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As kids, we all do dumb things sometimes. We get into trouble, we take risks we normally wouldn’t, and much more. Dom “Don’t Give a Flip” Summers lived through a very difficult childhood where he did not heed the advice of many adults around him. This brought him to a very near death scenario.
“I’m just a kid from the hood that did dumb stuff my whole life. I was shot as a 19 year old and the doctor told me I must be here to do important things because I nearly died. In my head, he was lying because 72 hours later, I was back selling drugs.” recounts Dom.
Dom eventually found real estate while he was doing time for crimes he did not commit. He realized that real estate was the way out for him and made a promise to himself and God that if he got out of jail, he would dedicate his life to real estate to turn things around. That is exactly what Dom did as soon as he got out of jail.
“It wasn’t until a year later that I picked up a real estate book called Flip Houses like your Hair on Fire by Mark Whitten. I had a lot of time on my hands because I was locked up with 5-6 different cases from guns to drugs and even a stolen car, which wasn’t me. I can say that was just the wrong place, the wrong time. With all that time on my hands, I was just reading and made a promise to god that if he can get me out, I’ll do real estate. Fast forward to 2012, I made my first real estate deal at 2085 E Kingston Street Philadelphia Pa 19134 and made 2k. That deal changed my life!” exclaims Dom.
Dom is now a full time real estate investor. He buys and sells properties and works with some rental properties. Despite his successes, Dom still faced numerous challenges. He was young and did not feel like people respected him and his abilities. In addition, he felt a lot of self doubt in his own ability at first. He used his mindset to overcome a lot of this doubt.
“One of the biggest obstacles I faced was self doubt and not believing in myself. In addition, I was trying to make things perfect like a business card or a website, but it’s the service that counts. I also had trouble talking to homeowners because I was young.” says Dom.
For people trying to start their own business, Dom recommends finding a mentor who can teach you about the business that you are trying to be a part of, so that you can learn from them and their mistakes. Dom says he was able to differentiate himself from others by simply being himself.
“Being myself makes me different. Also knowing it doesn’t matter what business you’re in. It comes down to marketing and sales. If you don’t market for leads and know how to convert them to customers, you’re going out of business; it’s that simple. You still need good service, but that is pointless if you don’t have customers for business. Find a mentor that’s doing the same business and learn from their mistakes even if you have to pay because a good mentor will make you level up and hit your goals within a short period of time.” comments Dom.
Though the pandemic has slowed things down a bit, Dom still has numerous projects planned for the upcoming year.
“I’m working on a few multi family units in the Philadelphia area. 6-10 units in a high end area of the city, but I’m the happiest when I’m in the process of buying a piece of land on my old block where I was raised. I am in the process of building 25 low income units for my community.” remarks Dom.
To find out more about Dom, you can follow him on Instagram @realestatedom.
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