My MOST INTENSE Real Estate Deal | Ryan Serhant Keynote

what's going on log world YouTube world coming at you right now straight up from quarantine you can see snow in the background back there I'm in New Hampshire we had to get out of the city so this week's blog which supposed to be something totally different but we'll get to it once we all kind of come back to normal life but I wanted to take one of my most favorite key notes I gave it in Vegas not too long ago we never put the whole thing up on YouTube we kind of took a few pieces of it here and there but it was it was one of my best received and I was on fire the whole time I spoke to thousands and thousands of mortgage brokers in the room in Vegas Gary Vee was there a bunch of other really really cool people and so I wanted to put the whole keynote up for you guys I wanted to do it eventually but we just had so many other blogs that we had to put up so this is kind of a great quarantine time to sit back and watch 45 50 minute speech that I gave that really focuses on the power of brand right and how your reputation is your brand the blog also goes into one of the craziest deals of my entire life where I basically got kidnapped in China and had a mortgage broker save my life so I could get a deal done and I go to the whole thing so it's totally insane so if you're in quarantine right now and you don't you know you have a lot of time just to sit around this is a great speech to watch I appreciate you all I love you all thank you so much for watching this one and I will see you when we get out of quarantine which hope to god is really soon Stace healthy stay safe you just didn't think for you dare to you 2020 is gonna be here thank you very much Wow I was backstage for that whole speech I've learned so much I'll be able to come on like 45 minutes ago Adrian and I back there like taking notes everyone's gonna be my partner after this I am totally so [ __ ] psyched thank you very much to Marc and Anthony everyone at aim for bringing me out here and I just have to say kind of before we get started there there this is like a genius event you know like there is no better place to bring a bunch of Commission brokers than the Bellagio at Las Vegas right I think I was just listening to this whole speech it's like you better take what we say today and go back you're gonna crush it on Monday and change your life I'm like [ __ ] yeah they will we're all gonna be broke you know close the deal yesterday because and when your Commission's you don't go to I don't we were talking about gambling the whole time but when you're commissioned you don't go to the casino and you're not thinking about like oh your bi-weekly paycheck you're like okay that loan closed yeah I can always do another deal next week right like that's how I spend my money I'm like right I just made 50 grand over here I guess I'll just have to work a little bit harder for the next 50 right ridiculous retake I'm not a degenerate gambler by the way I don't want you to think that I am when I come here I lose all my money and it's really really really terrible so I literally flew in right here from New York this morning it took five and a half hours to get here came and right after this I go right back to New York City because this place is a trigger for brokers like me terrible terrible terrible terrible actually mortgage brokers are honestly my best friends right [Applause] I don't know I don't know if everyone here is seeing million dollar listing New York or if you don't know who I am that's at least 17 people but I'm a real estate broker in New York City I got into the business in 2008 literally the day that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy that was my first day and if you've been in the business for a long time you know that was a bad day right but for me it was actually a pretty good day because it kind of set the road for the rest of my career and I was completely broke when I was getting into it and I was trying to figure out what to do and I was like a hand model before and anyway we don't have time to go through that whole thing actually you know mortgage brokers are my best friends one of my best friend's name is Scott he's an independent mortgage broker in New York City and he's the guy I go to all the time for like the impossible deals right like the crazy crazy deals where people like to have unique forms of income they need to close right away I call up Scott all the time Scott's like my boy call him off like listen I've got this guy he just closed quickly or I've got this guy I have no idea where he makes his money or I've got this guy I've been working with him for a year he is the worst I'm now gonna introduce him to you you could do it actually at the beginning of the year I got an email from a guy a client his name was Wang W e ng he emailed me and he said hey my name is Wang I want to make sure is this Ryan Serhant the real estate guy from YouTube and I was like yes yes I am now that guy it used to be that people watched me on Bravo on television but now so many people don't have cable anymore now I've got this whole bunch of clients who come from YouTube which is totally nuts and I only started YouTube like a year almost two years ago January 2018 and now I get these emails from people they see me on YouTube and at the beginning of the year I put out a video because I named a neighborhood in West Chelsea if you know New York you've heard of Hudson Yards I dairy actually where Gary B's office is Hudson Yards and then you've got Chelsea and then you've got this weird area between 23rd Street and 30th Street on the west side of Manhattan between 10th Avenue and the Westside Highway that is like no-man's land it's kind of this weird little area some people think it's jealousy it's West jealous he's not really Hudson Yards and I had a building to sell there I got a building an assignment 550 West 29th Street and they had no idea how I was gonna sell it because there it's hard the markets tough in New York interest rates are super low but that doesn't help buyers at all because there's no urgency whatsoever to buy and it's like what am I gonna do so I figured out you know what I'll just reinvent the neighborhood this is now no longer Chelsea this is not West Chelsea this is south of Hudson Yards just like Soho is south of Houston south of Hudson Yards we're gonna call it as so hy and that is so high that is now the neighborhood and that's what I'm gonna call it and I called the building yeah so I called the building so high condos I just put it out there I'm like you know what branding it's all kind of a lot of [ __ ] so I'm just gonna put it out there and if it works it works if it sticks at 6 if it doesn't stick it doesn't stick there's still an address ok branding it's really just consistency pushing it out there over and over personal branding is your reputation right making sure that your reputation is the same over and over and over so I just kept putting it out there so high so high so high so high so high we made these decals if you watch million dollar listing there was an episode on it the season I think and we made a video about it for the vlog this is Adrian and my blogger you say hi to Adrian I now have a vlogger so weird it's so weird he's not weird he's nice but vlogging is so strange and I put this video out anyway so Wang emails me says listen I'd like to find an apartment I rent near Hudson Yards can I come and see this place