Blaze Your Own Trail - From a Small Town to the Apartment Industry Hall of Fame with Jerry Wilkinson

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Jerry Wilkinson is founder and Chairman of The Wilkinson Companies, a privately- held real estate investment and management firm. Since 1984, Wilkinson has directed the operations and growth of the Wilkinson Companies and its subsidiaries. Wilkinson served as 2012 Chairman of the National Apartment Association (NAA). He has previously served as President of the Georgia Apartment Association (GAA) and the Atlanta Apartment Association (AAA). He is a member of the NAA and GAA Hall of Fame. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Duke University, an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School and has done post graduate work at Harvard. He is the recipient of the 2023 Philanthropist of the Year for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Greater Atlanta Chapter. He has served on several Boards including the Duke University School of Engineering BOV, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, LaGrange College, Apartment Life Inc., and the Atlanta Community Food Bank. He has taught Bible Study for over 30 years and has served as Chairman of Deacons for Dunwoody Baptist Church. Jerry has made 13 mission trips around the world including India, South Korea, South America, China, and the Soviet Union. He and his wife, Beverly, have three daughters and eight grandchildren, and split their time between Atlanta, Georgia and Amelia Island, Florida.Connect with Jerry-Title Sponsorship Opportunity Available-Email: [e-mail] for more info about how we can get your business more exposure! Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and I'm joined by a very special guest today. We have Jerry Wilkinson. He is the founder of the Wilkinson group. And Jerry, I'm just going to have you share with everybody just a little bit about who you are and what you do today. Okay. First of all, it's a pleasure to be here, and I want to acknowledge our relationship. You worked with our companies for a while and actually had managed probably one of the toughest properties that we had in a very difficult time. And your commitment to the industry, your commitment to understanding and promoting the apartment world, which has been very good to me and my family, is something that I really appreciate. The time we work together, I remember recruiting you, I remember taking you,

if you will, away from the Gables. I remember placing you on a very difficult property and your family, the commitment you made, and getting us through a very difficult time. And again, I've been in the business 40 years in the apartment world. Remember that very vividly. And, my, your background and what you do and your commitment to use technology and your journey.

Appreciate that. Retired, not retired, really, but still come in. involved in the business for 40 plus years, the department business. Little background, a personal background, some of you many may know, was grew up in East Tennessee, a rural area of East Tennessee. My mom was a elementary school teacher in a very small school, elementary school that I went to. It was eight grades and five teachers. And my dad was a, she put herself through college, which was a four years old raising five children my dad wow was a machinist at the plant alcohol aluminum

he was involved and worked there product of the depression the 20s and 30s he worked on the tva dams uh with his dad literally feed his family so grew up there very fine memories of that rural area next to my grandfather's farm we had neighbors some neighbors uh actually did not have into a some neighbors could not read in the very rural area I grew up. But we had everything, the five of us that mattered as a child growing up. Sure. Unconditional love from our parents no matter what. Secondly, they committed and understood very early age the role of giving us a chance and importance of education. That's great. Which is carried through. So we all were very well educated. both my father and my mother.

We all, five of us, actually three PhDs, two. That's great. They never made more than $20,000 a year. And we went to the various school, went to a city school, city high school, Alco High School, had some teachers influenced me in math. And in other words, and went on to an engineering degree.

As you asked, I was able to go to Duke University of Engineering and then graduate school at the school. That's great. But the education was the key. The third thing they gave us, which in some ways was more important in forming life was what they did. Sure. The faith they had, profound faith in the little church. And the example they led of being with what would appear to be relatively humble circumstances,

their generosity and their role and their commitment to us as a family and individually into the country with something exceptional. So that's my foundation. Yeah, I love it. I love you. Thank you for sharing that. And I think it's important for people to get the backstory, you know, to get context on who helps shape who you are. You know, my mom, you know, who was disabled and was born with one lung. And, you know, a lot of the adversity that she faced, you know, as I got older and as actually, really it took her kind of passing for me to realize, you know, hindsight's always 2020. You know, we can always look back and see all the amazing things people did for us. But sometimes in the moment, we don't really. recognize it. So I appreciate you sharing that. So what would be, I want a lesson from, one lesson from mom that she instilled in you that you still carry today. And then one lesson from your dad, maybe that has kind of helped,

you know, helped you on your journey. I might get emotional on that. My mom's commitment to the family and her work ethic, her desire for us to, if you will, be exposed to flap our wings to to leave home when it was best. Yeah. And the role that everything was about the family, keeping it together. I mean, the most generous woman have ever known, most generous person I've ever known, she never could say no, would not say no to people knocked on the door. She didn't know her generosity or love of others was that.

My dad taught me to read. He didn't go to college, but he learned to read at an early age and study and travel the country actually worked for the telegraph system in Texas. And he read every night. And he would read and he taught me how to read the newspaper as he did my two brothers. He took me to sporting events. My mom was too busy, basketball and baseball growing up. Yeah.

