Barbara Drake - Board Member

Barbara Drake graduated from Oakland University with a degree in Business Administration. She worked as a stock broker for Merrill Lynch in the 70's. Her first investments in real estate were in single family homes and small apartment buildings in Hazel Park, Clawson and Royal Oak. In 1989 she heard about the "depression" in real estate in Texas. She got on a plane and landed in Houston. Houston at that time was an "investor's dream". Houses at 30 cents on the dollar, good tenants waiting in line to rent houses, contractors looking for work at $7 per hour and bank REO departments who were happy to see investors. The best thing about Houston was that it was easy to predict its economic recovery. Houston is close to a major sea port and is the hub of the oil industry. At the peak of her investing, she owned more than 50 rental units in Michigan and Texas. Lately she has sold about half of those units, often to her tenants, and has used her profits to become a "hard money lender". For more information on Barbara Drake, read "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller.