A silver BMW pulls to the curb.
A smiling Devin Navarro, classic blue suit, crisp white dress shirt, rose-gold Hublot on his left wrist, emerges, ready to seal yet another deal.
Devin’s only been a real estate agent for two years, but he’s already way ahead of the game.
Devin’s a real estate agent in NYSpace Finders’ Astoria office.
He completed the 90-hour licensure course in only two weeks, and it took him only a year to rack up the 3,000 points needed to make him eligible to become a broker, a status that will, among other things, increase his sales-commission rate. (The only reason he isn’t a broker yet is because it requires three years of experience; he has a year yet to go.)
Devin, who is 26 and who looks like a linebacker and speaks like an Oxford don, has always been passionate about everything he does, which is why it’s not surprising that he’s poured every ounce of energy into his career.
Real estate may be his current love, but it sure wasn’t his first.
Devin, who starts each day with the goal of meeting at least 10 new people, is a South Jersey kid.
He grew up in Brick, which is about nine miles from Toms River and which Devin describes as “a middle-class working town where everybody knows each other.”
And, he adds, “where I was different from all the other kids; my mother and father are Black/Puerto Rican. I was the only Hispanic-Black kid in the predominantly white community.”
Devin’s family, which eventually included a significantly younger brother and sister, was tight-knit.
“My mother had me when she was 18, so she moved back home,” he says. “We lived in the same house with my grandmother, my grandfather and my uncle.”
When he was getting ready to enter third grade, his great-grandmother died, and he and his mother moved into her apartment in Co-Op City in the Bronx.
Devin loves Astoria and can’t wait to meet you.
He was sent to a co-ed Roman Catholic elementary school on City Island.
“I didn’t really fit in there either,” he says. “The way I spoke and the way I carried myself were different.”
But he didn’t let his distinctness hold him back.
In Manhattan Village Academy, a small public high school in the Flatiron District, he created a niche for himself.
“It was very hard to get into the school, and the work was very challenging,” he says. “I was always busy with sports and activities.”
Music and dancing became his new passions.
“My mother forced me to dance,” he says sheepishly. “In particular, she wanted me to learn Salsa. I got really good at it. I traveled to competitions in Puerto Rico, on cruise ships and at festivals.”
(Devin declines to demonstrate any moves. It was, he says, such a long time ago …)
Devin spent the rest of his free time playing the drums.
“School started at 8:15 a.m., and I showed up every day at 7 to practice,” he says. “Instead of eating lunch with the other kids, I practiced, and after school, I practiced from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. when they kicked me out.”
His music teacher took note and enlisted the then 16-year-old Devin to play in his jazz band.
“My mother had to pick me up at the clubs at 1 a.m.,” he says. “When she asked me how much I got paid, I told her that I already spent the money on food.”
In college, Devin played in a band, and during his third year and much to his mother’s disappointment, he dropped out to go on tour.
Before the pandemic, he was in the restaurant industry.
“I thought I was going to be Phil Collins,” he says, grinning. “I went on the road with four of my best friends. We traveled from Maine to Florida with a trailer and a Dodge Durango, playing 25 shows in 30 days.”
When the tour ended, Devin moved back home to Co-Op City. He went back to school, this time to study computer engineering and math.
“I believe in the work ethic above all,” he says, adding that while he studied, he took a job in a restaurant, starting out as a dishwasher and working his way up to bartender/server.
“I wanted to be an entrepreneur and have my own business,” he says. “I wanted to learn everything I could about the restaurant business. The owner became my mentor.”
What he calls “Marine-style business training” paid off: The owner started a second restaurant, with Devin as manager.
Things had been going so well – Devin met his wife at the restaurant, they have two daughters who are 4 and 1, and they live in the Co-Op City apartment he grew up in – that he never envisioned doing any other type of work.
The pandemic had other ideas.
“The restaurant was closed for a year,” he says. “I knew I had to pivot, and I also knew that I could apply the skills I had learned anywhere.”
It was his mentor who connected him with the founder of NYSpace Finders.
Real estate, he says, was a logical choice because it’s a career that allows him to operate his own business while still having the security of working within a firm.
“I had to learn everything very quickly because I had no choice,” he says. “I was thrown into the fire; it was sink or swim.”
Devin has some lofty goals, and he’s more than willing to put in the eight-days-a-week work to achieve them.
“I want to be the King of Queens in the real estate world,” he says. “I want to be as big as I can be.”
Nancy A. Ruhling may be reached at Nruhling@gmail.com; @nancyruhling; nruhling on Instagram, nancyruhling.com, astoriacharacters.com.
