The REAL Estate & Investment Show

THEREANDISHOW 008 - Interviewing Palm Beach Real Estate Agent & Entrepreneur, David Cooke!

• Daniel Clavijo

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This episode of The REAL Estate and Investment Show with Daniel Clavijo features an interview with David Cooke, a real estate agent and investor with over 20 years of experience. Based in Palm Beach, Florida, David leads a family real estate team and has a prolific entrepreneurial background in various industries, including commercial landscaping and charter fishing.

In this conversation:

  • Seizing Opportunity in Crisis: David discusses how he entered the real estate investment world during the 2008 global financial crisis, viewing it as a unique opportunity to purchase properties at significant discounts
  • Building a Relationship-Focused Team: After initially operating as an independent agent, David shares his journey of creating "The Heirloom Group," a 16-agent team built on a foundation of professional talent and unified branding rather than personal name recognition
  • Entrepreneurial Synergies: Learn how David leveraged niche business opportunities to enhance his real estate services, such as acquiring a dumpster company to assist senior clients with home transitions and property cleanouts
  • Relocating to South Florida: David details his family's rapid move from Richmond, Virginia, to Palm Beach County, and how he transitioned his business focus to the local luxury market
  • Historic Preservation: Insight into the intensive process of historic property restoration in West Palm Beach and the value of preserving character in modern developments
  • The Power of "Yes": A look at David’s professional "best investment"—a single $17,000 lot showing that evolved into over $90 million in career transactions with one client.

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SPEAKER_04

All right, hello, and thank you for tuning in to the real estate and investment show with Daniel Clavijo. I am Daniel Clavijo coming to you from beautiful, sunny Palm Beach, Florida. What is the Real Estate and Investment Show, and who am I, you may ask? Well, our show wants to focus on the experience of amazing people in the real estate and investment space and share their knowledge with you, our wonderful audience. I truly hope that together we can spark some ideas and inspiration for you wherever that may be. And who am I? Well, I'm an architect grad from the University of Miami, NBA grad from NYU Stern, and I've been designing homes in Palm Beach and the surrounding area for over a decade. I now get to share the stories of such talented individuals with you. Questions or suggestions about our show, write to us at infotheryandyshow.com. That also spells theirandishow.com, the abbreviated name for our show. Find us on YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy your podcast, we'd appreciate your help. Like, comment, follow, subscribe, and above all, share with your friends and family. It is thanks to you that we will be able to grow and bring you high quality content and guests in the real estate and investment space. Speaking of which, we have an amazing guest with us today. He is a real estate agent with over 20 years' experience. First in his native Richmond, Virginia, and more recently, now in Palm Beach, Florida. Working with his wife and daughter, he leads his family real estate team and is a real estate investor himself, buying, fixing, and maintaining properties. And he also has a successful entrepreneurial background, creating, leading, and selling companies, which includes a charter fishing business. He is the man, the myth, the legend, the one and only, David Cook.

SPEAKER_03

Daniel, wow, what an introduction. I don't know how I can even find it.

SPEAKER_04

I didn't even know you were talking about it, but well, we tried to do our best. And thank you so much for being on the show. It's uh always important to get the insights of a real estate agent work in the real estate business, and uh we've got some many trends and interesting developments going around here. And I think it's also an interesting to see how it developed with your time in uh Virginia as well. And you've got quite an interesting background. So thank you for being on the show. So as we say cheers, cheers, Daniel, please tell the audience a bit about your background, your bio, and please take it away.

SPEAKER_03

So uh first of all, thank you for that amazing introduction. Um, and thanks for letting me um be a part of this and be on today. So, you know, I have a an interesting background. I didn't ever think that I was gonna be in real estate. Like growing up, it was not something that I thought, you know, this was gonna be my path, right? Yeah. Um you mentioned I've had multiple businesses. And um in 2008, 2009, when um the we were experiencing uh global financial crisis, right? Yes, yes. Um, it was an opportunity. I saw an opportunity and I took it. You know, uh everything happens in cycles, right? And um I felt that there was a that the real estate market at that time was was uh in shambles and in a lot of places, not everywhere, right? That's that truly it's it wasn't everywhere, right? But it was definitely a time where we felt that there was certainly opportunity, right? And when so many people were exiting the real estate world, we kind of saw us, you know, saw ourselves doing like a cannonball right into it, right?

SPEAKER_04

Being greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are as greedy as Warren Buffett is likely to say, right?

