resources as this podcast and it's not to fluff y'all feathers because I'm on here it's true no go ahead right right it's true right and and so being in rooms like this listening to conversations like this going to Bigger Pockets and looking at The Fix and Flip calculator looking at the multif family C all of the resources and tools if there's a article on anything real estate you I bet you your last dollar it's on Bigger Pockets and so just becoming a sponge with all of the information and the resources that are already given to you I think people dismiss that like they dismiss all of the um the the the calculators that you guys give just for free I'm like yo this is I be charging for this I don't get this away for free right so you know what I'm saying so to know that it's a platform out there that's a hub of information that's given this I would say start there the second thing I would say is get a coach or a mentor like if you hear my story I had to learn it through someone else and I was okay with paying for what I needed to learn I was okay with paying you know to um take my real estate exam seven times so I think it's important to know that you have to be willing to make some type of investment in yourself to be able to get where you want to go and not be afraid to make that investment and then I would say the most important thing is to believe in yourself everybody's going to tell you it's crazy they're going to say it don't make sense they're not going to understand it but I think I go to the bank more than anybody in my family and now they can appreciate advice from me when it comes out my mouth that's amazing well t we so appreciate this this is what I always dub as an instant classic I think a lot of people are going to listen to this and they're going to be super inspired to take action today and for anyone that was that at home that if you're in need of some of these tools and resources you can always head over to biggerpockets.com there's a little tab there that's called tools if you click on that it'll take you to all of our calculators and if you want to connect with t or Henry or myself all of our contact information all of our good stuff for connecting on the internet will be in the show notes at the bottom of this podcast thank you again so much terica we greatly enjoyed having you on thanks for having me uh yes of course and we will catch everyone on the next episode of Bigger [Music] Pockets

Channel: BiggerPockets

Views: 13,781

Keywords: housing crisis, affordable housing, housing, real estate development, real estate developer, what is a real estate developer, how to become a real estate developer, real estate, real estate investing, real estate investor, real estate agent, real estate partnerships, new construction homes, home value, gentrification, building wealth, how to build wealth, generational wealth, financial freedom, housing market, housing market 2024, biggerpockets, biggerpockets podcast, podcast

Id: DKnwjG5nDh8

Length: 45min 54sec (2754 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 01 2024