And he is a very quiet man, very deep man in terms and spoke, not a lot of words, but I speak with my sister and brother now. And we talk about the influence that they still have on my life. So those are, commitment to education and growing. And always do it. was king from both of them. Yeah, and it sounds like that generosity piece you mentioned a couple of times, you know, being generous of other people, and I know that's something that you enjoy doing,

you enjoy, you know, being philanthropic, you enjoy giving to the local community, whether that's here in Atlanta, you know, the food bank, I know you've been a, you know, a big guy that's been involved in a lot of these different events. So it sounds like that they rubbed off on you a little bit, right? Well, they were the example. Yeah, they were the example. I think in some ways I talk about giving, giving sacrificially is a concept that people, and I think they gave us and others. And my definition of giving sacrificially is when you do without what you would want or what you could do to give to others.

And on a very personal basis, I don't view myself as a sacrificial giver. I've been fortunate. But my mom and my dad, I think, gave, they didn't ask him about that later in the life, and they didn't do that as a sacrifice. In fact, I asked him my dad one point in time nearing the end of recording him and getting his history, which he didn't talk about a lot, about the sacrifice that they made to give us education and everything. and said it wasn't sacrificed. It was a vibrant love and it was investment.

That's great. And so he poured, you know, so. Yeah. Very touching to me. Yeah, I love that. So he looked at it as almost a deposit. Deposit. Right.

Planning seeds. Good point. That now these seeds are growing exponentially and it's something that you do and I'm pretty confident you've instilled that into your children and they're going to instill that into their children. And before you know it, there's going to be all these. things that blossom from that deposit from your dad, which is, that's pretty cool. So talk to me a little bit about school because, you know, education is one of those things. Like when I went to

school, I knew after high school, college wasn't for me. I, you know, I was very hyperactive. I was the kid that was considered the disruptor in class and in the, the offices more than the class because I was getting in trouble all the time. And so I knew I could build my life in the future if I, I got good at communication, if I got good at sales. And that's kind of the journey I took. And then in 2006, that led into getting a job with Gables and property management and spent 15 years in that industry. And that's kind of how we got connected. So I'd love to get, A, your take on how education is changed from when you were going to Duke versus people going to Duke today. And then B, what are your thoughts on people even skipping it altogether?

if it makes sense. I'd love your insight on that. Well, my experience at Duke is, you know, like I said East Tennessee near University of Tennessee, my sister and brother, or my sister went to University of Tennessee, and it was kind of assumed if you were a reasonably good student that you would go to this state, it was relatively expensive, it was close. In my senior years, well, into my senior year, my dad came to me and he said, well, you know, you're senior, Have you thought about college? And I said, well, no, not really. And he said, well, you know, it's about time.

It was the first semester senior year that you think about. And I said, well, I guess I'll, you know, go to University of Tennessee. And he said, very profoundly to me, and flew into, and said, have you thought about other places? And I said, well, no, not really. He said, I want you think about where else you might want to go. And I said, well, you know, I don't know. you know, I don't know, we're going to acquire applications.

And he said, I'll help you. So I heard about Duke, it's a great basketball program even then, Newt had a school engineering. So I kind of somehow came up with Duke. So we came back together and he said, have you thought about other places? And I said, well, you know, maybe Duke, which I'd never been to and never went to until I showed up on campus. And he said, okay. So somehow we got an application.

and somehow applied for financial aid, which I need-based aid, which I clearly needed, and got in. And so I show up, I show up in campus, my sister, older sister, drops me off. My dad never missed work, never missed work, even when children were born. My mom had other children taught school.

So my older sister, who's a free spirit just back from her experience in Turkey, drove me over there around the circle, literally dropped me off with a suitcase, and had a suit. I had a Bible from the church, and my parents, my mom or dad gave me a dictionary, which I still have. And so she drops me off and heads on home because she's got things to do. So I wandered around, I struggled academically, socially, but somehow I made it through. and then that was kind of my, the difference between. Yeah.

Our three daughters went to Duke and we see people, fortunate there. The difference in education. Sure. That led to other education. Yep. So that was kind of, that was the story on it. It was like a, clap your wings, maybe you want to leave home.

Yeah. Try something different. I love you, but I'm pushing you out the door. You blazed the trail, right? Yeah. You did your own thing, right? Yeah, plays the trail. You said, hey, everyone's going to Tennessee.

And I love the fact that all your dad did was ask a question. He asked a question. He just asked the question, and that got you thinking and led to you finding your way being dropped off. No parent, just here you go. You got to figure this thing out, right? Yeah. A 17 years old, too. That wasn't he made.

Yeah. Somehow I made it. I always find, because a similar thing happened to me, I don't know if I ever shared this with you, how I got promoted to property manager. I was managing a property in Thesda, Maryland. It was called Pooks Hill Tower, and then there was a mid-rise. And the tower was built in, I think, early 1900s. And, you know, Teddy Roosevelt had stayed there at one point.

I mean, it was just a really kind of historic property. And I was the assistant manager of these two. And I get a call from another property from the VP and the regional. And usually that's not a good sign. So I get this call and they say, hey, can you drive over to the property? And so I remember driving and on the way I call my wife Natalie. And I said, hey, I think I'm getting fired. I know.

So hang on a minute. I might need to look for another job and I pull up to the community and I walk in. Sure enough, the manager is not there. I said they must have let him go too. So I walk in the office and the VP and the regional. They say, hey, you're probably wondering why you're here. I said, I have a good idea. You know, and they said, we just want to say you've been doing a great job as an assistant manager.

