people,” Beasley said. “Why would I leave this cool job where I’m flying around buying resorts to go to some startup that’s probably going to run out of money? But in my mind, I did the calculations and thought if this works, which fortunately it did, it could be a transformational event personally and professionally to take a company like this, figure it out and maybe take it public someday. We were able to take it public and it was a great life experience.” Beasley has spent his career in various roles, incrementally build- ing skills and experience which has culminated with having been CEO of four different companies. As Beasley gained experience, he always was looking for innovative models within real estate to take part in—putting
to people coming out of undergrad or business school is do those first couple of jobs for the experience and don’t worry about an extra amount of
“I learned a lot and found I really enjoyed real estate,” Beasley said. Beasley eventually went to busi- ness school and expected he’d come out and do something else. He worked for the chairman of Security Capital Group, Bill Sanders, who had also been a prior founder of LaSalle Partners, but was starting another company in Santa Fe. He paid Beasley about half as much as he was offered from other companies, but he accept - ed because he got to work directly with his boss. “I essentially carried his brief- case, but got to sit really close to the sun and learn how he founded that business, how he raised capital and managed his business,” Beasley said. “To me, that was a continuation of my MBA. A big piece of advice I give
salary that you’re foregoing.” Wisely, Beasley took his own
advice. That initial, lower-paying job out of business school helped put him in a position where he could advance faster than if he had taken a more traditional career path after gradu- ation. The knowledge he amassed gave him the confidence to take calculated risks with his job choices going forward. Before Beasley got into the single-family rental space, he was running acquisitions for a resort company for six years. He then became CFO of a new Internet-based brokerage called ZipRealty. “It didn’t make sense to a lot of
20 | think realty magazine :: august 2020
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