Episode 10
Breaking Barriers & Building Wealth with Davarus Bell
In this powerful episode of Dallas, Texas: What's Good Podcast, host Brianna Jovahn sits down with real estate professional and former finance manager, Davarus Bell. From overcoming past obstacles to becoming a top real estate agent, Davarus shares his inspiring journey of resilience, financial literacy, and real estate investing. Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer, an investor, or simply looking for motivation, this episode is packed with insights on navigating real estate, building wealth, and staying focused on your goals.
🔹 What You’ll Learn:
- How Davarus transitioned from a finance manager to a real estate expert
- The importance of financial literacy and homeownership
- How to use real estate as a tool for generational wealth
- Common mistakes new investors make and how to avoid them
- The power of mentorship, discipline, and mindset shifts
🔹 Key Quotes:
🗣️ “At some point, you just get tired of being in the same place. You have to be willing to change.” – Davarus Bell
🗣️ “Your house can be your piggy bank—learn how to use equity to work for you.” – Davarus Bell
🗣️ “Success requires discipline. You have to make the decision to prioritize growth over distractions.” – Davarus Bell
🔹 Topics Covered:
- The real truth about transitioning into real estate
- How real estate investing builds generational wealth
- The importance of mentorship and continuous learning
- Avoiding common real estate mistakes
- The power of financial literacy and using home equity to your advantage
Episode Timestamps;
00:00 Introduction and Icebreaker
02:30 Guest Introduction: Who is Davarus Bell?
03:41 The Power of Transition and Mentorship
06:39 Journey to Real Estate
20:03 Navigating Real Estate: Loans and Equity
26:00 Investment Strategies and HELOC Explained
29:31 Navigating FHA Guidelines for Fixer-Uppers
30:56 The Cost of Living in High-Tax Areas
31:50 The Real Estate Monopoly Game
36:48 The Importance of Continuous Education in Real Estate
39:52 Staying Focused and Shifting Mindsets
43:37 Highs and Lows: Personal and Professional Reflections
50:55 One Free Advice for Aspiring Professionals
55:25 Motivational Moment: Overcoming Self-Doubt
🎧 Tune in now! And don’t forget to share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.
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Follow our Guest, Davarus Bell:
- Linktree: https://linktr.ee/davarusbell
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Transcript
His name is Davarus Bell. How are you?
[:[00:00:31] Brianna: Well, thank you for being
[:[00:00:33] Brianna: That's good. Okay. So, as you guys know, we always start off with an icebreaker and let's go ahead and get into it. Davarus, if you could live in any type of home from a modern city penthouse to a rustic farmhouse, what would you choose and why?
[:[00:00:50] Brianna: I would say a farm style traditional home. land had to be like a lot of land. not too far from the city. So I'd say an hour away from the city.
Oh, I see. So you have access in and out.
[:Tyler. Terrell. Well, no, I probably wouldn't go that far, but Terrell, for sure. Forney.
[:[00:01:18] Davarus: like that. Alright. Yeah.
[:[00:01:23] Davarus: Yep.
[:[00:01:30] Davarus: taxes are low.
[:[00:01:32] Davarus: Forney is about to hit a boom. So the people who bought into Forney, you know, from 2016 up until today, they decided to sell in the next year. So they're going to make a lot of money,
for people looking for that low monthly payment, You know, decent schools, you know, diversity, it's a pretty good place and it got a lot of stuff. You know, they got a H E B coming, they got a Target Buffalo Wild Wings, they just completed, they got a Walmart, they got Cava, that's my favorite spot.
So, they got Cava. You never heard of Cava? No. it's like the Rolls Royce of healthy food.
[:[00:02:20] Davarus: It's, 30 times better than Chipotle.
[:[00:02:24] Davarus: I definitely don't. But coffee is very good. Like a modern Mediterranean food.
Yeah, fresh.
[:[00:02:40] Davarus: Cause I don't be knowing how to answer this. So. So I'm gonna just knock off some bullet points. So from Mississippi, ex basketball player.
I do real estate right now. Currently I was a car salesman. I was a finance manager. I've been incarcerated the eight years of selling marijuana. I'm a father of three, raised by my grandparents and That's it.
[:To being a car salesman, to real estate, I feel like the biggest thing right there is transition. A lot of people are kind of scared to pivot in certain different ways, but it seemed like you had to pivot and some of the things you volunteered to be, to be where you are today. So what does transition look like for you?
[:So he was there for me. the archangel Gabriel came to the prophet Muhammad to tell him to speak and he was a literate man. The archangel Gabriel was the same person that came to Mary and told her that she would be born of a child when she was a virgin.
Frederick showers was the person who I met who told me you are better than prison. You deserve better. You can be better. You can do this. You can do this. You can do this. And I hate words of affirmation. I hate pep talk. I don't need it. But he did that to me every single day while I was in prison.
I was incarcerated a year, every single day, every single day, never not a day. He could be having a bad day. He could've got some bad news. He still was just like, you're going to be great today. Don't forget. You just passing through every single day.
[:[00:05:02] Davarus: No.
[:[00:05:12] Davarus: So,
[:[00:05:14] Davarus: don't care who you is. You got to be coachable. you can be one of the greatest coaches in sports history.
