How early should you start your real estate business? What are the things you need to know before starting one? Who do you need to surround yourself with to be knowledgeable in this space? We answer all these questions today with Dave Codrea of Atlanta-based real estate investment firm, Greenleaf.

In the first part of our three-part series with Dave Codrea of Greenleaf, he details how he began his real estate journey as a senior in high school. He shares that his family influenced him to be an entrepreneur and that his grandmother helped him when he was in high school to buy his first rental property. He then discusses moving to Atlanta, being an operator, and establishing himself in the Atlanta market.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Dave shares that he bought his first real estate, a rental property when he was a senior in high school with the help of his grandmother.
• How Dave’s family influenced him to start early in the real estate business.
• Dave talks about his portfolio before moving to Atlanta.
• Dave shares that he started as an operator in Atlanta.
• How did Dave establish himself in the Atlanta market?
• Dave talks about the importance of having a mentor.
• How do you find the right mentor?
• Reaching out to people and giving them value is the best way to start in the real estate space.
• Dave gives tips about scaling.
• How has Dave’s business strategy changed over the years?
• Why knowing what you’re good at can be beneficial?
• Dave shares his deal criteria.

Tweetables:

“My grandmother was a real estate agent back when I was in high school. And I always love looking at this stuff. And, I was trying to find like what am I going to, where am I going to go in life, right? And real estate was something that always intrigued me.”

“Management really led the way of understanding the market, seeing what's out there, and meeting people in the space.”

“If you're going to start out in real estate, most of the people you meet that are successful in real estate, they're like, ‘Oh, I've been doing it for 50 years, you can't fast forward 50 years, you've got to start at some point.’”

“We operate everything that we own. So if we can't operate it, we're going to run into some challenges. So we don't buy that stuff.”

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Dave Codrea on LinkedIn

Greenleaf website

Rich Dad Poor Dad

About Dave Codrea

Dave is co-founder of Greenleaf, an Atlanta-based real estate investment firm. From the very beginning, Dave built Greenleaf to be a provider of quality affordable housing that offers unique compassion and partnership with residents. Since its inception as a two-man venture, Greenleaf has grown its geographic footprint to encompass several states in the Southeastern US. The growing portfolio currently includes Apartments, Mobile Homes, and Commercial properties. Our investment, management, and construction platforms work in sync providing top-level customer experience, impressive investment returns, and a culture of innovation and goal setting.

Dave is an avid adventurer and loves all things outdoors including remote rafting expeditions, overland trips, and the local running scene. If there is a break, Dave will be outside. He has a traveling pack of 3 kids whose favorite words are “outside”. His wife, Sarah, is a physician that can fix any bump or bruise along the way on their journeys together.

Dave co‐founded Greenleaf in 2008 and heads all operational activities of the company. Dave oversees investment management, capital projects oversight, financial reporting and budgeting, and operational execution