Today we’d like to introduce you to Valario White Jr.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
“Have you ever had the feeling that maybe there is more to life than your current situation? Well, that feeling right there is exactly how I felt after four months of working as a full-time engineer for a great company with great pay and great benefits. My job was located in a small and rural town in Pennsylvania and I immediately started working within two months of graduating from the illustrious Tuskegee University in May of 2016. The culture, demographics, and climate of this small town, among other things, were completely different from my Atlanta upbringing. Even though I was in “foreign territory”, I embraced the change. I was eager to move away from home, start my career, and make big bucks! My entire family was so proud of me. I was proud of me. However, after four months into my role, I realized that I wasn’t exactly excited about the job anymore. I endured some crazy intense training, 12-hour day/night rotational shifts, and some serious doubts on my future. What once started off as a great opportunity turned into a great burden and my happiness took the fall. Something had to change.
Real estate investing was always something that I was very intrigued by. During my sophomore year in college, I was introduced to real estate when I read a great book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. That book taught me some very valuable principles and it broadened my mindset past the status quo of working a 9 to 5 (for an engineer it’s really a 7 to 5). From that point, I started researching real estate and attending Saturday conferences until I eventually came across residential wholesaling. I’m blessed to have come across real estate so early in my life because it proved to be my life’s calling. Engineering was not.
I first started practicing real estate investing during the summer of 2015 when I was interning for ExxonMobil. I was unable to complete a single deal during that 13-week period. Therefore, I stopped practicing as a real estate investor and focused on graduating college. After graduating college, I started back practicing real estate investing part-time while working as a full-time engineer. I took the principals I learned about real estate during my college years and started implementing them again for myself. For some reason, I knew that I would end up back in Atlanta, GA because I was virtually wholesaling in the Atlanta Market from Pennsylvania. In the beginning, I struggled. I spent thousands of marketing dollars and failed to complete a single deal and was about to quit until I met my mentor, Kendall Ficklin II, later that year.
It was a miracle the way I met my mentor Kendall. I had recently joined Eric Thomas’s organization called Breathe University (Breathe U) just before attending the “Average Skill Phenomenal Will Tour” in New York. Breathe U provided a private Facebook page for all of the Breathe U members to interact with one another. As I’m scrolling through the Breathe U Facebook page one day, I came across a podcast by Cierra Seay. It was called “The College Dropout Podcast”. The name was very intriguing so I listened to a few of her episodes. Out of the few I listened to, she interviewed a young successful real estate investor in the Atlanta area. That investor was Kendall. A light bulb turned on in my mind and I immediately reached out to Cierra to see if she could contact Kendall for me in hopes of him becoming my mentor. She connected me to him and I joined his mentorship. Within 2 weeks under his mentorship, I completed my very first deal. The rest is history.
I endured working with my former employer for eight months before I had enough. During that time of isolation from family, friends, and everything familiar, I consciously worked on myself and grew into an entirely different person. I was more disciplined and more aware. The moment before I turned in my resignation after working only eight months was a crazy, scary experience for me. It was a task that I wanted to do months before, but I always pushed it back. It wasn’t until my other mentor, Andre Lewis, told me to make the jump. He reminded me, “You can always go back to an engineering job if it doesn’t work since you’re young with no responsibilities.”
I took his advice, left the company, and moved back to Atlanta to pursue real estate investing full time as a wholesaler. There were no regrets in my mind. I knew that I made the right decision and I had COMPLETE confidence that I would be great in the real estate industry. Since the writing of this article, I have completed seven deals in less than four months and have been able to help many people sell their property for quick cash.
