Kingston Biography
Leo and Paulette Kingston understand what it feels like to lose everything: their
spacious home, their cars and other treasured possessions, a promising career in
politics; their freedom.
Today, two decades later, Leo is chief executive officer and the visionary behind
a successful Oklahoma City-based real estate investment and property management
company, RAK Properties, Inc., and its better-known subsidiary, 18002SellHomes.
The subsidiary has become a household name locally thanks to its intentionally “campy”
television ads that feature Paulette flashing two fingers (visualize a peace sign) while
repeating the 18002SellHomes toll-free number.
“They’re the ads people love to hate with the phone number no one can forget,”
says Leo Kingston. The memorable 18002SellHomes mantra has helped RAK
Properties carve out a successful niche in the capital city’s real estate market. Last
year alone, 18002SellHomes generated approximately 1,000 calls from homeowners
seeking help selling their home fast.
Now, the Kingstons are taking the 18002SellHomes concept on the road
to a handful of markets across Oklahoma and in nearby states. They will begin
licensing the rights to a comprehensive branded marketing system that includes the
18002SellHomes toll-free number, pre-produced TV ads featuring Paulette, and a
Customer Relationship Management Web site to real estate brokerages and investment
companies looking for a unique way to attract customers.
“Other real estate lead generation systems generate interest from people who
are ‘thinking about’ selling a home at some point in the future. 18002SellHomes works
because the people who call are motivated to act right now,” Leo explains. “If we can
generate this level of interest among motivated home sellers here in Oklahoma City,
there’s no reason why real estate brokerages or investment companies in other markets
can’t be even more successful than we’ve been using the 18002SellHomes program.”
They’re also sharing their inspiring and deeply personal story with potential
licensing partners.
“People deserve to know that we have made mistakes in the past and we have
paid the price for those mistakes,” says Paulette, who manages administrative duties
and mentors team members in addition to her role as spokesperson. “It’s still very
difficult to talk about, but what we’ve found is that people are very forgiving when we
share the facts about what we went through. That’s been one of the blessings we’ve
experienced.“
Before urban renewal transformed downtown Oklahoma City in the 1960s, RubyA.
Kingston managed a transient hotel that provided rooms for 150 veterans and the
homeless, many of them suffering from alcohol addiction. That’s where Leo Kingston
grew up, peddling papers on the street corner at age nine near what today is the Cox
Convention Center. As if life wasn’t difficult enough, a stroke disabled his father, and
an older brother and his sister were killed in an automobile accident when Leo was 11.
“My mother had always worked very hard. After that, she was never the same,” he
says.
Even so, Leo learned a great deal from his mother. He inherited her love of
politics, handing out “John F. Kennedy for President” literature on downtown transit
buses in 1960 and helping her round up voters on Election Day. Always known as a
go-getter, Leo was appointed a State Senate page at fourteen and at fifteen attended
the Governor’s Ball. “I met a lot of people and developed a passion for politics and the
attitude that ‘Hey, maybe I could do that someday,’” he recalls.
After high school, Leo started college but quickly realized he wanted to work
rather than sit in a classroom. He took an entry-level job at a Firestone tire plant and
soon was promoted to a supervisory position managing men twice his age. Any extra
money from his paycheck went toward buying rental property. “My mother always told
me that the way to achieve financial security was to own rental property,” he recalls. “I
was pretty good at knowing which properties would bring the best return. By the time I
was in my early twenties, I had managed to buy 11 or 12 rental properties.” Eventually,
after a stint in the automobile business, he focused on real estate investment full-time.
Politics also continued to be a passion. In 1982, a handful of local political
leaders encouraged Leo to run for State Senate. He won the primary by 31 votes but
lost the general election to the incumbent. Two years later, he again won the primary in
a special election that eventually was cancelled by the governor. Finally, in 1986 (and
by now married to Paulette), Leo ran again against prominent Republican leader Betty
Brake. This time his hard work paid off. “We simply outworked her,” he explains. “We
knocked on every door in town.”
By all outward appearances, Leo and Paulette Kingston were on top of the world.
But there were storm clouds on the horizon.
“We were young and thought we needed a lot of material possessions to make
us happy. In reality, we were over-leveraged and in deep financial trouble,” Paulette
remembers. Times were tough across the nation’s oil patch states. “Over the years,
Leo had purchased a lot of rental properties, so when somebody couldn’t pay the rent,
we couldn’t pay the mortgage. We were running six thousand dollars in the hole each
month with only sixty or seventy thousand dollars in savings, so it wasn’t long before we
were on the verge of bankruptcy.”
