Mario Henry, CEO of US Housing Exchange (USHX) and Executive Director of The HALO Foundation (a nonprofit organization) is well known for his visionary leadership. Recognized for his out-of-the-box thinking, Mario is taking the real estate industry through some crucial transformations. Well on his way to making housing affordable for all, Mario is a leader the industry looks up to.

In an interview with PerceptivX, Mario shared his life experiences, plans, and vision for the brand. Below are excerpts of the interview.

From a setback to a comeback

Mario Henry: “I played for the NFL briefly in the 90s and found myself making bad financial decisions, so bad that I was homeless for 3 days. I had a taste of what that was like and committed myself to learn the same financial system that failed me. Around 2000, I had extremely bad credit and learned about the credit system. Most people who came to me were trying to buy a house. Hence, I put 2 and 2 together around late 2006 and started to match dilapidated houses with credit-challenged buyers, creating an entire company. I believe everyone should get a second chance. We have divisions in Houston, TX; Mount Laurel, NJ; and Atlanta, GA.”

On a mission to bring about change

Mario Henry: “We created www.ushousingexchange.com, a social media platform that is centered on buying, selling, flipping, and investing in real estate. Our non-profit, www.halofoundationusa.org is tightly partnered with the initiative. Though our platform is for the public, our mission is for us to do our development and not only build homes for communities throughout the country but also build trade schools and 12-month housing for able-minded homeless people to transition back into society. Our initiative is mission-driven, and we do not believe that capitalism cannot have a strong humanitarian outreach simultaneously. Although we are developers, we understand that there are over 47 million renters, but only 30% want to rent, so we must open up our platform to everyone, both the renters who need help and the investors who want to invest. However, institutional investors who want to buy up everything and have everyone rent are a big threat that we have seen with our platform. Hence, all institutional buyers are banned. We create our buyers from career renters and match them up with properties that need rehab. We also match them up with real estate investors, and we help transition the renters into bona fide borrowers. We have coined the phrase “Forensic Credit Auditors” which is like credit repair on steroids, and the fact that we are also mortgage brokers allows us to reverse engineer a real estate transaction. This system will be made available to all investors using the platform.”

When your competitors are your allies

Mario Henry: “Our competition is other investors. We have embraced all investors to use our platform and use the same exit strategy we have used for the past 15 years: start with the end buyer, let them select a property that needs to be rehabbed, have them commit to the after-repair value, have them put down 3.5–5% down, and temporarily lease the property until the buyer’s credit and mortgage are prepped by our high-powered Forensic Credit Audit. Our goal is that our renters who fire their landlord will one day become our investors, and for our nonprofit initiative, helping the homeless transition is very important as well.”

Hope for the homeless

Mario Henry: “I enjoy being a part of this industry because of the unlimited earning potential it offers, for the joy of helping lifelong renters create a dream of homeownership, and for the multiple professionals working together—real estate, mortgage, title, seller, etc. The buyer feels like I’m playing team sports on every transaction. Going forward, USHX will be the Facebook of real estate for our non-profit side; we will create NFTs for every homeless person we put into the transitional housing so you can see who you are helping instead of donating to a faceless homeless initiative. The USHX cryptocurrency is tied to our initiative, and we want to bring positivity to what the potential of cryptocurrency can be without all the nonsense that has plagued the marketplace. When that goal is met, we intend to develop approximately 585,000 acres, and we estimate that there will be homeless people in the United States.”