From House Flipping to Mixed-Use Development: How Janice Wright Scaled Her Real Estate Business

Janice Wright (00:00)
My spouse at that time and his partner, they shielded me from a lot of the male dominance that goes on. But as a woman trying to do this on my own, I quickly learned, okay, this is a male dominance field. You’re gonna have to, you can’t go through the front door. You’re gonna have to find another way. You might have to go over the building or you may have to swim and go underneath. But there are ways to get this done. And so I kept notes of everything that I learned.

Q Edmonds (01:58)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And y’all see this smile, right? Y’all normally can signify when this smile is this bright.

Most of the time I’m talking to somebody close to my vicinity. And y’all know when I got people close to me, when I got people who I consider from home, y’all know I’m gonna show up and show out. And so I’m excited. I’m excited today about our guests. I cannot wait for y’all just to get and peek through her lens and hear her story. I’ll tell you a little bit just as an intro. She got you know small business owner, small but mighty small business owner. Listen, she’s a grant writer.

She’s a new construction. She’s a trainer and she’s an instructional designer. So yes, this lady knows exactly what she’s talking about. And I’m so excited that we get to peek through this strong woman’s lens. And so I like to introduce to some and present to others, Miss Janice Wright. Miss Janice, how you doing today, man?

Janice Wright (03:00)
I tell you, Quentin, I am truly blessed and highly favored. I feel wonderful. I’m energetic and I’m ready to go. I love, love, love that you are right in the DMV where I am. That is just amazing.

Q Edmonds (03:15)
Yeah, yeah, yes ma’am. Yes, ma’am. No, I I’m so glad you’re here. And I and I had to slow my brain down when I was introducing you because I want to put a lot of respect on you and what you do. And I am you know I always say time is our most precious commodity. So I’m really honored and I mean that not as just a throwing line that you gave us your time today and I’m respecting what you’re doing and I’m a love

Now, audience, you know, peek through your lens. And so I’m the type I love to dive right in, right? So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little origin story, kind of how you got to the space that you’re in. And we already told them where you’re from, the DMV. So yes, so they know where you’re from. So tell us that what your main focus is in that origin story if you don’t mind.

Janice Wright (04:07)
Okay. I have two main focuses right now. Thank you for asking that. One, of course, is my real estate investing firm. I’m really excited about where we’re going. God is on some awesome, awesome things. But that is not where I started. My journey started as an entrepreneur of JRW, which is a multifaceted business at this point. We started as consulting for other businesses, you know, doing market research. Some might have wanted us to do the documents.

formation. It really just depended on what the client wanted. I’ve always, always been client centric. So what they want is what they get. But I learned through that how to do effective research and that has just helped me all through my business. So I bless God for that. And then of course about 12 years ago I got into doing real estate just as the spouse of someone who was doing real estate and it just kept piquing me because all I ever saw were men.

And you know, I have nothing against men. I love y’all. I love y’all, love y’all, love y’all to life. But I didn’t see any women. I did not see any women doing this. And so I kept saying in my brain, hmm, this may be a good niche for me to branch out and do something else that I want to do. So although I’ve kept JRW going, it has several, like I said, several divisions, and we’ll talk about that later if you like. But I wanted to do real estate. And so I learned.

Q Edmonds (06:20)
Yeah.

Janice Wright (06:21)
I started to pay attention. How you do flipping? A lot of the stuff goes into flipping. And there’s a whole lot that can go wrong that people may not realize when they first start doing this. So I’ve learned the ins and outs of that. That’s one of the things I learned. But like I said, I also learned that this is predominantly male oriented. You don’t have a lot of females successfully doing real estate. And I kept saying, What can I do? How can I make this better for women? Let’s start with me.

And so after I learned about flipping, I kept looking and looking and looking for a way for me to really get into real estate and understand the whole ins and outs of it. Right. Because you know, some people will teach you some things, but they don’t always teach you everything. And that stuck with me too, because they’ll teach you A and C, but they forget all about B. And B becomes very important when you’re in the field. So I came across

an email that was sent to me and I still don’t know how the email was sent. I was just considered God’s blessing. But I got the email about a woman’s network that wanted to do classes for women who wanted to understand how to do real estate. I paid for the course, I attended the three days, and I came back. I was pumped. I was ready to go. We started out wholesaling, which is

Easy, but it’s not easy. And I know that’s kind of an oxymoron, but it really isn’t. It’s easy instructions, but it’s not so easy in the field. There’s a lot that goes into that too. So I learned some things I learned from the classroom, some things I learned from research, and some things I learned out in the field from doing it wrong and having to do it over again. So those lessons stuck with me. And then I said, okay, I think I’m ready to try house flipping on my s on my own. And I did try it. It was successful.

