Snowlake Group

Snowlake GroupSnowlake GroupSnowlake Group

Snowlake Group

Snowlake GroupSnowlake GroupSnowlake Group
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THE Best on the block

THE Best on the blockTHE Best on the blockTHE Best on the block

Quality Affordable Housing

Learn More

THE Best on the block

THE Best on the blockTHE Best on the blockTHE Best on the block

Quality Affordable Housing

Learn More

Welcome

Our vision is to be Chicago's premier affordable housing provider. We believe our values of being ethical, responsive, and innovative are the right thing to do ethically, and financially. Happy tenants stay longer and pay better. Our entire team lives and works on Chicago's South Side.

About US

Snowlake acquires, improves, and manages apartment buildings in affordable neighborhoods with stable or improving fundamentals. 


Our differentiator is our belief and commitment to treating tenants with respect and having the best buildings on the block. Our view is that this commitment is not only fulfilling and the right thing to do, but also financially rewarding. 


We look for opportunities to add value and / or reduce a building's inefficiency. We want our buildings to embody our principles of acting ethically, responsively, and innovatively.

Why Us

Our Competitive Advantages

  • In-house management and maintenance to control expenses more effectively 
  • A formula built on expense to turn even drug-infested buildings into clean, profitable ones
  • Specialization - Revitalizing apartments on Chicago's South Side 
  • Local    
    • Maximize market knowledge
    • Continually expand our network to get the best deals and team 
    • Constant presence at properties 
  • Small size - Personalized, active communication with investors and tenants

Our Offerings

We Offer:

- Diversification to stocks

- Double digit, 15%+ returns exceeding stocks

- Tax benefits to offset income 

- Potential to receive appreciation upside

- Personalized, 24/7 communication 

- No minimum on investment!

- The ability to be part of a story revitalizing buildings

Meet the team

Michael Ansusinha, Founder

  Michael Ansusinha is President and Founder of Snowlake Group. Michael graduated from Northwestern University (’20) with a BA in Economics & Psychology (Honors), during which he worked at Goldman Sachs (Investment Banking) and AQR Capital Management, the world's second largest hedge fund. He will be a Moelis Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (’25). 


Outside of work, Michael is on the Associate Board of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, After School Matters, and Chicago Scholars. He enjoys hiking, tennis, travel (16 countries), and trying new restaurants. Michael lives in Chicago's South Side

Ted Ansusinha, Advisor

Ted founded and led Entiera, a SAAS company, growing the firm to 75 employees before being acquired by Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE: FICO). Previously, he was a Partner at Accenture, where he interfaced with Fortune 100 companies and led the US Customer Analytics and Marketing Automation practice.   


Ted brings invaluable business experience, helping advise on and develop Snowlake's maintenance, leasing, and tenant processes. 

Jesus Villanueva, Maintenance Manager

  

Jesus manages Snowlake's maintenance, from renovating units to preparing for Section 8 inspections. 


After coming to the United States from El Salvador, Jesus worked at Home Depot before starting his flooring business. Although Jesus focuses on flooring, he has extensive experience with all aspects of contracting work, from helping renovate coffee shops across Chicago to adding new carpeting for Prada's Michigan Avenue shop. In addition, being a resident of one of Snowlake’s buildings, Jesus also assists with tenant relations. 


Jesus has lived in one of Snowlake’s South Side properties for over 6 years. 

Manolo Vasquez de Paz, Maintenance

  

Manolo assists with day-to-day maintenance tasks. 


Manolo lives in one of Snowlake's South Side properties.

Snowlake's Story

Revitalizing Buildings

Snowlake Group’s focus on revitalizing buildings, and its values of acting ethically and innovatively, are built on its first building, a distressed, 33-unit courtyard in Jackson Park. 


While the Jackson Park building had great returns on paper, in person it had three drug dealers and three lookouts who had taken over half the property. The building was losing money every month and even had a few homicides when the building's manager quit.


Michael knew he needed a plan for Snowlake to revitalize the building. First, he needed to build up experience and a team to help manage operations. Michael relocated to Chicago’s South Side, less than 10 minutes from the building. Removing the property management company not only eliminated the management fee and reduced the bloated maintenance expense, but laid the foundation for hands-on real estate experience. Michael would stay up late painting, caulking, cleaning, and laying down flooring to prepare for showings and inspections. He also started attending countless real estate events to develop a network of mentors and contacts who he could learn from. Within a few months, he had a team of people he could trust to help him.


