Darius Ross talks Real Estate on Expert Talk

Expert Talk is sponsored by PodNation TV, the Podcast to Broadcast Network. Hey everybody, welcome to the show. You know, where you are Expert Talk with me TGo, and today we're going to fix something. You know, we had some technical issues the internet was going in and out. We were kind of going what? And I think it's cause he's a fan of the wrong sport team,

but I'm not going to get into that. I gave him enough hard time before, as you can see, Darius is here, Mr. Darius, Ross, what's happening. Welcome back to the show. I'm doing excellent. How are you doing? I am having a blast. You know, I got quite a few phone calls or I should say messages saying,

wait a minute, he's talking about, you know, urban and Real Estate and, and he's answering questions. You got to get them back because our internet just kept going in and out that day. And I was told by a good friend of ours, the Yay lady, Jennifer Hammond, that she's in DC. And she said it was because of the storms that were happening in Florida,

that it wiped out internet all over the east coast. And it never dawned on me that you could have problems in New York from a storm that was going on, you know, way down the coast like that. So Transmitters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm super happy that you could come back and I want to jump right back in, but before we do,

let's refresh their memory a little bit about what you do and where you are. If you haven't figured out, you know, by the picture behind them, the man is in New York, even though he was born in Chicago. I think that should be a Chicago skyline, but I just make in New York now, what, what got you into the field of real estate in the first place I got in well in the real estate from a little kid,

about six years old. And that was based upon my, I used to take the boxes and build a Sears tower because we lived on the west side of Chicago and there's few more kids. So I can look out the window and see the Sears tower. So every single day I'd build the towers and every single night my mom would tear him down. So it was like on and on,

on Friday, the new, I want to be an architect or where I was going to be some kind of junk guy. Cause it was like, I love the Sears tower. So that was my fascination with it. So from that point forward, it was like Real Estate became automatic thing. I was always around some buildings doing interior design or outside doing something about the property.

So that's what it became. Okay. Let's see. Now you went there and I'm sure there's a young person sitting at home going, I did that or they're doing it now where they're building like, you know, Sears tower or, or John Hancock building or something all the time. And you're thinking the same thing. So if they're a young person or maybe someone is looking to change their career and if they could,

maybe I want to get into real estate, how would you advise them to get started? First a business, especially for parents, is that the advice goes to parents. Understand if you got a kid that's spending a lot of time in the imaginary world. Cause that was a big thing for me. It was like, I was the only kid. So I had no other choice,

but to be imaginative. So I had my GI Joe's and my Action Jacksons and the Barbie dolls and the Ken doll. And I'm like, Hey, we were hooking them up. Barbie and Ken sitting there, 10 feet up feet kicked down there and join it. So the thing that I say to parents is give your kid plenty of things to work with.

If it's boxes, if it's crates, if it's Popsicle sticks, I have the Popsicle sticks at the tower and tennis. So you've gotta be as creative as possible. But for the young person, I tell them, keep your imagination going, learn as much as you can from my Dad used to come in and throw the Forbes and fortune on the ground.

And I had to learn about who the CEOs were. and master it, give them architectural books, give them books about building, give them books. Even if you think they're not advanced enough, you'd be surprised how advanced these kids are and then take them out of construction sites. Let them experience it. You know, for the kid that now gets to be high school,

go to a vo-tech school. There's tons of money in vo-tech and vocational studies. But the bottom line of it is everybody wants to say to go to college. No, no, no. There's some people are making three or $400,000. If not millions of dollars a year at a crane, that guy that's in the tower that crane that's spinning that building around.

He's making half a million and has probably less than a year's worth of education. Wow, let's see, you're talking my language because my dad worked for the U S steel mill for 37 years. He started literally bending steel by hand, had burn marks all up his arm, but ended up running, you know, the biggest cranes in the world. And he just worked his way up there.

