Pittsburgh-based real estate investment and development — from revitalizing distressed properties into quality affordable homes, to premium renovations and ground-up new construction.
We're passionate about creating thriving communities. Rooted in Pittsburgh, we acquire, revitalize, and build homes across the full spectrum of the market. We're not here to cut corners — we invest the extra care and craftsmanship to turn houses into homes people are proud to live in.
A family leaving a shelter. Someone discharged from care with nowhere to go. These are the placements most landlords refuse — and in every market we operate, they are the ones brought to us.
Pittsburgh. Birmingham. Sumter. We built a portfolio that could take them — on purpose, and at a return our investors stand behind.
Our work runs from careful restorations to premium homes and ground-up construction. The standard does not change with the price point.
At the end of the day, this is about people. It's about the single mother who needs a safe home for her kids. It's about families and first-time buyers who've been overlooked by everyone else. Most of the industry chases the same comfortable buyer — we're here for the people society too often forgets.
That's why we get creative with owner financing and rent-to-own paths, like the families becoming homeowners through our work in Birmingham. And it's not just who we build for — it's who we build with. We intentionally hire minority- and women-owned contractors and subcontractors, the skilled people who never got their shot.
We believe everyone deserves an opportunity — a home, a livelihood, a stake in their community — and that belief drives everything we do.
One of our founders lived in Section 8 housing. She knows exactly what separates a landlord who meets the minimum from one who does the work, and she would not build this company any other way. Today 21 of our 57 doors are subsidized — more than a third of the portfolio, by choice.
We're a Pittsburgh-based real estate investment and development company, but our roots run deeper than any single market. We started by taking on the properties others walked away from — distressed, forgotten houses — and revitalizing them into safe, quality, affordable homes.
Over time our work has grown to span the full spectrum, from careful restorations to premium homes and ground-up new construction. Through all of it, one thing has never changed: we do the work right, and we do it for the people who need it most.
East West Homes begins.
Our first acquisition — a single family home, bought during COVID.
Expansion into the Savannah market and across the Birmingham metro, Bessemer, and Irondale.
A 16-unit multifamily community — our largest single asset, and still our flagship.
We move our center of gravity to Pittsburgh.
Plus six homes under construction and six in preconstruction, eight more under contract, eight properties sold, and a fully exited Georgia portfolio.
Mervet built the machine this company runs on. She came to real estate after two decades in software, where she led enterprise sales for a series of technology companies, and she brought that discipline with her — the systems, the reporting, the operational rigor that let a single house in Birmingham become a portfolio across three states.
She founded East West Homes in 2020 and today oversees all operations and drives the strategic and management decisions across the organization. A cum laude graduate of the University of Massachusetts, she is the reason the company can grow without losing its footing.
Michael runs construction, acquisitions, and technology. A University of Pittsburgh graduate and former Pitt athlete, he entered real estate in 2003 — first as a loan officer, then in distressed paper, and through 2008 selling homes as a realtor and renovating property in California. From 2008 to 2012 he consulted full time, with a particular focus on helping formerly incarcerated people build real estate portfolios of their own. He still mentors today.
He returned to the business in 2020 and has been building ever since. That work is personal: Michael was formerly incarcerated himself, and it is the reason this company builds for people the industry writes off.
Heather oversees rehab and renovation projects from scope to completion, manages loan processing and draw documentation with lenders, and handles purchasing and vendor sourcing for materials and contractor services across our Pittsburgh, Birmingham, and Sumter markets. She has spent four years with the company. She holds a BBA in Marketing and Management, a Master of Liberal Arts, and an MBA with a marketing emphasis, and teaches MBA marketing courses remotely for the University of Phoenix. Heather is based in Argyle, Texas.
Ananda oversees day-to-day rental operations — rent collection, maintenance coordination, property marketing, tenant onboarding, documentation, and communication with tenants, vendors, and partners. She brings over five years in real estate, including prior work as a transaction coordinator, with the past year in property management. An industrial designer by training, she is based in Valencia, Spain, where she is pursuing a master’s in architectural interior design. Outside work she is into design, travel, and baking.
families have called one of our homes their own.
And counting — across Pennsylvania, Alabama, and South CarolinaEvery unit we own gets a new roof, updated HVAC and plumbing, tile, new fixtures and a renovated kitchen. Every single one — at market rent or subsidized, no difference.
We do it that way because of who lives there.
One of our founders lived in Section 8 housing. She knows what it is to be handed the version of a home that somebody decided was good enough for you — the landlord who patches instead of fixes, the kitchen nobody has touched in thirty years, the repair that never comes. She would not build a company that does that to anyone.
So we don’t. A family holding a voucher walks into the same house a market tenant would, finished to the same standard, maintained by the same crews. It is not a favor and it is not charity. It is the baseline, and it should have been the baseline all along.
It is also, as it turns out, how you build something durable. Units that are done properly pass inspection, hold tenants for years, and do not hand the next owner a bill. Agencies place their hardest cases with us because we are reliable. UPMC signs leases with us for the same reason. Our capital partners keep investing because it performs.
None of that is why we started. It is why it works.
More than a third of our doors, in every market we operate: Housing Choice Vouchers in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Jefferson County and Sumter; Rapid Re-Housing and Permanent Supportive Housing placements for people coming out of homelessness; and leases with UPMC for patients who need a stable address as much as they need treatment.
The same crews, the same standard, applied to higher-end homes. These projects carry the margin that lets us hold affordable units for the long term without ever cutting what goes into them.
In Pittsburgh we build new, including through the Land Bank — taking vacant, tax-delinquent lots and putting occupied homes back on them. Six under construction, six more in design.
We hire minority- and women-owned contractors and tradespeople who get passed over elsewhere. For many, our projects have meant steady income when other doors stayed closed. The people who build these homes come from the same neighborhoods as the people who live in them.
One standard, every door. Everything else follows from that.
Great housing doesn't happen in isolation. We work hand in hand with the organizations and programs that make quality, affordable homes possible — and we get creative to open doors that would otherwise stay shut.
21 of our 57 doors are subsidized — more than a third of everything we own, in every state we operate. Not a side program, and not a Pittsburgh experiment. These are the agencies and institutions we work with to do it.
These are working relationships, not logos on a page. Each one puts a real family in a real home.
We are an approved Housing Choice Voucher landlord. HACP inspects our units and pays housing assistance directly each month.
We house residents through the county’s Rapid Re-Housing and Permanent Supportive Housing programs — people moving out of homelessness into a stable address. We also take placements through the county’s landlord program.
We work directly with UPMC to house people in their care — coordinating with their case managers and accepting UPMC-paid rent, so housing and treatment hold together.
Voucher-supported households across our 16-unit Burgess Court community in South Carolina.
Housing Choice Voucher households across Birmingham and Bessemer — the market where the company started, and subsidized from the first house.
A repeat developer with the Land Bank, cleared through its vetting on every acquisition and working across Spring Hill, Garfield, and the East End. The Land Bank exists to return vacant and tax-delinquent property to productive use. That’s not a box we check — it’s the work itself.
Through owner financing and rent-to-own paths, we help families who've been shut out of traditional lending become homeowners — building equity, stability, and something to pass on. It's already happening: families in our Birmingham market are on the path to owning the homes they live in.
When neighborhoods thrive, everyone benefits. That's the future we're building — one home, one family, one community at a time.
Looking for a home? Tell us what you need and we will get back to you. We accept Housing Choice Vouchers, and we work with Allegheny County and UPMC on supported placements.
We are always looking for skilled contractors and subcontractors, and we particularly want to hear from minority- and women-owned businesses. If you do quality work and take pride in it, email info@east-westhomes.com with your trade, your service area, and a couple of photos of recent work. We will send you our bid sheet when something fits.
Whether you're a prospective tenant, a contractor looking to bid, a community partner, or just want to learn more about what we do — we'd love to hear from you.
We read every message and will get back to you.
Rooted in Pittsburgh, building for the future. Let's talk.