Socially Conscious Real Estate Investing - ROI and Responsibility Meet

Jason needed to know that his investments were doing more than just putting money into his own pockets. It's not that he minded making money... on the contrary, he truly appreciated making wise investments and improving his family's financial picture. It was just that there were more important things than money to Jason.

Jason knew that somewhere there was an investment vehicle that would allow him to realize his ROI (return on investment) goals, AND contribute to the greater good. He set about searching the internet, talking to friends and other investors, looking for an investment that combined social responsibility and a high rate of return.

Jason looked at something called "Green Funds." He soon discovered that these mutual funds aided the environment, but didn't necessarily improve the lives of people. Not Jason's cup of tea, and he was more familiar with real estate than mutual funds, so he kept looking.

Living in Detroit meant that Jason lived in a real estate market filled with foreclosures, and he briefly considered helping people whose houses were either in or about to be in foreclosure. He thought that by buying these people's houses - at a serious discount - he could stop the foreclosure process and help them preserve their credit record.

The more he thought about it though, the more Jason realized that wasn't the kind of "help" he wanted to offer people. He knew that even though he was helping them avoid the stigma of foreclosure and keep their credit record clean, the reality was that after they sold their house to Jason, many of them were left without a home of their own, and without the equity they had given away to Jason.

It wasn't that Jason thought they would be better off without him, which wasn't the case at all. It was simply that he believed the assistance he was offering was incomplete in some way, and that there had to be a better way. Jason was looking for an investment in which ALL parties benefitted, a true win-win-win. He was discovering that an investment like that was very hard to come by.

Undeterred, Jason kept searching. Then, one evening as he was channel surfing, Jason stumbled across the program 20/20 and became interested as John Stossel talked about a young man named Ephren Taylor. The report focused on "Winning In America" and Taylor was featured as a highly successful investor and entrepreneur. Something Taylor said during the 20/20 interview sparked Jason's interest.

"Ephren Taylor was talking about not just making money," Jason explains, "but actually returning something back to urban communities, rebuilding them and making money at the same time. That intrigued me."

Jason followed up on the 20/20 report by researching Ephren Taylor on the internet. He discovered that Taylor became a millionaire while still a teenager by creating and selling video games to his high school classmates, and is the nation's youngest African-American CEO of a publically traded company.

Jason also found that Taylor and his company, City Capital Corporation, had pioneered a first-of-it's-kind, socially responsible real estate investing program that combined the dual goals of double-digit ROI for the investors and the rebuilding of our nation's urban areas. Jason felt like he was finally getting somewhere!

He also learned that the program was unique in another way as well. Investors could of course participate by putting their cash into the program, and City Capital would use the funds to obtain and rehabilitate urban homes. They would then find willing and well-qualified working-class families who needed housing, and these families became the buyers for the rehabbed homes.

But there were two other ways investors could participate. First, by tapping into a powerful but under-utilized source of capital, Ephren Taylor had come up with a way for individual investors to use their retirement funds - in the form of self-directed IRAs! This opened up a completely new wellspring of investment dollars that would otherwise be lying dormant in mutual funds and treasury bills, not doing anyone much good at all.

The second unique way investors could participate was by using only their good credit. Credit investors - those with a credit score over 700 and annual income over $70,000 - could participate by "loaning" city Capital and it's investor-partners the leverage of their good credit rating, effectively securing low rate financing for the urban properties and working families in the program.

This astounded Jason with it's simplicity and creativity.

"By allowing people to use their IRAs, or even just their good credit," Jason observes, "Ephren Taylor effectively opened the door to investors and sources of capital most investment vehicles completely ignore. That's pure genius."

One other thing about City Capital's socially conscious program greatly impressed Jason.

"Ephren Taylor and City Capital have gotten one crucial component of their program exactly right," Jason states. "They target middle class homes in working-family neighborhoods. There are thousands of these kinds of homes in every city in America, waiting to be rehabbed, and they are affordable for millions of working families."

What that means, according to Jason, is that City Capital and it's investor-partners will literally never run out of homes to invest in, or families to sell them to.

"Every business should have such an endless supply of cheap, easy to obtain inventory AND ready-and-willing-to-buy customers," says Jason. "That makes for a can't fail combination."

Jason's research led him to conclude that Ephren Taylor and City Capital Corporation were worthy of a serious look, with the end result being that Jason became an IRA investor. After just two years, Jason has invested in seven homes in two different cities. The results speak for themselves.

"I've realized double-digit returns on my investment, and at the same time I've been able to help rebuild two urban neighborhoods, providing safe, affordable housing for seven families. I especially appreciate how Ephren goes after whole streets, not just one house here, one house there. That can change the face of an entire neighborhood."

Jason has recommended the socially responsible real estate investing program to several of his investor acquaintances, and many have since become involved. When someone asks him about Ephren Taylor, City Capital, or the investing program, Jason is happy to tell them the straight story.

He explains, "I can't think of another program, another company, or another man I would recommend as highly as City Capital or Ephren Taylor. Their socially conscious program is exactly what I was looking for, and my family's financial picture has improved greatly because of it. You should definitely check out this opportunity for yourself."

The good news is, you can learn all you need to know for free by visiting Socially Responsible Real Estate Investing. Who knows? You may run into Jason one day soon.