“Serialpreneur: one who owns and operates three or more businesses.“
Ms. LaTrice Martin starts her introduction off like this on her website, along with the list of companies she operates. A bright and purposeful woman based in Houston, Texas, Ms. Martin is the owner of Save Your Properties, a company dedicated to helping families keep their homes from foreclosure and The Flipper’s Corner which teaches aspiring real estate investors how to properly purchase and flip houses and gain a return. These are just a few of the companies and many operations she manages on a day-to-day basis. Because of her love and dedication to the world of real estate and law—as she is pursuing a Masters of Law as of this year—many people have come to cherish Ms. Martin and her hard work to save people’s homes. At the heart of all of her companies is a woman who desires to help and give a lending hand to those in need.
“Thank you so much, SYP for lowering my mortgage payments and keeping me in my home when I was facing a difficult time in my life,” one Yelp review lists on the company’s website. “She did what the bank said couldn’t be done, saved my home,” another review read. “I always wanted to save the small guy, I wanted to rescue them,” Ms. Martin said. So naturally, in 1996 while working for the bank, an idea to help more people save their homes came into her head.
“I was working for the bank; I was a mortgage banker. And we could not help anyone I worked with nationwide, or people that I knew personally. They would all get denied. And in 1998 … a friend of mine referred me to a family member of hers and he told me how he could help me become a loan officer. I pretty much worked for myself. It was pretty much the realization that unless I was independent that [the company I wanted to create] wasn’t gonna happen.”
Ms. Martin references “systems, processes and procedures” on how she manages her personal and professional life, along with her school life. “There’s a system for everything, a system for the system,” she added. “There’s a system when we answer the phone, how we answer the phone is going to be the same way every time during the call. How we make the payment, how we update the client, the paperwork that we fill out.” All of their departments work together and work toward the same goal, so that each transaction may run smoothly and effectively. Ms. Martin favorite quote that also helps her stay motivated is “focus on your focus” by Beyonce. “My favorite quotes are all about focus. That’s who I am, I’m a focused person.”
Ms. Martin wants to leave her businesses in good hands by training her staff and having her business live beyond her: “For me, it’s about legacy. When I close my eyes, I want my businesses to run without me, [and know] that they’re not going to die without me. I don’t want to take them to the grave. And when I’m dead and gone I want to make sure that I have left jewels for other people; that they have learned from my mistakes, from my failures, and from my gains.” Along with her passion for helping people, she gets inspiration from her testimonies from clients. “When they say ‘we couldn’t get anybody to save someone’s house, to get approved for a mortgage in a home, to help someone find an attorney, or being able to help come up with an argument, I get fired up from those. I get really inspired.”
Ms. Martin is also inspired to keep pursuing all the responsibilities she has for her businesses, her customers, and the people she serves through “God using me to do His work.” “You know, entrepreneurship is a calling,” she begins, “it needs to be something that is from God, and God-inspired. And we don’t give ourselves vision, the vision is God’s vision. I’m just holding the mantle; it doesn’t belong to me. The moment I lose sight of that, everything falls apart.”
Ms. Martin can be found at her personal website here along with her businesses and social media.
