Live in It Like You Own It with Roots

Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio

Co-founder Larry Dorfman with Roots joins the Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast to share details about how the nonprofit organization partners with residents to build wealth and identifies and selects properties for investments. Dorfman sits down with Show Host and President of Denim Marketing Carol Morgan and discusses how Roots maintains high returns for investors. Kicking off their informative chat, Morgan shared a quote that has acted as a cornerstone for Dorfman’s career: “Succeed not because it’s big or because it’s long-established, but because there are people who live it, sleep it, dream it and build future plans for it.” Dorfman shared that he found the quote hanging in a print shop in 1984 and has referred to it since. Dorfman said, “I had no idea where it came from, but it lived with us through that business and is now living with us through this one.” Originally from New York, Dorfman moved to the Atlanta area in 1956. When he was younger, he worked in his father’s office equipment company and entered the real estate sector at the age of 28. Soon, he founded his first company alongside his future wife—APCO Holdings. The company experienced great success and he retired in 2019. During the pandemic, he stayed with his son Daniel, who has an impressive 15-year-long real estate career. The two put their heads together and devised the idea for Roots. Dorfman said, “I thought it was a cool idea and all the pieces fit really well!” The concept for Roots initially came from his son Daniel’s impressive market knowledge. One notable thing his son saw time after time was that after selling someone a home, they would commonly return within six months to purchase their first rental home. He would have to inform them that putting 10% percent down was insufficient. In reality, 20% down or more is necessary to have enough income to cover both the new and rental home investment. Dorfman said, “About 90% of Americans have nowhere to really invest in real estate…[Daniel wanted] to truly democratize it.” Dorfman and his son planned to figure out the legal aspects and put into place how one could achieve it, build a fund and successfully invest in real estate. That idea eventually became Roots, a REIT that creates wealth for its investors and its renters. This led to the creation of the “Live in it Like You Own it®” program. Through this program, Roots is turning the tables on the adversarial landlord/tenant relationship by partnering with its residents. When residents take care of their properties and pay rent on time, they can grow their wealth by up to $3,600 in two years and up to $10,000 in five years through incentives and investment in the Roots REIT. Along with his son, Dorfman invested in nine duplexes in Austell, Georgia and told the residents that if they paid their rent on time, were good neighbors and submitted a quick video of their property once a quarter, Roots would invest their security deposit into the fund and award them with an additional $150 per quarter in the first year and $200 per quarter in the second year to place into their wealth building account. The Roots founding team posited that if they could incentivize their residents with a great place to live while building wealth as they rent, Roots would have fewer vacancies, lower turnover rates and higher returns for their investors. The numbers confirm their theory. Roots far exceeds industry averages with renewal rates at 77% (industry avg: 57%) and average occupancy of 97% (industry avg: 91%). An impressive 88.3% of residents paid their rent on time and submitted their quarterly videos. Roots’ residents have built more than $465,000 in their Wealth Builder accounts to date. The success is due in part to Roots’ proprietary resident engagement SaaS platform, Bloom, a first-ever resident engagement solution aimed to transform the tenant/landlord relationship into a partnership. The company is further boosted by generous inv...