Owen Dashner, Partner

My name is Owen, and I am a real estate addict. I eat, sleep and breathe real estate (possibly slightly obsessed).

I have been in the crazy business of buying, selling and renting properties for over 15 years. I bought my first flip house while working at ConAgra in a stressful job in 2005 after reading a bunch of real estate books. I would get off work, change clothes, then go work on the house until after dark, rinse (literally) and repeat. 9 months and not much profit later, I learned that A. I am not a good contractor, B. My time is much better spent finding good properties and great people to help me with them, and C. I still had a LOT to learn about real estate.

Fast forward 10 years to the beginning of my midlife crisis… By now, I had a good paying job in corporate HR at Ricoh, worked from home, had a wife and 2 young daughters, and a longing to quit my job to pursue my passion in real estate. After talking about doing it for years, I decided that I was going to look up one day and I would be retirement age all of the sudden, and that would be that. I’d have a huge “what if” that was never explored.

Meeting my biz partner, Brandon, finally gave me the guts to jump out of the plane and build the parachute on the way down. Both of us decided to ditch the day job burnout and invest in ourselves in building Red Ladder together. Over 2 years and 100+ houses later, we have never looked back!

FAVORITE HOBBIES

When I’m not looking at houses, managing remodeling projects, or working on our businesses, I am usually spending time with my family or pursuing other interests. My wife and kids are awesome because they put up with me. Since we get like 2 weeks of decent weather per year, we try to make the most of them by spending time outside. We love boating, spending time with our neighbors, and just having fun together with our friends and family.

Having grown up in small town Southwest Iowa and living around Omaha, Council Bluffs and Carter Lake all my life means that traveling scratches my itches. Checking out new places and favorite spots, visiting old friends… There is just nothing like else like it to soothe the soul.

Personal development… Gym! I make time at least 4 days a week to pick up and put down heavy things. It keeps me strong and focused. I also meditate and keep a journal every day to track progress on goals and remember stuff because I have a memory like a goldfish. Oh, and I can’t forget about podcasts! I listen to a LOT of podcasts on business, life, real estate and motivation. Get some!

Reading has been a lifelong passion of mine. I am a total booknerd at heart. I try to mix in high protein motivational/self improvement books to offset my junkfood science fiction/fantasy habit. My oldest daughter and I are 2 peas in a pod with books – we could spend the whole day reading.