And you know, he retired in 87. So he was still making a decent living for a sharecropper son. He was making a decent living, but it's nothing like what they're making now. And he's talking about that before his passing it's like, he just missed the window. He would say, I just missed the window by this much. But yeah,

you really can make a lot of money, you know, working a Tech, you know, whether you're a programmer or construction or architecture or, you know, there's so many things production, you know, there's so many things out there that you can do. Whether you go to college or you learn on job training or you go to some kind of tech,

you are absolutely correct. So when somebody says, well, you know, my Mom is a waitress and my Dad he's worked odd jobs, his whole life. You know, I don't come from those backgrounds. I don't have people that are working their own business or in real estate or whatever. I don't think it's for me because I don't have anybody in my support group.

What would you tell them? And tell them right off the bat, my Dad worked as the machine operator worked his way up. Like you said about your Father to being the Plant manager and the Superintendent of a Plant facility. It was making paper at the time. It's now James Romans, but that's what he did. And my mom worked in the cafeteria.

But at the end of the day, the issue of the hour was, is it don't think that just because you come from terrible backgrounds, as we want to call it or less than, or because you were struggling, the bottom line of it is your determination. You know, there's always somebody out there that will open the door for you. And you know,

I have a list of peoples from the Nuns to, you know, there was Sister Alvera, there was Mike Pfleger, the Pastor of the church. It was always somebody that was there. And it was like, listen, you got some insight it's on, but you've got to seek out those people and not be afraid to turn around and show your talent.

And that talent be shown in a gang. You can't do that. Yeah. I totally agree. I totally agree. Okay. Darius I'm with you. I understand what you're saying. Well, let's talk, let's shift gears a little bit. Let's talk a little bit about, you know, nowadays women are getting into real estate. Women are buying properties for themselves,

maybe investment properties. How is that affecting with black women with African-American women? Are they jumping into this real estate market as well? And how are they doing it? I'm going to go down the rabbit hole here, which is going to make some women a little bit upset. That is no more luxury goods. We have to stop making Louis Vuitton. We have to stop making Gucci and all about rich.

It starts right there. Have you spent a thousand dollars times 12 pairs? That's 12 grand. Yes. You make the six figures my sisters, but at the end of the day, that's the down payment on a hundred thousand dollar house. Let's stop there. Yes, brothers, you get a Rolex, but at the end of the day, get the Rolex.

After you had an apartment, building the pay for those women that are on public assistance. If four or five of you get together with the amount of money you're bringing in the door, you can buy a building, you create a daycare, you're creating money. You're creating opportunity. See where that's going to go. So are black women jumping in? Unfortunately speaking,

some of them are, but the vast majority are not because they're still caught in this credit thing. And here's the thing I say to that. If you're riding around in a Jaguar that runs a thousand dollars a month, plus $600 in insurance, let's do the mathematics and it's easier to walk or catch the bus to work and take that same money that went to,

I like Joe Grillo because he gave my first BMW. But at the end of the day, Joe gets less money and you get the house, the condominium or the apartment. Okay. So it comes to recalibrating re configurating and re forming where we spend our money yet we got to stop being consumers that start being asset producers. Wow. Okay. So in Chicago terms,

he's saying get away from the red bottoms and get to the red brick. I get, I get it. I totally understand that. And it's true. You know, we get caught up and it's not just, you know, African-Americans, it's people everywhere. We get caught up because you see advertising is coming at you, you know, 24 hours a day.

Now you can't turn on your phone or go online or even turn your television on without, you know, FOMO happening. You know, you're, you're afraid of missing out and you're running out, buying the latest designer, cars or clothes or whatever, because that's trending. But the minute, you know, you buy a car off the lot, the value,

the minute you put a tag on it and drive it around the corner, have you tried to go back and sell it back to the dealership? They're going to drop it by 20% or more and all you did was driving around the block, you know? So I totally, I totally agree with you. And you know, being somebody that's 57 years old,

the things I'm learning in my fifties, if I had somebody around or if I had done the research myself in my thirties, I'd be so much further down the road. And people believe that you have to, you know, they watch those shows on Bravo and other networks that you have to have millions before. You can even buy your first home where,

