Davielier Turner - From Jail To Real Estate Investing

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Davielier Turner started out his adult life in jail from selling narcotics. Once he got our of jail, he decided to make a change. Fast forward and Davielier is now a real estate broker, instructor, and investor in New Jersey. He has been selling real estate and flipping homes for more than 20 years. He is the owner of Pinnacle Real Estate Group and B.C. Enterprises, a company that specializes in flipping real estate. In addition, he has published 3 books and has a 4th book coming out June 20th, 2024.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Learn how Davielier was able to overcome challenges and start in real estate even with a criminal background.
• Learn effective strategies for success as a new real estate investor.
• Gain insights into the importance of mentorship for real estate success.
• Discover how to transition from a real estate agent to a successful investor.

The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:00 - Getting Started in Real Estate
00:03:12 - Transition to Entrepreneurship
00:08:23 - Real Estate Investing Journey
00:10:49 - Finding the Right Deal
00:12:32 - Overcoming Real Estate Challenges
00:13:18 - Making Money in Real Estate
00:17:38 - Balancing Work and Real Estate
00:20:29 - Writing and Publishing Books
00:23:00 - Connect with Davielier

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Davielier Turner
The whole thing. We're getting started, just finding the right deal for yourself, finding someone that can help you and assist you, walking you through the right deal with yourself. Like I said, when I was released, I came home with a plan and I knew I wasn't going back. So I had to make everything work at every moment work for me. And that first four plex at that price was definitely a game changer for me. And it definitely helped me really go to the next level with just that opportunity.

Mike Swenson
Welcome to the REL Freedom show, where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities and real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some REL Freedom together. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of REL Freedom, where we talk about building time and financial freedom through different opportunities in real estate. I am your host, Mike Swenson. If you're interested in getting started or kind of looking for the next step on your real estate investing journey, check out our website, freedom through real estate.com. We've got a lot of great information there. Our podcast episode, articles to be able to help you along in your journey. So that's freedom through real estate.com dot. Now getting to today's episode. I'm so excited. Here we've got Davielier Turner, and he just has such a great story to be able to share. And like we talk about with a lot of people in real estate, you have the opportunity to dabble in a few different things over time, and so you can choose to spend your time on certain strategies, adjusting your strategy. And so he is a investor, trainer, writer as well. And I know you've got a great backstory from being incarcerated back in your early twenties and getting out and establishing yourself as a real estate investor and broker out of the New Jersey area. And you are part owner of the Pinnacle Real estate group as well, and BC Enterprises. So a lot of different stuff that you've got going on. I'm excited to be able to spend some time with you and unpack that a little bit. So welcome to the show.

Davielier Turner
Thank you so much, Mike. Grateful to be here.

Mike Swenson
So why don't you just give us a little bit of a background here and we'll dive in from there.

Davielier Turner
Well, I mean, you told them most of the stuff. Let me just fill in. Like you said, I have a background. I went through some things at a young age adversity. I overcame it and decided what path that I wanted to get on. And I found real estate was part of my journey and to be successful. And it's a path that I took that really has worked out for me for 24 years now, ever since I changed my mindset and my life of what I wanted to do. I started with real estate and I stayed with real estate. And real estate is big part of my life, a big part of my success, and a big 

Mike Swenson
So what was it when you were figuring out what to do? Because I know there's a lot of folks listening to the show that either in another industry, they've heard about real estate investing, they've heard about people that have had success. There's a lot of paralysis by analysis because there's so many different things you can do in real estate. People don't know where to start. So maybe talk about what was it, or kind of where was it you decided to get started in real estate and how that kind of built and grew.

Davielier Turner
When I started in real estate, I had, I actually had friends talk me into real estate because I had some friends that were doing mortgages. And what happened was I had about four or five, it was four of them doing mortgages. So they talked me into it, you know, because I come from a background of promotions. I used to do promotion, party promotion when I was younger and stuff like that. So they was like, you know, a lot of people, if won't you try real estate, we all do them all, and we will give you the clients. So what I did was I took them up on an offer and I started doing real estate. And they were, they kept their word. And the first six months in real estate, I made more than I was making working at my job. So that was my cue to stay there at that time, you know, and it really worked out real good because I didn't think about it. But, you know, the go getter in me, the hustler in me, the determination in me said I could do this, and I have to make this work.

