Episode 10: Transcription
Kristina Modares
Okay. Um
Kristina Modares
Okay, so...Welcome to the open house podcast where women talk real estate. I'm Kristina Modars. And
Steph Douglass
I'm Steph Douglas. We really have that down. It's great. How's it going?
Kristina Modares
Um, it's good. Just in my new home office. Now Eric doesn't have to like crawl around me and I was like working right from my kitchen table every day and it was really bad whenever we tried to record podcasts or have worked.
Steph Douglass
Yeah, he's in the background tinkering with a tool.
Kristina Modares
Yep. Always a tool.
Steph Douglass
So, so everybody's like in their home office mode. It's, it's a pandemic quarantine necessity.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, I know. I was trying to hold off for a while because it was my, this was actually my guest room but then I was like, Oh, well we're not really having guests for I don't like what are we? What am I gonna have guests over? Yeah, so So yeah, we converted it now it's my office there's a mattress in the background like, I haven't removed that yet.
Steph Douglass
I noticed that the other day. The bottom of a boxspring Yeah. Professional or professional. We're, we're you know, we're just being our most genuine selves here. Yeah, exactly. My like unmade bed is in the, in the background of all of my videos.
Kristina Modares
It's really great when we're doing our course workshops right now. That's not a bed frame. Like don't look over there.
Steph Douglass
Do you make your bed every day?
Kristina Modares
Ah, no. Because Eric has this weird thing of like one of us has to get up before the other person. It's like a weird OCD thing. I don't know. But so usually, if I get out of bed first, like he just like rolls out and he won't do it. And now I don't do it either. Because he's someone who's always in the bed, and I'm the one who usually makes the bed so no. Do you?
Steph Douglass
No, not even close. And I kind of like I've always wanted to be that person. But I'm just like to the core, not that person.
Kristina Modares
When I looked alone I was I did make my bed but sometimes I just like have a weird thing about crumpled up sheets like I do not like it.
Steph Douglass
Yeah, I feel dirty. Yeah. It's really nice to get into a bed that's made. So I agree. Mad respect. Okay, who are you talking to today?
Kristina Modares
Yeah, I'm really excited to have this conversation with. So it's Dionte Chantel. So she is a real estate entrepreneur and developer in the Newark and New Jersey area. And it really blows my mind that she's only been doing this for nine years with all that she's accomplished in real estate. It's really crazy. I think this will be a really inspiring conversation to people who have not started out in real estate cecause Dionte really shows you all the things real estate has to offer like I'm she's transitioned from like four different kind of positions, I guess in real estate or like phases in real estate.
Steph Douglass
Because if you're interested in real estate, there's so many venues so it's cool to kind of get a sampling and figure out what you like.
Kristina Modares
For sure. And so she started off in wholesaling, which I think we should flesh out a bit Steph before we before I hop on with her, because I don't think many people know what that is.
Steph Douglass
Yeah. And wholesaling is it's kind of like a nebulous subject where people say oh, you can you can get into wholesaling you don't have to spend any money, which is true, and what kind of talk through our feelings on wholesalers in a second. But I, the way that I understand I've never actually done a wholesaling deal, but it is someone who finds a motivated seller so someone who wants to sell quickly who's tired of being a landlord, on who maybe just wants or needs the cash usually needs to sell. Right and yeah. And it's, it's a so motivated seller and then the person who's the wholesaler finds a buyer for that seller also. So basically they're writing in the contract that they're able to assign the contract to someone else, basically, not actually buy it, but get it under contract for a lower price, and then they sell it to the buyer for a little bit of a higher price. And then they take the difference between those two prices. Usually they're they're making between five to 15,000 per deal, which is cool. I mean, you can do that without spending money. You're just kind of the middleman. What are your thoughts on wholesaling?
Kristina Modares
Well, before meeting Dionte, I kind of had negative thoughts on on them. I think it was mainly because when I would go to some real estate meetups or anything, there was probably there's probably like lots of wholesaling courses. Where it's like pay, you know $10.99 to make thousands every year and so everyone would be like, I want to be a wholesaler. So I think at those meetups I would meet a lot of people who are like, I just became, I'm a wholesaler and I, you know, like they had just started so I kind of discounted it. Kind of maybe it's kind of like the same barrier to entry as being a realtor. It's like, not that hard to be like to become a wholesaler. Yeah.
Steph Douglass
You just like can do it and call yourself a wholesaler and you're a wholesaler.
Kristina Modares
Exactly. So that I didn't like that. Like, whenever you can just be something without any proper education, or like a low education barrier. I'm kind of like skeptical, even though I'm a realtor. And that was like, take the course and like you are here you go. Yeah. But you just have to, I don't know. So I was a little skeptical. Also. My idea of a wholesaler was someone who takes advantage of a seller who might not be as educated to know that maybe you could sell your home for higher if you actually list it online and have more people see it. But after meeting Dionte I think it's, you know, sometimes like if people are really in a bind with their house, and they they're really behind in taxes and their house is about to be taken away from them, because they haven't paid certain things on it like taxes or bills. You know, I think a wholesaler can really help out in that way.
Steph Douglass
I think like we're, we fit so well. And we have similar values, which is why we became partners, but we both are kind of turned off by the forced networking or like the, you know, here's my business card. So that's like, basically what a wholesalers job is, is to have contacts on both sides, seller and buyer, but I do think that there's especially how Dionte was talking about it like she did help people and so there's there's good ways to be a realtor. There's good ways to be a wholesaler. But it's cool to like know all your options in real estate.
Kristina Modares
I agree. So should we I guess we can just jump into it. Very excited.
Steph Douglass
Yay. Okay.
Kristina Modares
I'm here with Dionte Chantel. And I'm so excited to have this conversation with you today. And also, I don't know, I'm guess I'm just like really excited to finally talk with you in person and not just via Instagram, because I just recently listened to a podcast that you were on, and was like, very blown away by everything you've accomplished so far. And I kind of was like, I don't even know where to begin this conversation. So, welcome.
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, it's a pleasure. Being here. I'm very interested in talking to your audience. And let's get started.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, so I guess tell us a little bit about yourself. Like, where, where are you from? And where'd you grow up?
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, so I was born in Brooklyn, New York. I left Brooklyn at about 10 or 11 or so. Me and my mom, we moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and then my mom didn't like it there anymore.
Kristina Modares
So I'm from Atlanta.
Dionte Chantel
Really? I love it, you know, I would have stayed in Atlanta, it would have just made my childhood a lot easier. I really would love the culture there. But we were only there for like, a year and a half. And then we came to Newark, New Jersey. And this was shortly after September 11th, 9/11. That we will know of, and I've been here ever since for the most part and the Newark, New Jersey, Tri-County area.
Kristina Modares
Awesome. Awesome. And yeah, I mean, like I said, when I listen to your, like the most recent podcasts you were on I was you do so many different things. And also you just told me you're a mom as well. Like, I feel like this is it's That's amazing. How actually how are you doing right now during COVID like being kind of like in lockdown. And doing real estate and with with a kid.
Dionte Chantel
I mean, the great part about it is my daughter is six years old. So she's Miss independent. Until she can't get her way or until you know, yeah.
But he's six years old. She, her dad and I have joint custody. So she is with him seven days out the week and she's with me seven days out the week. So it's kind of helpful, especially because we are in lockdown. Well, you know, I'm still kind of quarantining. I'm not really taking her out to parks. Yeah, it's really is I want to like yesterday I took a risk and took her to a little Beach Park that had rides. And you know, after every ride, I'm like, you have to wash your hands like, you know, my daughter is like a free spirit wild child and she likes to be outside. So but things are going well. God is great. I've been praying for, you know, peace and sanity.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, I don't know for sure. I mean, I feel like it's a crazy time right now. And especially you have your own company and also a daughter like, it's it's a lot. I mean, you're doing amazing how I'm interested, like, how did you jump into real estate? A lot of our audience are like newbies like they've never done it. And yeah, I would love to just kind of hear about how you jumped into it.