SPEAKER_03

Right. That's right. So it was um an opportunity that um that I saw, and we entered into the we um I entered into the real estate world um as an investor at that time, not working with buyers or sellers, but seeing an opportunity to buy some real estate um at significantly reduced or discounted pricing, right? In Richmond, Virginia. In Richmond, that's right. So I was in Richmond at that time. And um through that, it continued to evolve. I had an opportunity, I had some things going on um in my life at the time that made sense for me. I had a commercial landscaping business. Okay. And we did um, we specialized in healthcare facilities, hospitals, um, freestanding medical office buildings. But we it was we were huge company in Richmond. And it with what was going on in my life at the time, it made sense for me to really um sell that business, step away, and dive into the real estate world, which is what I did. And I would already started picking up some opportunities and investing in real estate, and which led me to go ahead and get my real estate licensed. Right. And um started working with buyers and sellers. I saw a gap in the market where I came from the world of relationships first, right? Seeing really and I worked with some amazing people. I worked with some amazing people in Richmond. Um, but I also saw an opportunity there where we could just really create something that was totally relationship focused. Yes. Um, and uh started working with a I joined a team at that time actually, because I really didn't know what I was doing, right? Working with buyers and sellers and we had all the benchmarks at that time, and um I continued to invest in Richmond, eventually growing my own team and uh the heirloom group, which just recently we just um was just acquired by Douglas Ellen in Richmond. So congratulations. Yes, so that's pretty exciting stuff. Yes. Um, I had a great team. They still are a great team. I you know, I'm very I'm very much still involved. Um and it it's been a great, it's been a great journey. And that's uh I I saw that 2008, 2009 downturn was an opportunity, right? Profit isn't what you pay for something, not what you sell it for, right?

SPEAKER_04

Yes, as the other quote goes, price is what you pay, value is what you get. That's right. I think that one's also attributed by to Buffett, but it might be Howard Marks, but uh but it's uh definitely an interesting way to take advantage of those opportunities. Now, when you were starting uh for this real estate development, these were residential properties, I'm guessing, correct? All residential, that's right. Gotcha. And when you looked at that, what were some of the key features that you saw, aside from the great opportunity for value and price, that you saw made these properties worthwhile as a venture to go into it?

SPEAKER_03

That's a good question. So everything happens in a cycle. Yep. And we saw, or I saw, an opportunity at that time where I don't know that we were ever going to see prices. I don't think we ever will. See, and at that time, I was thinking to myself, but I didn't think I'd ever see real estate prices as low as they were during those few years. Right.

SPEAKER_04

And at least at the moment, that has that has been true, correct? That's right. Up today. Up to the day.

SPEAKER_03

That's exactly right. You know, we have so many checks and balances now that I still don't think we could end up where we were at that point. Right. But but I'm you know, I'm also an optimist. So I would say that we working during that time and seeing real estate at the prices which you could buy a house. I remember being in the city of Richmond on a street that is a great street. Uh at the time it was it was a good street. Uh it's a great street now. Uh and standing in front of a house that the bank was willing to let go for like $32,000, right? That was occupied. Wow. With a tenant. Um we saw a true opportunity there and we we we took advantage of it, right? And that was I I didn't necessarily, these properties weren't something I was gonna, you know, in today's world, I wasn't posting these as properties that I own on social media, right? It wasn't right, right, I wasn't proud of well, social media wasn't even that big of a thing at that time, right? I guess it wasn't even a thing, but it wasn't anything that it wasn't this amazing glamorous portfolio of real estate, right? Right. Um, it was truly uh I mean they were rough houses on in great locations, and there was an it was a an abundance of them at that time. And we uh we we I took advantage of that. We purchased um several properties over those couple years, and really at that time I didn't know what I was gonna do with them. We had they were occupied, they were tenant occupied, we kept the tenants in there, low rents, but I mean you don't need to rent it for so much when you've got $17,000 invested in right. Yep. Um, and we really just were gonna just ride it out, and we did for a long time. And then 2018, um, 1920. This is if I, you know, I knew what was coming, right? I I sold most of the real estate prior to um COVID. Yes. Which, you know, I definitely knowing, you know, I'd for sure left money on the table, right?

SPEAKER_04

Have you gone back and looked at them?

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I don't even I looked at one, okay, and then I stopped. I didn't want to look at the name.

SPEAKER_04

I've heard that experience from you know, working with as an architect working with clients, and you know, they were building houses on spec and and sold, and then it's amazing how and then and even it was after COVID, like one client sold it, and then a few months later the next person, and it was almost double. And I mean that's Palm Beach real estate for you, but still the the tails are all over the United States, especially for that.

SPEAKER_03

They're all over. And Richmond's such a stable market. I mean, really and truly, during that time, unless it was something in a um more uh depressed part of town, right? Or a community that was uh like a planned community with multiple national builders, right, that had 20 specs up at that time, right? And they kind of got caught with a ton of inventory or a ton of lots, right? Um you know, we didn't see in Richmond, it's interesting because there were it's a very stable market. That market is very it we saw more of a plateau, right? Uh it's a there's way more demand and there has been for uh for for as long as I can remember in in a lot of the neighborhoods than there is supply, right? So it didn't, even though you know you weren't seeing these huge appreciations, right? I remember like in 2013 and 14 making offers on properties that had multiple offers on them already. Right. Um so it's an interesting, it you know, Richmond is a great real estate market. Um, it really is. And I I think that even in the worst of the real estate environment, right, it was more of a plateau than a decline, except for your planned communities a little further outside of town, where you had again, you had all these mass production builders that had had taken down, you know, 100 lots or 100 homes subdivision. Sure him had built 10 specs.

SPEAKER_04

Well, it's pretty impressive. So when uh you went and decided that it was going to be that you were gonna be an independent agent, this was around 2016, 2017, right? What inspired you to be able to decide it was time for you to take the reins?

