Way Up With Angela YeeDamar VanPutten Shares Tips to Stand Out, Build Wealth & Find Off-Market Deals! + More
Damar VanPutten Shares Tips to Stand Out, Build Wealth & Find Off-Market Deals! + More
What's up at Angela yee and it is a Wealth Wednesday, So of course my girl Stacy Tisdayly is here every Wealth Wednesdays.
Everybody. We love it.
We are very excited today. You know, we love talking about real estate. You know we love talking about our real estate club. But we really have found an amazing guest for you today, mister Damar van Putin, who is the CEO founder of lux Listing.
Is it Putin like Vladimir Putin?
Damn Howton, I will never say that again. I will never ever.
Say that again.
Ever.
I apologize, Tomar, I could okakay because I'm not going close to that again. I'm gonna brag about you, though.
Please.
I think you might be all You might have done almost as much in sales is that other guy? You have one hundred million dollars in sales in the last year over over one hundred million, three time Plastam and one time Gold honors from New Jersey Realtor Circle of Excellent Sales Award, and your rank number five on Property Sparks list of top one hundred property shark Property.
Sharks, that's my type.
Oh, list of the top one hundred realtors on social media in America, and we should start right there because social media was you That's how you did.
This, right, Yeah, we are a highly based social media brokerage, I think, you know, that's how That's how I found majority of my success starting out in the business. When I first started, it was the middle of the pandemic. I'm talking like quarantine. So at that point in time, if you remember, you couldn't even do this back in the day life, right, this was frowned upon. So I had to figure out how am I going to connect with everyone? If you know, I can't even sit down and have a conversation. And the best way I thought was through social media. And you know, just through giving my testimony of knowing what it's like to buy a home and not even knowing that I was able to buy a home, Yeah, really made people connect and take a liking to me.
And you know, I actually bought a house during the pandemic. You and I will say, you know, because I'm in I bought my house in Brooklyn during the pandemic. And there weren't a lot of brokers that were showing our real estate agents that were really even showing properties, and there were a lot of people that weren't trying to necessarily. It was an interesting time because some people were trying to like move further away because everybody was working virtually and people were in a panic. And then there were some people that were like, I'm just gonna stay put. I don't want to make any moves or do anything. But it did make people want more of a quality of life. I think I feel like a lot of people left New York and you're in New Jersey and.
You left New York too, we'll talk about that.
It came to New Jersey because they wanted space, they wanted a backyard, they wanted all of those things. So it really was a prime time to be able to do that and to be able to have a social media account where people could see stuff people were doing. Like I saw realtors like walking through the house with a phone to kind of like show people, you know, around.
That's two people were so focused on social for connection.
Yeah, so I think all online businesses were booming during the pandemic. And then just talking about real estate also, interest rates where our record lows during that time too. So everyone, I mean, even I did, That's what I'm saying. So what were you going to say for you, We're for me.
I was just saying today my friend from from high school and I we both got our houses during the pandemic, and we were both like that was a great move. Because I also think in this current climate right now, like you said, interest rates were so low, but they were like ridiculously low that people aren't used to paying this anomaly yeah percent right now, and then I think people are really concerned now about the cost of even building a house or renovating or getting certain appliances. We don't know what's about to happen. What are you say seeing when it comes to that.
I mean, I think I just tell people handle things one step at a time, right, Just make sure you secure the asset first, and everything else will fall into place. Through negotiating certain types of deals. We could always work out credits when buying a house, like whether it's through a seller's concession or you know, down payment assistance program, grant or what have you, to set you up with some extra cash after closing to take care of some things you might have to renovate when you move in, or some of those appliances that might not come with the sale, so you know, every situation is different, everyone's finances is different, but you know, we try to just do a really good job at setting our clients up for success, not just at the sale, but after as well.
When you started your company, millennials were the fast one of the fastest growing group Black millennials, one of the fastest growing group of new homeowners. And that's your market. Ye, and they're still pushing.
