Meet Justin & Keshia Richardson: Serial Entrepreneurs

We had the good fortune of connecting with Justin & Keshia Richardson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Justin & Keshia, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
This is a very great question. Since our last interview a few things have changed. We’ve went ahead and launched our short term rental business. We started in Atlanta and have since expanded to Houston, TX. We market our properties on short term rental platforms like AirBnb, VRBO, FurnishedFinder.com, PeerSpace, and several others. Our company C&C Property Solutions provides corporate housing for medical professionals, first responders, corporate executives, leisure travelers, and those alike by partnering with property managers who manage multi-unit, luxury, apartment complexes. Before going full time in our business, we’ve spent almost 5 years working in property management, in the multifamily industry. That experience in addition to owning our turn-key cleaning company Quick Clean ATL, has allowed us to do very well in short term renting. Quickly becoming AirBnb Super Hosts and VRBO Premier Hosts. With a unanimous 5 star review rating on multiple platforms. With many friends, family, social media followers, inquiring on how we did it, we decided to put a course together that teaches it step-by-step, which can be found at www.BnBClassSimplified.com.

The thought process behind starting this business and getting into this industry was wanting to get into multifamily real estate and to live off of a full time passive income. We wanted to be able to make money at anytime and from anywhere, but most importantly making the money doing what we love and are passionate about. Real Estate is something we always wanted to do but there are so many ways to make money in real estate. We wanted to do it passively, create something one time and live off of it forever and also have the option to sell it or pass it on to our children. So we decided to go with the short term rental-commercial route. We worked in property management for a number of years, we still do it, just now for ourselves. We’ve also monetized our knowledge by creating a course, extremely affordable for someone like ourselves who was seeking knowledge but didn’t want to sacrifice a month’s worth of rent and 2 car payments to invest in it. In 3 months we have over 1000 students in the course from all over the country as well as in the UK and in Canada and over 200 students in our VIP program. Some students have taken the course and in a week listed their first unit, Some are on to their 4th and 5th rental and some have expanded their portfolios out to multiple states.

Doing what you love full-time, earning a full time passive income from it, making money off of your passion, being able to sell it or pass it on as an inheritance, and the fulfillment in helping others do the same thing. That is the thought process for us and our businesses.

What should our readers know about your business?
Being in the short term rental industry by way of luxury multi-housing communities, is the fact that we worked in apartment industry for several years. We’ve worked in high rises, midrises, garden style communities, renovations, acquisitions, and our cleaning company specializes in turn key. Justin has evicted residents on some of the properties he’s work on, that were subletting without permission and/or causing disruption to the community. With all of that experience, we believe that is what sets us apart. We know how to build rapport and relationships with property managers, as well as communicate effectively in their language in order to gain their trust and partnership.

We wouldn’t say the process was easy, however it wasn’t difficult due to proper preparation. The experience working in the industry, having and knowing how to build the right relationships, having the right mentorship, and a very essential piece in order to stay in business and scale is having the capital. Most business fail early due to lack of capital. We learned from our previous business ventures where we failed over and over again due to lack of capital, education, we didn’t have the right mindset, nor the right people around us. Those experiences and lessons helped us get to where we are today.

We reset our mindset once we discovered what personal development was. As far as capital, we stopped using our own money to build our businesses and learned how to leverage our credit and establish and leverage business credit. Now when it comes to having the right people around you, learned how to choose our friends and not let our friends choose us. We are very conscious of the people we want and decide to keep around us.

We want the world to know that it is possible to create a life that you can live on your own terms. We are not special. We started out working full time jobs, raising 2 kids, and building our businesses on the side. Faith, focus, consistency, and a plan got us to where we are today as full time entrepreneurs in our very early 30’s (lol). We are not boastful or flashy, we live way below our means and we continue to invest and diversify our income in order to not go back to where we came from and create something that will outlive us. The best part is, we’re taking people with us and giving back in the process by teaching people how we did it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
To be honest we are home bodies, we don’t go out much unless we are invited somewhere or when our friends come in town. When we first moved to Atlanta from Brooklyn, a bunch of our friends came down for our housewarming. We went water tubing which was a lot of fun. We enjoy skating, one of our favorite spots whenever we want to catch a vibe and some good food is Copper Cove. We also live a few minutes from The Battery-Atlanta Braves Stadium, that’s also a good hang out spot with many different entertainment and dining options.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We have to give the utmost thanks and glory to God. We’ve always kept the faith and focus on Him through our highest and lowest moments throughout our entrepreneurial journey. Of course our children are our biggest motivation. We also have support from our family, they’re now looking to acquire their own units and learning the business. We’ve recently acquired a property for Justin’s mother, as her retirement gift. Our nieces Ciara and Rachel do an amazing job managing our Houston portfolio. We also have mentorship, having a mentor is essential. They can save you time and money, therefore it’s worth investing in a good one. As far as our circle of friends, we hand-pick them for a reason. Your circle of friends and influences can determine your level of success. Our circle of friends have written books, started trucking companies, clothing lines, credit repair companies, top producers in direct sales companies, real estate and stock investors, coaching programs, car washes, catering companies, and so much more. With those kind of friends, you can’t lose. Iron sharpens iron.

Website: https://www.ccpropertysolutions.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ccpropertysolutions/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TEAMBNBSIMPLE

Image Credits
Photographer: Jamal Williams of BTS Photography