We recognize your efforts, and we want to promote you to manager. And they handed me the keys, and they walked out. So very similar to you at 17. I had the keys to this, you know, multi-million dollar asset. Right. And the first thing I did is I called my wife. I said, hey, I'm not fired. I actually got promoted.

We're going to eat. So, yeah, we're going to have some more money here, which is nice. And then I said, but I don't know what to do. Because just like you, I was thrown to the wolves. You know, when you go from assistant to manager, it was like, hey, congratulations. And now you've got to figure out how to do variance reports. You've got to figure out how to meet with owners. And you've got to do all these things.

And so, but I survived, right? And just like, you know, you survived through school. Survival was the key for me for the first year and a year and a half. And because the competition was real. And I was under overmatched in so many ways. Sure. But, you know, the background I had was you do the best you can every day. That's it.

And you were hard. Well, you saw it from your mom. You saw her determination. And, you know, I did not want to go home, which I thought was a possibility, particularly with physics and a couple of classes. I did not want to go home. If you didn't make C average, they sent you home and took the way to scholarship. Wow. I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I did.

You made it. And then you went off to Wharton's. So when did that happen? Was it right after immediately? Right, immediately. And how did that opportunity come? Well, I wasn't sure what, Vietnam War was coming, which affected so many people, so many ways,

including everybody, really. So it was heated up about my sophomore junior year. So one story that I had is, is I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, even thought about medical school. But I love the business world. I was always small business and mowing cemeteries and Holland Hay and as that. So I applied them to Wharton.

It was actually, my first two years at Duke weren't that good. My third and fourth year wasn't outstanding at School of Engineering, which, by the way, was probably the electrical was one of the hardest majors. So I got into that. So I was on a wait list and got in, got in. But a phone call I had a life lesson is my dad worked for Alcoa. Yep. And I spent a summer there at one of the plants as an intern.

And I was chosen my senior year to flew to Alcoa through Pittsburgh to the corporate headquarters and interviewed for a job. They chose me as one of the people to put in the fast track management program for Alcoa all around the world. They were going to send me to Davenport, Iowa and all that and that. and Louette. So I got this job. My dad was so proud of me. The guys he worked with in the shop, you know, I'm going to work for alcohol. I'm in the senior, and I can only imagine. And he showed. So we got in Wharton late, on the wait list, you know. And so they call me, and I'm thinking, you know, what do I do? So somehow, some way, I thought that's what I wanted to opportunity to go to Wharton and they gave me a good chunk of financial aid.

That's great. Yeah, I do points call. So on a Sunday night senior year, I had, and I accepted the job without COA. And so they, I had to call my dad. And those days, one phone, I was in a fraternity and couldn't use it and all that. So one call a week is all you did. I called my dad, who's meant a few words. He didn't believe on being on the phone more than 30 seconds.

How are you? He's everything good. So I need to tell you something. I said, oh, what's that? He said, Dad, I think I really want to go to Wharton. They got in and there's the deal. And he said, that means you won't take the job without a coer. And I said, yeah, it does.

So there's a long pile of silence on the end of the world. Wow. Long silence. And then finally he comes on. He says, Jerry, I'm not sure what you're doing. I'm not sure why you're doing it. If that's what you want to do, I'll support you. He didn't have a full concept of what Wharton was and the impact maybe of the MBA.

I mean, there's nothing better for him. Sure. For his child to be an alcohol, who he, like I say, he devoted his life to Alcoa. They took care of his family, he had health care, and gave him stability. Todd, that make you feel he gave you his blessing, I'm sure it felt good. Well, he inspired me, made me emotional even as I talk about it because he could have said all kinds of things. Sure. And he, you know, whatever you, if that's what you want to do, I'll support you.

That's great, yeah. And that's the thing you want as a kid, you know, it's like, hey, just want that. to support me and whatever I do. And, well, you know, I'm sure that call wasn't easy. No. You know, I remember when our first child, who's now 19, was born, I had to make a call to my dad. And it was because we were, I was out of work.

We were living with her grandmother and we had no money and we had a new baby. And I had to, you know, put on my big boy pants and call my dad and say, hey, any chance I can come work for you. And like a great Asian parent, he said, yeah. you can come work with me and you can live with me for a month. And so, like, sure enough, that's right, almost a month to the day, I was working for him doing landscaping, which is not my best life. I'm not the greatest. I can work hard for sure, but you take an extrovert and you put them doing 35 yards a day, you're almost sucking the joy

out of them, you know, and so, but I did what I had to do to provide for my family and then winter hit in D.C. What happens in the winter? in D.C. It starts snowing. So I was out of a landscaping job. So I got a miscellaneous job with the window company. And then in early 06, that's when I got the job with Gables and kind of everything started to make a change, you know, a turnaround. That's a fascinating thing to me, knowing the world, knowing Gables, knowing people running. What a fine company. And some of my good friends with Gables and all the way back to Gables. But the idea that you got on with Gables in any position. Sure. At 19? No, I was I was 25. Yeah, 25. Yeah, that was a,

what a, what an opportunity. Oh, it was great, you know, and I had, I had no, the only thing I knew about apartments is we lived in it. You know, I didn't really know anything and the fact I went from leasing professional to manager in 16 months. It was something that was very, very, it was unlikely to happen. And, and you know what my motivator was, Jerry is, I got promoted in six months from leasing to assistant. And I hated being an assistant. Do you know what assistant managers? I know you know what they do.

They're bookkeepers. They have to do collections. Your personality is not doing. No. So I said, you know what? I'm going to be the best dang assistant I can be. I got assistant manager the year. And nine months later, I got promoted to manager because I was motivated and knew I could not be in this role.

And boy, was I mistaken? and what a manager does. That job was way harder than the assistant role, you know? Yeah. We can talk about the industry today. Yeah. I'm not sure we're all going to go today, but the role of the manager and on site is so unbelievably difficult

and so unbelievably underappreciated and the skills and the qualities. A lot of that's been exacerbated by COVID, by technology, by eviction issues, about social issues. it is a and it's the key position of success on any property yeah well it's a lot of responsibility and we're definitely going to touch on that what I want to hear from you is okay so you go to Duke right right you you end up making a really tough call to Pops and he gives your blessing and you end up going to Wharton so what was it after Wharton so now you leave you got a degree and then you got an MBA now so

So what was the next step for you and your journey? Well, the next step, the Vietnam War was affecting everybody. I actually went straight through Wharton. They let eight of us go through in a year and a half, but doubling down and going to summer school because I had a low number. So I ended up coming to Atlanta, but wasn't able to go into the military for, for back problems, but I wanted to serve, so I ended up with the Woodrow Wilson Foundation

and came to Atlanta to work as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation of Princeton. Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Spelman College, a female, a black female, at phenomenal school. I committed two years through the Woodrow Wilson program, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, stayed three and a half because we were involved in the national campaign and all that, but while here I met back with a college classmate who just got out of the Navy and we after three and a half years we got involved in the plumbing supply business okay which was back back in very tough economic times and then corn operating equipment business and mechanical contracting business and then we ended up selling the plumbing supply business to

Ferguson okay a name that most many people would know and so then I've I learned a lot of lessons in that business and that tough, tough downturn, a real recession. And so, one thing I saw was the need for apartments. And the market that we were in, La Grange, Georgia, small market, but we had a, we'd open, we'd open the branch there. And so, a family believed in me and ended up, I said that I've seen some land. When Ferguson bought us, I wasn't to last with a big company. Yep. It lasted about six months.

And there's the Jordan family of Columbus, Mr. Jordan himself, said, you know, I think we'll take a chance on him. And so we started developing new units in Lodrange in 19, whatever, 19, a long time ago, 1984, 85. So early 80s, you break some ground, you get some units. So what was the, what was the first development, success when you look back at it right because this is your you know so you got someone saying hey we want to we're betting on you we like what you're doing we see the potential and now you got this first building so how did that building stay there for a while or did you end up selling I'd love to just get the insights on how it went a you know what kind of problems did you run into because I'm

sure there were plenty and then was it a profitable you know transaction at the end of the day Well, it was, we started with 104 units, and I told you the price we built them for and all. And it was, and I virtually lived on site. I was the, I was the development partner. They were the financial partner because they added the money. I didn't have anything, even though we'd sold Ferguson. Yeah, Ferguson. It was basically survival.

So we built 104 units. It turned out to be a big success. We go straight into phase two, and then eventually phase three, three and it becomes 320 units. We were going to keep that in the family, and so it was a success. And I learned the side of the construction side, which by being on site and looking and negotiating the whole thing, we actually complicated financial deal. We did a bond deal on that small deal.

So again, learning and seeing and stepping out, and everything was on the line. I mean, if it had failed, then it would fail. And so it succeeded. And we ended up keeping that until four years ago. And I thought, I thought frankly, we'd probably never sell it, but we did. Wow. As part of a package. And I'm going to say it was a profitable transaction, right?

Yeah, the very long deal. You had that for a, went through a lot of different cycles, a lot of different. We had a lot of negative basis. We ended up and just bringing full circle. We ended up bad in a couple of other deals, which I never thought would sell. using that to swap into two or three deals that we're involved in now. Family that's involved in. My sons and all Chaddenfields run the new offspring H3,

which is kind of redoing, building back what we kind of did before. And they helped build and sell the company or sell just about everything four years ago. Yeah, that's great. And so I'd love to get you to dive in a little bit. So that 320 units, you know, didn't sell until 2020, right? So you had it for a really long time. And so can you give people kind of a timeline in the next handful of decades of, you know, okay, you've got your first deal in the 80s.

You know, what are the 90s, 2000s, and, you know, the last, I guess, 20, 30 years? What does that, what did that look like for your business? And then can you talk a little bit about your involvement in the industry as a whole? because I know you're in the Hall of Fame locally with the Atlanta Department Association and you've served on many boards with the National Department Association. So I'd love for you just to kind of give that timeline a little bit what you were able to build it up to because there's some people that are going to watch and listen to this. They have aspirations to do

exactly what you did. And so I'd love you to just share some insight there. Well, I guess the thing you see in this business and any business is cycles. and what cycle are you in and when you're going to get in and what's the cycle mean. And the change that happens, when we started developing in 84, 85, you can believe that, it was all about write-offs, three-to-one ride-offs for every dollar you invest. And the laws changed in 1986. And when the laws changed, then they didn't make them retroactive. And as a result of the write-offs passing on was the reason people invested wasn't for cash on cash, it wasn't appreciation.

It was almost purely taxed, which I agree with changing that. But they didn't retro, and as a result of that, in my opinion, law of unintended consequences, people do things without the implication of understanding unintended or unthoughtable consequences. was part of the cycle was created because the law changed and every SNL savings of loan that had a loan went out of business. Wow. So we developed in the 80s, about three or four deals. We had these crossing, had the crossing, had Arbor Crossing, kind of developed the name and did a model.

Laws changed. In the early 90s, the opportunity was buying foreclosed deals. Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae had foreclosed on so many deals. around the country in Atlanta where we were there was a hundred deals wow that had been foreclosed so we started buying and changed buying foreclosed deals and we bought 12 15 maybe 20 every deal was stress in it we bought a whole range of deal sure 64 units big deals we ended up buying a 800 unit deal and so the risk there

There, then certainly there was the financing on the way out. Yeah. And the personal guarantees that I was given. So went through that cycle. Cycles changed. You can predict a cycle about every seven to ten years. The cycle that we've been in, it lasted just as I think has ended a year ago, went for ten years. So you had the cycles of that, and then you had the excesses of the early 2000s, another cycle.

that gave an opportunity to buy. We generally, and we moved from developing, because we couldn't develop into buying existing. And then we kind of moved up the food chain. By that, I mean moved from really tough deals. We paid on $8,000 unit for some deals and Chattanooga and stuff. And so that evolved, and we made them, they were, you know, opportunities for us. So that changed.

And then we, when my two sons-in-law came with me 20 years ago or so, we started using developing relationships with other people's money and partnerships, which we treated very, very, I always treated a partnership as if it was all mine. And never, every deal was, it was all personal. So we had partners, and some great partners. You still do. I mean, some of them call us even today, individuals, some individual, major individuals,

particularly some Georgia Pacific people invested with us. And we did well. We never, we never had a deal going to fault. That's great. And we subsidized some deals early. We never had a loan that we didn't pay. And we never have had a capital call, i.e. where we went back for more money.

many cases we put the money in. That's great. And the other thing we learned also in terms of lessons learned, we early on learned about alignment of interest in terms of our people participating. So that, and then, you know, four years ago, just to kind of bring this to conclusion, we sold just about all the assets.

We controlled some 100%. We had partnerships with quite a few people. And some great partners, Artemis being one of them. and some individuals. And we had an opportunity almost providentially to sell the management company, the construction company, and most of the assets. And we did and swapped into two or three deals, kept a couple and kind of waiting now for the opportunity to get back into business.

Okay. So again, it's cyclical. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're not flexible. There's cycles with everything, right? You know, yeah, the condo conversion craze. Yep. which in and out.

So yeah. And so now that you've been through a major transaction, I would call what you did, you know, we're 100, you know, deals you're talking about, you know, four years ago now, what would you say or some lessons you learn, right? Because you might have, you might go through another transaction like that.

So what are some things that you may be, would have did a little differently? And what are some, I guess, tips you would give to somebody that might have an opportunity like you that came it providentially, like you said, at the right time. Because I think you probably, you knew it when it came and it was probably easy

because of all the data and all the time spent. Well, it came, it kind of came out of clear blue to some degree because I never, you know, I didn't know. The thing that we did right on that, and again, my two son-in-law, Phil and Chad were deeply involved in the thing is there was all or none. And we never took it to the open market.

First of all, we guaranteed, we committed, we had certain secretations that all of our employees, the team members, would be taken care of, I'm really taking care of all their, they would be fully vested, they would do that. Yeah. We also had, we, we said that we weren't going to negotiate on the price.

It would have been in, a CB commercial put it together through Malcolm McComb, And we had a private buyer that we were introduced to out of California who flew in the week of Christmas to put it together. So, and you had to take the good, the bad, and the ugly. Yep. We had a mixture of all kinds of things. Loans, floating rate, fixed rate, prepayment penalties, deals and old markets, deals that were, you know, we had deals that were 50 years old. Yeah.

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, new deals. So you got them all. Yep. Because we're in and we're out. So all or none and good, the bad, the ugly. We're sorry you don't like it. I'm sorry you, you know, but you're taking it. Or you don't get them all any.

And they, we had a quick due diligence period. When you say quick, how quick was that due diligence? Well, we, we, we had a, flew in, people flew in from California Christmas week. We'd actually had a Christmas party at our house. is a Friday. And Chad and Phil and I left to meet with them for a meeting at Bones. Yeah. They put together. First of all, we tested them to see how seriously they're, where you come in this Friday, where you come in Christmas week they did. So we sat down, we talked to concept,

and we came to a verbal agreement pretty quickly and closed the deal, closed it on half of it on February the 29th. Wow. That is a fast due diligence. February 29th. And the other part, on Friday, March the 13th, four years ago. COVID, we didn't know. Yeah. COVID was rampant coming out. So we closed two tranches on that. Bevan and I, just to give you a, you know, kind of came quickly. We compressed all that.

We went live and don't stretch it out would be a thing that I'd say. And don't try to get top dollar next to, make sure. Yeah, you don't. So, Bev and I leave that next Friday. Friday March 13th. We have dinner with our friends, a little restaurant here in Sandy Strangelo, so we'd go to the typical Friday night

and said, let's go down to Florida tomorrow. All of a sudden, we didn't have 250 people and management working for us and all that. So we went down that Saturday, stayed three and a half months. You had the, yeah, Yeah. Say, why are you going to the day?

We want to come back and you said, you're not coming back. You didn't tell them you were going on a sabbatical for, no, you can come back, but says you're not going to see your grandchildren. I know that's why you're coming back. We're never going to let you see them. Yeah.

I mean, COVID. Yeah. Nice way. They'd say, you know, do what you want to do. I mean, the timing actually couldn't be perfect. I mean,

you just had the biggest transaction, something that you'd literally built from one deal in the early 80s. Early 80s. So now this monumental, providential transaction happen and then you get stuck in the sun with the ocean for three half months. Blind luck, right? Yeah, I mean, that's definitely not blind luck. I mean, that was meant to happen. It was supposed to happen the way it happened. And congratulations on, on A, that coming to fruition. I mean, that has to feel like a lifelong journey. And, you know,

I know your parents would be proud of everything that you've done and all the stuff that you're able to pass down and you got the family involved. You've mentioned the team a little bit. Can you talk a little bit about what teamwork means to you? And then also, I would love to find out and just get some insight into who's Jerry's mentors have been over the years. Because I know that besides mom and dad, of course, we know that they've played a meaningful role. But yeah, just hit on teamwork a little bit and then chat about a couple people that have, you know, believed in you, maybe when you didn't believe in yourself. Well, you know, the business, I love the business. Not a lot of secrets.

So, you know, it's a lot of little things doing well being in the business. But one thing we did learned early that I think is alignment of interest with your team. And we became very early because we didn't have money, cash, is giving equity. interest in the deals to the team members. We eventually went all the way down to the regional manager. So that the full team would have real equity interest and we would loan the equity interest to them at very, very low interest rate and be paid when it sold a refinance. So one of the things communication alignment of interest

was very important if I could pick a couple of things or a thing that you could see it. You could see the line. Because we made a mistake one time when we're in the management business of not having an alignment of interest. We owned a management company

and always did our own management. But the management company was paid on the profitability of the management company. And I'd sit in meetings where we would have properties and and what we learned is the way we made money, real money, is value increases of the properties. Yeah. So we broke up the program that we had on the management company, which we're giving bonuses

on the performance. So if there's a decision, is it best for the property, is it best for the management company? It's best for the management company if money's going in your pocket. So we ended up selling and redoing that. So alignment of interest is very important, have everybody focused being open and transparent, having a team involved in understanding what it takes to succeed.

And the process of sharing with a manager on site, the budgets and how it's done. So that was something that, looking back, I think, is, is, is, is, is, is, is important. Mentors I've had to address that. I've been very fortunate. You know, obviously we live next to family was mentors. My grandfather lived next to us, we lived with the 100. I had a great high school coach, a hall of fame, or played basketball in high school who took me under the wing when I was in like in the eighth grade. And it was a teacher, biology teacher, but a basketball coach.

a mentor for me through, had a professor who at Duke, Dr. Pearsall, who was a fraternity riser who kind of helped me through some struggles there when I wasn't sure I belonged and struggling and wondered, you know, could I make it? Kind of encouraged me there. In the business world, you know, there's been several and we had one in the office, Ron Hogan, who used to, who was chairman of a Georgia Pacific, came in, sat in our office, was a major investor, brought a lot of things there. Cecil Connolly, we did, I don't know, 15 or, well, 20 or 25 bills

with Cecil Connolly, calling specific names, CGR. And there's others that have influenced me. So, you know, having a mentor, and one of the things I would advise young people to do is try to get a mentor, and one of the things my observations is lack lessons, is you'd be surprised how many people would be a mentor. Yeah.

And choose to be a mentor. If you ask, right? If you ask. Yeah. I mean, and some would, but some would say, yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to, you know, because it's giving back. It's leaving, learning lessons. So, you know, give a, you know, have people that you can go to because there's a lot of uncertainty.

Yeah. And affirmation and pick me up and dust me off and send me back in, coach. Yeah, type of things. Yeah, it's super important. Those would be some, and that's people who invested financially that could have chosen other things that was probably needed. I agree. So what's next on the horizon?

You know, you've got a handful of deals now. I know you mentioned a little earlier, just kind of waiting, playing the waiting game with the cycle, seeing what opportunities come. Do you envision that you might get up to, you know, a dozen plus more communities in the future? Do you want to keep it more smaller on the family side? I'd love just to get thoughts on what's happening next in your world. When we did this transaction, we did a lot of thinking about it. And I did.

And it was an opportunity that kind of came and, you know, to do that. And again, the son-in-laws, I kind of said, you know, will support you in every way possible that you won't. But I'd really like for you to take and be. your own and create your own. So they formed and picked the name H3. And H3 stands for our three daughters, Heather, Haley, and Hillary. H3 and there's assets there. The office that you're in and the people in this office work for H3. We've got team looking, our team of primarily Patrick Stillman looking for deals. Sure. Got CFO.

So we have the ability to not to do nothing. Sure. The hardest thing to do in many cases is to do nothing. Yeah. And the worst thing in feeling that you can have is having deals, particularly people, you know, investors that are not doing well and you're subsidizing. Sure. So patience is a virtue and where you are in the cycle. And, you know, I think where we, there's an adjustment coming, is coming.

You know, other, and there's a lot of money on the sidelines. And we're, we're able to be patient. We can, we can buy, we look, look. So, again, I'm not directly involved, but I love the business coming most every day. Yeah. Available to. That's great. And we have, have a history with lenders, like I say, and investors who are,

pushing us at times, find something, find something. You know, you did so well before we want another one. Yeah, you know, I've got money and it's hard, but the right thing to do is say, well, we'll call you when we got something. Sure. If we wouldn't take it, it's like buying a deal. We bought a lot of deals, a lot of tough deals, a lot of foreclosed deals, a lot of deals, and, and, you know, if I wouldn't live there, yeah, I wouldn't buy it. Even more than that, always, we have great heads of our management company all the way back to Cherry Brady and Debbie Millwood, Wanda Senior did all. And one of the criteria in buying a deal, and again, we bought a whole range of deals, is

if a lady, a woman, if they went out there, they view things differently than males do. We look at swimming pools, facilities. they look at stairs and security and didn't want to didn't think that that would be a place that could be a home for somebody we wouldn't buy yeah and so a lot of you know one of the things about buying is it's an art instance of science and how much it's hard to say and I'm a numbers guy but yeah you got to feel sure yeah we talked about alignment earlier right and so yeah sounds like you're looking for alignment and deals you don't just want to take any deal you want to really dive into the numbers but also get to know the people that are involved

you know the teams you know I think it's kind of there's a lot of different ingredients to go into picking the right one well part of what I've come to believe is apartment is a it's not a unit it's a home yeah people come to apartments for a lot of reasons many have no friends many are broken relationships many are think it's going to be transitional and it can it is and can be a very lonely place yeah and and you know it's you know should be called a community rather than a complex and it should be a resident rather than a tenant yep and it should be an apartment home rather than units so if you can and we see this create

and build a sense of community a sense of caring a sense that somebody feels like it's a home Yeah. And not a unit and not a temporary thing. And apartment life, which is a Christian-based organization that I've been away for a long time, does that by putting teams on property and helps build community. Yeah. That's not easy. It's not easy. Not easy. You know, you have people from different walks of life, different environments, different income levels,

and you're putting them all into one place and trying to make sure that they not only get along, but they actually thrive. Yeah. And they get value. And so, you know, one of the things that I always prided myself on when I was an on-site manager is community events, you know, touching the community, you know, feeding the community, making sure that we get them involved, raffles, prizes, because if they feel like it's a home, then they're going to tell other people about it, you know. And word of mouth, as you know, in the apartment industry is everything. Your reputation, you know, it's everything, you know. You either have a good one or you don't. And we don't have many opportunities to get that back. If there's a secret sauce or something I've evolved and kind of learn, then I'm often a slow learner. And that is one of the things that has been underestimated. And it's now coming back

is retention. Yeah. The improvement in retention, you can take two properties side by side. It's exactly identical in every way. See you've got a 400 unit to give an example. 400 units. you got retention. Everything's the same. Cost, everything's exactly the same. You change one number, you change retention. Assume you change it two basis points, you take it 50 to 52 or 60 to 62. Take 2% on a unit and they're identical. And 2%, it's 8 units. It costs, in my opinion, $4,000 is a minimum. Sure. to turn a unit to the loss are in and all that. So, so if you got 4,000, if you, say 5,000, it takes about $5,000 to do that.

So that's $40,000. That if you, if you save the $40,000 by retention and capitalize that at today's cap rate of five, that's worth value of $800,000. Yeah. So simply stated, if you can improve retention, by 2% one property that's exactly the same as the other yeah is worth $800,000 in value which you can finance and sell it so I would say that caring about your resident right investing in them besting figuring out ways to keep them yeah could

you know have a net increase of 800,000 on a you know on a building what that's is massive right but also just imagine if now the person you retained invite somebody else how much marketing dollars did you save because of a referral? Yeah, referral fees, utilities, loss of rent, people turning the unit, the degree of difficulty now in getting things done. Yeah. Getting people on site that can do the basics is very very very hard and understand we've sold with COVID availability and it's just hard to operate. Well I think people's mindsets have changed also. There's There's not a lot of people that want to do hard labor.

Not a lot. They figure it out that, hey, you know what? I might be able to make money another way. And so you have less people in the workforce, which causes, you know, less quality of work happening. And that in itself can be a vicious cycle. Vicious. And so retention is, I think, you know, kind of the golden nugget there

because if you can get good people to stay, they're, again, going to be promoters. And if you have a community of promoter, Social media. Yeah, all of that. They talk about it and those testimonials can turn into big things. Yeah. Yeah, that's, you know, in the world we live in today, what's changed in the last two years is two years ago, you're getting 15, 20% real increases.