Dionte Chantel
Awesome. Yeah, so I started in real estate back in 2011. I had just graduated from undergrad with a political science major with a minor in law, and I wanted to be a lawyer, but was going to be a lawyer. And I was in a sales job at AT&T, and it actually put me through college and allowed me to earn money live on my own from 19 years old and I hated it. Like I hated it. Like I love the people but you know working every weekend, not having control over my life I didn't like it. So I had a good friend said you know what you're already in sales How about you try real estate? You know make she's she's telling me how much money she was making in real estate in New York City. So I said okay, let me give it a try. So ultimately, I became a real estate agent in New York City and selling or renting luxury apartments. And it was okay, it was pretty good. I you know, real estate gave me that thrill. Like, I just love energy. I love seeing, you know, being able to go into someone's house and just embody their culture and where, yeah, it's just great. So I loved it. But ultimately, I wind up finding a career in law as a real estate paralegal and also a trust and estates probate paralegal. So I got out of doing real estate Agent work and I went into law, like I intended. And ultimately, while being a paralegal, I learned about real estate investments. So it's kind of weird how my story goes. It's like everything is tied together. And ultimately, I went to one of those seminars, we all hear on the radio, not gonna say the name. But I went to their three day workshop, and I was moved that was motivated. You know, I knew that the only way I was going to become in my mind, a millionaire or even a billionaire. And build wealth, was through real estate. I was very gung ho on that and to this day, you know, that's, you know, the case, as well. Yeah,
Kristina Modares
That's a great that's an interesting getting of like, starting off. Oh, I can hear...
Dionte Chantel
You can? I'm sorry.
Kristina Modares
pausing, Allen. Let me see what that is. Yeah, the sound was a little funky. Me. Let me turn this down a little bit. Maybe that's why testing testing, huh? Well, hopefully Alan can get rid of that. We'll see.
Dionte Chantel
I don't hear it sounds great on my end. It does. Okay. Okay. You know, I just hear you fit great like he's okay.
Kristina Modares
Okay, well maybe that's not
Dionte Chantel
It's cool in your ear to not hear yourself at all.
Kristina Modares
And I think what I when we try to talk at the same time, it's like cutting you off. So I hope that's not an issue. We'll see. Okay. Anyway, so hearing about your beginnings and like you starting off as a realtor and working kind of like luxury. I feel like that's an interesting clientele to start with. I know if I started with that, I'd be like, I don't know, especially at an early age, even jumping into being a realtor. I think I was like, 24 or something. I was just like, I'm intimidated by everything. But that's that's an interesting start, but then going to that was like an investment. Like, yeah meetup or whatever I, that's awesome that you went to one that was inspiring because I know that there's so many that at the end, I'm like, oh, you're trying to sell me something. Like you're trying to get me into your pyramid scheme. But there are a lot of amazing like inspirational real estate meetups that like, and that's really inspiring that you went to one of those and found your calling there.
Dionte Chantel
Yeah. And the one that I went to, is a very, I mean, everybody knows about them worldwide. And they just had a great speaker. I think he really moved me to my core, he was pretty young as well. I didn't sign up for their $40,000 program. But I did take what I did learn, and I said, You know what, I don't have 45 40,000 to invest, but I'm gonna invest my time I'm gonna learn this business. We do all the research I can on my own, I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna do whatever is required. And that's what I did. I found a mentor, a few mentors, wholesaling and networking, on Facebook, on Craigslist, you never know where you're gonna meet people. And ultimately, actually one of my co workers, my main partner, and one of my co workers, introduced me to my partner. Oh my gosh, that's a coworker from AT&T introduced me to my partner.
Kristina Modares
Oh, like your business, your business partner?
Dionte Chantel
My main business partners now. Introduce from my coworker at AT&T introducing us. She pretty much was like yeah, this is there's this lady that we do plumbing work for she's looking to buy a house. You're a wholesaler, send her your off market leads and you know, that'd begin us getting to know each other and then we lost contact and then another guy who was a realtor. He knew I was a wholesaler he reintroduced me to her I was already great. Oh my god, I just, you know, clicked and we figured out Oh, we should have been, you know, working together. Because I think a year as time has elapsed. We realized that we should be working together. This is alignment for us.
Kristina Modares
yeah, that's funny, because that was gonna be a question I asked you later on, but I'll just like, I'm just gonna ask you now. Because I mean, my business, my business partner, me and Steph. We found each other through Instagram online, you know. And it was, I felt like I was always seeking that like seeking a partner, but then had tried certain things and it didn't work out because like, as we all know, like, if you partner with the wrong person, it's a disaster. It's almost better to be on your own. But I think like a lot of us love the idea of sharing the liability and work with a partner but don't know how to find someone they can trust and like, how did you find I mean, you how do you I guess you told us how you found a partner but how would you suggest like finding a like minded partner to rehab properties with or I guess where in your career did you decide to partner? And what were your reasons?
Dionte Chantel
Yes. So I mean, I'll start the first question how to find a partner. It shouldn't be complicated. You don't want to force relationship. You don't want to be thirsty. Exactly. I was a, I'm not gonna say a newbie, but I was a wholesaler and she was already a rehabber. So, you know, I had to offer something, you know, so I didn't seem like a liability. Like I knew how to wholesale. I know how to source properties. I knew how to do things that she didn't know how to do, or she didn't have the time to do and then we just clicked I don't know, we just got along very well. So I don't know it just we were aligned. Like it was like, yeah, we both for heaven sent to each other at a time where we she needed help and I needed help. And that was that. Now partnerships are difficult. So I will say, am I saying the one I have with her is difficult, but I've seen people go into like, bad partnerships and you want to I mean, I'm a very spiritual person. So I literally ask God. Is this the person you want me to work with? Is this Heaven, Sam is this divine alignment? And not to get too super spiritual on here, but those are the conversations I have with God. You know, ultimately, God is my my life partner. He's my, he's my CEO of my company. So I tried to pray about it and then get confirmation on it. Because there's been times where, you know, I was about to partner even if it's for one project with someone and they were just not a good fit or they were doing things that are not legal or you know, I'm saying you end up in weird situations of real estate, real estate could become very fraudulent, quick, even if it doesn't start fraudulent it can get there. Yeah, you have people, the way they treat people. The way they interact with people the way you want to look at their finances. Because people are, they're broken, they're struggling, they'll do anything for money, and you don't want to be tied to that. So you want to make sure the roots that they're the things that they're sowing and their life is on good ground. You know, they have a good harvest. Yeah, I don't know the other question you have, but I would say when you should look at or consider when you're entering our partnership.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, that's that's I feel the same way and I'm not like I I'm not the most like religious person or whatever but I do I really care about people's values and like, I like everything that you just said I agree with of like, making sure how does this person treat others like how does this person you know, conduct business on their own and I feel like the communication. It's so you need to really hone in on that skill because little things can get misunderstood and being very clear. What is that? What's that phrase like clear is kind. I really feel that way of just working through, you know, me and Steph worked so well together. But we do need to like work we we work really hard on how we communicate with each other because little things can get like little hiccups can happen. And that's from a healthy good business partnership. So imagine going in with someone who doesn't know how to communicate who has different values than you, it's gonna be pretty tricky.So I totally agree with what you were saying.
