Alex Sifakis is one of four owners of JWB Real Estate Capital, which he formed with Gregg Cohen, CEO, in 2006 to flip rental properties. CFO Adam Rigel and COO Adam Eiseman also are owners. With 60 employees and more being added, the company, based along Philips Highway, is expanding its property management and infill land development and construction, all handled in-house.
We create passive real estate investments for people that want to invest in real estate but don’t have the time or knowledge to do it. We buy a home, renovate it, rent it out and then sell it to an investor and we continue to manage it. In 2011, we started buying lots, building homes, renting them out and selling them to our clients as well. We’ve developed an old mobile home park, a blighted 5-acre parcel that was used for old vehicles, vacant parking lots … it’s been everything. The opportunity is endless.
We started in 2006, which was the exact wrong time to start a real estate investment company. We had a couple of good years and a couple of rough years and through those rough years we figured out that the only people that were really buying homes were investors. We filled a niche that was created by the real estate crash.
Our clients are typically doctors, attorneys, business owners, executives, people that want to invest in real estate.
We buy 500 to 700 properties a year and there’s plenty of opportunity in Jacksonville to continue to do that. We sell 420 to 450 properties a year. And we have our own real estate portfolio. We keep close to 400 rental properties. It’s practice what you preach.
We look at the B and C markets. Our price range is $100,000 to $200,000. That’s the bread and butter because that’s where you can get the best rental returns. We buy single-family homes, typically three-bedroom or four-bedroom, and some townhomes and attached properties.
We’re focusing on our property management company. We manage 2,300 single-family homes and we are opening property management services to the greater Jacksonville area, as well as purchasing other property management companies. Our goal is to have 5,000 units under management in the next two years.
I didn’t want to get a real job. I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I grew up in Massachusetts and moved to Orlando for high school and went to the University of Florida. I graduated in 2005.
I worked all through college and had a job lined up to do accounting for a marketing firm, but, instead, I convinced my buddy Gregg to quit his job and, despite having no experience, we started flipping houses. We went to some of those seminars you hear about on late-night radio and it worked. Real estate isn’t complicated, it’s not hard to understand, but it’s a lot of hard work.
I grew up in the restaurant business. My family owned a restaurant in Massachusetts and we sold it. My mom really wanted to move everyone to Florida so that’s how I ended up in Orlando.
I have a beautiful wife, Britt, a 2-year-old son, Sawyer, and another on the way. For fun, I hang out with my family. We take Sawyer to the park and to the beach. Life’s a lot different than it was five or six years ago. It’s amazing how your priorities change when you get married and have kids. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.