SPEAKER_03

So it's so I wanted to create a team that I never that were if I if I had the opportunity to join that team, I would have never left. Right. We focused, I remember uh, I remember this so clear. I was driving to the Richmond airport, and we were it was a had been kind of a snowy morning, believe it or not. But it wasn't like planes were still taking off, but it was a snowy morning, and I remember I called the marketing, I had had made a call into a marketing company, and they called me back on the way to the airport, and I was tall, his name was Aaron. I was talking to Aaron, I'm like, Aaron, I'm creating, um you know, I'm branching out, I'm creating my own team. That's important to know that like for a year I was operating, so I left the team that I had joined when I got into real estate. Yep. And I was operating as just an independent agent with my name. Gotcha. And I had an assistant. Um, and Corey, who is with was with me then, is still with me today. Um, and so when I had decided I was going to create a team, I didn't want to create a team using my own name because I wanted to hire and seek the best talent that was in the industry in Richmond that could get behind one unified team that everyone could own. Right. Yeah. You could create you could have ownership in it and no one even know what my name was, right? And your clients would know you and they would know the team you're with, right? I always think about, you know, if I if I were giving out bumper stickers, right, to my agents to put on their car, or to an another, or or if I had an agent on my team that was handing out a uh a bag with our name on it, right? Is that agent gonna want to hand out a bag with my name on it or their name on it, right? Yeah. So I'm in this, I'm in the car, we're driving to the airport, it's snowing, and Aaron calls me back, and I said, Aaron, I need a name. I'd like to have it by the end of the week. And I'm visualizing maybe like a lab holding keys in its mouth, and um, but I really it's really important that I get it right now. He's laughed. He's laughing at me on the phone. I'm like, well, he's like, I don't think it can happen that fast. I'm like, well, I've got and we've got a lot going on. I had just hired a buyer's agent. I wanted to get things in motion. So a year and a half later, oh boy, we were able to land on, we rolled out the heirloom group um with the logo, the branding. And the craziest thing is is that the marketing team had pitched the name Heirloom to me as one of the first names ever. And I was like, no way. Ah, no one can say it. Right. Yeah, yeah. Much less spell it. Right. One of those tricky words. That's right. That's exactly right. So we ended up, we so we launched the heirloom group, um, and to uh quickly grew it, um, we we were able to do what we thought we could do um by having a brand and a name like that where we operated as a um as our own group inside a brokerage, but we had our own, we had an AEL, which is an agent enterprise location. So we fought we were under a brokerage, but we ran our own office. Um and the team we we ran a really great, we had a great team of really, I think um at the peak we were 16 agents, a great agents with some this couple of the agents on our team 30 plus years experience, right? Um and that's what we were trying to attract. It was a lot easier to go and and um and create the value in the heirloom group a lot easier to an agent that'd been the business 20 years than it would be for them to try to get behind my name, right? And all of a sudden they kind of become in the shadow. And that's what I didn't want. I wanted to create a team that that I wanted to be a part of, right? Where it was just we would truly operate it as a team.

SPEAKER_04

Well, that sounds interesting, David. So when you were developing your team and you've had this entrepreneurial background from your commercial landscaping business, what were some of the other businesses that you've run, ran, and what did you take away from that to be able to implement into running your own uh real estate real estate agents team?

SPEAKER_03

So that's that uh yeah. So Daniel, I would find opportunities in businesses that I felt would align with what I was doing. Right. For example, we started um doing um historic renovations and restorations. We uh started and we did which we have that company today, still today. Um we I I realized uh that there was a huge need. So we I had an agent on my team who was a senior specialist, right? And we had uh we that service was uh way uh bigger than just listing uh and helping that particular client transition, right? Because they could be transitioning to a single story home that's half the size of what we're getting ready to sell, or they could be transitioning into an active adult community um that has progressive care as needed. So we we really um dived deep into that and became a huge part of the community in helping uh seniors transition. Right. It was a piece of our it was a piece of our team, and with that, we were constantly needing um dumpsters or uh junk clean out. And it was I was looking at what how much was being spent and the um the process. So a lot of our clients, their homes are, you know, they they really just need a dumpster, or they needed a dumpster just big enough to clean out an attic, right? Or they needed a dumpster just big enough to go through the garage. And we were just I was seeing them, I you know, I was aware of what was going on, right? And these the the you know, sometimes I'd see these 30-yard roll-off dumpsters in their stand concrete driveway, right? Um, for a month. And I I'm like, you know, there's gotta be a better way. Yeah. So we started doing some research, and there was a company that was in Richmond that was for sale at the time, um, called Dumpster Wagon. It's still a company. Um, and they did uh like dump trailers, six-yard, fourteen-yard dump trailers. Okay. And it was for sale. I saw an opportunity there. I felt like it would be a great service to be able to offer our clients, plus, we would be able to use it for the projects we were doing. And we bought it, bought the company, it worked out great. We had 21 um dumpsters and two trucks and three full-time employees um that ran that business. So that was an opportunity. I just sold it. We just sold it um like a month ago. I just sold it. Congrats. Thank you very much. It was a great company, and it it did, we took it from being a kind of a sideline. Uh the company that originally started it started it as a sideline, like something to do actually during COVID. They were in the big, they were huge um wrecker and towing company in Richmond. And they started this during COVID as a just a another faucet for revenue, right? Yeah. And it was always like just the kind of like the it was just a back burner. And we bought it and we got the revenue, we tripled the revenue in two years. It became a huge service to our clients. Our clients loved it. It was a huge service to our construction and development company. Um, but it was a business that I needed to be there for, and being, and I wasn't gonna bring it to South Florida. Sure. So we put it out for sale, we sold it. It was awesome. Yes. Big win. So it was great.