Dionte Chantel
Communication is very important. Very. And I would always say put everything in writing, even if it's in a text message or an email. People have bad memory.
Kristina Modares
We have, that's so accurate. That was a mistake Steph and I made in the very beginning is like, you know, we were moving so quickly and we were just like, okay, we're gonna have this, we're gonna pay ourselves like this. And then we'll and later we'll do it like this. And then like, six months later, one of us remembers that the other one doesn't. And then we're like, wait. So that is something we really learned very quickly. It's like, everything needs to be in writing. And Google Drive somewhere, put it there.
Dionte Chantel
Never on your computer because my computer has crashed with a lot of valuable information. I do everything in Google Drive now. PowerPoint, Excel word. Yes, I agree. Yes.
Kristina Modares
This is the other question I asked was when, when in your career did you decide to partner and what were your reasons?
Dionte Chantel
Okay. So yeah, I thought as a partner shortly, after a bad deal, a wholesale deal that I experience, and this very same partner had to help me get bailed out of the situation, so to speak. So I was working on a really great wholesale deal. I mean, I had from this one seller it was about 12 to 15 houses that I would get under contract. And I was unfortunately circumvented by some investor that came into my community. We funded the deal and everything we were gonna close I'll never forget, it was like February 14, literally, about Valentine's Day of love turned into the day of hell. But you know, I remember the day like was yesterday, and I had to cancel everything. I couldn't go out that day.
Kristina Modares
Really? Wow. So you lost out on a lot of money and kind of got screwed over by a partner?
Dionte Chantel
No, no, by buyer. My partner helped me fund the deal. Got her private money company. You know, then we had to send the money back to the private money company, it was just a mess. So in that very moment, I was just like, Oh, I don't need to wholesale, at least not in this capacity. It would benefit me more by keeping the property because once I analyze the deal, I would have made, I would have had like $150,000 in equity. I'm closing on it. It didn't need much work. So from that moment on, my mindset shifted to buying and holding or at least rehabbing and ownership versus selling out my community to an investor that doesn't care anything about my community.
Kristina Modares
That's kind of what I wanted to dive into a little because, again, we're talking with very beginner people here who don't know what wholesaling is, and I know you've dabbled a bit in wholesaling. But then you also realize it kind of wasn't for you and do you mind like, can you tell our audience what wholesaling is and why you ended up? I guess, why are you? Why are you saying like, Oh, it's not for not helping the community. You know?
Well, in my opinion, especially, you know, I grew up in urban communities where the New Jersey, whether it's New York, whether it's Atlanta, um, you know, urban communities are a goldmine. Okay, so whether the people from those communities realize it or not, I was able to realize that that's what I was selling it to an investor from another type of community. Right? And to me,
Kristina Modares
and you can be as honest here as you like you say it you tell us
Dionte Chantel
Well you can't say too much. Now everybody thinks you're racist if you say something.
Kristina Modares
What? No, tell. I mean, you can say like, because when you're saying you're, you're helping out, are you there were when you say urban communities, you're saying like,
Dionte Chantel
I'm black, like I'm a black woman from a black community, you know, yeah, and our communities are most of the time they ran down. Not all of them, but most of them and they're gold mines like the equity return on equity is great, especially when you start to we'll say gentrify the neighborhood. These houses, you know, I've seen it firsthand, things that were $50,000 are now worth $500,000. And we're talking about in two years time in New Jersey.
Kristina Modares
Yeah. And you know, you want to you want the community to realize that, like, you want people who live there to realize that like that they can make money.
Dionte Chantel
Exactly. And I mean, the reason why some of them don't realize it, and if they do, they can do nothing about it, because one they don't, they may not have a knowledge they may not have read about how to invest and that's why I think that's my purpose. Like to go into my community and tell people you can do it, you can invest in real estate, even if you have no money, right? I did it. Wholesaling is investing whether you're investing your time or your resources, whatever is investing. So I felt
Kristina Modares
What is wholesaling?
Dionte Chantel
My definition of wholesaling is assigning the rights of a contract to an end buyer. So initially, and ultimately you're putting a house on the contract with a motivated seller, and it has to be a motivated seller for X amount of dollars. So you get the contract in your name, and then the rights of that contract, you're assigning for a higher price to a cash buyer. Okay, so there's a commission or there's a marketing fee in there because ultimately, real estate is marketing and paperwork. So in this case, we're just selling the contract or the paperwork to a cash buyer. That's my definition.
Kristina Modares
There. Yeah. You know, and it's funny because I've felt very, I feel a vibe about wholesalers, like I, I felt like the industry was kind of like a bit icky. Like, whenever I would go when I first started real estate to like those real estate meetups, they were always like the dudes approaching me mainly dudes and a lot of them and like trying to push something on me and like, I just got some interesting vibes and they're they're also like there's so many people who are like, Oh yes, I'm a wholesaler, but they've also like just started and I'm like, what is what is this it kind of like felt like a pyramid scheme.
Oh, no, wholesalers are vital. I think being a wholesaler me me everything that I am today.
Kristina Modares
Educate me. Yeah.
First of all, you go to real estate school. They don't teach you how to be an agent. You don't learn how to be an agent. So you're an agent in the field and all your deals fall apart or buyers and sellers are playing around. Wholesalers are important. They source the properties. They know how to evaluate the deal. So they know the market though they shouldn't have a good wholesaler anyway shouldn't know their market. They should know how to estimate rehab costs. You need to know if you know emerging market is going to appreciate in the next couple of years, you're gonna know what's happening. And I feel like the wholesalers know everything before anybody else. So they may appear sketchy, they probably can lowball some motivated sellers. But typically, they're they're the most important component to real estate to me, anyway.
Kristina Modares
Well, I guess, I guess I would say you're, you're kind of like a rare wholesaler in some way. Because I would say probably, you know, you have different values than a lot of wholesalers. I think that's the kind of person you're probably talking about before. Well, let's going back to, when you're talking about February 14, and that, you know, horrible deal happened, and then that kind of made you want to pivot a bit. Where did what did you do after that, like, where'd you pivot?
Dionte Chantel
Oh, I picked that. Basically, I started closing them. properties. I didn't let that stop anything that I was focused on working on. I knew I wanted to...
Kristina Modares
When you say closing? What does that mean?
hiring properties? Okay closing on them becoming the owner and then if I didn't want the property, I began to wholesale it Well, it wasn't a wholesaler home just flip it without doing any rehabs. For instance, I would get properties from a bank for about $60,000 as is. And then it was worth after rehab like 350 400,000. So are we getting them pretty much for like pennies on the dollar? And then I would just flip it for like 130,000 without doing any work. Wow, that was easier to do versus you know.
Kristina Modares
And what market was this?
Dionte Chantel
This was in the New Jersey market.
Kristina Modares
Oh, in New Jersey?