Mike Swenson
That's the thing. So many people try to spend time educating themselves on what to do, and maybe they fail to just take actionable steps and move forward and realizing that you can learn through doing. And even if you don't have the perfect path in real estate figured out from step one, you're going to eventually get there.

Davielier Turner
Yes, yes, yes.

Mike Swenson
So, yeah. And then kind of going from the mortgage side, what was the next step after that?

Davielier Turner
Well, when I started doing a real estate, the owner, I started with Century 21, bright Star Realty in Jersey City, um, it closed down, and 2004, it closed down. We sold, they sold the business to re Max, and I stayed with re Max, and. But when I was with Cincinnati, 21 bright star realty, my old boss was a very nice woman, very nice person, very helpful, and she knew my backstory, and she wanted me to succeed. So at the same time I was doing real estate, she had taught me mortgages, and because she owned a mortgage company upstairs, and it really coincided with each other, and it just was just, you know, I just started visual, visual different things and seeing different things with the real estate and where I could go and how far I can go with it. And then, you know, seeing people that's on your side and want you to succeed was also a thing that really helped. Now I have her helping me, and I have my friends that does mortgages helping me. It really gave me a different view of how far I could really go in this real estate. It wasn't a just for the moment thing. I was, I looked at it from that first year as, this is what I'm gonna do. This is what I'm here to do, and I believe I will be successful, and I will make sure I have that. I had to be successful with it because, like I said, I had a background history before that, so I couldn't afford to waste a chance, if that sounds correct. I couldn't afford to. I'm saying to my, speaking to myself and third party is saying, Davali, you cannot mess this up. You have to make this last opportunity count. And that's what I did.

Mike Swenson
Now, I know for a lot of people, when they decide to get in business for themselves or become an agent, they might struggle with knowing how to prioritize your time, how to kind of keep yourself busy and know that you're focusing on the right types of things. So kind of talk about that transition as an entrepreneur where you don't have somebody necessarily saying, do this, do this, do this. Obviously, those mentors and influencers can really help advise you, but kind of going from being in a role where maybe there's a boss telling you what to do versus kind of designing your own day. Talk about that.

Davielier Turner
Well, a lot, let me just say this. A lot of people get into real estate and really think it's easy. And real estate is one of, as a new agent, it's one of the hardest thing to do with time management because you're hustling and bustling. Cause you're not established yet, so therefore, you have to answer every call you know, and people call you late at night, 07:00 you're trying to eat dinner. Here's calls. But you couldn't really manage. I couldn't really manage it in the beginning because I was a new agent and I had to be attentive to the people that's calling me. And I wanted to build my clients up in my client base, so I wanted to give them the best service that I could give them at that time. Now that I'm a little bit more established now it's 05:00 is my shut off in the daytime. Now I have to take time for myself because I can't work all night no more because I have a lot of things going on. But I am a 04:30 a.m., starter. So I'm up so early, so therefore I'm working early in the day and I can't work after five. If I want to, I can, but I'm not going to at this point in my life.

Mike Swenson
We often talk with newer agents saying, you know, your first couple of years, it's like you're running into the wind. You don't have momentum yet, and so it takes time. So you're, you're feeling like you're running into the wind. And then each year, hopefully there's a little bit more wind that kind of comes behind you and comes behind you and comes behind you with people trusting you. You're building a database. You've got past clients that have bought with you now looking to sell same thing on the investment side. And so hopefully each year you're building something where to where the wind's kind of feeling like it's at your back versus you're running Davielier Turner
Yes.

Mike Swenson
So talk about where did the real estate investing piece get started with you?