SPEAKER_04

So it looks like one of the things that you f found to be useful as you're have your different companies, and then you went on to do the real estate is trying to find uh synergies, right? Where you can take existing benefits, existing talent, and then merging it with your own to be able to find a way to. Unlock greater potential and profitability, right? A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03

Awesome. And it's, you know, and it's service, right? Yeah. I didn't want to have to wait. If I had a client that was ready to go, I could pick the phone up from their living room and have a dumpster in their driveway by that afternoon because it was our company. Yeah. Right. So if there was an opportunity there to be better and to offer a better service than what's out there, what your other what the options are. Because when we purchased a dumpster wagon, it was really geared towards contractors and like roofers and flooring contract, anyone that needed a dumpster for a short period of time. And we really brought a whole nother residential service to the table with it. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04

Very cool. What do you think, or how do you know when's the right time to sell a business?

SPEAKER_03

I've definitely I have, you know, that's a great success story that I just shared with you. Yes. Um, I have sold a business at the wrong time, too, right? Um you know, for me, I feel like this is it's an intuition, right? Um, I just Douglas Elman just acquired my team in Richmond. I think I mentioned that. Yeah. And for for that scenario, right, I felt like that the team had reached a place with my leadership that if I'm not gonna be there full time and I'm not there, that it had reached a plateau, right? And I wanted to see the team go to the next level. And they needed a local presence, a local leadership. So that I felt that that was the opportunity to sell the team at that point, um, and allow Douglas Ellen to come in and bring in their leadership, bring in their local presence. They weren't, well, local like DC. They weren't, they didn't have a Richmond presence. We were, we became their Richmond office. But local leadership and um and take the team to the next level. Same thing with um the the dumpster business, the dumpster wagon. We it was an opportunity where now, you know, it was we had created the revenue, we were generating income, and it was time to sell it. We'd done what we needed to do. So for me, it's more of intuition. And did it do what I needed it to do? And does it make sense at this time for me to you know move on to the next thing? Yes, free up my resources, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_04

Gets you the opportunity to find another, even more profitable opportunity adventure, which is great.

SPEAKER_03

And I am we're I'm looking at something right now, and my wife is like, we're in we're in such a good space right now. You've got you've some time back. She's like, Why are you doing this? I'm like, I can't stop.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I complicate your life.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_04

That's what the eternal question, David. Right. We have to ask ourselves all it is. So when you decided to come down to Florida now switching gears, uh, what was the idea behind that? What intrigued you about coming to sunny South Florida?

SPEAKER_03

Well, you know, it is sunny. Yeah, it is the um I will tell you uh my wife and I were my wife loves New York, and we were walking through Central Park three years ago. Mm-hmm. And we're discussing goals. Both of us joting down goals, talking about personal goals, talking about um, you know, the goals that we want for our family and our future. And one of the one of our goals was to be in a position to where we can take what we've done in Richmond, Virginia, and bring it to South Florida. And it was a that's a pretty broad goal, right? There's not a lot, it wasn't a lot of it wasn't a lot of detail ironed into that, right? Sure. Um but we that was a goal. And then that, so that was that um that was a that was a year before my mom passed away. So my mom passed away two and a half years ago. And it was, it feels like it still was yesterday, but that April, my mom passed away in January. That April, I was driving home from the office and Sydney, my wife, called me and said, I think it's time to go ahead and pull the trick. We need to, we let's do, let's move to Florida now. And she's seven months pregnant. Oh, so I didn't know if maybe I needed to, we needed to sit down and talk about this. Yeah. Seven months pregnant. Yeah, you never know. You never know. This is a real thing. And I said, Are you serious? She said, Yes, I'm serious. So we were already planning at the time our boat was in um Alamorada, and we'd already planned a trip to Alamorada for the oh for over the 4th of July weekend. And we were coming down anyway. So we just extended our stay, and we said, We'll drive up from uh the Keys after um the holiday weekend, and we will explore a little bit of Broward, but then we came into Palm Beach and we started to explore Boca, Delray, West Palm, Palm Beach, um, all the way off into Jupiter and to Cuesta, learning the area, right? And I'd already known the area, so I was working with investors already. I mean, this wasn't it wasn't it was a it was a very impulsive decision to start the thought process of moving at that time, yeah. But it wasn't impulsive to like where in Florida, right? I was I had already started to build, I'd for several years been building a book of business in Palm Beach County, working with investors from outside the area. So I was already familiar with the real estate. But the idea of moving here and my team in Richmond and trying to figure out how that was gonna work was not uh that had not started to process until that trip. So we're driving up, exploring all the areas. We stayed here for a couple days, and I remember the first thing we'd have to do is find where we're gonna live, right? I remember driving on my on our way to look at the first house, and I canceled the showing on the west that said we're not doing it. Like, we got let's just let's go back, sit by the pool, yeah, enjoy a few days in Palm Beach, we're heading back. Well, as I'm canceling, I see the agent's car in front of the house. So I'm like, I can't do it. So I I canceled it. I called her right back and I said, Kelly, are you there? Are you at the house? And she said, Yes. I said, never mind, we're coming. Well, that ended up being the house. Well, there you go. Eight houses over a couple days, that ended up being the house. But it was that close to not happening. I remember praying to my mom saying that this is supposed to be happening. I need no, there can't even be like a minor pothole in the road, right? Yeah, for me to know that this is the right thing to do. And it wasn't. Literally, we um locked that house down, came back, drove back up, uh, flew back. I was thinking maybe we had our car here. We flew back to Richmond, yep, listed our house in Richmond, sold it that weekend to the neighbor, and they needed to be in in like three weeks. So we were we made a decision by at the July 4th weekend, and by August 1st, we were full-time Florida residents. Everything fell into place. Fell into place, yes. That's when you know it was right, right?