This didn’t just come from mere hope and wishing. It came with the right mindset, a strong desire to win, consistent effort, and God’s Grace.” I dedicated myself to the business. I never saw success when I was an intern because I wasn’t entirely committed. However, once I quit my engineering job (from the help of Andre’s encouraging words), met a great mentor, and went “All In” into my craft, I found success. In addition, I made a lot of mistakes during the time I was virtually wholesaling part-time. Those mistakes were great learning experiences. They prepared me for where I am now. In the end, I can attest a lot of my success to my mentor Kendall. He did not only provide with me with the right guidance, but he also restored the confidence I once lost for the business.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road has NOT been smooth and still is not to this day.
The first major struggle was trying to accomplish my first deal. Building a business is hard work. Especially when you’re limited to time and the correct know how. I spent thousandths of marketing dollars trying to complete my first deal over the course of 4 months. I must have heard dozens of people telling me “No” (and still do to this day). Before accomplishing my first deal during those 4 months, I was working a full-time engineering job that was very demanding of my time and energy. We traveled at least once a month for training to different cities, so my environment was never the same. I had to change and adapt. Moreover, since I was working on the business part time, I only had roughly 3-4 hours after work to put into my real estate investing business. I went through many times of pain and anxiety, wondering if real estate investing was even worth continuing to pursue. I’m glad I proved myself wrong.
The second major struggle was quitting my full-time engineering job and telling the ones close to me that I will be moving back to Atlanta to pursue something that was NOT guaranteed to be successful. It was a struggle trying to make everyone believers in my vision. The only way was to prove to them that I made the right decision was to become a successful real estate investor.
Amongst all of the other struggles I’ve endured, those two were some of the biggest struggles.
V Buys Houses – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
V Buys Houses is a real estate solutions company. We buy and sell real estate in the Atlanta and surrounding areas very fast (usually within 14 days or less) and for CA$H (no traditional financing needed). We currently focus on residential properties like single family homes, lots, and multi-families. Most importantly, we focus on helping homeowners who are in distressed situations or even homeowners who just prefer to sell their property quickly for cash to avoid going through the traditional real estate selling process with a real estate agent (which could be a hassle). We provide the better and more convenient alternative because our buying process is simple and quick. In addition, the properties that we purchase are generally in pretty bad condition, aren’t livable, abandoned, etc. Therefore, we are able to help sellers overcome a wide range of real estate problems like foreclosures, tax defaults, code violations, out of state ownership, divorce, natural disasters, unwanted inherited property, and bad tenants just to name a few.
I am most proud that my company is a platform that not only helps homeowners who may be in distressed situations but my company also helps revitalize and restore communities.
Furthermore, I am able to make a huge impact and become a beacon of positivity for my family, my friends, and my environment. I will pass on the powerful investment knowledge that I am consistently learning as a real estate investor to my community so the next generation will continue to get better.
The biggest thing that sets us apart from most of our competitors is that we have great integrity, we are consistent, and we genuinely care about our homeowner’s problems. We work with them to provide the best solution. Our goal is to put people over profit and make every deal a Win-Win situation.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is when a person actually accomplishes the very thing that they set out to accomplish. The criteria for my business is determined and measured by KPI, which are Key Performance Indicators. It is important for me to track and meet my KPI because these indicators show me where I need to make adjustments in my business. Therefore, I am able to scale and grow my business.
Some of my KPI’s include:
Number of mailer being sent out per week
Number of appointments made to view property
Total number of offers made per week
Number of properties under contract per week
Number of deals closed per week
etc…
Contact Info:
- Address: 741 Monroe Drive NE
Atlanta, GA 30308 - Website: www.vbuyshouses.com
- Phone: (678) 915-8289
- Email: support@propertyvllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valariowhite/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valario.white
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/VBuysHouses
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/v-buys-houses-atlanta
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/11117638/
Image Credit:
Kendall Ficklin II (my mentor)
Nicole Pettis (O’Kelley & Sorohan, Attorneys at Law, LLC)
Jennifer Butler
Willie Middleton II
Patricia Amaram
Perry Walker
Joshua Sledge
Santos Hernandez
Eugene Taylor (Chalker & Chalker, PC)
Kofi Broadnax
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