It, still pushing strong. You know, Black black homeownership in general has been on the rise over the past couple of years. Act that's the statistic. But as you said, the black millennials I think are literally leading that charge. Especially from my experience, that's our target demographic. So I think it was a little bit of a mentality switch. I remember when I was you know, I'm a black millennial myself, right while when I was like a teenager or a young adult, I would think of home ownership and I would just associate that with someone who was like super rich or well off, especially being from Brooklyn. Almost everyone's renting. Yeah, and then also I've never seen anyone before me, like in my family own a home, so it kind of just didn't feel like it was in my trajectory at that point in time, But once the pandemic came along kind of switched everything for me. I kept hearing on the news, oh, interest rates reclos, interest rate reclos, And then you know, I also heard at the same time simultaneously that house is in Jersey. At that time, we're going for like three hundred thousand. So, you know, me and my wife had a conversation.
I was like, Yo, it's the time.
Yeah, three I heard we could buy a house with three and a half percent down. I don't know how true that is, but let's look into that three and a half percent of three hundred thousand, it's like ten ten thousand. Yeah, we got that together for sure, so let's go ahead and see about that. And you know, that's exactly what we did. Thank god it all worked out. Once that happened, though, I almost felt like I didn't even deserve to be in that position as a homo, right because we did that when we were usually like twenty five.
Years old, I believe, and that's amazing.
Thank you again. It just felt like wow, Like I remember we were going on vacation.
The month, being from Brooklyn and being too five and married already is Oh.
No, we just got we just got married. We just got married, Like, yeah, we just got married, as I think I was thirty a couple months ago.
Congradulation.
This is my high school sweetheart over there. We've been together since I was eighteen.
A lot your high school sweet Okay, so you said, you guys, go ahead finished.
I'm sorry, she took us way off track.
You were twenty five years old, and then you guys moved to New Jersey and you felt like you.
Didn't even I didn't. I didn't belong in the position that I was in. I just I was like all my friends around me. I just I literally went from chilling in hallways and just I was actually rapping at the time, to like thinking I was going to be a rapper, and just you know, the average Brooklyn lifestyle of a young man is what I was living. And so to just end up in a whole new trajectory of life in a short amount of time like that just again made me feel like I didn't belong there. So I was saying this, I have a vivid memory of it was like my birthday. Right after we bought the house, and uh, the wife he booked a vacation for us, and I almost didn't even want to go because I'm.
Like, yo, we got a house on vacation.
I don't know, not even that. I felt like, I don't know if we're gonna come back. This feel too good? True, I don't know if I wanted to be a home you know what I'm saying. So that's a little funny story. But anyways, that that mentality switch right there, realizing like, no, actually I do belong here because we put into work, we did the research, and we made sure that we took that chance and that risk to put ourselves in a position and it was really not that hard. I almost felt responsible to let the rest of my community know you can.
Do it too.
But I think that's so important because a lot of times we see something and don't take action, Like it looks good and you're like, oh, that would it be done, but we don't think like, let's research it, let's figure out how can we make this happen and actually do it. Some people will. I think that's the difference between people who are successful and people who aren't. Are people who really take action education.
Yeah, and you've created an army of you, like black millennials. You have your brokers look like them, you play music that's for them, and really, how much do you think that has played a role in the success of your business?
Oh? Super, It's all about representation, right. To be able to see someone who looks like you and talks like you, walks like you, dresses like you. You know, I could be a boy and achieving these heights that you know is like a common dream of everyone. Everyone wants to own their own home, everyone wants to make money, right, these are just common denominators. To see your counterpart achieving these things is like it makes you see how much more realistic it is for you rather than just you know, the what we normally see is the white man shooting tie, etc. Etc. I like to break it down and get right on my people's level, meet them right where they're at, and that way, you know we're talking to eye.
