Today we’d like to introduce you to Jerome Howard
Hi Jerome, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It all started when I was little kid. My father bought me a Tonka Truck outfit with a few Tonka Trucks one Christmas. From that day on I knew wanted to be in construction or build things. I was always fascinated with how buildings were built. Unfortunately, my father passed early on after that when I was 8 years old. That would turn my world upside down and derail my construction worker plans for now. Ultimately I now had to grow up a little faster than most. Throughout my years I played sports, hung out with friends etc. Then It was time to go to college. This is where the rubber meets the road lol. I now have to make decisions about what I want to do in life . Well half way through my college journey my mother became terminally ill and one day my sister called me at school and told me we lost our house due to foreclosure. Eventually I left school to go home and help my sister take care of my mom. During this time I met a friend who introduced me to real estate. I was already intrigued about real estate because I wanted to know how could my mom could lose our home and what was foreclosure. Throughout this time I would drive around look for unoccupied houses, compose a list and then send the owners letters trying to buy their house. Sounds easy right, it was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. It took consistently, perseverance, confidence and a lot of time to get my first deal. S/0 to my wife and realtor Andrea Howard, she purchased a Toshiba laptop for me with her tax money to jump start my career in real estate. Tragedy strikes again, my mom has now passed away. That sent me spiraling out of control in a state of depression. The feeling of been young not having either one of your parents to call on, champion you on in life or just to talk to daily is a very tough thing to deal with. None the less I stopped real estate and started working with at risk youth in the community and a residential treatment center. This was a different journey in itself. I really enjoyed doing this work and still. Community is important and making an impact is even more important. Little did I know, another set back was coming my way. I ended up resigning from my job at the residential treatment center. Doing so re-ignited my real estate career. A very nice jewish guy took me under his wing and funded my very first renovation project. He taught me so much on that project from choosing contractors to managing the project to buying materials. The house was about 3,000sqft and was located in West Baltimore. Reservoir Hill to be exact. I gained a ton of knowledge on that job. I then went on and managed some renovation projects for others while reverting back to wholesaling real estate as well. Eventually I built up my confidence to start rehabbing on my own, building a crew that was reliable find some funding as well. Throughout this whole journey Howard & Howard was birth, a full scale real estate firm. We buy and sell property throughout Baltimore, Project Management and provide Construction Services.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Hahaha nothing in this world is ever a smooth road. Its all about how you deal with issues that may arise. If you know anything about real estate and construction, you will know the road is anything but smooth. I normally get a call about 8am from Home Depot with material orders. This let me know a couple things 1. My guys are on the way to work and 2. check the receipt lol. These guys buy Red Bulls, equipment they need that they should have, fans, heaters etc. Now this may seem petty, but the issue is, this is my money that I need for the properties we are renovating. Buy your Red Bulls and equipment with your own money. Material management is another issue Ive had in the past. Letting my guys buy for example 200 sheets of drywall when I may only need 125 sheets for the property. Guess what happens next, you guessed it, the extra drywall eventually leaves your job site at some point and finds it way to the black market for sale lol.Finding the right crew is another challenge. This could be a great thing or be very detrimental to your business if you have a bad crew. Each of these challenges I have had to deal with and I have gotten better with all of them.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Howard & Howard is a real estate investment and residential renovation company dedicated to enhancing community well-being through strategic investments and property revitalization. We prioritize community impact and active involvement as integral components of our mission.
We are dedicated to community impact throughout Baltimore. We understand the need not only to renovate homes but educate the community as well
Im most proud of which alot of people don’t know about us, every community we work in we make sure our neighbors know who were are and what we are doing. We also employ some people from the neighborhood throughout the project. That’s an intentional move. Some of people we still call on to this day for different small jobs
I want our readers to know that we provide many services from buying properties to project management services. We also provide consultation services as well. Its important to us that we help each other understand real estate investing and generational wealth
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The most important thing we learned from the Covid 19 crisis was never get to comfortable. Keep grinding even when there is no end in sight. That Crisis changed the landscape of real estate as we know it. It was a different business prior to Covid 19.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://howardandhoward.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howardandhowardre/?igsh=YzR0eWp0a3VlZW9o
Image Credits
Blue Box Visions LLC
