Hometown: Minneapolis, MN
Birthday: June 16, 1993
Height: 6’4
Is Joe Coleman actually a Real Estate Developer?
Given the scale at which he’s currently operating we might have called him a house flipper, but technically yeah. We’ll get into that later in this profile, as well as checking out his excuse for ghosting Michelle. But before we dunk on that, we wanted to share more about his basketball history since it comes up so frequently on the show and leads into how he ended up working in real estate.
Joe Coleman isn’t the first former basketball star we’ve seen on The Bachelorette. (Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth.)
He’s not even the only one in his family.
Joe was born into a basketball family.
Basketball was part of Joe’s life from a young age.
Joe’s older brother Dan was a star player in high school and college and went on to play for a few years internationally. We’re bringing up Dan because he comes up again later—Joe has been following in his brother’s footsteps.
Like our Bachelorette Michelle, Joe was a standout player in high school. You may have heard Michelle call Joe “Mr. Basketball.” We assumed that was how people from Minnesota flirt, but it’s an actual award given to the best high school basketball player in the state.
After high school, Joe spent two years at the University of Minnesota playing for the Gophers. This Big 10 school has yielded its fair share of NBA players, including Hall-of-Famer Kevin McHale and former Mr. Kim Kardashian (Kris Humphries).
As he told Michelle during his one-on-one date in what appeared to be an abandoned carnival, Joe suffered a few injuries and was unable to distinguish himself at the college level.
He transferred to St. Mary’s College in California and played his last two years there–still a Division 1 team, not on the same level as Minnesota–before transferring back to Minnesota for a fifth year to finish up his degree.
After college, Joe did some sales and sports-related jobs before following in his brother’s footsteps again with real estate.
Joe and his bro both went from shooting to flipping.
Joe’s brother Dan played basketball internationally and invested his earnings into buying up properties in Minneapolis after the real estate crash.
Dan’s specialty is fixing up multi-unit buildings and partnering with nonprofits that place low-income tenants.
Joe seems to have started out doing work for his brother and recently started his own venture with a partner. (Who also played basketball, which is apparently a requirement of growing up in the MinneApple.)
In this very long video, which was uploaded in January 2021, Joe says he just got his second property.
Joe and his partner have completed at least two projects on the south side of Minneapolis. Their first project was a small single family home that they finished last year. We think Joe’s partner is currently living in it.
The most notable thing about this home is its location. On The Bachelorette, Joe said he didn’t text Michelle back because,
“I had a property in George Floyd Square, like three blocks away, and I had a lot of shootings, a lot of murders, a lot of things going on where at the time, it just caused a lot of anxiety. I didn’t feel like I was in a place to open up to somebody, and I didn’t know how to express those feelings with you.”
Looking at the timeline, he was working on that first house during the infamous ghosting incident. We mapped it out and it’s 0.3 miles (a six minute walk) from George Floyd Square. Also, we confirmed that just over a block away from the home’s location there was a shooting that ended in a fatality.
We can’t imagine the stress Joe must have experienced both as a black man whose hometown was in turmoil due to institutionalized racism and violence, and as a brand new business owner who had just invested all of his money into a house in an area where he might not be able to resell.
We’re still making amends for emails and text messages we ignored in 2020 during our standard-issue pandemic spirals.
Joe and his partner completed their second project just before Joe filmed The Bachelorette. This is a multi-unit building where they have their current office. If they are following Joe’s brother’s business model, their plan may be to rent out the other units instead of selling the building.
Although, Joe did just get his real estate license (as in, November 2021) so he’s ready if they do sell.
Joe’s brother has been a success in real estate, but he had the advantage of timing and equity. We don’t know Joe or his partner’s situation in regards to start-up capital, but they are entering a much more competitive market.
We can’t make any predictions about how things will work out for Joe in business or in love. We can say that the last time a very tall, handsome former basketball star and licensed real estate agent was on The Bachelorette, he didn’t get the girl, but he did get quite the arc on Paradise.
December 14 Update: Almost immediately after being sent home, Joe shared a post from the brokerage he works for. We don’t think we’ve ever seen this from someone in the final 3 before. We shared it in an IG post below—we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Comment on the post or reach out to us via Twitter. (We kept the name of the brokerage private in our profile, but since Joe shared it we now feel comfortable putting it out there.)
December 15 Update: The response has been overwhelmingly positive! We’re curious to see how this impacts future cast members and whether it will lead to more of them talking about their careers (please?). We curated a gallery of responses below the original IG post.
xo Your Nosy Friends, Ms. Instagram Snoops 2021
PS This holiday season, please consider a donation to Community Shares of Minnesota, which works to support affordable housing, affordable health and child care, accessibility, local art, education, anti-violence, and other social and racial justice causes (rated 87.30 on Charity Navigator).
