In the last post, I briefly mentioned that my family moved to Cincinnati 30 years ago. We came down because my father was a pilot with Delta. At that time in the late 1980s, Northern Kentucky was booming because of the growth of Cincinnati's airport, CVG. Boone County KY was the fastest growing county in all of the nation, and we slotted right in.
Today, when I look at the landscape of the Cincinnati economy, I think about it in terms of its diversity. In fact, just yesterday, I was reviewing the top 100 firms in Cincinnati from the Enquirer, and the diversity is quite astonishing. You have a lot of different manufacturing firms, but you also have tech startups, logistics, health companies and service sectors.
As a whole, the Cincinnati economy is quite diverse. As a father, this is really important to me. When I think about the future of my family and if we can stay together in a world that is constantly beckoning kids to leave their family and go out into some kind of self identity discovery, then having a city that can provide my children with fulfilling and enriching jobs is very important.
My parents grew up in rural northern Michigan about an hour north of Bay City, MI. On my dad's side, he had three siblings and they all moved away to Texas, Illinois and Kentucky. Before my grandfather passed away at the age of 92, I asked him what it was like to see his children move away. This was a man who only got to see his grandchildren sporadically. And yet, after WWII, he was someone who basically built his small town. He ran a funeral home. He was on the board at the bank. He chaired the board of Education. So, how strange was it to see his family move away? He basically, shrugged it off and said, "there were no jobs. they had to move." That answer has stuck with me for years, and when I think about my work in the city, I think very carefully about jobs that could support my family for generations.
For the last 10 years, I worked in the Internet Marketing field. As someone who didn't really know what they were going to do out of college, this was very attractive to me because it gave me all kinds of flexibility and seemed to be an industry on the rise. However, over time, and for a number of reasons, I started liking it less and less. One of the main reasons is that I couldn't work with my clients face to face. Beyond an online reputation, which is important, I couldn't build a name for my family locally in my city.
So, in the last year or so, I've changed and have been pursuing a different kind of work. It's a work that I thoroughly enjoy, and it is in the real estate industry.
I kind of stumbled into the job. I had spent about 10 years getting leads for various clients around the country for all kinds of businesses. About 18 months ago, I decided to start getting leads for myself and experimented to see if I could get leads from home owners who needed to sell their house fast. Thus, We Buy NKY Houses was born, and sellers who needed to sell their home fast in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati would call me up needing to sell their house.
At first, I didn't really know what I was doing. So, I went and got my real estate license in both Ohio and Kentucky. It wasn't until then that I realized that I really love this work.
Now, I see this work setting myself and my family up for years to come. If my sons don't want to join me in the work, my vision is still to acquire properties that could be starter homes for them as they go to college and get married.
My vision is to be around my dining room table with my children and grandchildren. This work in my city of Cincinnati will allow me to see that vision come to pass.