Hala Taha: [00:00:00] Hey, young and profiters, do you have big money energy? I know I certainly do. And if you do too, you're going to love today's episode I'm replaying episode 59 of the podcast with Ryan Serhant. Ryan is one of the most successful real estate brokers in the world. He's the founder and CEO of Surhant, a brokerage at the intersection of media, entertainment, and technology.

He's also an entrepreneur, best selling author, and star of TV shows, Bravo's Million Dollar Listing, New York, and Owning Manhattan on Netflix. In this episode you're about to listen to, we go deep on sales. Something that Ryan is incredible at. We learn the power of the follow up. And Ryan shares the secret sauce to his sales success.

His three F's. Following up, following through, and following back with clients. [00:01:00] In fact, Ryan once closed an 8 million dollar deal just because he kept following up. Ryan really opened my eyes in this conversation and helped me reframe how I think about sales. Sales with ideas like sales is the transfer of enthusiasm and showing up is 75 percent of the battle.

He's so good at what he does. I can't wait for you to hear this. If you want more from Ryan after this, check out my second conversation with him, episode 281, where I spoke about his three part strategy to branding. I'll put the link in the show notes. For now, I can't wait for you guys to learn from Ryan about sales, so let's jump right into it. 

Hala Taha: Hey Ryan, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. 

Ryan Serhant: Thank you for having me. 

Hala Taha: I'm so happy you're here.

It's not often that I get to interview a fellow New Yorker. 

Ryan Serhant: Oh, really? 

Hala Taha: Yeah. So tell me, how did you decide to start living in New York and, and starting your family here in New York? 

Ryan Serhant: Why New York City? I graduated [00:02:00] college in upstate New York and I came here in 2006 with a little money saved up because I wanted to do theater.

And I had never been to the West Coast really so I didn't want to go to L. A. and New York seemed like the best place to do that. And got a, an apartment with two of my roommates and we made a one bedroom into a three bedroom on 66th and 1st, and now I'm just still here. 

Hala Taha: Oh, so it's just by chance that you're here.

Yeah, 

Ryan Serhant: I mean, listen, New York is, and I say this all the time, like, I, I owe my, I owe my life to New York City. I mean, I owe my life to my mom, but second to my mom, I owe my life to New York City. Because without New York, I wouldn't have had all of the different opportunities that I had. Because I went from being like, in the same city, on the same exact block, I was passing out flyers, hand modeling, hand modeling.

Modeling pants doing a free piece of theater and renting apartments at the same exact time and meeting really really really Interesting intellectually curious people across the street. Yeah, and you can do it all in New York [00:03:00] City because it's a melting pot Everybody is here and there's unlimited Unlimited opportunity in this city.

Hala Taha: Yeah, 

Ryan Serhant: so I think New York every day 

Hala Taha: Yeah, New York is amazing, land of opportunity, I totally agree. You started off your career in New York City, like you mentioned. You were a real estate agent only because your acting didn't really work out right away. I know that you got killed off of a soap series. And, you know, you started off as an actor, and then you went into real estate in your 20s, and essentially you got this casting call for a million dollar listing, or you found out about it, and you ended up auditioning for them, and you got the part amongst thousands of other people who tried out, right?

So tell me about that point in your life, like, What was it like leading up to that point where you got that information about that audition and how did you just like take the plunge to go do it, even though you were just starting out, you really weren't an established real estate agent at that point from my understanding.

Ryan Serhant: Oh yeah, no way. You know, it's funny, like [00:04:00] right after you graduate, you, you kind of don't feel like you're an adult yet. You know, it's like this extended summer job that just keeps going and because I didn't go to grad school or go get a real job, you know, I was just living off of savings, which I'd done for the past four years in college anyway, and I was making ends meet by doing odd jobs and doing the soap opera for, you know, 500 bucks an episode type thing and um, it never really felt like, oh wow, I'm grown up.

I'm an adult and now I'm in New York City and I have to pay bills and taxes and have my life. Like it all just sort of slowly happens. But I put acting to the side because I just wasn't happy anymore. I try, the business of being an actor in New York City is brutal on your mental well being. You know, it's just hard.

Like, and you, and I would see actors who are. twice my age, you know, in their 40s and 50s and 60s who were still trying for their big break. And they were still waiting tables or bartending the same way they did when they were 19 or [00:05:00] 20. And it just, life goes on, you know, and you get comfortable with that monthly budget you got and you get comfortable with that job.

And then before you know it, 20 or 30 years flashes by. And I was so terrified that that was going to happen that I said, you know what, I got to make something. So I'm either going to go to law school, which I tried and totally bombed, he yells that. Or, you know, a friend told me, get your real estate license, it's basically acting.

You just have to turn it on with everybody and you memorize information about buildings and apartments, and then just walk into apartments, talk about how awesome they are, and, and that's it. That's basically it. I was like, well, that sounds stupid. Um, and so I got my real estate license and I was just doing rentals, and so I put acting to the side even though I trained to do it my whole life, so it was kind of like, oh man, failure.

Uh, now I'm a rental real estate agent in Koreatown in New York City, like is this why I went to college? And then there was a casting call from Million Dollar Listing that said they were looking for the best real estate agents under the age of 35 come to an open call, basically [00:06:00] The Hudson Hotel in Times Square and I went with 3, 000 people and until I went to that audition I basically was kind of treating real estate almost like my, like my make ends meet business.

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: You know, like I want to be able to figure out how to pay rent and not be stressed about money all the time and make my own hours and I was still, I was kind of like in a limbo period I guess I could say. Up until I got cast on the show. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. Set the stage in terms of how successful you are today.

Right. Let's talk in terms of numbers. 

