Hello, I’m Muhan Zhang and I’m a real estate investor with 9 properties totaling 28 apartments in 3 states, mostly in residential and commercial multifamily investments. My company, Courtyard Sihe Partners, is a multicultural, multigenerational, multifamily real estate investing firm that specializes in buying and restoring old homes in historic American cities.
Previously, I was employee one and Chief Operating Officer on the Andrew Yang 2020 presidential campaign aka "Yang2020". During my time on the campaign, I led major business functions from technology and finance to legal compliance and operations management. From day 1, 2017 to our apex in 2020, the campaign grew from $120k starting funds to $40 million in lifetime donations from 400k Americans, with a full-time staff of 250+ in five states. I have written about that experience on Medium. Outside of real estate, I am also known for my angel investments in over twenty startups with angel investors including Jason Calacanis, Mark Cuban, and Elon Musk and venture capital firms Y-Combinator, Andreesseen Horowitz, and Sequoia Capital.
Throughout my career, I have always pursued the dual pillars of entrepreneurship and passive income, or more broadly, how people fund fulfillment in their lives. During my fellowship with Venture for America, I worked for entrepreneurs who raised capital and built businesses to impact society. During Yang2020, I mainstreamed policies like universal basic income and the earned income tax credit which cut childhood poverty in half in 2020. While building the campaign I also built my personal real estate portfolio remotely, acquiring 17 apartments with $1.2m in mortgage debt and generating enough income to pay my bills before I turned 30. In retrospect, I was quite high strung in my twenties.
Throughout the years, working on this blog and telling my story has attracted the most amazing audience and opportunities. My readers and subscribers are engineers, doctors, scientists, business owners, and academics from all over the world. Although I never expected my entrepreneurial work to turn from startups to real estate, I've come to the conclusion that real estate is not only the single greatest wealth building asset for regular people, but also the most important variable in cost of living, urban renewal, and the American dream.
Every quarter I'll publish my updates to investors on the website, as well as other musing on housing as an active real estate investor. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, feel free to subscribe. Paid subscribers also get special access to the fund's financial reports and performance. And for those who are interested in investing in the fund or saying hi, feel free to drop me an email, I always love hearing from readers.
What I’m Doing Now
I run Courtyard Sihe Partners and am in charge of growing both our portfolio and investor community. Feel free to check out my content including my deal memos, long-form essays, podcasts, and interviews. Check back in regularly as I launch new projects, this website is often the launchpad of new concepts I'm piloting.
In addition, I love audiobooks and am always hunting for my next good listen. If you've got a recommendation for what I should listen to next, send me your recommendation at the email address above. Below are some of the audiobooks I've listened to recently: