Our Vision
We are establishing a business model that can sustainably and profitable offer housing for low-income and workforce tenants. Other real estate entrepreneurs will follow our path and rapidly address the affordable housing shortage across the country.
Our Mission
Below-market housing for our residents and above-market returns for our investors. We do this primarily by focusing on “eco-units”, dwelling units that are physically smaller and more affordable than market standards. We are committed to having a positive social and environmental impact and paying a living wage to our employees and contractors.
Our Values
Our residents are our partners.
We expect residents to provide us 1/3 of their earnings each month. We cannot succeed without their success.
Our investors are our clients.
Investors have a choice of where to invest their capital, and we must continually earn and maintain their trust to fund 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 love 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 matching and understanding them. We prioritize diversity and pay a living wage always.
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.
Today, Great Expectations owns and operates over 750 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.
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.