Ryan Serhant: I don't know. I, I work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. I don't know if that's really successful or if that's terrible. There's a big price to pay, right, with success. Um, I would say that I sell about 2. 7 to 2. 8 million dollars worth of homes every day. 

Hala Taha: Wow. 

Ryan Serhant: We do just about a billion dollars a year.

And that's between, you know, Residential homes and commercial sales. I lead a team of about 64 people. We sell majority of our [00:07:00] real estate in New York City, but we do a lot in the Hamptons, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles. We do some stuff internationally, but it's super complicated, so I try to keep things based here.

Hala Taha: That's amazing. Congratulations. So, let's take it back to, um, uh, Your time, you just started on Million Dollar Listing. You were an inexperienced real estate agent. How did you use acting to boost your self confidence, to make sure that you had the right skills as a real estate agent? How did you use your previous experiences to then become a professional real estate agent or salesperson as you like to say?

Ryan Serhant: Big money energy. That's kind of what I call it. Like I, I didn't have the experience, but I knew I had to be confident in a room, even if I didn't feel confident. You know, and that, that all comes down to the energy that you have. So like when I went into that audition, I told them what they needed to hear.

And I wasn't uncomfortable. I wasn't nervous. I wasn't like, oh man, they're seeing right through me. You know, I walked in there as if I was [00:08:00] somebody who was in an audition, right? When you go, go to, uh, for an audition. You know, you're 22, but you're going to go audition to pay a millionaire real estate broker or a, uh, you know, an investment banker.

You put on a nice tie and suit and you go in there and you read the lines and you're a confident investment banker. So I did the same thing. Like, I wore my best suit and walked in there and said, I'm, I'm the greatest real estate agent that's ever lived. I am 25 years old. I don't know why you're still looking.

They're like, wow, this guy, this guy's maybe too confident. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: And it just sort of went from there. And then I. You know, Bravo and NBCUniversal, basically it was like a metaphorical shotgun to the head where they said, You've got to sell real estate, otherwise we are going to shame you to the entire world.

Like, if you fail, you know, at listings and everything, then we're going to put you on TV as a failure. And so that was, you know, like, fear is a real thing. So, like, the last thing I wanted to do is, you know, Be a loser real estate agent who couldn't sell anything so I worked my [00:09:00] ass off to sell all that stuff that first season I lost like 10 pounds from stress.

Hala Taha: Yeah 

Ryan Serhant: running around the city cold calling and all that changed was the fear of shame But we I sold a lot and from then I've used that as like my my wall my my fear of public failure 

Hala Taha: Yeah, 

Ryan Serhant: it's really what 

Hala Taha: So something that's stuck to me when you were talking is that essentially you had an affirmation like I am the best real estate salesperson, right?

So how important is the law of attraction to you in terms of your success and ensuring that you hit your goals? 

Ryan Serhant: I'm a big believer in positive energy, you know, that's why I said big money energy. I think that there are two types of people in the world. There are the people who get into a car and look out the window and see rain and clouds and there are people that get into the car and look out a window and see sun shining.

And even if it's raining, you get excited about the rain because you know it makes things grow. And I've always been one of those people, like, life is just too short to be negative and to be upset. Like, you can have bad days. I definitely have bad days. I get stressed out, I get angry all [00:10:00] the time, but at the day, those are fleeting emotional moments that I have that are in response to certain things that are happening to me.

But I am super pumped that I'm alive today, right? I don't have coronavirus. Everything's gonna be okay. You know, like, life is gonna go on. And we, I live in New York City. I sell 20 million homes for a living. Like, what? Like, I don't, I don't, I'm not a roofer. You know, I'm not working on the ranch. You know, I'm not in a, I'm not in a country where my rights get taken away from me.

Like, life is great. Life's okay. So. I put out that positive energy as much as possible, and selling is the transfer of enthusiasm, right? Like, I don't sell homes, ever. I don't think I've ever actually sold a home. I think the homes that I sell are the skeleton around the excitement that I transfer to people.

So my enthusiasm for a home is really what I'm selling. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: Because you're gonna buy a house anyway. Like you're looking for a house, right, you know? And so I'm gonna show you homes, if you're on the buyer side with me, that I think are great. And this one [00:11:00] that you like. I like it too. This is awesome.

Let's imagine you living here and your kids baby footsteps are going to be here and your dinner parties and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And let's talk about the deal and you're going to get a great deal. That's excitement and you get excited about that and that's when people open up their wallet. It is very hard for me to negotiate with someone's wallet.

Wallet, but I can negotiate with people's feelings all day long. 

Hala Taha: Oh, I love that. So, selling your enthusiasm. 

Ryan Serhant: Yeah, sales is the transfer of enthusiasm. That is all it is. 

Hala Taha: Very cool. So, let's talk about your work ethic. Previously, you said you work 16 hour days. I think you wake up at like 4. 50 a. m., you go to sleep at 11 p. m., something like that. Or you keep working until 11 p. m., if I, if I remember correctly. Yeah. Where did you get your work ethic from? Because I read that. You didn't really grow up poor or anything like that. You were upper middle class, and oftentimes, I was the same thing. Like, people think that you, you don't have a strong work ethic if you didn't grow up poor.

Ryan Serhant: Yeah. 

Hala Taha: So tell me, where did you get your work ethic from? 

Ryan Serhant: My dad, for sure. He made me do, me and my little brother, we had to do [00:12:00] manual labor jobs since the day I can remember. If we wanted anything, we had to pay for it ourselves. There was no allowance. You know, my first video camera, I had to save for. on my own.

