One of the thirty Young Entrepreneur Stars selected by Overseas Community Affairs Counsil (OCAC) in April 2021, Jenny Chien, who currently lives in Orlando, Florida, was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Jenny's parents both obtained their Ph.D. in the United States and went back to Taiwan to teach at universities as professors. Jenny's Dad received his Ph.D. in History and Political Science from Northern Arizona University (NAU), while her mom received hers in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Central Florida (UCF). When Jenny was in Senior High School in Taiwan, she had decided that she would pursue higher education and obtain her Ph.D. in the United States like her parents. Jenny obtained her Doctorate in Education from UCF in August 2011.
Jenny had taught at UCF's Intensive English Program – The Center for Multilingual Multicultural Studies (CMMS) from 2008 to 2012. Jenny's original plan was to obtain her Ph.D. and go back to Taiwan to teach in a university like her parents. However, Jenny's parents knew they would become Permanent Residents of the U.S. in 2008, so they decided to purchase a home in Orlando, Florida. Immediately after Jenny passed her Comprehensive Exam (Comps) for the doctoral degree, she passed the State of Florida Exam and obtained her Real Estate Sales Associate License. Jenny helped her parents purchase their first home in Orlando, Florida in 2009. Soon after, Jenny helped her parents and in-laws purchase a second home and two other homes in the same subdivision. Together, there are four single family homes for the Chien Family and the Lin Family in the same community. Keeping the Master bedrooms, Jenny started to rent out seventeen individual rooms to UCF Master's students. This is how Jenny and her husband, George started their real estate business. In May 2012, when Jenny's daughter, Grace was born, Jenny and her husband decided to establish their company – a Full Service Real Estate and Property Management Company – American Dream Homes, Inc. Jenny said, because her daughter, Grace was too cute and so adorable that she could not continue to teach full time at UCF and hire a babysitter to take care of her daughter for her. Jenny decided to run her own real estate business so that she could have a more flexible schedule to take care of her beautiful daughter by herself.
It has been ten years since Jenny and her husband, George established American Dream Homes, Inc. As first-generation immigrants, life was extremely difficult and challenging for Jenny and George. They have met a lot of people who are kind and nice and have helped them with their business along the way. However, they also met "Professional Tenant" who would deliberately damaged the tile roof, and appliances like refrigerator, dishwasher, and washer, water heater, garage door, HVAC system and more, and asked American Dream Homes, Inc. to repair everything promptly within one to three days even when the maintenance requests happened at night. They had to solve the problems when it was close to midnight. The "Professional Tenant" sprayed the inside air handler of the HVAC unit to let it grow mold, kept texting Jenny every day, showed her pictures of medicine bottles, requested mold tests, and threatened to sue her company. It was a great battle between Jenny's company and the "Professional Tenant" who even though has great credit score, sues property management company to get compensated for a living. Jenny's son was only two years old, and Jenny's daughter was only four years old at that time. It was an extreme amount of pressure to deal with the "Professional Tenant". Finally, with the "Professional Tenant" gave up, the husband told the wife over the phone that "American Dream Homes, Inc. repaired everything immediately as soon as the maintenance requests were submitted. If we go to court, it's going to be a battle that we are never going to win." They did not go to court at the end. American Dream Homes, Inc. won outside of the courts! However, it was a nightmare for Jenny and George. They learned that if the tenants keep moving every year, then it's a warning. It could be that they are difficult tenants or that they are "Professional Tenant" who sues people for a living. They had to move every year. Jenny has always learned her lesson in the hardest way throughout her real estate career. However, she always keeps a positive attitude. She has been trying her best to overcome every single challenge and obstacle she has faced with throughout the years.
Jenny still remembered a client of hers who purchased a rental property in July 2017. The property was closed on July 28th, 2017. The qualified new tenants moved into the property on August 12th, 2017. In September, the HVAC system broken down. It was an 18-year-old HVAC unit. During the home inspections, the owner was with the home inspector along the way. The owner knew the HVAC was an 18-year-old unit. However, Jenny and George felt like if it were their rental property that they had just purchased and the HAVC system broken down soon after new tenants moved in, they would be very upset too. Therefore, Jenny and George decided to pay for the new 3.5 tons HVAC unit, which was $3,900 at that time. Jenny's parents were very worried and concerned. They thought Jenny cannot make a living with her education background especially when she decided to "throw away" all her earnings from this real estate transaction to help her client purchase a brand new HVAC unit. Her clients thanked her for purchasing a new HVAC unit for the investment property and said they would purchase more investment properties in the future to help Jenny "balance" a little bit.
Approximately six months later, in January 2018, the client started to purchase more investment properties every year. Jenny and George never would have thought by putting themselves in their client's shoes, there will be such gracious rewards. Jenny's husband, George was very handy. He fixed a lot of things for their clients for free at the beginning. Jenny's parents always told George that you need to at least charge your clients for the materials. It's difficult to repair things for clients without any charge and at no cost all the time. It's hard to run a real estate business and survive by not charging clients for both the materials and the labor fees. It turned out their clients really appreciate what George did for them. They have provided Jenny and George with more businesses or have referred more businesses to American Dream Homes, Inc.
Jenny is one of the advisors who serves on the Orlando Advisory Board of the International Leadership Foundation (ILF) because she wanted to "pay it forward" and give back to her community. ILF advisors donate funds to ILF to support excellent and outstanding interns to work in the U.S. government in Washington, D.C. Over the years, more and more extraordinary Asian American interns have worked in the White House and other U.S. government institutions in Washington, D.C. Jenny and George hope their daughter and son will one day join the ILF internship program so that more and more Asian Americans let the President of the United States hear the voices of Asian Americans! Jenny also joined the Taiwanese Junior Chamber of Commerce of Greater Orlando (TJCCGO), and Taiwanese Junior Chambers of Commerce of North America (TJCCNA) to connect with young Taiwanese American entrepreneurs and professionals. She loves her big TJCCNA family!
Over the years, George obtained his HVAC License and Universal License for repairing HVAC units and small appliances. Jenny and George established three more subsidiary companies under American Dream Homes, Inc. – Orlando AC and Handyman Services, LLC., Orlando Pool and Landscaping Services LLC., and Orlando Best Handyman Services, LLC. in order to help more clients save on repair expenses. Jenny and George knew "only when repair expenses are minimized will the rental income of investors be maximized." Repairs and renovations are hard work, but George does them professionally with pride. There have been lots of sweat, tears, and difficult challenges, but Jenny and George keep their faith and keep moving forward. They believe they can go the distance. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when there were no vaccines available yet, no contractors wanted to work on huge renovation projects together with other contractors or handymen for fear that it could put their health and lives in danger. Jenny, George, and their children, Grace and Andrew completed four big projects and successfully sold four properties they renovated together in 2020. They even had to sleep at the property once where they installed laminated wood floors. Grace and Andrew learned that "No pain, no gain! Practice makes perfect!" It was very encouraging for the family!
During the ten years of American Dream Homes, Inc. since May 2012, there have been many ups and downs. Life is difficult! However, at the same time, "Life is beautiful!" Jenny loves doing real estate to help people purchase or lease their "Dream Homes"! Like Jenny always said "Go for Dreams!" She is determined to keep pursuing her dreams! Jenny is truly grateful for the opportunity to be one of the thirty Young Entrepreneur Stars around the globe! Jenny and her husband will continue to run their real estate company, American Dream Homes, Inc. until their last breath. Jenny really appreciates everyone who has helped them and their company along the way. She will continue to go for dreams and reach for the stars!
