Nwabueze “Eze” Okwodu was already the definition of a go-getter before he started as a REALTORⓇ, often working two shifts in different medical facilities in one day, all while starting to build a real estate portfolio. But he didn’t have his real estate license.

 

So when a friend asked for Eze’s help with a home search, Eze put him in touch with a Realtor who ended up finding his friend a home they were happy with… But Eze wasn’t happy with that Realtor.

 

“I was expecting to get $3,000 or $4,000 as a finder’s fee because my friend purchased a $1,000,000 property,” Eze recalls. “But the gentleman he used didn't give me anything.”

 

That incident, he said, was absolutely the impetus for the start of a new career as Eze discovered that, indeed, he needed to be licensed to receive any money in that situation.

 

“It made me so mad I needed to take a two-week vacation from my jobs,” Eze says. “And I was so mad that I took a real estate class at Georgetown and really studied hard.”

 

Eze says he now sees that Realtor’s actions as divine direction to get him on the road he was meant to follow.

 

“He changed my life because, without that incident, I wouldn't get my license. If he’d given me $500 or $1,000, I’m never going to get my license. It motivated me to see how to make those million-dollar deals. If I saw that man today, I would hug him. Studying sales books, proving myself, making speeches, going to churches. My whole life has changed because of that one incident.”

 

The number “one million” is an important one for Eze, who is part of the Samson Realty team in Bowie. It’s not just an inspirational dollar figure, but the number of families he’d like to put in homes over the course of his career. While not all those might come from direct sales, Eze — who did generate 111 sales last year — says he’s also made efforts to reach out to people in other ways, such as putting on monthly real estate seminars and talks at local churches, as well as having a regular presence on social media, touting the ”Eze Way” to buy a home. He hopes to get up to about 300 transactions in 2023.

 

That work ethic started in his previous career as a medical administrator, where he’d often work at one hospital for one shift, then go to another hospital for a 3:30 p.m. to midnight shift nearly every day. He used the money to put down payments on investment properties with the goal of buying a home every year.

 

Eze was born in the United States but emigrated to Nigeria with his family only a few months later. He returned to the United States to study at Howard University. Much of his business today comes from helping those in a similar position.

 

“Thousands of people are coming to America, in particular to the DMV area, to start a new life,” Eze says. “My goal is to be ‘that guy’ who they come to for help in their transition, to answer their questions about real estate, to help with home ownership and teach them about the rules, financially. When I first came to the country, no one explained credit to me. And you get delusional, you think, ‘I’m just going to go back to my country, so who cares about credit?’ But no one ever does. Now, I get to see the smiles on faces when I help them achieve the dream — young couples and older people who dreamed of owning a home in America. I'm getting paid and I'm changing people's lives.”

 

That work won Eze a “Man of the Year” award from the West Africa Times newspaper last year, a diaspora publication in the DMV area.

 

Eze spends most of his time focused on his business, typically rising early to make calls to prospects, then making videos of houses or putting together social media posts to sell more.

 

“You need to take this seriously as a job,” Eze notes. “It requires focus, discipline, and dedication to what you're trying to do. There are no shortcuts in America. That's what makes America great. If you put in the effort, you get rewarded.”