How Elvin Ames Built a Real Estate Empire From Distressed Properties

Erika (01:31)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pro Show. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m thrilled to be joined by Elvin Ames, who’s been shaking things up in the real estate space. Elvin, it’s so awesome to have you here.

Elvin Ames (01:44)
Thank you architects for having me on.

Erika (01:46)
I think our listeners are really going to learn some things about the real estate world with all the different projects you have going on. So let’s dive in. Alvin, for those who may not be familiar with your world, give us the rundown. How did you get started in the real estate industry?

Elvin Ames (02:02)
So I was in United States Marine. actually originally was born in Barbados in the Caribbean. I came to America at 17 and I, you know, we moved to Brownsville, Brooklyn. And that was a terrible situation. So I needed to make a change. I ended up joining the Marine Corps.

and from the Marine Corps when I was about to get out, I was okay, I need something to do. So I remember this is back in like 99, know, 2000 and I went to the library and I remember typing into the computer, how to become a millionaire. So it said at the time nine out of 10 millionaires made their money from real estate.

Well, okay, great. So that’s what I’m gonna do. So I kind of learned a business and went from there and started off as a loan officer, then I became a realtor to help get more loans. And then from there, through a chance happening, I met some people who were investing in real estate. This is going back now, like 2000 and…

2001-2002 and started to learn from them and that’s how I kind of got into the business about 24 years ago.

Erika (03:21)
That’s awesome. With over 10 years in the industry, actually you said more, 24, right? Yeah. You’ve seen a lot of changes. What’s your main focus or specialty these days?

Elvin Ames (03:22)
Thank

before.

you

So for Revelopers, Revelopers is the name of our house flipping company. the biggest change we’ve seen is that in the last few years is that capital is now available to landlords. When I first started out, the reason we had to flip houses was because

there was really no banks that would give us money to keep them. So that was the way we had to liquidate property. There was just no other way to do it. Now there are investors that are using the burn method, buy, renovate, refinance, rent, and all these other methods. But when I first started, we used the 4F method, which was find it.

fund it, fix it, and flip it, right? There was no other way because there was no bank that was giving you capital to hold on to the property. So I would say that’s the biggest win for the new investors coming up. You don’t have to then sell the assets because if I was able to even half those assets, I’d probably be worth $100 million because so many of those assets,

have gone up tremendously in value over the years. And a lot of them were rental properties that I could have kept, you know, three families, four families, et cetera. So I would say that’s one of the biggest changes. I know we’ll talk about technology, AI and all this other stuff. That’s all great.

But the finance and part of it, because real estate is such a capital-intensive business, that’s really improved.

the playing field for investors. That ability to use what’s called DSCR, debt service coverage ratio loans to hold on to those assets for a long time. That wasn’t available to me when I first started in the business.

Erika (06:07)
Yeah, yeah, wow. I hope people are taking notes there because there’s a lot of good information there. With all the deals that you’ve done, what’s been key to making those margins strong? And you know, you had talked a little bit about technology there. Have you been using that with all those deals?

Elvin Ames (06:24)
Yeah, so, all right, so let me say, so the business that I’m in, which is the distressed property business, it’s not just a regular property business. We deal with distressed properties. That is a personal business. Technology just gets you to the door to meet the person, but it doesn’t close the deal.

You still have to, and I don’t think, this is why I don’t think it’s replaceable. I don’t think you can really, you know, can’t build a robot to do it because it’s on a human level. I’ll give you an example. Let me just go back to the first deal I did on my own, 51A James Street, Montclair, New Jersey. Now had done a bunch of flips with investors and partners, but this one particular deal,

I was just an agent at the time. And I didn’t have my own private lenders at the time. know, did partners, they had their private lenders. I didn’t have any private lenders. But now I had some experience flipping the houses. I helped. I did all the work, sold them, et cetera. So this one gentleman, I was just trying to get his listing as an agent. And he was in foreclosure at the time. And I contacted him and said,

Hey more In my book I call him something different but his real name is more right I said hey man, you know, you should sell this property your foreclosures like Noah I got it. I’m working with the bank etc so something you know, no problem if things have a You know don’t work out. Give me a call. I’ll happily listen to sell the property

So one day by chance, I went to check out the Sheriff’s Sales, which is the auction. This is where if you have a foreclosure, the bank sells the property and they’ll take it back.