Davielier Turner
Real estate investing, it started with me from the beginning, actually, because once I got what's I let me go back because I have to always go back to my backstory because once I became free and went to school and decide what I wanted to do, because what I was doing before real estate, I was working for an investment firm as a help desk tech, and I bought my first investment property then before I even started real estate, this was maybe a year after I was released. We talk about 1996, 97, 98. I bought my first investment property, was a four family property at this time. So that started me on my path of investment properties, rental income, and things of that nature. And once I started real estate, at first it was just, you know, let me make money. Let me make money. Then I was buying fixings and flipping. Then I decided, like, sooner or later, you get older, and then you can't keep running every day. You have to hold some of these properties for yourself, but you still can flip a few of them. You know, like, I still flip a few, but I still hold a few. Um, depends on the value and what I see that is worth that I will hold on some and flip some of the others.

Mike Swenson
How did that work out? Just curious, especially for people listening that are going from zero investments to one. You started getting a fourplex. Talk about how people can maybe finance something like that or pull that off to where, hey, if you want to get started, you can do it with a fourplex, either owner occupied or not.

Davielier Turner
And that was the way I started it with the fourplex. I did start with the fourplex. I went FHA, and back then, it was 3% down. They had switched it now to three and a half percent after a while, but it was 3% down on the occupied, and it gave me my start, because what you could do with that is if you get in at the right price and at the right market, 898 and 97 98 99 was a lower market. So I think I paid for that fourplex at that time was 125 in Jersey City, which is a high value area right next to New York right now. And you probably can't even get a Starbucks coffee for 125 right now, what the price is. But what it did was it gave me an opportunity to leverage it to grab the next property. Once the market went up, you refinance it, grab another property. The whole thing. We're getting started. Just finding the right deal for yourself, finding someone that can help you and assist you, walking you through the right deal with yourself. Like I said, when I. When I was released, I came home with a plan, and I knew I wasn't going back, so I had to make everything work at every moment work for me. And that first fourplex at that price was definitely a game changer for me, and it definitely helped me really go to the next level with just that opportunity.

Mike Swenson
Yeah. And I know for a lot of people, they might listen to this and think, oh, a fourplex for 125, I can't ever find that today. So then, therefore, I'm not going to do anything. And I think it's reminding people that, well, 125 for a fourplex makes sense in 2024 that we're talking. Maybe it didn't make as much sense back then, and so you still had to take a risk. You still had to move forward, and so kind of find out what today's 125 fourplex looks like. Maybe it's not 125, but, you know, find that area that works. You still have the FHA opportunity to be able to own or occupy a property for a low down payment. And so find that best deal for you and build and grow. I was talking with a prospective buyer last week and he was telling me he had called on a listing that I had and I was asking him some more questions about, you know, what he was doing. Well, come to find out, this was his first property that he was looking to buy and he was looking for a two to four unit building to be able to own or occupy. And I told him, I said, hey, if I could go back and do it all over again, I think you've got a great opportunity there because, yeah, either you're going to have the other three people or, you know, however many units you have helping to pay your rent and or the value is still going to go up, you'll have an opportunity to maybe refi and use that as leverage for future properties. And so it's an absolutely great opportunity. So if you're listening to this story, don't think, oh, I can't find one for 125, therefore I can't do it. Go find the one that you can do it on and build your story and start with that.

Davielier Turner
Also, you might not find one for 125, but you can find one for what the market calls for at this time. At that time, the market called for 125. And let me just clarify this, because even though it was 125, at that time, the rents was seven, six and $700. So now if you could get one for 3400,000 and the rents are going for 3000 each, long as you look at your numbers and see this property is making money, I think it's very good for you. Like, I have a thing where I want to make at least $500 per unit a month off the property. And if I can see them numbers, that really works for me. So if you have a two family, after everything is paid and you're making a $1,000 month, you have positive income. And I mean, I always want more. I mean, we all want more, but we have to have a realistic number where we would stay at in order to make money. And the more properties you start acquiring, the more money you will be making monthly.

