When Murphy Cheatham graduated in 2001 from Grambling State University, a Louisiana-based historically Black university, he had never heard of commercial real estate as a potential career path. To him, a career in real estate only meant selling houses. “I didn’t think about where you go to work, where you learn, where you eat, where you shop or the warehouses your stuff is shipped from as being real estate,” Cheatham said. “I had no idea whatsoever that commercial real estate was even a thing, let alone an industry.” 
Cheatham, who now finances real estate deals as a partner at Synergy One Lending, began his career at Motorola before working as an accountant for a single-family homebuilder. He was introduced to commercial real estate by a friend whose family owned office buildings, and in 2006, he was part of…  Read the full story here. | 
