Our Vision
We are establishing a business model that can sustainably and profitably offer affordable housing. Other real estate entrepreneurs will follow our lead, helping to rapidly address the affordable housing shortage across the country.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide below-market housing for our residents and above-market returns for our investors. We achieve this primarily by focusing on ‘eco-units’—dwelling units that are smaller and more affordable than market standards. We are committed to making a positive social and environmental impact while ensuring fair and competitive compensation for our employees and contractors.
Our Values
Our residents are our partners.
We expect residents to contribute one-third of their earnings each month. We cannot succeed without their success.
Our investors are our clients.
Investors have a choice in where to invest their capital, and we must continually earn and maintain their trust to support our model.
We follow the data.
Conventional wisdom is strong in real estate, and we need to follow the data to make better decisions. We thrive when we see things that others don’t.
We pay it forward.
Ours is an industry of small business entrepreneurs. We only succeeded with help from our mentors, and we owe it to the next generation to pay it forward.
Diversity is our asset.
Our resident partners are diverse, and we cannot succeed without understanding and aligning with them. We prioritize diversity and always pay a competitive wage.
About
Great Expectations was founded in 2019 by Ben Maritz, a former management consultant who was passionate about finding data-driven, market-based solutions to his home regions housing issues, including homelessness. While researching the topic of housing construction as part of a pro-bono engagement, Ben was struck by the wide discrepancy in construction costs for different types of housing units. He realized, as others had before him, that small units could deliver a sustainable way to build more housing at scale.
In 2021, realizing that small, naturally affordable homes had unique management challenges, Great Expectations created a property management division called Arboreal Management. Arboreal manages the Great Expectations portfolio as well similar format homes for a set of 2-3 partners who share our values.
Today, Great Expectations owns and/or operates over 1,600 housing units and has a development pipeline of 650 more in various stages of construction. Our geographic focus is the urban centers of the Pacific Northwest. We have successfully led multiple investment syndications and have built expertise in Opportunity Zone investment structures. We are actively exploring innovative funding sources for affordable housing, including corporate partnerships, HUD programs, and Tax Credit / Tax Exempt Bond programs.
Ben and the Great Expectations team are committed to advocating for greater housing affordability and an end to homelessness. We are similarly committed to advocating for greater equity in the real estate development industry.
