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Glamour's Women of the Year
UD vs. Northern Kentucky
Magic visits with area students
Young entrepreneurs: After fixing up houses, UD senior rents them to classmates
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Vince Pecoraro, who will be a senior at the University of Dayton in the fall, owns three properties in Dayton and is looking to buy his fourth -— this one for a quarter of a million dollars — and he's only 21 years old.
"I don't really plan to ever work for a company unless I have to," Pecoraro said. But just in case, he's working a full-time internship at NCR this summer and rehabilitating his latest property on the weekends.
University of Dayton senior Vince Pecoraro fixed up this house on Alberta Street and rents it to four UD students."Once I get the houses done, I just have to keep (the renters) happy," he said, "sending them flowers on their birthdays, you know, stupid stuff like that."
Betsy Brooks, one of his tenants and a student at UD, said she prefers a younger landlord. "Since I am a student, he knows what we're going through and he's eager to help us...It's easier to trust him because he's a student," she said.
He started his first business in third grade, selling candy to his classmates that he purchased — with his own money — in bulk from Sam's Club.
"I pointed out an inequity in a marketplace," he said. He even hired two classmates to sell for him, paying them with free candy.
Pecoraro will graduate in May with five — yes, five — bachelor's degrees: accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, leadership and business.
He bought his first house, in UD's South Student Neighborhood, at age 18 for $28,000. "I paid cash for my first two houses," he said, and has borrowed a grand total of $8,000 from his father for the properties he's acquired.
After doing about $2,000 in repairs on the first house, he rented it out and moved on campus for his freshman year of college.
His second house, also in UD's South Student Neighborhood, was condemned when he bought it. He lived there while he rebuilt the floors, the bathroom, installed a washer and dryer and fixed holes in the walls.
This May, he rented his second house to four UD students and moved into his third under a land contract. He is also considering partnering with his father and grandfather to buy a commercial building in Dayton for $250,000.
Venture: Local real estate investment
Founder: Vince Pecoraro, 21
Founded: Sept. 2005
Initial Investment: $30,000