Like, and literally, you know, what he would say is, you can make money doing anything. You just figure it out. And so I would do, like, the smallest things. Like, he paid me to pick up sticks, right? We, outside Boston, there's a lot of trees. And, you know, instead of getting, hiring a yard guy to come and rake up the yard and rake up all the sticks and branches, I would do that and pick it all up and he'd pay me per stick.

Um, 

and I just knew, I was like, wow, there's everything. Endless sticks. Like I could pick up all these sticks and my dad will pay me and I can't remember what it was. It was like, I don't know, I don't know, 10 cents a stick or something. But it added up, right? You pick up enough sticks, you can make a, you can make some real money.

And that's kind of the same idea that I have now. Like I look, I look at people like sticks. Like when I go out into New York City and I see millions of people on the street, like man, if I just picked up 10 of those, you know, my dad will [00:13:00] pay me except now it's not my dad. And he was always. He made me write an essay on the power of not being lazy when I was 10 years old.

Like, he really, really drilled into me the power of hard work because he My dad had his first baby when he was 18 years old. His mom died when he was 13. His dad diedsorry, his, uh, his brother died when he was 21. He raised his family basically on his own, put himself through college. Figured out finance, got himself a job, put himself through everything, and if he could do that, like, anything is possible.

Hala Taha: Yeah, you've got it easy, then. 

Ryan Serhant: I totally have it easy, yeah. 

Hala Taha: That's awesome. Yeah, hard work is literally a talent, I think, so kudos to you. 

Ryan Serhant: It's hard to teach, you know. 

Hala Taha: So there's a very popular saying that reminds me of you, that showing up is half the battle. Can you talk to us about the lessons you've learned in terms of showing up and how that's helped you become so successful?

Thanks a lot. 

Ryan Serhant: Yeah, you can't do anything if you're not there. I tell that to my team members all the time, my agents who come to me and they're like, well, I, I need more business. I'm like, I haven't seen you in two days. [00:14:00] What have you been doing? Like, oh, I've been busy. What have you been busy with? And I, like, will really drill into it, and people get embarrassed and nervous because they haven't actually been busy.

Showing up is, showing up is 75 percent of the battle. The other 20 percent is, is luck, and the other 5 percent is, is, You've got to be there. You've got to be in the room. You've got to be part of the conversation. You've got to put yourself out there. People have to see your face, hear your voice, shake your hand.

Like, that's what the world is, is all about. The deals that I do today are based on relationships that I started by being in the room 10 years ago. And the room that I'm in today will hopefully open up doors for me 10 years from now. When I'm 45, you know, I'll look back to 2020 and say, uh, thank God I actually went to work that day.

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: You know, like I went to a meeting yesterday as an example and I didn't really want to go to it. So I was like, why am I going to this meeting? It's like for some tech thing platform and they asked me to come and so a couple of people on my media team were like, hey, let's go and I was like, I got so much other stuff to do.

I [00:15:00] just want to like clean email and I got to make all these calls. But I went and at the end of the meeting I was like, Holy shit, uh, take back not wanting to go because I met three other people there, I got connected to two other people that are looking to buy apartments, uh, the CEO is actually somebody that I, I definitely, definitely should know, I just didn't pay attention to it, you know, and I feel like people pass those opportunities by all the time because they're like either, why, why should I go and waste my time or I don't know, it's not for me or oh, it's not going to work out.

So I put myself in as many different And, to have opportunities as possible because you never, ever, ever know. You never know. 

Hala Taha: That reminds me of something that you talk about often, and it's, it's some of your sales advice to have as many balls in the air as possible. But you actually have a lot of rules when it comes to these balls and the ball throwing.

So, could you just share this analogy with our listeners? 

Ryan Serhant: You know, the book, uh, Sell It Like Sir Ant, was initially called Balls Up. I sold it as, uh, to the publisher as Balls Up, and then Once they bought it and we were writing it, they came to me and they're like, listen, we need to talk. [00:16:00] I don't think these are the times when we're going to put a book on the shelves that says balls up.

But the idea is, it's kind of like my, my game theory for sales, right? Instead of spending all of your time on trying to do one deal, sales is all about having a pipeline. It's a volume business. I'm selling things right now and I'm sitting here at this table with you because I figured out how to leverage myself and how to continue to sell things and I sell lots of different things now.

But you want to have as many balls in the air as you possibly can and then figure out System and an actual system, right? A system for follow up, a system for discipline, a system for your daily routine that enables you to catch as many of those balls as possible. That way when balls fall, which is like a deal dying, or you don't get that job or that interview doesn't happen, it's okay because you have 16 others in the works.

And if you do that, then you're. Always driven by positive momentum and then you're living in the river, right? And it's like, like I grew up outside Boston, there are running rivers that are great and then there are these stagnant ponds that are gross and smelly [00:17:00] and have like dead things in them. You know, that's, that's what, that's what you are if you don't have things in the fire, um, and if you're not in constant motion.

And so, so that's kind of how it works and there's a whole system for it. 

Hala Taha: How do you ensure that you always have, like, a stream of opportunities? What do you do? 

Ryan Serhant: I meet five new people every single day. At least. Minimum. That is my job. I am not a real estate broker. I don't sell homes. My main job, when I think about it, like, what's my job today, is to meet five new people, get their contact information, Put it into my phone.

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: That's it. Those five people will then get my newsletters. I will follow them on social or they'll follow me. We will follow up with each other. We'll see how we can make different opportunities together for each other because the world is short, small, and we'll see what happens. You never know. And five times 365 times the last 12 years is a lot of people.

And I'm not [00:18:00] going anywhere. And so those people and oftentimes it's more people, you know, but if I haven't hit five because I've been stuck in the office all day or something, I will literally like go to the deli and just meet two new people or like go to Starbucks and I will, I will literally tell people, Hey, I'm a real estate broker.