SPEAKER_04

Absolutely. That's great. And in your time here in Florida, and now that this has been your main area of focus, what do you find as differences between your clientele here versus Richmond and what might be some similarities as well?

SPEAKER_03

That's a great question. It is, it is very I don't think it's very different. It's um it's completely different. The level um uh I mean you're just dealing with a whole different uh it's just a different, it's a whole different culture. It's a very, you know, with with South Florida where we are, Daniel, you know, it's like there's a lot of um personality from all over the country here, right? I don't, you know, there's a lot, you just there's a lot going on. There's a lot of people from everywhere, and um which for me is exciting. Like I love that. I love working with people with all kinds of backgrounds. You know what is so interesting here, and not to get off subject, is it drives me every day to work as hard as I can because you're around so many amazing talented people. And there are such great talented people in Richmond, too. I'm not saying anything to just sound negative about that, but the level at which this there's so many people here that have done so many different things in their life to get where they are, you know, you never know what someone might have done to create the success this and have the successes that they'd had, right? And to me, that's just so uh what is the word I'm looking for? It just it drives me every day to be the best I can be and to work hard and know that it's achievable because you're around people every day that are doing it, right? So, not to get off subject, I would just say that it's different in the fact that this market, it's the you know, everything from the contract is different, it's the process is so much different from you know, I I will say one thing, dealing with HOAs here is a whole nother like you should there should be a you should be able to get your real estate license and then you should have another license to be able to deal with an hoa, right? Yeah, because there's so they have so much control here. And that's a that was a big learning curve. That whole process, right? Where you you know, there's just a big is a it's a big part of the transaction is dealing with if you're in an hoa community dealing with the HOA. Not that they're I mean I'm all for an HOA. I like rules and you know and and understand why they exist, but that's been a big yeah, of course. Well, that's great. And in the average, in the price point, you know, you're dealing with huge numbers every day.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Well, part of that is having such an interesting population is part of the reason for the podcast as well. And we get to have people who are great as you and you have the this interesting background. Now, you also have had the opportunity in in specializing in commercial land and development transactions, and now you're also doing these other investments here yourself. I know that you recently uh got approval for some work on a historic property in West Palm Beach. So what is that process looking like for you and what are some key takeaways that you have from the process?

SPEAKER_03

Ah, I tell you, the historical process um is very um it's a process.

SPEAKER_04

Time intensive.

SPEAKER_03

Oh. Time intensive is and um ex the the ex the how extensive it is is just it it's it's a whole thing. I can't it takes I only have words for it, right? I'm sitting here trying to figure out the little words to say. Uh but at the same time, we've such an appreciation for it. And you know, I just sat through my first historic preservation um review meeting, right? And I would I learned just so much from being in there. And what a great, I mean, it's incredible group of people that are on the board. I have a surp super amount of respect for them and what they're dealing with. And the the projects that and what's happening all around is just unbelievable, right? Yeah, seeing and hearing about these different projects. Um, it was a great, it was a it's it was a very long process. We had the we really we lost, you know, one of the things that, you know, in Richmond we could have had the same project done in three or four months, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I think that's one thing that a lot of people are very surprised and don't understand coming into here to South Florida and specifically Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. I've heard also Coral Gables is extremely uh stringent on their requirements, but yes, the the permitting process definitely takes a lot of time for better or for worse here. It does. It did.

SPEAKER_03

We purchased this property in August of last year. Oh wow. And we just received our uh approval last week. So we're off to the races now for permits. It you know, I think that it's a um it'll it's gonna be an amazing project. We are beyond excited for it. We bring a whole different what's so exciting for me is is I haven't seen anyone else doing exactly what we're doing. There's plenty of people that are plenty of great developers and great builders that are you know doing from the knocking, you know, non-historic homes down and doing new construction from the ground up. Right. There's great guys that are doing these great renovations, um, but to truly go in and preserve and and uh bring the historical elements into the new, we're not seeing. We haven't seen, I have not, I'm sure it's there, but we haven't seen it, right? And we're very, very excited for that. Uh I mean, I'll say this, I've seen it at you know, much higher price points, right? Yep. But in our price point, to be able to deliver that type of product and create that product, we're super excited about so much character, and we believe in preserving. I mean, again, this is our niche. We we like it, we love what we're doing, and that we've got a great project that's getting ready to come to market.

