
English: What is your nationality?I am Dominican, born In Santo Domingo.When did you consider yourself a success?I’ve had several stages of successes in my life; one was learning to operate the entire family restaurant business by the time I was 13 years old; which taught me how to make life long decisions.While operating the business I also rented a store front and started to sell clothing, in my twenty’s I owned a night club. I never knew what career path I was going to take but I always had entrepreneurial spirit. At 23 I made my first real estate investment and purchased 4 buildings and rehabbed them; during this time I would constantly be asked if I sold homes.It didn’t take me long to realize how under-served our Latino community was; especially w/ legal documents and procedures and so I got my Real Estate license and with the support of my wife and brother I opened Betances Realty Group in 2008.Today we have been able to rebrand our company to Berks Realty Group to gain a more regional footprint in the market place, attract more agents to our company, insure success and longevity and continue to be the number 1 independent Real Estate Company with per agent production.All while continuing to stay on top of changing technology and education to better serve our clients which is our priority. I am grateful for my staff and Realtors who believe in a culture of non-selfishness and team work, this is key to our mutual successes.I help and encourage my team to invest in real estate whether it’s in Rental properties for long term residual income and positive net worth or immediate financial reward thru property flipping, it’s one way we give back to our community. I feel a sense of success because I look around at our industry and know I have inspired agents and people to join the business.Our company is not your traditional work place it’s not always about Real Estate it’s about helping each other on what needs to get done that day.What keeps you awake at night? My business and my kids keep me awake at night. I have made a lot of decisions in my life based on them, a lot of times in order to make a decision, I will ask myself what would I want my kids to do in this situation.I think a lot about my business as well because I know a lot of families depend on our company’s success to provide for their family.What are your success habits?People would be surprise to know how much I read; I read every day. I don’t really have a set time just read whenever I can have break, thanks to social media reading has been made very easy and reading is very important to me because it allows me to learn every day, I believe when you stop learning you stop living. Read, Read, Read!
What advice would you give other people looking to get into business?The first thing I do is review my idea with my wife; it’s very important to me to have her blessing and support especially because she usually improves on my ideas. In my case it is true that behind every strong man there are stronger women.My wife Monica has been instrumental in our success. My best advice is to get educated it’s very easy to learn and research with the help of social media and search engines these days. Make a business plan and surround yourself with people in the industry your interested in.Finding a way to put yourself in the environment you eventually want even as an intern is a smart move. I believe in the janitor to CEO mentality, be willing to do whatever it takes NO EXCUSES.
What advice would you give other people looking to get into business?The first thing I do is review my idea with my wife; it’s very important to me to have her blessing and support especially because she usually improves on my ideas. In my case it is true that behind every strong man there are stronger women.My wife Monica has been instrumental in our success. My best advice is to get educated it’s very easy to learn and research with the help of social media and search engines these days. Make a business plan and surround yourself with people in the industry your interested in.Finding a way to put yourself in the environment you eventually want even as an intern is a smart move. I believe in the janitor to CEO mentality, be willing to do whatever it takes NO EXCUSES.