Norfolk Capital builds community foundations from the ground up

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Patrick Targete lives by a piece of advice that his mother gave him when he was just 15 years old: Make sure you own where you live.

Although she never told him how to do it, those words of wisdom resonated with him, helping him to understand the importance of creating a stable foundation for himself as an adult.

“She would say, ‘You have to create a foundation. …You don’t want to start your life saving money, you’re in school, and you’re renting an apartment and you’re having children, and then all of a sudden, a landlord calls you and tells you that you have three months to move out,” he recalled.

As he became an adult, Targete realized that real estate was the foundation of life, a way to create consistent growth and freedom for himself and his family.

This led to his decision to buy his first multifamily property through a first-time home buying program in his early 20s. He renovated the property and rented it out while living in one of the units. After two years, he refinanced and used the equity to purchase more properties.

Although Targete saw success and continued to buy properties, he realized the conventional financing route would be challenging; the deals he wanted were properties where he could create value, yet he could not move fast enough.

He had to find other ways to purchase properties and be more competitive, so he turned to private lending, which allowed him to scale his business from a three-unit property to 500 units over the next 10 to 15 years.

After getting into private lending, Targete realized that he could provide help to others by providing the same service of lending that he was able to receive, which ultimately led him to create his own private lending firm, Norfolk Capital, with his wife, Sabriya Targete. The company provides short-term loans for real estate investors with the intention of helping the community.

“I made sure that I would mentor kids from my neighborhood, from Mattapan. I grew up on Norfolk Street, hence the name Norfolk Capital. My office is on the corner of Talbot and Norfolk,” he said. “I was very intentional about mentoring guys that had the same roadblocks that I had. I will lend to them, and then they would be able to create their own portfolios. And then, they would pay it forward.”

Targete explained that these short-term loans are for individuals who cannot get conventional financing because they are under pressure to perform quicker. The properties they are purchasing are distressed assets where banks have strenuous underwriting procedures that slow these processes down.

Targete and his wife are also very passionate about equitable access to capital and opportunities in underserved communities. He talked about why it’s important to advocate for those things and to mentor the next generation, especially in today’s political climate.

“It’s our duty to make sure that we help push each other forward. The main thing is we have to be our own bank. We have to be able to support each other in what we do. In Norfolk Capital, we don’t only just lend money to individuals, we actually raise capital. We bring in investors that have the same values and share our mission,” he said.

“We have to be able to support each other to grow and create an ecosystem amongst ourselves. This is how we move forward. We can’t keep asking. We just got to support each other for the right reasons.”

His wife agrees, adding that they are trying to help people in the community gain financial security and build generational wealth. Sometimes this has involved helping families with older homes in disrepair to make the right investments in the property to strengthen that asset.

“One of the things in our community is we seriously do not take into consideration the importance of transferring wealth from one generation to the next. It’s something that we see consistently and it’s fulfilling to feel like we can help people do that,” she said.

Targete gave his advice to Black and entrepreneurs of color who may want to follow in the footsteps of the couple and open a business of their own.

“Find somebody that is doing what you want to do, and get in front of them,” he said, laying out the value of seeking mentorship. “Get in their way and then make yourself unreplaceable. Make yourself so valuable that now they need you.”

“The first thing I say when I’m interviewing a mentee is, ‘What is most important?’ Is it opportunity, capital or execution? The first answer people tell me is capital. It’s never capital, it’s execution, always get things done. [It’s] not about the money; it’s about the education. It’s about the lesson. It’s about creating that network and having that right mentor that can support you,” he said.