Welcome to the Purpose Driven Investor, where we build more than portfolios. We build communities. I'm your host, Robert Howell, a real estate investor and founder of Define Communities. Each week, we'll explore how purpose and profit connect through affordable housing, land home packages, and impact-driven investing. If you're a lender, land seller, or a partner who believes money should move with meaning, you're in the right place. All right. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Purpose Driven Podcast. I'm your host, Robert. And today's episode is all about purpose and building something bigger than yourself. Today, I have Ray on the on the call on the podcast, and he's the founder of True Prevail Ventures. And he's a serial entrepreneur with a mission to uplift humanity through both business and social work. Ray started his real estate journey in 2019, cutting his teeth and flipping homes, learning the trenches of renovation, financing and deal structure. And today he's stepping into a new phase of his investing journey in manufactured housing and land home development. What I love about Ray is that he doesn't just talk about purpose. He actually builds with it. His business is literally named after the mission true prevail around truth, integrity, resilience, and impact. So today we're going to talk about the evolution of Ray as an entrepreneur, what he's learned from the flip game, why he's moving into the land home development and what it really means to build wealth while you're trying to uplift people at the same time. So let's jump in. And this is my conversation with Ray. So Yes, sir. All right. Well, let's start, Ray, with your kind of where you started and kind of kind of what got you into real estate. So Oh, well. Well, I've done quite a few things, but my first time I remember I was about maybe 10 or 11 when we had an older home in our neighborhood and I saw some construction material and I sold that construction material. It was like metal because they used to make the old homes with like metal and they were really sturdy. So I sold it to the recycler and I made some money and that felt really good. You know, as a kid where you're not asking your parents for money anymore, you actually make it yourself. So, you know, that was the first time like I actually like kind of did something entrepreneurial. And then after that, like in school, when we had projects where, you know, they were like business related, it would really like get me excited. So since then, I've always looked for opportunities in different places, try to flip stuff, buy and sell, look at markets, import some stuff. So always have been looking for opportunities. And then right about when I was 17, 18, I met another business partner of mine who was in the car So, um, you know, I started a dealership with him. We used to flip cars, uh, work with exporters to export them out. And then with that, um, real estate. Was, uh, something that naturally came with that, you know, flipping cars to flipping homes. Um. And my family was always like, you know, involved in real estate as well. My grandfather was a civil engineer. So I kind of had it in the back of my mind. And so just dwelled into it, um, you know, got my first property at a foreclosure auction. It was a condo and, uh, it was exciting, you know, the, the, the whole project, the challenges Love that. That's awesome, man. Started young. I think I started, uh, I think it was in fifth grade, maybe, maybe earlier, uh, with a snack shop in my parents' basement, they had a little outside door and we put a little table in front of the door and people could come, other kids could come by snacks. So that, that was the early start. Um, all right. I love that. So talk about 2019, uh, the year that you jumped into real estate. Why, why was that the right year? Why'd you jump into it? And, Awesome. So I actually studied criminology in school. I was studying business, but then I figured at that time, the professor that was teaching us, they didn't really know how business worked because I was running a dealership at that time. I was marketing. And as I was listening to the professor, I just realized they don't know what they're talking about. They're just reading off of a book. And I can read this book in a weekend. So instead of getting a formal education in business, I wanted to focus on doing business, being out there, getting the experience. And so then I shifted into criminology. I wanted to finish my education. And it's something I was interested in. So I finished criminology. And while I was doing that, I was getting my real estate license. Because, you know, I worked with law enforcement for a short time and I quickly realized working a job wasn't for me. Like waking up in the morning, you know, getting a paycheck and some people would drag their feet. Some people would be really like hardworking, but you get the same amount of like pay, you know. So it wasn't very motivating. For some people it works great, but for me personally, it wasn't. So then I got my real estate license. And while I was getting that, you know, I learned about auction.com, where they have foreclosure properties. And, you know, I went to a couple of foreclosure auctions, and then finally I found one. You know, I got a property from there and got through the eviction process, you know, and just Love it. Love it. All right. We'll talk about flipping and the details of that here in a minute, but let's start first with the Awesome. So I have two companies, actually. There's True Prevail Ventures, there's True Prevail, and then there's True Prevail Humanity, which is a charity side of it. Oh, cool. So, you know, I came as an immigrant to America when I was very young. And I'm a Muslim, you know, I came from a Muslim country. And when I came, you know, the whole 9-11 thing was like really hot at that time. It's not so much now, but back then it was. And, you know, I would listen to some TV shows and they would say, you know, these people are violent and they're terrorists. And I was like, really? I didn't know. I didn't know I was a violent or terrorist. You know, I come from a country where everyone's Muslim. My