I have a personal quota that I got to meet five new people every day. I've only met four. Can you be my number five? And people, when you say when you're dead honest with people, people are like, uh, sure, I guess. It's true. It's weird. Why do you do that? And then it opens up a conversation and now you're talking to somebody about your work ethic and this and like, Oh, actually my son is doing up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up.

Hala Taha: Do people recognize you now when you go up to them? 

Ryan Serhant: Now it's slightly easier, but no, not all the time. Sometimes halfway through a conversation, people will be like, you look familiar. I'm like, yeah, maybe, you know, they've seen Million Dollar Listing, maybe on like a jet Blue Flight five years ago, like you kind of look like that guy kind of from that real estate show.

But you also kind of look a little bit like Tom Brady, but not really. I don't know. Did we date? I'm like, no, [00:19:00] we definitely did not date, dude. 

Hala Taha: That's funny. Well, at least you still are like approachable enough and you, you know, you can still approach people randomly on the street. So from what I remember, you actually were a very shy child, right?

You grew up. I have some younger listeners who listen to the podcast. What's your advice in terms of getting out of your shell and becoming the confident person that you are today? Like you're super confident now. How did you change that? 

Ryan Serhant: Yeah, big, big money energy. I mean, I, I'm a big believer, like I said, in the power of positive energy and like a vision board.

So who do you want to be? What is that image of even maybe it's somebody, you know, maybe it's that cool kid in school, or maybe it's an actor or someone on YouTube, like print out that person's face and put it by your bed or in your journal or in your locker, you know, or in your car and just imagine like.

You can be that person or you can be even better than that person and [00:20:00] position yourself out there just that way and know that no one cares. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: No one cares about the way you feel. And if you are uncomfortable, and so for me, like I was overweight, I had really, really bad skin. I had premature gray hair from when I was 16 years old and I was super pale.

To combat the gray hair because I was really embarrassed about it. I would. Yeah. Yeah. Diet and then dark brown hair dye from the pharmacy is actually black. So I'd be like super white with really jet black hair, you know, riddled with acne, you know, with my little belly running around. And what I realized later on is all the things that I was nervous about, No one else was paying attention to, because all they were caring about was, was I paying attention to their crooked teeth.

I'm nervous that they were paying attention to my skin, but they're concerned that I'm paying attention to their really bad haircut that they got yesterday. And to me, I just met you. Your hair looks great. I don't understand. And so, you know, it's, it's remembering that no one cares. And what's the worst that can happen?

Something my dad told me that [00:21:00] really, Opened me up when I was growing up because I was too nervous to ask out girls or anything He's like, are you afraid that any of these girls are gonna punch you in the nose? Yeah, and I was like, I mean, I don't think so He's like, okay That's probably the worst thing that can happen is someone punches you in the face Because that'll physically hurt or try to like harm you.

Are you afraid any of these girls carry knives? Like no It's like North Shore Boston. None of these girls carry knives. He's like, okay so What's your problem? Just ask. What are they going to do? Say no? At least you know, right? And then move on. There's lots of other people. That's what the sales business is for me today.

I ask everybody, can I sell you a home? No. Okay, great. I'll keep you posted. Next, like it's 

Hala Taha: That's solid advice. 

Ryan Serhant: The worst thing someone can do is punch you in the face. Or send you to jail. Right? Or kill you. Like those are the three terrible things that could happen to you. Everything else doesn't matter.

No one cares. Like you carry yourself with the [00:22:00] confidence of the person you know you can be. It's inside you. You have it already. Just pull it out there and people are going to be excited about it. Put a smile on your face. Sell enthusiasm for who you are and people will be attracted to it. 

Hala Taha: Okay, so let's move on to your sales methodologies. You wrote a whole book on sales you mentioned before, Sell It Like Sir Hunt, and you currently run one of the top sales teams in New York and in the nation, Nest Seekers. Tell us, how do you effectively run that sales team?

Like, what are your general principles to, to be so successful with them? 

Ryan Serhant: No, man, just cry all day long. Managing people is really hard. What I would say is, uh, I don't have an exact system. My best system is I talk to every single person who works for me every day. Like, that's the simplest piece of advice that I could give.

And it's not on the phone. Some of them, it's on the phone. Some of it's by text. Some of it's just by social. You know, like an agent of mine posts a listing, a double type comment. They need to hear from me as a leader. Every [00:23:00] day, where leaders make mistakes is they don't touch base, like you have to think about everyone who works with you in some way, shape or form, like, or any regular relationship.

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: Imagine if I went home and saw my wife every day, but didn't talk to her because I was just too busy, didn't say anything, but deep down, I love her, but she would know. Something's up. Something's weird. How come he's not talking to me? Same thing goes for all your employees. You know, it's a little bit different, but it is actually kind of the same.

Um, and it's easy. You know, even just sending an email like that says you in the subject line and in the body of the email says are awesome. Hope you're having a great day. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: People appreciate that. It's like, and then you're, you're good for like the week with that person. And then you can talk to them the next day.

Little things, you know, little comments. Like it goes a long, long way. And then on top of that, like I have great people who work for me that manage, that help me manage problems and issues. You know, at the end of the day, like your issues as a leader and as a manager are never Thanks Dealing with good things.

No one ever comes to me with good problems. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: Right? [00:24:00] Like, if someone comes to me, it's because they couldn't figure it out on their own, and it's typically something bad. So most of my day is managing 60 plus agents and all their bad issues, right? And figuring out how to deal with it, and keeping them calm, and staying calm yourself, and trying to manage, and then trying to quarterback as much as I possibly can.

