Alumni Spotlight: Myasha Redd
By: Serena Maria Daniels
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Growing up, Myasha Redd experienced the real estate business from the passenger seat, accompanying her father to collect rent checks and respond to maintenance calls and spending time in her mother's property management office in Ecorse.
She saw how running a business created opportunities for her family, helping pay for activities like dance and tennis lessons. She also watched her parents manage properties at a time when much of Detroit was still struggling with disinvestment, poverty, and drugs, giving her an early understanding of both the rewards and the realities of property ownership.
“I was never planning on being a landlord or owning property, just because I felt like it was a lot to take on, and I saw firsthand the struggles they were going through,” she says.
While attending Wayne State University, Redd lived in her father's apartment building in Woodbridge, where she watched the neighborhood evolve as new investment reshaped the area. After he moved out of state, she gradually took over day-to-day management of the building, gaining firsthand experience with leases, rent collection and the realities of ownership.
Years later, she was working in healthcare IT while raising a young family when her father, by then in his 70s, decided he was ready to retire. Inspired by her entrepreneur husband’s nudging to build something of her own, Redd realized the same business she had once associated with stress could also provide the flexibility she wanted for her own family.
When her father told her he was thinking about selling the Woodbridge property, Redd had one request.
"Before you sell it, let me try," she recalled telling her dad.
Becoming a landlord requires far more than enthusiasm. It requires capital, oftentimes dramatic renovations to bring older Detroit housing stock up to code, and determination.
Redd emptied her 401(k) and secured financing through a community development financial institution to renovate the building, starting one unit at a time while continuing to work full time, learning to manage contractors, financing and construction along the way.
“I was literally winging it,” she says. “I was learning through trial and error.”
That led her to Building Community Value.
Redd's husband had completed the program previously and encouraged her to apply. By the time she joined, she had already experienced the challenges of completing her first redevelopment project largely through instinct. BCV gave her the structure she had been missing, from financial projections and underwriting to contractor management and project planning.
"I wanted things to grow smoother,” says Redd. “I wanted to do it the right way, and so I felt like it was a perfect time for me to join BCV and try to get as much information and knowledge that I could to apply it to this next step.”
The coursework reinforced the preparation required to successfully complete a development project. Developing realistic pro formas, planning construction timelines, and vetting contractors gave Redd a more structured approach than the trial-and-error process that defined her first renovation.
As a new property owner, Redd initially took a short-term rental model, drawn to the rise in popularity of Airbnb at the time and the building’s proximity to major tourism destinations. The strategy worked. But after she began hosting guests, she found the frequent turnover was unsustainable while raising a young child.
Looking for alternatives, Redd immersed herself in online communities for short-term rental hosts, where she kept hearing about an emerging niche: furnished midterm rentals. The model leases units for one to six months, often serving traveling healthcare professionals, interns, students and people relocating to Detroit.
She made the switch and quickly found demand. The longer stays reduced turnover, attracted reliable tenants, and better aligned with both her business goals and family life.
The success of that first building has become the foundation for continued growth. Redd is now renovating a second, identical building on the same parcel, upgrading plumbing, electrical systems, and interiors before applying the same operating model. She's also exploring opportunities to expand her portfolio, including renting a furnished single-family home on Detroit's east side.
Even as her business grows, Redd measures success differently than the number of properties she owns. Her priorities remain firmly rooted in family. Much of her time revolves around raising young children, and she embraces bringing them into the work just as her own parents once did with her.
“They’re doing the same thing that I was doing,” she says. “They're just getting immersed into what it looks like to be an entrepreneur, and I just love that for them because whatever they choose to do, I just want them to know that there are many different avenues to achieve whatever goals they have.”