I always say that's what inspired me to buy my first house with my best friend but Hers, And I was like watching her on her journey and I was like.
Okay, she's buying a house.
I should start thinking about doing something like that too, because before that I wasn't even you know, I'm from Brooklyn too, and we know how expensive Brooklyn is. I wasn't even thinking that I'll be able to ever do that, but when I saw her do it, I was like, all right, I got to stop wasting time and you know, wasting money on things, because there were times I feel like, you know, we look back and retrospect, like, man, I wish I would have done this back then, and we're going to keep on saying that to ourselves if we don't take action and actually do something. You know, and for you, you're also the youngest broker owner in New Jersey. Right, that's a big deal too, Like because yes, I have my real estate license. I know a lot of real estate agents, but you were are young as becoming a broker.
Also your license in New Jersey, no.
New York, she will be you think, listen, I have my counterparts in New Jersey, now who I can just exactly.
To her point, you have all that. You know, we talk about millennials and sales, but you are also an incredibly successful entrepreneur and you weren't before. How did you learn all about entrepreneurship and running a multimillion dollar business?
So you know, I think from where we come from it definitely puts us out of disadvantage in a lot of ways, but it also definitely puts us out of an advantage in a lot of ways. To what I mean by that, yeah, exactly, is that we know how to hustle just being from New York that I think fast on your feet and know how to make things happen if you want to survive in a city like this, right, it's kudos to you is getting this far and stuff like that as well, and you as well. But yeah, from just from where we come from, and that also my experiences with work. I was working in a marketing agency right out of college and it was a very high, high paced environment. I was working with big brands like b BT, TikTok, Ball, Love Treat, But like all the black accounts, they would throw me on just for like from for a representation standpoint and things like that, they.
See, we have a black guy here, come on accounts exactly.
Quite literally I was. I was literally a coordinator. They're making like less than fifty k a year, but when it came down to those black accounts, I was automatically a director client facing. I'm literally coming up with all of the marketing concepts, I'm leading the execution, I'm managing the team, et cetera, et cetera, but still making that that low pay. But anyways, that experience that I got from that situation was invaluable because it really help me transition into the business owner that I am today, where you know, I'm able to juggle multiple clients at a time without even thinking twice. I'm able to be a great leader to my team because I know what a leader looks like and I also know what it what it's like to be working on the ground from a coordinator level all the way up to now me being the CEO of where I'm at, So that definitely played a part in my entrepreneurship. And then I just have a very obsessive personality, so like when I want something, I attack it from every single angle, and that allows me to uncover multiple layers of whatever beast it is that I'm dealing with, and I always find new ways to stop leaving money on the table and make more and more and more situation possible for either me or my teams.
I think that's good because also I feel like a lot of times with real estate approaches can be very old fashioned and for you having the experience as you had, but also being a millennial but also understanding marketing and social media, it gives you a bit of an edge on how to approach things instead of doing things in a really traditional way. Because now I see like everybody's doing you know, the real estate tiktoks and the videos and things like that. But for you having that experience and being on it super early, I think was a benefit.
Yeah, now that part of you know, that part of my bag didn't necessarily come from the marketing industry, funny enough, because that was more like experiential marketing. That was me throwing events for those companies. I think that part of my my my bag came more so from me chasing the rap career because I was always comfortable being in front of the camera, right, I was always comfortable showcasing. You know, I feel like this is drippy, let me throw this on. I don't want it with a suit in top, want to come out interesting. So once once I did that. What I was telling Stacy the other day was when I was working at the marketing industry, even though they put me on those accounts, I couldn't find comfortability and being.
Myself code switching.
Right, So that's why you say that. So Like I would get up and present in front of them, and I would know exactly what I'm talking about because I'm the one who made the presentation. But I would find like, when I'm standing up there and trying to talk, I'm trying to talk like them, right, instead of talking like me, And it messed me up every single time, and it made me sound stupid. So you know, I made a vow to myself, like I'm an entrepreneur. Now, this is my business. I'm a running my way, and through doing that, I was able to connect with so much more people in a genuine way. There's not a gimmick.
