How Detra Harris Turns D-Class Apartment Buildings Into Affordable Housing and Cash Flow

Detra Harris (00:00)
The building doesn’t care how much money you make. Don’t put holes in me. Don’t write on the walls. Respect your neighbor. No loud music. You know, so on and so forth. It does has nothing to do with how much money you make.

Q Edmonds (01:44)
Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. If you follow me enough, you’re probably going to say it with me. You’re excited to be here today. Yes, I am. I’m excited to be here today. And y’all know why I’m excited. Because I love creating space for people to tell their story. Y’all know I put a premium on stories and hearing what people are doing from their perspective is unique. It’s beneficial. It’s advantageous.

You know, we all literally can be doing the same thing, but still we’re gonna do it slightly different. We all can be bakers baking the same cake, but I promise you, we’ll use the same ingredients, but the way we go about things, the cake is gonna look different. It may have the same ingredients, but it’s just gonna look different. And I think that is a testimony to all of us being unique, our own superpowers, having our own journey. And so today is no different. We’re gonna hear from somebody who’s a specialist.

and affordable housing. But what I love about what she’s doing, and she will talk more about it, but just the way she is committed to serving. I think she’s serving multiple communities, multiple generations, multiple, I don’t know if asset classes are the word, but people from different parts of the economic chain, the economic landscape. And so I’m super excited.

for you all to meet and hear from Ms. Detra Harris. Ms. Detra, how you doing today,

Detra Harris (03:07)
doing well, Quentin. Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here today and thank you for having me.

Q Edmonds (03:12)
Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here. And listen, I’m going to type, I just want to dive in, right? So I would love for you, I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. I would love for you to give us an origin story, kind of how you got to where you are. I mean, we love, we love the hero’s journey. So I love the origin story. And then if you don’t mind telling them where you are in the world. So what you’re up to these days, the origin story and where you are. Ms. Detra, you have the floor, man.

Detra Harris (03:18)
Let’s do it.

Thank you, thank you again. Again, my name is Detra Harris and I’m here representing Strive Real Estate or the Strive brand, shall I say, because we have different branches to the Strive model. And again, I’m very happy to be here. And what we do, we ⁓ buy apartment buildings. We reposition those apartment buildings. We look for distressed properties and then we beautify that location and we call it repositioning.

So that that can mean a lot and we can get into the weeds of that. I’m located in California. I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area and I was born in San Francisco born and raised but we’ve branched out a little bit and difference in markets and so I’ve been able to to scale our business in Ohio and Pennsylvania. We also have ⁓ some investment property in Texas and we have some land in Florida and of course California.

And so that’s our focus is to continue to scale ⁓ and provide as many affordable housing products as we can to different ⁓ communities around our country.

Q Edmonds (04:48)
Absolutely. I love it. Thank you for the succinct way you’ve kind of built us to where you are, what you do now. I do want to talk about this repositioning because I told you when I hear it, it creates an imagery for me because being in the right position is everything. in the right position, but having to be repositioned is powerful in itself.

for me when I think about the imagery. And so I do want to talk a little bit more about that repositioning from your perspective. Talk to me about that word repositioning.

Detra Harris (06:11)
Right, so that means quite a bit. First, we do quite a bit of due diligence. So we look for a market that generally has a historical ⁓ distress market. And so for those that are in real estate, we might hear a lot of the different classes of properties, class A, B, C, D properties. So we generally look for C to D properties in low income neighborhoods.

and we look for a distressed property. What that means is a property that has a significant amount of deferred maintenance. ⁓ It’s located not in an undesirable neighborhood that typically has low ⁓ rents or low income residents. And then what we mean by repositioning that building, we acquire it and then we start renovations right away. ⁓ We typically…

like to purchase property that has at least a 60, 65 % occupancy. So we do want to buy the asset with existing tenants because we do want to have some cash flow when we do close our deals. So we go in and we ⁓ create a renovation plan that includes ⁓ landscaping, ⁓ exterior upgrades, roofing, windows.

And then we move into interior units and we start to do those upgrades and we assess each unit to assess if we need to relocate that tenant during the renovation stage. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, depending on ⁓ the condition of that property. But that’s generally where we start. And then we also, which is the biggest part of repositioning is ⁓ to recondition the tenants.

because a lot of times the tenant behavior is number one. Tenants that live there, remember these are their homes. Our homes are very sacred places, very private places, and everyone lives differently ⁓ in their homes in terms of management, housekeeping, how they respond to their neighbors, how they manage their children in that site, and all of those things matters.

Q Edmonds (07:58)
Mmm.