So when I was there, I heard his property go up for sale. I was like, I know that property. And I’m going to date myself because I had to run back to the office and go through my rollovets, which anybody doesn’t know what a rollovets is. It’s where you have a bunch of cards, and they’re on a thing that turns, and you look for the numbers, right? That’s how we used to save phone numbers back in the day. We didn’t have iPhones, right? So.

I found Mark’s number and I gave him a cost in Mark. I just was at the option. You probably just went to sheriff sale and you know, his whole demeanor changed over the phone. Like, yeah, I, you know, I tried to stop it with the, you know, the bank. I tried to work with them, but they didn’t work for me. He’s like, can I help? I was like, I don’t know how it can help because it just went to option. The bank just sold it. So I said, okay, give me a minute. Not doing anything.

I called the sheriff department and I spoke to a wonderful lady called Maria, Maria sits retired for the Essex County Sheriff Department and thank you Maria for Sending us on the path because she told me something that I didn’t know she told us that there’s something called the right of redemption and the right redemption and he said New Jersey it gives the the owner of the property ten days

to pay off what’s owed to the bank to save their property. So I said, wow, nobody teaches you that. There’s no real estate school on that. There still is. Nobody teaches that, right? It’s called the right redemption. I’m giving away a big secret here, right?

So.

That means he had 10 days to pay off that loan. And so I called him back and said, okay, let’s meet, all right? And actually he said, come on over, let’s talk. And I went there and I knocked on the door. And when the door opened, I think it was his son that opened the door, and I saw his daughter, and then his wife came out.

you know, to meet me. They were a biracial family. And, you know, and when Mark was in the back room somewhere, and, you know, I could see that little, like, depression kind of on their face. This was obviously something that was weighing on them, because they just lost their property.

Mark was in the back room somewhere and he’s like, I’ll be out there one minute. So just sit down. his wife, you know, asked me if want something to drink, yada yada. I sat down on the couch and Mark comes rolling out in a wheelchair. He had no legs. I’m like, okay. You know, cause I thinking that on the phone, I don’t know the guy’s situation. So he has a beautiful wife, beautiful kids, no legs.

And then he proceeds to tell me he just lost his job at the school. And his wife also lost her job. And they’re about to be homeless. So they got, know, once this property is gone, they’re out on the street. They got no family, And that’s why I mentioned the biracial aspect. There was probably something there where they couldn’t go to family. I don’t know why that was, but they said they didn’t have any family that they could lean on.

So, I said, okay, I gotta help this guy. Now, I told him about the redemption period. said, if I were to buy it from him, how much would you sell it to me for? We worked out a number that he would have walked to me in like over $20,000, $20,000 plus thousand dollars. So, okay, and for me it was a good deal, all right? I think we ended up buying it for, I would say $125,000 or $150,000, something like that. It’s been a while.

So or little to something I believe anyway So I a few months earlier I had met I had started looking for private lenders and actually met One guy Jitu. I’ll just mention his first name and John I had met with them. I actually one of their sons wrote a book and they were the Guys to give like the you know

Forward for the book so I looked them up found the number say sounds like you guys are private lenders and I met with them. I said hey if I’m gonna get a deal would you fund it? They gave me their requirements. That’s a great So I said well, I may have somebody that would fund the deal So I took all the information I gathered the cops for the property how much repairs it would need if any and I took it to them and I presented them this Okay. Yeah, this is something real fun. We’ll give you the money

Okay, great. So I back to Mark. Okay, I got I got the funding. Here’s the offer, right? Can we do the deal? He said yes. I signed off on it and not knowing anything about the redemption. I told my attorney, hey, you got to close it. Now I probably have like five days left, right? Because I’m she’s like, know, so I mean, I’m on Monday and so you got to close on a Friday, right?

