HOW IMPORTANT IS HOMEOWNERSHIP TOWARDS WEALTH BUILDING?

Lavonne: I believe that real estate is a cornerstone of wealth building in America, so many people have created massive amounts of wealth from owning their home, other properties and commercial properties. But there are communities of color that are marginalized or not fully educated on how to get into real estate. My family is a family of hustlers and I’ve never had like a limiting thought or belief as it pertains to what can and can’t be done, it was always how it’ll get done. I had to spend my summers in real estate offices which I thought was a punishment at the time, but I actually learned things that I am able to use now and in the future. That’s kind of how my parents approach to the things that I wanted to do growing up. And in my experience business is like marriage, it’s a long-term relationship and you have to be aware of your relationship with money.

TELL US MORE ABOUT 1ST CLASS GROUP?

Lavonne: 1st Class Group is a platform that teaches professional athletes how to invest in communities they care about using commercial real estate. In and after college, I had tons of friends and peers who were athletes getting approached with deals, they wanted to make sure these offers weren’t scams so they came to me. Everyone began to ask me questions about what things were and what they should do, I became something like an advisor. Over the years of this happening, I realized I didn’t want to be an agent and or business manager for athletes. I wanted to help them invest in the communities they cared about and how much value they really possessed. I’ve also, operated a family-owned consortium of real estate companies with my immediate family. As a full-service vertically integrated company we do everything from sales mortgage, consulting, development. In addition, I have a consulting firm within our non-profit that assists with affordable housing and tenant services for the individuals in affordable housing. These skills inevitability support me in making sure 1st Class Group is successful.

WHAT WAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP & MINDSET WITH MONEY AS A KID TO A YOUNG ADULT?

Lavonne: I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, my mother owned a salon, my father was a developer and my grandfather owns Orange Groves and was the chairman of school board. They were very focused on making sure I went to school, but also figuring out a path to create income and have money for myself. Even as a child, selling candy in school, I was always conscious about making and spending money and how I could get the most money at once. My parents wouldn’t necessarily buy my things creating an opportunity for me to have to earn money and I liked that. My relationship with money was also me being really frugal, it’s always helped me get a lot of stuff for a very low cost. The contrast to that as a young adult is me spending way too much time trying to save money and telling myself, I’m going to find the best alternative and I quickly learned was a waste of resources. Then going into college and my parents being so financially literate I had a very high credit score because they put me on their credit cards, I was an authorized user and had credit score way before I started my college career. Now I realize how much it was a terrible thing to give an 18-year old a credit card where they can charge tens of thousands of dollars. I was just like spending money and racking up debt, it was a good thing to go experience at a young age. I then had to begin working little jobs so that I was able to pay the minimum payment on my credit cards. Being able to buy anything I wanted in college even though I didn’t really like shopping and goin through that phase of being able to blow money and buy whatever. I feel like people have to go through that learn the real value of their money and income.