Dionte Chantel
Yep. The beginning of, and now with New Jersey, New Jersey is now oversaturated. So you can't find them.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, I feel like a lot of cities now are kind of like that will like major cities like I know Austin, it's probably I'm like, What is what are you all even wholesaling? Like I wouldn't
Dionte Chantel
Crazy. I have a cousin who's a principal out there. So he told me about the real estate market. It's crazy like New Jersey. So ultimtely, my mindset shifted, start, you know, closing it yourself start keeping some of these to rehab and to build wealth. And literally that's what I started doing with my partner. And we ultimately you know, kept some properties together. She already had some. So these were like my first buy and hold properties. I was able to reface my community by one rebuilding, redeveloping homes. I was able to put handpick my tenants that I wanted to put in there. I was able to give back by allowing homeless families Some members of the community that they were working homeless families, but they were living in a shelter. So I worked with nonprofit programs that gave rental assistance and which allowed them to come into the community. They were being priced out in New York, so they could not afford to live in New York. That's why they ultimately did end up in a shelter. But they were able to move into New Jersey, pay cheaper rent, still have a quality of life, and still commute back to New York if they needed to for work, or whatever have you. So that's what I wind up doing once I became a homeowner. And yeah, it was great. You know, a lot of the other investors that were not from my community, they they discriminate, they come, you know, they do come into our black communities. I have to say what it is to the black communities, and then they raise the rent. So once they rehab the apartments, and I'm not knocking on it, they raise a rent, and then we'll say, Okay, we'll pay the rent and then they'll say, Yeah, well, I don't want to see you. Everyone every landlord has their own perception of how they want to do things? And I get it? Unfortunately, some people do need a chance, you know?
Kristina Modares
Oh, for sure. And that's not okay.
Cool. Victor like you they get a vacation every year. I say give them a shot. Because at the end of the day, it is their community. Right. So, yeah, and I do understand there's landlord laws in different states that protect landlords and some that don't protect landlords. So, New Jersey happens to protect landlords.
Kristina Modares
So does Texas.
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, right now but not really with COVID. But you know, typically in Jersey protects the landlord. So they can't just be they're not paying rent like New York. You can be an apartment in New York for like a year without paying rent. Yeah. So that's right. And I would never own a house in New York. Um, but yeah, so we're talking about people that may have bad credit, but they're trying, we're talking about people that even just came out of prison or have a criminal record. So I was able to help people that are normally discriminated against normally are denied for an apartment, and ultimately, they end up in the shelter. They end up homeless people always say, Oh, yeah, I don't understand why we have a homeless problem. Yeah. Because these laws that allow landlords to discriminate.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, there and there's an affordable way housing program or affordable housing problem, right. And I like what you were saying with the developers, like you can't just come into an area, reap the benefits and then exclude the people that are from that area. Like that's really cruel. And I that's one thing that we really want to teach our audiences how to be more ethical investors, and I I've heard you talk about about a lot of the affordable housing programs that you have utilized to find tenants. How did you find those programs? I know there's some in Austin but like not that I feel well maybe I need to do some more exploring.
Dionte Chantel
I know New York City I must give credit to Mayor de Blasio you know, New York has like a really even now and I don't know what's gonna happen after COVID throughout the throughout the world, right? But New York for some time had a very deep, dense homeless population, like the shelters are at capacity. And I guess when he came in as mayor, he made an initiative for homelessness or housing or whatever you want to call it. And he came up with a program, a few programs, but the one that I use in particular was called the Special One Time Assistance Program, which is known as SOTA. And it literally paid the year's rent up front, like the entire year's rent upfront. The day they move in the property.
Kristina Modares
That's amazing. I remember you talking about that. That is so great.
Dionte Chantel
And everyone the way we were qualified is whatever their income was. They allowed. So if your income was, can't remember, I think it was three grand, they were paying half of your income now suddenly allows me say, all right, that's only two times the rent. But you could say, well, I want these kinds of rent. Right, right. Yeah, so it was, um, let's say it was 4500 they're making every month the rent is going to be you'll get a voucher approved for 1500 dollars. So when people did qualify, like I said, even at the 40 $500 a month, in most cases, that's not enough for New York City. For an apartment, that's not enough for the city, so coming into New Jersey with that income with great you know, you can buy a house in New Jersey, with that income. So ya know, I would, in most cases, make some landlords take it some landlords wanted to say it because they wanted the money anyway. I mean, buildings take it in New Jersey, like I've done. I literally became like a advocate for that program. And yes, I was paid as a realtor, because they paid realtors to source properties or apartments for the families. So it was a win win. I had a lot of investors, all the investors I used to wholesale to they had apartments, some of them didn't want to take it. A lot of them did. If they were smar, they did. Yeah, as you can use easily use that money to pay off the mortgage and reinvest a lot of that money into more real estate.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, and I think like, there are programs out there in every city, you just have to know about them. And I think I mean, it just shows your values are are coming through because you did seek those out and I don't know I think it's Good for other people to even just be aware that you can do that. Like you can sign up to be a section eight landlord. Actually, have you done that before?
Dionte Chantel
Yes.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, do you mind talking about that a little bit like what do you need to do? Is it hard? Like, have you had a good experience?
Dionte Chantel
Yes. I mean, I always say section eight is never late, but it is late sometimes. But, you know, a lot of these landlords I'm sure we were getting cash in their tenants not paying right now. They wish she has actually been on the process for section eight. It's not really hard, you can easily just put your house on the market and say section eight approved or section eight accepted. And when you you know, and that's just putting it on Zillow or hotpads.com or whatever is in your market and a section eight tenant will find you You can also go to Section 8 and put the listings up but the way I do it is I just put it on the market.
Kristina Modares
Do you have to like sign in for that program first?
Dionte Chantel
No.
Kristina Modares
Oh, you don't?
Kristina Modares
I mean, at least not the way I've invested No, you don't have to. So typically the section eight tenant will seek you out, so your unit out, they want to come and look at it. If they want it, then they'll say, All right. This is what my voucher is for. Hopefully it is the same amount that you have up there, have their paperwork before. And then ultimately, you sign some paperwork, you even send them a lease, they take that assign lease over to section eight, section eight schedules an inspection. So then they have to come look at your apartment, make sure it's section eight certified. And then at that point, you get you get accepted by section eight. Excuse me, accept the contract and they will inspect the apartment. And then I say it takes about 30 days or a little longer for section eight to get activated. But they will prorate it so if the lease is on it was May 1 and they don't move in until June 15 you will be paid from May 1 you just may have to wait a little bit but you will get all your money.
Kristina Modares
Okay so essentially you're working once someone finds your or like chooses you as your property or whatever then you're kind of working with a program after that what like you're working through you're taught you're communicating with the program a little bit like to get the rent and everything.
Dionte Chantel
Exactly, you'll be communicating with whoever the sectioning specialist is and coordinator and they'll coordinate everything but you already know for the most part, what the market rate is, and typically, the market rent rate is kind of conducive with the section eight voucher amount. So once you are trying to do you know, a two bedroom for 2500 nobody can afford that. That's not what it means like a two bedroom for 1500 dollars and section eight might be 1500 dollars. Now in some cases where the rent is higher, that's up to you, if you want to lower it, especially if you're new and you don't know what the rates are, you can call them I'm sure most section eight, or Housing Authority websites will have, what the rent is, or even the tenant will tell you when they acquire your apartment.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, and so I feel like people might have a bad image of section eight, but it's not like what is so when you think of section eight. What's that definition? Like? Is it mainly because they need more affordable homes? Do they have a lower credit score, maybe because of something that's happened?
Dionte Chantel
Well, section eight is subsidized, is a subsidized apartment voucher. So they have working section eight people people to have, they work a job, but it may not pay as much. And then you have some that don't work at all. And then they rent like their portion of their rate is like $25 and then the government pays evrything else. Um, so it really depends like, there has been a bad stigma on section eight renters. But in all reality, those section eight winters are not going to sabotage losing their section eight voucher to to damage your apartment.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, exactly. I would imagine section eight would be almost like the perfect tenant.
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, they are to me.
Kristina Modares
Yeah. Like, yeah.
Like I've never met me personally met a section eight tenant that messed up an apartment. Didn't I mean, there's some that don't pay $25, yes. They do get evicted for not paying that $25 but with you. If you're getting $800 from the government, and somebody didn't pay us one $25 Are you really gonna, I mean, some people do, some people evict you for twenty five dollars.
