The Secret to Success in Marriage, Values & $800M Wealth | Real, Raw & Real Estate

3. Hidden Real Estate Strategies to Build Generational Wealth | Legacy Through Ownership

• Tenisha & Darrell Williams

Share episode

What if the real path to generational wealth isn’t what you’ve been told?

In this episode, Darrell & Tenisha Williams — founders of Elite Realty Partners ($800M+ sold) — share the overlooked real estate strategies that helped them turn a modest first home into a legacy-building empire.

Too often, buyers fall for myths about credit, car loans, or home improvements without realizing how those choices affect their ability to build wealth. The Williams break it down step by step, showing how every financial decision is part of your portfolio and why your home should always be viewed as an investment.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Why your first property matters more than you think
  • How to avoid costly mistakes most new buyers make
  • The truth about credit fixes, car loans, and timelines
  • How to position your home as an asset, not just a place to live
  • Why family ownership is directly tied to legacy and generational memory

Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or ready to expand your portfolio, this conversation is your blueprint to build wealth that lasts for generations.

👉 Ready to start your journey? Book a free discovery call with Elite Realty Partners today and learn how to position yourself for multi-generational success in real estate.

🎙️ About Real, Raw & Real Estate
Hosted by Darrell & Tenisha Williams, founders of Elite Realty Partners ($800M+ sold), this podcast goes beyond real estate. It’s about marriage, faith, business, and building generational wealth. Every Sunday we share the unfiltered conversations that help entrepreneurs, couples, and leaders grow in life and business.

📌 What You’ll Get Here

  • Lessons on faith, family, marriage, and legacy
  • Real estate + business strategies for entrepreneurs
  • Insights on building wealth with purpose
  • The raw truth about scaling as a couple

📌 Prefer video? Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RealRawRealEstate

📌 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realrawandrealestate/

📌 Follow, subscribe & share to help more couples and entrepreneurs grow with us.

Speaker 1:

When you met me, I was buying a home. I had to be like 22 or 23.

Speaker 2:

What gave you the desire, at such a young age, to even want to buy a home? You could have had a desire to do a million and one other things I did, if I gotta be honest.

Speaker 1:

I was listening to what my uncle told me. I started a process. I went through the homebuyers workshop. The first time homebuyer workshop, I went through the whole process. First time home by a workshop, I went through the whole process.

Speaker 2:

It's not about where you start, it's about where you finish.

Speaker 1:

I don't even think it's about where you finish. I think it's about the journey.

Speaker 2:

You're tuned in to Real Raw and Real Estate when love meets legacy, Faith fuels hustle and we turn real estate into real impact.

Speaker 1:

We're your hosts. Daryl and Tanisha Williams husband and wife, power couple building generational wealth. One deep convo at a time. Let's talk strategy faith and the truth behind the journey let's get into it.

Speaker 2:

I always say in one of our models is what elite actually means?

Speaker 2:

elite means a select group of people who are superior to the rest and ability and or skill absolutely, and it's not that we're always going to get it right. Right. But as real estate professionals, we take pride in constantly being in pursuit pursuit of providing elite service, pursuit of treating our clients money like our own money, pursuit of ensuring that we represent our buyers and sellers the best way possible. I think that's the only way we'll we have been able to have over 200 five star reviews, countless Zillow reviews and always positioning ourselves as the go to real estate brokerage in our market.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's important. It's important, it's how they say it's one thing to have a standard and it's another thing to enforce it. So it's important that we practice what we preach. Again, not perfection, but pursuit. You know what I mean? Again, perfection leads to procrastination. So that's not what we're about. We're about executing.

Speaker 2:

And I also think that it's about experience. So it's like a fad nowadays to become a broker.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about it.

Speaker 2:

Everybody wants their own, Let me not say everybody but many people are opening their own brokerage.

