Today we’d like to introduce you to Erica (coach Erica) Odom
Hi Erica (coach Erica) , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Erica M. Odom (Coach Erica), was born and raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin. An aunt, a sister, a daughter, an advanced practice licensed social worker, an entrepreneur, a published author, a licensed life insurance agent, and a radio personality. Erica grew up on the north side of Milwaukee, WI. She lived with her mother and older sister. Her father was involved in her life but suffered from a drug addiction so he was often in and out of jail and prison most of her life. Outside of her mother and sister, Erica always had the support of her family and close friends.
As a young girl Erica always aspired to be a teacher. After graduating Riverside University High School, she attended Milwaukee Area Technical College, where she began pursuing her associate’s degree in criminal justice. Attending college and going through the motions of life, Erica lost her father to cancer in January 2006. Months after this Erica at age 19, entered into her real estate journey.
Erica’s friend she was working with spoke with her about how she was in the process of buying a home and Erica decided that she wanted to attempt to purchase a home too. She had good credit at the time and was working full-time in addition to attending college. She put her trust into the professionals she was working with at the time, as she had no knowledge of real estate or how to purchase a home.
Erica was able to purchase a duplex home on the north side of Milwaukee (37th Rohr) in November 2006. She moved into the upper unit of the duplex and rented out the lower unit. Erica was managing and things were going well. However, the following year she received her city assessment of her property and noticed that its value had depreciated much lower than $125K that she purchased the property for. Erica began to seek out, ask questions, and educate herself. Erica before long began to realize that she had purchased her property for more than she should have. And then the housing market crash of 2008 happened. Erica’s property really depreciated in value. It was around this same time that Erica began to realize and understand the mortgage loan product she was in. Erica’s mortgage was split into two loans: 20% was in a balloon payment and 80 % was in a five year adjustable-rate-mortgage (ARM). Erica now understood that when the loans were scheduled to adjust, her mortgage interest rates would increase based on where the market rates were at the time. Erica, like many, prior to the housing market crash of 2008, was a victim of predatory lending.
Erica reached out to her lender to attempt to refinance her mortgage loans but was told that there was nothing they could do because her loans were in good standing. Erica sought out other banks for help with the refinancing of her mortgage but was told they could not help her either, because her debt-to-income ratio was too high. Erica then made the decision to intentionally stop making her mortgage payments, because she realized that was the only way she would get to a point to receive some type of help and or assistance to get her out of the situation she was in. She ended up meeting a realtor through First Weber Realty who was a huge help given the situation she was in. With the time passing by of not making payments and the guidance of the realtor she was working with, Erica was able to sell her duplex in 2013 as a short sale to a real estate investor for $15K cash. Talk about a huge loss! Erica walked away with her credit ruined, no savings, and thousands in debt.
As this all was occurring, Erica was beginning to really experience “financial struggle.” Erica was doing like most, living beyond her means and beyond her budget, and maxing out her credit cards. Erica didn’t have good money management or budgeting skills. As time went by, Erica struggled, living paycheck to paycheck, living off her credit cards, and most of the time short money to cover her monthly expenses. She was then introduced to payday loan stores. Erica began to utilize payday loans as an alternative to help her cover her monthly expenses where she was short, not realizing that the payday loans were putting her into more debt. Erica over-extended, no savings, and tons of debt made the decision to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy to clear her debt. Erica soon after, was able to obtain a better paying job and increase her income and start to tread some way.
Erica vowed that she would have a comeback in real estate, and told herself and everyone around her that all she needed was “one property” and that she was going to take off, and be as big as the Mandel Group. Erica after selling the duplex began to further educate herself in financial literacy. She also continued to further her college education, getting her bachelor’s degree in social work, and eventually her master’s degree in social work.
Like most on their journey, Erica was moving along but relapsed back into unhealthy money management practices again, resulting in her getting into debt again, not to the extent of the first go around, but enough to where she now had to file a chapter 13 bankruptcy (debt cancellation). Erica had to put in the work to pull herself out of yet another financial hardship.
In 2017, Erica had rebuilt herself back up, improving her credit score, accumulating savings, and now making smarter financial choices and spending habits. In 2017, Erica purchased her 2nd property, a single family home in the Roosevelt Grove neighborhood in Milwaukee.
