COVER STORY
JOSH STECH
The Real Estate Matchmaker
Josh Stech and his Sundae team connect sellers with property investors
BY JOE DYTON PHOTOS BY: SEAN HORTON
FOR JOSH STECH, helping people find a better place to live has never been a job, but a calling. Stech is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sundae, a California-based firm that specializes in connecting people looking to sell homes that could “use a little love” with property investors looking to buy. His interest in real estate goes far beyond his co-cre- ation of Sundae three years ago, however. Growing up in a real estate family, the industry was always top of mind for him. Stech’s mom was a sales agent and property manag- er, and his dad was an investor in pre-construction developments and opportunity zones. That’s why it’s not surprising that he applied the
Bachelor’s degree in economics he earned at Stanford to real estate, and the ongoing 2008 housing crash in particular. “I did my honors thesis on the subprime lending crisis—not just what was happening economically to the country, but specifically how that was impacting some of the under- served segments of the population,” Stech said. “Remittance activity back to Latin America and other parts of the world shined a light for me on the distress that the country was seeing, specifically the housing driven distress that was happening at the time (2008 and 2009) and the number of families that were being impacted by it.”
The moment was a formative one for Stech. He became focused on understanding how to revitalize the dilapidated, bank-owned homes that were bringing down neighbor- hoods’ value. Stech moved to Las Vegas after he finished college and jumped into the real estate busi- ness. He began to purchase homes from bank auctions, manage the construction and ultimately sell them. He also provided loans to other property investors who were doing the same. “I started the business with my dad. We were a small, one-stop shop for quite some time,” Stech said. “It was exciting, challenging and rewarding to improve the condition
14 | think realty magazine :: august 2021
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