Speaker 2:

And that's absolutely phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. However, it's dangerous when you open a brokerage with zero to little experience. And that's really my issue, because who's at a disadvantage? The buyers, the sellers. You know, before I even thought about opening a brokerage and you know it was something that kind of fell into our laps Right, not something that I wanted to pursue all my life. You know I wanted a brokerage. No, it just kind of got positioned it that way. But I had so close to 100 properties before I even thought about starting a brokerage, because I understand the liability that comes with buying and selling real estate, even with our own home, matter of fact, our first home. Back in when did we buy our first property? I think that was 2014. 2014, when we bought our first home, possibly yeah.

Speaker 2:

What was that experience for you? Because that was before we even thought about getting our real estate license, but yet you were so adamant about home ownership.

Speaker 1:

When you met me, I was buying a home. I had to be like 22 or 23.

Speaker 2:

Were you already accustomed to understanding home ownership before you decided that you even wanted to pursue buying a home at 22 years old? What gave you the desire, at such a young age, to even want to buy a home? You could have had a desire to do a million and one other things considering where you're from and what the focus normally is around that age and in that particular area. My question is, if you really think back, why were you focused on home ownership?

Speaker 1:

If I got to be honest, I was listening to what my uncle told me. I had a friend that was moving out of town and his parents left him the home to live in. It was, I think it was paid off at the time and he told me that he was getting ready to leave and I guess the parents were going to sell the home. I listened to my uncle. I said man, my partner getting ready to sell his home. Man, I said man, and I was thinking I don't know. I think God just put that in a line, certain things. I'm like man, I think I want to buy that house. So I was going through the process. Listen to my uncle.

Speaker 1:

My uncle told me straight up some things I ain't going to say here because I'm changing my language a bit. I said, boy, you better go buy that house. If you can, you better. So I started a process. I went through the homebuyers workshop, the first-time homebuyer workshop. I went through the whole process and it was attainable 22-year-old Darrell from the hood could purchase a home. I had been in position to purchase a home I got myself into position to purchase a home.

Speaker 2:

That means that you were already working a job that would give you the buying power to purchase a home. You know how important is that you know for other young men and women out there, even at a young age.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it's important. How do you?

Speaker 2:

position yourself.

Speaker 1:

My thing is doing what you're supposed to do, meaning I was a young father doing things that I wasn't supposed to do, but stepping up to make sure I handled my responsibility, that's my responsibility. So I had to work, I had to provide I had a mouth to feed, I had to provide a place to live. 22 or 19 or whatever age I was 19 when I had my first child. I had to do what I had to do. So I worked several jobs, all kinds of jobs on the back of the garbage truck, um, construction, just labor. I was, I had to provide for my kid. So when I finally picked, when I finally, uh, landed on a stable job, I stayed on that job. I grinded and I hustled and I stayed on that job and just by being responsible I got in position to purchase a home right around when you met me.

Speaker 1:

So that's, listen, that's something for you, fellas, man, stay on point, stay solid. What I mean by stay on point is handle your responsibilities, just because you feel like it's the end of the world, or you, or the weight may be too heavy to load to bear. You feel like it's the end of the world, or the weight may be too heavy to bear. You're in that position for a reason. There's always an opportunity to turn, whatever that you might be looking at as a weight, and the weight makes you stronger. If you keep pushing and handle your responsibility, you will be in position to be better than you could have even imagined. You could have ever imagined.

Speaker 2:

So stay, stay solid, handle your responsibility, and that's how I found out about home ownership and getting in position just by doing what I was supposed to do and I'm thankful for that because, as we've said before, I didn't know anything about real estate, had never even heard the term real estate, prior to meeting you, and you allow me to understand the importance of homeownership. And the truth is, majority of millionaires, multimillionaires, billionaires, own real estate, but yet, you know, there's still a lack of numbers in certain communities, even our community, and it's so important for us to have ownership. I had a workshop that I had to speak at yesterday and I asked everybody in the room and I always like to do this exercise and I say who in the room knows the name of your great, great great grandfather or your great, great great grandmother?

