November 30, 2021 • 11 mins
Greenwood contest winner Afra Smith, Founder & CEO of The Melanin Project, joins us to debunk all the myths relating to real estate.
She shares her journey of creating her business, discusses strategies to start buying real estate, and the importance of partnering with friends and family.
If you have ever had any hesitation in purchasing real estate, Afra is here to help you.
Host IG: @itstanyatime
Guest IG: @_afrasmith
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, Welcome
back to Money Moves powered by Greenwood. We're going to
(00:22):
continue our discussion on real estate and property ownership. I
am telling you there's almost nothing better than looking at
something and being able to say I own that, that's
my asset. I bought that. Whether it be for business
or personal, the pride of knowing that something is yours
is really something special. That being said, many people hesitate
(00:44):
to jump into the world of property ownership, Like with
entrepreneurship last time. It seems like we work really really
hard to prove to ourselves the multitude of reasons why
we can't do it, and that attitude is when we're
trying to defeat here on Money Moves. But in order
to show you how you can do it, we have
to figure it out what it is that it's getting
(01:04):
in the way. So we're here today to talk about
those mental blocks, miss the misconceptions that you need to
dispel so that we can make money Moves. So here
with me today to help me unpack everything that we
just heard is Afra Smith. Afra is one of our
Greenwood Podcast contest winners. Welcome, Afra, it's a pleasure to
have you on Money Moves today, and congratulations. Thank you
(01:26):
so much for having me and I appreciate it well. Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to the Money Moves podcast. After, tell us a
little bit about yourself and what you do. My name
is After Smith. I am from Madison, Wisconsin, UH, And
in twenty eighteena launcha organization called the Melanin Project. We're
focus on building generational wealth for black and acting women.
And this was all births out of my own personal
(01:47):
struggle with money. You know, at one point in time,
I was banked. I had critic school in the midfilve hundreds.
I depended a lot on pitty loans. Uh, and I
was burdened by stool and did uh And you know,
I I of my life five family loans. And so
without my struggle, I wouldn't have stone with all my strength,
which led me to become, uh the founder and CEO
(02:08):
of the Millionary Project, where I'm trying to support, you know,
a wealth building for our community. So, oh my gosh,
what a story, what a testimony, Afra, and I feel
like this will resonate with so many of our money
moves audience. But kudos to you for really taking the
steps towards your own financial empowerment and not only doing that,
but creating organizations so that you can also create a
(02:28):
roadmap for so many after It's a pleasure to have
you on our show today. So, Afra, what do you
think are some of the most misleading beliefs and misconceptions
or questions that people have when it comes to real estate?
You know, I think one of the biggest ones that
we have for our communities that you know, you need
to add a lot of money and good credit to
get started. And that's an absolutely myth because you know,
(02:51):
there's so many ways a person can get started in
most investings about utilizing and creative financing strategies for do so,
I just want to be clear that you know, core
good credit score and is definite an optimal situation that
helps person qualify, you know, fore loans of better interest
in better terms, but it's not required to really get
started school. I think that this is probably one of
the biggest myths that are out there. I completely agree,
(03:15):
and I'm so glad you said that, because you know,
sometimes people just need to hear that to know that
they can do it and also to see it in
other people. UM. One of the things that really stuck
out for me from some of those conversations was this
question of you know, property ownership, and what I saw
coming over and over again is this idea that owning
any property is better than renting. Do you want to
(03:38):
shed some light on that, Yeah, you know, I I
definitely think that owning any property is sort of you
have to be careful and cautious there because all the
home ownership and are investing in real estate is one
of the best vehicles to the generation world. All properties
aren't creating equal So I think it's important that you
know that we evaluate the problem before agreeing to take
(03:59):
ownership of it, that we ensure that the home is
actual affordable because again, a lot of banks will give
you more than what's what you can afford. So I
think it's really instagram that you're able to understand what
you're getting yourself into and have a potential exit strategy
as needs. If you're looking into investing, and this is
gonna be a second property for you after your like
(04:19):
a wealth of knowledge. And you know, when you introduce
yourself and you sort of told your story, where did
you learn all this? Because oftentimes I feel like people
are worried. They're like, oh, it's too late for me,
So how did you gain all this knowledge? I'm just
soaking it all up. Yes, So you know, I think
a lot of it was to struggle and making mistakes.
