Nid Group, LLC

The Morehouse grad was enjoying his work as a management consultant in Chicago, with his first nice apartment in the South Loop area, when divine intervention altered his path. “There was a gas leak in my apartment building in November, and all the tenants were evacuated to a nearby hotel until the problem was resolved,” he says. “But the leak never got fixed. Everyone received their money back, and I found myself with nowhere to live. I felt homeless during the holiday season.” That’s when he realized the power of real estate and the importance of home ownership. As a Christmas gift, he purchased his first condo and never looked back. “I wanted to harness that overwhelming feeling of joy and relief at having a home into something more, towards a passion,” he says. “That experience taught me that the business of real estate is very emotional. And for me, it’s a personal calling that became a business.”