Eddie Garcia grew up with nothing.
The son of immigrants and once homeless, Mr. Garcia spent his youth in Chicago’s run-down “inner city.” His family lives in a small apartment, and in a recent conversation with Inman, Garcia recalled being teased for having only ever owned hand-me-downs.
But that past is very different from Garcia’s current life. Today, he runs Realty of America, a fast-growing brokerage firm with operations across the United States and thousands of agents. And while speaking with Inman, Garcia recalled how hard work, determination and financial prudence helped him achieve the American Dream.
“One thing I know is that this country is the greatest country in the world and we can accomplish anything we want,” he said.
grow up in the city center
When Garcia’s family arrived in Chicago, he said, they were sharing a one-bedroom apartment with 11 people. And as time went on, he saw drugs and violence running rampant in his neighborhood and realized he was poor. It wasn’t his favorite thing.
“When I was 13, 14 years old, I realized what it was like to live in poverty and get food boxes and live in 50-50 apartments, which are usually all low-income housing,” Inman said. “I said, ‘I don’t want this to happen to my family, and I have to do something to change it.'”
Initially, Garcia’s plan was to attend college and possibly become a lawyer.
real estate bug bit
Twenty years ago, as a young adult, Garcia worked at a car dealership, earning about $50 a week. One day, he recalled, a man came in and spent about $100,000, including tipping every employee at the dealership $100 each. Garcia soon discovered that the man worked in real estate.
“I said, ‘Well, that’s what I have to do,'” Garcia said. “Then I started researching what it takes to get a real estate license. I got my real estate license without telling my dad. And once I got my license, that was the moment. I said to my dad, ‘Hey, let me drop out of college. I promise you you’ll make it.'”
The decision to pursue real estate was a bet on himself, but Garcia didn’t succeed right away. He recalled visiting 16 different offices until someone took him on. For a young man with no money, the fees and costs to start a business were significant, and his first broker did not provide the training he promised. Sales were slow, but Garcia didn’t give up.
“I didn’t sell anything for six months,” Garcia said. “I started making my own flyers and business cards, and I started handing them out on the street. If I went to church, the pastor would kick me out. If I went to the mall, security would kick me out. I’d go door to door and get a call from the postmaster saying it was a crime to drop off my own mail. I didn’t know that. I learned that the world wasn’t as good as I thought.”
In the end, the hard work paid off, and Garcia signed a contract with the seller. Garcia said he was supposed to receive $16,000 in fees — a huge amount considering he was bankrupt — but his broker refused to pay. It was devastating.
“It was one of the worst moments of my life,” he said. “Understand that I dropped out of college. My parents weren’t happy with that decision. They wanted me to be a lawyer, they wanted me to go to college. My parents weren’t happy with that decision, but they accepted it. And now, six months later, I’m not successful.”
Persistence paid off
Despite early setbacks, Garcia stuck with real estate. He moved to a new company and gradually started trading.
In the end, he was able to make more than 100 trades while “working from 9 a.m. to probably 1 a.m.” Using the fees he earned from these deals, he began investing and flipping homes without taking out a mortgage.
“I bought my first home for $30,000,” Garcia said. “I put probably $15,000 into it. I sold it for $150,000. And I took that $150,000 and bought three, five, six properties. And I probably bought close to 200 homes for cash, fixed them up and sold them.”
Eventually, other agents began calling Garcia, asking for help and guidance.
“In the same community I grew up in, people said, ‘I’m interested in real estate. What should I do?’ And I believe that when God helps you, you can open doors for others,” Garcia recalled.
Starting and growing a business
In May 2012, Garcia finally took the plunge and started his own business, Realty of Chicago. At first, there were no other agents, but headcount quickly grew, first to five agents, then to fifty, and finally to three hundred. By 2023, the company will be one of the largest companies of its kind in Chicago, with $4 billion in volume, Garcia said.
Although the company had no debt or investors, interest in the company was growing from outside Chicago. So in July 2023, Garcia woke up at 1 a.m. and bought a new domain name, Realty of America.
“I said, ‘This is how I connect with all my friends across the country. For a long time, as I’ve been sharing my story on social media, people have been asking me from Milwaukee, from Austin, from Los Angeles, from North Carolina. ‘Hey, are you a mentor? Are you a coach? Are you a franchiser?’ And I thought, ‘Realty of Chicago is not franchising or expanding in the Carolinas, Florida or Texas.’ I don’t understand how that works. ”But when I came up with this idea for Realty of America, I said, “I don’t know what to do. “This is how we connect.”
Today, the company is 19 months old. Garcia said the number of agents will soon reach 3,400. It has expanded to 23 states and is preparing to open in Puerto Rico. Garcia still has no debt.
Asked how he went from a studio apartment to running a burgeoning real estate business, Garcia concluded: “There was no other choice.”
“If I fail, I’ll be back in that one-bedroom apartment in that neighborhood,” he says. “For me, that meant raising a family in a neighborhood like that. And that wasn’t an option. When I was 12 or 13 and kids made fun of me, that was the fuel and it lit a fire in my belly. I said, ‘I’m going to be somebody. I’m going to create my own version of the American dream.'”
Email Jim Dalrymple II
