Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Tate.
Hi Andrew , thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve really come full circle in real estate. About five years ago, I was looking for a career transition, and some friends of mine were launching a business aimed at impacting the urban core, fixing up older and delapitaded homes, and turning them into quality affordable housing. They needed someone to be the person to engage their network and our community to drive investment into the company. Real estate was going absolutely bonkers right when I got into it, and we needed to quickly pivot to help the property management company that the brokerage was started from. An abundance of buyer leads, and deals were everywhere. That turned into a lot of realtor duties, helping buy and sell rental properties for investors. Some urban core, some not. Really, I wanted more freedom and flexiblity to target the areas of town that needed the most help. Throughout my career, I’ve always had giving back and community impact as something on the side that I’ve tried to do. Giving back and helping others has always been an important part of running and owning successful businesses in my family. I learned this at a young age. In the Boy Scouts, one thing that always stuck with me was the old saying about a camp site you’re about to pack up and leave; “leave it cleaner than you found it.” I’ve always tried to do that in all areas of my life. Sometimes I get that right, but I’m always trying to get better. In real estate, it’s easy to not do that, because as a realtor, your fiduciary responisbility to your client ends when the transaction is over. However, I had a hard time playing a part in real estate knowing that a transaction I was a part of might not help the community it’s in. I care about what happens after the transaction. Is the house, the tenant, the street, and the neighborhood better off because I was a part of this deal? It’s hard to try and make a buck in real estate AND do something good. I shifted to a new brokerage where I had more freedom and flexiblity to use different contractors, property managers, and a lot of flexiblity in using my time to learn more about affordable housing, the organizations that are doing it well, and started to look into smaller development deals and incremental development. Honestly, it’s not been easy, and I’ve had to shift gears a few times. There’s a huge need for affordable housing in most parts of the country, but in our divided coummunity of Kansas City, it’s a glaring need. There are a ton of organizations trying to develop real estate, some doing it very well, but it’s not enough to keep up with the demand. I’ve made it my charge to try and connect dots, break down the silos between these organizations, and am currently seeking partners or organizations to plug into to help them tackle this growing need. I’m passionate about the multi generational wealth that real estate can provide families, but I’m also aware that it hasn’t always been equitable; being able to buy homes, getting financing, which parts of town get development dollars, and which ones don’t. Call me a woke-libertarian. I’ve started a group called Concious Capitalism REI KC, which I realize is a mouthful, but it’s a group specifcally created to run counter to the many groups in town that are simply there to move real estate, maximize profits, and get deals done. In the poorest parts of town, deals just don’t pan out unless you have a way to bridge the appraisal gap, get the property far under market value, or you cut corners on the rehab. Pardon the real estate jargon, but essentially, there needs to be a deeply discounted purchse price, tax credit, or funder that helps get a deal done and the numbers to actually make sense for the financing to work. We all want more affordable housing, but someone has to pay for it. Someone has to make less, get it done cheaper, or work harder for the same amount of money. It’s not easy, and there are exponentially more people in real estate maximizing profits (we call this capitalism) and not putting the people first. We’re talking about people’s homes and communities, so I have a hard time focusing on only maximizing profits. I want to put the people first. There’s a way to do that, it’s just harder and less profitable, but I can’t imagine doing it another way.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Oh, baby, have there been challenges…. At the begining, just drinking from a fire hose. Doing so many deals, getting a ton of experience analyzing deals, watching the market, making a lot of mistakes. Right about the time I got into real estate, the market tightened. A lot of competition and things were moving fast. I had to get proficient at finding homes with a lot of issues, and then good and quoting what it would cost to rectify the deferred capex. I got good at finding hairy beasts, and then helping investors fix them up. There’s less competition on the hairy stuff, so I found myself looking for foundation issues. Running showings more like an inspector than a realtor. As soon as I felt I’d started hitting my groove, interest rates started going up. For a while, rents were also going up, so deals were still panning out, but that leveled off, and I had to start finding even hairier deals, looking off market, trying to get creative. For a good year or so I was managing the rehabs, essentually being the GC on projects, and my clients would use me as a one stop shop. I learned a lot about contracting and quoting work. That part of my business was 30% of my profit, but 95% of my headaches. I partnered up with a great guy at my new brokerage and we started tag teaming investors, splitting duties and commissions. That worked well enough that we started a retail team the following year, The Blue Orchid Team. Ah, those were the days. At the same time I had a great idea for a fund in the urban core, going all the way back to my start, transparently buying off market, limiting what we could make, so that we could tee up non profits and sell them affordable housing units at a resonable cost. The whole idea was that we’d do so much volume that we’d make up for smaller margins, all while doing good. In theory, I still love that idea. However, we lacked the man power to get the fund off the ground AND develop and manage our retail team. Midway through the year I had to abandon the fund, and help the retail side. Not my favorite part of real estate, and I was really forcing it there for a good year. Eventually, none of it worked well enough for us to continue down the same path. I do still hope to get back to that model, but it’s too much for me alone to tackle, all while paying the bills at home. Last Spring I pivoted to my own property manger’s borkerage in an effort to help her with internal investors, and focus my efforts on sourcing off market multi family deals for affordable housing providers in town. Again, it’s been very hard given the challeging market, but that’s why I’m in a season to finding the right partners to help me with my goals. I’m on the way. I know where I want to go, and I definitely know what I don’t want to do, what I’m not good at, and what I need help with. I need a lot of help haha!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The reason I’m at LLRE is that Laura is a broker/owner of the property management company, still intimately involved in the operation of the business, and she does not put up with slum lord investors or anything that will hurt the communities she manages in. She might not call herself a woke libertarian like me, but I see her as one. In real estate, most agents, and definitely most developers, are their own business. A business within the brokerage. I’m with Laura becuase she can be trusted, she gets the rents, she’s fair, and I have all the freedom in the world to explore parntnerships and affordable housing initiatives. How I get paid, is by helping people buy and sell real estate. How I want to get paid is by developing affordable housing. Brand-wise, I’m probably best know for being a bit of a ham, maybe a little too loud, means well and tries to do good by doing well, if that makes sense. I can’t claim to have it all figured out yet, but going through the KC Chamber’s leadership program, Centurions, a couple years back opened my eyes, and plenty of doors. I’m here to do real estate well and the by product of it leaves the community better than I found it. That’s the goal, every time.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Oh man, it’s really funny, becuase I can think back to a manger who questioned how much I used to network early in my career. “How is this going to help you hit your quota?” Well, every great gig I’ve landed, including getting into real estate, was because of who I know, who I’ve networked with, etc. My advice would be to target a few groups and stick with them. Very early on, I spread myself too thin. I also over commited, and underperformed in some advisory board work and fundraising. It’s better to underpromise and overdeliver. Don’t spread yourself out, be focused, targeted, and consistent. I’ve been a member of Top Gun for over 10 years now, and there have been many deals, jobs, and assistance given and recieved becuase I just kept showing up and offering to help. Regarding mentors, mine early on were family. Probably some of my best ones now are my contemporaries, or even some that are younger than I am. There are defeintly a few of an older generation that were not family that really helped open doors for me. I owe a lot to them, however, I have a hard time asking for help, so if only one piece of advice from this portion sticks with readers, ask for it early and often. Mentors are a huge help, and paying it forward to those seeking assistance who need your guidance pays you back in more ways than one. I can think of a few people younger than I am that came to me seeking connections, advice, or jobs, and since then, I’ve needed their help. It’s almost like what comes around goes around. Quote me on that. ;p
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lauralynnerealestate.com/
- Instagram: @tate941234
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tate941/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-tate-453a1b7
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPWqPbtgGdM
