Dana Washington is a native of Pittsburgh, PA who has found a passion in helping empower disenfranchised communities through the teaching of financial literacy. As a successful entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in real estate redevelopment, Dana guides his company’s local and international acquisition and global expansion initiatives.Dana has spearheaded the sourcing and stabilization of over 100 units for investors and has the knowledge and expertise necessary to build an investment strategy specific to a client’s goals.

As an active industry leader, Mr. Washington has built a network of resources for our clients in the areas of legal, accounting, lending, construction and asset management.

As a veteran of the US Air Force, Dana has understood that having integrity first, putting service before himself, and having excellence in all we do, are essential building blocks to creating a successful turnkey real estate investment company.

Once upon a time, owning and operating a real estate investment company would have seemed like a far-fetched fantasy. During the 80’s with high unemployment and the introduction of crack cocaine into inner city neighborhoods, it would have been easy to become a product of your environment. Similar to the process of melting iron ore and carbon to make steel, so are forged the characters of the men and women in these communities, Dana is no exception.

Growing up in area where the drug dealers were glorified for having nice cars, expensive jewelry and beautiful women, selling an impressionable youth on the idea that working a 9-5 was the right thing to do, deemed extremely difficult.

The most valuable lesson in business gained was that by buying low and selling high, a profit could be made. This idea translated to every industry of business, not just on the corner of Hazelwood Ave and Monongahela St. Realizing this, he decided to throw his hat in the ring of retail clothing and merchandise. What if he could capitalize on profiting on the hottest name brand clothing at the time, so at the tender age of 16, a trip to NYC’s garment district was in his sights. Orchard and Canal St. was a place to purchase bootleg name brand clothing for pennies on the dollar, mark them up 100%, earning a profit margin even the most sophisticated businessman could hang their hat on. Learning about sales/marketing, managing a budget, and operations were important lessons learned early on about business, experiences that can’t be taught from a book.

Out of high school, Dana made an attempt at college by attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania, using his clothing business to support himself. After spending about a half hour in college, Dana quickly realized he had another calling. Something that instilled self-discipline, values and provided a rigid schedule; areas in life Dana was missing. The USAF had to be it! Besides, if not this, then what?

So in January 1997, he took his first flight to Lackland AF base, only to be met with a mean drill sergeant waiting for his arrival. Needless to say, it took about 2 weeks to remove that inner city Pittsburgh attitude, an attitude that was hand crafted and cultivated over 19 years. This was the change he knew he needed, a change that he would later realize would be imperative to his development in business.

Fast forward to 2001, back home to civilian status, a friend approached him about working for a family’s construction company. With no prior experience and nowhere to live, Dana took him up on his offer. Slowly gaining knowledge of the business, an idea came about to use the Veteran Home Loan Program afforded to Dana as a prior active duty member to purchase a home to live in. Unbeknownst at the time, this idea will eventually be the spark that lit the fuse to becoming a full- time investor and developer. For as little as 5% of the purchase price down, Dana was able to leverage a few thousand dollars to acquire a duplex on city’s north side, a strategy he preaches to first time  . He was able to move into one side of the duplex and rent out the other half of the duplex which ultimately paid the mortgage for the entire building. We call this the BRRRR strategy, where one can buy a multi-unit building, rehab it, rent it, refinance and repeat. This business model would eventually become the start of understanding leverage and how it correlates to building wealth ultimately helping grow Dana’s rental portfolio. This rental portfolio today is what has given Dana financial freedom.