From Childhood Dreams to Real Estate Deals: David Senna’s Inspiring Story

Dylan Silver (00:01.304)
Hey, folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today on the show, I have broker, investor, single family, multifamily commercial, lots of experience in Connecticut, Senna. David, welcome to the show.

David Senna (00:16.793)
Thank you, thanks for having me.

Dylan Silver (00:20.876)
It’s a pleasure to have you on the show here. I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

David Senna (00:28.047)
That’s a great question. So when I was about seven, eight years old, there’s this game called Monopoly that my sister and I played day in and day out. And, you know, when you have, you know, some hotels and houses on properties and that money came in, I just got this feeling like this is the greatest thing. So I’ve been addicted to or I was addicted to Monopoly for years. And that’s what got me rolling. And

The funny thing about it is I didn’t really discover that Monopoly was really the driver until maybe three years ago. So, but yeah, that’s what got me started and I’m passionate about real estate. could sit here and talk for hours and hours and never get sick of it.

Dylan Silver (01:16.984)
You know what’s funny about Monopoly Dave is there’s quite a few people who attribute their real estate journey as investors to the game of Monopoly.

David Senna (01:25.669)
Yep.

Dylan Silver (01:29.592)
There’s actually some like, I guess you would call official rules, but then there’s also like, I don’t know what you would call it, like house rules associated with monopoly. I’ve seen people do like arbitrage with monopoly where there’ll be, you know, someone will land on boardwalk park place. And then instead of charging them, they’ll be like, look, I know you’re about to be bankrupt. So if you give me these two properties, I’m not going to charge you. But then also every time you pass go, you have to give me interest. So they’re like, these aren’t in the rules. And the other player.

David Senna (01:36.709)
Cough

David Senna (01:50.969)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (01:57.442)
And then the guy’s like, well, where does it say that I can’t do this in the rules?

David Senna (02:01.549)
Yeah, that’s funny you bring that up because you know my sister and I would do we’d make up our own rules more of like hey just shuffle cards and you get half I get you know she got half I got half and You didn’t need all three colors or all two colors to to put hotels and houses whatever card you add you could put houses and hotels on and and We would be the banker and just make additional money

All kinds of things. Sometimes games would last weeks and weeks. Like you said, you don’t want it to end, so you’d make up different rules, you know.

Dylan Silver (02:36.93)
Monopoly is one of those games that can go forever. I remember kind of my Mom scratching her hair out I feel like on a vacation because I was taking it way too seriously and it was going you know into multiple days and it’s like we know we’re trying to enjoy our time here, but I do want to ask you you mentioned game of Monopoly was kind of maybe the inspiration Was the first step to getting into real estate was it a real estate license was it a fix and flip? What was the first step to? the real estate journey

David Senna (03:05.605)
Yeah, so the first thing I bought, I bought a condo and it really wasn’t anything where it was trying to be an investment or anything like that. It was literally a condo I bought for 40,000 and the mortgage was cheaper than rent. So that was my start. That was back in, I’ll say 1993 and all the way till about 2003, I bought my first three family and

I didn’t do anything after that till 2011. And one of the things that I’m kicking myself for is the mortgage broker in 2003 I used for my three family. He told me I can show you how to buy these one after another after another. And I did not take him up on that opportunity. And things would be a lot different now. I’m still in a good place, but I just think about that a lot. Like I missed my opportunity when it presented itself.

So then in 2011… Yeah go ahead, I’m sorry.

Dylan Silver (04:07.534)
Did you sell a lot of those early properties or did you hang on to them?

David Senna (04:14.979)
So I’ve only sold one property. Well, besides my flips, I’ve only sold one other property I bought as an investment. that’s a tricky story. So I had to get rid of that property just for what was going on inside of it. And I didn’t want to be tied to it.

Dylan Silver (04:37.55)
Now, you mentioned going through, you mentioned 93, 2003, 2011. 2008 happens. What happens in your real estate portfolio? What happens in your real estate journey? Are you seeing this and you’re saying, I gotta pump the brakes here? Are you seeing this and saying this is a great time to buy?

David Senna (04:56.421)
No, so it was it was really 2006. I got my real estate license. That was my plan to exit travelers, you know, get up and running and, you know, leave travelers. And then 2010, I wasn’t there yet. I became a broker. I was taking the continuing ed classes and I figured if I’m going to do this one, I become a broker. And I went out on my own in 2010. But I was looking for property, but I wasn’t serious about it.

I belonged to a real estate club. just didn’t take action. It was actually somewhere in the 2009, 2010 where I had a lot of money in the stock market and I lost a substantial amount. And my wife wasn’t aware of how much I lost. So I figured I had to figure out how to make that money back. So in 2011, I flipped my first house and I didn’t.

didn’t care whether I made a dollar or not. I just wanted to learn, jump in and get started. And I still have that house today. So that was my first flip that I never flipped.