Some of it was successful, some of us, some of it wasn’t, because you don’t always get homeowners that will tell the truth about what’s going on with their properties. For example, one that I did last year, we had to actually undo the deal because there was black mold. In the walls, and they did not disclose that to us. So there’s some things, there’s some catchphrases and things that you need to do. And also I learned about writing a contract for real estate. It’s completely different.

about you know writing a contract for the other part of the business that I do that’s pretty standard but with with real estate you have to make sure that you include provisions for everything. Yeah. For any possible scenario so that if you need to get out of this deal, you can get out of it without them keeping your earnest deposit. That was a lesson as well. Cause I’ve had that happen on deals that I had to get out of and because the contract was not written to specifically say that they kept the money.

So that was a big learning lesson. And so then once I got into it, and I’m a I’m a female, I’m forming my I formed my company. Of course I knew how to do this because I formed other companies. So I formed my company right here in the state of Maryland and I started. And thought I was ready. And boy, was I surprised to learn that I wasn’t quite ready. There were a whole lot of lessons that I thought I knew that I did not know.

Q Edmonds (09:30)
Yeah.

Janice Wright (09:30)
One of those things was my spouse at that time and his partner, they shielded me from a lot of the male dominance that goes on. But as a woman trying to do this on my own, I quickly learned, okay, this is a male dominance field. You’re gonna have to, you can’t go through the front door. You’re gonna have to find another way. You might have to go over the building or you may have to swim and go underneath. But there are ways to get this done. And so I kept notes of everything that I learned.

So that when I’m ready, and that will be coming soon, when I’m ready to teach a course on how to do this for women, one of the things, the major things I’m going to do, not only provide the information A, B, B1, B2, down to C, down to Z, depending on what is needed. I’m going to teach it all and be and be very honest in the questions that I’m asked because sometimes people want to give you fluff when what you really need.

Q Edmonds (10:05)
Yeah.

Janice Wright (11:00)
It’s information and how to do this. And a lot of times they leave that out. They’re charging three, four thousand dollars, and I’m I’m not knocking anybody’s hustle, right? Not knocking that at all. But you’re charging four thousand dollars and you’re skipping the major parts of how people need to do this. Usually that’s done because they have other courses that they want you to pay for. Join their inner circle, join this, join that, and then you can learn all the other stuff. Right. Well, my courses are going to teach you.

all the other stuff too. Even be boots on the ground so you can see this actually being done in everyday life. So you can understand this job is not a nine to five sit behind a desk. If you want to do this, you have to immerse yourself in it. So also a part of what I want to do because I found out as I’ve gotten into this, there are a lot of women who would love to do this. They cannot afford those classes. They just can’t afford it.

Q Edmonds (11:31)
Yeah.

Janice Wright (11:58)
They’re you know, especially in this economy right now, we have a lot more people who can’t afford stuff. Lots and lots, I think it’s like 33,000 women, black women, lost their jobs in the last year. And then some of them were added last month. It’s a lot, right? It’s a whole lot. And so now to add to you’ve lost your income and you want to try something new and be an entrepreneur. Now they want you to pay, you know, three, four, five thousand dollars for a course that you can’t afford. Right now, people can’t afford food.

They can’t afford rent. They’re trying to figure out how they’re going to pay for their medical insurance. I’m not going to add to that, not ever. Because as a Christian, my first priority is to do no harm and to teach people what I’ve been taught. It’s my first principle because I believe that, you know, God understands the principle of reciprocity. And this is even a principle that works in the world for those that are not saved. But I am saved. So I have to answer to my God.

For the decisions that I make. So what I’ve decided to do and what I’ve wanted to do when I’m ready to start these courses, I am going to charge on a sliding scale. Those that have money and can afford to pay for my course, okay, you can pay for it. But if all $20 is all you got, and but you have that zeal and I can see that you have that zeal, I’m gonna let you pay $20. If you don’t have any money, but again, you have the zeal to learn and you really want to know how to do this, I will give you the course.

And my only caveat to that is pay it forward. When it’s your turn to help another woman, please do so. That is the most important thing out of this. I’ve taken a young lady under my wing who is brilliant, very intelligent. She’s beautiful. She has the zest and the zeal to do this. So guess what? She gets to be under my wing. And now instead of being my assistant, she gets to be my partner.

