From NFL star to real estate mogul: How Brandon Copeland got his start

Former NFL linebacker Brandon Copeland wasn't afraid to take risks in both his athletic and financial careers. The former footballer turned real estate investor joined TheStreet to debate how he got started in his financial journey.

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CONWAY GITTENS: So you boast a powerful real estate portfolio. So walk us through your financial journey. How did you get started?

BRANDON COPELAND: Yeah so one for me. I was once extremely fortunate. We speak about it within the book as well too. I was once extremely blessed to play for Coach. His name was once Biff Poggi. He's now the pinnacle coach at University of Charlotte UNC Charlotte and he in point of fact ran his own hedge fund and now evolved right into a family place of business in Baltimore. And I ended up asking him for an internship within the Summers. And when I did that was once my first time ever seeing Bloomberg terminals and staring at CNBC and seeing stock tickers and things like that. And so it walked me into an international of like Wow, you're ready to earn money and you're ready to really be sitting at the back of a desk and managing and delegating. Once I come from a situation where it was once placed for your uniform and you go into the place of business to earn money, so so you might chat, and you go to work, you roll up your sleeves. And so for me, that was once eye opening. And then over time, I went to the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, interned on Wall Boulevard UBS for a pair of Summers, also came into the NFL and would still take internships at hedge funds and things of that nature within the offseason. And the goal was once to only learn as tons as that you are going to need in mind. And in 2013 you talk about my investment journey. In 2013, my rookie year, I was once with the Baltimore Ravens and the Tennessee Titans, and I was once day trading around the globe that season and I was once doing extremely well in my account, playing with house money at a definite extent.

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And then at the tip of the year in December, I determined to take one big swing trade and hoped that the luck I had within the past would just play into this trade and I would per chance make additional cash in that time on this one trade than I had made thus a ways. And what took place was once the total market went down two days later resulting from geopolitical tensions happening over in Greece. And at that moment in time, the total trade was once wiped out, wiped out. It was once a option's call trade. The bulk of it was once wiped out. The bulk of the cost. And it's the rationale when I started saying, hey, I should no longer have any control over this. Let me determine something else that I even have more control over. And I do not should lose money, but if I lose money, I would per chance tons rather have the chance to appear within the mirror and say, hey, I made all these decisions. I would per chance still make them again. And I still lost money. And it's the rationale OK. That is more on me, more in my hands. And in order that is when I started diving into real estate. I was once researching it for a pair of years, started doing single family flips in Detroit with the Lions when I was once with the Lions. So I would per chance do this on the side. And again, being around some great mentors who showed me multifamily properties, they showed me houses where they were knocking off the roofs and adding a complete second level onto the homes.

And these were all former NFL players, right. It made me feel like I could be in a position to do that too. They welcomed me into the fold and now we now have evolved our portfolio to the extent where we're doing multifamily projects across the usa. We have now 88. I just went to ascertain on a property in California. We're doing first beachfront property, multifamily, extremely fascinated by that. We're doing land development now. We got acres, hundreds of hundreds of acres with other NFL players where you bought companies like Home Depot and Lowe's in search of to bid for their spot on the land and Starbucks and Target and Walmart and all those things. And in order that is solely been an out of this world maturation. But I would per chance say double down or double back for your question. I am just extremely keen on things and I ask many of questions and I don't put limits on myself of what I could be in a position to and would per chance't do. And I've got been extremely blessed to have amazing team and in addition amazing people around me in order that you are going to welcome me into the fold to learn. And then I've got been strong-minded about getting the chance to own as tons as I per chance can.