sure thank you YouTube right thank you YouTube I like to do is put out a video about naming neighborhood incoming clients and this happens all the time this is just kind of one guy so I said okay let's talk what are you looking for he's a student right he goes to NYU he's young from China really all he watches his YouTube doesn't even have a TV in his entire apartment kind of like everyone in New York under the age of 30 and he says I want to play as my dad's gonna buy for me thinking the Westside I don't know two three seven million something like that Mike all right if some of you scoff but this is kind of a Tuesday for me in New York City right especially for dad's buying apartments for the kids like okay so we meet he's a real kid he's cool way cooler than I am he wants to see every apartment Under the Sun and every time we go in there he's texting his dad or texting his dad's associate this guy named Tony Tony Chow and could have facetiming and showing the views and showing me a Barbara it's anyway he doesn't see anything he likes in his budget and he keeps going back to his dad for approval like can I go up can I go up and he's paying cash sorry and his dad keeps saying okay okay okay we said think that's what he's saying can't understand it and he gets approval to go up and go up and go up and like you know what there's this really cool apartment on 67th Street in Columbus I know you want big views you need like an extra big apartment because you need one room to be your virtual reality room and whatnot and all this stuff yeah and we go up there 111 West 67th Street find an apartment it's amazing great apartment asking 14 million dollars we negotiate it down to 11 million dollars and his dad buys it for right eleven million dollar apartment we actually negotiated it during the Superbowl this past year and I was where I was with my friend Scott who's a mortgage broker and I'm telling him the whole time I'm like to you this is one of the craziest deals I've ever done the guy behind the apartment and spending the money isn't even here to China the whole time buying it for his kid this is the luckiest kid ever we're both like dude we need dad's like this alright this is just not there anyway so it's like good client that I got through YouTube fast forward to June and Wayne calls me like Ryan we have a problem like oh [ __ ] what's the problem it's like an arrow no it's a good problem my dad now wants a place here like thank you YouTube Thank You YouTube like okay what's your dad watch like what's he what's he looking for he's like oh he wants a apartment you know probably on the east side he's older somewhere between like 15 and 20 million dollars okay is your dad actually gonna come and see the apartment no no probably not he's too busy he works in textiles or something he's not gonna come here all just come and we'll FaceTime him right because that's what we do it's 2019 with people who are foreign investors I don't need to even have them here anymore now I can just FaceTime these crazy deals so we started looking around again like the whole process all over again except now we're not looking for Wang now we're looking for his dad whose name is wing okay he's now running around facetiming with Wang looking at all these apartments on the east side and he doesn't like them and then the problem with the dad is dad super busy and he keeps kind of going mi a a little bit and so we see something and then I got to follow up and follow up and follow up and follow up on top of the Sun and on top of its business associate tony chao and if you've read my book i wrote a book or basically the whole thing is just my secret sauce is the power of follow up follow up follow through and follow back i will follow up with you until you die right that is that is that is literally that is what i do that's what i do i want to be top of mind for you anytime that your dad mister wing is thinking about buying a cool apartment in new york city right I want you to think of me I want you to think of me when you're watching YouTube I want you think of me when you're at the bookstore if you're listening to anything I want you to think Ryan Serhant real estate so that I can get those incoming calls and emails that say are you the guy that does real estate most people don't even know my first name people stopped me on the street like you did the rim gym but Patel you're the real estate guy right I'm like yeah actually I am right that's why I do all this stuff that's why it worked so hard anyway we look around for this apartment for wing its entire time again he's gonna pay cash sorry and eventually we find this building on Park Avenue brand new construction and he really really likes it through FaceTime and there's a unit and the whole buildings brand new right so everything's kind of available unit on the 20th floor asking a little over 20 million dollars and we negotiate it down for 20 million bucks right and then he disappears vanishes Wang just tells me listen my dad just he's super busy he's working all the time don't worry about it he wants the apartment wants the apartment but he disappears and now I've negotiated this deal and I don't have anything to show for it and the listing brokers all pissed off at me he's like I'm holding it for you and yeah weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks go by weeks and weeks of weeks go by like two months go by and I kind of holding on to this apartment cuz I know the guy's real right and my thing kind of my brand my personal reputation is that I literally am willing to do anything for my client I will die for them right I will take a bullet for them I will go above and beyond that's kind of how I started at the beginning when I first got into the business when Lehman Brothers crash and all these other big brokers were too busy I was the one who was hungry I literally told a developer once I would tattoo the name of the building in my chest if that's what got me the project and it did get me the project and then I didn't have to tattoo thank God but it did right that level of commitment really really really worked so I was holding on to the deal with dear dear life and then one night 2:00 in the morning I get a call from Wang it's like Ryan sorry to wake you up like yeah no no nope no problem Wang what's going on it's like my dad is here he wants to see the apartment like ah okay let's do it I'm done the real estate guy and I will do anything it takes to close the deal it's a 20 million dollar deal and I've been waiting for this guy for two months so let's go right like look at my wife or I'm like you know what I'll just text her where I'm going no problem that's totally weird I'm going to hang out with Wang uptown I bet he'd be fine to go up there you staying at the st. Regis I get there right I do kind of like my my American thing I always get somebody like a you know hamburger and french fries always works now you know right little secret I get there and he's very very upset right he's super upset because he doesn't think the 20th floor is good enough for him and he leaves tomorrow morning like well how come you didn't tell me that you were coming in ahead of time plus we have a deal and plus we need to move forward and Wang tells me through with Tony as well that he flew in just for one meeting and he's still thinking about the apartment but he's been a little bit upset and like you know what let's go see it let's go see it right now I've got good