That's great.
There's a great message and authenticity for entrepreneurs because they feel like they have to be everything and do everything.
How was it for you abandoning your rap career?
You know, Funny enough, it wasn't hard at all because when that first when that first real estate check came in, I was like, I ain't never get paid off a rap at least significantly, right, right, But you know, I found success in real estate really fast, So I think, you know, I got my license January twenty twenty one. Sorry, I got my license November of twenty twenty. By January twenty twenty one, I had my first self.
Oh that's great, so now you can freestyle.
I had to do that too.
We ain't doing that today. I'm gonna have to get a bag for that. All way up with Angela. But my first year I also ended up selling twenty seven houses.
That's huge, and that first she was during the pandemic.
During the pandemic, which.
Is wild, because the thing is, people really did want to buy something during that time. It was just hard because I remember one house I wanted to see, they had like a showing for one day only, and you had to come on that day, and I want to say, like thirty people came and they got thirteen offers because nobody was really wanting to show their house is you know, during that time. So that was tough for people.
And not only that, it was tough for me from a realtor standpoint, because I would go like I had I literally so the business was booming so much in the first year, I was probably no exaggeration, juggling like twenty to twenty five clients at a time. I didn't have a team or anything like that at that specific point in time, and I was going to like putting in offers wasn't a problem, Like the clients was loving the houses that I was showing them and things like that. It was when we were putting in the offer, there were fifty other offers on the table as well because it was two percent interest rates.
So everyone was like, how do you stand out when there's all these offers going into a seller and you want to make sure that your client secure as a property. What are some things that you do to make sure that you can really appeal and be on the top of that. Because they're not allowed to tell you what the other offers are what you need to offer, so you have to kind of you know, you want to make sure that people are getting the property that they want, but you also want to make sure they're not overpaying.
For it, right, So it's a myth that they're not allowed to tell you. And even if they aren't allowed to tell you, so not everybody follows the rules. The first thing I do before ever putting the offer and routors if you listening to this, but this is some free game right here, should be charged for this one? But I call, I call, get on it. I make sure I get on the phone with the listen agent if I'm not the listen agent, and figure out as much information as possible so that every offer can be a targeted approach. I'm not into the guessing game. I want to get you your seller what they want while still you know, paying respects to my buyer's budget and you know their flexibility on whatever it is that they're offering. So you know, oftentimes even if they're like, oh, man, listen, I can't tell you just putting your best offer, I might say, well, hey, do you know what the property might appraise at so that and like and then if they throw a number out, then I'm like, a bet, that's probably the number that they're looking for them or something similar to that. So I'm just trying to you know, pop. Some people will tell you flat out like.
Listen, man, hey just ask if you don't ask exactly.
But outside of that, other tactics are depending on what the client's finances are. You know, you can do things like that if the house may have some you know, equity in it or not, if your if your client's putting a very strong offer like price point, wise, you can say, you know, well, we'll do an appraisal waiver, which basically means, regardless of what the appraise who comes in at, we'll still honor the price that we.
Take, so you can pay the difference and what the bank won't cover.
Right if the client's comfortable with that. Obviously. Another thing is if the house is in you know, crisp condition and you at least from cosmetic standpoint, and you or it's a new construction, you feel very comfortable saying something like, hey, you know, we'll we the inspection contingency. We'll just do an inspection for our own knowledge. Now again I don't That's not something I do on every single deal. That's more so a case by case situation, but where it's appropriate, it definitely does help your clients offer stand out above the rest because you just have to think from the mind of a seller. If I'm selling my house, what what's going to stand out to me and for me is who's going to guarantee me the most money or who's gonna come with the least hassle.
