For Armando Nava Jr., choosing not to reenlist in the Marine Corps meant beginning a new life, one where he describes feeling like an infant with the added torment of not knowing who he was “outside of the uniform.”
What followed was post-military depression, little direction and an excess of bad habits to “numb the pain," he said.
It’s a story Nava tells unabashedly and often when discussing his trajectory to Dallas-based real estate agent and, now, developer with $150 million in sales and a collective nearly 3 million followers across his Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channels for Nava Realty Group.
“Once you take off that uniform, it’s like, ‘Who am I?’ You forget your first name. It was always Sgt. Nava. Coming back to the civilian world, you’re trying to adapt. How do you have a conversation with people anymore?” Nava, 29, told Homes.com in an interview.
Organically growing a large social media following was something Nava had done before.
While on active duty with the Marines, Nava became a figure in marketing and recruitment through his YouTube channel, NavaTheBeast, which had more than 500,000 subscribers, making him one of the most-followed military service members on social media.
Nava shared his daily routines, workouts, and physical challenges, speaking openly about his experiences and inspiring others to join the military branch. Although online, some fellow Marines disparaged the young 20-something, while others were inspired, and the Marines saw him as a way to connect with a new generation of potential recruits. The Marines stationed him in New York to work in social media marketing.
When it came time to reenlist, he said his supervisors promised, “You’re at the pinnacle of your career. You’re about to do some big things. We’re going to take you places you’d never see in this world,” said Nava.
Instead, he chose to start a life with his eventual wife and real estate partner, Pearl Nava. He deleted NavaTheBeast with little warning and entered “the hardest transition of my life,” where he credits his wife and religion for motivating him to find himself again.
Sharing that experience is something often seen in his posts, as are realistic day-in-the-life videos featuring Pearl and their newborn daughter, interspersed among tours of for-sale luxury mansions that garner hundreds of thousands of views regularly.
Most of Nava's deals result from his online presence, he said, and it has allowed him to expand into new home construction, where he envisions literally building up his hometown of McAllen, Texas. The Navas are working on their third new project, with the first two homes sold to their social media followers.
For his two-time online success, Nava said it’s all about showing the authentic side and not complicating things.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
How did you transition into real estate and incorporate social media?
I got into apartment sales and it was so gruesome the first couple of months. I was trying to conversate with people and it was really hard. But I just kept showing up.
I said, "I’m going to keep making these calls. I’m going to keep talking to people and figure out how to talk again." Long story short, I became the No. 1 agent in the firm. Some agents that were there for 10 years before were asking, "How is this guy doing it?" Social media.
We were using social media to promote apartments and I rose up. And I wanted to move on to the next thing and help families find homes.
Real estate has been in my family lineage: My dad, my mom, my uncles, my brother — everybody is in real estate.
I thought, "Nobody’s showcasing properties online." So, I started promoting houses, communities and development projects. And I got rejected a lot.
They didn’t want me to post their houses or to do videos. I thought I had already proven this twice with the Marines and apartments, and this will take off one day.
There was a Realtor who let me film his “luxury” listing in 2021. I posted it online and it got over 10 million views overnight. That one catapulted us.
I had months of calls, leads coming in, so I went all in. I started posting five, seven times a day, filming every single spec or inventory that a builder has.
You say authenticity and range are the best ways to grow a following, and even liken it to a convenience store, where followers can pick and choose the content they’d like to see. Why is this important?
The home tour is typically geared toward showing the property in a professional way. But then we don’t limit ourselves to that piece of content because you pigeonhole yourself into posting that type of content forever and people won’t know who you are.
The key is to diversify, and even if the videos don’t get as many views, that’s OK, you still do it because that’s how you’re going to build a loyal audience. People want 1 million followers, but if you get 10,000 solid followers, you’re going to be set for years.
And what about equipment? Your videos of luxury homes are high quality. Do agents need high-end equipment and high-end homes?
Actually, 99.9% of all my content is generated by my wife and I. Every house tour that we’ve posted, unless it’s a celebration video with a client, has been through our iPhones, a gimbal and a DJI drone. That’s it.
You need to become the content creator. Don’t get me wrong: There are times where you’re doing a listing and of course, you need videography there, but you can’t be doing professional videography every day. You’re going to end up broke.
Those are the moments for listing videos when the seller wants to see that really nice professional video. But if you have a phone and a gimbal, you can knock out properties every single day. There are so many properties out there that builders, like myself, want you to go film.
Agents don’t need luxury homes. I didn’t start with those homes. The homes I started with were very small starter homes. I sold a lot of those affordable homes before I got into the luxury space.
A luxury client expects a different type of knowledge and wisdom. You can’t jump into it right away. You need to do the reps before you can start taking on that type of clientele.
Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence and social media. What’s your take?
There are definitely some benefits, but you can never automate the human soul. You can never automate the person that God has called you to be and who you are as a person.
People are just looking for the easy way out. AI is the easy way out: You plug it into a system and it spits out content for you. But guess what? If everyone’s doing that, nobody’s going to be consuming that. I can smell AI videos from a mile away. I can smell AI ChatGPT prompts.
I'd rather you pour from your heart, and even though you have auto-corrections, I’d rather see that than a full-blown ChatGPT prompt. I stand firm on the foundation that authentic content will always win, no matter what.
I don’t use it to make content, I don’t use it to reply to people. I’d rather take the time to respond to them with a genuine message.