Before becoming the President and CEO of Purpose Builder & Developments, a multi-million dollar business in the luxury homes market, Will Cyrus described himself as a hustler. Born on the outskirts of Miami, Florida, Pompano Beach, he was raised in a single-family household and a lower-income community.
When Cyrus was five years old, his dad, a local drug dealer, ended up in prison. “That’s when life began for me. That’s when I believe I saw the poverty around me,” Cyrus recounted to VoyageDallas.
He started entrepreneurship at the age of six selling Little Debbie snacks and Pokémon cards. “At that time, I was making about $100 a week. I was able to pay for my own school clothes, which was big in a poverty-stricken community. My mother worked at the local Winn-Dixie. She did not make much income, so for me, entrepreneurship was huge. “
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“Playing (football & running track) allowed for me to go to college and refine my business savvy even more,” he said.
Today, the entrepreneur describes his real estate business as a Christian-based, design-build development firm. The firm offers largely single-family homes that typically run from $1.5 million to $3 million that are sold in Dallas suburbs, according to Black Enterprise.
His journey in the real estate industry started in 2016 when he began buying land in Fair Park, an urban Dallas neighborhood. Between 2017 and 2019, he focused on building 10 homes a year priced from $250,000 to $350,000 to meet his revenue goals.
However, when COVID struck, he had to restructure his business because the pandemic caused home prices in the Dallas area to double around 2021. This led him to start building homes valued at over $500,000, making him the first black homebuilder in his locality to do so.
He added that it allowed him to create new opportunities for building generational wealth and opening the door for other Black builders to succeed.
As a real estate investor, Cyrus, who is in his early 30s, has carved a niche building luxurious homes for high-end earners. “It’s not such a big deal for more affluent buyers to come up with a $1 million or $500,000 down payment on a multimillion-dollar house.”
According to him, his company is currently working on six projects, including three homes expected to sell for $2 million or more.
Cyrus first got interested in construction by watching his grandfather, who was a carpenter and a masonry foreman.
“It takes a strong Black man to help build character and work ethic, which I learned from my grandfather. I want to instill what my grandfather gave me to the next generation of Black homebuilders and developers,” he told Black Enterprise.
Prior to venturing into real estate, he worked in life insurance starting in 2015 for giant firms like Fidelity Investments, Northwestern Mutual, and Mass Mutual, among others. His tenure with these firms helped him acquire the needed skills in banking, understand various financial products, and how to effectively communicate with underwriters.
“These experiences were crucial in helping me run my own company and dealing with hard money lenders and big box banks.”
To start his company, he relied on his savings, as many black startups do. Now, he is expecting his company to bring in $12 million to $15 million this year. Meanwhile, he is hoping to see revenues reach $35 million to $40 million within the next five years.