Bill Belichick, Gino Auriemma. These people are like the greatest. But. They still are being coached and taught things that they don't know about or that's new to them I heard a lady say the other day. She'd been in real estate 40 years She said that she almost gave up real estate Once social media and content creating became the thing for realtors.
she almost gave up then somebody taught her how to work Instagram, how to work Facebook, how to work her iPhone. And she kept doing it and she's still in the game. So we still have to be coachable. We've got to be able to learn and receive the things people are telling you.
I was so tired of trying to do it my way because my way got me locked up. I just surrendered. And I used to pray every single night, ask God for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. And then once I found out that God is not going to sit down on my rec in prison and give me a book or talk to me and tell me, Hey, Davarus, this is wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
This is what you needed. This is what you needed. All that. He was going to take me through things for me to learn from it. And so that's when I was like, Come on.
[:Did somebody pull you this way? Did somebody pull you that way? Or did you just read about the industry and knew that's where you wanted to go? How did you get to real estate? I
[:Always like always some, some way more so of an investor, like buying and flipping and stuff like that. But, at the time, I'm a provider. I believe in getting up, going to work, doing what you need to do to provide for your family. especially when I got tired of chasing dreams. I was at a car dealership I was the man at the car dealership.
coming home from prison, I moved here, worked a bunch of odd end jobs. I tell this story a lot, go to the Apple store. My girlfriend told me, Davarus, you need a computer in order for you to be successful. You got to have a laptop. Never owned a laptop before in my life.
Didn't want to take her money. She said, I'm alone into you. So like you from Mississippi, your man, you got pride, all that type of stuff. I'm gonna lend you the money. So she lent me the 1, 700 to go to the Apple store, buy me a Mac book air guy sitting across from me. He was, you know, trying to buy phones, you know, where you can lay the phone and charge the phone and stuff like that.
He was like, Hey, you know, I'm tired of people going into my office, stealing my charger. So I'm thinking about getting a charge like this. And I say, man, I think you should get this type of charger simply because if I get in this charger, it's going to be hard for somebody to just come in and steal it.
And you know, walk away with it because it's so big, all this type of stuff. It was like, man, you're right. Told the people, Hey, let me get two of them. Matter of fact, let me get three. Let me get one for my office, one for my wife and one for home. He said, man, you should be a car sale. I'm like, hi, man, I can't be no car sales.
He said, yes, you can. Because look at what you did. You did this, this, this, this, this. And I'm like, man, I'm be real magic. Came home from prison. I didn't graduate college. I dropped out of college trying to play basketball in high school. I got kicked out of high school. I got a GED blah, blah, blah.
I'm telling him all these things. The reason why they not go hire me because. Most people who get out of prison, they ain't doing this. So they give me the job. Start working there. Everything was cool. I'm not going to go into details about me putting my hands on one of the owners of the spot and what he said.
But he said something super disrespectful and one thing I don't play about, I do not play about women. I don't play about black women. I definitely don't play about old black women. I was raised by my grandmama. And I don't care who you is. You ain't finna play with my grandma.
The preacher, you say something disrespectful to my grandma, I'm going in your face. So he said something disrespectful about this old black lady and I snapped and they fired me. Oh, you will never work in this town again. You'll never sell cars again. So I get in the car, call my girl. I'm just like, Hey.
You know, I'm crying cause I'm like, man, I ain't gonna be able to help you with the bills this month, I'm just crushing it. Like, it's okay. Just come home. We'll figure it out. So as I'm driving to the house, phone rang, boom, answer the phone. Hello? Is this Davarus Bell? Yes.
Speaking. this is Cody Wiggins at Don Davis Auto Group. Are you still looking for a job position at Dunn Davis?
[:[00:10:12] Davarus: home. I was driving. I'm in the car driving. I've never applied for a job. It done. That
[:[:
they like by the book and structure all that type of stuff. I told him, I said, look, man, I can't, I ain't shaved. I'm bald already. So you want me to say it is on my favorite, like a booty. I like, I like not doing it. I said, I ain't doing that. So he was like, we've got to talk to one more person.
And then one time to general manager, general manager, like, look, I heard your story. They like you, you know, I'm cool with it. And I said, man, I'm going to just be real. I want the job. But if I got to show you, I can't do it. He said, I'm gonna tell you right now. If you sell X amount of calls every single month, you can keep your chin.
[:[00:11:30] Davarus: Yep. He said, you can do what you want to do. from November 2018 until I left in 2021, I was the salesman of the month every single month.
[:[00:11:45] Davarus: cars. Two 300 cars a year.
[:[00:11:49] Davarus: Yup.
[:[00:12:00] Davarus: can't do nothing without a woman, man. I don't care what nobody said, Listen, whoever hearing this, just think about it.
Just think about successful men in the world. What do they all have? I got a woman name, a man who's successful, who didn't have a woman, a strong woman with him, whether she white or black, it don't matter, had a woman with them on their rise. And it may be one man who probably like super, super, super successful, rich and powerful who don't have a woman.
But in order for him to get the way here, I bet a woman was right there.
[:[00:12:35] Davarus: about it. Name somebody.
[:[00:12:39] Davarus: name one single man. That is the most powerful man in the world. That's rich and successful.
[:[00:12:48] Davarus: Bill Gates had a woman and they got a divorce.