relationships with everybody I work with and so I call the listing broker seven times until he actually wakes up right cuz I feel like maybe he put Do Not Disturb on because a lot of people do that in the middle of the night but I'm like no you know I'm gonna [ __ ] disturb the [ __ ] out of you right now I've got this guy and I need to wake him up okay because I'm in the st. Regis right now it's almost 3:00 in the morning and we got to go and see this apartment and I tell Mike listen I don't even need you to come don't worry about it I know exactly what I'm doing I just need access to the apartment to the building can you give me access and he progressively says yes so then me wing-wang Tony Chow from the st. Regis to this new building up on Park Avenue doorman is just totally bewildered and I'm like hey just here for a showing we go up to the 20th floor and we look around and it's pitch black I'm like huh I mean all the in this building kind of apartments are basically the same they just get super super super expensive and he doesn't like it he doesn't like it doesn't think the view is good enough like let's go upstairs so go to the 20th fourth floor yeah it doesn't really like it that much I keep going up and up and up it's like 3:30 in the morning three 45 or so with all of us and I'm just kind of standing in the background kind of trying to talk so they can translate eventually we go up to the 36th floor asking 40 million dollars this one he really likes obviously because it's 40 million dollars really likes it he really really likes it but he doesn't look that happy all right the one thing is really happy about I'll never forget this he goes to the window it turns to Tony then Tony comes back to me and says he really likes this because from here he can see his son in his apartment that he just paid 11 million dollars for on the Upper West Side like that's that's a good dad right there okay so this is the one he wants right this is the one he wants and if he tells me listen at 40 million dollars he's not gonna pay 40 so we're enough to figure out how to renew negotiate this one and through Tony tells me he's not gonna pay cash right good for you in my head 345 almost 4:00 in the morning I'm like okay I don't want a Bank of America on this one right tech Scott my dude remember when we were at the Super Bowl at the beginning of this year and this guy that found me on YouTube and I bought this kids apartment for 11 million bucks anyway the dad's here I'm kind of at this building of Park Avenue right now I know it's super early in the morning I'm not the GM I'm actually showing an apartment anyway when you wake up please call me because I need to put you in touch with this guy's business manager so that you can get him alone because we're gonna try to negotiate this deal now funny enough this apartment on the 36th floor has like 18-foot ceilings and in this brand new building is by far the best unit in the entire building and everybody wants it I know it sounds like a huge number but there's a lot of rich people in the world right in New York City is like this big it's the whole reason I'm a real estate broker there I've been around the world I don't want to be a real estate broker anywhere else have you been to New York City right why would I go anywhere else if I could just do deals in one building and just go up and down and up and down why would I ever want to get in a car and go to a [ __ ] cul-de-sac why would I ever do that anyway so I go to the listing broker in the morning I'm like listen thanks for getting us in last night I'm still awake by the way he really wants a 36th floor and he says awesome so does somebody else okay well we are gonna make an offer of 35 million dollars I made an offer of 35 we actually negotiated it to 36 which is a good chunk down from 40 but we financing right but Scott says he can get it done he just needs the cooperation of wing and Tony and his old team and the listing broker telling me listen we have somebody else who wants this who's willing to pay cash but I'll be honest with you if you can get your guide to sign a contract really really quickly I'm gonna go with you right because I know you Ryan and we have a relationship and you know you've helped me before on other deals that's what I do in New York I want to work with every single real estate broker banker mortgage broker possible so that when I'm in these dickie lessly crazy moments right everybody will want to work with me and be nice and we can try to get deals done together so I go back to wing and I go back to Tony I'm like listen we've got to move really really really quickly but he needs this loan and he's not comfortable signing the contract apparently until he knows that he can actually get the loan obviously right and Scott like Scott can you please can you get this done and he's like yeah but I just in paperwork I need to verify the guy are his funds in the United States or his funds totally over there he's he gonna put down at least 50% he said yes but he's like I can't like just give you my award Mike Scott you've never let me down before you were my mortgage broker for life we've been through a lot together can can you get this done and he looks at me and he's never under promised right he says yes I knowing who he is knowing what he's bought here we will figure out a way to get this done I'm like okay so I call the listing broker again like okay listen we're good to go I call back to wing and I go to Tony like I can get this deal done you're going to get the loan just need you to sign the contract they say well we're well sign the contract but we're not gonna send the deposit until we know we can get the loan like mother of I go back to the listing agent I'm like listen we need to get this deal done I he's the only one he's gonna buy and I'm not gonna lose at 36 million dollar deal just because I need like a few extra days to get him comfortable with the fact that he's gonna get this loan he's like well I don't know what to tell you Ryan the developers going to take the other deal the other deals cash and I told you you only have a certain amount of time like okay okay I'm moving forward how much time do I have he's like you need to get this deal done by the end of the day I'm a mother okay so wing Tony I need you to sign the contract today and don't worry about the down payment just yet I'm gonna get you comfortable with the loan but we can't lose this apartment I've got all my faith in Scott right Scott we're gonna get this done so they say okay they sign the contract send it over I then call back to the listing broker and like listen I've got a signed contract for you and I'm gonna get you the down payment but he doesn't wanna do 10% anymore he's only gonna do 5% and you've got to be okay with that but you'll have a signed contract today for 36 million dollar apartment you okay with that and he just comes back to me fine if we can have the money in the next two hours I say fine hang up the phone call my banker say listen I need 1.8 million dollars that's 5% of a 10% deposit wired right now rikes I'm gonna hold on to this apartment because I will go above and beyond for all of my clients my my banker yeah I couldn't hear what he was saying in the other line because I was like kinda I had a lot of thoughts going through my head I'm pretty sure it was something like what what what like don't worry about it so two hours later we were officially in contract on this apartment