PassiveInvesting.com would like to introduce you to the newest member of our team, Andrew Davis. For the past four years, Andrew worked in a sales leadership role for a lawn and garden consumer products company. Andrew sold things such as fertilizer and insect control products to corporate accounts that included Home Depot and Lowes. And although he had a good job working for a good company, something was missing… passion. The products he was promoting were fine, but he had no driving interest in them. He wasn’t enthusiastic about what he was doing each day.
You see, since he was 18 years old, Andrew had always had a passion for real estate, particularly the idea of investing in it. In 2012, he was able to feed his passion by purchasing, his first single-family home. He purchased another as an investment in 2014. Also, in 2014 he built a network of private investors to look for investment opportunities in rental properties. They did eight deals in total. In 2015, he bought two more rental properties and did his first of five flips.
A better way
Although he started out loving every aspect of it, he quickly realized that what he was doing just wasn’t scalable. “It was so much work for a relatively small reward and a lot of risk,” Andrew said. “I knew there had to be a better way.” Andrew admits he made some mistakes along the way. He underestimated rehab budgets, partnered with people who weren’t “real high integrity folks,” and a contractor he hired did a terrible job which took a big bite out of the profit he was expecting to make on a deal.
This led Andrew to turn his sights to the commercial market, so he started searching online for information and opportunities. One name kept coming up in the multifamily world online, “Dan Handford.” “I attended one of Dan’s webinars. Somebody I really respected had Dan on their podcast. I got more and more exposure to Dan and his team and what they were doing,” Andrew said.
“Help Wanted”
In November of 2020, he noticed a job posting for an “Investor Relations Consultant” at PassiveInvesting.com. It was an opportunity he jumped on. “I knew they would get a ton of applications,” he said. “I wasn’t overly confident, but I felt that I had a decent shot at it because of my experience networking with smart businesspeople and decision-makers and my real estate experience, even though it was on a much smaller scale.” Andrew sent handwritten follow-up notes and communicated to Dan how the opportunity was much more than just another job to him. “For me, it was my dream. It was a space I wanted to be in for a long time,” he said. “I think they could sense my enthusiasm of potentially getting to work with people of their caliber in the industry I love.” Needless to say, he was ecstatic when he was told he got the job.
Andrew’s job description includes engaging, both virtually and in-person, with investors and potential investors. He’ll answer all your questions and, in general, make sure all your needs are met. He’ll be an important fixture at investor dinners and conferences. Plus, a key part of his mandate is to work with Dan and the leadership team to generate awareness in the marketplace for PassiveInvesting.com.
“Building wealth alongside our investors for decades to come.”
Besides his personal goal of working within the multifamily real estate industry, another reason Andrew is excited to join the PassiveInvesting.com team is the reputation they’ve built for themselves within the industry. “Dan and his team have set a high bar,” Andrew said. “Every person on the team is great at what they do and there’s a real commitment to excellence—to be the best in class, from the kinds of deals they look at and how they communicate to how they prioritize investor relationships and investor returns. Everyone is constantly educating themselves on the market and the factors that go into a great investment. A lot of people in this industry put together a couple of deals and then they are done. With the PassiveInvesting.com team, there is a real commitment to building our brand and taking a long-term approach. We want to build wealth alongside our investors for decades to come.”
Because of their commitment to excellence at every touchpoint and the educational platform they’ve built and the marketing exposure they’ve generated from the Multifamily Investor Nation, new investors reach out to Dan and the PassiveInvesting.com team (and now Andrew) about investing with PassiveInvesting.com. Plus, they get a lot of referrals and repeat business. “Once someone invests with us and has a really good experience with us, they tell their friends that they should be investing with this group,” Andrew said. “Another really cool thing is we closed a deal last month in Charlotte (Riverside Flats) and 62% of the people who invested in that project had invested with us on a previous project or projects.”
A team committed to excellence
Andrew has nothing but praise for his new colleagues. “Danny (Randazzo) is laser-focused,” Andrew said. “He’s incredibly smart, and he’s analytical. He looks at things from every angle. Even if I wasn’t working for PassiveInvesting.com, Danny’s the guy, I would want to look over my investment portfolio. Brandon (Abbott) has this crazy background in construction and insurance. I’d say the same thing about him on the operations and the renovation side of things as I would about Danny. If Brandon walks through a property and gives it his stamp of approval, I’m good. I don’t need anything beyond that. They’re both highly competent at what they do and have a high trust level as well. Dan (Handford) is a true business leader/CEO. He’s really good at finding the best people to put in the right positions to create an incredible organization. He’s a strong leader, very strategic and efficient.”
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Andrew, and his wife Isabel, have been married for seven years. With Piper, their Goldendoodle, they recently relocated to Asheville, North Carolina. Isabel is a successful young adult author (she just released her third book and is contracted for three more). Andrew and Isabel love to travel, eat good food, go hiking and they are committed to their church.
Putting people first
What can you as an investor expect from Andrew moving forward? “I believe in always putting people first,” Andrew said. “I’ve always loved people, and whether I was doing sales leadership, flipping houses or whatever, the people I was working with, the people that I was serving, were the most important thing to me. The people in the passive investor club can expect a lot of personal touch from me and an open ear. They’re investing their hard-earned money, so it’s important to provide them all the information they need and give them a sense that they have another good connection at Passiveinvesting.com and maybe even a new friend, somebody they can always reach out to for whatever they need.”
