October 19th 2023.
Ejiro Ajueyitsi is a Brooklyn native, and he has always had a drive to help the Black community. Initially, he had plans to pursue a career in medicine, but the 2008 recession changed his path towards a more meaningful vocation.
Today, Ajueyitsi is the proud owner of the Brooklyn Funding Group - the only Black brokerage for private lending in the US. This type of service is quite different from traditional banks. The Brooklyn Funding Group does not require tax returns, income verification, and W-2s when applying for a mortgage loan. As a result, they can approve loans within days for projects such as fix-and-flip, new construction, multi-family bridge loans, and rental properties.
Prior to his venture into real estate, Ajueyitsi was a student on the medical school track in the early 2000s. He took a year off and started making flyers for parties in Brooklyn to make ends meet. He eventually got into graphic designing and post production for music videos. Unfortunately, his business was disrupted by the 2008 housing crisis. He then began consulting for websites and home care agencies.
During this time, Ajueyitsi was denied several loans from banks for distressed properties he was interested in. Thankfully, one of his clients, a Black woman who owned a pharmacy, put him in touch with a mortgage broker. He was pre-approved on the spot for a house he wanted.
Ajueyitsi then began brokering deals himself and was eventually given access to $20 million to lend for real estate projects. This gave birth to the Brooklyn Funding Group, which last year gave out almost $50 million to people to fund their real estate projects. 90% of the people who come to the Brooklyn Funding Group are people of color, allowing them to avoid being affected by the housing market downturn.
Ajueyitsi wants to see more Black private lenders to help close the racial wealth gap. He plans to teach free courses on real estate and lending, and provide capital for new college graduates to become lenders. He also intends to start a hedge fund to raise between $200 million and $300 million to assist Black and brown developers.
“I want to be able to do that for others, that’s my goal within the next 18 months,” Ajueyitsi says. “I love the versatility in my journey, I feel like it made me a well-rounded person to speak to many different people, I feel like I can do anything now.”
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