for 36 million dollars we're technically I was in contract on behalf of wing through his son Wang and his kind of second man Tony Chau right through love of God for my mortgage broker Scott who better get this deal done otherwise I'm gonna be out 1.8 million dollars because there's no way this guy's actually gonna go forward and then and then wing just kind of goes mi a right yeah so wing goes in my have you ever had a client that just goes mi a you do all this work right all of a sudden they ghost you yeah it's a little bit tough when they're in China which is a little bit far all right so I keep following up follow up in every single way I know how literally I'm thinking like you know what I'm gonna take I'm gonna learn the language I'm gonna figure this out like literally for 1.8 million dollars I'm gonna figure this out so I start like I get that like monde Li app and I'm like trying to figure this whole thing out I don't even know Greek and my wife is Greek my baby's Greek my mother-in-law is Greek I've never for them have I ever tried to learn Greek four-winged I literally started to try to learn Chinese okay and he goes completely mi I and I go to a son I'm like listen we're in contract right now with my money right we've got to figure this out your dad has to close he signed a contract like let's like listen but yet we just got to make sure the loan can go through Mike yeah but your dad needs to respond to emails and the phone calls to fill out the paperwork with Scott who can actually get the deal done right that's kind of where we are that's where we are he's like well well I don't know what else to tell you we're gonna do just like come in and go see him like Scot you ever been to Shanghai Scott's like no and I don't want to I've got a lot of stuff going on I'm like okay guess what so I just bought you a ticket we're going to Shanghai all right we're gonna figure this out right real estate broker mortgage broker done deal flight to Shanghai right so so we fly to Shanghai right thank you YouTube so we get to Shanghai and we get there on a Tuesday it's early evening I have a meeting set up thank God through Tony Chau to meet with wing first thing in the morning the next day on Wednesday okay to do all this stuff so thank God he's actually listening he's gonna do it so meet with Tony we go there there's a club in Shanghai and like kuzia don't know if you've ever been there it's on like the one side of the river I'm just called the M Club and so we go there that night fix us to like the fake market have you been to China I just like a fake market with a fake iPhones fake this it's like this Ferrari phone that I thought was really cool so I bought a Ferrari phone it's like a flip phone it looks like whatever like Scott got one thing too we have like traded or numbers anyway then we go to this club the M Club with Scott with Tony Chao it's crazy complete insanity if you've never been to a club in China don't write completely completely insane and Tony Chao like runs the whole place he runs everything like he literally parked his BMW up on the sidewalk and no one said anything to him that's like the type of people that were rolling with and he proceeds to get massively plastered super drunk and we're just there were super tired right it's basically in our head like noon the next day we're noon the previous day I can't even remember we're just sitting there and all I wanted to do is like get my money back and also get this guy to officially get his deposit in and get all the paperwork signed to actually get this deal done and Tony could care less he's just so excited that we're here from America at M Club and we're hanging out with him and he's showing us off to all of his friends and getting super super super drunk eventually I lose track of Scott's I don't even know like where he went and got kind of nervous like maybe I lost him with something and then this club starts closing and Tony is really really really drunk and Tony wants to drive home now I'm like dude friends don't let friends drive drunk in China right so I go with Tony in his car that he parked on the sidewalk back to his house and drive with him and I am just gonna admit it here he was impaired but I didn't know what to do and this deal was worth my life right if something happened to Tony Chao wing would never even meet with me how would he understand what I'm saying so I go with him as he just kind of drives through he blew right through a red light on that bridge that goes over the river and I'm like I want to see if I'm with what are you doing it's like no it's ok it's ok it's ok I'm like I don't think it's ok but it's ok fine we go to his house it's on this like massive golf course craziness he goes inside and completely passes out right I'm in the clothes that I wore on the airplane to get over there now I'm in a house on a golf course and pudong right on the other side of the river and my phone is completely dead and I don't even know what to do I don't know how to get out I don't know if this guy's ever gonna wake up and with or without him I've got a neat wing the next morning I have to get my money back have to do this deal also holy [ __ ] where's Scott like he's somewhere in the m-club or with someone and how I gonna bind him is we're in [ __ ] Shanghai right now right the things that I do for clients unbelievable um and I don't know what to do I opened his laptop he's a laptop it's not I can't write in this I don't even know how to get on to it all right for a minute there and I'll admit it to you right now I seriously thought about stealing his car but then I was like you know what I don't think I'm gonna be able to read the street signs like I don't I don't know how to get back over there I know we're staying at the W and it's the big hotel with like the two things on top I really know what to do and then Hank the Lord my Ferrari phone rings and I totally forgot about my Ferrari phone and it rings and I pick it up and I'm like hello and Scott is on the other lines like cryin like where are you he's like where are you I'm in China I don't know he's like how are you gonna make it or this it's like almost 6 o'clock in the morning my dude I would Tony ciao he's passed out I put him on his stomach in case he throws up I've learned that from college somewhere I'm a pudong but you have to come get me I don't even know how to drive this car you know we put the car keys he's like ok I'll figure it out I hear him on the other line on the other end he's like at the W Hotel so clearly he's alive which is great now you hear him like yelling at the receptionist this whole time and they weren't they're not like willing to help him and the funniest thing I'll never forget he's like you have to help me my boyfriend was kidnapped at the end Club please help me and apparently that got them to help him so someone else comes on the line he's not my boyfriend he's my mortgage broker ok just so you all know I'm married get someone else on the line and I tell them where I am they understand ok they're like oh you're at this Golf Course cetera so we figure out basically if I walk out of the Golf Course follow past this he past that I'll get to the clubhouse and I go to the road and I can flag down a taxi which is what I did and in the taxi then got on the Ferrari phone gave it to the receptionist of the W Hotel told them to go to the W Hotel they dropped me there we got there I showered really quickly didn't in that time to