Dylan Silver (06:08.792)
So are these was at home in intended to be like a fix and flip you’re supposed to get it or in your mind at least get it put it on the market and it became a long term buy and hold.

David Senna (06:19.395)
Yeah, so what happened was I had a lady that was in this mortgage program, which I don’t know a lot about, she was enrolled in like six months. They, you know, they tracked her credit, taught her, you know, how to manage her bills. And I rented to her because she wasn’t finished that six month. And what happened is her car broke down and instead of her fixing it, she just let the bank take it. So at that point she couldn’t get a mortgage. So I ended up keeping it and I still have it today.

Dylan Silver (06:49.816)
that’s a good situation. think, you know, a lot of times people look at what’s the quickest way that they can make a buck in real estate. But the biggest regret that I have continually from folks I’ve talked to on this show is selling their early properties, which doesn’t seem like you did. So congrats on that holding a lot of these deals.

David Senna (07:11.447)
Yeah, so I didn’t sell that one, but I’ve done 24 flips since then and I’ve sold every other one of them. But you’re right, I regret selling them.

Dylan Silver (07:26.158)
24.

24 flips, what’s the secret to doing a good flip? Is it all in the buy? Is it in the contractors? Is it managing timelines? What’s the secret to doing a good flip?

David Senna (07:37.029)
So, you know, this is kind of crazy. But when I walk into a house, I get a feeling in my stomach of whether it’s going to be a good flip or not. And if you told me that you get a feeling, I’d probably say you’re crazy. But honestly, I get a feeling. But what’s what’s really the key for me is I have a standard for everything. So my first flip and my wife’s huge help on this, you know.

I picked the house, she comes in and she designs, you know, this is what we’re going to do. But all our finishes are the same. We use the same color paint. We use the same type of flooring, the same same type of countertop. And that goes up to houses that are, you know, back back at that time under 250. Right. Then the finishes change. You’re to go to granite. Now I found that even with the lower starter homes, I still put in granite. But

The consistency of knowing what material we’re gonna use saves a lot of time because it’s not like, you know, what kind of flooring and then you do the next one, what kind of flooring. We already know what kind of flooring we’re using. We already sourced the best price and it’s just automatic from that.

Dylan Silver (08:55.672)
So in effect, in a way, it’s good to not have to make so many decisions. I think I’ve spoken with flippers, and one of the issues that they come across is each project is like their baby, but they don’t have standards. And I shouldn’t say standards. They don’t have standardization with the finishes. You mentioned the finishes, right? So then you can kind of customize your way into analysis paralysis, and then you have other issues.

Flips are already hard enough, as you know Dave. You take down one wall and now you’re looking at something entirely different. And then, not to mention, you have to sell it when you’re done. So what happens if it’s sitting there? How have you navigated some of those difficulties?

David Senna (09:36.631)
So just going back to standardization, because I just want to point out one thing. You always run into, OK, do I need two gallons of paint or three gallons of fennis? Right. So if I know I’m going to use that standard gray or standard beige, I’m buying five gallon buckets. And I don’t care whether I need a gallon or not. I still have that bucket for a bucket of paint for the next flip. And by the way, I use the same color in my flips that I do in all my rentals.

So it’s continuous, same color, Sherwin-Williams, you know, I’m buying in five gallon buckets. Same thing with flooring. I don’t have to guess, do I need 10 boxes? Do I need 20 boxes? I’ll just buy 20 boxes. I know I’m gonna use whatever’s extra on the next flip or one of my properties. Can you repeat the question? I’m sorry. what you asked.

Dylan Silver (10:27.16)
Sure, When it comes to managing exits and when it comes to managing a budget for a flip, how have you handled a lot of those difficulties? Because of course, when you take up the subfloor and you’re looking at foundation issues and when you tear down a wall and now you’re looking at something else entirely, a lot of flippers, this can be how they make or break their deals. And then when you’re looking at

properties that could sometimes sit on market. How do you prevent or manage some of those risks?

David Senna (10:58.789)
Yeah, so I take the more or less worst case scenario. So, you know, some HUD properties, you know, you have to pay $100 or whatever it is to un-Winterize them, then the winterizes again. So if I’m looking at a HUD property, I’ll go in and just assume that, you know, the boiler is bad, the hot water heater is bad. And if they’re good, then that’s a bonus. But I worked that into my offer.

