Want to Get Started in Real Estate? Ryan Serhant, star of the TV show Million Dollar Listing New York came to my office recently.
He’s a real estate agent and last year he did over $800 million in deals which brought him over $20 million in commissions.
I asked him how a guy steps into a business that is so extremely competitive and becomes so successful.
He told me that the barrier of entry for sales is down on the floor.
Want to Get Started in Real Estate? It’s so easy for ANYONE to get into the business.
If you had to go to school for 4 years and take on a lot of debt in order to become a salesperson or become a real estate broker, guys like Ryan Serhant probably wouldn’t have gotten started.
But since Ryan didn’t want to bartend, and it was just 50 or 60 hours of a class along with a couple hundred bucks to become a licensed associate salesperson in New York City—he was able to join the 80,000 other people in the Big Apple as a real estate broker.
By being licensed you can advise people on $1 billion deals if you could find somebody that wants to do them with you…if you know what you’re talking about.
At the bottom, you start on rentals.
Ryan Serhant’s first deal was a $1,100 a month lease in Korea town—all his early deals were leases for around $1,100 a month—and his commission would be one month’s rent.
Before this and before Million Dollar Listing, he grew up outside Boston and went to college in upstate New York wanting to do theater.
He wanted to be an actor and that’s what brought him to New York City.
But acting wasn’t bringing in any consistent pay, so he HAD to do something different.
“There’s a lot of things you can’t control, but how hard you work isn’t one of them.” —Ryan Serhant
Ryan told me that others can be taller, bigger, smarter, faster, come from a better-connected family, come with money, go to better schools…but you can always show up earlier and you can always show up later and simply outwork them.
The waking up, the making the phone calls, doing the follow-up, the emails, picking yourself up after you get knocked down…it’s all a choice that you make.
There’s a lot of people that are dead broke in New York City, not knowing how they’re going to pay their bills each month, not knowing if they’ll make rent.
That’s why your passion also has to be able to pay the bills.
Ryan Serhant’s passion was to be an actor, but he also wasn’t willing to be homeless for it.
Ryan Serhant Tells His Story:
I think those two years trying to act and being rejected over and over and over helped build up thick skin in me.
That’s why 84% of real estate agents quit in New York City in their first year, because they can’t handle the rejection.
Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.
I prepared my whole life to be in front of a camera, and I thought it was going to work one way and it did NOT work that way.
And then this opportunity came up when Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles decided to do a New York franchise in 2010, they put out a casting call and I saw it only because it was in the real estate newspapers.
I’d totally given up on acting two years prior.
And I saw that and was like, “Wait a minute…”
They asked, “Are you the greatest real estate agent under the age of 30?”
And I’m like, “Yes I am.”
I just sold myself.
I knew how to handle myself in front of the camera AND actually did real estate.
And so I think that helped whittle it down so that when they cast me on the show, I just had to really step up to the plate of being the greatest real estate agent ever.
It really put a gun to my head to go out and make more phone calls, talk to more people on the street, follow up with more people…because the last thing I wanted to do was to fail on television as a real estate broker.
Ryan Serhant made the claim, “I am the greatest.”
Notice he did it publicly but also in his own head.
So if YOU are not out there telling people over and over, whether it’s on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube, then no one’s going to know what you stand for.
Especially when you’re in sales, if you’re selling anything—whether it’s tires or real estate, people will know you for what you SELL.
“As a salesperson, your ability is not just in talking to the client about the product, but it’s knowing the product.” —Ryan Serhant
If you want to improve in sales and business, expand your career, then come to the upcoming 10X Growth Conference.
We just announced that Mario Forleo will be speaking.
If you’re not familiar with her yet—she has some BIG ideas and it shows with who she is rubbing shoulders with:
Be great,
Grant