talk to Scott about what happened to me the night before or what happened to him he looked kind of beat-up but we were ready to go because we had to go meet wing to get my 1.8 million dollars back because I was in contract for his apartment on Park Avenue so we go we make it on time we go upstairs to Wings office we walk in and who opens the door Tony [ __ ] chow looks clean as a whistle and I literally all I wanted to do was like wanted like punch him and then like maybe kiss him maybe hug him but at the same time I think I'm in my head I'm like how did you bring back here I just left you I just thought I know it's like hey hey man fun times last night I actually get here so funny he's like always on time it burned into my skull always on time he even asked me how I left he didn't care but we sit with wing we go through it he signs off on the docs that he needs to sign off on thank God I left that office with two checks right one to pay me back and another one for the additional 5% to put down to put him in 10% down payment on the contract on Park Avenue we fly back we both sleep the entire time boyfriend and boyfriend we get back we are officially now in contract which is Great Scott somehow someway you'd have to ask him gets him 50% right which is 18 million dollars and we close like 37 days later that is a pretty ordinary deal for me and Scott will go down in the record books as literally the guy who saved my life I will never forget that Ferrari phone ringing and me just being like oh thank God for the Ferrari phone and my mortgage broker is the one who saved me that day clearly Tony Chao would have saved me too and woke it up apparently but I didn't know that I didn't know that and without Scott I wouldn't have got the deal done right without YouTube I would never even would have met these clients and without so hi inventing that neighborhood and creating that brand I never would have even had the video to put on YouTube to meet these clients in the first place and kind of what I had to go through for that entire deal is just a super insane kind of way that I go above and beyond for all my clients so when people ask me okay Ryan well how do you sell so much right last year I did just about a billion dollars in sales right this year I'll do like one point four all right you have to clap for that half cup of that there's a lot of real estate agents there's a lot of people who sell there's a lot of people who do a lot of things right but I will follow up with everybody over and over and over and over and I will go above and beyond and that is my that's my reputation that actually is my my brand right that's my brand my brand is my reputation your brand is your reputation and when people talk to me all the time about oh I don't know how to create brand raw I don't know how to do content and you were just told to do all this content all the time all the time it's it's somewhat overwhelming you know like how do i how do i even come up with stuff to talk about how do i even come up with stuff to put out there into the universe what do I do if I'm just a broker right brand is this big vague idea for what you want people to know you buy that's really what it is you know and so your brand is your reputation your reputation is something you can actually control and your ability to go above and beyond and not necessarily do the insane psycho things that I do but to go above and beyond for your clients in a way that everybody else won't to meet them when other people wouldn't to pick up the call when you might just a little bit too tired to send that extra email to do that extra thing to get their kid that gift because you memorize when all of their kids birthdays are or you put them in your calendar you know when their dog was born with the puppies all that stuff that's your reputation and your reputation will then grow is the person who works harder and harder and harder than the next person that's how I started that's how I started in 2008 my first deals were trying to figure out how to do loans in the first place no real estate agent who gets in the business today in this market really has to understand how you all do your job because you guys are really really great at it and like everything is kind of okay at the moment right for now anyway but when I started and if you were in the business in Oh 8 Oh 9 2010 like I remember going to Washington DC with the building to get pers approval right the first piece of press I ever got as a real estate agent was for a building 99 John Street in the financial district and I'll never forget it I was the youngest sales director in New York City ever in history I was 25 years old and I took a photo just like this and they put it in Bloomberg because I had got in the building FHA approved to do FHA loans for a new condominium project in New York City which has never been done before because I needed a way to separate the building from the rest of the crowd and the way that I did that because no one cared Real Estate's real estate brick and mortar or whatever no one cares about designers brands this that it's like you know what I'm gonna be the building where you can come in with three and a half percent down that's gonna be my building and everyone else is like no that's stupid is cheap it's this and like yeah but I'm actually gonna sell and that's all I care about so we got FHA approval for a short period of time and we're able to do a lot of deals between three and a half and 5% down and then extra little insurance money that people were paying every single month was worth it because they could actually be homeowners right and we weren't loaning to people that couldn't afford it they just didn't have to down payment said because you know what most of the clients we were selling to had student loans that were crushing them and then the student loan crisis has now become this massive thing so how do I sell around that etc like I go above and beyond for all clients and you know what's so insane like I do that because it's 2019 like 2019 enables me to be able to do this stuff I know Gary talk to you a lot about the future no you're talking about him thinking about the future but for me like the fact that I could get clients to spend that kind of money because I invented a neighborhood in Chelsea no one told me to do it everyone told me honestly that it was just stupid and then I met someone through YouTube because then we run a little paid social behind it that introduced me to a whole nother world of clients one that almost got me killed but whatevs right like I can do that in 2019 and if I can do that in 2019 what wakes me up every day is imagine what I can do in 2020 like next year is 2020 there are two and a half months left in this decade that crazy not just this year years go by all the time decades take a little bit longer there are two and a half months left in this decade and I know everyone thinks the world is a crazy place right now you turn on the news all people talk about is how bad things are right politics the world the economy this is bad that's bad this is bad this oh my god oh my god you know why because people are addicted to misery and fear is a pretty easy drug to swallow you know what it was like in 1919 that was only a hundred years ago this time 100 years ago in 1919 women couldn't vote alcohol was [ __ ] illegal right World War one had just ended they hadn't even gotten to the next one back to that in 1919 the big thing right