Housing Development

His curiosity led him from a narrow academic focus to a more interesting path. That same curiosity was self-motivation to learn the multiple aspects of a new business, to which he brought creative ideas to cope with difficult economic times, leading to his eventual taking ownership of the company. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND

CJ was the oldest of three siblings. His father was a lawyer after putting himself through college through the army’s officer training program (ROTC), followed by his service in Viet Nam, initially in artillery, later as a civil affairs officer to interact with friendly locals. CJ’s mother was a nurse until CJ was born, then a homemaker and when the younger children were off to school, she earned her undergraduate college degree, followed by careers in marketing, recruitment, and case management. 

Both parents had grown up through humble economic backgrounds and were thus determined to instill in their children the need to prepare for stable careers by first attending college. Neither parent recommended a specific career path to CJ, who recalls, now with some amusement, that his father always concluded their career discussions by noting the interesting and stable legal profession. 

CHILDHOOD INTERESTS

Looking back, CJ recalls his earliest thought of an adult career was to be a star athlete, specifically a hockey player. He also played baseball into his early teens. 

When the first Apple computers were available to the public, CJ’s father bought one for family use and shared his enthusiasm for its possibilities, which for CJ’s dad were then focused on personal stock transactions. CJ, competitive “to a fault,” honed his computer skills with online games of checkers and chess. 

When not taking summer school enrichment courses, CJ enjoyed working part-time jobs in the nearby city, a different experience from his suburban upbringing in many ways: tall buildings housing offices and residences packed with people of all ages and ethnicities plus his co-workers in the photocopying business: young city residents whose careers involved manual office labor but whose home lives already involved adult responsibilities like having children. 

EDUCATION – PART ONE

School math and science problems were fun challenges for CJ, who quickly mastered the levels of those courses available within his public high school. Fortunately, his public school district recognized the need to continue to challenge CJ’s math and science enthusiasms by arranging for him to take courses at a local college, both in the summer and during the regular school year. CJ found the competition with college level classmates “very humbling” but was not deterred from focusing his college applications on colleges and universities which would let him pursue engineering. 

Thinking ahead about an eventual adult career, CJ assumed that by the time he would graduate from high school at age 18, he would have to choose a career path and stick with that path. (Editor’s note – as CJ’s story unfolds – like so many other career stories within this collection – the reader will find that CJ’s assumption – while shared by many – is absolutely not true. Changing your mind once or multiple times does not mean you cannot find an interesting and rewarding career!)

Based on his increasing comfort within an urban environment, CJ opted to enroll in a city based, nationally well-respected, university offering an engineering program, which mandated a ‘core curriculum’ requirement that every undergrad, beginning in the freshman year, should experience a wide variety of traditional liberal arts education, ranging from writing and English literature (not CJ’s interests or strengths) plus introductions to western world philosophy, music, etc. 

By his freshman second semester, CJ was frustrated by the rigid engineering course requirements and decided his best path forward would be to take more courses outside the engineering mandates. Leaving behind the rigid engineering curriculum, CJ opted to pursue more varied interests within the university’s general college course offerings. 

By now, CJ’s interest in urban life had become more focused upon a specific aspect: the ‘built environment’ – how humans live and work within their physical surroundings. One course matched CJ’s growing interest in city life: “The History of Urbanization” – how cities were formed, based on historical analysis from the growth of cities within the U.S. and Europe. CJ spent a college semester aboard – in France – to pursue more in-depth, city history studies there. 

FIRST ADULT JOBS ARE NEVER A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT

As CJ progressed through his university courses, from initially aiming toward jobs in engineering, revised to an interest in city life and its history, he had no specific career path in mind. As he neared graduation, he was trying to balance two goals: (1) continue his interests in historical research, which could lead to a career as a college / university professor; and (2) earn sufficient money to always be self-supporting. 

At the time of his graduation, the national economy was not projecting a strong market for the employment of college professors. But needing to earn some level of income, CJ found work as a research assistant for a professor at a teacher’s college, followed by employment within a large healthcare system to prepare its academic history within the same city where CJ had initially developed his comfort level for urban life. 

