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United Mechanic Builds Rental Empire, Keeps Day Job
In 1990, Jeff Coleman was 21 and just starting out as an aircraft mechanic for United Airlines when he saved a $4,500 down payment to purchase his first home for $120,000 in Calumet City.
It was a small two-unit, fixer-upper he bought for his family under a first-time homebuyer FHA program "that put a roof over our heads," and offered a sense of security against the threat of company layoffs. That bare-bones plan took off when Jeff got the idea that he could leverage his modest investment to build wealth in real estate.
Today, Coleman is rich -- at least on paper. Over a 20-year period, he has amassed more than 220 rental units in a dozen buildings mostly on the South Side. Some of the properties were once abandoned eyesores that languished for years in undesirable neighborhoods. Now, they're worth millions.
"I started out to do this in case the bottom fell out of things," Coleman said. "We did most of the work ourselves -- fixing toilets, broken plumbing, drywalling and painting. Once we got the buildings up and running, business was good."
Jeff is among many bootstrappers building wealth in Chicago neighborhoods. Bootstrappers, as defined in author Seth Godin's book, Bootstrapper's Bible, are resourceful, entrepreneurial types who get ventures off the ground from scratch with less money, more smarts and fewer connections than other folks. Their winning edge is focus. They also work their butts off.
"Bootstrappers built this country starting out with nothing and a good idea," Godin said. "They are in it for the long haul. Surviving is succeeding. The journey is the reward."
