Tell us how and when you began your career in the profession you are in: My husband was a real estate appraiser and consultant for over 15 years. He worked a lot of hours and was getting frustrated with the day to day grind. About three years ago (maybe even four) he was upset about a deal he had consulted on because he did all of the work and the broker had the largest check for doing basically nothing. From there I pushed him into doing brokerage, so our first idea/company was born. We were able to use his connections to obtain deals that were not on the market and to sell them relatively quickly because these were properties that he had completely vetted through his appraisal work. After a while, some of these deals became too stressful to manage along with his “day job”. Not having a background in real estate or any real estate licenses or education it was hard for me to help outside of the marketing and brainstorming. I knew I had always wanted to build, own, design and develop properties so that is when 3P was born. Chris already had access to great deals so we were covered there. We brought in our partner, Shree Shah, who has a background in capital markets to underwrite the deals and source capital for the projects. I am now able to work more on the branding and business development as well as administrative tasks. It was a long year with a lot of bumps to get to the point we are at today, but I find real estate to be exciting and I love projects that change not only one building but really the face and lifestyle of an entire town. What is your current position? I am a co-founder along with my husband as well as the Chief Administrative Officer, but really, I am also in charge of marketing, branding, design and am involved with all other aspects of the business. My background is in marketing and I am currently obtaining a certificate in Interior Design and Architecture so eventually I would like to focus more on those areas. In addition, I put a lot of time into business development and brainstorming, then implementing ways for our company to continue to grow.
Alison Otteau, 3P Equity Capital