Detra Harris (08:26)
So they are, so usually when we buy a property, the culture is already there. ⁓ Their habits are already there. So we have to work to reposition the tenant ⁓ to bring several resources there. And that’s where our nonprofit organization arm comes into play is we provide what we call wraparound services at no cost to our residents. And that includes

⁓ If they need help with ⁓ utility assistance, if they’re behind on your utilities, if they need furniture, food insecurity, if they need parental resources, if they need furniture, ⁓ whatever it may be for that’s considered essential services, we start working with those families to help them reach to.

redefine their lives and also health and wellness as well. Some families are struggling with ⁓ domestic violence or addiction or mental illness ⁓ matters. So we want to ⁓ be their resources and ⁓ their partners and reestablishing their lives. So all of that comes into play with repositioning.

Q Edmonds (10:21)
I love it. I love what you said about repositioning and then you went into reconditioning the tenant. so I’m just going, I’m going be vulnerable for a little bit, maybe even little straightforward, right? So because I heard most people that I talk to, they talk about getting houses in the B class, C class. Never heard nobody talk about getting housing in D class. I think you’re the first. And I do over a hundred podcasts a month.

Detra Harris (10:34)
please.

Q Edmonds (10:48)
I ain’t never heard that. Most of the time they trying to get out. They talking about, well, yeah, we sold off our property in the C class and we trying to move more B, A, right? So I was a mailman for 14 years. And on my route, I would toggle in between maybe what we would call the D class and then like the B class, you know, depending on, you know, the route that it took me, I had some houses, people say in the B class, some houses maybe we say in the D class, right?

And I would, and I hate to admit it, but it’s just my truth. I would treat, I would not treat people equally. Somebody would come for me to say in the D class and ask me about a package. I would snap to them, you gotta wait till I get to your house. Somebody would come to me in the D class and ask about a package. ⁓ give me a second. Let me look and see if I can find it. I was on the phone with a friend. They watched, they heard me do this and they called me to the carpet.

And I was like, wow. Like I didn’t see it. And so the care that you have for everybody across the board to me is what comes shining through when I hear you talk about repositioning, reconditioning. And what I learned is that when I got to know people in my D class, I would look, the outside did not look the same, but I would watch them take pride in what they had.

Sometimes when I seen the door open, I would see them using bleach, wiping things down. and I would watch the heart of what they had. They wanted to take care of it, but they were where they were. And I think it’s so important that you are serving people and really giving people the chance to be reconditioned for people to, and then reconditioned, but then repositioning the distressed property to be something that they can have ownership of.

So this leads me to ask, want to ask you a question. And I say this probably once every podcast, Ms. Detra I say destiny has no wasted moments. Meaning no matter what we go through in life, these moments make us kind of who we are today. So I would love to know where does that serve you hard from you? Where does it come from? What are the moments in your life, even in this real estate journey, entrepreneurial chip journey, what are, what have these moments?

made you recognize within you that gives you that servant’s heart.

Detra Harris (13:03)
Well, Quentin thank you for just your transparency in admitting that because that goes a long way. ⁓ Most of us need to be ⁓ reconditioned in our mindset around those that have less than others.

So that goes a long way for saying that. But my inspiration comes from my grandmother. ⁓ I was raised by my grandmother. My mom was an addict. unfortunately she lost her life in my early 20s to addiction. ⁓ And so I watched her. ⁓

know, growing up in not such a great way. So there’s a long history there, but I was raised in a church as well, in a Baptist church. And that kept me centered, that kept me out of trouble, that kept me from not going into situations that may not have benefited me here, you know, where I’m at today.

And one of the things that happened when I was 16 years old is my grandmother moved into ⁓ senior housing. And we had lived in homes for the majority of my life. And I was not real familiar with apartment living at all until I was 16 years old. And she moved into a senior facility and ⁓

that was converted from projects to a senior facility in San Francisco.

And that’s when I was exposed to apartment living, that’s when I was exposed to affordable housing and senior housing. And I took a like for it. So I wanted to make a difference from 16 years old in housing. And there’s quite a few high rises in San Francisco in buildings. this was something as a black little girl or teenager, I couldn’t figure out how was I going to be able to purchase an apartment

whole apartment building, you know? And so I started working in the industry very early on and that’s where my 35 year of experience comes in. It’s because I didn’t leave. There’s literally no other professional job I’ve had outside of real estate for all this time. So I spent a lot of time in property management and repositioning homes for a living and started flipping,

fixing and flipping and doing all those things on the side to be able to build capital to move into larger apartment buildings. But my inspiration comes from my grandmother and my mother in serving those two populations and seeing the need for that to happen. And then also because I’ve worked in property management for so long across all income levels.

Q Edmonds (16:14)
Hmm. Hmm.

Detra Harris (16:26)
literally from no income to the high income levels managing condominiums and high rises in San Francisco. I’ve done it all from affordable to conventional in over 30 years. And what I see that we all have in common is ⁓

When you live somewhere, whether it’s your home or as an apartment building, we all have a responsibility to make sure that that property is well maintained.