[:[00:12:56] Davarus: let's go sports. LeBron James married
[:[00:12:59] Davarus: Who's the greatest football? Tom Brady.
[:[00:13:05] Davarus: Yeah,
[:[00:13:08] Davarus: him.
[:[00:13:09] Davarus: Yeah. Because, and also her point of view, I do understand because I went through this as well when you're trying to be successful and you're not spending time at home and the women don't care about your money.
the ones who love you, don't care about your money. They only want one thing, your time. Is it? And so all of the greats, they got wives, they got girlfriends, they got, A woman in their life. So I don't care. Nobody say they, they can tell that to like the young generation. I'm 37. So you can tell that to the young folk, you can tell that whoever, every man that I know, every man I've watched, became successful when they settled down with one woman and focus on that one woman and focus on family.
Everybody.
[:Better get you a woman to sit down. So let's get back to real estate. I want to talk about, from, cause you, I think you said 2021 is when you came over. So 2021 you're learning, you're getting all this information of course, to be the best of the
[:[00:14:08] Brianna: Okay. So walk me through when 2021 comes, the transitioning from top salesman, Now to real estate. What does this transition look
[:I was promised a position at Don Davis as a finance manager. because I was already doing finance stuff already. Okay. While being a car salesman. I was with my clients through the end of the process. Only thing I did was take that client to the finance manager with numbers,
The only thing I had to do was sign paperwork, but I wasn't making money on the finance part and being a top salesman. The only thing I asked is either give me a position or give me a cut of the finance part and they wouldn't do it. I just got tired of being, stuck in this position. one of the managers, not going to say their name, made a comment and said, why would I take my cash cow off the floor?
That rubbed me the wrong way. Made me feel like a slave. And so I was like, nah, I ain't doing this. And then a guy who I don't deal with, he ended up texting my phone, telling me that I was on a schedule. I ain't like that. And I'm like, man, I've been here all this time. I ain't never been on a schedule. I sell my cars and I go home.
that rubbed me the wrong way. So I just texted I can't do this no more. Like I'm gonna find something else. And he just responded. He's just like, I understand. we all got to do what's best for us.
[:[00:15:44] Davarus: And you know, it's so crazy since then the company is old
they got bought out by the company that hired me initially. They had the bad owner. I got a text today that said they fired all the managers at the store.
Didn't I call it?
[:I didn't think this is what was going to happen. Were you asking for a change or anything and this just happened
[:It wasn't about the money. It was more so about the name on the door. what people don't understand is I'm trying to erase that incarceration, I'm trying to be in a position to where It don't matter what room I'm in, everybody can know that I've been a felon or, you know, I sold drugs and I went to prison to where they'd be like, man, I don't even care.
Can you get the job done? can you help me do X, Y, Z? I worked so hard so I can get that blemish off my back. You know what I'm saying? Overlooked the part where I got kicked out of high school my senior year and I ended up having to get a GED a week later. I want to be in a space to where they don't even matter.
You know what I'm saying? I want these companies and people to start seeing like Man, just because a person been in jail or they did X, Y, and Z, they made a mistake. Some people deserve to be in jail now. Some people don't deserve an opportunity, but it's a lot of people who made a mistake who do deserve an opportunity and learn from their lesson.
to get back on topic, I was laying in the hospital and I just said, I need to change. people have been telling me for a while, I mean, you'll do good in real estate.
[:[00:17:39] Davarus: Yeah.
[:[00:17:40] Davarus: I promise you. And I never took it serious because I was just like, Oh, I don't know.
I need to get up and go to where I need to go say the car, you know, I ain't in the mood chasing then blah, blah, blah. So what I did was, I was in the hospital. I Googled, how to get your real estate license and then champion school of real estate came up. So I called, talked to a lady, her name was Angie Carter, call her, send an email.
She just told me everything about champion and she was so nice. She could have told me some. Anything. I probably did. She was just super nice. And so she told me how much the classes was right there in the hospital bed. I went ahead, signed up, paid it right then and there. And then, I enrolled in champion school, real estate and start taking my tests.
So while I'm in the hospital healing my incisions, they wouldn't close. So while I'm in the hospital, literally I'm taking my classes on zoom. Champion School of Real Estate. get down to the hospital, go take the exam. I failed the first time, came back a couple weeks later, and then I passed. And got my license.
[:[00:18:41] Davarus: Yep. So
[:[00:18:45] Davarus: When you
[:[00:18:47] Davarus: like four months,
[:[00:18:55] Davarus: The answer that you think is the answer is not. So the answers are going to be hidden in like clues.
Cause you know, the answer may be, I can't even give you an example. let's say turnkey. It'll be like, Jan. I was like, Jan is coming from New Jersey and looking for a home that is already ready. Blah, blah, blah, blah. But Jan don't plan on living in Texas. Blah, blah, blah, blah. What type of home is that?
And that's considered a turnkey. But then on the flip side in the actual book, it probably say something different. Like, out of state investor is looking for a house that is already ready, Is it not a turnkey? It'd be fun.
it'd be worded so different to where you wouldn't know. but once you get that concept down, It's easy. The main thing with real estate is you got to learn definitions. If you know what every word, if you know what every word definition is, what it is, it'd be easy. Cause then if they try to play with the words, you already know if it's true or false.
[:[00:20:03] Davarus: definitions type
[:[00:20:16] Davarus: I don't know. I'm more of a man for the people. Like I'm a chameleon, like whatever you need. I'm just good at servicing people. Like being there for people. That's my special, that's my specialty. It don't matter if you buying, you selling, you're an investor, you need a realtor to do X, Y, and Z.
I'm that person. I just help.
[:[00:20:54] Davarus: How can I be a service to you?
What do you need?
[:[00:21:06] Davarus: I know
[:[00:21:11] Davarus: how long do you plan on being in that house?
[:[00:21:14] Davarus: So if you are looking at this as an investment to where you like, Oh, I'm only going to stay in five years. take the equity out or sell it. people who think like that, know what the area is going to do.
I'm going to give an example from a person who's not trying to sell and stuff like that. So lady, lady comes, she say, Hey, okay. Late family calm. Hey, we're looking to purchase a home. we have some money saved up. We plan on, enrolling our kid in X, Y and Z school because of X, Y and Z.
So do you plan on being in the house over five years? Yeah, we plan on being in the house over five years. Okay. So let me give you two options. You have two options. You can put down, are you looking for a FHA loan or a conventional loan?
[:[00:21:57] Davarus: Okay. FHA loan is a federal back loan.
it requires a 3. 5 percent down, Down payment, but there are programs out there who only require 1%. So it just depends on the broker. Just depends because each broker have different programs and a conventional loan is a more flexible loan. It requires a higher down payment. you don't have to worry about, private mortgage insurance.
This is an insurance to help the lender protect their money in the event you default on the law. So. you have an option, conventional FHA. Conventional is going to be for the person who has a higher credit score, who has a higher down payment, and who's a little bit more, they are more knowledgeable about loans because they prepare for it.
they have programs now where you can get a conventional loan with 0 percent down and 1 percent down. it depends on the broker or the lender that you're working with. So say this family comes and say they didn't want to do the FHA loan. They first time home buyer, even if they not, you, you still consider first time home buyer after three years of personal house.
So if you bought a house three years ago, you sold it. You're going to get another house and it's going to be your primary residence. You know, you still consider first time home buyer. So say they say I'm a first time home buyer. You know, we got the money down. So they say they going to be in this house.
This is their forever home. I'm going to simply ask them, why would you put the money down when there's grant programs and mortgage programs where you don't have to put any money down.
[:[00:23:31] Davarus: So the biggest issue that I have with realtors, I'm a keep it real. Like I'm not social like that. Like my friends are my friends and I'm not friends with realtors just because they have the same title as me or they ain't the same brokerage or me in the same field as me. that literally means nothing to me.
I'm cool with the people who are for the people cause I'm for the people. I'll always been that way. And my issue be when you force people to do something and they, you don't give them options. I feel like people should have options. So if I'm sitting there asking them, Hey. I'm giving you so many options to think about, I think we live in a world right now where we need cash for unexpected things.
So me knowing that I'm going to ask them, What's the purpose of you putting the money down now? It sounds like a 10 first and home buyer would be like, because I've seen it on Tik TOK.
[:[00:24:22] Davarus: by putting money down, you're, buying a house with equity.
[:[00:24:27] Davarus: So equity is like in layman's terms. Equity is it's like a savings account.
[:[00:24:34] Davarus: a, it's a savings part of your home because you're buying a house with some value.
[:[00:24:51] Davarus: So normally if a person say to me that they are going to put their money down because they trying to include some, you know, they want some equity into the house. 9 times out of 10 they experienced if a person say, you know, Oh, I'm only putting money down because I seen it on Tiktok or if I saw it on social media, then that's when I'm going to explain to them, Hey, Bob, by putting money down, this is the normal reason why I put, why people put money down is because they're trying to get equity house, but I'm also give them another example.
Hey, what if I told you that? this house has been on the market for over 45 days. I probably can get them to take 10, 000 off the price normally when you see a house on the market. That agent is listing that house as close as possible where it could potentially appraise it.
And that's the true value of the house. So if you're purchasing a house for 300, 000, but the house appraises for 350, 000, you have 50, 000 worth of equity in your house. So imagine if you buy this house for 300, 000, it appraises for 350, 000, but I turn around and get it to you for, for just say 280, 000.
You know what I'm saying? That's
[:[00:25:59] Davarus: So.
[:[00:26:14] Davarus: HELOC.
Like a home equity line of credit.
[:[00:26:18] Davarus: so a HELOC, you're basically borrowing money from yourself. So it's like your house is your piggy bank. Say when they appraise your house, once again, they say your house is worth 350, 000, your house appraises for 350. You, and you know, you have 50, just say the bank say you have 50, 000 in equity in your house.
You can borrow from that 50, 000 in equity. To do whatever you got to do, but you still have to pay it back,
[:[00:26:46] Davarus: So I, me personally, I wouldn't encourage nobody to take money from to do a HELOC unless that money is going to make you some money.
So if you're doing a renovation so that you can turn around and
rent it out and it's going to make you some money to where you can pay both of those loans it's considered like a second mortgage. That's
[:[00:27:08] Davarus: So if you're going to take that money to fix it up. so you can rent it out and then whatever you rent it out for that money is going to cover both mortgages and you can potentially make a little bit of money. I say do it. But if it's not, don't do
[:[00:27:23] Davarus: what I'm saying? A lot of people do take HELOC so they can pay off debt, keep them from going to bankruptcy.
