Jamisa Mclvor-Bennet is the founder and CEO of Rosebud’s Investments. She is also the architect behind a $3.2 million real estate portfolio with 21 properties.
Mclvor-Bennett’s journey to developing a $3.2 m real estate portfolio began with a conversation with her grandmother.
“I just wanted to know what would happen to the house if something was to happen to me?” was how the conversation between the two started.
Mclvor-Bennett, who’s now 26, was 19 then working as a cashier at ShopRite Supermarket in Philadelphia.
“Grandma I’m not really sure, I can find out,” she replied. The grandmother then stated: “No, I was just asking because, if something was to happen, I want you to take full responsibility for it. You’re the most responsible one.”
Mclvor-Bennett took to heart the words “you’re the most responsible one”. The grandmother transferred the ownership of the property to Mclvor-Bennett following a quitclaim deed transfer for $400 – which eventually sold for $152,000.
With the earnings from the sale of her grandmother’s property, Mclvor-Bennett ventured into the real estate business.
With thorough research, she zoomed into the sector, using the earnings to purchase her first home in cash for $400.
Mclvor-Bennett since bought 21 properties worth $3.2 million in the Philadelphia area, “affording her a lifestyle that at one point never seemed imaginable for the now-married mother of two”, according to xeNecole.
She would then buy her second house at $6,500.
“It looks like a scary movie,” Mclvor-Bennett told xeNecole.
“I call it the Treehouse, literally, there was a tree growing inside. But I bought it because it was $6,500, and my mentor had purchased it for $2,500. Even though it was ugly, it was structurally sound.
“So it wasn’t one of those things where I had to do anything to it. We put a new roof on it, we boarded it up to winterize it and made sure it was safe. We had to buy a vacant property permit for it. I didn’t know what equity was, I was just buying time until I conjured up enough to figure out what I wanted to do at home, but it was worth a lot.
“Year two [of investing], I started to really get into markets and stuff like that. By year three, the house directly up the street had sold for almost $200,000, and it was smaller than mine. I didn’t know it was going to end up being a good deal, but now I knew that buying a house for $6,500 was OK,” she said.
Mclvor-Bennett’s success as a real estate mogul was largely down to her savviness, which manifested greatly in how she made deals.
“When you’re in real estate, you do what’s called comps, or comparable property. So if you ever want to know what your house is worth, you have to find something that’s comparable to it. Then we look at the work that was done to it. Obviously, if I put a waterfall and elevator in my house, and you got a little patio and vinyl sliding, mine is going to be worth a little more.
“But this is how you compare the numbers and you look at what [the] dollar consistency [is] in that area. You look at the last three things that sold and you get the average,” she stated.
Mclvor-Bennett’s company, Rosebud’s Investments, caters to people interested in real estate investment but unsure of where and how to get started.
It offers them a variety of customized one-on-one services that are designed to help new investors create and build their real estate portfolio in a way that fits their current lifestyle most conveniently.
“We help you choose which branch of real estate that you would be most comfortable exploring, and together we create a blueprint that is best for you. We also help intermediate investors who need individualized guidance through projects,” the company said on its website.
Mclvor-Bennett did not get the over 21 properties because her grandmother “randomly” gave them to her. “She gave me an opportunity and I made the best of it,” she said.