Hala Taha: That's great advice. I think being a manager, like you said, is all about, like, showing your appreciation and enthusiasm towards them, and ensuring that They're feeling great to do their job and feeling appreciated. 

Ryan Serhant: And knowing too, and not to cut you off, sorry, but knowing too that it is, like, you're all in it together.

Like, listen, if you're the boss, right, or you're a manager, even if you have just one person underneath you, they know that you're the boss. Like, you don't have to remind them. Like, they get it. Right? They know they work for you. They understand what the pecking order is. It's up to you to remind them that they work with you, not for you.

So, you know, no one who's ever worked for me has. I think you've done a great job, because who wants to work for anybody, right. 

Hala Taha: Yeah, they want to be part of the team. 

Ryan Serhant: Especially in sales. Yeah, they want to be part of the team, they want to be [00:25:00] part of the process, that you know, everything that everyone underneath you does.

For you, you make them feel like they're doing it with you and it's together, they will work ten times harder. 

Hala Taha: Completely. I know you have a lot of stories. 

You have a story that really showcases the value of saying yes. 

Ryan Serhant: Yeah. 

Hala Taha: With Mr. X. 

Ryan Serhant: Oh God. 

Hala Taha: Essentially, you, Followed this mystery man to Paris to land one of your first and biggest deals.

Would you share that story with our listeners? 

Ryan Serhant: Oh man, how much time do we have? I'll try to make it as succinct as possible. Like, one of my first listings I ever got was really, really overpriced. It was a listing on the Upper West Side, 45 West 67th Street. No other place. agent would take it because it was so overpriced, so that's probably why I got it.

It was worth like six million dollars and I listed it for eight and a half. 

Hala Taha: Oh wow. 

Ryan Serhant: So nice, nice and high. But that's how a lot of agents get business in New York City. You're the one who talks to a seller and you're like, yeah, all those other agents are stupid. Eight and a half for sure, [00:26:00] let's do it. Um, and if you have no listings, you know, like I did at the time, that's what I did.

And then you put the listing online, you put it on the internet, you put it out there to the world. And our company's always been really good at marketing internationally so that people could see listings all over the world. Um, and I got an email from somebody that said they wanted to buy that apartment.

And, uh, where could they send the money? I was like, well, this seems weird and scammy. Uh, but I had no other business at the time. I didn't know what to do. So I wrote back, uh, well, that's not really how we do it here, but happy to talk to you if you want to make an offer. And then he called me. I talked to him on the phone, so he had a real voice.

I mean, he said he wanted to make an offer and he can't remember, but he made an offer of like 8 million and I had no idea who he was or where he was from. He definitely was not from the United States. He said he was going to send me a proof of funds, which showed up the next day as a DHL piece of paper, um, with a photo of his accountant on it that just said, Mr.

I call him Mr. X because I can't give out his name, but Mr. X does not commit to things that Mr. X will not [00:27:00] commit to. And I was like, uh, all right, good enough for me. Sure. I have an 8 million offer and I presented it to the seller and, you know, as a real estate agent, you have a fiduciary responsibility to vet all your clients and make sure you're presenting real offers.

And kind of went out on a little bit of a limb and the seller was like, well, is this a real buyer? I'm like, yep. Yep. How do you know? They sent me a proof of funds. All checks out. All is good. Eight million dollars. We should counter. So we countered. We got the deal done at 8. 3, and I connected him to an attorney, and the whole while being like, this is the weirdest thing ever.

Some random dude on the internet, this other country, just contacted me because he wanted access to my bank account to send me money. 8 million and now maybe he's going to buy an apartment. This is what New York is all about. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: And he signed a contract and then disappeared. And I had no idea what happened until, you know, everyone got really, really upset and really angry.

And what happened to this guy? Where's the money? There's no deposit. And people kept telling me, listen, this is what people do. Right? They take contracts out for properties in New York City, they sign contracts, and then they go and they [00:28:00] scam people out of money. So they go to people in different countries all around the world and they say, Listen, I got a 10 million apartment in New York City, I have a contract for 8.

3 million, give me 10, 000, come in on it with me, we're gonna make tons of money. And they do that to like a hundred people. 

Hala Taha: Oh, wow. 

Ryan Serhant: Right? 

And they make a lot of money that way and fast forward like, I don't know, four or five months or so, I'm on the Westside Highway and his attorney that I introduced him to calls me and says, you're not going to believe this, but I, I just got a wire for 830, 000.

You are officially in contract on 45 West 67th Street. It's like, holy moly. Wearing contract on the biggest deal of my entire life. This is insane. I called the seller. They couldn't believe it. They thought this guy had totally just disappeared. And then he disappeared again. So we had no idea what was going on.

Signed a contract and then sent money and then disappeared. And so then we couldn't close. We didn't know what to do. And in New York City, you have to sign applications. You have to do board packages, right? To fill out applications to get approved by the condo board and all that. And you wouldn't do it.

[00:29:00] You literally wouldn't respond. And, um, Months and months go by and I'm trying to figure out how to stay on top of them, how to follow up. And I sent him a BBM back in the day when we all had Blackberries. It said, uh, something like, Hey, I know you mentioned you have a home in Paris. Um, I'm actually going to be there tomorrow if you want to meet, uh, and go through the application and schedule a closing date.

Not thinking you would reply, but just like, just trying to find ways, anything, just like, dude, please respond. Like you're my biggest deal ever. I need this closing. Why? Please don't be a, Con artist who's stealing money from everybody and he wrote back right away. It's like, okay, that sounds good. Tomorrow 8 PM and gave me an address.

It's like, oh shit, I'm not in Paris. I'm in New York city. I have no plans to go to Paris whatsoever and I have no money to get there. So I scraped together like some savings and figured out how to get to Paris literally in like 18 hours notice by flying. What was it like? air lingus to dublin and then ryan air i think it was from dublin to paris and i went to the location he told me to go to which was a [00:30:00] bar and then he didn't show up for hours and hours and hours and like crying into my baguette and i didn't know what to do because i was leaving in the morning um and then he walked in the door with like an entourage of people that was just totally crazy and he didn't want to talk about the apartments but so that at least i knew he was real But he was a bit scary, and all of his friends were very scary people.

And he didn't want to talk about the apartment, he was like, yeah, he just wanted to see me drink. Shot after shot after shot of tequila. And I'm like texting my mom on the side, I'm like, I'm sorry, I didn't tell you, I went to Paris to meet a mystery man I met on the internet. Um, who's 

now getting me drunk, I'm gonna be sold into slavery.

Or I'm going to be killed, I don't know what's going on, and eventually I got him to like, look at the application, he like, scribbled some stuff down, and then he left, somehow I got to the airport, that whole evening is a total blur, came back, submitted the application, sort of, the board didn't want to accept it because it was like, half done, kind of, but they had no choice because in a condo you have to, you just have the first right [00:31:00] of refusal, so the condo board then either had to buy the apartment from the sellers, or accept it, um, But then he disappeared again, and we couldn't find him until one day, and this is the end of the story, one day, early in the morning, he calls me, this is like a year after that first emailing call, and says to me, I'm in New York, I want to close.

That's not how it happens here, but okay, sure, no problem. Called all the attorneys. Got everyone together, said he's here, I'm sorry, let's just do this, do this, and this was 2000, uh, I want to say 2011, I want to say, so the market was, or 2010, the market was awful, right? We were in the middle of the recession, so it's not like anyone else was buying this apartment.

Today it would be a little bit different. He said he's at the Mandarin Oriental on Central Park. I ran up there, waited. Never came down, waited for hours again, all the attorneys there totally think that this whole thing is still a scam, and I'm like, no, you don't understand, I met him, I met him, I met him.

Finally, he comes down with a whole entourage of people, a fleet of black, like, bulletproof, uh, tinted [00:32:00] Escalades, like, flies, like, literally out of a Michael Bay movie, out in front of the Mandarin Oriental. He says, sorry I'm late, let's get in. We get in. I'm like, okay. 67th Street, the apartment you're buying is right over here, do you want to go check on it?

In the United States, we do walkthroughs, maybe a punch list, like, let's get to closing. He's like, no, no, no, we go to JFK. So I start texting my mom again. I'm like, I'm an idiot again. Now I'm with that same mystery man in one of his cars heading to JFK. We go to the back of JFK, where I've never even been before, and there's this massive airplane, I don't know what it was, like a 737 or something.

He gets out, signs papers, buys it, gets back in the car, says, now we go close, goes to the closing, pays in cash, gets a photo of me and him for his BBM, and turns out he makes like a billion dollars a month. 

Hala Taha: Wow. 

Ryan Serhant: Right? And he can, he's in the energy business, I'll leave it at that, and he was drunk one night.

Somewhere in the world and thought it would be fun to buy an apartment in New York City because one of his friends had [00:33:00] and found the pretty photos and saw my picture and sent me an email and then called me and then he wasn't really taking it seriously until I followed up with him over and over and over and then he felt bad for me.

And so he bought it. 

Hala Taha: Oh my god. 

Ryan Serhant: And since then. He has, we've done like 300 million together. Every deal is painful. It's all awful, but he's very, very real and it's worth it every time. But that deal taught me the power of followup, the power of followup and the power of valuable persistence because I never harassed him, right?

Like I wasn't, I wasn't annoying. I was always just checking in, sending him information. Hey, this thing closed over here. You're getting a great deal. Hey, this is what's happening. This is what's happening. And he also said later on, he's like, and I knew you weren't. You didn't have plans to come to Paris.

Hala Taha: Oh, he knew. 

Ryan Serhant: But, but you actually, I cannot believe you actually did that. I was so surprised when you said you were there. That's, that's why I bought that apartment. 

Hala Taha: That's amazing. And so many other people would have initially just ignored the email. 

Ryan Serhant: Today? 

Hala Taha: Or been suspicious. 

Ryan Serhant: I would probably ignore it, yeah.

Hala Taha: Oh, yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: I had nothing to lose. 

Hala Taha: Yeah, you had nothing to lose and you [00:34:00] just, you know.

Ryan Serhant: Other than my life. 

Hala Taha: He just decided to say yes and that's super important. 

Hala Taha: So, let's stick on follow up. I know that there's three different kinds of follow up. Follow back. Follow through and follow up. Could you explain that to our listeners?

Ryan Serhant: Yeah, it is basically like my, my secret sauce because when I came to New York City, I didn't know anybody. I'm not from here. I grew up outside Boston, so I knew some people there, but like my parents aren't helping me. You know, I didn't go to school here and have all my school friends. I knew like Midtown.

I knew where all the hand modeling castings were, but that was it. So I had to meet new people every day, like I told you. And then I had to follow up with them to one day get their business and that's what the system is. So it's called follow up, follow through, follow back. Um, it's my three Fs and I do it every single day and it's in my calendar.

In the morning, first thing I follow up with everybody from either yesterday or the week or everybody that I need to follow up [00:35:00] with. Hey, you said you were going to do this. Hey, this is happening. Hey, just wanted to touch base. Hey, there's this listing, whatever it might be. Follow through is doing what you say you're going to do.