A lot of people turn around and take HELOC and go get another investment property. you can buy a house stay in it for a year on a using the FHA loan, rent their house out. Long as you're within a hundred miles, you can go get another property.
[:[00:27:43] Davarus: Yes. they'll take that income from that property and use it as your income.
which gives you more buying power. So now you can go get another house. You married?
[:[00:27:53] Davarus: You're not married? So you got a boyfriend?
[:[00:27:56] Davarus: So imagine you did. What your boyfriend would be like? He'll have an African name.
[:[00:28:09] Davarus: Curtis is from East Texas, Tyler. So you and Curtis, y'all are together. people on the internet, like to say, this is not true. There are people who get married and they keep their same name. They do not share the same last name. I know some people now. So once this clip go out, it's going to be people who are going to be like, Oh, so how are you married?
And you got different names. Shut up. It happens. So say you and Curtis, Curtis last name is Johnson and then you take your name, you can go get X amount of properties. Let's say you get five properties in your name. Curtis can get five properties in his name. Y'all can turn around and rent all five of these properties out.
Say hypothetically y'all get 1, 000 each and these just, this fake because that's not true. Y'all, y'all, these five properties, he got five. You got y'all getting 1, 000. Y'all making 10, 000 off these investment property.
[:[00:29:08] Davarus: y'all can turn around and take that 10, 000 that y'all are profiting from these properties.
And it can be paying for this big house that y'all live in in East Texas, this ranch that y'all live in this, whatever, whatever that y'all living in.
[:[00:29:24] Davarus: You're going to say it's so many different ways that you can do it. And like I say, this is for certain people's not for everybody.
it can potentially happen that way
you stay in a house for a year because you got to fall you got to fall into the The FHA guidelines when it comes to fixing the flipping because it's not yes You got to own a property for at least 90 days before you can turn around and resell it But then with a FHA loan you have to live in it.
It has to be your primary residence for a year, so even if you buy a fixer upper, that's good enough for you to move in and while you stand in it, you're doing the upgrades to the house. I
[:Yes. Do it
[:[00:30:02] Brianna: Cause I didn't realize what she was saying until she was like, we're not actually going to be moving in until no, no. Yes. doing
[:this is what I preach on the internet and I'm finna go deep right now.
We don't do that.
it hurt me because, and I'm friends with a lot of Hispanic. One of my close friends, Zabdiel and Juanita. These are like my brothers and sister. They just lied to me. Love them to death. the things that they're willing to live in, for the greater good.
And then you got people on this side, like our people, I'm not standing there because of this, this, this, this, I'm not doing this. I want to go live in Highland park. I want to go live X, Y, and Z. I want to be downtown. But then again, You're not thinking about the taxes.
[:[00:31:00] Davarus: you want to live in Highland park in this house that you're going to potentially foreclose when the taxes hit you. You know what I'm saying? A lot of people can't deal with a 15, 000 tax bill year to year. You get what I'm saying? So when people say, Hey, I want to move to Mansfield. First thing I say, I stay in Mansfield.
I stay in South Point. Can you deal with a 15, 000 a year tax bill?
[:[00:31:21] Davarus: Nah, I can't do that. Oh, you don't want to be down there then.
[:[00:31:31] Davarus: I want a Range Rover, but okay. Can you, you want a Range Rover?
Did you know that the maintenance is going to be high?
[:[00:31:36] Davarus: And I had a Range Rover. I had three. So. If I tell you that it costs 700, get your brakes and stuff like that. Do you still want it? No. They're gonna say no. Did I tell you it's 200, 300 to get your oil change. You still going to want that?
Go like, nah. So, it's crazy if we can get that shift, the margin at one point in time. whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Indians, native Americans, this is how it was set up when it comes to homeownership. Hmm. Now whites, Hispanics, blacks, and others is right here and others, they suit do others because it's Indian.
They're considering Indians and Asian right there. And these ain't nothing that I just made up. You can literally go on, so many different websites, the national association of realtors can have these maps showing you. the economic, charts of who's buying houses versus who. And then we in times right now with big companies.
So just say Comerica. They may invest a portion of their, holdings into real estate. Let's say you stay in the house.
[:[00:32:53] Davarus: You ever say an apartment?
[:[00:32:55] Davarus: Give me an apartment that you're saving. It
[:[00:33:01] Davarus: ago.
Just say Hollyview Holdings.
[:[00:33:09] Davarus: the CEO is probably like, man, we gotta get more people into these buildings because we losing money when we don't have this thing, at least 80 to 100, we losing money. You know what they do?
They take some of their money and go buy single family homes. Hollyview Holdings now owns 30 single family homes. if I can't get you over here, I'm get you over here.
[:[00:33:40] Davarus: No, it's a monopoly because it's a monopoly because I'm going to go buy all the single family homes. companies are coming together and they are buying, they're putting their money into single family homes because so that they can't increase the rental rate. So it's a, it's a game.
So these big companies, Why would I go stay in this apartment when I can get a house for the same price? they buy all these single family homes. hypothetically These big corporations buy all the single family homes in the world.
Now they control the rent. They can rent. They can tell you it is 10, 000 a month for these rents. And what you're going to do somewhere
[:[00:34:17] Davarus: we own the block. people don't do enough research. they like to debate with me, but I sit and do the research.
