The Watermark story began a decade ago. The single family home rental space, coming out of the global financial crisis in 2009, was just starting to form into an institutionalized asset class. Eric Theisen and Freddy Ellis left corporate positions to help launch a real estate development company with an inner city faith based High School, Chicago Hope Academy, to help the school cover their operating deficit. Supplying newly formed institutional buyers with rental homes, they created a pipeline of community redevelopment and forged the beginnings of this new, rapidly growing asset class. As single family homes for rent became more prominent and consumer demand continued to surge, Eric and Freddy started Watermark to exploit the next level of opportunity, building single family communities designated specifically for rent.
We exist to give – to cultivate. To create a new brand of real estate that gives residents a better place to live: a place to call home. To develop a new, wholistic standard of living – to not just fill units with tenants, but to cultivate a better life for residents.