Page 5 - Venture - State of the Market 2019

FROM OUR FOUNDER

Well, thank you for reading our very first ever State of the Market publication. My earliest memory of Also, to me it’s about where we live for sure, lo-
being in wonder of a home and the real estate business was when I was 10 years old moving from house to cation is key but it’s more about how we live. The
house as a pretty poor kid in South Africa. It was when my brother and I went to live with our uncle and my Why! Not only how you live but how you invest,
four girl cousins, Helen, Caroline, Teresa, and Jeanie. It was a one-story house that was nicer than anything how you buy. Why do we do, what we do? It is to
I had ever seen before. I remember walking into the apartment that he had built off one side of the house empower people to reach their real estate dreams.
where my brother Warren and I were going to live. In between the apartment and the house was an atrium The process is the how and that is where we are
that housed a huge indoor jacuzzi that as a 10 year old, I could do laps in. As the harp player followed us committed to greatness in the process. So, sit back
on our tour, (kidding) my little brain thought, wow. He had a big backyard with a beautiful pool, my brother and relax and hopefully youenjoy the reading.
and I ended up living there for a year before we moved to the US. When we arrived in the States with my
stepdad, Don we moved right into a hotel he built, in Sequim, WA. I remember seeing the hotel be built and
thought, wow. This was the early 90’s and everything in the hotel was red. Red siding, red carpet, red bed
spread, those were the days! I remember seeing the yellow school bus as a kid thinking, I would see these
buses in the movies, and here I am getting on one. My love for the school bus lasted about two days!

My new world from 10 to 11 years old was the start of my real estate career. This was a far cry from the little
house we rented in industrial Secunda, South Africa where we were real close to nothing!
I bought my first house in my early 20’s after saving enough pennies, it was on the market and one day my
brother and I decided to hop in a car and go drive and look at houses, we drove right to an open house Andy Langsford
and someone knocked on our car window and said, come on in. It had a jacuzzi in the backyard, I bought Founder and President
the house. the agent who helped me buy the house really didn’t do anything, I found the house, I did most Venture Real Estate Group
of the work, and I thought I want to negotiate my own deals so I got my real estate license, family and
friends started asking me to help them buy houses so I did and the business grew.

Before long, I was licensed at a great company called Keller Williams and the owner asked me if I wanted
to be team leader, I thought and prayed and realized it was time for me to step out and start my own firm,
Venture Real Estate Group. I was introduced at that very moment to my friend and partner, Brian Scalabrine.
I told Brian my vision and what I wanted to do, he told me his and we hit it off, like minded working towards
a common goal. We started buying properties together in 2007, that’s right, right before the down turn. We
bought land, apartments, office buildings, and we made it through the downturn. With the vision we had for
the properties we purchased we wanted to build community for Seniors. We finished building the 119 unit,
Senior Housing Development called The Adriana.
Brian is on the cover and we have a great interview where you can learn more about the person behind the
“White Mamba” He is a good friend, an even better husband and father, and challenged me to be great.

Venture, I wanted to be a firm who helped people invest and buy great real estate. Jamie my wife and
partner in the business came on in 2013 and challenged us to be even better. She brought such great
leadership and ownership of what you do each day to another level and truly caring about clients at a level
that I hadn’t seen before. Jamie and I realized we didn’t want the brokerage side to be about commissions,
or the investment side to be strictly about ROI to our investors. It’s about building a future, building wealth,
and enjoying buying houses, and investing in multifamily projects, and building great communities beyond
the deal. We want Venture to be a community of investors, developers, builders, homeowners, who want a
REAL community to get their real estate needs met.

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