We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alvin Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alvin below.

Alvin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I am hoping to build a legacy that not only my immediate family will be proud of but also one where our company will be remembered as well. I want to remembered for all of the unselfish acts ive shown others by creating a platform for their real estate dreams and desires can be fulfilled. I want to be remembered for changing lives in the communities that we serve and all of the help that our organization provides.

This legacy of thousands of apartment units will not only leave a financial legacy and work that will go on long after me but also be a beacon of Hope for what anyone else can do when their purpose and passion line up with the right people.

I believe that people would say that i was super generous, caring, hard working and driven for success.

Alvin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Alvin “Hope” Johnson has been in the Real Estate industry for over 35 years. Starting as a handyman selling painting and repair services door to door, Alvin has grown in his entrepreneurial skills and has his lead team in the growth of a very successful Non-Profit organization that provides workforce and affordable housing. Alvin’s rags-to-riches success story is one of hard work, faith, and perseverance.

Hope Housing Foundation (HHF) is headquartered in McKinney, Texas and was incorporated as a 501(c) (3) in 1998. Under Alvin’s tenure as President, HHF has developed a business model that positions it as one of the most effective, nonprofit affordable, workforce housing organizations in the Country. With a little over 1,300 affordable housing units and growing, the HHF is in the process of building an additional one thousand (1000) units for completion in 2024 between four (4) new multifamily housing developments for the workforce community located in North Texas and Wisconsin. With resources from the Institutional Community of Lending, HHF is on target to develop twenty-thousand (20,000) units of high-performance, near net-zero, eco-friendly and sustainable workforce housing in 5 years meeting all E.S.G., Energy Star and Indoor Air Quality Plus Certification compliance metrics. Alvin takes pride in being an industry leader in service and building strong relationships with his business partners. Through his faith and determination, HHF has become a frontrunner in the sustainable housing community.

Alvin Hope Johnson is also the CEO of Multifamily Monopoly (MFM), an education platform for real estate investors interested in the process of Multifamily Development and Ownership.

As a way of providing consulting and development services for other developers and aspiring multifamily owners, a consulting firm was born. Springboard RE Advisors, www.springboardra.com, . is a fully integrated design and build consulting firm that consults for aspiring developers, seasoned developers and on all of HHF development ventures.. Springboard is also led by Alvin, who is a licensed General Contractor in several states, adding an extra layer of experience that aids in the consulting process..

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Over the last 35+ years in real estate, we’ve seen many cycles of up and down, high interest rates and low interest rates, boom and bust.

Very recently, June of 2022 the interest rates spiked, our lenders on multiple development deals quit funding and we lost a lot of built in equity, to the tune of 8 figures. The only way out was to quit, give the property up and tell our investors they either had to triple their investment for the same return initially expected OR figure out a way to add value back to the site in order to get our Lenders to believe in the project. We proceeded with a redesign of some of the buildings and then doubled the amount of units we were going to initially build from 200 to 400. This was a gutsy move but it paid off. We were able to add 1.5 times the equity that was lost by doing a little more work. Once i was able to prove that with bids and an appraisal of the property after the work was completed, my Lender that quit lending doubled my credit line and allowed us to restart and continue the project. They told me that ONLY because of our engagement in to working out the problem did they want to proceed with us.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

This is a good one. Because I learned early how to repair things very well i thought that the way way for me to get in to the apartment business was to buy older assets and remodel them and work really hard to turn the community around. What i had to unlearn was that i do not always have to be a DOER or doing something in order to make money. The amount of time it took me to convince investors that my first property of 110 units of little houses in a small town of 10,000 was a good investment was long and arduous. I met over 100 investors before i got a yes.

Had i known that o could have purchased a class A asset in a larger city with no community issues would have been a much easier job and i would have made 10 times the amount of money.

So the lesson was that I don’t always have to work hard for big results. I don’t always have to buy something old and work hard to turn it around when there are newer things to buy or new things to build.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/alvinhopejohnson
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/alvinhopejohnson
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/alvinhopejohnson
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/alvinhopejohnsn
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/alvinhopejohnson