Q Edmonds (13:33)
Yeah.

Janice Wright (13:54)
Because I truly believe in her value. I believe that she’s going to take this to heights that I never even thought about. So I can’t wait for that to happen. So right now, Wright Global Enterprises is the name of the business. And we are taking off. At this point, we are doing new construction. And I’m really excited about that because it’s ground up new construction, a mixed-use building.

Four set of four buildings. And I’ve been told women don’t really try for this type. They may do, you know, a commercial or they may do building a home, but they don’t really go after mixed use. So I’m really proud and I’m really excited. I’m humbled first of all because this was God inspired. I’m always prayerful about everything. This was God inspired. And so when He gave me the idea two years ago, I started to do my research and then look into what I needed to do.

Q Edmonds (14:41)
Yeah.

Janice Wright (15:33)
And so even though I have experience as you know an investor, as a flipper, as a wholesaler, I don’t yet have the new construction development. So what did I do? I hired somebody who knows. Because what we don’t know, we have to have somebody on our team that knows, that can vouch for, that can say, you’re gonna do it this way. Wait a minute, I need you to do it this way. They have 37 years of experience building new projects.

Q Edmonds (15:47)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Janice Wright (16:02)
And not just that, they have the marketing, they have the sales, they have a whole lot of things. So I would say to your listeners, do your research. Find out who knows in your industry and that’s who you want to work with. Because not only are you going to get this experience, when it comes time to get your funding, that’s going to be very, very important. Because even such as myself, even if you have a background and you have done this for a while, you’ve never done new construction. There are a lot of things that could go wrong.

And if you’re not planning for that, not only are you gonna waste money and you’re gonna waste time, now you’re gonna be in debt because you have to pay back all this money because construction stopped for an issue of permitting, an issue of surveys, or an issue of not being able to get materials in time. So that is why I’ve hired, I’ve hired a crew that can help me, but I’ve also hired GC, a general contractor. I also have a project manager who’s gonna work with them and make sure they do everything.

Q Edmonds (16:57)
Yeah, yeah.

Janice Wright (17:02)
Why am I doing it this way? Because I still have another business to run that is multifaceted. And I’m not gonna stop doing what I do. I love running JRW, but I also love doing the real estate. It’s important to me. So to keep both of those businesses going, I’ve gotta delegate. And that’s the important thing. Especially as an owner as business owner or entrepreneur, and we don’t have, you know, a thousand employees, you have to learn how to delegate. Yeah. Because otherwise you’ll burn out real quick. So

I’m real good at delegating. I’m really good at delegating and holding people accountable to make sure stuff is complete. That’s kind of what we are.

Q Edmonds (17:40)
Yes, thank you. Thank you. Welcome to the journey, letting us know where you are, kind of how you got there. Now you’ve already so you said it. I literally have written down multifaceted businesswoman. And I mean you said it yourself, right? And I literally had that written down. And so you already talked about some things you put in place, but I want to ask what.

What’s maybe one operational thing you’ve put in place, let’s say the last two years that has really helped you be successful?

Janice Wright (18:12)
Great question. I have developed a team. I have a knowledge base with this team. I have years and years and years of experience with this team collectively. I have managers in place, project managers in place. I have a CFO, a vice president who helps me do what I need to do. So most of the time Janice doesn’t have to do a whole lot of thinking. I get involved because I want to and because I think it’s important. But I could literally let

them run with it and just sign paperwork. That’s how you run a team. And these are people that I’ve either trained or come with some experience and I’ve helped them to get to the level to be able to assist us. Yeah. And you know, leave this this atmosphere of losing government contracts that has happened to me as well. Yeah. So I would say to anyone, you always want to have more than one source of income that helps keep you going. Because in the shortfall, when things fail,

You have another source to fall back on. You know, things happen. It happens to all of us. Life happens. As the kids say, life be life-ing.

Q Edmonds (19:19)
Life be life-ing. Yeah.

Janice Wright (19:21)
Life be life-ing. And unfortunately, you got to life with it. You have to be able to pivot and turn. That’s the other thing. You have to be able to reinvent who you are. Okay, this worked for 12 years, but it’s not working today. What can I do to reinvent who I am? Yes, ma’am. So there’s a part of that too. And also under JRW, I have a coaching business. I’m a life coach because you have to know I started with me as life coaching for myself. And then I got certified.