Speaker 2:

And oftentimes, majority of the room doesn't know, but there's always that one person that knows the name of their great great great grandfather and yesterday it ironically, when she was telling the story of her great great grandfather. She told the story extensively and, guess what? It dated back to ownership. They own churches and I wanted the the room to understand that the power and the key to leaving legacy and ensuring that your great, great great grandchildren know your name is ownership. And I take pride in helping homeowners and helping sellers just meet their real estate goals right, Because we've had the pleasure of being on different spectrums, not just real estate investor, not just, you know, traditional home buyer. Like we have sold properties, bought properties, primary, our first property, because oftentimes people think your first property needs to be that oh my gosh, that house on a hill with a picket fence and a little old dorky dog, right, but the truth of the matter, our first house was what?

Speaker 2:

1,100 square feet. It's not about where you start, it's about where you finish.

Speaker 1:

And listen, not to cut you off. I don't even think it's about where you finish. And not to cut you off, I don't even think it's about where you finish. I think it's about the journey, because generational wealth doesn't necessarily have to be something monetary. It could be mindset. You get what I'm saying. So that's why I say it's not about where you start or where you finish. It's about who have you become. You pass down a mindset or you pass down a tradition of greatness, a tradition of elite act of excellence. You get what I'm saying. You can that passing that down is way more valuable than anything else.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and which is why I feel like as homeowners.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

It's not about being a homeowner you automatically are an investor, even if this is your primary residence, of course. Because I tell, we tell our buyers all the time never look at a home purchase, you know, as just a home purchase. Always go in with a plan. Is this property intended to be a one-year plan, three-year plan, five-year plan, 10-year plan? Why does that matter? That will more than likely determine whether you want an FHA loan, a conventional loan, you know, or what loan product you may want, because it's not a one-size-fits-all.

Speaker 1:

You know, one of the it's more than one way to get something and get somewhere.

Speaker 2:

And guess what? So I love to say it because one of our preferred lenders she always says this. Her name is Shawna Porter. She says that your financial portfolio is as unique as your fingerprint. So you're getting the wrong advice as a homeowner when you're basing your decision on homeownership solely on what happened with your auntie your cousin, your mom, your dad or even your friend.

Speaker 1:

That's our culture and it's time to change that, because now we got representatives that can that can kind of not kind of that can directly tell you otherwise and be the example of hey, I understand, that's grandma. We got a lot of respect for grandma.

Speaker 2:

We got a lot of respect for auntie but I'm on my third property and my first 40, 50 years. But if you are not leveraging the real estate market by connecting with an elite professional to know how to pull out that equity and invest it in other properties to continue to make passive income that could be shared amongst the entire family, that's how you create more wealth for the family.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's time to have those conversations meaning what's the family plan? Everybody just OK, you got your house, I got my house. Everybody got their house. Ok, cool, if that's it, that's it Fine. But some of us want to want to want to add to that. Some of us especially grandmother, grandma, work hard to get that house. Granddaddy worked hard to get that house. Who's in position to continue the legacy or to build on what grandma and grandfather sacrificed? For If nobody's in position, that's unfortunate and a lot of the times it's that way because nobody had a plan. So it's time out for that. It's time to show people how you can leverage what your family worked so hard to do and how you can actually multiply that times 10 or 20 or just keep passing it, keep passing it down generation after generation. That's how your grandkids, your great, great, great grandkids, will know who you are, because you had an impact in their life before they were even thought about.

Speaker 2:

Exactly and it's all about you know, just understanding, like you said, what the plan is. But for example, exposure, what does exposure? Do you know? Exposure can 1000 percent multiply your net worth tenfold. You know, if you weren't exposed to homeowners ownership or if your uncle didn't tell you that that was a great decision to buy that first home. Or let's just say I didn't meet you when I met you Right, like who would have thought that?

Speaker 1:

you introducing Mm? Hmm, listen, where you would have been Okay. Anyways, who would have thought?