family's Muslim. So I learned about my religion. And the more I learned about it, the more it made me a better person. It made me more merciful. It made me like stay away from all the vices that we, you know, get into when we're young. And that's when I realized, and even while I was working with law enforcement and studying criminology, that all this is political. It doesn't have anything to do with faith or your connection with God. So that's when I, you know, decided to use business for social work to uplift people because, you know, that's the truth. And that was my truth, you know, to to like really live as a good, faithful man, you know, we're not perfect, but we can try to do that. And that's true, like spreading peace, you know, feeding the poor because there's so much, you know, trouble in the world and we can do so much for others. So, you know, that's that's the mission that I'm on to use business for for Love it. That's great, man. That's good. There's a lot of good that can be done through business and especially through real estate investing. Um, all right, so let's talk about how you learned the game through house flipping and Okay. So the first, the very first flip, um, it was interesting. Um, You know, it was a lot of money and I was paying cash for it at the time. So, you know, I had been buying a lot of cars at auctions, you know, so I was kind of used to it. But then like when you're spending more than 100 grand, you know, just in an instant, you know, you kind of like feel nervous, you know, but, but, you know, you got to have faith and you just got to go for it. And so, so I went for it and then after that, You know, it was a learning experience, like going through the eviction process. And what I learned was, you know, being an investor is very valuable. You know, people look at, you know, yeah, successful investors make money, but we actually solve problems where like, like government can't solve these problems. And, you know, other people like realtors or like, you know, people that are selling on the retail market, they can't solve them. So like for example, for the first flip, that elderly woman, you know, she had lost her husband, and then she lost her like, you know, you know, the home to like the bank, you know, and so when we went there, I tried to like do a cash for keys with them. So you just go in there and you see their living situation and like really like, you know, makes you realize that there are people that are struggling all around us, you know, and we don't know about it. And as an investor, you can help help them. You know, you can you can be creative in your solutions. You can help them move out. You can talk to their family. We kind of have that creativity, you know. So That's great. Yeah, you take situations and turn it for the good. That's that's wonderful. All right. What's what's your biggest early Biggest early mistake that I made in flipping. I would say I bought a property and it was a great learning experience. This was in Ohio and I was in Virginia. It was a brand new market for me and I bought the home on market. And some realtors are really good with their words. So the projections they give you, you kind of have to just almost disbelieve them. You don't have to fall for the realtors. So I bought that property and it was a struggle flipping that property. Instead of three months, it took six months. And then the area was just You know, it was a different market, so it was hard to find good contractors, you know, that will do the work for you and stay on budget. So, you know, that was a great learning experience where the 1st time, you know. The contractors came and then I got the materials. then the next day they just disappeared. The materials were gone. It's pretty common in this business. So you just have to be really sharp in this business as well, dealing with contractors, making sure you're on top of them. So it took six months and I broke even in the end. I didn't really make a profit, but I learned a ton. And from there, I started going into mobile homes, manufacturer homes, because as I was doing that, I started like, you know, looking into affordable housing. So that that Love that. That's great. So talk a bit about how that experience really helped to shape you and OK, well, you know, the way it shaped me, I would say, is You really have to look at quality and you have to deal with quality people. The cheapest price is not always the best outcome. As investors, we're always looking at saving money wherever we can. But we don't have to go for the most expensive thing, but don't go for the cheapest thing either. Go for someone maybe in the middle, someone who is going to be on time, who understands what you're trying to do. And in the long run, I think Yeah, I think that's so true. And if my contractors and subcontractors are listening today, they would all raise their hand and agree. You know, I've gone through instances where, you know, maybe you're feeling like, hey, the budget's a little tight. I need to bid this out and go with the cheapest guy. And it always ends up. hey, you should have hired the guy that maybe is in the middle, maybe not the most expensive guy, but the guy that was in the middle that has the most experience for sure. It can be a good, strong, loyal partner for the long term. All right. So let's talk about why purpose matters in business. I got a few questions here to go through. You know, sounds like you're very purpose driven and you're investing, which I love and where we try to be every single day. But as you think about purpose and success, what defines success for you personally in business? What defines success for me, I would say. you know, you have to really make a good impact in the world. And for me, that comes through my faith, you know, in God and doing good, because this life is really short, you know, and we get really busy and like everyday activities, and we kind of forget where we're really headed. And in reality, we're just on a short vacation here in the world. And it can end at any time. Countless people slept last night, they didn't wake up this morning. And nobody knew that that was going to happen. So, so