Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Malette Johnson . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Malette , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

Being a person who came from humble beginnings. I’ve always wanted to give back and help my community. I was a teenage mom and wanted a nice safe place to live for my daughter and I. When I found a nice place that was also subsidize, I put my name on the list and called every week until I got accepted. This truly benefited my daughter and I. Fast forward some years, now I provide nice safe homes for low income families. There is a need with so many families on the waiting list. It brings me joy when I see how happy the families are with their new home.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

In 2020 I got off from my as a Community Health Coach. I thought now what will I do. I did enjoy my job but I always wanted to get into real estate and also bring a creative designer was my passion. So, I asked myself how can I use this to help people. I came across a couple of mentors that were real estate investors and providing home for low income families and breaking all the stigma of renting to families with Choice Housing Voucher/section 8. Which made me very happy because I didn’t like all the negative things that were being said about renting to low income families. Seeing the need with so many on the waiting list, that’s how I got into the industry. I formed my business MIH Twenty because I was determined to make it happen in 2020. My other business Accentsing, where I’m the creative designer of home accents didn’t get formed until this year 2022. One of the things I enjoy with my home accents is that I make personalized housewarming gifts for the families as a way of welcoming them to their new home.

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

When it was time to buy my first rental property I did it the way I knew how to do it. You get a real estate agent, look on the MLS, find a house, go look at it and put a contract on it. Well I soon found out that this isn’t the way you do if you want to be a real estate investors. It took me being out bidded and maybe having to pay more than I should for a house. So I had to unlearn this way of doing things. I started joining real estate investment groups and going to real estate meetups with other investors. This where I learned all the different ways of buying rental property. In one of the groups someone was selling or assigning a contract on a house. I saw the pictures of the house and went to see it. It was opened for one day (an elderly lady wanted to sell her home to go live with family out of state and didn’t want a lot of people coming and going due to COVID) after seeing it I decided I wanted to buy it and ask if I could come back with my inspector that’s when I was informed and learned something new. I was suppose to bring my inspector with me when I came to look at the house. They were nice enough to let me come back with an inspector if I could do it within 2 days. Which I did and I bought the home and she was able to move out of state to be with family. One thing I also learned that people were buying homes as is with no inspection being done because the demand for houses out weighed the supply. The housing market has been very interesting. Therefore investors have to be creative.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

First, I talked with my wonderful and supportive husband told him about my business plan. He was onboard as long as it wouldn’t affect our personal finances. I had a 401k account that I was no longer contributing to, this is what I used for the initial capital. Now a lot of people would frown on this. But I did the numbers and investment in real estate was going to give me more return on my money than the 401k. I didn’t like having to pay the penalty for taking the money out, but I don’t regret it. It has helped fund a business I’m proud of and also helping families.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mihtwenty.com
• Instagram: @accentsinghome
• Other: www.accentsing.com