The next step was removing the drug dealers and addicts, and replacing them with clean, well-paying tenants. Adding security cameras, extra lighting, signage, and the occasional undercover narcotics cop provided enough negotiating power to pressure the dealers and addicts to vacate the building in weeks rather than months. 


With the dealers out, Snowlake started modernizing the building. Michael re-painted the hallways, added new carpets and blinds, installed Amazon lockers, and put new trees and courtyard row lights outside to improve the building’s resident experience. He also introduced more structured processes to make the building run smoothly. And, he introduced strategies to reduce utility, maintenance, and insurance expense – everything from solar power and insulating doors to cut utility expenses, to a 50% insurance premium reduction.

      

The Jackson Park building experience laid the foundation for Snowlake’s values of acting ethically, responsively, and innovatively. When you have a building that is well-managed and well-maintained, you attract happy, long-term tenants who care and pay well. This approach is not only socially rewarding, but also financially rewarding. This is the mentality that enabled Snowlake to revitalize the Jackson Park building in less than a year, and which is used on any Snowlake property to deliver the best returns possible. 

Our Process

We believe the key to maximizing financial returns is to operate the best building we can.


We firmly believe that a building that embodies proactive management and maintenance may initially outperform a less attentive owner's returns, but in the long-term will attract better tenants, and in turn, better financials. The reverse is also true. A "Slumlord" may initially save money by skimping on maintenance or management expenses, but will eventually face city violations, low quality tenants who don't pay, and criminal activity that makes leasing difficult. 

Our Values

Ethics

Responsiveness

Responsiveness

We aim to always do right for our tenants, vendors, communities, investors, and employees. 


 We believe it's critical to treat everyone - from investors and city officials, to contractors and tenants - with respect. 

Responsiveness

Responsiveness

Responsiveness

We recognize the importance of keeping our residents happy. To do so, we aim to respond, fix, and follow up with resident request as quickly as possible. 

Innovativeness

Responsiveness

Innovativeness

We believe having the best buildings on the block means modernizing them. We introduce everything from solar power to Amazon lockers to our buildings.

free resources

Real Estate Podcasts

Chicago Lease - Compliant with All Regulations

Real Estate Groups (Chicago)

Chicago-focused: https://www.straightupchicagoinvestor.com/

300 to 3000: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/300-to-3-000/id1516929915

Real Estate Mastermind: https://www.remastermind.live/the-real-estate-mastermind-podcast-home-page


Real Estate Groups (Chicago)

Chicago Lease - Compliant with All Regulations

Real Estate Groups (Chicago)

Search meetup.com for:

Neighborhood Building Owner's Alliance

Chicago Multifamily Club

Latino Real Estate Investor's Council

South Side Investor's Association

Chicago Area RE Investor's Association

DuPage County Real Estate Investors 

Southside Builder's Association

Chicago Lease - Compliant with All Regulations

Chicago Lease - Compliant with All Regulations

Chicago Lease - Compliant with All Regulations

https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/chicagobrie/file/chicago-2022-lease

Real Estate Research

Chicago-Specific Resources

Chicago Lease - Compliant with All Regulations

Marcus & Millichap: https://www.marcusmillichap.com/research

CBRE: 

https://www.cbre.com/insights

Blackstone: https://www.blackstone.com/insights/

Urban Land Institute: 

https://uli.org

Colliers:

https://www.colliers.com/en/research



Chicago-Specific Resources

Chicago-Specific Resources

Chicago-Specific Resources

Violations and permits: https://webapps1.chicago.gov/buildingrecords/

Taxes and assessments: https://www.cookcountypropertyinfo.com

Crime Map:

 https://gis.chicagopolice.org/  

Deed search: https://www.cookcountyil.gov/agency/recorder-deeds 

Market Your Property!

Chicago-Specific Resources

Chicago-Specific Resources

https://www.apartments.com/

https://www.zillow.com/

https://www.affordablehousing.com/

https://www.zumper.com/

https://rentable.com/

https://www.rent.com/

Tenant Portal

Help us make our buildings the best on the block. 

Pay rent, contact your resident team, and submit maintenance requests here. 

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info@snowlakeventures.com

 414-909-2428 

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