The building doesn’t care how much money you make. Don’t put holes in me. Don’t write on the walls. Respect your neighbor. No loud music. You know, so on and so forth. It does has nothing to do with how much money you make.

So in me managing these properties, I understand that.

But unfortunately, we live in a world and in a country that where status is very important and we judge each other based on our income levels. ⁓ But when I manage a property, the building speaks to me and the building doesn’t care how much money you make. The building cares that you respect me, that you keep me clean, you keep me well maintained. And ⁓ then we learn to live together well under the same roof.

Q Edmonds (17:37)
This is so powerful for me. And I love how you said at the beginning, we all have to recondition ourself. And I think that’s a powerful message because you just so eloquently said about your mom, she’s a big reason why you do what you do. Your grandmom is a big reason why you do what you do. We all do things based on our experience, our moments, our moments in destiny.

We can’t look at someone and judge when we don’t know the story. Like when we don’t know the story. And I love that you are putting yourself in position to help those recondition themselves. Show them a different perspective. Let them know that you can change your own story. I know what you do is a compound of your moments so far, but where you’re going, we can recondition this.

and we can reposition you in housing and in life. And I just love it because, you know, for me, this is the human spirit that we all should have. And it’s easy. mean, I just told you I just was vulnerable. It’s so easy to judge. It’s so easy to just put that wall of defense when you have not really put yourself in their shoes or their perspective. Well, you’ve been conditioned to treat somebody one way and then treat somebody else another. And sometimes, my person was a person on the other end.

Detra Harris (18:53)
Right.

Q Edmonds (18:57)
You’re the person here today saying, hey, no, like we can help people recondition and rethink the way and just by just being nice and serving people. And so I love it. So with that being said, the Strive community, what is your next real goal? What are you guys looking to solve or scale next, Ms. Detra?

Detra Harris (19:16)
I’m glad you mentioned that, Quen, because this is a ⁓ big ⁓ niche that we have. ⁓ Our housing that is affordable is ⁓ recession resistant. So they’re unsubsidized housing. So we don’t have any section eight programs. We don’t have any other type of subsidy programs offered to our residents. Now, if they have that, we will accept it. But we base ⁓ our rent schedules.

⁓ on no subsidy. So it’s affordable without a subsidy. And how do we do that? Because we target properties that we can have no debt ⁓ on the property, which allows us to lower the rents. And so I challenge quite a bit of operators of affordable housing in my space with this financial model that I have.

Now it’s worked very well outside of California and we’re bringing it to California. It’s a little more challenging with California because of the cost of living in California. But it’s in this space where we are today with all of the funding cuts that’s been happening across the board and affordable housing. This model is really attractive ⁓ to ⁓ investors because we, also, a lot of times we build our capital from investment dollars, private equity typically.

And ⁓ it’s very, we don’t often target federal dollars or city county funds. And so we use private equity for most of our projects. And that allows us to be able to reduce our rental rates ⁓ to make it affordable. So through our model, through STRIVE, that’s what we continue to do. And I’m very excited about our newest acquisition, which is in Bridgecrest, California.

that we are continuing to build our partnerships around this. It will service ⁓ the workforce housing as well as military personnel in 17 units. And ⁓ it’s a motel that we are repositioning and change this use to multifamily. What we call some midterm rentals, kind of similar to our Airbnb. We’re gonna set aside some of those units and then we’re gonna lease out ⁓ the remaining.

units to work workforce families, our military personnel. And so that’s, that’s what we have ⁓ in our portfolio. That’s recent. And I’m very excited about that new project that we’re closing at the end of the month. ⁓ We are currently, own apartment buildings in Dayton, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio. We are in Philadelphia and then Oakland, California. Very, challenging market right now.

⁓ And then we have Dallas, Texas, and we own some land in Florida. We haven’t decided what we want to do with that. But our focus is to continue to roll out housing that is affordable. And ⁓ usually we target ⁓ income levels between what we call 30 % AMI to 80 % AMI. And that really, if you want to look that up, area median income, depending on the location where you’re

where you live, there is an income level scale from 30 % to 80 % AMI. And that’s usually our target market in terms of income levels in the families that we serve.

Q Edmonds (22:43)
I love it. I love what you’re doing, Ms. Detra. I have two questions. I’m going to give them both to you at one time. I just feel led to ask because I want to hear your perspective, specifically you, your perspective around relationships because you’re helping people and you come across, I’m sure, different people, you know, and I know…

It just seems like you take relationships seriously. It just seemed like because of your servant’s heart, it seemed like you take it seriously. So I want to just hear your perspective on relationships, but I also want to know the name STRIVE Where does it come from? Where did that come from? So relationships and the name, and we’re going to close the show out with that, but you got the floor.

Detra Harris (23:13)
yeah.

