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40 Under 40 Winner Left Germany to Renovate Homes in the Valley

By June 29, 2021November 14th, 2022No Comments

By Michael McDaniel | Phoenix Business Journal

Patrick Niederdrenk and (SAAR 40 Under 40 winner) Maximilian de Melo conceived the idea of launching a boutique real estate brokerage in 2014 while they were vacationing in Arizona. The German golfers and entrepreneurs saw the Grand Canyon State as a great frontier of development.

As entrepreneurs, they built their business like the houses they sell. They started with a stable foundation.

“We’re both very big believers, in like, you’ve got to spend money to make money,” Niederdrenk said. “So even though revenues, everything went way up pretty quickly, we didn’t really try to make a huge profit. We tried to build a business.”

In 2016, Niederdrenk moved to the Valley from Germany to set up an office and created a limited liability corporation. Six months later, de Melo moved to the Valley as well and committed to the American dream with his friend.

Maximilian-de-Melo

“Did we know we’re going to be successful? I think so,” de Melo said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t, you know, move halfway around the world.”


The friends left everything behind, sold their cars and furniture and committed to themselves to their vision.

“When you burned the boats, and bridges, you know you got to be all in,” de Melo said.

Now they project their brokerage, America One Luxury Real Estate, will make $3 million in revenue and hire an additional 10 more agents in 2021. Since the first days of the coronavirus pandemic, the real estate business that specializes in refurbishing homes, has grown an unprecedented 385%, they said.

“There was one other agent than us [at launch] now there’s 22,” Niederdrenk said. “When we started there was not really enough, it was like a little executive suite, now we have one 800-square-foot office in the Camelback Tower.”

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Related: Forty Under 40 Awards Celebration (July 16, 2021)