The History Of Zelite
When you think of a millionaire, what is the first thing that you think of?
If real estate didn’t pop into your mind, you should definitely listen up!
“Ninety percent of the world’s millionaires have acquired their wealth through real estate.” - Andrew Carnegie
This is not only a powerful quote but a powerful truth about how generational wealth is built around the world.
Now, how do you tell a kid that grew up in a small city on the rough side of town with a single mother that they can be successful in real estate? How can frame this concept of building generational wealth through real estate in a way so that it will have an everlasting impact on them?
I was that kid! But once I understood the power of real estate investing, it was life-changing for me, and it just may be life-changing for you as well.
The Founder’s Story
My name is Derrick Ziglar Jr., CEO and Co-Founder of Zelite, and I was that kid. When I was first introduced to the world of real estate investing, the race was on to learn everything I could to be successful. I applied the same mentality as a Division I athlete to learning about real estate investing.
I would spend hours and days on random websites, passing out my email to hundreds of investors promoting their “Ultimate Guide To Investing In Real Estate,” which always came with some watered-down outline that left me with more questions if it even helped at all. These guides always seemed to be incomplete as a marketing strategy to upsell their more expensive real estate investing courses.
One investor’s advice seems always to contradict the last “guru’s” investing advice. Still, either way, I relentlessly spent my first year educating myself through YouTube videos, podcasts, and audiobooks. The educational process was helpful but very frustrating because I found myself wasting a lot of time trying to find useful, consolidated real estate information.
I was fortunate enough to acquire a great mentor who offered me guidance on how I could attain the necessary knowledge needed to be successful. My mentor showed me that the process of learning real estate is a journey of connecting the dots.
BUT I continued to question “WHY” was real estate investing this way?
The Birth and Foundation of Zelite
Let’s start by asking ourselves, “WHY?”
Why is this the normal process that every investor goes through? Why hasn’t this problem been addressed using technology, like so many other problems facing our society?
Over the years, I have met a significant number of people that have spent thousands of dollars learning from real estate experts but still found themselves reaching out to other investors for more advice. These people not only lost their money but valuable time that delayed them from actually investing in real estate.
Without proper education, investing in real estate can be very risky. Having a solid foundation is important before starting your investing journey, but so is taking action. You will learn a lot more as an investor during the process, so don’t be afraid to take that next step once you have built your foundation.
We created Zelite to ensure investors have the right foundation so they can take action as real estate investors.
So, did my journey with Zelite begin?
At the time, I had only been investing for about two years, and it wasn’t long after I got my third property that I got the opportunity to tell my story as an investor on a few podcasts. The response that I received from these podcasts was unbelievable. I am in no way an expert seeing that I am still learning every day myself, but it was as if the investors who had listened to these podcasts thought I had a secret book on investing.
With this newfound demand, I began to create a consolidated guide that would connect new investors to great educational content geared towards the various investing strategies. My initial thought was to copy and paste various links and categorize everything to make it easy and then simply send it to investors who requested information. In the middle of my educational treasure hunt, I thought.
Why don’t we have an app that we can use as an educational tool for investing, similar to the deal-analyzing calculators and apps that help us find properties via the MLS?
I mentioned this idea to some friends and they all loved the idea, especially the ones that invested in real estate. I then began to connect with other investors to propose my solution, and to my surprise, everyone loved it!
That’s all the fuel I needed to tackle a vision that, little did I know, would grow daily over the next few months.
On that night, Zelite (Zuh-leet), a mobile platform for real estate education and investing, was born. With this app, we can democratize real estate investing by creating an opportunity to increase the number of people becoming millionaires through real estate.
This vision can be accomplished by providing investors the ultimate companion to their investing journey. Zelite is a consolidated educational resource emphasizing the most efficient and easiest ways to learn to invest in real estate. We aim to provide tools, resources and partnerships that will assist investors while they focus on growing their portfolio. We are in the early stage of our beta testing, but we have a strategic plan to grow with our users and collect feedback from innovating our way towards becoming the ultimate REI app.
I know this is a large task to tackle for a huge market, but the impact will be even greater. Millennials have taken over technology and real estate while expecting that apps provide quick and easy education. The generation following us is growing up on the latest mobile technology; therefore we will intend to provide a mobile resource that aligns with their expectation.
Years ago, we realized the importance of easy access to education and the positive impact on individuals, and I believe this same concept applies to REI. By making the educational process easier, investors can better implement the strategies, and more people will be able to build a better future for themselves. This will give people like myself a greater chance to build generational wealth and the opportunity to change how the next generation views finances.
That is why Zelite is here! It is past time we make real estate investing more accessible for everyone.
Derrick Ziglar Jr.
CEO & Co-Founder of Zelite