As well as anything that I think is structural. I’m not cheap where I’d rather pay you know $350, $500, whatever for a structural engineer to come in and sign off on it. I don’t like taking walls down. I try to prevent that because then that opens up you know you might need permits things like that and it pushes the timeline out. So and like you said you take the wall down you don’t know what’s behind there. So I do do an extensive

inspection if I think I need to bring an inspector in which most of the time I don’t and I’m not recommending to not bring an inspector in if you don’t really know what you’re doing but I’ve had enough experience with you know home improvement stuff that I kind of know like the big red flags and you know structural I think is something that will kill you kill your profit so I always bring in we have a guy right here local that is really good so

He’s very helpful and he’s quick. I might call him today and say, I need your help whenever can you get here? And it’ll be this afternoon or it’ll be tomorrow or he fits me in quick, you know.

Dylan Silver (12:36.696)
Now, in all of these deals, you’re having to buy them correctly. Are you finding these deals on the market? Are these off-market deals? Are these pre-foreclosures? How are you able to find these deals, 24 deals?

David Senna (12:51.557)
So a lot of them are right in your face. you know, my answer would be different if you asked this question pre-COVID because there was flips everywhere, right? You had to, you could choose and then buy what you wanted. Now there’s a big trend of everyone wants to be investor or a flipper. You know, they see the shows, everything’s glamorous, but you don’t see the issues behind the scenes. I cast a big net. So,

I think the most important thing is marketing as well as relationships. Every attorney I talk to, everyone that knows me knows I flip houses. I’m always asking, is there any opportunity to buy anyone’s house? know, the grandfather’s going in a home, your grandparents. And I also, you my business is kind of intertwined. So.

let’s say that someone, you know, needs to get rid of their grandparents house. I’ll be interested in flipping it if I can. But if the price isn’t right, they have the opportunity to sell the house. Or if they don’t want to sell the house, then I can kind of consult with them and say, all right, this is what you need to do if you want to get a better price for it. Or, oh, you want to live in the house? Well, this is what the things that I would really update. And I don’t charge

for giving that consultation, that’s just something that I do to help everyone, right? So I have the knowledge, a lot of people don’t, so why not just help them out and things come full circle.

Dylan Silver (14:31.64)
I want to talk about commercial. You mentioned commercial before we were hopping on here. So it’s big jump to go from single and multifamily to then commercial. But what type of commercial deals have you been involved with and are you looking at?

David Senna (14:45.029)
So I have a retail, a building that was retail. was an old Christmas tree shop and not the national brand Christmas tree shop, but it’s a building that I acquired when I bought a two family and a single all in the same property. It was a bank on property and I was gonna put a baseball training facility in there.

assistant coach to Eastern State University was gonna it was his idea to come in and do something and then he got a head coaching job. So so that fell by the wayside. But now I’m looking at putting storage in there. So a good friend of mine that I use for my banking does storage facilities as well. So I had lunch with him and just asked, hey, what do I need to do? Get the ball rolling. And he was a huge help to get that started. So besides that,

I don’t have a lot of commercial experience. went to a seminar, 2011 was a big year. I went to a seminar on mobile home parks, storage facilities back then, and I started to look, but I never pushed it. But now those are really popular now. So I haven’t, excuse me, I haven’t really focused.

Dylan Silver (16:01.378)
I will say with the land seems land, new builds, storage facilities, mobile home, RV parks. You seem to be, I’ve had so many guests on the show talking about this. It’s not as HGTV level as like doing fix and flips, but I’ve seen so much of it. It’s really piqued my interest and I’m out here in Texas. So we’ve got lots of free vacant land, So it’s definitely an interesting thing.

Working with fix and flippers, also know that it’s more difficult to be a fix and flipper now than it was previously. So a lot of these other strategies are becoming more popular.

David Senna (16:40.585)
Yeah, so that, you know, buying the land and I kind of just, you know, one thing went to another. You know, the parking lots that you put together for like tractor truck parking is very low maintenance, pretty low start to get in. And it makes some good money. So I’m exploring that a little bit and.

You know, one thing that I found is I got to try to figure out how to invest in real estate in a way that no one else is doing it right or less people. So try to get away from the flips. I’m not going to give the flipping up, but try to get away from the flips. Try to look at the land, right? So there’s that book out there, dirt poor, and I’m not promoting it. haven’t read it yet, but I need to get that book. I need to find out what’s, what’s going on with that. What’s the idea behind it? Right. So

To me, you I would I always thought you’re gonna buy land you’re gonna sit on it you’re gonna pay taxes it’s not making you any money and it’s kind of a waste but if I can create a you know parking lot for trailer trucks or RV storage or both right something like that then that sounds like a good way to go if you can make decent money with that.

Dylan Silver (18:04.942)
For sure. Dave, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go maybe to reach out to you or learn more about your business if they’re out there in Connecticut?

David Senna (18:15.203)
Yeah, so you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, I’m on LinkedIn. My office is right here in Manchester, Connecticut. If you Google my name or Center Realty Group, you’ll find me. I’m always, I’m around, I’m easy to find.

Dylan Silver (18:33.326)
Dave, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

David Senna (18:36.449)
Absolutely. Thanks for having me again.