Okay, you are really good at knowing the moment you're in, Like the COVID and so much of what you guys were just talking about, that whole millennial momentum during COVID. A lot of that was in response to George Floyd. Really ironic, just today or just this week, they started taking down the Black Lives Matter in Washington, d C. They're racing that. It's a multi block long mirror that was made during the George Floyd protests and they're taking it down. And the Washington DC was threatened with not getting federal money if they didn't. What is the current climate for blacks when it comes to real estate and home buying. That whole COVID George Floyd thing really pushed us in one way and now everything's changed. What advice would you have for our community building wealth in real estate in this current climate?
I would say, if you are in a position where you can grab something, regardless of what's going on in the world and politics and things like that, that stuff is that unfortunately out of our control. But what you can control is how you're setting up the generations to come after you with success based off of your actions.
So people are worried about the economy, interest rates, everything, right.
I mean, listen again, things that we cannot control, right, so you're gonna worry yourself into a basic life. That's not what you can't be scared to take risks. If we were scared to take risks, we wouldn't even be sitting with you guys talking here today. Just quite frankly, so I would say, you know, as I don't want to sound tone deaf to what's happening in the world, because that's not what I'm trying to get across, but basically saying, regardless of what's happening, the best thing that you can do is, you know, making sure you get a piece of America. Because the more pieces we have of America, we're slowly not becoming a minority. We're slowly gaining power as a generation, as a people, and now we start having more say because we have wealth behind us, we have businesses behind us, we have houses to pass down to our kids. Our kids now have their being born into money, being born into equity and things like that. Also, sorry, shout out to my son and Mari. He told me make sure a shouts came out when I get.
Definitely, and you're right about that. The last thing we want us to feel stagnant. And I think that sometimes when it comes to a lot of things like voting and businesses and home ownership. The feeling that they want us to have is that we can't do anything about it, don't make a move, and you always have to figure out, like what are some things that you can do to make it happen. If it's coming together as a group, like we have the Wealth Wednesday's real Estate Club, but people are doing deals together.
To be a part of that.
Yeah, honestly, into the real estate club exactly what she's saying. When this whole shifted administration happened, we just immediately will let's just go inside and create our own economy doing stuff with each other, because black dollars do matter, all.
Right, And I know you're able to get people market deals that aren't even listed. Yeah, And I feel like that's always valuable too, because then you don't have the competition of a bunch of people bidding on something. You get something that is off market.
That is our biggest I think sales point, especially in this new world of like buyer agency agreements and things like that. Through just doing good business and the relationships that I've made over the past couple of years, you know, we have some of the biggest developers in Newark, you know, Tuck, So they know, like if I listen to how I mean, if I if I'm building a house, it's best that I pass it over to lux Listings because they'll procure me a buyer before I'm even done with this property.
Right, and now we can just secure that financing and we know it's and it's a win win for everybody because.
The buyer doesn't have to pay a dollar extra then the asking price, the asking price is always super fear and you know, these are also a lot of new construction opportunities, so they come with a bunch of perks too, like tax abatements from the city, limited liability on the buyers because they come with ten year builders warranties, so anything goes wrong with like the structure or the systems of the house like central or whatever, that those will be covered.
So the things like being able to customize things too.
When it's a new construction, you can say, oh, I want these floors, I want these, I want to upgrade this, I want to do this. Like that's I think amazing, because no house that you get is going to have everything the way you like it. But if you can get into a new construction. You're able to get the details that would be important to you that then you don't have to change it later.
How can people find you?
Well, you can find me on Instagram and TikTok at Dumar dot Lux. You can find a business at Lux Listenings and Jay. If you want to give us a calls nine one four eight nine eight lucks.
Don't play get it give it out. Yeah, give me all the information. And I want to ask you this because you are a broker. So when did that switch happen? Like you said, at first, you were juggling like twenty five you know, listings at once, people with offers, but then you went on to become a broke have your own brokerage.
When did that shift happen?
