How Oliver Taylor Survived the 2008 Crash and Built a Real Estate Investing Business

Oliver Taylor (00:00)
I totally agree with you. Sometimes a negative could turn out positive. And I think what it is, I accidentally, most investors now, they’ll buy a property and keep it for like seven to 10 years and sell it and make the money. I accidentally got into that and figured it out accidentally. And now I can see everything now, like all the mistakes I’ve made in the past. And that’s what’s helping me with the fix and flips.

Scott Bursey (01:59)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast, everybody. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we’re talking with a true mover in the investment space. We are thrilled to have Oliver Taylor, the founder of Destiny’s Properties, joining us. Thanks for coming on the show, Oliver.

Oliver Taylor (02:16)
⁓ Scott, thanks for having me.

Scott Bursey (02:18)
It is just a pleasure. Oliver, if you could paint us a picture of your entry point of your career and what’s your main focus today?

Oliver Taylor (02:28)
My main focus is to get my company more exposure than they more exposure.

Scott Bursey (02:35)
Absolutely, absolutely. And now you’re a seasoned veteran. Can you tell our listeners how long you’ve been in the game?

Oliver Taylor (02:43)
I’ve been a game over 20 years. ⁓ like I own at one time over 10 rental properties. I probably flipped over 20 houses already in the times and coming to every Georgia area.

Scott Bursey (02:56)
Okay, all right, wow. That tenure, I’m sure you’ve had some peaks and valleys. Let’s dive in on that. Maybe you can share a story or two of some of the low points and some of the high points or some struggles and some tribulations that you’ve had over your ⁓ illustrious career.

Oliver Taylor (03:04)
yes.

back in 2008, I guess when the colony was bad, I had 10 rental properties and all the property value dropped. So I was probably in the hole over $2 million. And instead of me selling the houses, what I did is I just kept renters in there and just paid it. So that was probably one of the lows. I just kept renters in there and just kept on paying and I eventually got out of it.

and the market got better, then I started selling some of our properties, but that probably was one of the lows. But I just held on to the properties and it’s almost like stock. You don’t sell them by the way, just hold on to it, cause eventually come back.

Scott Bursey (03:59)
It sounds to me that your vision was in the long game. And when you have that sort of focus that will get you through the difficult times.

And Oliver, a lot of times what I have found with speaking with individuals such as yourself is those times where things might be on the lower side kind of revitalize a person. And it turns out to be a negative can oftentimes turn into a positive. And that sounds like what’s happened in your situation.

Oliver Taylor (04:31)
I totally agree with you. Sometimes a negative could turn out positive. And I think what it is, I accidentally, most investors now, they’ll buy a property and keep it for like seven to 10 years and sell it and make the money. I accidentally got into that and figured it out accidentally. And now I can see everything now, like all the mistakes I’ve made in the past. And that’s what’s helping me with the fix and flips.

So that’s why I’m like,

I have not lost anything. I hope I don’t lose anything, but I’m always real good of identifying the property and making that profit.

Scott Bursey (05:58)
And sometimes the stars are aligned, but when those stars are aligned, capitalizing on that opportunity is so critical.

Oliver Taylor (06:06)
And I totally agree with you.

Scott Bursey (06:09)
And I gotta ask you, Destiny’s Properties has established itself with a very targeted approach. Can you share what specific niche or asset class you focus on and what led you to specialize in that area?

Oliver Taylor (06:27)
Um, um, that’s probably came from my daughter, Millenane, which is just these. So that’s where that derived from. And I like that time, the time I think, I think in 2003, that’s when I established in the 2004 I established for, um, the okay. I’m telling you reason why. So when I was renting houses to people and I was having problems of them paying the rent because they know I was the landlord. So what I did got smart and create a business. So when I come to, when I come to these.

Scott Bursey (06:32)
cool! Awesome!

Oliver Taylor (06:55)
these potential tenants, they see that business, they know it’s all business. And when they ask me certain questions, I will respond to them as like, I will get back to you and I’ll talk to the owner. Even though I’m the owner, I’ll get back to you. I look in the mirror, I’m not lying. And I ask myself a question, I come back with them. So that’s why I savage that as for my rentals. And then now I took it to fix and flip.

