• Real estate investor Corvon Burgess started his business after seeing a TikTok video two years ago.
• He is now looking for backers to fund his conversion of a South Carolina hotel into apartments.
• Burgess turned back to TikTok to help raise money to renovate the motel while keeping rents low.

Corvon Burgess first learned about real-estate investing on TikTok.

In 2023, he came across videos about wholesaling, a real-estate investing strategy in which people act as scouts for other investors. They search out under-the-radar properties, secure a contract with the seller, and then resell that contract to another buyer for a profit.

Burgess started out finding a home listed for auction on Zillow in Clinton, South Carolina, a small town of 7,700 an hour north of Columbia. He sold the contract to the home to another buyer through Facebook Marketplace, making a $5,000 profit.

That first deal opened Burgess' eyes to the potential of a career in real estate. At the time, he was enrolled at Francis Marion University and working at Waffle House.

"You can truly learn about building wealth and how opportunities can open up to you," Burgess, now 24, told Business Insider.

So far, Burgess has sold 10 contracts. His investment firm, Burgess Legacy Investments, also runs short-term rentals and invests in local businesses, including restaurants. Now, he's gearing up for his biggest project yet: buying a rundown motel and turning the rooms into affordably priced studio apartments.

The hotel conversion plan includes keeping rents low

Burgess launched what he's calling the Affordable Housing Project Initiative this year with the intention of buying an 80-room motel in his hometown of Manning, South Carolina, about an hour and a half south of Columbia.

He plans to turn it into 40 studios with rents under $950 a month, utilities included. Zillow only shows one home currently for rent in Manning, a four-bedroom house asking $1,700 a month.

"If we're seeing this need within the place that we grew up in, we've got to do something," Burgess said.

Burgess specifically searched for motels that appeared to be neglected by their owners, looking for outdated, spam-filled websites and non-working telephone numbers.

He found a 1980s-built hotel that was originally a Howard Johnson's before its previous owners took it independent. Burgess said that the building is showing signs of distress; photos from online hotel reviews show a rusty fence and dirty pool.

Currently, he's under contract for the property at $2.45 million, with a down payment of $300,000 set aside from his other investing streams, according to a November 2024 contract Burgess shared with Business Insider. He told BI that he has since negotiated the terms down to a $2.3 million purchase price and a $150,000 down payment, and that his expected monthly payment on the debt is $18,500.

Burgess is seeking additional funds for the hotel conversion

First, Burgess is asking local religious groups that have set aside money to support affordable housing to help fund the motel renovation.

Burgess also reached out to Peyton Vanest, a 26-year-old content creator based in Pittsburgh who has over 700,000 followers on TikTok. Vanest, whose content mostly centers on progressive politics, has urged his followers to donate as little as 50 cents or $1 to GoFundMe he set up if they support Burgess' vision.

Burgess launched a GoFundMe on March 19 with a goal of $500,000 to raise money for the motel renovation. Vanest than shared that link with his followers and, as of May 8, it had raised $345,329.

Vanest said some of his followers have reached out with plans to replicate Burgess' model in their states.

• An Alaska Airlines crew member says she was fired after posting a video of herself twerking in uniform.
• She said she posted the video on TikTok to celebrate the end of her probation period.
• Alaska Airlines didn't comment on the incident but said it holds all staff to "high standards for conduct."

An Alaska Airlines flight attendant says she was fired after posting a video on social media of her twerking in an aircraft cabin.

Nelle Diala uploaded the dancing clip to TikTok in late November alongside a caption describing herself as a "ghetto bih."

"Don't let the uniform fool you," she added. It has since garnered more than 90,000 views and thousands of likes.

In the video, she wears an Alaska Airlines uniform while dancing to the song "Ghetto" by musician E.K.E.

Since her apparent dismissal, Diala has launched a GoFundMe page, on which she detailed the incident that led to her firing.

Diala explained that she posted the video to her personal social media account to celebrate the end of her six-month probation period. She said she filmed the video at 6 a.m. while waiting for the plane's pilots to arrive.

Diala said the airline told her she had violated its social media policy and that she was terminated without notice or an investigation.

"Although it was a poor decision on my behalf I didn't think it would cost me my dream job," she wrote.

"I explained that the video wasn't intended to harm anyone or the company, but they didn't want to listen."

Diala described losing her job as "devastating." As of Friday, her GoFundMe had raised just over $2,000.

Alaska Airlines told Business Insider it did not comment on personnel matters: "We hold all flight attendants to high standards for conduct and guest care. All new flight attendants are subject to probationary periods, just like all Alaska Airlines employees."

Diala did not respond to a request for comment from BI.