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

6. Smart Holds, Hard Lessons | South Florida Real Estate & Investing Truths

• Tenisha & Darrell Williams

Share episode

What happens when you chase hype instead of strategy?

In this episode of Real, Raw & Real Estate, Darrell & Tenisha Williams share how an expensive early mistake — selling their 1,300-square-foot starter home too soon — taught them the power of holding smart. That property later doubled in value, and the lesson reshaped the way they approach real estate forever.

From there, they zoom out to the South Florida market:

  • Why Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach keep attracting investors
  • How local events in Miami Gardens fuel hidden demand
  • When oversupply in new builds silently kills your returns

Inside this conversation, you’ll learn their decision framework: vision first, strategy second, purchase third. Whether you’re raising a family or targeting high-earning pockets near stadiums and nightlife, your “why” changes everything — financing, lease timing, cash flow, and exit plan.

They also reveal:

  • A “great on paper” deal gone wrong that turned into years of carry costs
  • How to leverage a signed lease to cover two mortgages
  • Why renting through glutted periods often beats selling
  • The importance of real contractor and lender relationships to shrink timelines and grow spreads

This is a raw, practical playbook for first-time buyers, aspiring investors, and anyone watching cranes race across South Florida’s skyline. The takeaway? Start small. Buy where demand is durable. Document income. Hold longer than feels comfortable. Let equity compound.

📌 Whether you’re chasing your first deal or scaling a portfolio, this episode reminds you that consistency — not hype — builds wealth that lasts.

🎧 Tune in, subscribe, and share with someone who needs to hear this today.

🎙️ 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_01:

Starter home. Right? I hated it.

SPEAKER_02:

You did.

SPEAKER_01:

You didn't care.

SPEAKER_02:

I did not.

SPEAKER_01:

You didn't care at all. But guess what? That was before the twins.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's start first. A lot of people leaning them to perfection, and that turns into procrastination. So you get what I'm saying? So it's not a matter of I want to get it right now, right now, right now. No. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01:

So we all know the same, right? That we live where people vacation. Yes. Like Miami is the place to live.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Why?

SPEAKER_02:

Because it's a buzzing city. It's a buzzing city. I'm talking about there's always something going on. Not just Miami. We're talking about Atlanta too, because we're there. But as far as Miami, we got our finger on the button. We know exactly what's going on in the city. So you're talking about South Beach. We're talking about that's a major tourist attraction. Everybody's coming to South Beach.

SPEAKER_01:

But we don't have South Beach. So here's the thing. Let's talk about it. South Beach is a thing of the past. Just a little bit, just a little bit. Because we know that there used to be spring break South Beach era, but now we have Fort Lauderdale Beach. You know, Los Oles, Hollywood Beach. Like we live where people vacation in South Florida. And I love it because even when we have out of state buyers, you know, think about the Carolina buyer that we recently had.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

He owns, oh my gosh, he owns a ton of Airbnbs in Carolina, but he wants to buy here in South Florida. Let's talk about it. The stadium.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01:

Right next to your old neighborhood.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, in my neighborhood, actually. But we own a few properties in Miami Gardens. Miami Gardens is that city where the happening is. Meaning, you got Formula One racing that comes around once a year. You got the major concerts like uh Rolling Loud, Beyoncé is performing there. All of the all of the big time performers are performing in that city, and in that stadium. Um, not to mention the sports teams and the championship college games. It's it's a very, very buzzing and happening city. So understanding what's going on in that environment, the potential for earnings on your investment is through the roof.

SPEAKER_01:

And even now, so I know a lot of people are super fearful, fearful about what's going on in the market right now, right? Um, inventory is up and sales are slowly falling down. But one thing I love about the South Florida area is because it's a place where everybody vote vacation and there's so many tourists, there are over 1,000 people that move to Florida each and every day, right? So thinking about that, when we first bought our home.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, we're gonna talk about we're gonna talk about that one.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, let's talk about it because there was a big mistake that was that was made.

SPEAKER_02:

At which point?

