Discover the story behind our inaugural successes in the world of real estate!
Join us as we unravel how he secured his very first single-family and multifamily deals.
Whether you’re a budding investor or a seasoned pro, this video offers valuable insights into the strategies that paved the way for my achievements.
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Transcript:
Chris Bounds 15:42
What did your first deal look like?
Jeffrey Donis 15:44
Yeah, so first single-family deal. It was, as I mentioned, we were initially in college. We were cold calling and our dorm rooms are so after I first-
Chris Bounds 15:55
Okay, so you’re talking about the first single-family over here, right?
Jeffrey Donis 15:58
Right. Would you like to talk about-
Chris Bounds 15:59
Those are my first single-family deal. And then the first multifamily deal.
Jeffrey Donis 16:02
Cool. Cold calling eventually led to a lead coming in. We were coming back from walking another property and a single family. It was a property that was here locally, where I live here in Durham. And we were driving back the seller that we had called the week before with an offer. She rejected it at that point. But she called us back that day. And let us know that she was willing to move forward, and got that under contract. And then that was the first time of us getting anything under contract.
Chris Bounds 16:28
How do you feel that moment?
Jeffrey Donis 16:29
It was good. But we didn’t really like it was cool. We never had actually done the next step. So we were like, “Okay, what do we do now.” And that’s where it plays a huge role. Like YouTube was really easy. We call it YouTube University. So we just looked at what to do next. Eventually, we learned you know, you can show it to different buyers, and eventually found one. And that was the biggest deal that we did that entire year was the first one. So that was the first deal in single-family for multifamily after joining Think Multifamily. That was in February of 2021, six months after we ended up closing on our first deal in the, because of the group. It was another sponsor in our mastermind group that founded and we just provided value, we are a part of the marketing team on the front end. But really, we had some connections that we can make and bring in some investors, and also participate in some of the aspects of the asset management more so by being a fly on the wall, but that was the first one it was in Jacksonville, Florida. It was 138 units. And yeah, now we’re about going into our second year of ownership. So maybe like a year in a few months.
Chris Bounds 17:39
Yep. I love it. I want to point out something that’s key there. I hear this all time and probably one of the biggest pet peeves for folks that are busy, successful entrepreneurs. I get it a lot. I know all the other ones get it alot. It’s, “Hey, can I go take you to lunch and pick your brain? Or can I go buy coffee and pick your brain?” And like, the moment I hear that I cringe because ultimately what it means is, “Hey, your time’s only worth 12 bucks, or $6.” But I want to go soak out all the knowledge from you over an hour and a half in exchange for that which you’re also going to spend time like traveling to and from and really not going to providing any value in return. What you did is you put yourself in a position to be with community, be with folks that are very successful, there was an opportunity that you didn’t find, but you found a way to provide value to them. Anyone listen to this, or want them to really take note of this like, “Don’t do that. Hey, can I pick your brain thing?” Because usually what I tell folks like if they said, I’d say, “Hey, bring me a deal.” I bring me a deal. I’ll let you know if I like it. If you want to sell it to me, cool. I’ll let you know that. But even if you just bring me a deal, and I don’t like it, I’ll let you know what I think. That’s at least bringing some value. That’s what you did and or if someone else has got a deal, which is what you did. How can you provide them value? How can you help them when you will be able to win to guarantee you even if it’s just knowledge and you’re just observing? Or maybe in your case, you get to participate a little bit? And that’s like you’re getting to play the game and getting paid.
Jeffrey Donis 19:23
Right. And I think it’s awesome, because there’s just so many fun ways to bring value that people don’t necessarily think about. So, just trying to see how you can get creative with it. Some people you know, they they have money or time or just providing your service, things like that. But a lot of people that are more successful, I think they tend to be you know, in the nitty gritty of certain things. But if you’re, let’s say, young and you don’t have a lot of money, you might be really good at social media or something like that where you can offer that kind of service for free in exchange for just even having access or what I like to do is just lead with value, perhaps make a connection, and don’t expect anything in return. And you’re just now known as that person that can connect people. I think your reputation is obviously big. And maybe one day that does come back. But regardless, leading with value is something that we’ve done, and it’s really helped.
Chris Bounds 20:11
Yeah. I mean, especially being young. I mean, you’ve got time, probably on your side, busy entrepreneurs, they’re busy. And if like, I’ll say this, there was an operator who called me, he was like, “Hey, there’s this deal on in Houston, which is where I live, and they’re like, “Hey, can you go check it out?” And if it works out, I’ll let you in the deal.” And I was like, “Sweet.” I went and checked it out, had given my notes on the community in the area, took some pictures for on the deal didn’t work out. But those are ways you can create value, it’s just find a way what do they need that you can help them out with? And do it. And that’s how you gain a little bit of leverage. Not that you expect anything. But guarantee if you do that, consistently, good things will happen. What’s your strategy for this year? Goals for 2023.
Jeffrey Donis 21:03
Yeah. My brothers and I were looking to take down one to two deals a quarter this year. We’re already pretty much over halfway into quarter one. Right now, we haven’t found the first one for this quarter things our deal flow is a little slower than we’d like it to be. But it’s picked up last week, and we’re looking at a few deals. So we’ll hopefully win one of those. And that will mark us down for our first of this year. And then we’re looking to do two more every single quarter moving forward, which audacious or audacious goal was about 100 million in acquisitions this year. So hoping to do that, hoping to continue attending conferences, I want to go to at least one a quarter. Now on top of that, to continue building our investor network and continue operating the properties that were already on.
Chris Bounds 21:47
Love it. Love it. Well, a couple questions. I asked everyone who comes on the show. This one’s not really. So usually I say, “”Hey, if you can give advice to your 20 year old self, what would that be?” But I mean, that was like a year ago for you. What if you get to give advice to say your 14 year old self, because I imagine you had a much different vision of life than you do now. What would it be?
Jeffrey Donis 22:15
Yeah. I mean, 14 years like-
Chris Bounds 22:23
a while back, I mean, you pick a year there?
Jeffrey Donis 22:26
Yeah, I mean, I’d say for me, it’s to really focus on the things that I think God, I wasn’t as faithful as I used to be. And now I’ve come into my faith over the last few months. So think about God in my life at an earlier point, I would have made the right choices. I used to play soccer, and my vision was to go pro. That didn’t happen for various reasons. But I think if I had God, and I would have perhaps either found my way into entrepreneurship earlier or just stayed on that path, and either way, I’m happy where I am, but I think that would have been the thing that I would have told myself.
Chris Bounds 22:57
Love it. love it. What book or books have greatly influenced your life?
Jeffrey Donis 23:01
Yes, I just listened to Trevor Noah’s book. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it Born a Crime. Try to get, Trevor Noah.
Chris Bounds 23:10
Yeah.
Jeffrey Donis 23:11
But you should listen to it a few. It’s like a metal. But mighty that was just really good. I like who not how it’s well for business. It’s all about like, who, what I do literally every day just talking to people continuing to cultivate my network and build it.
Chris Bounds 23:27
In the last five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life?
Jeffrey Donis 23:32
Yeah, as I mentioned, I’ve been more active with my faith and just learning more about God and go into church. So things like that, has really played the biggest role.
Chris Bounds 23:42
How can people get reach out to you?
Jeffrey Donis 23:44
You can find us at Donis brothers on all social media platforms. And then we have a free checklist for anyone that’s looking to either that or just looking to a passive investment, feel free to check it out. It’s www.donisinvestmentgroup.com backslash checklist.
Chris Bounds 24:01
Love it. Thank you very much, Jeffrey, hope you crush your goals this year. You’re on the right track. So look forward to seeing how this plays out over the next 5, 10 years for you. Thanks for tuning in. If you got any value out of this at all, please like, comment, subscribe, follow and love to hear from you. And for more real estate related content, market observations, upcoming events, you can go to invested x.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. I promise you won’t regret it. Thanks again.