Earn Your Leisure Real Estate Expo (Washington D.C.)

Earn Your Leisure Real Estate Expo

Written by Cutty 

Washington, DC, had a treat last week as Earn Your Leisure came to town, and they brought a couple friends with them to help teach some of the current Howard students and anyone else interested in obtaining real estate. Earn Your Leisure's own Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings hosted a free event with Jullien Gordon, Shonda Martin, and others where they touched on topics like credit repair, home lending, and how to obtain grants for your first home. The whole event was sponsored by Chase, and we were able to learn some details about a new program they are launching for black and brown communities to help them get into their first house. It was jam-packed with knowledge from beginning to end. There were also some powerful people in the crowd who we were able to mingle with: investors, architects, and real estate realtors from all over the country here at Howard University. 

This was an amazing opportunity to talk to some of your favorite real estate heavyweights. Every speaker who came gave the audience a chance to ask them questions personally after their panel. You could see people asking question after question as the experts were ready to share their knowledge. One person who stuck out the most was Jullien Gordon. They called him Hov in the crowd, and when he hit the stage, the room erupted into applause. He spoke about how important it is for families to invest in multi-family properties for their first property. He preaches how he has been rent-free since 2013, when he first purchased his first home in Brooklyn, which was a duplex. Since then, he has acquired 40 investment properties and generates passive income every month. He says "every family can do this; it's so possible." "This is one of the best ways to create generational wealth," he says at the end of his panel.  

The students at the expo took a lot of game home, and Shonda Martin, who teaches how to get a 750 credit score, had a lot of people talking. With the knowledge she had, she was giving out details about how your score breaks down and how to improve it. She informs us that credit cards are one of the most important factors in our credit, accounting for 164 points out of a possible 850. She also went on to say that 300 points are automatically given to you. So that's 464 points just from having one credit card and having a credit file open. The game she gave about getting to an 850 turned a lot of heads as people were searching for ways they could fix their own credit. A lot of students were grateful for the knowledge, as they feel like they have an upper hand now in dealing with credit.

The event was super successful; people left knowing more than they did walking in, and Chase let the people know of the new program they were revealing, which was for black and brown communities. They will be providing assistance with getting into home ownership, including a $5,000 grant towards their closing. They had various Chase speakers tell the audience about all of the opportunities they can take advantage of with them to either build credit or get their first home. Overall, they wanted the message to be clear: we want more young homeowners and to get them out of the rental race. We want them to have more ownership and control over their future. They did a good job showing that; they said this will not be the last event as this is only the beginning. They plan on hosting more events in the near future.

Photos by @thewright_visuals