Today we’d like to introduce you to Dominic Green and Jason Brown.
Dominic and Jason, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Dominic Green
I was born in Lansing Michigan but raised mostly in the northern part of Houston called Greenspoint, which at that time was nicked name Gunpoint for obvious reasons. I eventually graduated from Aldine Senior High. I went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin graduating with a degree in Economics and Business Foundations. It was at UT, seating in The Perry-Castañeda Library amongst autobiographies of entrepreneurs and businessmen, that I realized I wanted to be in business. I wasn’t sure the type of business I wanted but I knew I wanted to build a business of my own. A statement that stood out to me in those entrepreneurial books I read was “ a business worth starting is one that solves problems, has a purpose, and serves others.” Given my background, I knew a few problems I wanted to solve.
As I continued to research and try to figure out the type of business I wanted to create, I realized a common theme in the books was real estate and sales skills. It took me a while to leap into real estate. As luck would have it, if you can call it that, upon my graduation from UT the country was going through a recession and no one wanted to hire an economics major, ironically. The opportunities available to me were sales jobs that were 100% commission. I knew if I was going to be in business, I would need sales skills or better yet the ability to actively listen, communicate, and solve problems, which many of the business people in the books I read talk about as a necessary prerequisite. So, I accepted the 100% commission sales job and begun the journey, which eventually led me to finally deciding to get into real estate. During this time, thoughts of getting into real estate ate away at me. In addition, my friend from college, now business partner, had made the leap and was telling me now is the time to go live the life you want without regrets.
Finally, I decided to do it, figuratively burning the boats of retreat. I marched forward into the unknown as a real estate professional with a willingness to pay the price of admission to achieve my goals. My journey has included a lot of false starts, setbacks, on the job learning, emotional challenges, relationship strains, and financial pressures. These challenges were magnified by having a 7-year-old son at the time and an eventual wife, who no doubt supported me but probably had her doubts of making a drastic change towards entrepreneurship without a safety net.
It’s funny looking back on how things played out. Going through those tough times, where you feel like things keep going the wrong way and you think it will never end. Then, suddenly there’s a reversal of fortune. Your phone calls to potential clients start being returned, failed opportunities resurrect themselves, and positive momentum builds.
One day, I was invited to a pitch meeting by an Urban Farming startup looking to raise capital to fund their business’s ongoing efforts. Listening to the pitch, I remember thinking “this company was betting the farm on a hope contract”. They had already committed capital to inventory, expensive equipment and signed a long-term commercial lease. I wondered why no one warned them against making such a commitment without previously securing financial backing, especially knowing the nature of a commercial lease commitment and financial obligation. I didn’t invest in the company at that time, however, I decided to circle back a week later and upon my arrival, there was a lockout notice on the door for lack of payment. You could see thousands of dollars of equipment locked inside. At that moment, I decided to get into commercial real estate tenant representation exclusively. Upon further research, you could see this company was not alone in making this mistake. A lot of small-medium size businesses, startups, non-profits and alike were being underserved in Dallas.
If you weren’t generating tens or more millions of dollars in revenue, you didn’t get the same level of service from brokers, who were interested in large public companies with several hundred employees. The problem was even worse for minority business owners as many conveyed they did not even receive a response from brokers they reached out to.
Combining forces with a friend from UT, who was doing investment sales, we embarked on creating what is now our own commercial real estate brokerage…ATENANTco Commercial Real Estate Services. We leveraged our knowledge, resources, experiences, and just get it done attitudes.
ATENANTco Commercial Real Estate is a Tenant/Buyer/ Investor oriented commercial real estate brokerage company that provides full brokerage services and resources to small-midsize businesses, startups, non-profits, local or new restauranteurs, investors who have small portfolios of commercial real estate, and the like. We advocate for fair deals for our clients, protection of their short and long-term interests, and provide our clients the necessary information and advice to help them understand the downside along with the positives of conducting a certain transaction. Allowing them to make informed decisions. Hence our tag line, “Leveling The Playing Field”. As the saying goes, you can go fast alone but you can go further together. We work hard for our clients, as if we are owners of their business, making sure we and they don’t unintentionally jeopardize the success of their business or negatively impact the lives of their employees.
We still experience our share of pains and challenges, but we have been making strides in adding talent to our team in order to further our mission to be a commercial real estate brokerage brand that’s the preferred choice for small-midsize businesses, startups, nonprofit, and more to assign their most important commercial real estate needs and objectives. Thus far, I would say “Not Too Shabby”, as my grandmother would say, especially for a black boy who grew up in a single parent apartment.
Jason Brown
I am a native of Sunny South Dallas. As a kid, I was always curious about how things worked. I spent many hours of my childhood taking apart bicycles, remotes, computers, whatever I could get my hands on, and putting them back together. This has come in handy in my adult life as I can now fix anything with the help of YouTube. Very little has changed with my curiosity about learning how the world works. I enjoy traveling to places I’ve never been to and exploring the inner workings of cities throughout the world. I also love hunting and spending time with my family and friends.
My first interest in commercial real estate came from a middle school career day. A real estate broker spoke to my class with great enthusiasm about how she sold office buildings and churches. She went on to talk about the flexibility in her schedule and how it fulfilled her dream of helping communities. At that age I was familiar with real estate agents who sold residential properties; I never fathomed that real estate could be done on a commercial level. As life progressed I came to know that all things are controlled by owning real estate. It influences things as simple as the placement of cell phone towers to large scale shopping center developments.