So this is something else that I learned. When you do, you know, because the biggest problem with closing deals is actually title work. Pulling the title, the time frame. But the truth is when you factor it down, it really only takes a few hours to pull title. It’s just that you’re in line schedule with everybody else. So you have to ask the time company to do what’s called a rush. Yes, you have to pay extra.

but maybe $300 extra, but it’ll move you to the front of the line and pull your title. So that’s what we did. We rushed the title, we got the insurance, we had the loan set up, and my attorney did all the paperwork and everything, and we were able to close the deal that Friday. So the cutoff time was 4 p.m. back then. They’ve actually moved it up now. It’s a little bit earlier.

You gotta pay it off like 3 p.m. or something in Essex County now. But it was 4 or 5 p.m. at that time. I remember us taking a certified check with my attorney, at the time, Roslyn, taking the check, giving it to the Sheriff’s Department like a few minutes before the deadline, right? To take this guy’s house. So we were able to…

Erika (14:42)
No.

Elvin Ames (14:46)
Redeem his property then purchase the property. We did everything at the same time same day like simultaneous closing and He was happy because he was able to sell the property and he made about $20,000 From the from the deal and I say that story to say this I don’t think That you will my business this business of flicking houses. I don’t think you it’s replaceable

because the experience is a human emotional thing.

It was a human thing that made him hold on to the property for too long, right? And it took me to come in and convince him, no, you need to do something else. And the sheriff kind of helped by going to the auction, by his property going to auction. So with all the technology that we have, AI, et cetera, coming online, I still think,

that you’re gonna need that human experience. So this is why I think this business going forward is gonna be very exciting for a lot of those people who may get laid off because they’re gonna need to transition to something else. And this flipping houses may be the only thing that still works. And one other thing is recession proof because in fact, in a recession, we actually get more business.

So we’re the opposite of the economy. We work the opposite. When everything’s good, it actually hurts our business a bit. That’s when we kind have to sell the assets to get the capital for when it goes down again. hopefully that answers your question.

Erika (17:03)
Yeah, I’m still on like the, I’m still on the edge of my seat. Like I can’t believe how close that came. That like, that’s just, that’s just wild. And it got me thinking you probably couldn’t have made that deadline work if it weren’t for the connections that you have in the industry. What kind of advice would you give to people when it comes to building that network? Cause you know, there’s going to be a time where they need someone to come through quickly.

Elvin Ames (17:30)
Yeah, so because I was a loan officer and then I became a realtor, I was able to meet these attorneys. The private lender I met, I found in a book. But the attorney I was able to meet because I worked for people who used her. So was like, oh, she’s a great attorney. like how she.

does closings, so let me contact her. So in a way, by being in the business, it allowed me to meet those connections. I don’t think that you could make these connections unless you’re in the business. As an outsider, it’s not gonna work. You have to go in there and get your ass dirty. The way I started was I didn’t just start flipping houses.

I partnered with one of my mentors called Glenn and he taught me the ropes and then I had other partners as well, some good, some bad. But that’s kind how I learned the business. And then eventually I was able to do it on my own.

That’s the first thing I did on my own. Before that I had done five deals, but I did it with all of my

Erika (18:48)
Yeah,

that’s really good stuff right there. Elvin, when we were talking earlier, you had shared a book with me. I think now would be a great time to talk about that.

Elvin Ames (19:00)
Yeah, so this is my book, my first book ever written, Raggedy to Riches, How to Get Rich on Raggedy Houses. And the reason why we have that title is because when we first started in the business, my brother’s not in the picture, but I started first and then my brother joined me once he was laid off. he’ll probably tell his own story one day, but.

When I first started in the business the gurus used to be like we buy houses that was the sign you’ve probably seen those signs all over we buy houses So we listen to them, know, we would put up our market the signs we buy houses we buy houses And what I realized was I wouldn’t the calls I would get would be like Calls for people who just want to sell their house they had on the real estate market too long

And it wasn’t selling, so they figured, let me give this guy a call. And of course, they wanted market value. But the business doesn’t work at market value. You have to buy below market value for the business to work. So we said, what type of houses do we actually want? Now, being from Barbados in the Caribbean, my grandmother, grandmother, they would say, you’re ragged in the house. You got ragged in your clothing or whatever.