Yeah. And I've been on, I've gone on a lot of conference calls, look at financial savings. I love doing that. And there was, well, let them go. We can get, we can lease that. Yeah. three people waiting. We can raise the rents $200. And so there wasn't, you know, you were able to do things because of the market and succeed. And now you're seeing the separation. Sure.

Those that built community. Now the calls are what do we do to keep residents? 100%. You know, what can we differentiate ourselves? How can we keep them? Yeah. Because we had new leases are hard. Credits shaky you got all kinds of things with new residents who you don't know if you're going to pay you you go through the process and that's you know that's one been one of the struggles in Atlanta and other markets is is collecting rents yeah and people are struggling you know they're not getting increases at work I think we're in yeah I think we're in for just as I sit here today in for two or three year struggle yeah in terms of people being able to pay what are very high rents. Yeah. And yes, you can say they got to live somewhere, which is true.

But, you know, you got doubling down and all that. So, you know, it's going to be, the good operators are going to be rewarded. Yep. In the long run. I think, I think the more you can incentivize the resident, meaning you got to have a, hey, they refer somebody, let's pay them a thousand bucks. Yeah. I mean, it's way cheaper than the 5K,000. it's going to take you to overturn the unit and the vacancy law. Let's pay them $1,000. Let's like have them talking about us because now they have the money to pay the rent, right? And you can keep them there.

Yeah, you give them the money and then everybody's happy. Don't give it to him your credit, your account. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, you build some type of, and a lot of companies have done a great job of that, and building resident rewards programs and ways that they can basically turn living there into another source of income. and that'll kind of help subsidize their cost a little bit.

Yeah, because a lot of people are struggling. And, you know, in kind of closing out our conversation, first off, thank you for kind of going back in time a little bit, you know, sharing your story. I know it's going to help a lot of our listeners is going to basically show them what's possible with some hard work with a little bit of the unknown and blazing a trail and saying, hey, I know that I committed to this,

but this is really where I'm feeling called to do. And it seemed like you've used your intuition a lot in your career, which has been great. So if you can just share, what are some places that people can go if they want to connect with you? There's going to be people that listen back. They might be an investor and say, wow, I love everything that Jerry said. I'd love to partner with them maybe or connect. Is there one place you want to send folks? Well, I mean, I come into the office most every day and, you know, love the business.

Again, the relationships and again, up in previous businesses, and one of the beautiful things about, and it's changing. We won't go there now for the sake of time, big companies and conglomerations and the sense of the independent, not gun slingers. And you look at Atlanta and people who were here and weren't here in management companies. I don't know. I saw the communities being the latest at her hole. You can go through people who have independently. But, you know, call me here. Here, it's a, I take calls and write around. I answer the phone even when I don't know who it is a lot of time. Sure. So call me here, Jerry.com at Wilkinson, R.E.A.com. Jerry. Yep. And it's an email. Perfect. So I, you know, again, the relationships and building relationships. And you said it kind of incidentally, but I would emphasize that. This is a business and I've seen other businesses that.

that is not small it's tiny yeah yeah it is a business that how you do things and the way you do them and uh it makes all the difference yeah and i think the way that you handle yourself that matters as well i mean you know for the listeners out there they don't really know our backstory but you you shared a little bit of in the beginning and you know i did work at a very tough place and and it wasn't it was less than a year and and it didn't turn out the way that I think I would have hoped but we maintained a relationship even afterwards and now we've known each other for the last 14 years and we handle it right yeah that's right we handled it right the decision I totally understood

and you know and again one of the things that happens is is is people stay around in this business 100% and again the friends that I have you know friends who keep up with their children go to their children graduations now are weddings and the birthday parties so it's a it's a very good business yeah yeah you just got to maintain relationship and yeah and you just never know what's going to happen down the road so i i really appreciate you taking time out of your day i know people are going to get value out of hearing your story and your journey you shared a lot of great insights a lot of tips that i know people that are either getting into the industry or are they're tenured there's going to be a

lot of things that they can take away. Well, the level of professionalism level, what's happening in this industry and the requirements to succeed and because of the complications and the skills necessary are so robust. And it's a, you can, one thing you can do in this, it's like nursing. It's apartments that on 20 million apartment units, give or take. You can drop anywhere in this country and there's an apartment property. Yeah. And if you're good, you can get a job. Sure. Like if you're a nurse, you drop a nurse anywhere into this country and she can walk in a medical facility. Now it may not be exactly what she wants, but she can get work. So it's a good and the level of professionalism continues to grow.

The national organizations are very important, whether it be NIA and I C. Yep. We've been fortunate in Atlanta, the history of the Atlanta Department Association and what it's done and leadership has provided. The commitment to community food bank and all that has been just an. exceptional opportunity exceptional things so get involved in those absolutely yeah and you know you've been kind of a trailblazer in that sense as well i mentioned it earlier but i know you're in the atlanta partner association hall of fame so we're sitting with the legend everybody jerry i really appreciate your time today i know again you know this conversation's going to

reach a lot of people and give a lot of context into your journey and everything that you've been able to accomplish so thank you so much for coming on the show