Overcoming Obstacles
From Prom Dresses to Real Estate
By Brittney Fairweather
My career started out quite differently than most. For one, I was a teenager. Second, I wasn’t exactly seeking a lifetime career.
I had been asked to the prom and I was thrilled. I had the exact dress picked out that I wanted. However, dresses cost money — more than most 14-year-olds have from an allowance. I had to earn some money, and fast.
To earn that money, I approached a local gym owner, Trixy Castro, about running their “kids club” that provided childcare while patrons worked out. Unfortunately, that gym did not offer childcare. When Trixy saw the discouraged look on my face as I sulked toward to door, she said that if I wanted a job, I could jump on the phones and help sell gym memberships. She handed me a phone and the yellow pages, and I got immediately to work.
Not only was I able to buy the prom dress I was after, but I made a life-long friend and colleague. I have worked for Trixy for more than 15 years now, and her willingness to give me that first opportunity to prove myself has made all the difference in how I approach challenges, personally and professionally.
An Unlikely Career Path with an Unlikely (and Hugely Talented) Team
After taking on sales at the gym, I began working with Trixy across different small business ventures throughout high school and during college. I attended college in Southern California, but went right back to work with Trixie after graduation. This time, I was working in my first real estate role. I was the receptionist at Rightway Financial Group (I got the job after completing my very first professional interview in a blazer I borrowed from my mom), but reception was not where I wanted to stay.
I set out to expand my understanding of the industry and began to study for my real estate license. Every day, I would stay late to teach myself the ins and outs of loan processing.
By 2007, it was becoming evident to all of us that a market shift was imminent. We shifted our business model away from conventional loans toward more investor-oriented styles. Where the market was heading, it was imperative to build a firm with its own capital or we would not survive the economic downturn on the horizon.
First, we made short-term loans to investors who needed to access funds quickly in order to compete in buying homes at auction. Then, in 2008, we launched our first mortgage fund, Genesis, offering a product that met the needs of local real estate investors while keeping our core underwriting standards intact.
Soon, making risk-averse loans to bankable clients who simply could not wait for the archaic lending system took over our conventional mortgage platform. There was such strong demand, we knew we had to duplicate the idea elsewhere, and with hard workdays and nights, our team pulled together and exceeded everything we believed we were capable of.
Just one year after Genesis launched, a valued team-member, father figure, and mentor passed away without warning. Suddenly, we were a young, exclusively female team operating in an industry that was notoriously unreceptive to female entrepreneurs. It was a struggle to be taken seriously, but we leaned on mentors, clients, and vendors to vouch for our credibility and overcame many obstacles that could have overwhelmed our business.
We eventually started Genesis Auctions to supply discounted inventory from banks and servicers to investors.
Evolution at Lightning Speed
By this time, my personal life was changing and evolving as well. In 2010, I had a son and was pregnant again, with my daughter, while working around the clock to build a business.
I felt like I was running as fast as I could to keep our business ahead of the curve and secure our position as a key player in the space. Those were challenging, sometimes brutal years, but they taught me perseverance and grit. I grew both personally and professionally, and so did the business. The success of Genesis Auctions led to the 2015 acquisition of Hudson & Marshall, LLC, a leading real estate auction platform.
In 2016, I moved to Philadelphia to expand Genesis into Northeastern markets, including New York and D.C. We sold Genesis Auctions to Fidelity National Title in 2017, and, in 2018, we sold Genesis Capital to Goldman Sachs.
After the sale of Genesis, I dedicated some time to learning about the mechanics of long-term rentals, wholesaling, and purchasing land for development.
By 2019, I was back working with Trixy and the team as a consultant on investment deals. We worked with builders all over California and, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became very clear we needed a lending company once again. Thus, in the summer of 2021, Aureus Finance Group, a complete debt partner across all facets of residential and multifamily real estate development, was born.
Good Chances Pay Off Over and Over Again
Through the years, I have had two more children, lost more loved ones, and settled with our family on the East Coast far from where I grew up, all while pushing ahead and climbing over hurdles simply based on gender stereotypes.
Over those ten years working alongside Trixy and the team, I had the incredible experience of creating and building high-demand entities and was a part of so many pivotal moments within the real estate and finance verticals to date.
But these moments would not have been possible had I not been that teenaged girl looking for a way to buy her prom dress, or if Trixy had not taken a chance on that young girl.
SIDEBAR
Brittney Fairweather’s Tips for Building a Stellar Team
The biggest piece of advice I can offer to new entrepreneurs is to build a team with which you can walk through fire. Here
are a few tips for accomplishing this:
» Find at least one person (hopefully more) you can rely on no matter what
» Create a system of checks and balances for guidance
» Establish guideposts so you all know where you are going
» Give those people 110% of your effort — and require the same in return