Okay, relationships. Yeah, that’s the name of the game for real estate, right? Real estate is a relationship business and relationships are very important because the level of integrity and trust is number one. I work with several investors. We’ve also have syndicated our deals through the SEC. And so I’ve…

worked with accredited investors. ⁓ so building relationships is really, really important because they, ⁓ investors need to trust you first. They need, you need to have a high level of integrity and transparency because not all projects are work. And that’s just a fact. And so when, when there’s a problem that come, that arises, you need to be really transparent with your stakeholders.

Q Edmonds (24:07)
Hmm.

Detra Harris (24:15)
as well as lenders building relationships ⁓ with lending institutions and ⁓ CDFIs and ⁓ lines of credits and so on. That’s also important as to build those relationships. So I feel that ⁓ that’s number one, is the relationship and referral base. And that’s how I get many of my referrals is just from

Q Edmonds (24:39)
Mm.

Detra Harris (24:43)
the investors that I’ve been working with for over the last 13 years that still invest with me today. And so that’s really important. And STRIVE is an acronym. It means sacrifice, truth, relationships. That’s the R in STRIVE. Integrity, value, and education. So the S is sacrifice, the T is truth, the R is relationships, the I is integrity.

Q Edmonds (24:54)
Mmm.

Detra Harris (25:10)
The V is value and the E is education. And all that, that all ties into our value system at Strive and how we, and our leadership and how we move forward in everything that we do.

Q Edmonds (25:21)
what y’all doing this so sweet? I told y’all felt led and I know you know what that means. You felt led, right? I felt led. ⁓ think this is the first time again you said, know, reposition was a word to use. I really didn’t hear that much. D-Class, I didn’t hear that much on this podcast. And now sacrifice, sacrifice, truth, relationship, integrity, value.

Detra Harris (25:22)
How many people asked that? I’m glad you asked that. Yeah.

you ⁓

Q Edmonds (25:50)
education. And you slam all those words together, strive. I mean, how can you not but be successful? Like how can you not? You are sowing seeds. Again, I think I said at the top of the show, came up with, I said it off the show or on the show. Those that refresh others themselves will also be refreshed. So there’s no way you’re going to strive. It’s no doubt in my mind why y’all got

Detra Harris (25:51)
That’s right.

Q Edmonds (26:15)
land that she’s just deciding like, what we’re going to do with this land? Like y’all are striving. Y’all are just incredible. And I just appreciate you being here. I appreciate what you stand for. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, ma’am?

Detra Harris (26:32)
Yes, absolutely. ⁓ First out, I will invite you to visit our website at striverealestate.net. S-T-R-I-V-E realestate.net. You’ll find me right there. You go over to About Us and all of my information is there to include my phone number, my email, ⁓ to contact me. And I think that’s the best route of communication.

Email, I’m big on email, not so big on texting. I’m a little older, so I leave that up to the young folks. But ⁓ I do a little texting, but it’s best to send me an email and I love to schedule a chat.

Quentin (27:02)
You

So Ms. Detra, I want to say three things to you. I’ll be honest, I say these to people. But when I say it, I really mean it. So I want you to know what I’m about to say is sincere. All right? So three things to you. First, thank you for your time. Could have been anywhere in the world, doing anything, but you’re here with us. I think you know you can pay the premium on your time. Right? So thank you for your time being here. Secondly, thank you for your story. Thank you for the gift of your transparency, the gift of your vulnerability.

I tell people stories have a way of planting seeds and we never know when we’re going to get a reap on that seed. We may never even see the growth of the story that we planted in someone, the seed that we planted, but the seed is there regardless. And it can cause correct. can re- listen, I never said this before. I love this. It can recondition. It can reposition.

Detra Harris (28:01)
That’s right.

Quentin (28:02)
And so

that seed, you know, Jesus taught in parables. That’s how powerful stories are. And so I just believe that the stories, your narrative, what you shared about what you do as strive has really planted a seed. And lastly, thank you for your perspective, for the way you think, for your mindset, that mindset of servitude, that mindset of just building an ecosystem that just fulfills and refresh the whole person.

Thank you for that mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming through,

Detra Harris (28:34)
Thank you so much Quentin for having me. It’s been a pleasure. I love talking about housing. I’m totally a real estate junkie. So anytime, yeah, just reach out. I’d love to join you again in the future.

Quentin (28:45)
yeah, you ain’t, listen, you didn’t already said it. We gonna have to make it happen. So thank you so much. So listen, y’all heard Ms. Detra You can’t tell me you didn’t get the value out of that episode. Please go into the show notes. Her information is in the show notes. Go in the show notes, connect with her. ⁓ Just really, just, yeah, just do it. ⁓ And definitely make sure you are subscribed here.

because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Ms. Detra So ma’am, thank you again. And listen, everyone else, y’all have a fantastic day.