So if I tell someone I'm going to send them something by noon, you actually do it, something my dad taught me really well, like you're only as good as your word, and if you say you're going to do something and you don't do it, you are forever banned in people's minds. If you say you're going to be there on time, be there on time.

If you say you're going to be late, then okay. You know, just be honest, be upfront and follow through with what you say you're going to do. And then follow back, which is really important, is every day I follow back with past clients. Clients I sold things to 10 years ago. People I met last week who aren't even interested, you know, just touching base, saying, Hey, what's up?

Following back with deals that died. Maybe I could put it back together. And, you know, That it is the lifeblood of my career and the way that my, my team does our deals. Right?

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: Non stop, important, valuable follow up. 

Hala Taha: Mm hmm. Do you think the time investment that you put into follow up is worth it? 

Ryan Serhant: Oh my God, yes.

Follow up, it's free. That's the thing. We're in a service business. Everybody's in a service [00:36:00] industry. So it's, it's all free. It's just, I'm going to have a phone, email, and a calendar anyway. So it's just putting things in my calendar and then actually doing it. And sending an email, sending, especially in 2020, like sending an email, a text, a quick phone call, or a DM.

It's all free. You're going to do it anyway. So it's absolutely worth it. Like the amount of money that I have made, the amount of things that I've sold, I'm going to put some in the book too, like just from follow up, the deals that never, ever, ever, ever, ever would have happened otherwise, whether it's the Mr. X story or people that I followed up with for, there's a deal I'm doing today. I was just telling you about before we started the podcast because the closing costs are so high. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: Right. Altogether, it's like a million dollars in taxes. The deal is for 12 million. I have followed back with them ever since I rented their daughter an apartment in 2010, 10 years ago for 

2, 200 a month, just with the parents, just not just touch base falling up.

Happy holidays. I don't have to, I didn't really deal with them before, but I knew that one day maybe they'd want to buy a place. [00:37:00] Right. And they'd mentioned it to me. So they dropped the seed 10 years later. Future Ryan is super excited. I'm happy to sell them an apartment for 12 million. 

Hala Taha: Wow. 

Ryan Serhant: Right. 

Hala Taha: It's amazing.

Ryan Serhant: Yeah. 

Hala Taha: Just that little time investment can go so far if, if you do it right. 

Ryan Serhant: Yeah. Little bits of time. Like I, you have a thousand minutes every day. You have fourteen hundred and forty minutes every day actually, but like four hundred and forty of those you're eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom.

Hala Taha: Mm hmm.

Ryan Serhant: And so you have a thousand minutes every day in your bank of time, like you are the CEO of your own bank of time. What are you going to do with those thousand minutes? How are you going to use them? How are you going to milk them? How are you going to get the most out of them that you possibly can? And how are you going to make sure that you spend them wisely as an investment into tomorrow's thousand minutes?

You know? 

Hala Taha: Totally. 

Ryan Serhant: That's, that's what I think about every day. 

Hala Taha: So let's talk about salespeople. Salespeople often get a bad rep. You know, they're known to be like very pushy. Before you were saying that you sell enthusiasm, so you obviously don't take that approach. What's your advice to salespeople who are just too pushy?

Ryan Serhant: Don't sell. [00:38:00] You don't focus on the sell. Bad salespeople are people who watch a pot boil water. You know how they say a watch pot never boils? Have you heard that? 

Hala Taha: Mm hmm. 

Ryan Serhant: If you sit there and you're waiting for the water to boil, it's like it takes forever, right? Don't focus on the sell, okay? I think that when you are selling, no one likes to be sold.

Everybody loves to go shopping with friends. 

Hala Taha: Mm hmm. 

Ryan Serhant: That's why people like internet shopping because they don't want to be sold. They don't want to go into that store and have someone force them to try on shoes. But if they go into a store and someone comes up and says, Yo, that jacket's, that jacket's awesome.

You look great. Let me know if you need anything. Also, the huge sale right over there. Those shoes are insane. Crazy. They were 200 bucks yesterday. Today they're 125. You'd look sick in them. All of a sudden, you're like, uh, you're not, you're just kind of selling me. Now I feel good about my jacket choice today, so that was nice of you.

And, wait, do you have a deal? Uh, yeah, I guess I could try those. And then all of a sudden you're in conversation. And then you're finding things in common with people. Right? It literally can be you both hate the cold. Or, damn, you don't have [00:39:00] coronavirus? Me neither, dude. Let's elbow. You know, like, literally, it's just conversation.

It's the power of improv. That's why I tell everyone to take improv classes, you know, if you are going to live life talking to other human beings, go take an improv class. It'll help you open up like that's the biggest advice I have for, you know, that other question you asked in terms of like how you go from being a shy overweight kid with really bad skin who didn't want to talk to anybody.

You take an improv class and you learn how to be a dog on fire. Giving birth to your grandmother on Mars in front of 20 other people. If you can do that, you can talk to a stranger on the street about the weather. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: And that opens you up, right? Because no other situation is ever more ridiculous than that.

Hala Taha: Mm hmm. Okay. So I want to spend the next couple of minutes just talking about the, the market in general. How do you typically price a home? What are the factors that you look into? 

Ryan Serhant: Did I pull a number out of a hat, really? Um. Yeah. You, listen, you look at, [00:40:00] I mean, there's a lot of things. First thing, you look at comparable sales.

What else, like this home, has sold recently? 

Hala Taha: Mm hmm. 

Ryan Serhant: All right, so that's the first thing we look at. So, if your house is similar to the house across the street, and that house sold for 500, 000, your house, okay, just based on comparable sales, probably worth plus minus 500, 000, not because the It's worth that, but because no buyer wants to ever overpay.

