Can one investor change a whole town?

Question

* Disclaimer: This post may belong in Real Estate Development *

My family home is in a rural southern town that is depressed but sleepy - not too many crime or drug issues.

My “vision board” plan is to renovate my family home and other homes in the area to raise property values, attract tenants, and develop commercial opportunities.

Question: Can one investor affect that much change through responsible scaling? There’s just so much opportunity!

Joseph Cacciapaglia · Answer

I have seen developers change many small towns, but it's not usually accomplished by renovating houses. There needs to be a reason for people to move into the area, and it can't just be that there happens to be a nice house. Small towns in the middle of nowhere are changed by bringing in employers. Once there are jobs, then people move to the area and/or move into nicer homes. Small towns that are commuting communities to bigger cities are most easily changed by developing their down towns. I've seen several small towns boom because they suddenly had a decent little downtown with shops and restaurants. This brings a lot of attention to an area, and then the house rehabbers show up.

It's possible that you could change a whole town with just home renovations, but I've never seen a good example of that. You can certainly change whole neighborhoods though. I have seen plenty examples of that. I think to change the whole town, you need to focus on commercial development.

Evan Polaski · Answer

@Conrad Martin it sounds like you have a vision and drive.  How I see it: no one person cannot change a town, but one person CAN plant the seed of change in a town.  You buy up a couple houses and fix them up, that can be contagious.

Your houses, lead others to do the same.  Those properties increase everyone's values, and as values rise, incomes rise.  Higher incomes lead to new restaurants, bars and stores, which further leads to people wanting to be there.

And between COVID shutting down cities, and showing both employers and employees that working remotely can happen, I see an increased demand for these types of opportunities.  In fact, it already seems to be happening to an extent, pre-COVID.  Young people are moving out of cities and into the walkable suburbs.  They want a yard for their dog, but also to be able to walk to a coffee shop, restaurants, a couple bars.  But that progress starts with one person showing others there is demand for renovated homes in the older, sleepy towns.

Stone Saathoff · Answer

There are people who individually end up changing whole towns. Of course they end up building quite a team, but it's centered around what they're doing.

Here in San Antonio, TX and the Bexar County area there's a gentleman named Keith Jones who I believe has flipped 200+ houses with his team if I'm not mistaken. One day I was pulling comps in the near east side, and all 3 of my comps were done by his company alone. That's a great example of one person having a big impact on their town.

Scott Mac · Answer

Hi Conrad,

I think your question is can YOU change the town.

Well, maybe sombody could, but only you know if YOU could.

And if no-one tries, it will not happen.

It takes a VISION, and a vision board is a real good start for this.

I will give you a tip from my experience and knowledge--Don't try to do it yourself. Instead enlist (the Best and the Brightest--you can find that will work with you) to handle the details, while you oversee the big picture.

For instance, lets say you wanted to have an annual harvest day parade through the down town with licenced (paid to the city) vendor booths for food and crafts and etc...

That's a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up and overseen, year after year.

Instead of doing that yourself, you work at finding enough volunteers where you can pick the best and the brightest to set it up and oversee it--a committee of volunteers. If you need cash for it, YOU ask the city, or have the volunteers set out change donation boxes in every business in town--7-11, hair shops, Walmart, etc...

Also big companies like Walmart might make donations if YOU contact them.

In a nutshell, I'm saying a BIG Project needs a full time Vision Person to Steer it and spur it on when it stalls (which it will from time to time). The Big picture guy can work with the local chamber of commerce and local government officials to grease the wheels for the volunteer committee people.

Also get to know personally your state lawmakers--go visit them with your vision board (they control the purse strings).

Just my 2 cents.

Can one investor change a whole town?

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