Kristina Modares
I mean, that's silly.
Dionte Chantel
I can't really say Oh, especially not during a pandemic, I wouldn't do that.
Kristina Modares
I I would imagine it's kind of like the stigma that like, well, this is different but like, I feel like Craigslist has a stigma but they we bought like, I know I found so many amazing partners and friends and people like tenants and stuff through Craigslist and I, you have too, as well, right? So, I don't know I think like just I like the idea of having people like just you know, when you have a biased, just think about it. Why what where's this coming from? Like, break it down a little bit more, because that is just something you might have just heard growing up, or whatever. Like, it's not reality.
Dionte Chantel
I feel like a lot of these investors, again, they're coming into communities they don't know nothing about. They don't know the people. They don't understand the people. They're just come in to make the money and take it back home. So, that's Why they have those ideas in their head because they don't even know they it's like somebody being thinking you know, I don't I don't know like all black people or white people or all Asian people naturally people like you don't even know the people you just think judgment and this is why they're being discriminated against. You know what they learned that section eight similar methods but I promise you those same people remember because I was dealing with renters to they call me all the time now they don't even want cash in it and the only one section eight because they already see what's happening right now. Yeah I see people since quarantine have not paid their rent from the beginning of quarantine and they had good jobs now for when they do lose a job but now like I said people wish they had at least diversify their portfolio has actually has some cash because they had all cash and now they're not paid anywhere at all.
Kristina Modares
yeah, it's kind of like a everyone's kind of getting screwed over right now.
Dionte Chantel
Become last than time, right and the last shall become first. And that's what's happening. So, yeah, you're gonna see like a spike of Whoa, I don't know who you cater to and if you have a portfolio, but I would definitely say add that to your investment business plan, like add a few section eight tenants in there. Some of the best tenants like they, even the young lady that I had, she never complained about anything. She complained when she moved out. I was like, Well, what aren't you gonna tell me while you're there, like, hello?
Kristina Modares
Tell me, yeah, I think that's also a misconception with people's like, tenants are like, I don't want to tell my landlord because they're gonna, like kick me out. And it's kind of you're like, No, no, as a landlord, please tell me what's wrong with my house so I can fix it. The issue doesn't come bigger.
Dionte Chantel
And you know, and this is a Midwest tenant because the New Yorkers in New Jersey is complaining about everything okay, but tennis I guess they had her so conditioned I don't know this one because out there they discriminate even more on section eight. You look, I guess you lucky you have an apartment type of thing and they know tell me everything. Even when I bought the house, she was like, the owner didn't fix anything in like, a year. I didn't have heat in the winter, like what? Like baby girl, you know, if if he's not supplying the heat section eight won't pay him. They shoudl have held his payments a while ago, and so he fixed it, or they withheld it. You know, you have to make sure they have proper living conditions. Oh, yeah, it was it was weird. Again, that's conditioning. She was trying to like, you know, walk on ice to appease that landlord. And now,
Kristina Modares
And I get that like, it's you don't want to be kicked out of your home like you have this great situation but that's why being a more ethical landlord also like communicate with your tenants and make sure that like they feel like they can come to you with things and You're not this just like, big, horrible presence in their life that's going to take away their living situation. But yeah, so I want to dive deeper into like your first deal that you actually bought, like, do you remember what you obviously will probably remember. But like, what was the when and how did you actually buy your first home? And can you walk us through like the numbers a bit of Do you remember it?
Dionte Chantel
Yes. So one, like, buy and hold, right? Yeah. Okay. So one of my first buy and holds was a two family. I can remember because we bought like a few, l
Kristina Modares
Like a duplex?
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, it was a duplex. Okay, up her we call them two families, but it was and then shortly after that, we purchased a three family so I'll probably talk about both of those quickly.My daughter just came in here. I'm sorry.
Kristina Modares
Oh, okay.
Dionte Chantel
She's so cute.We don't know but we're almost done in about 20 minutes
Kristina Modares
Almost. Almost done.
Dionte Chantel
What is that on your face? What's going on here? Because you ate them all. I'm sorry .Go get a tangerine, something healthy in your stomach. This is why, let me just get her something.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, that's fine, just a second.
Dionte Chantel
Alright, we're back.
Kristina Modares
Okay got some..
Dionte Chantel
Alright, um, and let me know about my answering questions because I started to ramble and then I forget,
Kristina Modares
Oh, no, no worries. Um, okay, we were talking about your duplex
Dionte Chantel
Duplex. All right. All right, let's talk about that. So, this was a property, a duplex in Newark, New Jersey. We paid 80 grand for it. The rehab was about $70,000. It had a bonus apartment in the basement. And then it had a two bedroom apartment in the basement. It had on the first floor, a three bedroom apartment, one bath, and then it had on the second floor, three bedroom, one bath. I was able to actually you know, put SOTA tenants and families in those units and the whole house, even the basement. The right rolls were about $1500 for the three bedroom so that was three grand. And the basement. I think we charged her about $1,000.
Kristina Modares
Wow, that's amazing.
Dionte Chantel
So the girl was, like four grand, right? on a property that we was all in at about 150, if I am remembering correctly. Yeah.So, so funny the, when it came down to selling and we held it for about a year, all of the clients were trying to buy it. Like all the families. It was all about people that again, they went from a shelter, to even thinking about homeownership. And I thought it was beautiful, like I was so proud of. So ultimately the person who purchased it was the person that moved in the basement apartment. So now she's like, it was a man and woman they're set, you know?
Kristina Modares
Wait, so they you would help them rent your place, right like and they were homeless before right?
Dionte Chantel
Right, through shelter through the homing program, they wind up acquiring the property. We sold it to them, I believe I wanna say it was like 3, we netted 320, we'll say because we paid for closing costs. So yeah, we netted 320 on the deal now. So, 320 minus the 150, is the total.
Kristina Modares
I know,we do this all the time. We're like, right. What is?
Dionte Chantel
Cash rolling four grand a month.
Kristina Modares
So 170?
Dionte Chantel
Right. Right. Exactly. So those were the numbers like that's how great the New Jersey market was at the time.
Kristina Modares
Wow. That's...
Dionte Chantel
Definitely after that we had because we have purchased houses like right back to back. It could even been like in the same week. That's why it's hard to tell like what was my first purchase because they were all like, at the same time. That one we paid 130. We budgeted the rehab for about 90 we did go over. We went to about..
Kristina Modares
This was the fourplex. This was a three three triplex I'm sorry. Um, so this one was a four bedroom, two bath, one floor. Second floor, four bedroom, two bath, and then the third floor had a two bedroom, one bath. And then from this one, we put a SOTA client on the top floor. I think 1450 for two bedroom, and this is like beautiful. We did everything over like everything. The rehab went over a little bit. I think we wind up spending about 110 in rehab, so 130 acquisition. Rehab was like 110. So we were all in a 24o, we wind up selling that one for like 440.
Kristina Modares
Is this the fourplex?
Kristina Modares
Wow. Beautiful. I'm doing this. So you 200 k is the income that you were like received after you sold?
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, exactly.
Kristina Modares
That's amazing. Oh, like, this is kind of crazy. I feel like a lot of people are gonna listen and be like, how did she have? How did she just do all this? Like, because I know we talked to a lot of people who are so frozen with fear that they can't like, they can't they can't envision this like it's so it seems so scary and like, I mean, I know my first home. I haven't talked about this too much yet, but I didn't know anything about this. Like, I bought it off an auction with my dad and like, didn't know what that was and never saw the house. We bought it for like 50 K, but like, I honestly wouldn't do that, again, because I wasn't connected to it. And I didn't understand it and it still kind of scares me. But I don't know. I feel like you are. It seems like you're fearless in this. I mean, now you probably are. But I know you've I've heard you say mindset is so important. And I totally agree. And a lot of people are scared to jump in. Did you ever feel this way in the beginning like or were you just like nope, doing it.
Dionte Chantel
Well this is gonna shock you. So, even now to this very day, I am conditioning my mindset. Every time you climb, or jump or hurdle and go to the next phase, you're gonna you gotta be scared to death. Like literally, even with me, you know now, I'm not scared of going transitioning into development or anything like that, that that didn't scare me at all. Now, just getting out there on social media, right? Going into being a coach and doing a podcast or whatever, you know, you have to recondition your mind like you know, you you have to think like okay, are they gonna like me, etc, etc. So mindset I've noticed what a lot of people can be their biggest downfall. Not thinking you're good enough, not thinking you could achieve the things that you want out of life, whether it's real estate, whether it's creating an ice cream parlor, whatever it is, you got to know that if you saw the vision, that means you're supposed to do it. You know, if God gave you that vision, if you dreamt it, if you wrote it down, it's gonna come to pass. You just have to put in the work, and you cannot get in your own way and self sabotage yourself. And yeah, that's what it comes down to. I hate to say it's self said, I mean, and sometimes I do it to myself.
Kristina Modares
We all do it, right. But you do have it's almost like tricking your mind a little bit because I am a cautious person. But people probably seeing what I've done will probably not think that way. But I'm like, Oh, no, I tell myself like, I am just buying this house because I need a place to live and like this will be better because it's almost like you have to recondition the way you think about things. You can't be like, Oh my gosh, I've never done this before. Like, you have to you have to like definitely work on your mindset and be like, Oh, I need this like, I will do it in this way. And, and like even buying commercial property of, Oh, I need an office and this is something that's going to suit my needs. Like, that's how I've done it. I don't know how you've done it in the past, but that's how I've reconditioned my mind.
Dionte Chantel
Exactly. And I never had that issue when I got into real estate, you know, something just clicked. And I was like, motivated, I was hungry, I was thirsty for it. I knew it can be lucrative, lucrative, like, I just saw the end result. And it was nothing negative. Of course, when you get in the middle of the trenches, and deals fall apart. You know, you may think differently, but we I never I could have you know, that one deal that I lost 40 grand in wholesaling, that could have been the end of Dionte in real estate. It could have been because I thought I was so frustrated, like, I thought I was going to end up in jail because I wanted...Yeah, God, God, you know, knew that that wasn't going to be my final destination, being mad and giving up. He knew that I was called to do something greater for my community, for my people. And you just have to want it bad enough, educate yourself, have the willpower, want it, put in the work. Don't do it for money. Maybe they for money, oh, you're gonna lose a lot of money. So you might Yeah, but now of course this is where the knowledge comes in. This is where wisdom come in. Just because you have knowledge on something doesn't mean you have wisdom in that area. So you need to figure it out and seek God for the wisdom sometime you know, I don't know who your audience is, but that's what Dionte does, you have to have wisdom more than knowledge in the situation and again, stop self sabotaging yourself, just do it.
Kristina Modares
For sure.
Dionte Chantel
I know, some may, if they saw another podcast with me on it. You know, being a long distance investor. It took me awhile to make that step. But once I got to it, oh, this is a no brainer. It's all about numbers and the numbers have to make sense. You have to be able to see what's gonna happen in a real estate market before it happens. So yeah, look at, you know, projections of where it's heading, what's happening in the community, how much you know, what's happening with the infrastructure of the community, talk to the politicians see what they're doing, how much money is being invested in those communities. And that pretty much help you with long distance investing.
Kristina Modares
People get scared with like, Well, I mean, I I have done a little bit of long distance. I mean, I guess outside of our city. I often tell people because people always, I think this kind of goes along with like, you get in your own way, sometimes. Well, I can't afford it here. And I always push back a little because I'm like, Well, have you looked 10 minutes outside of the city? There's some 200 k homes that you can definitely purchase. So I think going I mean, yes, I'm looking outside of just like downtown wherever you live. And going back a little bit with what you said, you can get into your own way. I see that all the time. I try to be like nice about it when people are like, I, you know, with the vision you said, if you have that, in your mind, you're meant to do it of like, people will say all the time, like, I want to buy a house. But I just I'm going to do it in two years. And I'm always like, why? Like I always just ask like, what, what's what's the two years and as soon as we start talking, it's kind of like, oh, I've put up these, you know, boundaries. I've put up these like walls and I've convinced myself that I need more time or I'm scared so you kind of get into your own way. Even with like, out of town investing. I think people there's just so many options that people are like, I just can't like sometimes they just don't know where to go.
Dionte Chantel
You know, it's not for everybody. You have to have systems in place, people. You have to network with people that's from the community. You want to be best friends with your neighbors, you know, they gotta watch your house for you. You want to get into let's pause. Naomi, close the door, please. I'm almost done. I guess we could talk about A little bit of a development too, whatever else you want.
Kristina Modares
I want to so I actually, I wanted to talk about that because I know you're a developer now. I do want to hear more about that. And it's funny because we just interviewed I think someone. I think sometimes people have like a bad like, there's a bad connotation around developers a little bit, at least in Austin. When people hear Oh, are developing in Austin, they have a bad image. But it's actually we were talking to a woman who works in affordable housing. And she, she, she used to think that and she was like, actually, I've learned that we need more development. And in many ways, actually, developers help to increase affordable housing. And we need developers like we, we really do and the pushback for development, at least in Austin has been like, Oh, it's gonna change our city but Austin was never we never thought Austin was going to be like, this big City and we weren't set up for that. So there were all these like restrictive land laws, we weren't able to develop a lot. Like there's restrictions on your own lot of what how many houses you can put on there. So yeah, I mean, now that you're a developer, you can do so much more for your community. I'm assuming.
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, absolutely, restrictions are everywhere. You know, I was recently Well, not recently, last year, I was designated to be a developer in the state of New Jersey for East Orange and Newark. And I actually live in East Orange right now. And you know, even to get designated, I had to show them renderings of what I was going to build there. So, and then they said, Well, we don't like this house. We don't like this house, so you don't really have much control. So there's a lot of there are a lot of restrictions. They'll tell you what they want in their communities and these are the councilmen. So then it grew with me, I got into development and this is before mentally I was in development. Before I even had a child, you know, I knew I wanted to build like container homes. I wanted to rebuild my community of Newark at the time, that's where I was living. And then again, wholesaling, networking, partnerships push me into development. And now, my mission is to revitalize urban communities across America. Well, in my mind, I'm targeting 25 states and in those states, I want to do at least three cities that are a place where I would come from, which is an urban community, a black neighborhood and revitalize it. Allow the people from the community to purchase homes, you know, educate them about homeownership about real estate investing, give them grant programs that they may not know about to actually purchase the home and in many cases, with no money down. They will have to finish a course, a HUD certified course in order to even get in the house, but you know, we want to make sure they can purchase the home, afford the home, stay in the home, avoid foreclosure. We're not just building these homes, so people can get you know, foreclosed on. My mission, make sure they know about affordable home loans. Because even though we know about FHA giving out money and all these other sources, sometimes people just don't know. They're clueless, like they don't know that they actually buy a house and bring no money to the table. Not even better jobs. You know?
Kristina Modares
That's so true. People don't know that. People think like I have to have $50,000 and 20% down and that's what we try to teach our community, like you can put as little as like 3% down you could even put no money down on on some programs.
