LifeVenture Buy Choice Homes real estate firm, homeowner advocacy organization opens in Penn Hills

Real estate firm LifeVenture Buy Choice Homes held its grand opening on Dec. 2, continuing a legacy at 9817 Frankstown Road of fostering homeownership for minority and lower-income families.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony featured remarks from founding partners Sheldon Oliver, Charlise Smith and Mary Hester, as well as John Bettis of PLUS Real Estate Solutions, Tammy Thompson of Catapult Greater Pittsburgh and Maelene Myers of East Liberty Development Inc.

Choice Homes, a real estate agency run by Robert Epps, occupied the building from the early 1990s until the covid-19 pandemic when Epps retired and sold the business to LifeVenture Buy Choice Homes’ founding partners, who touted his legacy combating redlining and racial discrimination in housing.

“When we’re out here pounding the pavement and doing this work and building Black generational wealth for families and helping communities, he was someone who was in the field doing this back when the opportunities for us were very, very limited,” Hester told a crowd of around 75 people. “This is legacy building.”

The firm’s name is a nod to the foundation built by Epps with his more traditional real estate business, while carrying over the LifeVenture brand from the homeowner advocacy organization started by Hester in 2017.

LifeVenture Buy Choice Homes combines the two aspects in more ways than just its name.

“As a full-service real estate agency, we’ll be able to help sellers and buyers, but we’ll be able to help the first-time homebuyers tap into the resources,” Hester said. “A lot of real estate agencies and real estate companies, they’re only ready to work with you when you’re ready to buy.”

According to Hester, resources include grant and subsidy money as well as education on how to financially prepare for homeownership.

As for the other partners, Oliver runs multiple ventures, including the Nobelmen Cigar Lounge netd door, and Smith works as executive director of housing justice nonprofit WAVE.

The partners, alongside four agents, a marketing specialist and an executive assistant, hope to make a dent in stark racial homeownership gaps in the area. A report from the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group released this year found that only 30.1% of Black families in Pittsburgh own their home, compared to 52.9% of white families.

“We have so much work to do to get to equity, especially around homeownership and generational wealth,” Thompson said.

Smith said she’s eager to work towards closing these gaps.

“We feel like we’re standing on their shoulders and carrying the torch of Black generational wealth,” Smith said.