or make an investment or anything like that because that's the image they project on the screen. And that's not the case, correct? That's correct. Because here's a trick to that. What people aren't looking at on there is Kim Kardashians created a tape, a tape that created a billion dollar enterprise. Now, if you can leverage that kind of thing, then wonderful,

but they're getting paid per episode, a quarter million dollars and everything they get, which people don't understand is being comped, operative, word comped. They're not buying the luxury items because they want to be seen at the various festivals and events. They're able to get free stuff. If you're not getting it free, then don't buy it until you have the financial resources to buy it,

which translates into the following. If you're a net worth and your asset base is not six to seven figures and cash, liquid cash liquid means to me. And you can go out there and you can touch it, then don't buy it. There is some, Ooh, Okay. Now I'm going to change gears again. We gonna, we gonna take the left ramp.

Now it's: 2021

as far as paying rent for the last 24 months, there's two situations there. You haven't paid in 24 months and you were making payments every single month of a thousand to two to $3,000 a month. How much money should you have saved? Plus Mr. Biden, special, special. So that means that some people are sitting around and have gotten themselves about a hundred grand.

You should be able to buy yourself a house now who gives, gives a shit about not paying the landlord. You should be able to go out and buy the house now in cash because you saved all that money. So what I'm saying is now it's time to do Monday night quarterback. If you have not saved that money and you are now spending, it is not time to consider the fact that all the landlords are going to be on what we call the wheelhouse,

the system. You can go to Phoenix and think you're going to avoid paying rent because the guy in Phoenix is actually owning the property from New York. So now you have the same New York company that owns a property in Phoenix, because what's happening is now the real estate industry is being cannibalized. So you have the same companies only in the same properties throughout America.

You can't run ladies and gentlemen. So you better start making agreements to pay, pay them or negotiate to pay them or buy the house with the money that you saved a lot of money. Most did not save, you know, I was cracking up about a year ago and it was like the first or second stimulus check came out. And I saw a video clip.

I think there were an LA guy on a bicycle, the 50 inch television strapped to his back that he just I'm like, are you serious? It, it was very interesting. So yeah, I totally agree. It's about to get ugly. And I don't know what people were thinking that it has to end at some point, whether COVID ends or not,

because I think we're going to be stuck with COVID like the flu, but whether COVID ends or not, this whole, you know, mandates and all this stuff has to come to an end at some point, because the numbers are going to say, you need to be out. We need to be doing what we gotta do. And we got to keep moving forward or we're just going to stop and die and that's not going to happen.

They're not going to let that happen. So I totally agree with you. All right. So we got to talk about, I mean, you live in New York, I'm trying to forgive you for that. But I live in, I live in Vegas, so we grow up in Chicago and then we hopefully, you know, either make it up in Chicago or make it out of Chicago.

So tell me about growing up in the Chi. What was that like At that time we're talking about the mid eighties. So this was the beginnings of the crack epidemic. And luckily for me, I actually went to a Catholic school, which was a seminary Quigley south. And with that being said, we had a lot of things that were positive, but you still had to come back to the neighborhood,

which was a negative. And depending on whether you were in what is considered GD, which the gangster disciples or BD black gangster disciples and, or the stones, whatever the case may be, you're crossing multiple territories, which at the end of the day, you got to figure out what you're wearing, how you're wearing it so forth. So having seen and experienced a lot of people,

and I would say probably close to a hundred plus of my young friends die. You can't appreciate death until, you know, it's like PTSD. It's like I had that when I was 16, because you saw so many people dying. I mean, that was real. But at the end of the day, I think the big thing was, was that having parents that were very forceful and what you could and couldn't do because I was around all the influences.

What was the difference was the teachers that made the difference, the parents that made a difference. And even the neighbors, we still have the neighbors that believe in the principle of, if you get caught, everybody's going to hear about it. So you just didn't want to get caught, but it was a time of a trying time. You just knew right from wrong.