But also I think sometimes we have a tendency just
(04:39):
to focus on our barriers, and sometimes those barriers keep
us from moving forward, so we sit in fear. And
so I began to educate network. I am a alumni
of a CREE, which is a sociaty and commercial real estate,
so I'm learning a lot about the development world and
have some potential things that are moving forward from me.
But eight years ago, if you would have met me,
I would have never told you that I would have
(04:59):
been running a financial literacy company or having conversations around development.
So I think it's important to make sure that your
networking and putting yourself out there, and if there's barriers,
they're just there to be moved around and not something
that we should sit in it. And so I encourage
people to walk through their pain uh and just you know,
stay consistent and discipline uh and make necessary sacrifices so
(05:21):
that five years from now life can be different. So
I think just educating yourself on what's available and what's
out there and using your network. Oh my gosh, aff
you are a word. You are literally making me dance,
which is gonna be my new money move stance, just
because you have motivated so many people, and you talk
about you know, you didn't have all the answers. You
went out, you joined organizations, you networked, and you really
(05:43):
took your failures and obstacles as learning lessons um to
take you to the next level. I'm so proud of you.
I love this. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you,
thank you. It's been a journey. One of the things
that I think people started to circle around was this
idea about getting loan and mortgages to finance their properties. AFRA,
What are your thoughts around this. I think that it's
(06:06):
a big myth that it's okay to wait to acquire
funding and to you find the right property. And I
think this is a big misconception because it's so important
to proactive network of banks and other type of financers
to helping sure you have a pre approved letter or
knowledge of how quicky you can act actually close a
deal because it's super easy to get out bid uh
properties if you're a home seeker or even as an investor,
(06:27):
and so of having a pre apogle letter or understanding
how quickly payment can be moved is going to be creative. Also,
tell people just don't be a window shopper and waste
time and start building those relationships now, because again it's
not all about your credit profile or how much money
you have, and sometimes you get an opportunities based on
relationships that you do. Oh and I love this. I
(06:48):
think you hit it on the nose perfectly. Like you know,
there's this idea of window shopping, Like your house is
truly an asset, right, and you should be very intentional
about what you want in your house, how much your
budget is, how much of them mortgage you can afford,
what areas that you want, and doing the research to
really understand how this asset could pay off for you
is in incredibly important. But I think more than anything,
(07:11):
like as you mentioned, have the pre approved letter because
if you find your dream house and it fits all
your criteria, the market right now is hot hot hot,
I've heard you know, I'm based here in Atlanta, and
you know the average house is getting forty offers, so
you are too late if you have to go and
find the right mortgage broker or find the right bank
to do the lending. So that is a great, great point.
(07:35):
Can you talk more about some other misconceptions and myths
that you saw coming from our word on the street. Yeah,
I think that I want pop folks to understand that
there's so many benefits to real estate. You know, one,
you have more control over your investment. Then you get
the appreciation of or property, the cash bopen the property,
being able to pay down the dit through either kind
(07:57):
or on your own, and the text benefit it's a ownership.
But there are so many ways that a person can
actually get started even if you don't have great credit
and a lot of money, such as whole selling, which
is one of the best ways to do it. There's
also seller financing also known as owner financing, and you'll
see this symbol as showing up as f s CEO
on a lot of the listing so which is called
(08:19):
for sale by owner uh and a lot of that
is just you negotiating with the seller, and again there's
typically a promissory note UH that is used as an
agreement there, and you don't go to the bank when
you're working with the seller who is trying to finance
a property. There's also private money lenders who provide direct
funding to borrows and they're really looking at UH ensuring
(08:41):
that they're going to get a return on investment for
anything they're going to give you to you and a
lot of times it will overlook your credit profile. There's
a hard money lender loan as well. UH. These are
typically higher rates and shorter terms, and you want to
be very careful with hire money loans to make sure
you have a great exces strategy for that. One of
my favorites is, of course partner with friends and family.
I think it's this really build big sense of community
(09:03):
and this is something that I love that I'm engaged
with my friends and family about how can we work
together as a community to really build our worth together. Oh,
I love this. You hit on some really great points there,
and for those of you that are tuning in from
the Money Moves audience, you can always check out Bank
Greenwood dot com for more tips, tricks and one two
threes on how you can make money moves in beginning
(09:24):
real estate investment. Afra, thank you so much for being
here to help me unpack some of this, and please
follow Afra. Afra. Where can we find out more about
you and follow you? Yeah, I'm on Instagram at the
Underscore Melanin Project to zero five three. Say that again,
the Underscore Melanin Project at two zero five three. Yes,
(09:49):
please check out after. You were doing some great things
for the community and I thank you so much for
your time here and you are so inspiring to our audience.
I continue to wish you the best on your trajectory
to real estate ownership, wealth and abundance. And to all
of you money movers out there, make sure you stay
with us. Tune in every day to the Money Moves
Podcast powered by Greenwood. Thank you so much for tuning
(10:10):
in Money Moves audience. If you want more or a
recap of this episode, please go to bank Greenwood dot
com and check out the Money Moves Podcast blows. Stay
tuned tomorrow and every day this week. From very special
Money versus Moves. Seems like only one of them is
doing all the financial heavy lifting. It sounds like a
(10:30):
dream was jumped into without a plan for execution. More
from our expert. Hey Atlanta, it's great to see you again.
Donald Tory Lanes. You just made it. Made a million
dollars in under a minute of selling his music on
n F teams. That doesn't tell me, and I guess
you won't want to miss the incredible spiritual hiler Debbie Brown.
(10:51):
I was in middle school with the self help book,
you know like I've always been fascinated by transformation, fascinated
by the human spirit and human motion. Money Moves is
an I heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced
by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcasts on I heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(11:12):
you get your podcasts from.
Hey money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, Welcome
back to Money Moves powered by Greenwood. We're going to
(00:22):
continue our discussion on real estate and property ownership. I
am telling you there's almost nothing better than looking at
something and being able to say I own that, that's
my asset. I bought that. Whether it be for business
or personal, the pride of knowing that something is yours
is really something special. That being said, many people hesitate
(00:44):
to jump into the world of property ownership, Like with
entrepreneurship last time. It seems like we work really really
hard to prove to ourselves the multitude of reasons why
we can't do it, and that attitude is when we're
trying to defeat here on Money Moves. But in order
to show you how you can do it, we have
to figure it out what it is that it's getting
(01:04):
in the way. So we're here today to talk about
those mental blocks, miss the misconceptions that you need to
dispel so that we can make money Moves. So here
with me today to help me unpack everything that we
just heard is Afra Smith. Afra is one of our
Greenwood Podcast contest winners. Welcome, Afra, it's a pleasure to
have you on Money Moves today, and congratulations. Thank you
(01:26):
so much for having me and I appreciate it well. Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to the Money Moves podcast. After, tell us a
little bit about yourself and what you do. My name
is After Smith. I am from Madison, Wisconsin, UH, And
in twenty eighteena launcha organization called the Melanin Project. We're
focus on building generational wealth for black and acting women.
And this was all births out of my own personal
(01:47):
struggle with money. You know, at one point in time,
I was banked. I had critic school in the midfilve hundreds.
I depended a lot on pitty loans. Uh, and I
was burdened by stool and did uh And you know,
I I of my life five family loans. And so
without my struggle, I wouldn't have stone with all my strength,
which led me to become, uh the founder and CEO
(02:08):
of the Millionary Project, where I'm trying to support, you know,
a wealth building for our community. So, oh my gosh,
what a story, what a testimony, Afra, and I feel
like this will resonate with so many of our money
moves audience. But kudos to you for really taking the
steps towards your own financial empowerment and not only doing that,
but creating organizations so that you can also create a
(02:28):
roadmap for so many after It's a pleasure to have
you on our show today. So, Afra, what do you
think are some of the most misleading beliefs and misconceptions
or questions that people have when it comes to real estate?
You know, I think one of the biggest ones that
we have for our communities that you know, you need
to add a lot of money and good credit to
get started. And that's an absolutely myth because you know,
(02:51):
there's so many ways a person can get started in
most investings about utilizing and creative financing strategies for do so,
I just want to be clear that you know, core
good credit score and is definite an optimal situation that
helps person qualify, you know, fore loans of better interest
in better terms, but it's not required to really get
started school. I think that this is probably one of
the biggest myths that are out there. I completely agree,
(03:15):
and I'm so glad you said that, because you know,
sometimes people just need to hear that to know that
they can do it and also to see it in
other people. UM. One of the things that really stuck
out for me from some of those conversations was this
question of you know, property ownership, and what I saw
coming over and over again is this idea that owning
any property is better than renting. Do you want to
(03:38):
shed some light on that, Yeah, you know, I I
definitely think that owning any property is sort of you
have to be careful and cautious there because all the
home ownership and are investing in real estate is one
of the best vehicles to the generation world. All properties
aren't creating equal So I think it's important that you
know that we evaluate the problem before agreeing to take
(03:59):
ownership of it, that we ensure that the home is
actual affordable because again, a lot of banks will give
you more than what's what you can afford. So I
think it's really instagram that you're able to understand what
you're getting yourself into and have a potential exit strategy
as needs. If you're looking into investing, and this is
gonna be a second property for you after your like
(04:19):
a wealth of knowledge. And you know, when you introduce
yourself and you sort of told your story, where did
you learn all this? Because oftentimes I feel like people
are worried. They're like, oh, it's too late for me,
So how did you gain all this knowledge? I'm just
soaking it all up. Yes, So you know, I think
a lot of it was to struggle and making mistakes.
But also I think sometimes we have a tendency just
(04:39):
to focus on our barriers, and sometimes those barriers keep
us from moving forward, so we sit in fear. And
so I began to educate network. I am a alumni
of a CREE, which is a sociaty and commercial real estate,
so I'm learning a lot about the development world and
have some potential things that are moving forward from me.
But eight years ago, if you would have met me,
I would have never told you that I would have
(04:59):
been running a financial literacy company or having conversations around development.
So I think it's important to make sure that your
networking and putting yourself out there, and if there's barriers,
they're just there to be moved around and not something
that we should sit in it. And so I encourage
people to walk through their pain uh and just you know,
stay consistent and discipline uh and make necessary sacrifices so
(05:21):
that five years from now life can be different. So
I think just educating yourself on what's available and what's
out there and using your network. Oh my gosh, aff
you are a word. You are literally making me dance,
which is gonna be my new money move stance, just
because you have motivated so many people, and you talk
about you know, you didn't have all the answers. You
went out, you joined organizations, you networked, and you really
(05:43):
took your failures and obstacles as learning lessons um to
take you to the next level. I'm so proud of you.
