We recently connected with Christopher “CeeJ” Jefferson and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Christopher “CeeJ” thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

The reason we have been able to scale our company is because we have fell in love with a problem. I believe creativity in business comes from your ability as a business owner to solve problems. There was a void in our city when it came to economic mobility, specifally in regards to affordable housing and pathways to ownership for marginalized communities. Fortunately for us, our “why” was attached to that problem. We made the conversation loud and the plight of our community important. I was in position to run for city council and leverage that moment in time to further the conversation in and around how we wanted to impact this city. This would ultimately become our business model and we were able to find the right partners who also believed in our mission. Collaboration and intentional strategies breathed life into this company and thrusted us forward and made us more viable.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into this business from one day riding with my pastor and mentor. Seeing his work and the way he impacted families by providing a workplace and building an excellent product, I wanted to be involved. I came into real estate with a finance and managing background so understood how to be efficient with client relations, processes, and making numbers work. I am most proud of being able to put families in brand new homes that put them in position to be equitable members of society and set their future generations up for success. My company is able to tap into resources and eliminate the barriers that hold back most first time homeowners such as fear, credit, and finances. This city is growing like crazy so we offer relocation services, corporate employee home purchase program, appliance install and home security. We are a one stop shop for all things property related.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was in finance at one point and I felt that I could be hurting the very people that I want to help by not being able to create new ways of managing life and finances. I then decided to walk into working with the school system and being a parent involvement facililtator which i ablsolutely loved. I was able to to trade money with a pay decrease, for time with a more flexible schedule. This combined with my desire to affect not only the kids but the family as a whole, helped carve out a new path and career change for me into real estate development.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Having a “program” that makes process easy, billboards, and word of mouth has been key in our client growth. We have a staff member that focuses on communications that allows us to be very intentional with the way we promote, and brand ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.oakandavepropertygroup.com & www.oakandaveimpact.org
• Facebook: Christopher CeeJ Jefferson & Oak and ave property group
• Linkedin: Christopher CeeJ Jefferson