Dionte Chantel
Literally, yeah.This many programs where you can do it, have you know the FHA 3% down three and a half percent down and then there's a grant in their state that will pay the 3%. Yeah, some people would say Oh, have to borrow money from a family or I'm sorry, get it gifted from a family member might know the government, your government, your municipality. If they have a program, they will grant you the money, you don't have to pay back, they will also pay your closing costs. I know at least in the state of New Jersey, they pay closing costs also. Or of course, you can set up a seller's concession with the seller or the developer. So my mission is to make sure we're bringing luxury affordable homes, into the inner cities. We don't want these to be we'll say gentrification zones or opportunity zones for other people to have opportunity, except for the people that live there. You know, yeah. And I, you know, I'm from Brooklyn, and when we left Brooklyn, a long time ago, Brooklyn was affordable. Right? Now my family that lived there, they're only there because they have affordable housing. It's been gentrified so much they can't even afford to pay market rent there. Some of them were even trying to come to New Jersey. I'm like ugh, if we get any more New Yorkers, we're not going to be able to. You know, we want to make sure the community, the people that upheld the community are able to benefit from the changes in the community. You know?
Kristina Modares
I love that.
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, whether it's in New Jersey, whether it's Kansas City, Missouri, whether it's Cleveland, Ohio, where I'm now working on development deals, it doesn't matter. I feel like I'm from all of those communities because I'm grew up in the urban setting. So, that's what I'm working on.
Kristina Modares
I love that. I. I love that you said also like developing affordable housing for the people in their community. Because I think a lot of times, like I know we have affordable housing, even in Austin and like, there's a lot I guess, in certain areas, gentrifying areas, but the people moving in, it's almost like, I don't I don't think that's meant for the people who were like living there for 30 years, you know?
Kristina Modares
No it's not. And like, those developers don't care. They want to, you know, they want to sell it for the highest book they can, and you know, get the money back. So, with me, it's not really about the money if I'm doing a quantity, so I'm doing the quantity. I'll recoup the money. There's a lot of federal programs that will help me even rehab it and build it. I don't have to overcharge because I'm going to be getting a backend subsidy from the government.
Kristina Modares
Yes, you I heard you also talking about how you bought some lots for like, very affordable, because you had a nonprofit.
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, just learning how to implement these laws or ordinances that are in place. Again, you got to become knowledgeable about what these municipalities are doing for nonprofits or developers, right? And just put, allow them to put their money where their mouth is like, yeah, they will you ultimately if you have your nonprofit set up correctly. They will give you land. They won't give it to you. They'll give it to you extremely cheap. Right now we're working on some deals in Cleveland, we're getting for extremely cheap. I'm scared to say the number but, it's extremely cheap. And Cleveland needs work. Oh, well, there's different parts of Cleveland. I'm talking about the the more urban settings of Cleveland. We're going to go and develop Of course, then, you know, the higher income areas don't need the developing this the lower income areas. And I was saying, I've been to communities where it's not even a huge black population because I don't want anybody to think it's just black this, black that. There's certain parts
Kristina Modares
Minority? Like a minority community?
Dionte Chantel
Not even minority. People, no matter the color they can't afford. I mean, we are also talking white people, who just can't, you know, they're being priced out too and they're nice and I've met with the Mayor and I want to say the percentage of black was very low. And she said we need affordable housing. There's houses on the market for $500,000. And no one can afford that. We need something more in the 400 range.
Kristina Modares
And that's kind of the problem, right? Because it's like, people are buying in these more affordable areas that are getting gentrified, but because they can't afford where they were living before. Then people are getting pushed out. So it's like everyone is getting pushed out. We just need more affordable housing like
Dionte Chantel
Put affordable housing everywhere.
Kristina Modares
Yes. Right. Yes.
Dionte Chantel
That is Oh, I can't afford my area. So let me move it to this area and then if people in from that area is going to get priced out, they got to move somewhere. I don't know where they go. They go to North Carolina. They may come to Texas. I don't know when they leave when they come from New Jersey in New York. They go to a more affordable area in the United States, most of it in North Carolina. Atlanta is becoming pricey now to go down south, they leave New York and they go down south.
Kristina Modares
lots of people, New Yorkers, well, we always I know in Austin, we're like Californians go home. Like, that's what a lot of people have been like.
Dionte Chantel
Cailfornia even had a development initiative. I didn't. I tried to sign up, but I'm not going to be a part of that wave. But this next wave where they were paying, they were giving the municipality was giving developers money to build houses. They have homelessness and a problem and a shortage of housing period. And then affordable housing, forget about it. California is extremely expensive, and we're not even talking about black people suffering from that. It's everybody that's suffering from it. The problem is now when you take people that are from, like you said, tiring areas and they going into the urban communities, then the black people can't afford to stay there and the black people or I'm not gonna say black but people that were there initially they have to migrate somewhere else. So curious to see what's going to happen. after COVID is completely gone. I mean, a lot of work, we have about 16 million people right now facing foreclosure right now. We have in New York City alone, I don't even remember the numbers, but over millions of people in New York City that's facing eviction, in three months time.
Kristina Modares
So it's very, it's very scary. Yeah. And, I mean, despite all that, I, I feel like what you're doing is so inspirational, like, I know, this is a scary time and like, it's, everything's kind of up in the air, but like, your plan, you're already like, I'm gonna go into 25 different cities and I'm gonna, you know, help my community out and like help people like, you didn't come you didn't come in with like, I'm gonna just dominate this and like, be a millionaire and like, I don't you're you're starting with the with the moral value of like, I need to help people. And this is a big problem. And that's how you're approaching real estate. And I really admire that and like, everything you've just talked about, is so extraordinary and overwhelming to me. I'm like, you're doing so much like, I'm really, I'm so inspired by you. And I think like you, you kind of is that your five year I was gonna ask, like, is that your kind of five year plan? Or is that your I mean, probably like 10 year I don't know what it is. I don't know how long that'll take 25 cities I would imagine...
Dionte Chantel
It is a five year plan. With technology today. There's methods of getting properties up quicker. So we won't be doing all stick built homes. We'll be doing prefab and modular homes and that will allow us to put you know, five houses up at a time So, you know, I don't know if you've seen a development process or project in place, and everything is going so quickly, like, wow, they built this up for me. And most of the time, they built it up so quickly because it's prefab or modular, pre engineered. So they're, they're able to get it up quickly. And I'm just gonna use that same method in urban settings with quality and care. And it's being done all across America, all across the world. We just have to, you know, that's just a loophole. Yeah, put up a subdivision of 50 houses in a year's time.
Kristina Modares
There's a formula there.
Dionte Chantel
As long as you have the resources and the money and the land, you could do it. So God willing, I'll be able to get that done. At least I know New Jersey. We're not doing that many right now. We're probably gonna do like 10 to 12 in New Jersey, Missouri, the same on both Missouri right now starting out the same amount, but in Cleveland, I just put in a letter of intent for 120 lots.
Kristina Modares
Wow, that is so exciting. I hope you'll be like recording all this and so we can kind of watch your journey because this is amazing.
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, I do plan to do it. I'm working on getting a good camera and a camera crew. Because I mean, there's so much that has been said and done behind the scenes that no one will ever get to see because I haven't documented it. But now I'm going to start doing that. I'm starting a podcast I do plan to help other women we'll say it on their development journeys as well. They're interested in real estate development. My podcast that's coming out, it's pretty much gonna take people on my journey.
Kristina Modares
Okay, we'll link to that. Yeah.