I love this. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you,
thank you. It's been a journey. One of the things
that I think people started to circle around was this
idea about getting loan and mortgages to finance their properties. AFRA,
What are your thoughts around this. I think that it's
(06:06):
a big myth that it's okay to wait to acquire
funding and to you find the right property. And I
think this is a big misconception because it's so important
to proactive network of banks and other type of financers
to helping sure you have a pre approved letter or
knowledge of how quicky you can act actually close a
deal because it's super easy to get out bid uh
properties if you're a home seeker or even as an investor,
(06:27):
and so of having a pre apogle letter or understanding
how quickly payment can be moved is going to be creative. Also,
tell people just don't be a window shopper and waste
time and start building those relationships now, because again it's
not all about your credit profile or how much money
you have, and sometimes you get an opportunities based on
relationships that you do. Oh and I love this. I
(06:48):
think you hit it on the nose perfectly. Like you know,
there's this idea of window shopping, Like your house is
truly an asset, right, and you should be very intentional
about what you want in your house, how much your
budget is, how much of them mortgage you can afford,
what areas that you want, and doing the research to
really understand how this asset could pay off for you
is in incredibly important. But I think more than anything,
(07:11):
like as you mentioned, have the pre approved letter because
if you find your dream house and it fits all
your criteria, the market right now is hot hot hot,
I've heard you know, I'm based here in Atlanta, and
you know the average house is getting forty offers, so
you are too late if you have to go and
find the right mortgage broker or find the right bank
to do the lending. So that is a great, great point.
(07:35):
Can you talk more about some other misconceptions and myths
that you saw coming from our word on the street. Yeah,
I think that I want pop folks to understand that
there's so many benefits to real estate. You know, one,
you have more control over your investment. Then you get
the appreciation of or property, the cash bopen the property,
being able to pay down the dit through either kind
(07:57):
or on your own, and the text benefit it's a ownership.
But there are so many ways that a person can
actually get started even if you don't have great credit
and a lot of money, such as whole selling, which
is one of the best ways to do it. There's
also seller financing also known as owner financing, and you'll
see this symbol as showing up as f s CEO
on a lot of the listing so which is called
(08:19):
for sale by owner uh and a lot of that
is just you negotiating with the seller, and again there's
typically a promissory note UH that is used as an
agreement there, and you don't go to the bank when
you're working with the seller who is trying to finance
a property. There's also private money lenders who provide direct
funding to borrows and they're really looking at UH ensuring
(08:41):
that they're going to get a return on investment for
anything they're going to give you to you and a
lot of times it will overlook your credit profile. There's
a hard money lender loan as well. UH. These are
typically higher rates and shorter terms, and you want to
be very careful with hire money loans to make sure
you have a great exces strategy for that. One of
my favorites is, of course partner with friends and family.
I think it's this really build big sense of community
(09:03):
and this is something that I love that I'm engaged
with my friends and family about how can we work
together as a community to really build our worth together. Oh,
I love this. You hit on some really great points there,
and for those of you that are tuning in from
the Money Moves audience, you can always check out Bank
Greenwood dot com for more tips, tricks and one two
threes on how you can make money moves in beginning
(09:24):
real estate investment. Afra, thank you so much for being
here to help me unpack some of this, and please
follow Afra. Afra. Where can we find out more about
you and follow you? Yeah, I'm on Instagram at the
Underscore Melanin Project to zero five three. Say that again,
the Underscore Melanin Project at two zero five three. Yes,
(09:49):
please check out after. You were doing some great things
for the community and I thank you so much for
your time here and you are so inspiring to our audience.
I continue to wish you the best on your trajectory
to real estate ownership, wealth and abundance. And to all
of you money movers out there, make sure you stay
with us. Tune in every day to the Money Moves
Podcast powered by Greenwood. Thank you so much for tuning
(10:10):
in Money Moves audience. If you want more or a
recap of this episode, please go to bank Greenwood dot
com and check out the Money Moves Podcast blows. Stay
tuned tomorrow and every day this week. From very special
Money versus Moves. Seems like only one of them is
doing all the financial heavy lifting. It sounds like a
(10:30):
dream was jumped into without a plan for execution. More
from our expert. Hey Atlanta, it's great to see you again.
Donald Tory Lanes. You just made it. Made a million
dollars in under a minute of selling his music on
n F teams. That doesn't tell me, and I guess
you won't want to miss the incredible spiritual hiler Debbie Brown.
(10:51):
I was in middle school with the self help book,
you know like I've always been fascinated by transformation, fascinated
by the human spirit and human motion. Money Moves is
an I heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced
by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcasts on I heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(11:12):
you get your podcasts from.
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