Mike Swenson
So then in terms of continuing to grow, I know you had mentioned you kind of did some flips, you kind of did some multifamily stuff. What was kind of your strategy? Just keeping your eyes open looking for good deals. And when you saw one, you kind of put that one together or how did that happen?

Davielier Turner
Yeah, I always have my eyes out. And like I said, now I have 24 years in real estate and so there a lot of deals come across my desk. I try to sell them for the people and then I ask some of them, are you willing to take this for the deal? And sometimes they'll be like, mister Turner, if you want it, I'll sell it to you for this price. This is the price I want. And sometimes I end up just getting deals that way. Referral stuff. I do a lot of pre foreclosure stuff, so some people just want to get out of the deal and over it. So I use every opportunity that my license allow me to use and I take every moment and cherish it because referrals, foreclosures, pre foreclosures, about the loser for tax sale. I utilize every angle that I have to make sure that I could try to keep progress and finding deals in real estate.

Mike Swenson
What I find talking with investors like you is thinking about it like a toolbox. There's so many different tools, so many different ways that you can help people. And I think for people early on, they just think, oh, I just have this one tool, this hammer, right? And it's like, how does my hammer fix a situation? Well, not every situation calls for a hammer. It might be a screwdriver, it might be a set of pliers, it might be a cock gun, you know, it might be a tape measure. And so as you build and grow and work with more investors and do more deals and find more creative ways to do deals, you start to see like, oh, this is a tape measure type deal, right? This is, you know, so you've got this whole toolbox of opportunities, but it takes time in the industry and experience in the industry just to kind of see how you can utilize those different tools that maybe when you first got started, you didn't know.

Davielier Turner
It's definitely rewarding just to be able to help people and find deals, because a lot of times you're finding deals and you don't even realize you're helping someone until they tell you. You might look at that as I'm finding a deal and somebody might just want to be away from the property and the headache and you be like, okay, give it to me. And it really works out a lot.

Mike Swenson
That's the other thing that I think, you know, when I, I came in, I came in on a residential real estate team. Now, I had done some investment properties before that. But, you know, residential real estate, we're always thinking everybody wants the highest price possible for their home. And then as I moved over to investing, realizing that convenience and ease and getting it done with surety to make sure a deal's done versus sitting and falling through the cracks or having people come through your home, or if you've got tenants in a property, you may not want to have that. So there's so many different motivators out there. It's not always just top dollar now dollars important, but there's other things that you can do to help people.

Davielier Turner
Yes, and that's what we do. We provide a service to help people and anybody that's a realtor or getting licensed to do real estate. And it's never about the dollar, it's about the service first.

Mike Swenson
Yeah. And building up a good referral base of people that will send you deals, like you said. Now you've got a lot of deals coming across your desk so you don't have to necessarily go hunt as much. There's more kind of coming at you like we kind of talked about with the wind at your back. 

Davielier Turner
I'm very busy. My days are very bad. I get up early about four, I start about 430 and I get to work. Paperwork is always first. Cause anything that comes to me after five, I'm not touching it till the next day. So when I get up in the morning, I'm really clearing paperwork. Then I might go to my office if I'm not teaching a class, if I'm gonna teach a class, and I'll be in teaching a class from nine to one, if I'm not doing that then I will head to my office and be at my office and get ready to be bombarded with a few questions soon as I walk in the door, because the agents, I really like to help them and they really like to ask me. And we have a good report where we pull each other up and really try to help each other up and to be our best, my best, their best, and all of us work as a team and not against each other, and we learn from each other.

Mike Swenson
Are these folks on your actual team or just a part of your brokerage?

Davielier Turner
Well, they're part of my brokerage.

Mike Swenson
Yep.

Davielier Turner
They're part of my broker. So that is my team. We are the team. The brokerage is a team in itself. So, you know, my job, I'm a partner in a brokerage, and my job is to make sure everybody is up to par and just make money.

Mike Swenson
Do you guys focus on mostly investor properties, or is it just everything and anything?