for me, like, I always have that in my mind, you know, every day that this could be my last day. So I want to live in a way where I come comfortable, you know, living with that. And, you know, everyone's got to go one day or another. So. how much money we make, how many positions we have, really, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. What matters is along the journey, how many people did we uplift and how much good we did in business and in the world. And for me, I've seen when I make a profit, and I can help other people like elevate their situation, it really feels good, you know, when you like, like, spend some money for someone like, in a different country, like it doesn't take much, maybe $1,000 to start a small business for someone, you know, and that there you go, like, that's livelihood for their family, you know, or someone who has like, like a housing problem. And for me, like I'm actually looking at this right now as to like how many flips we can do in order to give one home to like a family that deserves it, affordable living. So something like that, where, you know, maybe we can do like 10 homes and then the nine homes and the 10th one could be free for someone. So, so purpose is extremely important. It drives me every single day. That's great. And how do you balance that, that mission of Yeah, that's a great question. Um, so for me, like I have a clear way of defining it. Like I have my charitable organization and then I have my business organization. Right. Um, and when it comes to business, you have to be, you know, sharp in your negotiations. You have to be, um, you know, a good. businessmen, you know, in other words, don't be soft, you know, in business, because that's not charity, it's business, you have to stay focused, you have to stay on track, you have to be like, keep your accounting good. And then when you're charitable, Like that's when you do charity, you know, that's when you actually find the people who deserve it. And, Yeah, that's good. And, and, you know, I think there's a lot of times people confuse the two, right. It's like, Hey, I need, if I'm a charitable guy, I need to be soft in business. That's not necessarily the case. Right. Um, cause that's not running Is there ever a time where you had to choose between the Yeah, so many times. It happens irregularly, especially when you're dealing with people that are going through a hard time and you're buying their home. I try to help people out as much as I can, but at the same time, I have to run a business as well. And working with other investors, I have to protect their investments as well. So it happens regularly. And I try to help out as much as I can while staying focused on the numbers and just being polite to people. For example, if there was one mobile home that I had seen, it was in a park. And the person had severe depression and the house was like, pretty, like pretty bad condition, you know, um, and that was eye opening for me. So I couldn't really offer him anything for it, you know, because I knew it was going to take a lot to like turn this thing around. But at the same time, like I knew he was going through a hard time. So what I did was I gave him a little bit, you know, just to help him out. But that was out of my pocket. It's not like the business, you know? And so it helped him, you know, in some way. I hope it did. But at the same time, like, you know, we were on track on our business projections and. everything worked out so and I would say it's not always about the money like you can also be kind to people you can show them respect you know and treat people good and you know Yep. That's great. Yeah. So it's a balance every time. All right. So let's talk a bit about your transition into land and manufactured home. Sounds like you've got some experience already, uh, with, uh, working on used manufacturer to use mobile homes, but you've recently trans, uh, transitioned into land and new manufactured homes. What caused that shift from, from flips over to kind Okay, so yeah, I did get into, you know, manufactured homes and parks, and I still actually do them on the side. I'm still getting leads for them, you know, all over the country. I get leads from different states as well. So like, that's been good and fine. But one of the things is, you have to like work in a park that's investor friendly. And there's lot rent every month that you have to pay. And so for me, I wanted to really delve into something where we own the land and we don't have to like, you know, work with a park because there's a lot of parks that are not investor friendly. Um, or, you know, maybe they're, they say something in the beginning and then, you know, they say something in the end, maybe it was a different employee and then they changed the employee. So things kind of change and. So that puts you in a tough position, you know, and you have your investment here. You don't want to be you don't want to have your back against the wall, you know. So that kind of that really like Got it. Yeah, that's I think that's a great point. Control your destiny a little bit further. So what surprised you the most about What surprised me was the time we're living in right now, 2025, things are expensive. And this is the market, this is the time to get into affordable living. Because there's waves up and down in life, like the dot-com bubble that we had, and now everyone's talking about AI. So with affordable living, now is the time to go after it. Maybe in the future, it'll be different. We don't know what we'll have, maybe smart homes or whatever. But for now, I see this being a good opportunity That's great. That touched my next question. What do you think the biggest opportunity in I think making affordable living and Providing value for a cost effective price, you know, with with these homes, like, you give a good amount of land if you have a good amount of land and these manufactured homes. They're not the same manufactured homes that, you know, people think about the stigma. I mean, the industry has changed now. They're super nice. Like they're even nicer than, you know, stick build homes. In some cases, you know, you walk into