SPEAKER_04

That's awesome. And at that same time, uh your uh your charter fishing company that we had mentioned at the beginning, is that something that had stayed into focus in Virginia or is something here in Florida as well?

SPEAKER_03

No, so we have sadly had to leave that behind. Um it was a that I gosh, that's a passion. Yeah I love if I could be on the water, um, that would be where that is one thing that is where I want to be all the time. Um there's just something about it, just staring at it, right? Being on the water, I love it. It is definitely an outlet, but no, sadly, that was you know what's crazy is um we had our we had uh our boat in Ala Marada. Yep, and that was our last spot where we were kind of that was gonna be the the new um we felt there was an opportunity there, right? Yep, of course. And when we took when we decided to move, so we are the only people that I know of that moved to South Florida and sell their boat. Okay. So we did, and um, that was kind of the end. I you know, there's a part of me we had really had fun with that. That was more of a hobby than it was um a business, but uh, it was so much fun, and you know, I hope that I I hope that my son, he's 16, he's got a passion for fishing, and I, you know, I could see him getting doing something with that in the future again.

SPEAKER_02

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03

So well, it's a perfect place for it here, right? It is a hundred percent. And I've got great friends, I've got several captains that you know we're that we stay in touch with, and we've got some great friends here, some great people. It's a great industry.

SPEAKER_04

And in it going back to the real estate here in in in Palm Beach, any trends that you have seen, how do you feel that the market is right now, including with so much of the geopolitical uncertainties that are going on? What to what what do you find people are telling you for now with the with the market or what you see?

SPEAKER_03

You know, you find yourself you can't listen to everything you hear, you know, because just like we talked about at the beginning, when I got into real estate, Daniel, I was doing four to five short sales a month. It was a niche, right? I found an opportunity with that when I was working with buyers and sellers. We were doing short sales, we could do them in our sleep. And there was an opportunity there. So when people in any in any real estate environment, I think that there's always uh business to be made, right, and to be had. So I you know, you've just got to be careful what you listen to. I think that the real estate market is very, I think I'd like to use the word vulnerable. Yeah, right. I feel like uh I'll tell you, I'll speak, you know, I see prices holding, right? We're not seeing any prices. I mean, I I actually have seen in several cases prices continue to go up. Yep. Um, and I think it just goes back to location. And that's you know, but which it always has. It's always been about location. We're continuing to invest and do projects. So I I, you know, I feel great about it. I think that there's so many amazing things happening right here in town that you know, business is coming here. We've got my sister is the CNO at the new um Alan Miller hospital that just had the ribbon cutting two weeks ago or last week. Nice. And just the amount of jobs that that hospital, I mean, there's just so much going on, right? Right. Um, it's really a it's it's a lot going on. It's just a lot of opportunity. Very cool.

SPEAKER_04

Well, we'll see how it continues to develop, right? That's right. It will, as you say, as you mentioned, everything goes in goes in cycles. That's right. It's interesting because as um I was reading this article the other day that in the first quarter of 2026, that we have the highest level of foreclosures in the United States since uh around COVID time, February 2020, is what they came out. And um, you know, it's it's interesting, and we'll see where it goes. But um, you know, one of the things that the article was mentioning is of course there's the AI boom and how that affects people and their jobs and everything. Although um uh I guess uh real estate agents are somewhat uh secluded from that at the moment, right?

SPEAKER_03

At the moment, you know, that's a that's a thing though, um Daniel. Like who uh you know, I just heard we just had a I have a um great client who was with the Martin agency in Richmond, a big marketing company, and he's been with them forever. And you know, they did three layoffs over the last six months because of AI, right? So it is a thing. I mean, it's definitely I don't know how it uh where does it go and how does it, you know, I don't know that I I'm smart enough to discuss that, but I'll say that you know it's definitely uh it's a definitely a thing. It's happening. So there's a lot of information that's available to whoever now, right?

SPEAKER_04

Yes. It all depends on how you use it and uh take advantage of it in what format, right?

SPEAKER_03

In that article, did they mention where they were because we I feel like we haven't yeah, I stay in top I stay right on top of that, and I feel like we haven't seen that well, it's like you say, it's all about location, right?

SPEAKER_04

I in the article it didn't specify, I believe, any certain locations of the United States. It was just uh a thing of the United States in general. There, for example, there was another article that I read a few weeks back saying how uh specifically commercial office properties there were, it was, it's um, what's the word? It's it's uh it's it's tangential. It's you know, it's it's one in one in however many thousands, but there were properties that were selling for ninety percent off of what they had recently sold up not too long ago. They were probably valued at billions and sold for pennies on the dollars at millions, and of course, that is. All attributed to location. You've got an aging building, no tenants, no anything. Um compare that to uh New York or Miami, that probably doesn't hold because they have still maintained price and everything, but it all depends on, I think, a mixture of of population growth as well, which is just something with demographics, but it's uh it's interesting. All right, David. So here's a question that I asked everybody on the show. What has been your best investment personally and professionally?