Real estate was not my first career. After college, I took a job in operations and had the opportunity to interact with clients who owned multiple forms of real estate. This role ultimately rekindled my interest in learning more about the industry. Upon obtaining my license, I started my career as a junior broker at a boutique investment firm where I brokered net-lease deals, ground leases, and real estate sale-leasebacks. Today I am a managing partner at a Commercial Real Estate Brokerage and Advisory Firm.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Dominic Green
Smooth road?! Far from it. My road is like that picture of the iceberg (above and underwater) that shows the truth about success that people don’t see. When you go back and read the struggles of great entrepreneurs, you realize that success isn’t a straight or a quick road. There are struggles hidden just out of the eyes’ view. I’ve been broke a time or two, clinging to the last dollars that I have to invest in the business. There have been times when I didn’t get paid for services rendered, deals I have worked on for months suddenly become dead in the water.
I have contributed funds to fix mistakes that in end is your fault because you should have seen the future, dealt with people not being reliable and going back on their word, even people turning out to be not who and what they say they were. I could go on and on but it just how business goes sometimes. We often say to ourselves that real estate is the Wild West, where there’s not a lot of protections and no set rules of how to get things done. I get up every day embracing it though because of the bigger picture of knowing my why and who I’m doing this for. I treat everything as a learning experience, helping us to identify solutions quicker. There is no better feeling than when your client tells you to thank you for your hard work now here’s your next assignment because you earned their business and trust.
Jason Brown
There is not a word that could appropriately explain the turbulence I encountered during my first year in business. I had several leads with clients in the oil and gas industry who planned on buying multiple real estate properties. Then in 2013-2014, the cost of oil started to decline. My clients ended up laying off their employees just to stay in business, and subsequently, the majority of my deals fell through. On top of this, my other real estate leads went dark, and I closed very few deals. My real estate salary from my first year in business was $7,000. Let that sink in.
$7,000. Naturally, I questioned myself several times on why I decided to leave my full-time job with benefits to be a commission only commercial real estate agent. I am so thankful to my wife who encouraged me to keep pushing and continue to pursue my passion. That financial setback gave me more determination and grit to achieve my dreams.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
ATENANTco Commercial Real Estate Services is a commercial real estate brokerage that serves small-medium size businesses, startups, non-profits, restauranteurs, and individual investors and the like that need to transact commercial real estate. Whether it’s helping our clients lease commercial space in Retail, Office, Industrial, Medical or for a Restaurant to a highly complex matter involving the facilitation of a company sale-leaseback or even helping individual investors with their Investment Portfolios throughout the State of Texas, we focus on what’s in best interest of our clients without the conflicts of interest. I believe collectively we are known for always coming from a place of contribution first, wanting to add value.
We’re are most proud of is the work we have done for our clients, even beating out the heavyweights to represent some clients. In particular, we earned the opportunity to represent Corsicana Bedding in their efforts to find a Dallas Headquarters. We beat out some heavy hitters to earn their business by the way we approached them with an additional value mindset. We focused on their needs and what was important to them. We wanted them to know from day one they were not just another transaction with a big name attached to it.
Another proud moment was helping our client open a secondary restaurant location in the DFW metroplex. Knowing that the restaurant business can be tough, especially financially, we negotiated hard to make sure we limited his and his wife’s liability and financial commitments should they need to close, sell, sublease, or even create a new restaurant concept. In addition, we made sure the suite was up to current building standards as we knew of all the things he had to do for his first location. We put in place the proper contingencies and ensured a thorough inspection of everything inside and out. Lastly, we structured his current and future renewal rents in a way that made them more predictable and within a range that would overtime lessen the percentage of overall sales. Overall, we felt like we represented our client’s interest just as good if not better than the larger brokerage agencies who do it for multimillion-dollar restaurant owners.
What most importantly sets us apart is being a true client first oriented business, who thinks long term. We are a people of integrity, doing what we say. We are resourceful, have a thirst for knowledge, always up for the challenge, can read the details but also see the big picture. Other brokerages have more people, larger bank accounts, more resources, but even with that, we have an internal belief we can compete with the best of them because in some cases we have and succeeded.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Dominic Green
While I can’t deny the financial rewards can be and are great, I have come to realize that success for me comes down to me feeling that I left everything on the field for our clients. I enjoy helping someone else. There is this feeling that I can’t truly explain when you do something for someone else. Most importantly though, inspiring my children, sisters, and others to truly embrace who they are, that they are more than enough, and they too can aim for the stars. For me, my journey is still in the early stages and there is a lot more I want to achieve and accomplish some personal and some for the black community at large. I want to create a legacy before it’s all said and done. There’s a line the movie Troy that comes to mind when talking about legacy in which there’s a conversation between the messenger boy who didn’t want to fight Boagrius and Achilles; the Messenger Boy says “The Thessalonian you’re fighting-He’s the biggest man I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t want to fight him”…Achilles: “That’s why no one will remember your name”.
Jason Brown
I define success as being able to say “Yes” when my family needs me.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1808 S. Latimer Expressway, STE102
Dallas TX 75226 - Website: www.atenantco.com
- Phone: 214-247-6211
- Email: dgreen@atenantco.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atenantco
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atenantco/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DominicGreenCRE
Image Credit:
D. Michae’ Photography-D’Landria Michae
Sharpe Shooter CA – Courtney Arnick
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