EDUCATION – PART TWO

CJ’s self-motivated curiosity again led him down a path toward learning more about real estate, specifically urban and regional land planning, which in general involves multiple issues ranging from traffic, parking, public transportation, commercial and residential districts, and government regulations. He therefore enrolled in a university’s Master’s degree program in City Planning, while his evolving interest within that broad category was increasingly more focused on how to influence housing use and its development. 

Now with perspective from working in different aspects of housing development over several decades, CJ realizes that his motivation was never about the money to be made; never about being a solo ‘entrepreneur’ – a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks to earn money, the more the better. 

Rededicating himself to school coursework, CJ earned prize-related scholarships because he totally loved what and why he was studying. One course of great interest to CJ was housing development. To learn more details outside the classroom and perhaps earn a few dollars, CJ started a personal business of ‘house flipping’ – buy at a low price, fix it up and sell it for a higher price. To get started without a big savings account, CJ developed a plan: persuade a lender holding a mortgage on a property in financial ‘distress’ (the owner wasn’t making timely – if any – payments) to transfer the property which it had taken over but didn’t care to manage – to CJ, who arranged financing to renovate the property and resell it for a profit. 

CJ didn’t earn significant profits by flipping houses, but he gained valuable experience in dealing with real estate financing and government agencies to secure permits. 

FORMAL EDUCATION AND REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE SHAPE A CAREER PATH

With his Master’s degree in city planning now in hand, CJ was soon offered two interesting and worthwhile career path opportunities:

1. Public sector – County planning commission overseeing land use throughout the county, involving many municipalities and their interrelationships. Job openings are few and sometimes involved with politics but once a member of the county planning team, you could remain until retirement age when eligible for a government pension. 
2. Private sector – Working with vacant land or existing buildings to develop facilities as residences or commercial businesses – most likely, starting as an entry level employee of an ownership / management group of entrepreneurs. 

CJ considered both options very seriously because he should remain employed at either job for at least several years to learn the business details and the ‘players’ (within and outside the company) with whom he would be involved. Starting salaries for both the public and private sector positions were essentially the same. Notably, the private sector job was only a six month guarantee of employment – CJ would have that short window of time to learn if he liked the type of business and the people he was working with, plus at the same limited time to impress his supervisors with his work ethic to be considered for employment beyond the initially guaranteed six months. 

CJ decided to “bet on himself” and take the risk of the six-months offer – he would work hard and see what door(s) that might open. His initial job duties were essentially to do whatever the company president “threw at me.”

Real estate development involves buying, renovating, managing, and selling – often dependent on national economic factors beyond the developer’s control. An early lesson was provided to CJ: prepare for both the good times and the inevitable bad times. 

By now, CJ’s own experience included pushing several properties through the municipal permits process, which involved navigating zoning laws, lenders (banks and mortgage companies), citizen groups and politicians. Now at the direction of his employer, CJ added to his experience by attending night meetings and coordinating with engineers and land use attorneys to move projects forward. By the end of his initial six months, CJ found that he loved his work and the employer found that they wanted to retain CJ within their organization. 

ALTERNATIVE PATHS TO CAREERS WITHIN LAND DEVELOPMENT

CJ’s path to a career within ‘land development’, specializing in housing, was unusual. Most of the individuals on this path come from different backgrounds: either (A) ‘numbers-focused’ like engineers and architects or (B) budding entrepreneurs whose primary goal is the profitability of each project. 

LAND DEVELOPMENT CAREERS NEED NOT FOLLOW A FORMAL PATH

While CJ created his own, unique career path – unlike common paths A and B above – using his background and drive to succeed, soon CJ earned more and more employer trust to deal with outside personnel: lenders, contractors, government agencies and politicians. 

REQUIREMENTS FOR A HOUSING DEVELOPMENT RELATED CAREER

Unlike physicians, lawyers, nurses, public school teachers and trades such as plumbers and electricians, there are no government licensing requirements to commence jobs within the broad category of ‘land or housing development.’ But employers within this career path typically require an ‘advanced’ degree (beyond a college ‘undergraduate’ degree). 