then was silent films imagine what can happen in the next hundred years imagine what can happen next year if we just do the things we say we're gonna do if we work on our reputation if we do the follow up that we say we can do and we actually do it and we go above and beyond for all of our clients that's what I think about every day right now how I'm gonna build my business in 2020 I know how to sell you know how to do loans you know how to work for your clients don't have to tell you how to do that but how do I increase my brand awareness through a positive reputation so that people when they think real estate guy that goes above and beyond they thank you me and you do the same thing for you I swear to you 2020 is gonna be your year thank you very much let's uh let's do questions I thought maybe we take a little time and do like some Q&A yeah absolutely Ryan thank you for your time we're gonna line some people up here for you yeah it's do it absolutely our first question is from QB Ryan oh man some of my brother's a big fan he's right here in the front row and he's like you had to listen to this guy Ryan Serhant he's awesome and I'm and I'm sorry to say I'm officially a fan now oh thanks I think but anyway so we're we call ourselves alone brothers were in Orange County and and I believe in being a relationship driven over the transaction we didn't we never put the transaction first we put the relationship first sure so it means that we have to share a lot of inauthenticity --zz with our clients we say like hey we're here to make money examples like that yeah what's an inauthenticity that you'd like to share with us that you recently shared with a client or maybe something more recently and by the way the one that you shared about you being willing to learn Mandarin yeah but I'd be willing to learn you know Greek for your family it's pretty awesome that's pretty nuts an inauthenticity I thought that was pretty awesome but what's another one I mean I I'm pretty authentic about my brutal honesty to be honest like I like I it's always kind of been a thing for me if you've watched million dollar listing for a long time I think the first couple years people you know there's there was definitely haters out there for me and I remember my mom saying to me like Ryan you know you need be careful with the things you say because the things you think are funny are not funny to other people and you know but I honestly like I I tell people all the time I guess the best answer I have period question all my clients is I don't work for you like just I want to put this out there right like wing you know like I don't work for you okay I also don't work for them I work for the deal that's it you know I'm you can steal that use that like I don't I tell my clients like a hundred percent I I'm in your corner I'm gonna fight for you I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to make this happen for you at the best possible price at the best possible time and all that but I work for you I work for the deal without the deal then we should just be friends alright let's just be friends let's hang out let's go to em and lose each other like let's do all that but I think that's that's what I would say and it works right like I people ask me all the time you know and they say and I know I've been online sales course right I completely crushes it it's the number one selling online sales course for the entirety of 2019 across all platforms or totally insane by the way but people ask me all the time they're like listen how do I close I'm not a good closure I don't know how to close like because you're trying to close by asking for it at the end you know it's it's awkward it's weird like I can't do that that'd be super strange right you close by setting the expectations up front so I'll tell all my clients like listen this is how we're gonna work this is how it goes okay I'm confident what I'm able to do this is what our next steps are gonna be we're gonna see apartments we're gonna show them where to make offers and the ones you like the most we're then going to make sure you can get pre-approved for that apartment make sure the building can be approved and then we're gonna do this we're gonna make an offer and then your closer on this time if they have any issues with that process then maybe I'm not gonna be able to close them right but that way I'm not just like skirting around what we're all here to do which is sell something and then talk about it later awkwardly all right that's why people have trouble closing so I set those expectations early all right that's no problem Thanks our next question is from Michelle hey Ryan thank you for being here with us today sure so if obviously million dollar listing has helped your career I would imagine yeah but taking that out of the equation looking back at the beginning of your career is there something that you would have changed or implemented earlier on to help guarantee your success and why yeah I wouldn't have worked completely by myself right I think you know our jobs are a little bit different but I think they're they're a lot the same you know I didn't have a boss I didn't have a mentor I didn't read any books and intake any classes I just was just by myself which was really really really tough at the beginning because I just didn't know what to do like I'm an independent contractor I am only as good as my 1099 like I tell all my clients I tell them what I said I told my team members that I tell anyone who's a broker that the same thing like I I'm not as good as the things that I sell who cares if you sold this or closed this we didn't make money from it and it doesn't grow your lifestyle and grow your income but it doesn't mean anything so I'm only as good as my 1099 at the beginning there it was hard because if I had one appointment at two o'clock then what do I do the rest of the day and no one would tell me I didn't know that do I make calls at 8:00 a.m. 10:00 who do I even call what have I post ads on Craigslist like what do I do so if I could go back in time I would have really taken advantage of more experienced people and not worried so much about like just myself as an independent agent and would have made less money at the beginning but would have learned more so I would have partnered up with different people what I've just said like listen let me run this open house for you let me do this let me be on your team all right I would have as a broker as a real estate agent New York or two joined a team that would have been really really really helpful to help me scale like and that's what I do now I have a team of 62 agents and there's no deal I do except for a handful that are just me everything I do is with another agent in some way shape or form every deal I do has different commission splits different cuts different this different that because I want to make sure that my volume is as massive as possible and then I come in and out of deals where I need to like I I very much am a quarterback of all deals and it took me a long time to learn that so I think if I could go back in time I'd probably ask for help a lot more thanks Ryan our next question is from chastity sure well obviously I had a different question but you've answered it a couple of times over I think you gave us some great advice that we could take back to our agents because there's a lot of us coach our agents yeah so I guess what I really want to know is how often do you kind of