Success in life comes from determination, hard work, and persistence. If anyone has proven that lately, it’s Reno Davis, a successful Miami-based entrepreneur. From earning just $20 an hour as a landscaper only a couple of years ago to making up to $10,000 at a minimum with each deal wholesaling real estate in Miami, Reno Davis now lives the life of a celebrity, with the expensive clothes and fancy cars to go with it.

However, it didn’t come easy, as Reno will happily tell anyone. When he started in real estate wholesaling, Reno says he had to do a lot of rigorous field work from sunup to sundown, calling prospective clients to get a deal and driving for dollars.

Driving for dollars is where you get in your car, drive around your neighborhoods and search for potential homes to get under contract to sell that competitors haven’t noticed. “I just wanted to get my first deal done,” Reno says. “I hustled and I hustled, and I hustled.”

Reno says he’s always had an independent mindset toward life. “I knew ever since I was little that I was going to be special. Being able to be self-dependent is everything and not having to rely on anyone is all I ever wanted to achieve.”

Life in landscaping was tough but starting in real estate was also a challenge. However, even though the tough times, Reno forged ahead. “I knew I could be something bigger, and I wanted to explore my options. I knew that I wanted to be my own boss.”

After he quit his old job in landscaping in 2021 at the age of 20, Reno discovered the opportunities abundant in the real estate business and went in head-on without looking back. “I stumbled upon the idea of getting into wholesaling real estate,” he says retrospectively. In real estate wholesaling, a wholesaler contracts a home with a seller, then finds an interested party to buy it. The wholesaler then contracts the home with a buyer at a higher price than they have with the seller, and they keep the difference as profit.

Since Reno had no prior knowledge of the business and how it worked, he devoted himself to reading up on a lot of materials to equip himself with the proper knowledge. The first thing about wholesaling real estate that intrigued Reno was that he didn’t need any capital to get started. But even though that made some things more accessible, he still had to put the sweat equity in. It’s what you have to do if you want to succeed in the real estate business or any business for that matter.

Reno Davis

Reno recalls, “I was watching YouTube videos every day, trying to figure out how to get my first deal. I was booking one-on-one calls with people who’d been doing it for a long time just to get a good understanding of the game. The key is to reach out to people who’ve been there and done that. One thing about me is that once I get an idea in my head, I’m going to attack it head-on, and I’m going to accomplish it.”

Reno set out to build his business by taking what he learned from courses and YouTube and applying it to his current structure. It took about three weeks to get it right, and in the end, Reno closed his first deal. He closed his next deal shortly after, and it’s only ramped up from there. So far, he averages around three deals a month, and he’s done over thirty deals within the past year alone.

Today, Reno Davis, who describes himself as a hustler and a go-getter, says he doesn’t go out on the field since he and his partner have hired workers to take care of that part of the business. “I’m so deep in the game that I don’t have time to go out in the field that much anymore. Our employees get us leads on possible deals, and then my partner and I take care of the rest and close the deals. And on top of their hourly wage, our employees earn a bonus if a lead results in a successful deal,” he states.

Speaking about his plans for the future of his business, Reno Davis says that he’s most likely to go into commercial real estate — buying offices and leasing them out. Drawing from his experience, the rough road he’s been on, and his success so far, Reno Davis can be summed up in one (well, two) words: persistence and success.

“My advice to someone is that you have to be persistent and take action.” Although Reno still lives primarily in Miami, he now owns another residence out in Tampa, which he visits a couple of times a month when he has to unwind and take a break from the hustle and bustle of Miami.

Written in partnership with Luke Linz