SPEAKER_03

I like that. That's a good question. So I'd say it just right off the cuff, the first thing that comes to my mind is uh personally, I would say, you know, my best investment has been in the time and energy that I've spent in my family. Right. And, you know, there was a period of time where I would say, just to be completely candid, that I didn't that, you know, um, I felt like there was so much other things going on that I wouldn't that you know, I allowed myself to get distracted from that there di through my you know different times of my life. Sure. And our responsibility, different commitments. A hundred percent. And I think that Daniel, as I really dug in and had a an epiphany, I guess you would say, and realized that, you know, what what is really important in this, you know, this life, and that is family, right? And so my investment in my family has personally been my best personal investment, right? And then I I'd like to talk about this because I'd like to mention this anytime I'm coaching my team or talking, I always share this story. In fact, when you first asked that question, this big real estate transaction popped into my head, and then I and then sitting here talking, I realized that you know what, that's probably not the biggest um investment that that I'd made professionally. There's another uh there's another opportunity that I'd like to share at and it's like one that I share all the time. It's I we had a I had a client, I was on my way to Charlottesville in Virginia to a uh brewery to meet some friends, and they'd all been they were all excited, this has been planned for six months, right? And I got a phone call from a guy that wanted to see a $17,000 lot, and um it was like an hour and a half away from where I was going, and I stopped right there, and I I agreed, I said no problem, and that seventeen thousand dollar lot that I showed turned into over, I think at this point to date, eighty nine million in real estate transactions. Wow, with that client one client. Amazing. So it, you know, I share that story with my team all the time because I, you know, it it's not about the, you know, it's not about the the instant gratification, right? It's the long-term play. You take care of people and you treat them the right way and you do what's right with your business, and it all comes back. Yeah. 89, and and we've got another deal on the table right now, which would which would put it over 90 million dollars from one client that wanted to see a $17,000 lot.

SPEAKER_04

You never know what happens when you're gonna say yes.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, hey, I would do this over and over again. This is the greatest podcast out there. Did you still get a go to the brewery with your friends? I do. You blew them off. I blew them off.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_03

Blew them off, and they still love it.

SPEAKER_04

But then you ought to money, but you you must have bought it, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_03

Definitely, I definitely owed them a few drinks and some lunch because it had been planned forever. But you know what? It was uh that I I when you first asked that question, I was gonna tell a different story, and then I thought, that's really $17 uh $17,000 lots turned into you know $90 million worth of real estate value. So very cool.

SPEAKER_04

All right. I've asked you a lot of questions, David, but now you get to ask yourself. Oh, do you know how that's gonna work?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that's interesting. How does that work?

SPEAKER_04

You probably already know because you did listen to it to me so far.

SPEAKER_02

I did. I saw I got a little bit of a sneak peek here, yes.

SPEAKER_04

We get a cat a question from the fish fly.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah, let's see here. I hope I get a good one. By the way, these chairs are really comfortable. I'm glad you like them. There we go. All right, please read your question. Please read your question into the microphone. All right. What do you think is the most underrated invention? Oh, interesting. There we go. Wow. That's a good question. I have to think about that for a second. You know.

SPEAKER_03

You know something we don't talk about very often? Vacuum cleaners. There you go. Interesting. You know? That is that's the first thing that comes to mind. Were you expecting me to say that?

SPEAKER_04

Um no. I'm not a vandalist, but uh, but I was interested to see what do you what do you think. Um do you really hear much about a vacuum, like where the vacuum cleaner came from? Like, not a lot, not a lot. Although I will say that there was, for example, that uh re-emergence with the Dyson and how you know he as an inventor, like he went so in to develop the the new form of the vacuum cleaner. And really, you don't, you know, you've got your traditional vacuums from before Oric and all that stuff. And then you got Dyson, and you haven't really seen a new invention to that afterwards, but you know, he just put so much time and effort into figuring out how to make a better vacuum cleaner, and it's like super expensive, and he was able to then develop that into air dryers and other things that are of this with the air, but that's actually such a good point.

SPEAKER_03

My wife uses that Dyson hairdryer, right? Yeah, and um she said it's the best hairdryer she's ever had. What what a great I mean, he's certainly uh been you know a leader in the um in that whole platform, but you don't really think you know, you think about how much we depend on. I see one every day, I see it. I think in real estate, right? We use a vacuum plant, we're always looking for the vacuum plant. Yeah, um, but uh you walk by them every day and you just don't I appreciate you know, thank goodness for the person that wanted to you know take it to the next level from the broom. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

I guess I'll I I'll have to ask um home vacs like that are the tubes and all that. Your opinion, what's your opinion on those?

SPEAKER_03

I I you know, when I see one, it makes me think 1990s. Yes. And if it and if a home had one, if I'm showing a property, as soon as I see one, I'm thinking, I don't even have to know what age the house is. Yep. If I see a central back, I know it was built in like the late 1990s, maybe even 95, 90, you know, 90s, mid-90s, or like early 2000s. And it usually it would mean that this was a higher end home, right? Yeah, um, to have that. Same with the intercom system, right? If you see the central back, normally you see the intercom system too. And if you get real fancy, you see the wall unit in the kitchen where you could put the CD in, right? And it would play music too. Yes. But um, going back to the central back, you know, I I've owned a home with a central back, and we never used it. The hose is cumbersome, yep. And you just don't have the power, right? I never felt like it was really doing its job. Right. And I think most people feel that way too. I don't really ever see anyone say, I've got to have a no one's building. I mean, you're an architect. Do you see are you putting central back in any of these homes?