reevaluate your mission statement and your goals my mission statement probably yearly goals probably daily offhand like do you know your mission statement couldn't you tell us no I don't know what it is no I have it printed on my door I have it printed in my office I know what the words are right there I know it's about being relentless I know it's about taking initiative I know it's about having respect but I couldn't repeat it to you right now i but my goals they change all the time and kind of ebb and flow with the marketplace and which is super annoying but it kind of is what it is yeah exactly but I change I changed my goals all the time but I look at them every day like that's kind of like a big thing for me is knowing that what I want to sell every single month what I want the team to sell every month and how are we gonna get there how are we gonna sell that amount apartments to get to that goal because I'm really honestly driven by a complete utter fear of failure and if I don't hit those goals and I'm not gonna get there and for me it's also a public failure like if I don't sell enough this year people are gonna write about it right and it's gonna be on TV like well this sees it if you watch a million-dollar listing and you watch the season right now was filmed a lot last year right the season takes us a year to film and last year especially kind of in November in December the stock market sold off it was a complete disaster in December it was like 800 point drops every day and there was one day in December where I lost like 72 million dollars in deals in one day and that was like a shitty day so but that day is you know one of those days where it's like I hate this business this is insane and that was it wasn't because deals were bad the deals were good it's just people get nervous you know look there's as much as I can talk about how much one I want to have control over my reputation and control over this control over the work it's part of the reason that I do the crazy things that I do I'm willing to get on a plane and go to China for a client that I believe will actually hopefully close I'm willing to upfront a down payment if I have to because that's actually something I can control I can't control what the stock markets gonna do tomorrow and how that's then gonna make 15 clients feel about the future I can't control what's gonna happen on the news that's gonna make everybody think that New York is now a terrible place to buy in because the taxes are so high you know so I just focus a lot on the things that I can control and try to tie that to my goals as best I can thanks for loving your broker brother so much of course brokers are better Thanks our next question is from John hey rye absolutely love the show thanks man I mean my wife does I kind of watch it too but uh you know many people say that to me every guys like will come up to me and I know I tell you they're like hey dude my wife loves you could I take a photo and I'm like sure and then I walk away and they like grab my butt you know okay so I won't grab your butt later it's cool so you might not want to answer this but like we all know you and Fredrik produce that's great but like Louis I mean he actually clothes anything at all I mean he basically retired I'm a little bit ago the business is really like our business is so hard for as good as our business can be but I'm for both of us right as mortgage brokers and his real estate brokers like what I love about it is that there's absolutely no ceiling and no one's ever gonna come to us and say you closed too much right no one's ever gonna say you made too much money like it's not gonna happen I have a lot of friends who work in finance who do really really well for the bank and then at the end of the year the bank comes to them and says great year for you bank had not so good of a year we can't reflect it in your bonus this year but stick with it we'll make it up to you next year like that will never happen to us right because we're our own independent contractors and that rollercoaster and how those dips can happen in those awful days get really really tough for a lot of people and I think that that was tough on him and I think he needed to take some time and go and do his day he's so much happier now like if you watch the show he's back now a little bit but now he's back in Puerto Rico raising his baby that he just had totally out of the blue and like doing his whole thing and yeah he still does I just did a $40,000 a month rental with him last week at 111 Murray Street and Tribeca from a client he sold the apartment - and he's negotiating it from the beach in Puerto Rico like I envy his life a little bit yeah no problem thanks for checking on Luis though our next question is from Lisa hi hi so you've recently become a father congratulations Thanks um how are you handling the balance between family life in your career what's changed I'm not I'm not there's there's no it's not it's improv it's physically impossible I try to as much as I can but we were actually just talking about this like he the amount of footage he has and that million dollar listing has of me talking to Xena that's my baby's name through my phone and facetiming like is just it's ridiculous but I do the absolute best that I can you know and like I I grew up with a dad who worked really really really hard and I resented it for a long time when I was a little kid but now it's such a huge part of who I am and in my DNA like I just I don't know what it's like to not work hard I don't know what it's like to not wake up early and give it your all and jump through hoops because I remember distinctly watching my dad do it for his job and I want to raise kids who look up to me and I had a lot of friends who had dads who did not do that I've heard friends who dads who you know would sleep in on Fridays and take days off and do that it was like fun for them but it wasn't a good influence on them now because I see what they're like now right and I think that if I can do anything for her it's gonna be to teach her that she's you know a strong independent awesome woman who can completely control the world and dominate and as she can do it by her own accord through hard work just like her dad did I think I don't know I'll figure it out that's awesome our next question is from Adam you spoke about branding use garyvee spoke about branding yeah personal branding yeah and that's pretty much what we do at our company yeah we're connector with thousands of loan officers at tango and everyone's having trouble with going in front of the camera yeah what do you suggest yeah super hard take an improv class right that's it that is the one huh the exact answer I wrote about it in the book it really really helped me I'm a super shy introvert who's uncomfortable in front of large groups of people right but improv classes are super weird and uncomfortable but that's what they're supposed to be it's like going to the gym for your ability to be in front of the camera and if you have it who here has ever taken improv class like for right I swear to you like if they're there improv classes everywhere they're easy they're cheap they're ridiculous everyone's an idiot in them so like it's not like you're being the awkward one taking improv class go with a few people you work with all right be weird and awkward together you're gonna bark like a dog on your back on the moon I can do all this weird stuff but it's gonna totally open