Janet Lepage
CEO, WESTERN WEALTH CAPITAL XVI LP
In 2008, most Canadians buying U.S. real estate were looking for deals on vacation homes. North Vancouver native Janet Lepage was just looking for deals. Over two years, while working full-time as a senior marketing manager at Ledcor Group, Lepage purchased, upgraded and resold 58 homes in Phoenix. Unlike in Canada, where foreclosed properties must be sold at fair market value, in the U.S., banks can unload homes quickly by selling them cheap at cash auctions.
Lepage’s “very lipstick” approach was to acquire a house at a discount, do minor repairs, paint it and replace missing appliances, then put it back on the market for the same price as the neglected foreclosure next door. “They would sell like hotcakes,” she says, especially to first-time homebuyers who didn’t have credit problems but lacked funds for improvements. “They would buy our houses like crazy because it was turnkey,” Lepage adds. “Flipping is an in-and-out game. I often was in and out, from the time I bought it to the time I sold it, in under 40 days.’
After the recession, it became easier to get financing, so Lepage bought her first apartment building in 2011 and a second one the following year. A year later, she quit her day job to found North Vancouver-based Western Wealth Capital in 2014 with property investor Dave Steele. WWC buys multi-family rental buildings in Greater Phoenix, fixes them up, and sells or manages them for cash flow back to its investors—more than 400 on four continents, with many in Canada. So far, the company has invested US$375 million to acquire 31 multi-family properties, comprising 5,100 rental units, divesting just five.
WWC’S business model is based on what Lepage calls “the need for speed.” The day the sale closes, improvements begin. “When you come in with a splash, you’re the talk of the town, you get a lot more applications, and your tenants are thrilled with the changes,” Lepage explains. “Being able to raise rents becomes a whole lot easier, which is a massive part of our game.” The company is expanding to two more North American cities, unnamed to avoid tipping off competitors.
WHAT DID YOUR SUMMER JOBS TEACH YOU ABOUT BUSINESS? I delivered pizza. What I learned is mistakes happen, but how you handle correcting them is what the customer remembers