So that we just opened up the brokerage in June of last year in New Jersey. At least in order to become a broker, you have to be a realtor for at least three years. So that's really just what I was waiting for. So my third you couldn't wait. Yeah, I couldn't wait. But that's that's what happened. At the end of my first year, I actually started a real estate team since I couldn't become a broker. And again just by giving my testimony. Not only you know, I did really good as a realtor by giving my testimony as a home buyer, but then I started doing really good as a team lead by giving my testimony as to how being a realtor changed my life financially and also past financially, just being able to, you know, wake up whenever you want, work whenever you want things like even though realistically.
I was working, but it still for.
Yourself, for yourself, yes, correct, So it's one hundred percent difference. So in that again, people really took to that, and I was able to, you know, bring on the team of think about thirty somethings in a short amount of time and you know, not everybody. I learned really fast. So my first originally my first thing was how many realtors can I get? I just want realtors, realters, realtors because you know, we were popular and stuff like that, and it was easy to get realtors. But I learned quickly that it's not about quantity, it's more so about quality. So you know, I had a team of thirty something realters and only like four of them.
Was producing okay, and I was a streamline.
Killing them by a landslide. And I didn't really like the thought of that because I'm like, I'm trying to build a brand. I don't necessarily want me to be the brand. I want it to be Lux Listeners, because that don't mean anytime somebody comes to buy a house, they're looking for me. I can't focus on higher level aspects of their business if I'm still working on every single sale in that capacity. So time it was time for me to open up the brokerage. I had that experience of what I didn't want to see as a broker, and I kind of just, you know, rewired the whole thing. I'll cut half of the team, you know. I had to say, you know, let them go and I started fresh. And you know, right now, the most important thing when bringing on new people is the interview process. In the screening process, super vital. You know, if they don't have that same drive, if I can't sniff that out the work ethic, being a self starter, self motivated, things like that, then you know I don't This isn't the place you know for them.
I said one of the howses you sold Kyle Rich was there? Now? Did you say I want to get back in the studio or.
I mean, I definitely threw out the story a couple of times that I used, But did you hear me? I didn't want to I didn't want to do them like that make them feel like I was trying to hear what I'm saying. But they were really cool people, And to be honest, they came to me saying that, you know, they're making a bunch of money now and have been for you know a little while now, and they don't feel like they're doing anything significant with their money invest and I love that.
You can't just be sitting in the bank.
Yeah, you know, so, you know, just even them having them that mentality and wanting to do better for themselves, you know, I felt like shut I was the perfect guy to help them because I actually I ended up selling them a multifamily new construction like both market things like that. And now you know, the in that in that market where they bought those houses are actually going up twenty two percent in value annually. Amazing, right, And then being that as a multifam they can make some money off some money to go against the mortgage, so you're super thankful for that. We're locked in at this point, you know, we chat every now and then. It's a pretty cool thing. Yeah.
And I saw one person you sold the house to. They got you a trip to Johannesburg.
Yeah.
Crazy, that's a great gift to give.
You that one, Like, what the hell? Shoot, But that just goes to show, like, again, we do really good business. We put the clients first. It's not really like I don't want to sound cliche, it's not really about the money. The money will come for me. It's more so about the relationships. And you want people to be handed through.
You want them to be like this wasn't amazing. For a lot of people, that would be like their biggest purchase ever it is, and you want it to be a great experience. All right, Well, we appreciate you so much for coming through. It's getting we have like a New Jersey because I feel like I see you moving everybody from New York to New Jersey. You know, I'm still though I see I see you know, but I do see a lot of people like this when you post like this couple's moving from New York City to New Jersey and I got them, so you know that's good.
Though.
I did look in New Jersey before I butt in and Brooklyn, so you know.
A second investment property. You just holler at me. You know your real chick, so we'll make it happen, all right.
Well, thank you. I appreciate you for coming through. Thank you so much, all right, thank you so much.
Way