00:18:55 - Davielier Turner
We focus on everything and anything, but we do try to make sure that all the agents do focus on investment real estate for themselves because that's very important, because coming through a few crashes that I've been affected with, my partner was affected with the crash. We know how important it is to hold the create a nest egg and have some residual income coming in. So at our brokers, we don't just teach them to go sell people houses, to go those show houses and just sell for commission. We teach them how to create a portfolio for themselves and try to set up for their retirement so that way they would never have to be in a situation we went through with the crash. So it's very important for us to educate all the agents on what could be coming and what we have seen.

Mike Swenson
It's great that you help people to see the bigger picture because so many traditional residential real estate agents may just think of this as a sales job. You know, I'm just selling homes and may not see past the next commission or the next appointment that they have. But to be able to help them see a bigger picture and see there's really a ton of opportunity here. If you invest a little bit of your time, invest a little bit of intentionality to go and build something, you really can build something great over time.

Davielier Turner
Yes. Yes, you really can.

Mike Swenson
Now, I know that you also are an author. You've got a few books that you've done. And I know you also mentioned your, you know, training and teaching classes and stuff, talk about how that piece came to be, especially kind of the writing piece. Cause I know people are always interested, oh, I should write a book or, oh, I should do something like that. Would love to hear that. Came to be for you.

Davielier Turner
Well, actually, I started writing during COVID Okay. I really started writing during COVID because a lot of my clients used to always say, dab, you should write a book on first time home buyership or real estate. And during COVID when we was in downtime, I reached out online and found a book coach and what it is, I paid for the class, the coach, and he really walked me through it. And since then, that has really become a passion of mine. Given an hour a day to writing, to writing something, because I do some speaking as well, and I just. I'm always writing something down. So I started writing the books, and ever since I started, within the last four years, I've put out four books and I have another one done. One comes out June 20 of this year, and I have another one done that's going to come out June 20 of 2025.

Mike Swenson
Oh, awesome.

Davielier Turner
I just try to plan ahead and think ahead. I like to space everything out so that way I'm not bombarding everybody with the books that want time, give them time to read it and then buy another book.

Mike Swenson
Yeah. Yeah. And what are the books about?

Davielier Turner
The first two books? One is called you have real estate in you, and it gives you the whole aspect of real estate. Just what real estate incurs occurs in real estate, everything about real estate. The second book is grab my hand as I walk you through the homeowner process. And it's really a book for first time home buyers or anyone that really wants to know the process of what you're going to deal with during the time that you're purchasing a home from a to z, from home inspections, appraisals, title companies closing, it really walks you through every step that you're going to have to deal with. So therefore, you won't be surprised about it. If you buy the book and really highlight, highlight you and then you highlight your journey, you will see that this book, I really went through everything this book told me that I was going to go through. The third book I have is about mindset. It's called you have a successful mindset in you, and it's just about getting you to the point where you can understand what you have to do for yourself to go forward. And I have a fourth book, the one that's coming out this year, June 20, is called you can't serve two masters. And it's a guide for effective decision making. And it just puts you on the path of making the right and the wrong decisions in your life.

Mike Swenson
Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing. It's great to hear just your journey of what you came from, what you've built, and how you're willing to give back and help people. If people want to reach out to you and learn more about you or grab a book, how can they do so?

Davielier Turner
You can reach me on my website, www.davielierTurner.com davaliaternity.com and my name is the same on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever platform it is linked. I'm the same. Davielier turn on all of those and if you have any questions on real estate, I'm always answering inboxes. Don't bombard it with 50 questions because then I will ask you to kindly go purchase the book. But simple questions. I'm always willing to lend a hand to help somebody get the understanding they need for them to stretch out and become a homeowner.

Mike Swenson
Well, thank you so much devlier, for coming on and sharing. If you're listening to this, go check him out and yeah, just a wonderful story of how you've been able to give back, help others and help yourself along the way in real estate and see the opportunity of what you can build. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing and best of luck as you continue in the future.