Highly Experienced Real Estate Investors in Charleston, SC
Hello, I am David, and I live in West Ashley with my wife, Danielle, and my boys Jacob and Grant, who are 19 and 15, respectively. I have invested 25 years of my life in real estate. In the early years of our lives, I was in charge of repairing the properties while my wife managed the office. It was challenging for us, but we were passionate about the efforts we put into every property. After our marriage at St John the Baptist in downtown Charleston, we moved to Blessed Sacrament in West Ashley.
In 1995, I bought a fixer-upper single-family house with a garage converted into two one-bedroom apartments. I spent the summer renovating the apartments on my own. Once I rented them out, the rents covered my mortgage, and I was hooked to real estate.
My Experiences
My wife runs the office while I have been involved in hands-on jobs like fixing leaky roofs and overflowing toilets. After moving to West Ashley, I spent the next 11 years working for the Guinness Import Company, which is now Diageo, as a National Account Manager. In the evenings and weekends, I worked on fixing the low-income properties in the area. My second date with my wife Danielle was painting a rental unit because the tenants were moving in the very next day (she gives me grief about that to this day!).
Associations & Memberships
I joined Rotary in 1998 and became a member of the Daniel Island Rotary. I had been transferred to St. Andrews Rotary (West Ashley) in August of 2004, and I still play an active part. I have been a Paul Harris Fellow with Rotary since 2004.
Since 2006, I have been a deciding board member for our Rotary Scholarship Fund. Each year we coordinate management of the fund thru Raymond James. After collecting local schools' applications, we award college scholarships for local seniors planning to attend a South Carolina University.
My wife and I are in charge of Bull Creek Peninsula Home Owners Association and handle everything from lawn care to enforcing the neighborhood covenants. If you ask my wife, this is a thankless job, but we host the HOA meeting at our house once a year. We believe it keeps our neighborhood close by giving everyone a venue to connect at least once a year.
Achievements
In 1999 and 2000, Mantek Properties received the 1st place Business Award for the “Clean Cities Sweep Great American Cleanup.” My wife and I received this award for our “Remodeling 1 Rice Drive” efforts, which was a drug-infested apartment complex.
We placed our office in the complex, had security cameras installed, worked with Dominion Energy, the local electric company, to install site lighting, and hired off-duty City of Charleston police officers to patrol on the weekends.
Awards
In 2008 we received 1st place in “Captains Pride Award” for the remodeling of Indigo Village 1662 Savannah Hwy., which used to be Ye Olde Town Shopping Village and had fallen into disrepair with vagrants sleeping in front of the liquor store (where Five Guys is now). The center now attracts tenants such as Lendmark, Jackson Hewitt, Little Gym and Olympik Deli.
“Homegrown Hero”
In 2009, I received the “Citizen of the Year Award” from the City of Charleston presented by Chief Mullen for my work with the Charleston Police Department (Team 4), which included the use of surveillance cameras on several properties that reduced drug trafficking and resulted in two wanted felons being captured. In March of 2010, I received the “Homegrown Hero” award for my efforts remodeling low-income properties and tenants' ethical and fair treatment from the local magazine Natural Awakenings. My wife and I believe in treating tenants, contractors, and anyone I do business with fairly.
My Family
My oldest son Jacob attends the University of South Carolina, and my youngest son Grant attends West Ashley High School.