Who is Jeff Coles?

Since this is my first blog, I think it is only fair to share a little about myself and my intentions for the blog site. So….let’s start from the beginning. I am a native Washingtonian who grew up in the Shepherd Park neighborhood of NW Washington, DC. Shepherd Park is a typical middle to upper-middle class neighborhood with great diversity.  I went to St. John’s College HS, an all-male (now coed), Catholic, military school. There, I played football, ran track and was the student council president my senior year. For what it’s worth, I now appreciate my accomplishments at a young age, but never thought that I was doing much… just what I was supposed to do (I give my parents the credit for that). With my many extra-curricular endeavors (mostly in music) I wanted to stay local for college. To that end, I attended Howard University and received my BA in Architecture and later received my MBA concentrating in Real Estate and Urban Development from American University. I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences at both universities.

During grad school, I began working in asset management for Oxford Realty Corporation, a Bethesda, MD based apartment owner and manager. Eventually, Oxford sold its portfolio and I took a job as a senior analyst at my current place of employment, First Capital Realty, Inc. (FCR). FCR is a brokerage firm which specializes in the sale of apartment communities (I will go into more detail in another blog). I have now been working at the company for over 15 years. I have grown from being an analyst, to my bosses’ right-hand-man in running the company, to my current position for some time – Senior Broker.

The purpose of my blog is an informative one. I would like to detail the role of a commercial real estate broker and my related experiences, share market knowledge and give the world a little insight to “who I am”, my travels and fun experiences along the way. Hopefully, you will find my blogs informative, interesting and fun.

So, here we go! First things first…. “Nice to see you here.” : )

Tagged as: apartments, broker, Commercial Real Estate, first capital realty, jeff coles, multifamily, real estate, washington dc