Dionte Chantel
Yeah, yeah. So starting out as a realtor, then going into wholesaling, then going into rehab. Now a developer, I'm going to take people on my journey and how I developed left over the last nine years in the real estate industry, I'm not going to get into real estate law because nobody cares about that. We get into the main, you know things you hear about and hopefully, we'll get some video footage on a podcast and on a vlog and people want to see it.
Kristina Modares
Awesome.
Kristina Modares
Well, I'm gonna let you like go back and hang out with your daughter Naomi, because we've taken up so much of your time and she's like, Hello, mom. Come back to me. But anything else? Before we go, you'd want to say to our audience who are just getting started, maybe someone who is even just trying to simply buy their first home but they're scared.
Dionte Chantel
Good question. Okay, so if you're starting your real estate journey, I would recommend finding a areat investor-friendly realtor, especially if you're looking to get into real estate investing and afford to hire a mentor in real estate investing. People try to I mean, you can learn it on your own, but you can lose your shirt really quick, you can lose a lot of money in this business. So if you're serious about building a real estate empire, I would say hire a mentor. Or find people that are willing to partner with you and mentor you at the same time. Yes, read, learn everything you can on your own. Do not take people's word.
Kristina Modares
That's so true.
Dionte Chantel
Educate yourself. So that's it. Those are my recommendations. Study people who's doing it in your area or in the in the world we'll say, like, kind of study their formula, their strategies, learn from their mistakes. Nobody likes to talk about the bad parts or the ugly, really ugly real estate parts. So go in there, knowing your numbers, knowing how to evaluate deals, I think that's where people get caught up and become bankrupt in this business. They don't know numbers, they go and purchase properties off of the way they look. They get emotionally attached to things. They need to realize if the numbers don't make sense is not a deal. And you can lose money.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, that's, that's so true. And even what you said of like, initially, even with that first house is like finding, finding a realtor who has who does invest as well. Because otherwise like, even, I would say, even if you're just buying your first house, and you're it's not really going to be an investment, I would still want to work with someone who has an investor mindset because they might give you some tips. So even like, push you forward with that first house, so I love all that advice. Dionte, where can people find you and anything else like what do you need right now spit it out.
Dionte Chantel
So everyone could find me at diontechantel.com, you can find me on Instagram @Diontechantel. And I believe on twitter, Dionte Chantel. Right now I'm working on a self paced course for real estate entrepreneurs to kind of show you all the ropes of real estate investing and development. I'm starting the podcast very soon. So look out for that it will be called Journey to DevelopHER. We're gonna talk about mindset. We're gonna talk about real estate. We're gonna talk about my journey.
Kristina Modares
Great. I love it. I'm so excited. And thank you so much for talking with me. This has been so you're just so inspiring. You've done so much.
Dionte Chantel
Thanks for having me. I'll bring you on the podcast as well. And we'll have to stay in contact. And I have family in Austin, so when I come down there, we'll meet.
Kristina Modares
Yes, I would love that so much. Yeah, and please develop in Austin. We would love that too.
Dionte Chantel
You're my realtor in Austin now. Help me find some land.
Kristina Modares
Awesome. Thank you. Okay, that was amazing.
Dionte Chantel
We were having like a regular conversation. They don't think.
Steph Douglass
Wow, that was so amazing. Just like so inspiring. She is a powerhouse.
Kristina Modares
She's my real estate idol. I'm like, Can I pay you, so you can be my mentor?
Steph Douglass
Yes. And I love okay. So nine years with what everything she's done is incredible. But it's also like On the flip side, she's worked really hard over those nine years. And like, when you think about yourself nine years ago, like that feels like a really long time, right?
Kristina Modares
Yeah, it does. And I'm like, wait, what I mean, I feel like we've done a lot, but I'm also like, Oh, she's just like, Oh, yeah, I'm going to build like, I'm going to build communities and develop communities and like, what, how many cities I just forgot. Oh, yeah. Many so many cities.
Steph Douglass
I think she's just She's like a genuine developer. And that's like, that's something even for me. I mean, for me, who's like, I've been doing real estate for, you know, seven ish years. Developer status is like not even I'm not even close to that. It's so so cool. And she's a mom.
Kristina Modares
Oh my gosh, I know.
Steph Douglass
It's so incredible. So I genuinely and so. So yeah, so I loved she was just so also just nonchalant about everything. She's so humble.
Kristina Modares
Sheis so humble.
Steph Douglass
And so and it just like, the the, the, the way that the conversation progressed, like, in the beginning, you had no idea that she had done all this stuff, like, you know, usually when you meet someone, they kind of like rattle off everything they've done. She was just like, Oh, yeah, I have a partner and... Very, very impressive. So, I love I love what she had to say about partnerships like she was very, it just seems like she chose really wisely and she also was I loved it. I mean, you're both of your conversations about how important it is to be communicative, to choose the right partner and how and I just feel like people who are starting out need to really focus on that part of it.
Kristina Modares
Mm hmm yeah. And the right partner too because it's I don't know it seems I don't want to be repetitive but I think finding mentors also yes is so important. Learning from their mistakes, you're still going to make mistakes but at least like you can maybe avoid some of the bigger ones that your mentor made.
Steph Douglass
Absolutely. What was your favorite part about your about talking to her?
Kristina Modares
Oh, okay. So I, I loved how she has made so much money, but she's still like she sticks to her values, which I think shows that like, you don't, you can like make a great life for yourself and you don't have to be greedy. Like you can help others and still like help yourself and I love I think that's why she's so inspiring to me because her motivations are, you know, her motivations were never to make a shit ton of money, her motivations were like, God, this is a problem and like, people in my community could really grow a lot from the knowledge of real estate and how do I spread that to more people? How do I uplift more people, and through the process, she she was able to, like, make a good amount of money for herself, like even when she was working, finding homes for people who were without homes, like homeless people on you know, on the streets like she was helping them. And she was still making commissions. And she told me like, she was still making like a good like, I'm pretty sure like a six figure salary on that, but she was like, her motivation was like, I need to help these people get into homes, like, yes, working with different programs and stuff. So I think that was the most inspiring thing to me.
Steph Douglass
I love that. I think it's really common for women especially to feel like I shouldn't make money. Like I don't I don't want to quest to make money because I don't want to appear to be greedy. But she, like so gracefully did both she helped people. And she made a lot of money. I mean, we're all about building wealth, and then also spreading when you when you have the knowledge to about how to build wealth, it's so important to share it.
Kristina Modares
Yeah, like turn around and grab the person behind you to walk with you.
Steph Douglass
So we, we should for sure talk to her again. Like there was just so much in that conversation that I wanted to hear more about.
Kristina Modares
I know I felt like at the end I was like, Oh, wait, wait. Yeah, I need I want to dive back into like the communities you're going to start building up in the developing side. So yeah, maybe we have her on again. When when she's like, started the construction on some of these developments.
Steph Douglass
Yes, love it. And then if you're interested in I mean, learning more about buying your first house, especially if you are feeling overwhelmed by all the information out there, don't forget that we have a course that will launch really soon, and get on the waitlist so that you can be the first to know, we will definitely have like a pre sale so that if you're on the waitlist you'll you'll be able to get in first.
Kristina Modares
Yeah. And I think we should have that out in the next few months. But yeah, if you want to link to it on our website, but yeah, I'm very excited about that. Yeah. And it's not just for Austin. It's not if you live outside of Texas, this can also apply to you as well. Yes. But yeah, thanks. Thank you all so much for for joining us. And this is just so such an inspiring conversation.
Steph Douglass
Yeah, so inspiring. leave a review, please rate us and we'll talk to you next week.
