We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Devinne & Justin Bravoco & Balunsat. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Devinne & Justin below.

Devinne & Justin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

-Sacrifice – there are many parties, events, vacations, social gatherings that we missed along the way as we were building but we would to it again if need be. -Surrounding yourself with like minded people is so important. Being around other like minded individuals who ‘get’ you and can challenge you and force you to step out of your comfort zone, learn another way when you only saw one way. Your network is everything – mentors, coaches, other investors – these individuals will help you get from one place to the next, they will challenge you, support you on your hard days and be your biggest cheerleaders.
-Understanding yourself – it’s important to not try to be someone that you aren’t. To truly understand who you are and what your values and morals are so that you can build upon that in your business.
-Being misunderstood because you want to be successful. I think there’s a grey line between what success really is and what it means to each person can be different.
-Challenging the status quo
-Daring to be different
-Being able to take criticism and being open to it
-Enjoying the process. Throughout building a business one of the many things so many people say is to enjoy the process but when you’re in the thick of it, sometimes it’s really difficult to do just that. So taking the extra time to step away and truly see where you were and where you are today and to enjoy that process is really important.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Justin and I both came from the hospitality industry in Manhattan. Working in NYC was always a dream for Devinne, We both climbed the corporate ladder, was making great money, had teams surrounding us but were both unhappy, left not feeling fulfilled. Wanting more, wanting time, was tired of feeling a hamster in a hamster wheel, tired of traveling and working long hours for someone else. Wanted to be financially and geographically free. Justin got sober and it kind of put life in perspective for us. It showed us that life is very fragile, beautiful and there’s so much that we could do so why continue to spend so much time for someone else’s business when we could be building one of our own. We currently flip luxury homes in Northern NJ, build luxury homes for clients in Northern NJ, do design work and project management for clients throughout NJ and are building a vacation rental portfolio in The Catskills. One main thing we’re most proud of is that neither of us had this background. We started with basically no prior knowledge and just educated ourselves through mentorships, coaching and surrounding ourselves with others who were successful. We never gave up, through all the ups and downs.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Relationship building is everything in this industry. The buyers of our first flip are now our really good friends. Throughout the years we have grown closer, he now takes all our photos and videos for our business, is in the works of redoing our company website and helps create reels for social media.

Brand loyalty is really important to us. We came from high end luxury hospitality in Manhattan. We know and love luxury. In our portfolio in the Catskills, something we pride ourselves in is that we know high end hotels, what people need, how to ‘stock the house’ with all the amenities that they would need and how to provide great customer service. On our airbnb’s, that’s exactly the feedback that we get in our reviews. People are blown away by all of the above and we constantly get asked for links or where we got certain items in the house or how they literally didn’t have to bring one item there, that we thought of everything. That in and of itself is the biggest compliment we could ask for.

In regards to our flips or new builds – often times we’ve been asked why we don’t try to cut costs on materials or fixtures and the main reason is our brand and our reputation. We never want to be known as your investor who cuts corners. We want to be known by if you buy a Just Divine Properties home, you are buying quality. One of our buyers mentioned to us once that his neighbors home was built by another investor and often times he’s asking our buyer if something broke in their house or if there’s water in the basement. Our buyers answer is always 5 years later after buying a JDP house, they have never had any issues and that right there is quality.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Inflation and supply chain issues are really hard right now. Global disasters like a pandemic or a war in Ukraine, these life two for example change the way of the current market. Instead of giving up real estate all together because these real life situations, we learned to pivot and still do what we love but in a different way. We had to change with the market, change with the supply and demand, continue to stay flexible and change as needed. In the end, this avenue might help us and make us even more profitable. It forces you to grow, change your strategy. Right when you thought something was working, these life events happen that forces you to pivot and what you’re pivoting in might be even better for you and your business. In this situation, we are in the process of pivoting from high end flips to building and design work specific to homeowners. In this newer model, we are able to provide the quality customer service and work that we can provide now just with a homeowner instead of finding our own properties and covering those holding costs.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/just_divine_properties/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justdivineproperties
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinnebravoco/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/justdivineproperties https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-balunsat-83962834/

Image Credits
Kwame Henderson