Ebony Grimes a African American in her 30’s known for modeling and being a social media influencer has taken a step into commercial property ownership closing deals on several properties within the same week of each other. Commercial property ownership by African Americans is rare in today’s world and economy. Ebony said her key is to continue to pave the way of ownership for her kids she stressed how important ownership is in today’s time as things are changing including living costs as well as new businesses are opening which will boost leasing in her commercial rental property spaces. Did you know only 3% of Black households own nonresidential commercial real estate, compared to 8% of white households.
We asked Ebony what does she hope to accomplish with these big purchases her response was shocking, she said more income but said her main goal for her apartment complexes are to still help those that fall behind on rent to get current and help them with mentorship towards ownership she also plans to turn a few empty spaces into Airbnb rentals. Ebony just closed a 5.5 million dollar deal on a complex in San Antonio Texas when we asked Ms. Grimes what would be the new name for the new complex be she said there’s a few names on the table to choose from she also spoke on that she has another be project in the works in the Texas area.
Ebony spoke about ownership a lot during our interview she spoke of ownership at the age of 20 in Fayetteville, NC when she purchase her first home with funding from her very first business she started at the age of 19 being a nail technician . She said that ownership was always her dream her reply was “Once you own it who can take it from you? “ She sold her first home she purchased in 2015 to start another business a virtual call center. Ebony spoke that selling her first home was a tough decision to make but said she knew ownership would come back around for her with the income she was about to gain from her call center. She started her virtual call center landing 3 corporate contracts with big retailers where she later gained even more contracts 2 years in. After establishing great corporate connects and gaining great employees she sold the business for 1.4Mil in 2018 to a company based out of California.
After the call center sell she decided to go back to college to focus on school obtaining a few degrees. While focusing on school Ebony stuck her hand back into the ownership pot once again by purchasing foreclosed homes remodeling them to turn into rental properties for continuous income. We asked her what is the most challenging part of being a landlord and commercial property landlord her response was “It’s sometimes hard to separate business and your feelings because when ones fall behind on rent it’s hard to evict those that fall behind because we all fall on hard times sometimes we are put here to help each other not pull each other down more”.
Ebony said people fail to realize ownership can take you many places in life as long as you own something you will always carry some type of net worth value. Ownership very important she said instead of traditional parties for her son 3RD birthday she gifted him a rental property he is a landlord at the age of 3 she said. She spoke he might not know what it means now because he’s into toys but when he’s old enough to understand he will thank me for putting him on the right path. As we closed the interview with some key knowledge from Ms. Grimes we asked her what’s her next big upcoming purchase she replied it will be in Florida stay tuned we aren’t half way through 2025 yet we aren’t just stopping at buying more properties she said it is more types of ownership to come.