Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashlee Johnson.
Hi Ashlee, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started life as a statistic and an underdog. A black female, born to a single black female felon on Section-8: a statistic. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky where the per capita homicide rate is higher than Chicago and only 19% of black people hold a college degree: underdog.
I was incorrectly sold the “College Dream” as most of us 90’s babies were. I grew up thinking as long as I go to college and get a degree I’ll be ok, I graduated with a Bachelor’s in 2012 and then a Master’s in 2014. $100,000+ of student loan debt later and I was working for $14/hour. My husband and I both knew the key to the life we wanted was leaving Kentucky. In 2015, we moved to Atlanta and changed the trajectory of our lives and our generations to follow. Leaving Kentucky alone was breaking a generational curse for the both of us!
My husband was murdered February 19, 2020 at the Citgo on the corner of North Hairston & Central in Stone Mountain. This place where we came to escape turned us into the exact statistics we had avoided for so long. Shortly after, I received my son’s autism diagnosis and then the whole world went into ”quarantine.” Not even a full year later a tree fell on my house almost killing my children and me. I was broken, trying to figure out what to do. Now a single-parent, my children fatherless & my household in poverty, I was seeing a cycle repeat itself that I had tried my hardest to break. I almost moved back home to Louisville but every time I tried God put it on my heart that Atlanta is where I needed to be. Atlanta has taught me so much professionally and exposed me to a different type of motivation. This city has black excellence engrained in the air we breathe. In the midst of a pandemic, watching police cover up the murder of Breonna Taylor in my own hometown, Atlanta stood up each time an unarmed black person was killed! Atlanta saved America from another Trump term. Atlanta made me feel safe to be black, celebrated to be black and IMPORTANT to be black! Atlanta will give my children opportunities that I never even dreamt possible as a child, and that’s why I am still on this Voyage in the ATL.
I write this snippet of my voyage now as a top-producing Realtor having $29 Million worth of transactions last year alone. My professional triumphs are rewarding but it’s the personal ones that mean the most. There was only a 19% chance that I would obtain a college degree, I did that! There was only a 22% chance that I would birth children into a married-couple household, I did that! There was only a 23% chance that the family I created would not live in poverty, I DID THAT! And I did it with an absent father, an incarcerated mother & an environment where my friends have been getting killed since age 14.
I’m seven years into my Atlanta Voyage, but I can promise you that it has just begun! There is so much more to come from Mrs. $29 Million. And if my children who are Atlanta babies don’t leave an impacting legacy in this city then I did not do my job. Thank you Atlanta for being the place of refuge, motivation and opportunity for our people! And thank you Atlanta for being a major part of my life voyage.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It wasn’t a smooth road at all! When we first moved to Atlanta, we lived in Stockbridge. All the jobs were up North or on the East side. We only had one car. My husband worked 6:30AM – 2:30PM. I worked 9-5. My husband would drop me off to work at 6AM so he could have the car when he got off work at 2:30 to pick me up. Some days if I needed the car I would drop him off and take a long lunch to pick him up at 2:30. I still can’t believe I was getting to work 3 hours early every…single…day :/
I was fired from my first job in Atlanta after someone a considered an acquaintance pulled a “hater move” and reported my private Snapchat to the workplace snitch line. I had consistently been a top producer in my workplace, had never been disciplined or sanctioned, worked day and night and weekends for this place and they fired me without explanation, warning or anything. I had a five month old baby when this happened, fresh off an extended maternity leave and it totally changed my families financial situation. My husband, my newborn baby and myself had to move into a friend’s basement while we worked to build our life back to what it was.
I found another job and was notified six months after starting that the company would be dissolving and we would all be out of jobs by Christmas or right after New Year. I also found out that I was pregnant with my second child at the same time.
Losing my husband in 2020 was the most difficult challenge I’ve faced in Atlanta for sure. Being here alone, no family, no friends is emotionally draining. It still makes me cry when my kid’s school asks for emergency contact information and I have not one person in the state of Georgia who I can ask the school to call if something were to happen to me. No breaks from kids. Nobody to help when I’m sick. No one to get my kid off the bus because I’m stuck in traffic. No one to attend graduation ceremonies with me. No one here to celebrate our birthdays or holidays with. No one. It was the same with my husband but at least we had each other. I know that creating community is important but my experiences have made me slow to trust others. Not knowing who murdered my husband gives me anxiety about meeting new people. Not having family and friends here gives me anxiety about trusting people with my children.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I am Mrs. $29 Million and I am known as Atlanta’s rental guru. I am the creator of Infinite Lease Purchase. We are a Real Estate Brokerage team specializing in nontraditional housing options.
With a 580 credit score and at least $40,000 annual income, we can get you into your dream home now as a cash buyer. You choose any home that’s currently for sale, we buy it cash and lease it to you with the option to buy immediately or later. Rental rates and purchase prices are set for up to five years!
Most recently we’ve had an influx of traditional financing approved buyers using us to beat the competition with cash offers. Others use us because they aren’t ready to purchase quite yet but need to move now. Some divorcing couples use us to get into a home now and buy it once the divorce is final. Others don’t have the credit score to buy yet, but want and DESERVE a nice home, in a desired community and school district.
I am most proud of our efforts in helping everyday working people into homes that they otherwise couldn’t access without purchase power. It feels good to hear that I have motivated someone to take steps towards homeownership which is the #1 track to generational wealth. It’s rewarding to know that I’ve helped young black business owners who can’t qualify for traditional financing because they are 1099 get into their dream home! This country has so many obstacles (especially for minorities) to obtaining wealth and “the American dream.”
At Infinite Lease Purchase, our motto is “We are good people, helping good people into good homes.”
Our inside motto is “From section 8 to real estate.” We are a black, woman-owned brokerage. We all come from humble beginnings and real estate was the saving grace for many of us.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
All work, no luck!
God gives us blessings but only after we’ve shown that we are ready for them. Every opportunity is a product of a seed that was planted by the work we do.
Pricing:
- Two months rent deposit required
- At least $40K annual income
- 550-580 credit score
- $75 app fee (per family)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ashleejohnson.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/2ees__
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AshleeJSales