SPEAKER_01:

When we sold the property and we shouldn't have sold the property. Like, let's talk about it because first of all, I think that you guys may or may not remember, but I didn't know what real estate was before I met Daryl. Did not never even heard the term. That's the crazy part. You made sure after we got married that we invested in real estate. Right. And we bought our first primary residence. Think about it. That property was, was it even 1300 square?

SPEAKER_02:

It was a small house, but it was it was our house.

SPEAKER_01:

And I hated that house. Listen, we could not agree on a property. At one point, it's so funny because our first house, we couldn't agree so much that I signed on a dotted line without seeing the property. And then our second primary residence, he signed on a dotted line without seeing the property. So that's what type of compromise you need in marriage, even when it comes to buying a home sometimes. I like to say I specialize in couples. Oh my gosh, there was only one couple that I remember servicing where they were just in sync. They had been together since high school. They had already owned a property, and I helped them sell their property and purchase another property, and they're still in that property today. But that's the only couple. Never argue, like it's it was like they were inseparable from beginning to end. I mean, you know what? Barrett, that's the Barrett family. Shout out to the Barrett family because they're still near and dear to us. But back to what we were talking about, that property was only 1,300 square feet.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Starter home. Right. I hated it.

SPEAKER_02:

You did.

SPEAKER_01:

You didn't care. I did not. You didn't care at all. But guess what? That was before the twins. So we only had two children at the time. True. And then when I got pregnant with twins, 1,300 square feet just wasn't enough.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So what was the mistake that happened?

SPEAKER_02:

We should have leveraged that home, not sold that home. See, again, yeah, you you said that I didn't care that you didn't like it, but I knew the benefit of us even having it. I didn't know to what extent the benefit was, of course, because that was our first one together. Yeah. So knowing what I know now, 100%, I wouldn't have sold that house. We bought it at a time to where it was it was very cheap at the compared to what the market is now.

SPEAKER_01:

So that property, just to give you perspective, was$215,000 back in 2014. But walk them through it because so many people want their first property to be that property on a hill with a picket fence and a little Yorkie dog. Absolutely. But I so you had to like bring me back.

SPEAKER_02:

I did because we got to get started.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You get what I mean? I understand. Trust me, I want to give you the world. But there's more than one way to get there. Let's start first. A lot of people leading them to perfection, and that turns into procrastination. So you get what I'm saying? So it's not a matter of I want to get it right now, right now, right now. No. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm upset because what you mean by leveraging, we should have held the property. Let's talk about it really quick. Right? So, first of all, I never wanted more children. I was a teenage mom. Took her off the floor to AM with me, and I just knew that I was never getting married. I just knew that I was never having any more kids.

SPEAKER_00:

But God.

SPEAKER_01:

But God. But God, right? So we ended up getting married the whole nine. But then I also ended up pregnant with twins. So I'm like, how do I go from not wanting any more kids to then having two kids because we're a blended family to then getting pregnant and now going from two to four children? So by that time we're like 1,300 square feet just isn't enough. But we did not connect with the right resources and the right people, which is why we sold the house because I was not a real estate agent yet. Right? So I remember that we thought that we had to sell the house because the loan officers were telling us that we couldn't afford to carry two mortgages. So we had to sell. Instead of telling us that we needed to secure and find a tenant for the property that we were living in. And as long as we had a tenant ready to go with a signed lease, then that tenant would allow us to hold two mortgages and buy that second home. Game changing because we sold that house because of misinformation from the loan officer. And then what happened? We sold that property for I think what 225,000. We we barely made a profit. We made a profit because that's how great real estate is. But because we were already selling in less than two years, we didn't make as much money as we could have made. And what happened that next year?

SPEAKER_02:

The value of that house went through the roof, and that person that bought that house from us for so cheap gained all of that equity.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think he finally just sold that house. I wanted to tell you, I looked, he just sold the house.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't even tell me. Okay. Don't even tell me.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I have to tell you though, he sold the house for probably maybe like three years ago, at least 450 or something like that.

