Southeast Side (Focused) Real Estate & Construction: Linda Golden and Legacy One, Inc.

If you visit the Legacy One website, the virtual home of entrepreneur Linda Golden, you are hit with the label that it belongs to a licensed real estate and construction company. Golden’s son, Matthew, is a general contractor and it made sense, she said, three years ago to include residential and commercial construction to her already active (licensed for eight years) real estate business.

The construction side remodels and renovates…it modifies homes for older adults and for those with disabilities, to make it easier for them to remain in their homes for as long as possible. What would represent their smallest job for Legacy One? The installation of a new roof to a building.

As for the real estate, Golden does residential and commercial brokering. Closing on a residential sale (usually within 30 days) is an easier transaction than commercial deals which can take several months to close. But if either one…the family home or the general use facility…targets the Southeast side of the city, Legacy One’s primary focus, then it’s all for the better.

“We grew up in this area; we’re very familiar with this market, the people, and the potential,” the South Side High School graduate said. “I still believe there’s a lot that needs to be done [here].” And what does the Southeast side need, according to the entrepreneur? “We need market rate homes. Inventory is crazy low for everybody on any side of town. But the market is kind of skewed right now,” she said. “When inventory is low, prices go high. That kind of has a way of skewing market.”

Golden always loved business and organization. Back at South Side, she chose the high school’s business track curriculum…kind of like someone majoring in business in college with all of the related classes required. Both of her parents worked outside of the business sphere; she doesn’t know where that drive came from. She chalked it up to a “natural inclination. It’s a God-given gift.”

After graduating, Golden got married, started raising her family (tried Ivy Tech but had to leave, not enough time). She was always close to the business world though; notably, she worked in administration at Lincoln Financial. She would eventually return to Ivy Tech to get her business management degree…after she had already started her business.

Her background, though, is in affordable housing. In 1988, Golden founded a nonprofit that acquired and rehabbed home for homeless families. The project was Genesis Outreach and the church was Greater Christ Apostolic Temple Church, now located at 2940 South Anthony Blvd., but, at that time, could be found at 1327 Winter Street, across from the famous Brooks BBQ. “Whenever the church doors opened, someone would come in asking for help, whether it was drugs, food, homelessness, but the church had no outreach ministries,” Golden said. Pastor E.C. Haywood (now Bishop Haywood…his son, Mark, is the lead pastor) commissioned Golden and other church members to find a way to help those folks coming in.

Genesis House, at 2812 Gay Street, was donated to be a transitional facility for homeless women recovering from drugs and alcohol; the first house had eight beds. Eventually, the outreach evolved to about 25 single family homes, according to Golden, and expanded to include homeless men. By the time Golden left, Genesis Outreach built senior apartments. She needed a change, in a vocation that wasn’t as intense, she said.

“I never felt like [Genesis Outreach] was a job, it was a ministry,” Golden said. “I'm very passionate about entrepreneurship because I believe it’s the means to independence and wealth. [But] for me it's not just about having my own business; it's about Legacy. I intend to fulfill God's command, that we leave an inheritance. And I know my children will continue to build upon the foundation that has been laid for them.” Real estate and construction. Community and ministry.

Linda Golden Legacy One, Inc.
111 West Berry Street, Suite 211
Fort Wayne, IN 46802
260.494.0368
Website: LegacyOne.biz
Facebook: LegacyOneInc