you up so that going in front of the camera to talk about doing loans is not gonna be so weird and I'm telling you it'll just become part of your muscle memory and it'll open you up and make you more comfortable and then you're gonna do it again and then you're gonna do it again like that is it that is the answer that's how you do it and repetition right consistency and no one is good in front of a camera for the first time he's got to keep doing it and keep doing and keep doing because you have to remember I talked to a lot of mortgage brokers a lot of commercial real estate brokers about this a lot of residential brokers okay I do it I do social media all the time but no one cares it doesn't do anything and then I look and see what they're doing and it's like just business stuff all right it's just like photos of houses or photos of buildings or like photos of you with like a client at a closing over and over and over and like no one cares right what people care about is working with you personally and knowing you personally the best part about social and YouTube and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all this stuff and I'm not needing nearly the best at it is that people get to know me in a passive way so that when they're ready to do something with real estate they think oh that real estate guy Ryan who just had the baby and just did this yeah I feel like I know him so that when I meet them 90% of my job on that first impression is already done now I just have to show them that I am actually who I say I am through all these different mediums I'm a good guy and I'm not completely insane right and it goes a long long way so consistency getting used to it and just putting it out there and not worrying about what people say what they do like dad it's like when we started the blog no one gave a [ __ ] no one cared like I do reality TV why do I already do a vlog one company wrote about it and they're like Ryan Serhant the most vain broker in the history of the world gets more vain like that is what it was I was like all right sure why not and then slowly but surely people part of paid start paying attention to it and I would say from all the subscribers that I have on YouTube I don't know Adrienne would know this better maybe 5% know me four million or listing the rest are all new people that I've met who are into the content who don't have TV because that's what YouTube is and that's been like my biggest way of driving new business more people are gonna stop me when I walk back to my room in the Bellagio out here from YouTube than they ever will for million dollar listing now right that's crazy it's insane like I've been on that show on national television since 2012 it gets wash or was watched at one time by 25 million people around the world everyone ourselves from the street stops me because of YouTube because it's quick I can put it up all the time I put it out once a week I don't put it out every day might I put it out once a week and people see it but yeah that's my long-winded answer to saying improv consistency yeah of course thanks our next question is from William hey Ryan thank you for coming so I as a broker when I meet a new realtor yeah and I tell them of all the crazy different programs we have non-qm bank statements you know lower credit scores the first deal they usually sand is is their worst client yeah lower credit no money you know has had six different jobs in the past 12 months yeah what's wrong with that guy so my question to you is you say you call Scott when you had this deal and you call him for your most difficult deals yeah I have a two-part question how did you meet Scott and the ones they're not so difficult where do you send them um good question I met Scott through a really difficult deal you know like I think that's how I meet a lot of the partners that I work with right because for the most part when I first started I was given through the company like a mortgage banker a couple different banks and a couple attorneys and they knew what to do and they've been doing it for some other guys in my office it wasn't until I had a situation that those guys couldn't do but I wasn't willing to lose the deal where I then had to find somebody and somebody referred me to Scott and just said listen this guy's great he can do a lot of things it's gonna cost more right but that's what you pay for to be able to have a mortgage breaker broker that can actually get you the deal done when no one else can actually do it and then those clients are typically willing to pay more like they'll pay more for your services if they I've had six jobs in the last 12 months then they will if they have a clear w-2 for 10 years and so that's how I met him through a difficult deal and when I don't use him you know people will go honestly people come in with a lot of their own Baker's you know a lot of people will go to kind of your standard traditional banks especially in New York City a lot of them are private clients private wealth they use their own stuff or they have second homes or first homes already and they've got their things and I just sort of have a list of people that I can refer to but now I will refer you and everybody here that's also part of the reason that I'm here and I think this is it the last question I think yeah yeah so like that's you know I'll leave you with this like part of the reason that I flew what is it going to be like 11 hours today in the air to come here is every time I do a speech like this and I do a lot of them every month all around the world is this is an hour referral base for me right and you guys are a referral base for each other one person from this room in the next 10 years is gonna refer me a deal I guarantee it I was just prefer to deal from a guy that I spoke to in 2012 by 2012 in Phoenix he calls my office and this just happened a couple months ago he's like listen you're not gonna remember me but you came and spoke at this thing for a bank in Phoenix I think it was 2012 anyway I've got a client that wants to move to New York I told him you're my best friend is that okay like we are best friends send him my way let's do it and to him his ability to tell his clients who's gonna go to New York on his own to say actually listen I'm I'm best friends with Ryan Serhant for million dollar listing New York I don't know if you've ever seen it or anything he's the number one real estate agent in New York over and over and over and over and he's the best and he's a good guy and he works hard can I introduce him to you it's an easy conversation for him to then have with his clients and if the client didn't know anybody the client was like yeah sure is he doesn't even have time for me sent the email over I responded in 15 seconds right that guy came through and bought an apartment for 8.4 million dollars that was a great referral for me I'll do that at any price point so thank you so much for having me thank you for listening to my ridiculous story I hope you had a great time and when you have clients ready for New York or ever you send them my way you're good I don't go spend all your money okay be careful [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Ryan Serhant

Views: 272,739

Keywords: ryan serhant, ryan serhant vlogs, million dollar listing, million dollar listing new york, mdlnyc, garyvee, real estate, nyc vlogs, vlogs

Id: gOp2yitb4Jo

Length: 57min 19sec (3439 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020