Delta REP History and Origination of the Idea
In the summer of 2006, Chris Miller, Cole Stunkard, and Jason Hassler all met at a fraternity social event as they were about to rush the Delta Chi (hence Delta REP) chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. At the time Chris was an odd duck, a semester or two away from obtaining his BSBA in finance, feeling as if his college life was about to pass him by, spending the 3 years prior working 60+ hours per week while maintaining a full course load, upholding his scholarship requirements, and spending time with his girlfriend. He never belonged to any sort of social groups or clubs until this point so he decided to rush the fraternity regardless of his senior year standing. He also formed the UNO student entrepreneurship club which is still in operation today (www.unoceo.org.) Cole and Jason were incoming freshmen, Cole owned a lawn care business he had started at the age of 14 and was paying his own way through his degree in Small Business Management and Jason had also handled his money well and was signed up to major in Construction Management (having a passion and interest in landscape design and outdoor construction).
Chris had just attended a real estate investing seminar, had all his debts paid off, worked to save up $6,000 between his Roth IRA and his savings account, and had perfect credit all at the age of 20. After the first visit to the fraternity house, the financial possibilities of off campus housing started to hit home. The fraternity house was able to generate $300 or more per room and had 10 or more bedrooms in the house. A quick search on the assessor’s website revealed that the older brother and alumni that owned the house was making a healthy profit on the house all while providing a place for these young men to live that was cheap (the dorms were well over $400 at the time), fun (sometimes too much fun), conveniently located close to campus, and the best part was they got to meet new people and develop stronger relationships with other guys who initially were strangers but eventually would become best friends, business partners, groomsmen in weddings, and so much more.
Everything about the house was perfect, well almost everything. What was lacking was a house of better quality (you can imagine the wear and tear on a frat house), a way to have nicer things in the house without getting broken or beer stained, a way to live in the house after graduation, and some diversity in the resident mix would have been nice. Besides the quality of the house, requirement to be a college student still active in the fraternity, and resident mix; the benefits, the cost, the social aspect, and the location of that house was all perfect and better than any other option available. Even in its subpar condition, it beat the dorms, a one bedroom apartment, and a parent’s basement by light years when cost was factored into play. The house was always full, and the organization was 80 members strong and the house could only support 18 individuals. The 62 person shortage was the first (but not the last) source of overflow that we sought to serve.
Instead of moving into the fraternity house, we found another big single family house located in between the university and the fraternity house (4837 Farnam St). Chris talked his sister into cosigning on the mortgage and recruited Jason and Cole as the first of 6 roommates that would occupy the house. Eventually Cole became Chris’s business partner in the real estate operations and Jason bought out a majority share of Cole’s lawn care business and took over its operations. Every problem with managing properties was solved one at a time over the years to eventually evolve into the complete suite of services Delta REP now offers. Borrowing the positive benefits of what a fraternity house had to offer and eliminating the negative qualities served as our beginning strategy that we have refined since then. The rest is, as they say, history.
Well, history in the making at least.
