Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa November 2016 | Page 52

GREYSTONE

Sean Ryan
Founder & CEO
of Greystone Residential

S

ean Ryan has spent more than a decade as a
pioneer within the single- family residential
industry and has
facilitated the acquisition, investment, renovation,
management and development of thousands of homes
in multiple states across the U.S. It was his first-hand
knowledge of the many challenges new property
investors face that gave rise to Greystone and its
end-to-end service platform. Before becoming CEO
and founder of one of the biggest names in the buildtorent industry, Ryan was a new investor experiencing
what he describes as a “seemingly endless” amount of
obstacles with no one to help or guide him along the
way. Unlike many of his industry peers, investing is
not the “family business.” In fact, Ryan comes from a
humble background which included a period of
homelessness as a child. It was his desire to succeed
that carried him over each hurdle he faced. Ryan
purchased his first properties in his early 20s at the
beginning of what he would later learn was a historic

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NOVEMBER 2016 SA Real Estate Investor

housing crisis. Even though he had purchased the
properties at a great price, he was unable to sell them
for a profit. There was never a “Plan B” for Ryan,
and rather than accepting a loss, he chose to forgo
having a car, cell phone and enough food to eat. His
resilience eventually paid off, and he was able to sell
the houses double his initial investment. It is lessons
and experiences like this that have motivated Ryan to
make smart real estate investing as easy and accessible
as possible to everyone. He firmly believes that
property has the potential to be the safest investment
option out there, but the many unknowns act as
barriers that prohibit most from ever even getting
started. He has worked tirelessly to design a platform
that allows experienced investors to add institutionalgrade property to their portfolios, but is built around
supporting clients from across the country and around
the world who are just getting started on their own
journeys building wealth in U.S. real estate.
www.reimag.co.za