SPEAKER_04

I against my will. There's one person who has who are a few people who over the years have asperred, but I I do not like them. I kind of despise them with a passion, to be honest. Me too. So they are terrible. That pose is awful, right? Yes. So please, no central vaccine.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, no more.

SPEAKER_04

Now, just about time to wrap it up, but let me ask, do you have a suggestion for a future guest on the real estate and investment show?

SPEAKER_03

You know who would be great? Um, Ramona Bryan. She is such an interesting person. Um I just I just sold her property in West Palm. She's gonna she bought a beautiful condo on uh North Flagler. And um, she's an incredible person. She's great. She's moving here from um central Florida, but she's lived in Miami forever. And um has lived all over the really. I mean, she's just so great. She's a she is um involved in several not she's got a nonprofit. Um just a great person. She's definitely talk to her. I'll make the connection. I appreciate it. What what's your nonprofit about? So uh it's all related to food and what we put in our body and um how important it is to really be aware of uh the the you know what we um what we're taking in and the and our and the food that we are in you know eating and buying and making sure that you know we understand what really is in it and the and the benefits that just changing your diet really have. I'm clearly I need to be probably talking to her more. Um not at all. Everybody's great. Yes, but she is uh she's great person, really great. I've gotten I've got I've had a really good time um getting to know more about her and her her past and her business.

SPEAKER_04

Just a great person. Very nice, always interesting to bring the investment into one's health and looked at into lists. You had also been mentioned to me before of uh someone else you were talking to over at the Nora.

SPEAKER_03

What uh was oh yeah, that is uh so Francis is a great guy. So Francis' story, and forgive me, Francis, if I get something mixed up. Um, but he originally was hired when um the Roll Point Center was being all redone. Yeah. Um and he leased out and was a huge piece of that uh puzzle, getting all of uh that what you see today there and leased with great tenants, brought a lot of them, uh a lot of that retail in. Yeah. And then when Nora with Nora now, which is a great, what a great project. What a great, great pro have you been over to Nora?

SPEAKER_04

I I've I've toured it not very in depth, but yes, I've I've seen it and I've kept up with some of the stuff.

SPEAKER_03

It's a great project. So much, what a I mean, it is it is definitely gonna transform. And you I mean, if you're on the island, you go over the North Bridge, you're there, you know? And um, I think that's their thought too. It's right there. But I was in the um Francis is a great guy, so he's there. He did the Roll Point Sienna, he's now leasing out Nora. He's an interesting, really interesting person that I I really have a lot of respect for. Yeah um but I will tell you a funny story that I was sitting, I recently moved here. Yeah, he was one of the first people that I really I was trying to learn as much as I could about all the new development, right? Gotcha. And we're uh sitting in his uh gallery where they where everything's being done for Nora, and he's asking me some questions about my past, and he looks over me and he says, Why did you move here? I literally thought I was gonna start crying. And uh he's like, Why did you move here? And I explained to him, he's like, that sounds like career sabotage. He's like, You had everything going for you in Richmond and you wanted to redo it. He's like, You'd gone through all the pain of building your name and your business, and then you just walked away from it and wanted to do it again. And um, you know, at first, like I said, I thought I was gonna crawl into a hole when I was hearing that and walking away after it had settled in. I'm like, yes, I am. I I enjoy the process, I enjoy the journey, right? And um, and we're having fun. We're having fun, Daniel. It is we're meeting some of the greatest people. We are like Francis, what a great guy. I learned so much from him, right? Um, we've got some amazing friends, and it's just been fun. Right. It's been fun. The journey, there's pain, right? There's definitely pain. And I'm working harder right now than I think I've ever worked in my whole life. But um, you know, it's all for the good. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

And it just goes to show how much of a determined and passionate person you are with your uh career and your businesses. And uh we know that you are a very busy man, so we thank you so much for being taking the time. And uh, we're gonna give you the time for the shameless plug. What is something you're working on right now, David, uh, that everybody ought to know, and where can they find slash follow you?

SPEAKER_03

So we are working um right now, we've got a cup, we've got our project going on in um Prospect Park just north of Southern, um, just south of El Cid. We are um we've got another project that we're getting ready to start in Soso. And please check us out at David Sells Luxury on our Instagram. I'm just getting into the whole social media world from from moving here and really trying to get people to know who we are. Um, so we're always looking for followers. Yeah, and our marketing team tells me that we don't have to, you know, the followers are great, but the views are even better. So check out our stuff. But uh, we'd love to meet and talk with anyone looking to buy or sell or just connect. Um, so thank you, Daniel. This has been amazing. I can't even begin to thank you for you know creating this. What a great. I've watched all your episodes. I'm a huge fan and of your work, you just and also just like your work that you do. Um, you're super talented, and I again this is an honor. So thank you for you know allowing me to sit here today.

SPEAKER_04

I appreciate it, David. Thank you so much. I want to thank you so much for your time. We're gonna give you another big round of applause. Thank you for sharing your journey, your experience, and being such a wonderful guest, David. Thanks, Daniel. Thank you. Absolutely. And thank you so much for being here with us. Join me again next time with another amazing interview on the Real Estate and Investment Show with Daniel Covijo. I'm Daniel Covijo. Till then, stay awesome, everyone, and God bless America.