An internet search for advanced degrees within the field of land development will yield multiple schools’ programs. One, such as where CJ enrolled, is called “Master of City Planning” (MCP) requiring 18 course units from the core curriculum and one of six concentration areas plus completion of a planning internship. 

The core courses provide an understanding of the legal and historic basis of city planning and how to use a wide variety of population and economic data to assess local communities. Students will understand the form and arrangement of cities and metropolitan areas around the world. 

Two hands-on opportunities are provided for students to engage real planning problems in real communities for real clients. 

Internships can be paid or unpaid but must involve full time work at any government agency or commission, private consulting firm or non-profit or advocacy organization involved in planning practice, policy, or research. 

The ‘concentration’ course options include (1) housing, community, and economic development; (2) land use – environmental planning; (3) public / private development; (4) smart cities; (5) sustainable transportation and infrastructure planning; and (6) urban design. 

‘Housing’ caught CJ’s attention and interest.

DESPITE NOT FOLLOWING THE USUAL CAREER PATH, SELF-MOTIVATION TO LEARN AND BE CREATIVE MAY LEAD TO CAREER SUCCESS

(Editor’s note – Here is where “Luck” comes into CJ’s story. Recall that for this collection of career stories, we define Luck as “Experience meets opportunity.”)

When the national economy crashed, and recession set in – for how long no one could predict – the market to sell houses was one of the most negatively affected since lenders had little money to lend. At this point, CJ drew upon his experience to suggest to his housing development company owners / managers that they adopt his old playbook: buy mortgage notes for distressed properties, renovate, and flip them for modest degrees of profitability. 

CJ also guided his company into consulting roles: advise lenders how to manage their distressed properties to at least preserve those assets. Lenders are good at lending when they have enough assets to lend but lenders aren’t typically structured to manage properties. 

CJ saw these two business opportunities – flipping houses and consulting with lenders – as potentially reasonable business ventures. By now, the others within ownership and management had grown to trust his judgment. Soon, those two ideas – new to his company – became significant profit centers to enable the core business – housing development – to survive the nation’s economic problems until credit was more available and the company could continue to pursue its housing development initiatives. 

Ironically, while not initially aiming to be a solo entrepreneur, CJ had created and pushed two entrepreneurial projects for the benefit of the company. 

COMPANY’S FOUNDERS HAD EVOLVED IN THEIR EARLY CAREERS 

Review of the company’s website notes that one of its founders had initially specialized in developing extremely large, urban structures such as office skyscrapers, a convention center, and a combined orchestra / theater venue. When the market for such large ventures became limited within the city closest to his home, the founder coincidentally met a friend involved in residential real estate, for lunch, during which they listed the challenges with developing residential housing but also ways to meet each challenge if they decided to partner in a new, residential housing venture. Looking at the projected economics, the younger said to the older: “We’ll go broke!” But the older responded, “Let’s try!” 

So, the two friends proceeded together to buy land to build and sell custom residential homes, both single family and townhouse structures. One of their eventual hires – on a six-month trial basis – was CJ. “Lucky” for CJ, the founders, who preached being prepared for both good and bad times, were sufficiently flexible in reviewing his resume, which was not the traditional path to success in the housing development business.

CAREER SATISFACTION

Arriving at the company with a somewhat relevant academic degree plus brief but narrow real-world experience in housing development, CJ combined his self-motivated curiosity to learn the many facets of his new career, soon earning professional respect both inside and outside his employment. Eventually, the company’s owners offered to sell increasing amounts of their ownership to CJ, who matured from an entry level employee to full ownership of the company when the founders retired.

Looking ahead, CJ appreciates that national economic issues could again impact the company’s business so he must remain prepared to guide the personnel for whom he is now responsible, through both good and bad times. He is determined to be more than a caretaker of the business – CJ has pledged to continue to find business opportunities and foster the growth of entry level personnel just like he had benefited from several decades ago.