On December 1, 2018, Erica began her company, Odom Investments & Property Management LLC. Erica then began to venture more into her real estate journey. She was able to sell her single family home, and made enough money where she was able to purchase another investment property for her to live, and purchase and remodel a third investment property, and pay off a few more debts she had accumulated since. Erica was now debt free! Erica continued to grow her real estate portfolio.
Erica wanted to be the voice and the advocate for others, by making sure they had what they needed in regards to what she believes are the core financial literacy concepts such as budgeting, savings, credit, and how to build wealth. Also making sure people knew the home buying process and felt confident during their process of purchasing a home. Erica, having gone through years of battling lack of financial literacy skills and struggling financially herself, was determined to break the cycle in most homes and in particular minority homes of not having conversations around financial literacy.
Although Erica had a good childhood growing up and had what she needed, she lacked an important thing, and that was the education around financial literacy. Erica was taught that you have to work, get a job, go to college, and pay your bills. Erica observed her mother her whole life work hard, and work multiple jobs, to make sure her and her sister had everything they needed and wanted, and pay the household bills. Erica when she became an adult, now having her own responsibilities, lacked important financial literacy concepts, and then had to learn from her mistakes and failures along her journey.
Because of this, Erica began to offer home buying workshops at the local Milwaukee Public libraries. And then the COVID-19 pandemic occurred in 2020 and public workshops were no longer an option. It was during this time that Erica had built her own financial literacy and home buying course called, Journey to Success. Erica created a workbook as a guide that she gave out to individuals to follow the course curriculum. Erica turned her “workbook” into a published book called, Journey to Success that was published on October 27, 2022. Erica later published her second book, Journey to Success The “Unforgotten” Teen (All the Things You Don’t Get Taught) on November 30, 2023, which is a book that teaches teenagers and young adults what she believes are the basic core concepts of financial literacy.
Erica, today, a successful real estate investor, specializing in fix and flips and buy and holds, has purchased and sold several properties, and continues to grow her real estate portfolio. Her business offers property management services to other real estate investors, they buy, sell, and rent properties, and offer financial literacy coaching services through their online five week financial literacy course, Journey to Success. Erica says her strength is keeping things organized and bringing it all together. Erica does all of the project management on all of her property remodels herself. Erica has built a “success team” and together they are a force and continue to grow and expand.
Erica has recently begun another sector in her journey, as a radio personality on Hittin Hard Radio (https://hittinhardradio.com/) every Friday morning on her show called, On The Journey With Coach Erica. Erica’s show is a platform for the world to have conversations around mindset, money, and real estate. Erica, also designed and began her own clothing brand name the Journey Collection. Her brand is sold through her pop up online boutique, named Boutiques On The Go (https://boutiques-on-the-go.printify.me/products) .
Erica continues her journey and lives by her company’s mission in striving to provide affordable housing, while changing communities, and bringing life back to homes.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As mentioned earlier, it has not been easy financially along my journey. But then there are other struggles that come with being in the real estate industry, such as being a woman working in the field of what the world views as a predominately male industry. With that comes that added struggles of receiving what I call earned respect. Often when I tell people, males in particular what I do, they are often in disbelief, and they attempt to shut me down during our conversation, or treat me as if I lack knowledge or don’t know what I am talking about. I will never forget the day on one of my job sites when I had a Caucasian male contractor look at me and tell me , “Erica you will fail because you don’t know what you are doing.”
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As mentioned previously, I wear many hats, such as a real estate investor and entrepreneur.
What sets me apart from others is YES I have failed more than once on my journey, but the difference is I didn’t stop. I didn’t allow my failures to get me down and keep me down. I didn’t stop believing in myself. I kept going and continue to go forward on my journey to success, remain resilient, and continue to keep my faith, even when I can’t sometimes see how things will work out.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I am what we call a world traveler. Traveling is my hobby and I enjoy it. I love the entire process from researching the place I am traveling to, creating the agenda, finding activities to do, and purchasing my outfits for the trip. It gives me something to look forward to and the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I prefer to travel internationally versus in the states. I have traveled to several countries, one being Egypt which was an eye opening life changing experience for me.
Source: https://canvasrebel.com/rising-stars-meet-erica-coach-erica-odom/