Who We Are

Our Story

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 WIN

The pursuit to champion everything we do.

WE ARE CONSISTENT

The unchanging demeanor to achieve sustained excellence.

WE ARE PRECISE

Our standard is exactness, accuracy in every detail.

WE ARE SCRAPPY

The relentlessness to do whatever it takes to get the job done and done well.

WE WILL PROTECT

We will protect the team. We will protect the cause. We will safeguard equity partner money like it is our very own.

Why We do it

We believe in something greater than ourselves

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.

Chicago Hope Academy

Since 2013, Watermark Properties have been proud partners of the Chicago Hope Academy, a private, preparatory high school on Chicago’s near west side.

FOR OUR NEIGHBORS

Our financial models may communicate how we best serve our stakeholders, but it is our actions that communicate how we actively seek and serve the under-privileged in the communities in which we operate. If all else changes, Watermark will always remain committed to our greatest calling; serving people.

WITHOUT BORDERS

Our unrelenting commitment to prioritizing relationships over transactions is inherent to our identity and is the beautiful byproduct of team-members who genuinely care about their neighbors. Whether it’s across the street or across the world, everyone at Watermark is passionate about investing time, effort and resources to effect positive change unto others.