About
The short version: I'm a real estate operator from Cleveland, building in Charlotte.
Short bio
Terry Godfrey is a real estate operator, author, and host of the Real Talk, Real Deals podcast. Raised in Cleveland and building his next chapter in Charlotte, North Carolina, he founded Equity Empire Group to find and connect off-market properties with investors across multiple U.S. markets. His book, The Asset Mindset, breaks down how everyday people can start thinking and acting like owners. Terry's message is simple: most people don't lack drive. They lack options nobody showed them.
Nobody showed me my options.
I grew up in Cleveland. Nobody at my kitchen table was talking about real estate, equity, or ownership. The path in front of me was the same one in front of most people: get a job, keep the job, hope it works out.
So I did that. I ran a deburring machine at Swagelok in Solon, Ohio, finishing parts that went into hospitals. It was honest work. It also showed me a ceiling I didn't want to live under.
Before real estate, I made music. Producing R&B in Cleveland taught me how to read a room, how to connect with people, and how to sell an idea before it's finished. I still use all of it.
What changed everything was watching my sister build real success in real estate. That was the moment I stopped waiting. I took about $5,000, spent most of it on books and courses, and learned the business before I made a move. Then I started Equity Empire Group.
Today I work off-market deals across multiple markets. I pull county records myself. I work the phones. I go out in the field and find the properties that the online data gets wrong. I'm still learning and still building, and I share that process out loud, on the podcast and in my writing, so the next person doesn't have to start from zero like I did.
That's why I wrote The Asset Mindset. And that's why this site exists.
What I stand for.
- Operator, not guru. I teach from deals I've worked, not from a stage script.
- Access. The knowledge that builds wealth shouldn't be locked behind the right family or the right zip code.
- 1% better. Small moves, stacked every day.
- Plain talk. If I can't say it simply, I don't understand it yet.