Speaker 2:

that you, introducing me to real estate, would now, you know, turn into real estate broker. You know owner and influencer mentor.

Speaker 1:

Keep going. Go ahead, tell us more. What's all those things behind your name? But?

Speaker 2:

my point is once you're exposed right what we teach our clients, because some people think that just because you make six, seven figures, that that means that you know about real estate or you know about investments, and they really don't.

Speaker 1:

If you do have a plan for home ownership, you kind of want to scale up, you got to get with a professional. I'll be honest with you it's so important to get with a real estate professional and just because somebody has a license doesn't necessarily mean they're going to give you the best sound advice. I know that from personal experience with our very first home. But right now it's so important to be affiliated or to be exposed to those individuals, those real estate professionals that can really give you the game and give you the blueprint to achieving whatever it is you're trying to achieve. So I would recommend I would 100% recommend if you're in the South Florida not even just South Florida, anywhere in Florida get with Elite Realty Partners. Listen, you want to tell the people what's the first steps that you would want to do, or that you would recommend someone do, in purchasing a home.

Speaker 2:

Buyer consultation. So many people think that you need to wait until your credit gets to a certain number or until you save a certain amount of money before consulting with a real estate professional.

Speaker 1:

Is there a certain number, a certain amount of money that they need to have?

Speaker 2:

Well, again, your financial situation is as unique as your fingerprint. So the amount of money you may need to purchase a home may be totally different than the amount of money that your friend may need. Why? Because you may qualify for two different amounts. You may get two different products. You may put a totally different amount down than your friend does.

Speaker 2:

So the first thing you want to do is have a consultation, because now, don't get me wrong there are a lot of professionals that do not want to even entertain a buyer unless they're ready to go now.

Speaker 2:

But that's not how we operate and that's not how we conduct business at Elite. We want to catch you on the front end so you don't overpay and pay off certain credit cards that you don't need to pay off. Right, there are little tips and tricks that you may or may not know. Some people don't know something as simple as if you only have 10 payments left on your car note right, that can be omitted by the loan officer. So you may think you need to pay off your car and waste an extra $15,000, $20,000, or maybe $5,000, when in actuality, if you only owe 10 months or less, the remainder of the car payment can be omitted. So the first thing is to always contact a real estate professional and set up the consultation. Secondly, if you want to ensure that you are not late on any credit card payments or any loans of any sort, because one late payment can drop your credit score 30, 40, 50 points.

Speaker 2:

So, contact the real estate professional, ensure you're not late on any credit payments and, more most importantly, do not open any new lines of credit until after you speak with the real estate professional. That's the whole idea, it's like, even when, for example, as business owners.

Speaker 2:

There's lawsuits, right, it's the cost of doing business. You are going to need a legal professional when you have a business and the first thing you must do with that attorney is what Consult? You're not just going to pay the retainer fee without a consultation, you need a strategy. Same thing with a CPA. How many CPAs have we went through, man I?

Speaker 1:

can't count. I'm still counting.

Speaker 2:

Exactly so. The last CPA we chose. How many consultations did we have with how many CPAs before?

Speaker 1:

we made a decision Several, I get it, so that's the first thing they need to do.

Speaker 2:

We recently opened in.

Speaker 1:

Georgia.

Speaker 2:

We're excited. We have a few agents already and have already started closing deals Come on so if we've already created the blueprint in Florida, I can only imagine what's in store for Georgia. If you're looking to buy, sell, invest, book your free discovery call today, it's essential to ensure that you know the right steps to get started.

Speaker 1:

Tune in every Sunday and every Tuesday. Sunday we'll be on YouTube. Tuesday we're going to be on all streaming platforms.

Speaker 2:

If you like this episode, if you learned something, share it with everyone you know and we'll see you next week. The people want to know People okay. The true balance of family life and business life.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to speak directly to you. You're my partner in life, so of course you're my partner in business. We went on it together and that's important.