Cause I don't go to the club. I don't smoke on drinking on chase women. So I sit at the house and do research all day. It's just like in Jamaica, you've been in Jamaica. a close friend of mine, she married a guy in Jamaica. She called me, she say, You still got your truck? I said, yes. She said, I need you to do me a favor.
Go get some of them plastic barrels And I want you to fill them up with cereal, fruits, vegetables, and I want you to mail these to me. Like what the hell? Send you some barrels of food and fruits. I was like, yeah. I said, why? She said, because the Asians own all the grocery stores in Jamaica.
[:[00:35:02] Davarus: And they literally are charging 10 for a box of cereal, $2 for Apple. It's it's high. They control everything. They control the import and exports in Jamaica coming in and out. They control the seafood. That's why. Think about it right now. When you want seafood, where are you going?
[:Yes. No, I
[:And they can charge. That's why if you ever go into an Asian restaurant and they selling lobster and crab leg, they don't have a price on them. What'd it say?
[:[00:35:53] Davarus: I can charge whatever it is that I want.
[:[00:35:56] Davarus: going to wake up?
[:[00:35:59] Davarus: You are
[:[00:36:01] Davarus: I can't tell you when the last time I ate a crab leg, when I found it out.
[:Whatever I say.
[:You ain't been to Mr. Cajun?
[:[00:36:20] Davarus: Yeah. Cause me personally, I support black owned bidding and I don't got nothing to get Asians, but at the same time I can't let my people be blind just to help benefit you.
That's just like me knowing they shooting out there. And then I'm running past folk. And they asked me what going on. I'm just steady to run. I'm finna tell you, man, don't fold down no shoe. You better not go down there. but yeah, we can get back on top. That was
[:Yeah. Okay. So we're in real estate. We talked about first time buyers and let's talk about, well, we kind of already got into the investing part, right? You gave a lot of great information.
[:How do you know something when the laws change so much?
[:How do you keep them updated, especially the ones that's investing? Cause they're probably going to come to you again to get another property. Continuous education. Okay.
[:[00:37:23] Brianna: That's it. Anything outside of that, like any type of newsletters or go to conferences, anything like that? Continuous
[:[00:37:34] Brianna: But then you have to do that CE, right?
Like you have to do that.
[:[00:37:52] Brianna: Contracts, commercial sales, contract one on one.
[:[00:38:01] Brianna: you're going to miss out
[:[00:38:06] Brianna: People
[:I had to do this. My son, boyfriend, birthday, all that type of stuff. I promise you, I'm not saying I'm better than nobody. but my priorities are in order. My birthday is December 16th. I'll be 38 years old.
know, I'm going to be it?
[:[00:38:24] Davarus: In class.
[:[00:38:26] Davarus: they later said, we got your class book for your continuous education so you can renew your license It is December 16th, 17th. I said, okay. She said, oh, that's your birthday. Happy birthday. I said, Hey, what they got to do with anything?
[:[00:38:42] Davarus: I'm in there. Cause I, priorities, man. people don't have them nowadays.
[:[00:38:46] Davarus: People want to be lit. They want to go out. They want to go to the club. They want to do that. And that's why. We aren't what we need to be as a society, even in real estate, black realtors, you know, it's a lot of black realtors, but the percentage of realtors that are actually selling houses, helping people get a house, that's like this, you know, people see that guy less, everybody want to be him.
I want to be less. He, he's about a, a limbo. He's just sold to me and all the house. He just sold their hearing. How he wanted, but. Are you willing to do what he's doing to get the house? Are you willing to stay up all night? Which I don't know how his routine is, but you don't see real estate agents who successful and thriving.
You do not see them clubbing parties. You don't see them. They get into it. They networking. They in the right places. They have the connection for the protection. a lot of people don't want to do that. So we will continue to be at the totem pole till we wake up and really start, um, working hard and putting our people first.
Put our clients first.
[:You're a man of helping and servicing people. For somebody that's like, I want to get on the right track, but I just don't know how. I don't know how to switch my mindset. I don't know what these things look like. Because for one, I've never been in a room with people that can help me and provide these resources.
So what would you tell somebody that's looking to shift their mindset?
[:I grew up in a trailer in Mississippi. We just had to use the bathroom in a bucket. So, If I'm tired of using the bathroom in a bucket, what do I got to do? I got to get out here and make some changes. And a lot of people aren't willing to do that because they feel they're going to be judged. They feel they're going to be looked at a certain way.
The guy who don't want to do it, who got to be in a club or be in the mix with these girls because he want a woman so bad. When I see people like that, I think I automatically associated with some type of mental health, a person who always got to be with somebody around somebody. They need to do a self evaluation on what's wrong with them.
But you got to always be around somebody. So for me, I live by the three D's dedication, determination, and discipline. I want to be successful. I want to help people. how can we grow as a society? If the black woman is not properly elevated, how can we say?
that we are men when our women and children had to depend on a whole another race of man for food and shelter.
How can we say that we are anything when we are not cultivating no natural resources?
[:[00:41:58] Davarus: We got to depend on a whole nother race of man to feed us and provide us with shelter. What I mean by that is majority of the agricultural businesses are here. They're owned by another race, homebuilders owned by another race.
Clothes owned by another race. How many black owned brands you got on right now?
