Margaret Stagmeier seemed destined for her eventual career path. After being crowned the Monopoly champ of her sixth-grade class in DeKalb County, Georgia, Stagmeier announced to her parents at dinner that she planned to become a landlord when she grew up. Stagmeier made that dream a reality — and in the process, she has helped to provide affordable housing and other social supports to neighborhoods who need them most.
In her work as managing partner of TriStar, which she co-founded in 2013, Stagmeier provides guidance on real estate investments and asset management for high-net-worth individuals and institutions from across the U.S. and Europe. She has authored books on the topic, including “Real Estate Asset Management: Executive Strategies for Profit Making,” which has been translated into multiple languages and is now in its third printing. But Stagmeier’s other true passion is leveraging real estate investments to transform lives. With this goal in mind, she helped TriStar develop its “eduhousing” model through which it purchases large, blighted apartment communities near low-performing schools, renovates the properties and provides robust community resources to help narrow income and healthcare gaps for families who live there.
“Marjy Stagmeier is considered a titan in the affordable housing industry. Traditional ‘commodity’ apartment landlords singularly focus on their own personal profit, rarely considering the impact of rental increases or property operations on their tenants or the larger community. Marjy has set out to demonstrate a new model in affordable housing, envisioning apartment communities as opportunity zones for shared resources,” said her team.
To amplify the power of the eduhousing model, Stagmeier hosts monthly breakfasts with community stakeholders to address housing, healthcare and education initiatives for low-income families. As a result, the model is now serving as a template for other communities throughout Georgia and the Southeast. Stagmeier’s newest book, “Blighted: People, Politics and an American Housing Miracle,” published in late 2022, follows her team’s efforts to invest in and transform the culture within Summerdale Apartments in southeast Atlanta, which previously had one of the highest crime rates in the city.
“Our vision is to show other landlords, municipalities, educators and healthcare organizations how an eduhousing collaboration creates a triple-bottom-line win — social, community and economic — for families and communities,” Stagmeier said.
In addition to her work with TriStar, Stagmeier is the founder of TI Asset Management, an independent asset management firm focused on affordable housing, and the founder and board chair of Star-C, a nonprofit providing educational, health and social services programs to families living in affordable apartment communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Star-C launched an eviction relief fund which, to date, has raised over $12.5 million to help more than 4,200 families avoid eviction across 14 Metro Atlanta counties. Stagmeier has been actively involved on boards and committees of various organizations and nonprofits in Atlanta, including the Atlanta Community Food Bank, the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, House ATL, the Georgia Arthritis Foundation, the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors and the Ansley Park Beautification Board.
In her free time, she enjoys running marathons, writing children’s books and traveling with her
family.
