Nick Jekogian
(Posted on Monday, August 29, 2022)
Nick Jekogian grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. His father was a short-haul truck driver and his mom was a stay-at-home mom. Nick has a younger brother and sister and was the first in his family to go to college. He started mowing lawns when he was twelve and launched a computer programming business at fourteen. Working hard seemed natural to him.
While Nick was still in college, he started buying small walk-up apartment buildings in Philly, on his own. It wasn’t that he had the cash to do so. Credit card companies were offering free bags of peanut M&Ms for applications, so Nick filled out loads of applications and was approved for multiple credit cards. He bought his first apartment building for $140K, with $100K of bank debt and $40K of credit card debt.
Nick’s timing was exceptional – interest rates were low and the real estate market was taking off. He grew the business by taking on more debt. There was really no other option for a twenty-five-year-old with no track record or net worth.
Fifteen years after he started the business, Nick owned $350 million worth of real estate with only $250 million of debt. He had a net worth of $100 million.
Then the stock market crashed.