And there was still parents that were at home, you know, shortly thereafter, you know, we went through the process of the early nineties where, you know, a lot of parents were incarcerated because of the drug trade. Wow. Wow. So what about now? You know what about now? I look at my grandsons, especially my 15 year old.

in this environment today in: 2021

what's happening, they're waiting a young men by themselves. You have to be real and you have to be what I would call a kick ass. Mama. You got to go around that house and make sure everybody understands. Mama don't take no stuff. Period. Isaiah Thomas Mom said it best. You got to be that kind of Mom, no nonsense.

You call the tiger mom, whatever you want to call it, be prepared to put your foot in your son's butt and be able to understand that's right. Daughters too. We get to them in a second and we'll get to them a second. But it's the boys first because they're the one that created the violence. It's not the girls that are creating violence. We don't have a bunch of gang girls.

We have a lot of gang guys. Girls is falling behind, but as far as the girls are concerned, just being able to have a situation where that young lady understands that she doesn't have to sacrifice herself because she's just the property of somebody being able to have self-esteem appreciation for who she is, being able to understand what school is all about. And more importantly,

speaking, there is life out of the ghetto. You know, if we got call it what it is, that's what it's become. You know, you have places when they're calling it Chi-raq more bodies that have died their 10,000 in the last 10 years, 20 years based upon the urban violence. And that's all based upon the fact that nobody cares to realize these kids are hurting and they're angry because they have nothing else to do.

We had SITA JTP. We had all kinds of job training programs. We had things that were going on skating, rinks. You know, I remember screaming wheels and all those kind of things. And we don't have that anymore. You know, it's right. You know, even the restaurants there was Mr. Ricky's, there was Chi Greats and all these places,

we have places that were cool. These kids have no place to go. So they're volatile. Expert Talk is sponsored by PodNation TV, the Podcast to Broadcast network. Hey, I have a quick question for you. Do you want a professional agency to handle all your video creation, syndication and monetization needs here at MelRose 11, we specialize in getting you the results you need to help you grow your business by generating new leads,

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Our professional team will develop your video campaigns at an affordable price, with our fast turnaround and a quality of work that can't be beat. We look forward to working with you. Okay? So let's talk about this. We tell them, I was told I'm pretty sure you were told, you know, that you need to have a role model. You need to have mentors. You know,

I was blessed enough to have that my whole life. I still have mentors. I still have role models at this age, but if you're a young person in the inner city, back in Chicago or in New York or LA, it's not just Chicago, it's all over the country. Hey, it's all over the world for that matter. You know, what would you tell them?

How do they find a role model? How do they even know what a role model is and find a mentor? Let's go this route. Hey, role model is somebody that has been successful in their industry and they are willing to give you an opening. Okay? Doesn't mean that they necessarily are going to pave the way, but they willing to give you an opening.

And having said that sometimes you have to finalize what you want to do, you know, okay. I want to be an engineer. Well, take the time out to go into the library, which is what these kids don't really understand. Now they Google everything well. Okay. Google it Google the number of engineers that work at certain companies in an area that you can get to and go and send an email.

This is what they do. Send an email and go and talk to this guy or make a list of 10 people and go and talk to them, find a local CEO and go and talk to them. You'd be surprised how it's like the ego thing. I know how I feel, you know, I'm infatuated or in thrall when somebody says, listen,

can I be you? Okay, let me tell you how this works. So you have to reach out a lot of times, I don't even know you exist. So until you reach out to me, I don't even know you're there, right? That's a big thing. Being able to realize that you've got to go and seek out those mentors, sometimes in school,

back in the day, the teachers sought you out. They'd give you special programs and special opportunities. Well, a lot of that's gone now. So now as a young person, you've got to find them. I'm sorry, you got to get out there and get them. You know, sometimes it might be that a post office, postal worker there that you haven't seen,

like I want to be a postal worker. Okay, fine. It might be the cop that you see there. That is the Lieutenant. And I know how people, young people now have an issue with the police. But again, if you like his job, talk to him. A lot of times people want to find out that people are enthralled by what they do.

