City Link Real Estate Solutions almost never existed at all. Fortunately for hundreds of North Carolina homeowners and investors, Tyler Weitz, one of the company’s two co-founders, understands the value of perseverance. Add to that equation that the other co-founder, Keith Murray, has a passion for scaling upward so that, in his words, “Sometimes one plus one does not necessarily equal two, but instead can be four,” and you have a dynamo team that has taken the Raleigh area by storm in just the past few years.
While you might be thinking the one-plus-one-is-four tactic is pretty “funny math” from some very serious and successful numbers guys, Murray and Weitz back up their unusual equation with a track record of buying distressed properties and converting them into profitable, productive investments while keeping empathy at the very heart of their investing model. “We try to always be extremely sensitive toward our clients’ perspective,” said Weitz, who, notably, never refers to motivated sellers as “leads” or “deals,” but always as “clients” or by specific case, such as “a very sweet lady in Cary.”
“Often our clients are not in a great situation: an estate situation, a potential foreclosure, debt, distress. My goal is to try to build an offer for these people that meets their needs. That might not always be a cash offer and a quick close.”
Weitz understands where his clients are coming from when it comes to stress and distress. “When I got started in real estate, I was failing at my sales job and my first four real estate contracts had fallen through in the last six months,” he recalled. He sat down with his wife and they decided to take a shot on a last, fifth deal. “I got a $5,000 check at closing,” Weitz said. He quit his job the next day.
Putting the Icing on the Cake
Less than two years later, in 2014, Weitz attracted the attention of Murray, who was a commercial contractor prior to the housing crash and had been methodically considering various avenues of real estate investing since that time. “I did not want a lot of people working for me as I had with my previous company, and I did not want to be subject to the marketplace,” he said, noting that these requirements made real estate very attractive since “no matter what happens with the housing market you can shift gears and move with it.” Murray said the “icing on the cake with real estate investing was the ability to compound money much faster than in any other business model.” He had been investing in North Carolina and in California when he began doing deals with Weitz and realized “a partnership might make sense on a bigger scale.”
The two discussed the matter carefully for months, then took the leap when they agreed that the North Carolina housing market was getting ready to shift again. “I was really starting to foresee a lack of inventory in the coming six to 12 months and I wanted to diversify my investing portfolio,” Murray said.
Weitz, while primarily a flipper at the time, is, in Murray’s words, “a marketing genius and has brought a lot of different applications for that to the company.” Together, the two launched a campaign to generate as many of Weitz’s clients as possible and then convert their properties into a variety of investments, including rentals, turnkey rentals, fix and flips, and full developments.
Still Growing Strong
The two believe their unique system has plenty of room to grow. “Our customer-oriented philosophy in Raleigh has worked so well that we just don’t see any reason why we would not take it to other markets, at least in our state,” Weitz said. “People like how they get treated when they do business with us, and we want to grow that.”
Murray added, “In this particular business model, no day is like the one you had previously. It’s incredibly energizing. One of the most exciting rehabs we’ve ever done was a 1910-built house, condemned by the city, with a nest of raccoons and a bunch of marijuana growing inside. We brought that house back to life and it was so satisfying not just for us, but for the community as well.”
With that kind of spirit and mindset, City Link Real Estate Solutions will likely be welcome in any community it chooses to call home.
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