To avoid the embarrassment and potential political repercussions of a highly
public bankruptcy, Leo Kingston formed a separate holding corporation to contain
the distressed properties, which he later learned was not permissible under federal
law. Thus began a series of ill-conceived decisions that by 1990 resulted in a criminal
indictment against the Kingstons.
“Some very stupid business decisions were made that were based on greed and
false pride,” Paulette admits. “The ironic thing is that if we had just admitted we were in
trouble and filed personal bankruptcy, we might have avoided all these other problems.
Instead, the situation just got worse and worse.”
The humiliation they suffered as a result was all-encompassing. Leo and
Paulette lost their freedom.
They could no longer afford their spacious home. They borrowed $8,000 to buy
a house in dire need of repair, fixed it up and lived in it for eight years once they were
free. “It was a really tough time for us,” says Paulette. “We had to borrow a car and
people from our church brought us food. It was very humbling.”
Once a department store buyer, Paulette was hired as a home design center
manager through a contact at church. She moved up in rank at her job and returned to
school to earn a master’s degree. Leo found work at a fitness center and started RAK
Properties with his mother. They drove a 15-year-old Oldsmobile and focused on re-
establishing their credit. “Everything went back into building the business. It was eight
years before I even drew a salary from RAK,” he says.
One day in 1996, Leo shared his story with a fitness center client. Shortly after,
the man handed him a check for $25,000. “He had a brother who had been in prison,
so he understood how difficult it was to get back on your feet. It was like somebody
gave us a million dollars,” marvels Paulette. “The fact that this man put his faith in Leo
meant the world to us. I felt like I was dreaming.”
With the money, Leo bought a $10,000 house, repaired it, and sold it for $25,000.
That was the jump-start RAK Properties – and the Kingstons – needed.
By 2003, the “fix and sell” market was saturated with investors – now
called “flippers.” “One day I told Paulette, ‘We need to do something different if we’re
going to continue to grow,’” Leo recalls.
Within days, he received a call from a company licensing an 800 number aimed
at homeowners who want to sell without using a real estate agent. Leo licensed the
local rights to use the 800 number and received “one very crummy TV commercial.”
Believing they could do better with their own commercials, Paulette offered to try her
hand as spokesperson. Within a short time, the 800 number was producing 700 to 800
calls a month. The problem was, very few of those leads panned out. Leo realized
he needed an 800 number that would produce a higher percentage of truly motivated
callers – homeowners whose real estate needs weren’t being met through conventional
sales and marketing tactics.
That number was 1-800-2SellHomes. Once again, Paulette became the on-
screen spokesperson conveying a new concept and number. The funny thing was, the
quirkier the commercial, the better the response, which was almost immediate.
Today, Leo and Paulette Kingston have been married for 26 years and live what
most would regard as a modest life, despite the success of RAK Properties. “We’re a
lot more fiscally conservative,” Paulette explains.
“I realize my past actions may affect the way people perceive me, and I have to
live with that,” admits Leo. “I told Paulette that the best way I could think of to redeem
myself is to work hard, do everything I can to be ethical and true to my word, and give
back to society from the fruits of my success. Thankfully, I’ve been able to accomplish
all three goals.”
The Kingstons give back to the community in time and money. Paulette is
an outspoken advocate for pet spaying/neutering, breast cancer awareness and
helping women transition from victim to survivor. She donates her time and money to
these causes. She also volunteers at a local home for seniors. As a company, RAK
Properties donates approximately $20,000 annually to charitable causes.
Leo, meanwhile, focuses his considerable energy on counseling local
homeowners who find themselves in difficult personal and financial circumstances
and need to sell their home quickly, and on rehabilitating those homes for purchase
by wholesale investors. They buy property all over the state and recently purchased a
condominium in Miami Beach as a vacation and retirement property.
“There probably are some people out there who would say we are taking
advantage of someone when they are down,” he laments. “But I’m here to tell you
that’s not what people say when I look them in the eye and tell them, ‘I understand,
because I’ve been in your shoes.’ “We have many satisfied home sellers who are happy
to move on with their life, they are happy with our simple, quick process.”. “Whatever
their problem is, they know from that moment on that we are there to help them find a
solution. And we do.”