Certified to do it for other people because you have to be able to pivot. If not, you’re gonna stay stagnant. And anything that is stagnant and not learning is really effectively dead. Yes, ma’am. We don’t want to be that way, especially not under what we’re dealing with now. The economy that we’re dealing with, you have to pivot. Sometimes you have to leave behind or put on pause what you’ve been doing for 20 years and do something new. Yeah. It needs to be something you love. So you’ll do it always.

Even on the days when it gets really, really hard, if it’s something that you truly love, you persevere. You will not give up because you’ll know I see the vision. I see where this is going. And that honestly has kept me going a lot of days. Yes, I’ve had my days when I cried. I’ve had my days when I called out to God. I’m on my knees. But after that, you got to know how to pick yourself up and allow Him to direct your path.

Q Edmonds (20:44)
Absolutely. So you talked about pivoting and I know you went, you know, new construction is where you at now, but I do want to ask cleanly, is there anything next? Like is there any new goals or what’s the goal now? What are you looking to solve or scale next? I’m gonna ask that cleanly.

Janice Wright (21:02)
Sure. That actually is it is about Wright Global because what we’re doing after this, this is phase one of the project, the first four buildings. After that, we have another phase and then another phase. It’s all it’s ultimately going to be four different phases of this in different areas. And we’re doing this in Florida, but I’d like to see it go, you know, as many states as possible. So that’s the goal for that, but also the goal for JRW.

as a whole is now I’m starting a recruitment business. Executive search. Because why? There’s so many people out of work. And if I can help them to find what it is that they’re looking for as well as make money for my company, it’s a win.

Q Edmonds (21:45)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, okay, so I have to ask you this. Sure. I want to hear your philosophy. I ask people just to come on. When it comes to healthy relationship building within business, what is your philosophy? How do you go about doing it? And who are some of the people in your circle that have helped you be successful?

Janice Wright (22:07)
Wow. Let’s see. I’m gonna start with the first part of that because for me, as a Christian, everything begins and ends with the Creator. Everything begins and ends with God. I always go to Him first for advice. And He directs my path on where I should go, who I should talk to. There have been a number of people. The people at the SBA are really very intelligent and they are

helpful and they are knowledgeable and they’re willing to help you as long as they see you’re willing to put the work in. They’re not going to do it for you, but they will instruct you 100% of the way, even to the point of helping you understand SAM.gov. Now those people out there that already know that are contractors, they know about SAM.gov and they know how difficult SAM.gov can be. But even SAM.gov at this point, they have people that you can call. There’s a help desk.

Q Edmonds (23:03)
Yeah.

Janice Wright (23:03)
So those kind of people have been instrumental for me. I’ve also had older women in my life who are very wise had instructed me on different things. Business wise though, there’s not as I said, there’s not a whole lot of women doing what I do, even as far as owning another company. They’re not doing what I do. And so I’ve relied on research. And like I said, God directs me who to contact, where should I go? I have contacted

different places within our government. I have been in touch with, you know, the Caribbean Diaspora and the African Diaspora because I’m planning to take these businesses globally. And they have been very helpful as well in instructing me on what to do, who to contact, how to do this. They’ve been very helpful in helping me to get contacts in Nigeria and England and different places in Africa. And I love it. I’m so grateful for that.

But like I said, you know, there’s not a whole lot of women in my circle who are in business for themselves. But they applaud and they uplift me. And any advice that they can give me, they’re more than willing to impart it. But I do my own research. And as I said, I found the SBA by doing my research. And when I say they go all out for small business, they really do go all out for small business, especially women because not only am I

a minority woman, but I’m a woman. And that’s a that’s a major minority in business. So they’re willing to help. And they have they offer classes. Some of them are free. On getting your certifications and how you do it, you know, the enterprise does cost. That one costs, I think it’s like six hundred dollars at this point. But you don’t have to start with that. You can just start with a small woman-owned business, which is free.

All you have to do is register with the SBA. That is SBA.gov. They’ll ask you for some documentation. You provide it, like, you know, formation documents for your company. And then once they do that, you can register your company with SAM.gov and research contracts. And they’ll send you contracts. I also register with the state of Maryland because their small business unit is second to none. It’s second to none. When I say I get in my inbox at least four or five

contracts that I can apply for and negotiate to win. And this is like just about every other day. And not only that, the people that are responsible for these contracts, they’ll answer your questions. Not if you call them, but if you email them and ask them a question, they respond. I have to honestly say I’ve not had anybody never respond to me. And it only takes maybe a day. If it takes that long, they respond. They’re very honest. They’re very helpful. I I absolutely love that.

And so what I’m doing with the younger generation, I’m doing what I didn’t have. My parents, my aunt, all worked nine-to-five jobs. They didn’t know about entrepreneurship. I have been an entrepreneur my whole life and I’ve had nine-to-five jobs, but it never was satisfying to me because nobody’s ever gonna give me what I’m worth. That ceiling is real. So I’m trying to give back to the younger generation, the ladies in my family, young ladies that I know. I also have a nonprofit, which

something else. But you know, we teach literacy for those that don’t know how to, you know, apply for a job, or those that don’t know how to get their GED, or those that don’t know how to apply for college. We teach and we show them how to how to apply for a FAFSA. How do you get it? How do you get money to go back to school? Different things. So, you know, I’ve been blessed in that even the places where I saw were holes in my own upbringing, I’ve been blessed to be able to reach back and pull somebody else out.

Q Edmonds (26:55)
Yeah.

Janice Wright (26:55)
And that that

to me is more important. I love my village. I do. They’re very encouraging. They’re very supportive. A lot of them just didn’t have the knowledge because they didn’t grow up with it. But they encouraged me to always seek it. That is one thing that my mother always encouraged. Education and being able to research. So I always did that. Even though, you know, when I told her I wanted to be an entrepreneur instead of taking the route to be a doctor, which is what I was supposed to be, she was not feeling it.

She was not feeling it at all. She was not feeling it. I’m glad that I’ve reached the status that I have and I really am. I’m sorry that she didn’t live to see me reach the status. But I want, you know, my kids and grandkids and whoever else, young ladies that I come across, to I take them under my wing because I want them to know you have choices and you don’t have to settle for this if you don’t want it. The door to entrepreneurship is open.

Q Edmonds (27:55)
Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Miss Janice, ma’am. Thank you so. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, ma’am?

Janice Wright (28:11)
Thank you. Good question. I have several. So on Facebook, it is JRW Enterprises. You can look me up through that. On IG it’s @Janice_CEOEnterprises. Make sure you spell it all out with an S. You can also send me an email to [email protected]. You can also go to my website, jrw-enterprises.com And if you want to learn about the real estate, it is Wright Global Enterprises at [email protected]. That is the other thing I also teach about business formation, and the one thing they never show you or tell you is LLC is your best option. Never go in

as a self-employed anything. Put your business in an LLC. From there, you can go to a C Corp or an S Corp, depending on where you want to branch out. My real estate is under an S Corp. And there are protections that you get from doing that. But that’s for another day. So that’s how anyone can reach me. I would I would give my number, but I have a feeling that that may be a mistake.

Q Edmonds (29:23)
Mm-hmm.

Janice Wright (29:37)
They can reach me on any one of those ways. I promise you, if you reach out to me, I will respond. It may take me a day to get to you, but I will respond to you. That is a promise and a guarantee.

Q Edmonds (29:51)
Yeah, yeah. Well, Miss Janice, I normally say three things as a sign off, but I’m actually gonna say four things to you. So first thing, this is what I normally don’t say to people, and I’m gonna say to you sincerely, thank you for your representation. You and I both know representation means a lot. Having an image that people can see that will create imagination is everything. That would and so thank you for your representation. Thank you for showing up.

Janice Wright (29:58)
Okay.

Q Edmonds (30:21)
Secondly, thank you for your time. You know, I think time is our most precious commodity. So I value you for your time. Thank you. Thirdly, thank you for your story. I believe our stories plant seeds. Jesus taught in parables. So stories. Thank you for planting seeds today. And we never know when a seed’s gonna plant. I mean, you know, take root, but the seed is there. And so thank you for planting seeds. Lastly, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think.

Janice Wright (30:27)
Yes.

Yes He did. Right? Yes, they are.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (30:50)
And bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming on today. I really

Janice Wright (30:54)
Thank you. Thank you. I’m humbled that you asked me to be here. I am very, very grateful. So thank you. It’s been my pleasure.

Q Edmonds (31:01)
Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Miss Janice. Her information is in the show notes. Minus her phone number. Y’all don’t get it. Everything else is in the show notes. Please get in contact with her. This woman is so gifted. Get in contact with her. Talk about partnership, how to move the needle in your business. But definitely make sure you subscribe here because I’ll keep promising you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing.

Janice Wright. So ma’am, thank you again for coming on. Thank you so much.

Janice Wright (31:33)
Thank

you. Thank you for having me.

Q Edmonds (31:37)
My pleasure. And everybody else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.