And so your buyer is going to look at that house and say, Well, that house sold for 500. I'm not spending more or only spend a little bit more because you did these value adds to it. 

The next thing you look at is what is actively on the market. 

So what else is my buyer going to see? That is like my house.

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: So if the house across the street sold for 500, that's great for them. But if now the market's a little bit different and now there's eight other houses on the same block that are all on the market at 400, you're not going to get 500, 000. You should have sold a year ago. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: Right? Um, and then we look at condition.

Like, is this house move in ready? Can someone come in today? That's valuable to people. How much paint [00:41:00] costs and, you know, all that stuff? You know, are you selling it fully furnished? Like, how much would that cost somebody to fully furnish your house? Maybe that's a great value add. 

Hala Taha: Mm hmm. 

Ryan Serhant: Um, do you have a bigger lot?

Do you have a pool? Like, what are all the different amenities that you get to offer that other houses don't? And then it's, lastly, Based on how people search for real estate these days, Um, and it all starts on the phone now, right? Or at least on a computer. It's all about the search bracket. 

You price in the bracket.

You have to. If you price outside the bracket, So if your home is worth, I don't know, let's be simple. If your home is, you think, really worth, I 550, 000, right? You don't price it at 650, 000 to negotiate anymore. That's the way the world used to work, right? With the hope of maybe getting somebody to make an offer.

Because that buyer, who can afford that house, is not looking up to 650, 000. Because the bracket. Keeps them up to 600 

Hala Taha: so you're saying like in the app itself, 

Ryan Serhant: I always you got a price within search brackets. And so within the MLS within the app, within, [00:42:00] you know, Zillow, realtor. org, Trulia, all that stuff price within your bracket.

You want to, you want to be a heavyweight fighter in a lightweight fight, right? Not the other way around. If you overpriced and if you're at 650, 000, now you're dealing with somebody. Who's seen your listing who's forced to look at homes up to 700, 000 because that's the way the search 

brackets work and if your home can't compete with an eight hundred thousand dollar home that then reduced to seven hundred thousand Then you don't want to be in that fight 

Hala Taha: Yeah, 

Ryan Serhant: you're gonna lose every time and yeah You might get people to come by and come and see it, but they're gonna be Pass on you because they're just using you to shop.

Mm. You know, agents and buyers are gonna say, yeah, that home at six 50 was nice, probably worth less, but this house over here that I'm forced to see 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: Is much, much better. Yeah. So 

Hala Taha: that's, that's, that's a really good perspective. How about location? Does location matter so much anymore? 

Ryan Serhant: Yeah. Yeah. 

That's, I mean that's, that's part of it with the comparable sales.

Right. What just sold and what is currently on the market. Take New York City for example, you know, if you are in Battery Park City, as much as you think your home is [00:43:00] amazing, I can't. Because, this is another neighborhood, right? Come back, comp it to Tribeca, its just a different neighborhood. 

Its close, and if there's no other apartments on the market for some weird reason, then sure, but there's probably other homes on the market and other things that have sold and you have to comp within your own neighborhood.

And if you're in a condo building, you have to comp in your neighborhood, right? And then you have to comp within your own vertical neighborhood, which is your building. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: You know, just because the, building across the street got a great deal for their 20th floor apartment and you're on the 20th floor of your building, your building might not be worth as much for the brand of that building.

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

Ryan Serhant: So you have to keep all that stuff in mind, but yeah, location, location, location. 

Hala Taha: So another question that I have in terms of, Financials and buying a home for first time homebuyers. A big question people have is like, how much should I put for my down payment? Right? A lot of people say 20%, but then there's some people who say 10 percent or even 3%.

So what's your advice on that? So somebody who's buying a home, like less than a million dollars. I know that's not your, your ballgame [00:44:00] anymore, but. 

Ryan Serhant: Yeah, no, we do, listen, we, we're doing a deal right now for 299, 000 of brokerage. We do everything. 

Hala Taha: Oh, okay. 

Ryan Serhant: I, I'm balls up, right? I want to do as many deals as I possibly can.

You want to put down at least 20%, okay? And if you can, you want to put down 30. 

Hala Taha: Oh, wow. 

Ryan Serhant: 30 percent is, is healthy. It's not about what you put down. It's not about the purchase price. It's about your monthly payments. You live. In your monthly payment, that is your budget, that's your bills, it affects your Netflix budget, it affects your dinners, you know, you live in the monthly payment, you don't live in a million dollar house, you live in a house that costs you 4, 500 a month.

Right? Or a house that costs you 2, 000 a month. 

And so, whatever way you can skin the cat to get your payments the lowest possible, that's what you want to do. But you want to be smart about it, right? You don't want to over leverage yourself because the payments are small, but then you don't know what to do and you can't see it.

Sell it and then you're stuck 'cause you lose your job and what have you. Right. That's what happened in 2008. But just, you always remember you live in your monthly payment and you always wanna put down [00:45:00] at least 30%. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. So something that we ask all our guests is, what is your secret to profiting in life?

Ryan Serhant: My secret to profiting, 

Hala Taha: and it doesn't have to be financial. It can be, 

Ryan Serhant: yeah. 

Hala Taha: Anything. 

Ryan Serhant: It's the five new people every day. Mm. Like that's my. That's my whipped cream, like that's my profit every day, the deals that I do every day, the, the time I spend with my family, the workouts I have in the morning, you know, my, my connection to my own well being, like that's all, that's all, I'm going to do it anyway, like that's all part of my win, like I know when I wake up, what I'm doing that day.

Yeah. I'm doing all that. But going out and meeting those new people, that's what the world's all about.