Scott Bursey (07:17)
And Oliver, you know, to be honest, that clarity and focusing on a distinct asset type is absolutely key to minimizing risk and maximizing returns. Focusing and being specialized is so critical.

And that is awesome. I gotta also ask you, this has been on my mind, Oliver.

What winning recipe does it take to stay in the game for 24 years? What has been your philosophy, your unique touch that has allowed you to stay in the game now for 24 years?

Oliver Taylor (07:52)
Okay, me, it’s just, before I was into rental property, I used to manage, I played basketball, college basketball. All my brothers, I’m originally from New York City, Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. So we all, everybody that played with college ball, know, to play college basketball. My brother was a Big East MVP in 91 for Seagull Hall.

⁓ and my, ⁓ my cousin Stacey Castle, whose son plays for San Antonio, Stefan Castle, the point guard, we all came from the same. So some of this came from where, you know, it’s still when I’m growing up in New York and I, I, when I came from there, I also became a manager for managing artists. I have the most popular artists in the music, like dance songs. I had like the most popular artists. So all that, that’s where all that came from. And I just incorporate all that.

You know where I came from, you where I went through and that’s why you know I feel I have a recipe. I have not, you know, lost anything. I never lost any house. I flip, I make the right decision most all the time and you know I make the least or every flip. I’m making over $30,000 or each flip or more.

Scott Bursey (09:43)
Thanks for sharing those critical granular steps. And ⁓ that’s really cool that you came from the background that you have. know, being around that sort of talent kind of can rub off and it sounds like it certainly has in your case.

Moving beyond the acquisition, once a property is closed, what value add strategies or operational improvements do you implement to maximize the property’s value and increase the net operating income?

Oliver Taylor (10:16)
My approach is when I flip, put quality. I do everything quality up to standards. I do the crown molding. I do the sinker cabinets. I put the flooring. I make sure I put everything that looks top of the line. that’s how I most of the time I get the value at all the time. And then I have a real estate realtor that’s in place, June Hyde, that

You know, I identify most of the properties I find. They don’t find it for me. I find it myself. I give it to her and I put offers on it. And like she makes sure I have the constant place before I even start to probably I need to know the value before I, you know, before I sell it. And most of property I try to stay within 30 or 40,000 and repair value. So I have to flip it real quick and turn it back around. And as I was telling you before, do, most of my flips are done in 30 days.

Scott Bursey (11:03)
There you go.

That’s remarkable. Maximizing NOI through operational excellence. That’s the core of successful long-term investment. That’s awesome. Oliver, every company hits bottlenecks. What was the single biggest hurdle Destiny’s properties had to overcome in its journey from a small operator to a scalable firm? And how did you learn from it?

Oliver Taylor (12:09)
I think as we were talking about with the rental property, that was probably the only downfall I had during the market and to overcome it, like I said, I just kept a tenant in there. And I think back at the time, I know a lot of the best was selling, they losing a lot of houses. I had 10 at the same time. I lost no property. All I had to form was just keep somebody in and pay the rent. And then at the time, I’m gonna give you this key, at the time they had the state of income.

Most of my houses were interest only. So I had a $200,000 house. My rent was like $400. I mean the mortgage, excuse me, $400. And I would rent it for like $1,200. So I was making enough money to cover. What would they say? Well, I paid Paul. If one month somebody didn’t pay, I could maintain it. That’s why I was able to maintain it. Yeah, and that would probably be my downfall. But I stuck with it. I just had something in place.

Scott Bursey (12:59)
Absolutely.

Oliver Taylor (13:05)
You know, and I thank God that he lose anything.

Scott Bursey (13:08)
And that is a mark of a true champion. Those ups and downs that one experiences through, you know, 24 years of business and coming out on the positive end of things. That’s, that’s, I always love to hear about that. And that’s great advice on how to sustain. And Oliver, looking ahead, what is one piece of essential actionable advice you would give to real estate investors who are aiming not to just survive?

but to truly thrive over the next, oh, let’s say 12 to 18 months.

Oliver Taylor (13:44)
My good advice is relationships. Relationships save you money. So you build that relationship, you just, you you never know you might need that person to get you through this next hurdle. So that would be my advice, like relationship, build that relationship and you never know when they might need it.

Scott Bursey (14:02)
Absolutely, those relationships are everything in this business. Now we were speaking a little bit beforehand about you’re able to call somebody if it happened to be 10 o’clock on a Saturday night to have them fix the issue. What’s the key to establishing those relationships over the long haul?

Oliver Taylor (15:03)
I think with me, I’m hands on. So everybody I know, like the workers I work with, I’m there, we joking, we having fun, nobody bigger than nobody. We just having fun, I’m engaged. know, sometimes they try to kick me out because I do too much, but I’m engaged and I build that relationship. So I could call any of the workers I know, they will go out the way and what’s the key? When you get somebody to do something, I pay them immediately. There’s no way in.

And that’s what they love about me. I’m not waiting to pay you next week. I’ll pay you immediately. And that’s what keeps me going.

Scott Bursey (15:37)
Okay, and that’s some great advice there as well. And this has also been in my mind, Oliver. What’s your vision, your goals down the road, let’s say 10 years from now? What’s your long-term plan as of right now?

are you looking to grow? Maybe you can elaborate on that. Your vision over the next 10 years. Where do you see your company in the next 10 years?

Oliver Taylor (16:03)
my vision is, so I have to flip at least 10 houses a year. You know, that’s the minimum 10 houses a year. I see my direction now, like, for example, I’ve normally do only my properties, you know what mean? So I had met my dentist and I used to tell her about flipping, you know, and she wasn’t, she didn’t know I did all this stuff. So now she got me to do at least five of her properties.

And I see that I’m coming from my property and like helping somebody else. So now I put people in a place to get her house and then I make a little revenue off of that. So I didn’t want to go in that direction, but I’m being forced. So my goal now, I’m changing things. I think I would help other people out, like other properties, because I could get things way less than anybody, labor and everything less than anybody, where both of us could make a profit.

Scott Bursey (16:55)
Awesome, awesome running efficiently. That’s Very good advice everybody Oliver Taylor of Destiny’s properties Oliver we love fostering connections here at real estate pros for the listeners who want to follow your journey or collaborate with you What’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

Oliver Taylor (17:15)
I got on a website which is destinysproperties.com You can reach out there or you can go on my email which is [email protected] ⁓

Scott Bursey (17:35)
Awesome, awesome. Thank you for joining us today, Alvar.

Oliver Taylor (17:37)
And then also I do have social

media, is destinysproperties on Instagram and destinysproperties. on Facebook also.

Scott Bursey (17:50)
Excellent. And also on that note, your daughter, Destiny, is she part of the organization now? That might be a little food for thought for our listeners.

Oliver Taylor (18:00)
At the time, my daughter was born. I love that name. She’s 20 years old now. She’s married, but I got my another daughter, which is Olivia, which her middle name is Grace. I took her to my last closing. I had a closing last week. So I haven’t been to the property, but they seem like they’re just not interested. And I don’t want to force nothing on them. But now, I think going forward, like I got a closing this week.

I’m bringing my youngest daughter with me with the clothes in. The next one get next week is coming. So I want them to see, you know, see. Because I showed her the check and she couldn’t believe it, you know. And she’s 14 years old. So.

Scott Bursey (18:38)
Wow. We may have another mastermind in the works here at Destiny’s properties. This has been an absolute pleasure speaking with you, Oliver. Thank you for joining us.

Oliver Taylor (18:50)
And Scott thank you for having me and I appreciate you giving me opportunity to share my story.

Scott Bursey (18:55)
And for our listeners, we appreciate you. If you got value out of today’s episode, please subscribe. We have more conversations coming up with exceptional operators, just like Oliver. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.