And it gives them a reason to share. You have a real passion for youth and for projects that help the youth, you know, not just in your local area, even though it is New York, but worldwide, you know, worldwide, what is your vision for what's coming in the next, you know, five years, 10 years as we can hopefully come out of this COVID crisis.

ation, that's just being born: 2013

So one of the things I'm doing is creating my 716 scholar program. It's based upon my birthday, July 16th, but within that to provide young people a way in starting next year into the construction real estate industry, and just train them as to how to be entrepreneurs, how to actually understand the business and be creative. But those are the kinds of programs are going to have to happen.

Philanthropists is going to have to start looking at getting in there and getting involved because we're only going to look at a world that's going to be half and half of older people that were 50 and the other half between 18 and 35. And that's a lot of testosterone a lot of estrogen, a lot of energy going no place. So we gotta start fixing it before it gets out of hand.

Wow. I know I got to let you get out of here and get you out of the hot seat, but I, I, I, you know, I'm having a great time just learning and listening, but I've got to ask you about Section eight. You know, I've got family members that have had Section eight. I've known people throughout the years that have had Section eight,

but I've never looked at it from the Real Estate side of Section eight. It, do you plan that? I mean, as a real estate investor, do you go, okay, this house or this building, these apartments, I'm going to convert those, the Section eight. How does all that work? Okay. Case in point is that if you're looking at a Section eight property,

okay, here's the situation with that whole project. They've closed the listings now, but there's still Section eight certificates that are out there. So the ability to be able to get those are basically either through the county or through the local establishment, their local governments there. And a lot of that is based upon the fact of how that project is planned and laid out.

So for example, if you want to take a house and turn it to Section eight, relatively easy, you're just contacting a local DSS and saying that I'm looking for people that have that certificate and I want to put them in there, but here's the problem. You've got to make sure that property is up to snuff. Everything has to be right, ladies and gentlemen,

no slumlord is you can't just say, okay, I got this property and you half-assed it, you can't do that. Make every thing exact and make it all work very important. And with that in mind, that's the problem. That's very key. Now within that, you're guaranteed that money every single month, you know, you got a month or two at time,

basically, but after that flows through consistently. But the biggest thing of it is for landlords is understand that you're dealing with a government authority. So they want to make sure everything is on point. You got to make sure the roof, the plumbing, the heating, the electrical, and especially the electrical in the heating. It has to pass code. Cause they've got kids Know,

and you have to be in the maintain that property on a consistent basis every single year. Make sure that property meets a snuff. Everything's gotta be right. No, I appreciate that. And I know we, we've kind of just touched on a little bit here and a little bit there and I would love for you to come back and maybe we can just dig in on yo,

just the Youth project or come and talk about Section eight or, you know, maybe come and talk about growing up in Chi town, even though you moved. I moved to, I'm just give you a hard time, but I know there's so much more, we, we did the 50,000 foot view of what you do and what your specialty is. And I know there's a lot of people out there that would love to understand just how this business of real estate works because for a long time,

it was the great secret. You know, you knew Mr. Johnson did Real estate, but you didn't know how he did it. You know, you knew Ms. Smith inherited real estate, but you didn't know how her Father or her Mother purchased that real estate in the first place. So having you come on every once in a while will be awesome if you're open to it and we could just dig into a subject.

Absolutely. I appreciate it. No problem. That'd be awesome. So I want to thank you for coming on out and hanging out with us, if somebody wants to reach you, what's the best way to contact you. It is DariusARoss.com and they can reach me on all social media, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. All right, everybody. He said,

you can reach out to him at DariusARoss.com. Reach out to this young man and talk to him about your real estate dreams, your dream of being an entrepreneur period. He's a pretty cool dude, even though he's not a Bears fan, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you'll watch the next time. And as always, I'm TGo and I'll talk to you next time.