Kim Babb
Kim Babb
Over the last three decades, Kim Avant-Babb, co-Founder of Babb Properties, has methodically built a system that provides quality housing and community stability in Philadelphia. She’s done so with consistency, grit, a thirst to learn, meticulous customer service, and landlord integrity.
Babb Properties
Babb Properties owns a robust and valued portfolio of single-family properties and boasts a nearly unheard-of 0% eviction rate.
As a highly successful landlord strategist and real estate investor, Kim generously imparts her insights and proven tactics through her consulting firm, Legacy Real Estate Consulting. She also shares her time and talents in various philanthropic endeavors.
Catching the bug
Shortly after Kim and Randy Babb married, they received a life-changing offer from Randy’s mother, Stella Babb. By day, Stella sewed in a South Philly-based coat factory, but she was also a savvy, self-taught real estate investor outside of work.Stella had come across a particular property that she wanted Kim and Randy to buy, but they were concerned about affording both a primary residence and an investment property. Stella addressed those concerns by sharing that she had saved $14,000 that had been ear-marked as their inheritance, but could instead be used as their down payment on the investment property. Kim and Randy decided to accept Stella’s offer and invest, and that was the beginning of their real estate journey.
Creating and controlling the Babb economy
Early in their lives as real estate investors, Kim and Randy were downsized by their employers. Kim moved on to other professional roles, but they realized they needed to control their own economy. After taking stock in their skills, they realized that with Randy’s construction skills and Kim’s property management experience (she managed Stella’s portfolio) and knowledge of procurement, business development, and customer service, the real estate industry was ripe with opportunities.
“There are three requirements of existing—food, shelter, and clothing. So, we realized if we could provide quality shelter, with a focus on tenant engagement and relationships, we could build an economic engine that would churn despite what was happening with our nine-to-five jobs,” Kim explains.
Creating and controlling the Babb economy
Kim approaches prospective tenants as she would a marriage prospect: “You court your tenants, vet their backgrounds, and eventually develop a prenup – the lease agreement,” explains Kim. “The secret to our success is simple. Screening. Screening. Screening. Once a tenant completes an application to one of our properties, I turn into a female Sherlock Holmes to ensure the candidate would be a good addition to our tenant community,” she adds.
Kim’s eight-step screening process includes interviews, social media reviews, talking with previous landlords, obtaining photos of rooms in the prospective tenant’s current dwelling, and in-person interviews. This rigorous process has led to an unprecedented zero percent eviction rate for Babb Properties .
“We only accept the cream-of-the-crop,” Kim said. “We have a stellar reputation in the community, and candidates know that a lease with Babb Properties is like winning a golden ticket.”
Not a spectator sport
“Land lording is a business, not a spectator sport,” says Kim. “You have to constantly be running plays, designing plays, and working on your game. Some people think you can just set it and forget it, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. To be successful, you must have systems in place to cultivate every part of the cycle – the seed, the soil, and the harvest. This is where Better Than Success adds tremendous value. They expose the good, the bad, and the ugly of real estate investing, which is tremendously helpful in preparing members to succeed, and giving them the right tools and headspace to compete.”
Creating and controlling the Babb economy
The learn, earn, return motto has not only helped Kim become successful as a real estate investor, but it’s also one that she has modeled in her life. As a lifelong learner, Kim makes time to constantly build on her real estate knowledge and networks, cultivate new interests, and pour back that knowledge for the betterment of the community. The professional accomplishment that she is most proud of is creating and implementing a nationally recognized and regionally accredited redevelopment training institute with the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority (NJDA). The program has nstructed over 3,000 attorneys, planners, elected officials, developers, and non-profit leaders on all areas of the redevelopment process, She also developed the Pass the Torch mentorship program that teaches sewing skills, fashion history, volunteering, wealth building, and entrepreneurship. In addition, Babb Properties donated two properties to a non-profit organization that is transforming them into a shelter for abused women and children and transitional housing for the homeless.
In addition, Babb Properties has donated two properties to a non-profit organization that is transforming them into a shelter for abused women and children and transitional housing for the homeless.
Kim helped build the Babb Properties enterprise while raising a family and working full-time in various professional capacities in an array of industries including academia, transportation, and government. She recently celebrated her 60th birthday and gave herself a birthday gift: she has finally retired from her nine-to-five career. When asked to reflect on her professional life, she sums it up with this: #TrulyBlessed.
On a Personal Note
Descriptors that Fit:
Lifetime student, Entreoreneur, Woman of pride and exciments
Family:
Husband, three adult sons, and ten grandchildren
Favorite Books:
Who Moved My Cheese and The Color of Law: A Forgetten History of How Our
Goverment Segregated America
Motivational Playlist:
Dr. Eric Thomas, Les Brown, Lisa Nichols, and Tony Robbins.
Mentors:
Gregory Reaves and Leslue Smallwood, co-founders of Mosaic Development
Partners, a social impact development and reinsvestment firm in Philly.
Best Advice received:
Always do what you say you are going to, and if you can’t, communicate that you
can’t
Creative outlets:
Founder and Fashion Designer of Ameenah Designs that designs and manufactures
unique and limited-edition garments for women.