[:[00:42:24] Davarus: still.
[:[00:42:28] Davarus: Think about that.
[:[00:42:29] Davarus: So at some point we got to wake up and be like, man, what is important?
[:[00:42:34] Davarus: And you can't be so selfish to where you don't think about other people. So if I gave you my hand and I say, give me 20. Try to give me 20.
[:Like he's not willing to open up to what's going on. You can't receive nothing because
[:[00:43:02] Brianna: you
[:[00:43:05] Brianna: It was called expand your horizons back in the day.
[:But the moment you open your hand to give something out to somebody, you put it right there for somebody to put something in there.
[:[00:43:19] Davarus: granddad taught me that a long time ago. once you give, you open your hand up for somebody to slide something in there. That's his favorite word.
anytime you open your hand up, somebody will slide something in there.
[:[00:43:35] Davarus: Okay.
[:you may go through some things, but there's also brighter days as well. So let's go through your low. Anytime that you feel You were questioning where you are, any part of your journey, as you mentioned, and how did you see the other side of it to make you say, okay, I'm staying in it, but I know this is going to change.
[:A lot of people have the complexion for the protection. So they get things that they aren't deserving of. quickly example, this just happened day before yesterday client that called me. She moved down here, from Washington. her mama passed away. So, she was in the house with her mom.
That house was going into foreclosure because she didn't know who to pay. She ain't know nothing about it. Lady contacted her. And I ain't trying to say this, not saying that all people who not asking complexion is against us. Cause there's a lot of them who do love us. But then again, a lot of time, it'd be us. They've heard us more than other people. But in this case, This lady was taken advantage of by someone of another race.
She saw somebody who didn't know nothing and she took advantage of this lady. this lady just got arrested. She's in real estate. She's facing up to 30 years cause she defrauded a bunch of people who, um, was in pre foreclosure with their houses.
[:[00:45:34] Davarus: Yes.
[:[00:45:37] Davarus: This lady. Told me she like Davarus. I just want to call you and tell you that I'm going to terminate our agreement simply because I found another, real estate agent. She's a woman. I feel more comfortable with a woman versus you because you're a handsome man and I don't want to be in a situation where you show me a house and then you potentially come on to me.
[:[00:46:03] Davarus: I looked at the phone, I'm like, what the ?
[:[00:46:09] Davarus: I'm super like respectful, right? And nice and stuff like that. Never been no creep in my life, right? And so I'm like,
I totally understand, but I would never do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Hope everything work out with you and the new realtor. Good luck, So she go off, she go, find another place to stay. She didn't use me as a realtor. She sell her house. And, you know, right off in the sunset, at least that's what we thought.
But you know what happened when you ride off in the sunset, sun go down, you get in the dog, sun go down. So the sun set, you in the dog and that's what happened. So she, Not only did this lady, this lady defrauded 88 people. This lady is part of that 88 The house that the lady is supposedly sold to someone else is still in her mom's name.
That's number two. Number three, she's going through a eviction right now because she, she was fought. That lady helped her move into a place that she can't afford. Also, she sent me a text message. She said, Davarus. I just want to apologize to you.
she said, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have never did that to you. You've never done anything to me. And I regret it every single day.
[:[00:47:22] Davarus: She said, can you help me figure this situation
[:[00:47:27] Davarus: swallow
[:[00:47:29] Davarus: I call my brother. My brother is like my voice of reason, my baby bro.
[:[00:47:35] Davarus: said, what, what you think I should do? He said, what is your why? And my why is always to help people. It don't matter how they treat, mistreat me, anything. I'm always try to be nice to people even when they disrespect you. So I said, I told her I would go help her
[:[00:48:14] Davarus: You know, I don't like to put my babies in there, but them babies are the reason why, I am who I am today. my baby mamas, I got three baby mamas. All my kids are six years apart. I got to leave with this three longterm relationship. So y'all don't think that I'm just sleeping with women, having kids.
All of they mamas I've been with them five to six years or better. but I'm, I'm super proud of my babies. They, mamas gave me all tomatoes and said, well, my oldest daughter, my middle daughter, mama said, if you go to prison again, you'll never see your kids again.
And them kids are like my greatest creation. You know what I'm saying? Like I love them babies. but my high is, I always want to approve for my grandfather to hear my granddad and say he loved me. He proud of me. That meant the world to me. My granddad never said he loved me. Never said he proud of me.
for a man who instills so much in his kids and his grandkids, Nobody in turn had to be shit. Excuse my language. Nobody I've been to prison. My uncle's been to prison. Out of my granddad, the grandkids, my baby brother is the one who like never been in trouble.
Went to college, graduated college. Yes. You know, good job. Married house, piggy fence, dog that, but he was never around my grandfather was raised by God parents, but it was me. he considered me like one of his kids. Cause me and my, me and my uncle, me and him are only like two, three years apart.
My mama, youngest brother, we got a couple of years apart. So we was in Hayfield together. so I was always with my grandfather and the only thing he ever wanted for us to be good, like go make something out of yourself, you know, stuff like that. And we never was able to. All of us end up going to jail, all that.
But I'm talking about switch hit and now I am the most successful out of all his kids and grandkids out of my family. And at one point I was the black sheep, but to hear my granddad say he loved me, he proud of me, you know, just call and just check on me.