So that’s where the word came from. Raggedy. So raggedy houses, that’s what we want to buy. So that’s where the name, the use of the name comes from, from Barbados Heritage, actually. And it said that’s the type of house we want to buy. So when you put up those signs, we buy raggedy houses. You can see this is the first, this is our logo right there. What would happen is,

we would get the calls from people who had the raggedy house or they didn’t want the property anymore. And so we didn’t waste our marketing dollars on useless deals. We got to the heart of the matter. So that’s where that concept comes from. And the book is basically how I came from basically poverty. I didn’t come from money. I’m Barbados.

came from government housing, Barbados, to Brownsville, Brooklyn. If you don’t know, Brownsville, Brooklyn was the murder capital of America at that time. I think New Orleans took over after Katrina, but Brownsville was the murder capital, at least of New York City. A very rough place. People like Mike Tyson came out of Brownsville, Brooklyn.

So in fact, to leave Brownsville Book Club, I joined the toughest military branch in the world, the Marine Corps. In fact, I talk about it in my book where after I got jumped, I got jumped in Brownsville. And in the book, I speak about how my mother comes into the living room, I’m there, all bloody bruised.

And she had this look of disgust on her face. You here she is, this Caribbean lady, you know, coming over to this country. She has no backing from, she’s busting her ass on two jobs. And here’s her son, you know, wasting his life getting into trouble with the local crews, or we call them crews back then, not gangs. I’m getting myself into trouble. So that look of disgust on her face, she didn’t have to say a word to me.

I knew I was in trouble, so I had to do something else with my life. And that’s when I saw the ad on TV for, it was the military, I think it was the army at the time, and they said they’re gonna train you, you travel the world, and they pay for college. And my favorite part was they teach you how to shoot guns.

I didn’t tell my mom about that part, but I said, hey mom, you know, I just saw this ad on TV, these people, pay for college, they let you travel the world, you know, and she’s like, what are you talking about? I said, yeah, you know, they have uniforms on, it’s all you need in the military. I said, yeah. She’s like, so yeah, that’s an ad for the military. I said, okay, they have different branches, which one do you want to join? I remember saying to her, well, which one’s the toughest? And she said to me,

Well, everybody loves the Marines. So the very next day, got on a train. went all the way down to Flatbush Extension. And I’m keeping in a recruiter’s office. if you can imagine a kid back in the 90s, got the baggy clothes on, the hat turned back. I got gold caps.

the traditional scarf hanging off your back pocket or whatever. You know, I’m just looking like really hood. And the recruiter sees me and he’s like, hey young man, how can I help you? And I said to him, we’re here to learn how to bust guns. He didn’t know what to say. was like.

You know what? Kids in the right place. Come on in. Such a coconut, no? So that’s how I started. That’s how I, you and the Marine Corps saved me. You know, I saw a lot of people locked up, didn’t make it. You know, a lot of people passed. Some people got on drugs, very good people, you know, just because of the environment they’re in. And, you know, luckily, you know, that looked…

on my mother’s face told me I had to change environments. So that’s what I did by joining the Greens. Brownsville was such a tough place that I had to join the toughest organization to leave it. And that was the morning call. That was a blessing. that’s why, know, raggedy to riches, it means so, it’s deeper than people think. It’s not really about getting money. It’s about transitioning from, you know, the state you’re in.

to a better state. So that’s kind of what the book is about.

Erika (24:30)
Yeah, wow, wow, that is an inspiring story. I mean, you are living the American dream, Alvin, and thank you for your service.

So what is next on the horizon for you? What goals do you see in the future that you’re looking to achieve?

Elvin Ames (24:39)
Thank you.

