Revival Real Estate Podcast Gene Dent

Safety, beauty, great schools, close to work, affordability. These are some of the primary attractions that people are looking for in a neighborhood.  Do these features help build a great community or are they the result of a great community? Building vibrant community where residents care for themselves, their homes and their neighbors is elusive, often organic and always relational. Gene and Casey dive into this important, if enigmatic, subject in order to begin to understand best practices. 

Lonnie Ford knows houses… and Property Managers… and Real Estate Investors.  He has the skills and know-how to bring any property to pristine condition. He has also learned to avoid owners and managers who don’t give a rip about the neighborhoods that they have invested in.  You don’t want to be that guy that great contractors and service techs, like Lonnie, avoid.  He'll share some wisdom and stories... even the one where he ended up with a motorcycle. 

A dearth of safe, affordable student housing around Jackson State University was being ignored by local Real Estate investors. But with his history of overseeing financial turnarounds in the education world, Michael Thomas saw an opportunity to give students at this urban university a safe place to sleep, study and learn to be a good neighbor affordably.  We’ll learn how he is approaching the need one house at a time.

Thanks to Dodd-Frank and other public and private policies, our inner-cities are bereft of capital to fund much needed affordable housing. We continue our discussion with Walter Wofford as he pulls back the curtain to reveal some of resources that he taps into in order to fund affordable housing.  

Real Estate Investors know neighborhoods, houses, values, how to find money and, perhaps most relevant, how to make money.  Applying our knowledge so that it benefits our local communities and their residents requires skill, an open mind and an open heart.  Veteran Investor (and my mentor) Walter Wofford shares how creatively applying his vast real estate knowledge led to a creative, effective affordable housing program that works.

Most of us are working to improve our standard of living for ourselves and that usually means working for more money to get a bigger house in a better neighborhood.  Levi Gill inverted that success ladder by moving to an unfamiliar city, seeking out those who could materially offer him very little, and helping the materially poor work towards a more stable life. Here he shares what he has learned living, working and investing in the inner city.