Ola Dantis is the Founder and CEO of Dwellynn, a real estate investment firm focused on multifamily syndications based in Houston, Texas. Ola was a house flipper first and then moved to multifamily syndications. In this episode lets learn about his journey to being his own Boss
Key Point Summary:
· Ola Dantis wants to set a strong foundation when introducing himself, saying he is not just someone that just buys off apartments. There is a story behind every success in every person. Ola and his wife moved to the US from UK. They first settled in Maryland where they had a lovely apartment and both he and his wife had jobs.
· His friend asked him to meet him in Dubai to meet some investors and to rehab and restructure his friend’s business. During that process, Ola realized that he could do this type of business in America but he didn’t know anything about real estate investing. Ola started googling about real estate investing, he started listening to podcasts, reading books about it. That was how it all started.
· When asked what was one book that changed everything for him, Ola shared that it was Robert Kiyosaki’s book. It changed his mindset, everything he was trying to figure out, the goals that he wanted to set was all in that book.
· In his journey of self-education in real estate investing, he made his first investment. Ola bought an office building in Baltimore, he had tenants on the top floor and he and his wife eventually moved into the bottom floor. Ola saw that there was growth in their investment and so he and his wife talked about scaling it up and make it into a bigger business.
· Since Ola was planning to scale up, he found a mentor and joined a group of people that had the same interest and goals as he had. He got on a course and was following the path.
· Along the way, Ola met a partner and they got into flipping houses. Ola admitted that he made a schoolboy error but also considered it as a lesson learned. It wasn’t that they failed in their venture, it was that he realized it wasn’t as glamorous as it looked. He admitted that he did not have the temperament for that business and he didn’t enjoy it personally.
· Because Ola veered off from his first interest, which was real estate investing, he knew that there was a price to pay. He left his syndication group and by the time he came back all his peers were already buying 100-unit buildings.
· Partnerships are so critical in this type of business, and Ola knows that he cannot do everything on his own. It’s very different from just buying a house down the street. It would require a whole village for it to be possible; you need to partner with lawyers, brokers, lenders, you need Freddie Mac, you need title company and investors. Partnerships helped Ola get into deals and the whole process of buying his 160 units in Houston.
· In finding partners, Ola shares that they have a close-knit community on Facebook, and it’s only a matter of reaching out. But of course, it can’t be just anyone, it has to be people that have the same wavelength as you so that you can really navigate the good and the bad throughout your deal.
· With all the partnerships, with all the people involved, Ola still plays an integral role in the whole thing. His roles vary depending on the process, whether on pre and post-closing. He’s in charge of raising money, asset management, or investor relations.
· Ola shares that before you start your journey, you need to try to figure out what type of person you are. Do you want to stay on the investor relations side or do you want to figure out how to raise money by talking to more people? Just don’t try to do too many things all at once. First, you need to figure out what works for you and then go out and learn and see if that matches with your interest and what you want to do long term and then start putting time and energy there. After that, you can decide the next steps based on how that turns out.
· Ola shares that to be productive there has to be organization and discipline. Having a to-do list keeps him on track of the things that he has to do and to figure out a way to have a routine. Another thing is meditation. He wakes up every day at 4:55 AM to meditate, drinks his tea, and go for a walk or jog; he calls it his moment of quietude. Being successful has a ton to do with your mindset, your heart set, your soul set, and your health set. Another strategy is to read a lot. There might not be a lot of time to read but he likes reading the abstract of a book.
Go to www.dwellynn.com if you want to know more about Multifamily Syndication.
You can also follow Ola in his socials: