From Broke at 32 to 150+ Real Estate Deals

Damien Gonsalves (00:00)

The biggest opening, they’re everywhere. One thing within this business, there’s a lot of opportunity. It’s not that there’s not an opening, just that no one wants to do the work to get to the opening. I’ve come across over the years many investors or wholesalers or aspiring wholesalers that reach out to me that want to wholesale, and I’ve given them exactly what to do step-by-step. Most of them do the work for a day or two, three at most, maybe a week, and then they quit.

Scott Bursey (00:55)

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. Glad you’re with us. Today we’re delighted to be joined by Damien Gonsalves, owner and founder of Creative Living Investments. Damien has closed over 150 real estate deals since 2019, including six-figure wholesale deals. A nonstop negotiator and closer, he’s turning years of hustle into a multi-million-dollar wholesale company. Driven by his faith in God and his commitment to his family, Damien brings a direct, no-nonsense approach to every deal he touches. Listeners, get ready to dive deep into closing tough deals, creative structures, and building real relationships in this business. Damien, welcome to the show.

Damien Gonsalves (01:47)

Hey Scott, thank you. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (01:50)

It’s awesome having you here, and to help our listeners get up to speed, please give us the ninety-second highlight reel, if you will, of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Damien Gonsalves (02:03)

All right, 90 seconds. So my career ignited—it came out of nowhere. In 2019, I was 32 years old. I found myself broke, living in my mom’s house. I needed something to do. I came across wholesaling on YouTube. I saw this guy, Max Maxwell. He was doing it. He was talking about how he was making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. My exact thoughts were, “If he could do it, I could do it too.” Fast forward, I closed my first deal in December of 2019. And since then, I’ve been on a roll ever since. I consistently close deals on a monthly basis.

And I also bring a lot of value back to the community by hosting a real estate meetup in my area here where I live in Central Florida. And in addition to that, I do a lot of JV deals, and I share a lot of my resources with the community as well at no cost at all. So thank you again for having me, Scott.

Scott Bursey (02:47)

Thank you for highlighting that, Damien. That gives us a fantastic baseline. And what really caught my attention about you, Damien, was the way you’ve been able to build a closing table that other wholesalers bring their deals to. Most operators guard their deals. You built a business getting everybody else’s closed and splitting the win. Taking that a step further, interested to hear: where’s your sharpest edge in novations right now?

Damien Gonsalves (03:21)

Really, the sharpest edge in novations is with the sellers that want to sell, they want a cash offer, but they don’t want a low cash offer. And a lot of the time, novations give us the ability to step in and provide the sellers with a higher price without dealing with any of the headaches and the hassle. So we give them what they want. And in between that, we’re also able to earn some money as well, too. So a lot of the time, we’re providing solutions to people’s problems. And most of their problems is that they don’t want to deal with the headaches or they don’t have the resources to deal with it. And that’s where we come in and step in and provide solutions to them. We just did a deal recently in Lakeland where we were able to get a homeowner his exact asking price, closed fairly quickly, and we were able to get a buyer a deal where they were able to get exactly what they want. So the novation gave us a solution that probably no other person would have been able to accomplish.

Scott Bursey (04:13)

What makes a seller say yes to a novation instead of a cash offer?

Damien Gonsalves (04:21)

Because novations pay a little higher, right? For example, my cash offer on that deal was $150,000. The seller wanted to walk away with $200,000. There was no way I could make that work as a cash deal. But as a novation, without having to pay the closing costs, the carrying costs, and all the holding costs, we were able to structure a deal where we put it on the market. We raised the rehab money—because the seller also didn’t have money for repairs—we finished the rehab necessary to get it sold, and got the property sold, and everyone got paid.

Scott Bursey (04:51)

Appreciate you breaking that down. That’s some really good insight. Curious to know, what’s your biggest bottleneck right now?

Damien Gonsalves (05:40)

Tracking KPIs. It’s just one of those things that I’ve constantly got to harp on myself, my team: KPIs, KPIs, KPIs, KPIs, right? We’ve gotten a lot better at it over the last year or so. But if you ask me KPIs for last year, I have no idea. I don’t know. I didn’t track any numbers, really. I know what I closed, I know what I made, but how I got there? So, no.

Scott Bursey (06:02)

Tracking the KPIs, the data—and that will give you a clearer approach to the next phase of your business. Yep. Where’s the biggest opening for a brand-new wholesaler today in your view, Damien?

Damien Gonsalves (06:20)

That’s a good question.

The biggest opening—they’re everywhere, right? One thing within this business is that there’s a lot of opportunity. It’s not that there’s not an opening, just that no one wants to do the work to get to the opening. I’ve come across over the years many investors or wholesalers or aspiring wholesalers that reach out to me that want to wholesale, and I’ve given them exactly what to do step-by-step. Most of them do the work for a day or two, three at most, maybe a week, and then they quit. Right. So…

The opening is being able to do the necessary work daily till you get your first deal, right? Whether it takes you three months, four months, five months, or it takes you a year. Everyone’s journey is different. So that’s the biggest opening. Other than that, the opportunities are plentiful. Wholesale opportunities are people that have problems. There are problems everywhere. You’ve just got to figure out how to solve them.

Scott Bursey (07:11)

Let’s dig a little deeper here, Damien. There’s always risks lurking in the background. What blind spot almost caught you off guard this year?

Damien Gonsalves (07:22)

As far as wholesaling…

Jumping too heavily into commercial and not focusing enough on my single-family business. Cause my single-family business produces. But if I’m not giving it enough attention, it won’t produce. And I gave a lot of attention to commercial while severely neglecting my single-family business. So I’ve learned to correct that…

And build the single-family business and add the commercial on top of it, not just let that one go, cause that one is what’s gonna fund any commercial ventures in the future.

Scott Bursey (07:58)

Thanks for walking us through that. And Damien, what does your next big move look like?

Damien Gonsalves (08:05)

My next big move is to purchase a self-storage facility, right? I’ve been wholesaling for a while, and I love wholesaling, I love doing it. But I also need to work on bigger opportunities and also creating passive income and also equity for the future. I have a mentor that has 19 storage facilities, and one of the things that he says that stuck with me was that he said, “My future is bright.” And he’s saying that because of the equity and the assets that he has, because he knows when he sells in the future, all these facilities plus whatever he acquires, he’s going to be in a really, really powerful position financially. So for me, getting my first facility is the next big move that the company is going to make.

Scott Bursey (08:44)

And staying on that path, where would you like Creative Living Investments a year from now?

Damien Gonsalves (08:50)

A year from now, we’re gonna be closing at least five deals a month on the wholesale consistently, right? One of the things that I’m working on is my marketing spend is very, very minimal. I don’t even want to tell you what I’m spending because it’s gonna sound absurd. But I’m able to do that because I learned how to niche down my marketing, and I’ve learned how to do certain tasks so that you don’t have to spend $30k a month to make a hundred thousand dollars. It’s not necessary if you know what you’re doing.

So the next big thing is making sure the single-family side of the business is turning consistently on its own and acquiring that first commercial facility.

Scott Bursey (09:26)

For our listeners that are tuning in, that are thinking to themselves, “Hey, this is somebody that I really like, that I would potentially like to partner with,” what would you like them to know first about Creative Living Investments?

Damien Gonsalves (09:40)

The first thing with me is, like I said, Creative Living Investments stands on its faith, right? It’s a company built on God. In addition to that, I love to provide value to the community. I love to give back; I love to just give information, right? Even if we don’t do a deal together, we don’t make any money together, at least if you have questions in wholesaling, investing, just an opportunity, I love to just give back. So Creative Living is about giving back and providing value to others.

Scott Bursey (10:06)

Damien, this has been on my mind. Do you mentor other wholesalers or is closing their deals the help you offer?

Damien Gonsalves (10:13)

I’ve mentored in the past. And the biggest struggle with mentoring is that typically the students end up not doing the work and they stop, right? So what I’ve done instead of mentoring was help people close deals. I’ve recently opened up a couple of spots for one-on-one mentorship for people that are ready and willing to take action. Not everyone’s gonna qualify for that. I’m gonna be honest, because if I feel like the person isn’t actually gonna work or do the work, there’s no point in you wasting your money. There’s no point at all. But I love closing deals with other people. So if they just bring me opportunities, we could work them together and figure out how to make some money.

Scott Bursey (10:48)

I appreciate you expanding on that. Damien, if you could describe for our listeners, what does your professional network look like right now?

Damien Gonsalves (10:58)

Wow, that is a good question. I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that question. I have some really great lenders in my corner. I was able to build a lot of relationships with some good lenders. I’ve been able to borrow money and pay it back on several of my opportunities. I have a lot of high-net-worth individuals. I have a direct mentor, as I mentioned—his name is Alex Quesada. And him and his brother Anthony Quesada have taught me so much in the last two to three years. They’re the ones that challenge me within this business. So those guys are the circle that I’ve surrounded myself with, in addition to other high-level investors. I can name many names, such as Rich Wonders. I’ve been directly mentored by Nick Perry before. And these are just some of the names that I’ve continued to surround myself with because I strive to have a business like these people.

Scott Bursey (11:45)

Your network is everything in this business. Yes, let’s dive deep. If you had to start Creative Living Investments over tomorrow in a brand-new market—no contacts, no partners, nothing—what would be your first move?

Damien Gonsalves (12:03)

Depends. Do I have money or I don’t have money?

Scott Bursey (12:06)

Limited funds.

Damien Gonsalves (12:09)

If my funds were limited and Creative Living was starting over and I had the information that I have today, I would start by targeting properties that have been on the tax sale list and also have a debt attached to it, so like an obituary. And then I would start by calling the people, the heirs of the property, and see if they have any interest in selling. Cause typically if the taxes are due and someone passed away, there’s a high level of distress there. So that’s where we would start. In addition to that, I probably would start a door-knocking route, too, cause I door-knocked in the past and I found some deals. So I probably would go knocking on every single door to find somebody interested in selling. Cause like I said, we’re looking for a problem. So they’re always out there.

Scott Bursey (12:52)

Incredible advice right there. And Damien, you’ve given our listeners a lot of really good golden nuggets here today. But are there any additional words of wisdom or any other advice that you’d like to leave for our listeners?

Damien Gonsalves (13:06)

Yeah, a couple of things. First of all, my main marketing platform is text messages. It works. This website that I use is called My AI REI. I’m not getting a dollar if you guys sign up. I’m just sharing it with you. It’s the best texting platform out there. It has an AI chatbot built into it. It works daily, consistently. It’s amazing. So I send a lot of text messages; I get deals through that. More importantly, to end off, one of the things I like to tell people is that if I could do this, you could do this.

I remember in 2019, I invested every single thing I had into this business. I sold everything I had to make this work. And I told myself that I’m going to close a deal before the leaves fall off the tree, because I lived in Pennsylvania. Fall time, the leaves fall off the tree. Fast forward a bit, looked out the window one day—it was a really small room I was in, a lot smaller than this one—looked out the window, the leaves fell off the tree. I didn’t close a deal. I asked myself, I said, “What am I doing, man? I’m 32. I’m broke.”

I asked my partner at the time, I’m like, “What are we doing? I got kids, I got bills, like this ain’t working.” And he told me then, he’s like, “If you quit now, you’ll never get it, you’ll never have it, and you’ll always wonder.” And because of that, I stuck with it. And then in December, I closed two deals. And once I closed those two deals, that was it. I was like, I knew I was in the game. So my thing is stay with it. It’s hard. It’s hard now. It was hard then, but it’s hard now. But just stick with it. You’re gonna get there. Just stick with it. And then now you got me to help you to make the process easier. But stick with it, right? That’s my last piece of advice.

Scott Bursey (14:34)

Persistence, and that’s powerful. That was some powerful advice. Damien, for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane, or collaborate with you on future deals perhaps, what’s the best way for them to plug into your pipeline and reach you directly?

Damien Gonsalves (15:28)

The best way to reach me is on Instagram. I check my Instagram a lot more than any other social media. It’s damien_184. If you guys follow me, I’ll make sure I follow you back. I post on it. I try to post at least daily, if not several times a week, on deals that I’m doing and deals that I’ve done, and also people that I’ve helped make money as well, too. So damien_184 on Instagram.

Scott Bursey (15:50)

Damien, thank you so much for joining us today on the Real Estate Pros Podcast.

Damien Gonsalves (15:55)

Thank you so much, Scott.

Scott Bursey (15:57)

It was certainly a pleasure. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you received value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests just like Damien Gonsalves, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.