So one thing that, because I’ve been doing this for 24 years, real estate is, there’s many parts of real estate, many aspects of it. There’s residential, which is really what we’ve done. This is pretty much about residential houses. And then there’s the commercial aspect of it. So because we’ve done this for 20-something years,

We’ve gone through all the experiences, good, bad, ugly, hundreds of deals we’ve done. So what we’re doing is we’re taking all of our knowledge and we’re packaging it up and we’re looking to franchise it. And that’s the next event on the horizon for us. We’ll probably build a course first, but then that’s the ultimate goal to franchise the company. And by doing so,

It allows other people to learn from mistakes and also utilize the brands. know, because if one thing I’ve learned from some of my mentors, I had two mentors that were doing real estate locally in Jersey. One was called Mr. Brown, that’s actual name, and Mr. White, actual name. And Mr. Brown, I’ll talk about him first.

He was a councilman in the city of North New Jersey. And he owned several rental properties, but they all small, all small, four families. And when he passed away, he got dementia a little bit older in his age. remember he took interest in me because he saw me fixing up a house in this area. So he’d come over and talk to me and tell me about his experience in real estate.

doing it for all those years. And he would always say this to me. would say, young man, when is the best time to buy real estate? And know, he would ask, well, maybe the winter, maybe the summer, you know. He’d say, no, no, no. Anytime. That’s his thing. Anytime is the best time to buy real estate. So I always remember that from Mr. Brown. But unfortunately, when he passed away, you know, he left several properties. And his kids ended up losing every single one of

You know, I never said wow. And the lesson I took from him was, even though he owned almost probably, I’m about like 24 families, on one block, he just bought everything on the block. Because it was so small, he wasn’t able to pass it on to a management company to manage it. I mean, he probably could have, but he kind of did it himself, and his kids didn’t take interest. They went to be doctors, lawyers, whatever.

They never took interest, so everything fell apart. And the same thing with Mr. White. Mr. White was a successful contractor. He owned the apartment buildings. But they were never really big. They weren’t like institution size. They were like 25 units, 30 units, which is great, but still he needed to manage himself or have the family continue the business. And when he passed on…

Those end up going by the wayside also. So the lesson I learned is that you can’t stay small forever. You have to transition. I have a change in my life. I have a daughter. She’s grown almost four years old. So I’m thinking about, now I can’t make that same mistake. If I learn from their wisdom, what am I doing? Why do they waste all of their time talking to me as a youngster?

I need to learn from that wisdom. And that’s the same thing with us. By franchising a business, people get to learn from our wisdom and you get to build off of that. I find that most people don’t value it. As I got older, I’ve learned to value it, the wisdom from others. So that’s what we’re looking to do. Package up the wisdom, give a system to people so they don’t make the mistakes we made and then they can build off of that because

The one thing that’s never going away is distressed properties. Even if it’s not, even if all the houses are fixed up, there’s still good people that fall behind in their payments. Even if that is somehow fixed by the government, there’s gonna be probate, people who die. So that’s why we have to re-buy inherited houses brand, right? So there’s always gonna be distressed properties.

Or there’s going to be people that need housing and you have to find a way to build for that. So I don’t think our business is going away and hopefully that answers your question. But yeah, that’s what we have on the horizon for the developer system.

Erika (29:05)
That’s exciting. Before we wrap up, Elvin, if someone wants to reach out, maybe collaborate, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Elvin Ames (29:13)
Yeah, so the best way is just to this number 888-RAGGITY. You’re not going to forget it. So 888-RAGGITY. If you want to reach out to me, just give that a call and you’ll find us in the developers. You’ll get us in the office. Just ask the elephant. I’ll be happy to speak to you. Yeah, that’s the best way. I would say call. You can try emailing, but the office may think it’s bad.

This is Elvin, e-l-v-i-n at revelopers, r-e-v-e-l-o-p-e-r-s dot com. But I would say the best thing is just to give us a phone call, to get a hold of us.

Erika (29:48)
Awesome, Alvin, it was so great having you on. Your story is really inspiring, especially for people who are just getting started. Thank you.

Elvin Ames (29:58)
Thank you.

Erika (29:59)
And

listeners, if you found value from this video, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pro Show. We’ve got more experts out there who are building their real estate empire that we’re going to share their story. And you should really check it out. We’ll see you on the next episode.