it and you can't believe like this is a manufactured home, you know? So if you get a home like that for a great price with great land, I mean, that's, that's That's great. All right. Talk about your company, True Prevail. And Oh, man. Yeah, I'm really excited, you know, to, to evolve. So True Prevail Ventures is, you know, True Prevail is the social enterprise that, you know, we're focused on, you know, making a movement to uplift people, and to make health products, you know, and for like, the health products that we sell, like, we will, you know, give some to people who are in need, like in other parts of the world. And so that's the True Prevail side of it. True Prevail Ventures is for real estate and for investments. And that's kind of where, you know, the capital comes in, you know, and like, you know, supports the other company as well. And so, you know, very excited about it. In five years, I see I want to like have a consistent flow of deals going on, you know, have good capital partners that I'm actually looking for right now to do these types of deals. And, you know, hopefully, God willing, we're going to like be working in neighborhoods like, you know, doing entire neighborhoods and, you know, installing these manufactured homes and providing affordable Love that. Yeah. Love it. Love it. Love it. All right. So we talked about five years from now, and I think it's good to look in the future. If you could go back to when you started in 2019 or before that, what I would say go harder, keep putting the reps in, just go for it and lean on others. There's a lot of good people in the industry that you can learn from and they're willing to help. So have good mentors, have good people around you who have actually done it. Don't fall for every single YouTube video because you gotta know who are the real players and who are just the noise that's out there. But when you find the real players, provide value to them as well, be a helpful person. And what works is successful people, they don't always compete against each other, they collaborate. So if there's opportunities where you can provide them value and they can provide you value, That's what you guys do, and you move forward together. So that's what I would do, Yep. That's, that's huge. I think the, the go harder and focus on more reps is big. Right. And, um, yeah, I think I would add too, is to go harder and in a specific focus area. Right. It's like, Hey, niche down, make this your specialty, become the expert and you'll learn every single day. If you, if you keep at it. Yes. All right. So we've got some rapid fire lightning round questions here to conclude. And we'll go through, we've got five questions here and just want to go through those and then we'll conclude and you can tell people how to be in touch with you. But first question here, Well, the first big win would have been my first flip. The one that we bought at foreclosure, which I mentioned earlier, that was the first big flip and it was a profitable one. My hardest loss would be the one that I mentioned earlier, the Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What's Waking up early and praying, spending 30, 40 minutes just reflecting on prayer, not thinking about business or anything. And then as I start my day, I put all Love it. That's huge. All right. What's the best book that The best book that I read recently would Well, he was the biggest real estate investor, you know, and I think he just recently passed away. But he, his family actually immigrated to the States as well. And, you know, they had been prosecuted, you know, because they were of Jewish descent. And then as he came here, you know, he learned real estate and he learned affordable living, like affordable housing. When people didn't know anything about it, he learned the numbers and he made some really huge investments. And in that book, he really talks about risk, how you have to be comfortable with the risk, how when the noise is really high, when everyone is following a certain direction, you have to you know, walk the other way. You kind of have to know where the market's headed. And, and also what he said was building rapport with people. It's not always about money. It's about solving problems. So, so yeah, it's a great book. I would really recommend it. You know, there's some great tips in it. A number of them that I even wrote down with myself, you know, So, yeah, I think he said being emotional is the graveyard for investors. You know, like you have to stick to numbers, you Instead, you can get some gray hair. Yeah. All right. What's purpose-driven investing mean to you? Last question. Purpose-driven Really know why you're doing something and have your why as to why you're doing it. And don't focus on the money. Focus on investing in yourself. Focus on investing in your family and your faith. And what you're doing for work, just don't do it for money. Do it for the business because you enjoy the journey, because you enjoy the game. You're like, I am in real estate because I love real estate. It's not because I'm after profits or whatever. And I think That's purpose for Got it. All right. Well, hey, listen, I appreciate you joining. Yeah, of course. You can follow me at True Prevail Ventures on Instagram, on Facebook, on LinkedIn. That's our company. And you can send me a message, you know, and either I Great. Well, Hey Ray, thanks again for joining and for you guys that are listening. If today's episode resonated with you, make sure you go and connect with Ray. He's a great guy. I've known him for a bit of time and have enjoyed working with him and kind of watching his journey. Um, and make sure you go and check him out on Instagram, check him on Facebook, LinkedIn. You can watch his journey as he continues doing flips and land and manufactured housing with purpose. Thanks again for joining and we'll see you on the next episode. Thanks for listening to the Purpose Driven Investor. If today's episode sparked an idea or inspired you to make an impact, connect with me at howellandsons.com. Join our community of Purpose Driven Investors who are helping families find stable homes while building real returns. Because when