How West Michigan Investor Josh Moore Stopped Trying to Do It All Himself

There was no office when Josh Moore started learning real estate. There was a couch, a one-year-old, and children’s shows playing in the background. Moore was a stay-at-home dad in West Michigan, teaching himself an industry without a mentor, a network, or much money behind him.

“I was learning real estate with our daughter in my arms and a phone in my hand,” he says.

The Road Before Real Estate

Moore has been trying to build something for as long as he can remember.

He sold vacuums door to door in Arizona, and when the money ran out he slept under his boss’s desk for two months. He managed a rapper, opened a studio, made his own music, toured the country with Project Pat of Three 6 Mafia, and put together his own small run of shows in Japan. He did well buying and selling rare sneakers. Then he co-founded a software company.

The company spent nine months building for its first major client. Then the client ran out of money and could not pay. It fell apart when Moore’s partner was seven months pregnant with their first daughter.

His philosophy comes out of those years: you fail your way to success. Every wrong turn you identify and correct is a path you never have to walk again.

The Ask

At home with a baby and a failed company behind him, Moore asked his partner for something big.

“I asked her to help carry things while I built something new,” he says. “I promised I would work toward getting her to a place where she could quit her job.”

She said yes before there was any proof it would work.

The First Deal

It took Moore nine months to get his first property under contract. Then he had to walk away from it.

The break came from an unexpected call. An investor from California phoned one of Moore’s acquisition ads, stuck with a Michigan property he had bought remotely. Moore helped him sort it out. Within 48 hours, Moore had a deal of his own.

He kept going, kept learning and kept structuring. His first real check was just under $46,000, and it came from that couch.

Along the way he found creative finance: seller financing, subject-to acquisitions and other structures most people never hear about. It changed how he saw every deal. The goal was no longer just buying property. It was building structures that work for every person at the table.

Building With Partners, Not Alone

Today Moore is a full-time real estate investor in West Michigan. He buys through West Michigan Property Solutions, and he partnered with investor Dillon Pinkus to launch Home and Neighbor HomeBuyers.

Moore is strong at acquisitions himself. At Home and Neighbor, Pinkus leads them, which frees Moore to focus on growing and scaling the business and the systems behind it.

“My real sauce is combining the systems I create with partnering with people,” Moore says. “That lets me do more things and take on more adventures without anything getting watered down.”

Why It Matters

Addison North invited Moore onto its board for his entrepreneurial expertise. He ended up creating the framework for a financial education system that helps underserved communities understand the basics and beyond.

His family is the reason behind all of it.

“The reason I keep building is pretty simple,” he says. “More time with my family, more room to make decisions, and more ability to help where it matters.”

Learn more about Josh Moore at his website, and about West Michigan Property Solutions and Home and Neighbor HomeBuyers. Follow him on Instagram and connect on LinkedIn.