SPEAKER_02:

So he came up about 200,000.

SPEAKER_01:

At least 200,000.

SPEAKER_02:

On our missed opportunity, on our investment.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's why at Elite Realty Partners, one thing that I teach our agents to do, and I like to do myself, we don't teach home buyers in a way as if they are a home buyer. We teach them in a way where they are a real estate investor. And when you start thinking about that, the questions are: are you buying this property short term or are you buying this property long term? Because strategy is everything when it comes to real estate investing.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

If you currently own a property and you're looking to upgrade your current home or buy a second home, do not think that you have to sell your first home like us. Okay. As long as you have a tenant that is ready to go with an executed lease, you 1,000% can hold on to the property that you're currently living in and buy your next home.

SPEAKER_02:

Or the vision that drives the strategy. I like to always plan out our next move. So granted, the end goal is to have that big house on the hill, picket fence, and little Tito running around in the backyard. That's the ultimate goal. But there's a strategy to getting there. Not everybody is going to go from unemployed, living with their parents, new job and brand new house of their dreams. That's not everybody's, that's not everybody's reality.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So honestly, you got to have a plan. What does the how we used to say when we were coming up, or the teachers used to tell us all the time, what do you see yourself in five years? What do you see yourself in 10 years? That's important, especially as we grow older, because you realize five years and 10 years, it's like that. Especially if you if you got emotional, you're trying to accomplish something. So really having a real plan, a real goal, and setting a strategy in order to get there. Like I said, with our first house, you said you hated the house, but I knew this wasn't gonna be the last house. So let's get something now so we can get the ball rolling.

SPEAKER_01:

Equity builders. Equity builders. We want to be equity builders. Real estate is one of the highest ways that you can obtain wealth, and we need to increase in numbers. One thing that I always say it is always a time to buy real estate, but it just may not always be a time to sell. I have a seller right now, you know exactly what I'm talking about. They're in the Alva Maria area. So in Alva Maria, um beautiful homes. Yes, this is a beautiful area in Florida. However, when they were building these homes, it is its own private community. I mean, they have their own publics, they have their own shopping center. I mean, it's a beautiful community. However, it's oversaturated, if you will, meaning there are so many properties for sale, and a lot of them are sitting on the market. My seller was trying to attempt to sell her properties last year, failed with a different agent, and now she did call me to sell her home. But here's the thing: I'm great at what I do, but I don't work magic. So when I say that it's always a time to buy, but it may not always be a time to sell, that means that we need to put this property not only up for sale, but also up for rent. And sometimes it's a strategy of you know what, if I can get a tenant in this property faster than then I can get a buyer, then maybe I'm just gonna hold on to this property one more year. And then the next year, it may be a time to sell where I can turn a profit.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, so check this out then. What about those that are buying in a in a in a buzzing market or or in that particular case in Alba Maria? There was a plan for the community. There was a plan to develop all of these homes because they wanted their own community.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

But again, everybody, not everybody, but a lot of people purchased in that area, but it didn't grow to where it was attractive to everybody. Right. Like if you're buying in a hot market where there's there's a lot of um there's a lot of traffic there, whether there's um concerts or or or vacation, it's a vacation spot. Right. If you're gonna invest in that area, I'm gonna cut you off, but if you are gonna invest in that area, there should be a strategy. Again, what's the plan? If is the plan to raise your family here for the next 15 to 20 years, then there's a strategy for that. If the plan is to just simply get started in that particular area and use that home as high income because it's a high-earning property, because it's in that buzzing area, that's why it's important to understand what's going on in the city.

SPEAKER_01:

Not only that, it's important to know what's going to be developed in the future. Correct. That particular area is more of a retirement community. So this particular seller, she's not an older young lady. She's a younger young lady. The community already has everything in it. So when it comes to attractions, you know, where younger people want to go have fun, you're gonna have to drive for at least an hour.

SPEAKER_02:

You gotta have an understanding of what's going on in the city. And you can't get caught in the hype. Because I remember when they were developing that neighborhood, and it was like, oh, you see those brand new houses? They're so cheap, they're right off the highway, and they got a plan to build X amount of housing, X amount of days, X amount of however however long that time free that time period was, but it was just the initial hype.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

That's why it's in again, knowing what's the plan for the city is important, especially if you're talking about moving in, whether it be your first home or your step-up home.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's what we're talking about when it comes to the average American. Right. You know, there are multimillionaires and billionaires that invest in the Miami market, the Fort Lauderdale market, and even the Palm Beach market. Why? Because there is stability in real estate. You know, it's it's much better than parking your money in the bank. You will get a return. There are developments in Miami right now with a in with a delivery date of 2026, 2027. Beautiful luxury developments right there in the heart of Miami where real estate investors know that they can get a return on their money. So let me ask you as a real estate investor, right? Is every deal a good deal?

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01:

Is every deal a good deal? So I want you to be honest and kind of walk us through like your worst deal that you've had and give them, you know, some do's and don'ts behind it.

SPEAKER_02:

It was another home I bought in Miami Gardens. I'll be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I didn't think you were gonna talk about Miami Gardens.

SPEAKER_02:

Which one do you think I was gonna talk about? My Deerfield?

SPEAKER_01:

I thought you were gonna talk about Deerfield.

SPEAKER_02:

Deerfield is a whole other one. I'm kind of ashamed to talk about not, I'm not ashamed to talk about that one. That one hit me in the heart. And this is real raw real estate, so I gotta keep it real.

SPEAKER_00:

This is real raw in real estate.

SPEAKER_02:

I had someone approach us about a home that was going, that was, that someone was selling. Um, she had home, she had owned the home through family or something like that. And she acquired the property a few years ago from her family by way of quick claim deed. That being said, the number was the number was good. It was good. It was on it was on average a little bit lower than what was going on on the market for investment property. So the spread was, it appeared on paper to be a great spread. Not too good to be true, but a very, very good deal. So we went through that whole process. I purchased the home. I was told that there were tenants in the property that wasn't paying rent. So I'm thinking, okay, there's no there's no lease in place or anything like that. So we can go ahead and just start the eviction process. I know on average, the worst case scenario would probably be 60 days. It's a good deal. I'm gonna take it, I'm gonna take that, uh, I'm gonna take that risk. Before we bought the house, I went by the house to see if I can work something out with the people that lived in the home to say, hey, I can get paid for you guys.

SPEAKER_01:

Tenants.

SPEAKER_02:

The tenants, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

The tenants.

SPEAKER_02:

So I'll go by the home. Hey, I'm buying this house. I've heard you guys aren't paying rent. I'm going to get this person out of here. Maybe I can I can pay for you guys moving fees or maybe a piece of your first moving expenses. Moving expenses, maybe your first and last, for you to go ahead and get yourself squared away in the next property. Trying to work something out. I went there at least two times. Nobody answered the door. Nobody answered the door. No problem. The deal still looks good on paper. Sweet deal. We go to close.

SPEAKER_00:

Too sweet.

SPEAKER_02:

Too sweet. We go to close the next day, I think it was the next day or the same day after I closed. I went by the house.

SPEAKER_01:

I think it was the very next day after closing.

SPEAKER_02:

So I'm going to the house. I knock on the door again, and magically, they're all, hey, come on inside. How you doing? I say, hey, I just bought this house. What do you mean you just bought this house? This is my house. How did you buy my house? I didn't sign anything. I'm like, hold on, what's hold on? Listen, just that, mm-hmm. My stomach, my throat went down to my stomach. I'm talking about sync all the way down because I'm like, what are you talking about? I just did my, I did all of my title work. I checked all of the boxes. I got title insurance. I got everything checked. And it still ended up being that the person that was in the home, the family that was in the home, said claims, claims that the person who I bought the home from acquired the home fraudulently.

SPEAKER_01:

This is two and a half years ago. So we want to give you the good and the bad. So two and a half years ago, still going through, um, still going through litigation, basically. So that means mortgage payments are still being paid. This means taxes are still being paid.

SPEAKER_02:

The whole nine insurance still has to be paid. And there's no return as of yet.

SPEAKER_01:

We didn't even talk about it. Attorney fees.

SPEAKER_02:

Attorney fees, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Attorney fees, right? So I mean, here's the thing. I'm I'm so thankful. I'm even thankful in that situation because number one, as a real estate investor, you need to have your standards, right? Right. You have your criteria of what you're looking for when acquiring an asset, but you also have to have your don'ts list. And one thing that's number one on our don'ts list now is that we will not buy any property with the tenant. Whether it's a real tenant or not, that's just not something that we want to do in our business right now.

SPEAKER_02:

And that goes into our next topic. Like, how do you stay in alignment with your goals? Having a full understanding, at least somewhat of an understanding, and getting wise counsel from those that have done it. Or you got a real estate professional that you lean on or that you're getting advisement from, especially like a really good realtor. I'm gonna go ahead and plug elite realty partners right there because uh they're trained and prepared and ready to provide elite service. But anyway, back to this. You always wanna make sure you uphold this. The thing is, what are standards if you're never enforcing them?

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

So if you have a standard, if this is the goal, stick to the script. Go down, go down, check every box.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's just like even the people that are lending money. Um, so you so most times, right, real estate investors may not be buying or acquiring these properties with their own cash. Oftentimes that's not even the best route, even if you have the cash. There are hard money lenders, there are private lenders, there are hedge funds and things of that nature that in different resources that people use to acquire properties, and even they have specific requirements and standards that they have in order to lend you money. So, one thing that I'm glad about is that because of your experience as a real estate investor and because of your quick turnarounds, once you have the property, rehab the property, and sell the property, you're able to get great interest rates, great fees, you know, with your relationships with your hard money lenders. And then that even helps on the return.

SPEAKER_02:

It does because the reputation is there. I got the I got the receipts.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

This is what we're able to deliver. This is the standard amount of time that we're able to deliver. So again, and that all came by way of having a standard and enforcing it. Now, of course, when I how I get mine turned around so fast is I'm cracking a whip. Not in, not not literally, but this is what we have to get done.

SPEAKER_01:

This is cracking the whip on who?

SPEAKER_02:

On my contractors.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

On the contractors, the guys that's getting the work done for us, it's important. Of course, you know, that's that there's that stigma that contractors are the worst. If you don't, you gotta babysit them, you gotta no, you got some good guys, but again, if they are good guys, most times they're locked up. Meaning they already have a project they're working on. Now you gotta try to have at least build a relationship with someone and have the inventory to keep them busy because if not, they're gonna go to the next job, especially if they do good work.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. You know, so so if if you're looking for a community to teach you exactly how to invest in real estate, oftentimes people think that you have to have a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand already liquid in the bank, but you really don't. There's things called joint ventures where you can partner with someone like Daryl on your real estate um ventures, and now you have a mentor that can teach you exactly what to do and how to do it. So look out for the information to get on our waiting list for Business Billionaire Society so you can join a community to cheat to teach you exactly how to invest in real estate. You've made six at least six figures on every deal, yeah, right? Um, so aside from the the couple losses that you've had to consistently earn at least six figures with no partners. Yeah, to date, you have not had any partners except for on one deal, you had a partner. But other than that, it's been a solo, it's been a solo mission, right? Very so I do appreciate me coming in on the background um recently this year. But definitely, guys, get on our waiting list, join the society so you too can invest in real estate.

SPEAKER_02:

Man, listen, catch us brand new episodes every Sunday on all streaming platforms, YouTube, Spotify, and any other platform that you listen to your podcast on.

SPEAKER_01:

And a lot of people want to know how do you scale in business? So many people became real estate agents. Last year, over 70% of real estate agents did not even sell one property.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

So, how do you scale? What would you say the most common mistake agents are making?

SPEAKER_02:

I think it's the consistency. If you want us to stay in there, you need to pay attention to what's going on.