Meet The Team
Andrew Porter
Co-Founder
Andrew Porter is a real estate lawyer in Chicago who represents commercial real estate investors and developers, construction companies, condominium associations, private lenders, receivers, landlords, tenants, TIC owners, and real estate brokerage firms with litigation or transactional needs. But he's also the domu in-house counsel and senior advisor, which is not surprising given that he owns half the company.
He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and attended medical school at the George Washington University until the day he was asked to perform a rectal exam on someone recently evicted from a local Metro station. Quickly rethinking his career choices, he enrolled at the Georgetown University Law Center. After law school, he worked as federal judicial law clerk for the Honorable James C. Cacheris in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which entailed additional service at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Following his clerkship, he moved to New York City and practiced law at a national firm, but then, to placate his wife, he moved to Chicago and worked at a boutique litigation firm and then another national law firm before assuming the role as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of Schatz Development, a luxury high-rise development company.
In the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis, home ownership became less desirable, and the apartment renting demographic exploded, and soon enough domu, the brainchild of Noah Schatz, was born of the need to better serve the needs of landlords and tenants. Andrew was actively involved in the development of the domu platform and created a wealth of content for the website, including a popular new standard-form Chicago apartment lease, numerous articles about the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance (the CRLTO), and several guides on sound apartment leasing practices.
In his spare time, Andrew hones his skills as an amateur musician and drifts from drums to bass to electric guitar in the privacy of his basement (and occasionally before live audiences). He's always shouting out the chords to songs that come on the radio, which his kids find ridiculously annoying. His wife Michelle is a marketing assistant at Northwestern Mutual, his eldest daughter Julia is the domu Director of Operations, his son Spencer churns out graphic design and album art for record companies, venues, and artists, and his youngest daughter Celia, an aspiring Broadway star, attends performing arts school at the University of Southern California.
Noah Schatz
Co-Founder
Noah is the consummate Chicagoan. Every cell in his body has a tiny Chicago tattoo on it. He was raised in the real estate business, the son of Jay “Jack” Schatz, a battle-scarred combat veteran of the "greatest generation" who returned from the skies above Europe and went straight to work altering the skyline as a Streeterville based real estate developer. He also operated the famed Chez Paree nightclub, which he co-owned with a few other impresarios and where he mingled with practically every famous entertainer of his era. Thanks to this, anyone who knows Noah personally can claim to be only two degrees of separation from Louis Armstrong.
Not long after his father passed away, Noah formed Schatz Development for the purpose of constructing a 41-story, 227-unit luxury high-rise condominium building at 600 North Fairbanks. Designed by world-renowned architect Helmut Jahn, Schatz Development brought high-end design to the middle market with a stunning concrete and glass tower that cantilevered over the Schatz Building (the family's continuous base of operations since the Korean War). Following the completion of 600 North Fairbanks, Noah founded Domu, the gold standard for listing and finding apartments in Chicago (according to us).
Noah attended the Latin School of Chicago and graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, although many years have passed, and he can no longer place the name "Descartes." He grew up shooting at the Lincoln Park Traps and blossomed into an All-American, world champion, and world record skeet shooter, having competed on the professional circuit for 16 years. Nowadays, he's a frequent sporting clays shooter (and occasional competitor) as well as an active bird hunter. Pity the poor fool who attempts to rob him in a dark alley. Noah is also an avid distance runner who takes frequent HIIT classes and regularly engages in vigorous physical activity. He is the proud father of three children, including Owen (a Los Angeles-based videographer for professional athletes and hip-hop artists), Lilah (a branding and marketing consultant in Chicago), and Caleb (a student at Indiana University).
Julia Porter
Director of Operations
A Chicago native, and a graduate of Walter Payton College Prep, Julia attended McGill University in Montreal, but lost the chance to saunter across the stage and claim her diploma because some sort of virus sent panic throughout the world and forced everyone into quarantine. She enjoys traveling and has already traversed the planet, as evidenced by her passport, which is generously adorned with colorful stamps. She visited China in high school and studied abroad in London, and she's also walked the streets of Paris, Monte Carlo, Rome, Florence, Venice, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv.
Since graduating from college she's worked as a paralegal and as a business development assistant at a prestigious Chicago real estate firm, and she also earned an interior design degree at Parsons. She currently lives in New York City, where the rents make Chicago apartments look like a steal.
Julia boasts Olympic caliber organizational skills and keeps everyone at Domu on-track every day of the week. In her spare time, she likes to paint with watercolors, savor the taste of fine champagne, and watch reruns of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Her younger brother Spencer specializes in album art, photography, and graphic design, mostly for jazz musicians in New York City, and her younger sister Celia is plotting to take Broadway by storm, though she currently attends the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.
Matt Skowronek
Director of Sales & Partnerships
A Fort Wayne native, Matt Skowronek moved to Chicago after graduating from Indiana University. Though too modest to reveal this on his own (which is why we're doing it for him), Matt was a star quarterback at Homestead High School and ended up playing free safety in college. He was a redshirt freshman, but didn't actually wear a red shirt -- that's just an expression.
By now he's well-acquainted with the Windy City, having lived in Wrigleyville, Lincoln Park, Old Town, and the Gold Coast. He's a sucker for the chicken wings at Woodie's Flat on Wells Street, which he considers the best in Chicago.
In his free time, Matt likes to wake up early and hit the links, savor the suds at local happy hours, and watch the Hoosiers deliver perpetual disappointments in every sport. He's been working at Domu for five years now and enjoys good relations with real estate brokers and property managers all over the city. His mother is a real estate broker back in his hometown. His uncle Trent Green was an NFL quarterback, and his younger brother Ben won a Super Bowl ring with the Los Angeles Rams in his rookie season, which is not too shabby. Ben currently plays for the Houston Texans.