Ah, that kid in the candy store. I love him. That's my high.
[:And I feel like when they do that, you really don't take hold to it. You may not know how to use the information. You may not know the next steps of the information. You just don't know, right. What is one free advice that you can give somebody that's listening something that they can start today, tomorrow, something that's going to give them some uplift in their spirit, anything like that?
[:[00:51:27] Brianna: No, it's more things. That's okay.
Some of them do facial. so
[:[00:51:43] Brianna: That is so true. I never thought about that.
[:So think about it. So, and I always ask people, so I speak to kids and stuff like that. kids nowadays, when I was younger, how are y'all? Well, so I'm older than, but we in the thirties. So when you was in school, when they asked, what did you want to be? What did kids say? Give me a list of what kids say.
[:[00:52:12] Davarus: Now I want to be a content creator. I want to be institution. I want to be this, this, this. When I say I'd be laughing and they'd be like, Mr. Bill, they'd be like, Mr. Bill, don't talk about my dream. I said, I'm not talking about your dream, but I know what they say, Mr. Bill, don't be laughing at my dream.
I'm not laughing at your dream. But my question to you is, why are you so focused on trying to do the makeup and lashes and facials for celebrities who not going to shout you out nine times a day? They don't even be shouting people out when he'll be doing it'd be the person who did it had to turn around and use that content.
But how the algorithm ain't picking it up because don't nobody know you sexy lashes 205.
So you focused on doing Cardi B or whoever makeup and lashes and Cardi B won't even tag you. And you only making, not only are you an esthetician, but you still got a full time job. So you're not making a lot of money in your business. So you got to take money from the job that you do every day to fund your business.
You in the red, but instead you won't go down to Carter's funeral home, apply for a job or go to school to be a mortician or try to be a person to do the makeup for the day. Folks, they make a six figures. He's a hundred thousand. Okay. you working at Amazon.
Now, one time, did you go to your boss, your director, and say, man, how you do such and such? How did you get that job to where you making six figures and you're my boss? You never once asked. You just don't believe in yourself
[:[00:53:57] Davarus: and
[:[00:53:58] Davarus: with 15 an hour.
When you literally can go to that boss or the person who's above you and just say, Hey, how did you get that position that you got? When I was working at Don Davis, I used to go behind Alex Ward, Nicole Vanderwood, Willie Woodard. I used to go behind their shoulder and look at, Hey, what are you doing?
[:[00:54:20] Davarus: say? Oh man, come right here. Let me show you.
[:[00:54:27] Davarus: you gotta want to be better. You gotta want to do more, if you don't, stay where you at. And you know, when you die, somebody had to turn around, have a fish fry, fish fry, sell some t shirts to put you in the ground.
or you can put yourself in a position, get some life insurance, get your folks some life insurance and set the next generation up to be successful as well as teach them on when you get this money, what to do not to mess it up.
[:[00:55:06] Davarus: you can call me 817 617 9654. You can follow me on social media, Davarus Bell on everything. That's my real name, D A V A R U S, last name Bell, B E L L, that's it.
[:[00:55:26] Davarus: Okay.
[:Okay. It's usually like a quote, a verse, anything of that nature. It usually does go with what we talked about, and I think it does. So I'll read it. I'll share my thoughts. You share your thoughts. And it's a wrap.
[:[00:55:39] Brianna: ready?
[:[00:55:40] Brianna: The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.
So I do think this goes into our conversation today. only reason I feel is because limitations. I think a lot of times we get stuck. Like you mentioned the fat and happy scenario. I think a lot of times we get very comfortable if things are going well, we're still paying our bills. We can still go out.
We can still do these things today. We're not thinking about the future that actually things could actually be greater than what we have today. I think for me, I was going through that and still am following me on social media, my journey, I initially was doing all my services through a platform.
And through that platform, I was getting clients and I was excited about getting these clients until I had a conversation with somebody that was like, if you're making this amount of money on this platform, imagine what you could do by yourself. I was limiting myself because things were going the way they were going.
I was still able to do what I want to do, but me now taking a chance on me, there is no limitation because I'm not paying a fee. No more into this platform. Everything is going to be on me, even though it's going to be a little bit of hard work, but I know that God has given me this vision and I had that conversation just for no reason.
So this is what this reminds me of is just people just limiting theirselves and their mindset because Things are this way right now, and we're comfortable, but things can be so much better, like, within an hour, to be honest, like, even after this conversation, I've learned so much. being in certain places and chatting with certain folks and even just reading, just picking up because we always scrolling on our phones and things of that nature.
If we take that mindset and maybe read a book or go to a newsletter, like I mentioned earlier, just changing certain things and different perspectives for our lives. It could be totally different for tomorrow.
[:the same way we believe in celebrities, we believe in, you know, presidents to all these different things. When are we going to start believing in ourselves? you hit the nail on the head. I agree with you. We just got to stop. You know, doubting ourselves, believes in ourselves. cause I once was that person and somebody came into my life and gave me a confidence booster to believe in myself.
So if it's affirmations, whatever, try to tap into who you are and believe in yourself.
[:[00:58:15] Davarus: it.
[:[00:58:16] Davarus: You feel like
[:[00:58:21] Davarus: this was good. This was good.
Probably one of my dopest interviews. So, yeah.
[: