How a 22 year old got 500 LISTINGS as a PART TIME Real Estate Agent

In my first year, I have these moments where I wanted to quit. I was just like, this is not for me, you know? Maybe real estate's not for me. Maybe I got so frustrated. I was helping this dude out, and then like halfway through, he's like, you know what? I don't know if it's for me. I don't know. I'm gonna focus more on school. I'm like, dude, no! I put like… no, you can't do that! You could not give up!

"What's up, you guys? It's Graham here. So I'm here with this special guest, this is Aria. Now for anybody that follows me on Snapchat or Instagram—this is a shameless plug to follow me on Snapchat or Instagram, probably Instagram now because Snapchat's kind of sus—you remember Aria because he sent me a text out of nowhere saying he's got over 500 listings as a real estate agent. And… someone who I've been talking with now from maybe, I don't know, six months to a year, commanding, yeah, and kind of teaching him some of my techniques, my strategies, and the things that I use. Seeing him actually go and utilize those things and then get 500 listings is stupid. So I want you to talk a little bit about how he did that, what exactly was involved in that, and just I'll let you take over.

So anyway, this is Aria. Just to give you guys a quick little background, I started in real estate about a year and coming up on nine months—very crazy year. You know, I followed a lot of what Graham said throughout all of his videos. So basically, I gave you guys a quick rundown. I went after leases, like Graham said; it's such an untapped market. No agent wants to do it. It's funny, I actually got a call the other day saying, 'Hey, what's going on? I got your phone number from this building. They told me that you specialized in leases and whatnot. Can you help me find a place?' And I helped him, this and that, and he actually ended up asking me, 'Hey, how come you specialize in leases? Everybody told me agents don't make money on leases.' I said, 'Yeah, I just don't make money on leases.' Okay, cool, but if you get 500 leases, what's gonna happen? It's gonna, you know, lease, lease, lease, lease, lease, and then what's gonna happen? Some sales, yeah, some listings come from it. You get a credibility factor, and that's exactly what happened.

So with the 500 leases, you know, I go to listing appointments. I show them my marketing portfolio. They're like, 'Oh, 500 units? This guy probably is doing something right.' And then what comes? I got two listings out of it, and I got a sale. So that's the quick little rundown. How old are you for people that don't know? I'm 22. 22 years old! You've probably had the most listings I would say maybe in the country of any 22-year-old in terms of units. Yeah, and they're not all listed. And they're not all listed. That's absolutely incredible!

So let's talk about really quick how you even got this in the first place. Like, start with the service from the very beginning: how you did this, how you found this building, how you got the listing. Cool, okay, drop some knowledge.

So basically, the way I went about this is I was looking for new development buildings. There's a lot of new development happening in LA, and as Graham said multiple times, we're blessed to live in this city. So basically what I did is I kept driving around, driving around. I was looking for buildings that had broken ground but they are nowhere near being finished. So all of these leases that I have access to, they're not going to be ready until about the end of April, and then the remainder of the building is going to be finished in the summer, and then the last end of the buildings and the full amenities are going to be finished in the later parts of fall. So they're not going to be coming out for a while.

Given that, a lot of agents don't really even think about going after these leases because they say, 'Hey, they're not even ready to be shown yet; why would I even waste my time, you know get the leases?' So what I went ahead and did is I went into the leasing office. I introduced myself. I brought marketing portfolios with me. I brought previous listings, I've brought deals I've worked on in the past. I've brought my specialty in the Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, Venice, Playa Vista, Playa del Rey area. So I basically just showed them, you know, this is who I am, this is what I can do for you guys, and how I can create a win-win situation for everyone. That's what they really liked about me. I made it into a win-win.

So that's basically how I ended up getting all these leases, and actually, I out-pitched a couple other firms that are native to the area. And that just comes with, you know, your confidence and then just kind of knowing exactly what you know and knowing what you don't know as well. Keep in mind, I'm not gonna mention names here, but Aria is 22 years old, has been doing this less than two years—less than two years part-time—and beat out another agency who is by far one of the most prolific and top agencies and brokerages in probably Los Angeles. I don't say easily within the top, you know, few, definitely within top a hundred, definitely within top five. They got beat by a 22-year-old who's been doing real estate part-time for less than two years. That like, that's basically the competition. Blows your mind, right?

It is, and that's exactly what I'm teaching on both this channel and also in the Real Estate Agent Academy, the program that I have, is going after leases like this and developments like this. You can do this with zero experience, without having any other listings, without having anything to do. One of the other things that I like to mention is that you can always leverage that for more business, which is exactly what you did. You used one listing and the credentials from that and the exposure of that to then meet somebody else. My whole theory is that every deal that you do should lead to two extra deals, exactly.

So if you have a buyer and you sell that buyer a house, just from your exposure, for you going out, just by meeting the buyer. That buyer is probably going to refer you to another client, or you might meet another client in the process, or another listing in the process. And then all of a sudden you have two deals, and then each of those two deals is the same thing, and that becomes four deals, honestly. I know we haven't really talked too much about this, but you pretty much are set in your career, in my opinion, from this one bill if it's played correctly. If it's played correctly—and I’m sure Graham's gonna make sure I play it correctly—you are set for literally your entire career. I'm not even exaggerating on that, just the exposure over the next probably two, three years you're gonna get from this one project is enough to catapult your career. I don’t see any reason that if you don’t stop, there’s no reason why from basically now on you shouldn’t be able to make about $150,000 a year just from the business that you can from this and just from the repeat and referral business you get in the future from meeting the clients today from doing leases.

And it's one of these things too that so many people don’t like to do leases because they complain and say, 'But it’s not a lot of money up front. I’m wasting my time; I’m making like a thousand dollars up front.' But what they don’t realize is that it’s a short-term sacrifice to make a lot of money in the future because that $1,000 commission can turn into fifty to a hundred thousand dollars two years from now. So it's not so much in the beginning, which is, you know, like pre-designed levels in the beginning. It’s really not so much about, like, you know, how could I make as much money as possible this month? It's what can I do now that will set me up in the future.

So I'll touch it a little bit on that. So like I said, I've been in the industry for about a year and nine months. My first, well maybe five or six months, I didn't see one paycheck. And I was talking, I was working open houses, showings, and listing appointments. I was doing everything. Not one paycheck. And that didn’t feel good, you know what I mean? Like it really doesn’t feel good to not make money after so much work. But you know, through countless, you know, just sessions where I was talking and meeting with Graham, he just kept telling me, 'No, the money will come; the money will come. Don’t you know real estate is a career? It’s not a job, you know? You’re in it for the long haul; you’re not in it for the short-term.' That’s also why a lot of real estate agents quit their first year—they don’t see that money come back in after they invest so much time and their own money to basically not give them any money.

So given that, you know, in my first year, I have these moments where I wanted to quit. I was just like, 'This is not for me. Remember this?' Everybody's like, 'This is not for me.' You know, maybe real estate's not for me. Maybe I got all… I got so frustrated too easy. I was helping this dude out, and then like halfway through, he's like, 'You know what? I don’t know if it’s for me. I don’t know; I’m gonna focus more on school.' And I’m like, 'Dude, no! Don’t do this!' I’ve put in like—no, you can’t do that! You cannot give up!

We met up at this open house in Bel-Air. It's an insane house; it was like a 20-something million or million. Yes. And that was a moment of silence. Don't tell it to each other because then you end up as one of these statistics of people that, like, you know, tried it for the first six to eight months and it didn’t work out, didn't make money. No.

So basically what happened is, you know, when I was going through this little period, I was like, 'This is not for me. This is not for me.' I really, really, really had to take a huge step back, and I was like, 'Look, this is how it's gonna play out: I have to dedicate these first couple years to learning because there's so much info to learn.' There's a reason why people go with real sages who have 25 to 30 years of experience because what that experience comes to knowledge; the knowledge, right? Knowledge.

The knowledge. Yeah, Mark, we're here in the garage; we're here in the garage. Got the Lotus… hopefully… got the Lambo. Yeah, it'll probably be a Lambo tonight. Yeah, and then mine's gonna be like right here. But anyways, in that first year, I have these moments where I just wanted to give up. And I was like, 'Okay, look, I gotta take a step back, and I gotta dedicate these first couple years to learning. There’s so much value in the knowledge, and you know, you really are nothing without the knowledge in this real estate industry because you’re providing a service at the end of the day. You have to have some sort of value that you know you basically outvalue the other agents that could potentially take your business.'

So I dedicated those first years to learning. I didn’t worry about a paycheck. I said, 'You know, the money will come; the money will come. I need to know the information.' Fast forwarding a couple of months, a couple of years or whatnot, a year and a half so I went to after this new development building and I got these leases. With these leases, I got the credibility factor that my client really, really, really liked. He said, 'Okay, look, this guy has a bunch of leases; he’s obviously doing something correctly.' He ended up writing an offer with me for just about 2 million, and I'm selling his place now for a little bit over one—one. So with the credibility factor in playing my cards right, I'm getting three million in a deal. That’s gonna be wrapped up in, you know, the total time span of that is about two months, two and a half months. So you can do the math there.

I really stuck to my gun and I said, 'Okay, look, if I don’t make any money in the next year and a half, two years that's completely fine. The knowledge I'm gonna accumulate just from being around deals, being around colleagues, being around, you know, just listings and all of that good stuff—I learned so much where in the long run all of that value is, you know—what's the right word?—it outvalues that dollar amount of money because this comes back tenfold.

That's what I always tell people too. Don't really worry about the first six to twelve months. I really believe the first six to twelve months is just like going to school, except by going to school it’s just like you're working instead. The work is kind of your school in the very beginning, you know? But all of that work in the beginning pays off longer.

And it's interesting, actually, if you Google real estate agent, it actually tells you, I was like, one of the requirements is save up at least one year of your income. It actually just will tell you that. Yeah, you know, right there and then on Google. And that's, you know, I'm blessed because, you know, I'm only 22 years old. I don’t have too many life expenses, young expenses, you know, as you say. I don’t really have, you know, health insurance just, you know, that, right? Yeah, wait till you're 25 to pay for any of that stuff!

So I said, 'Look, I’m not desperate for a paycheck; I don’t have bills, I don't have two kids, I don't have a mortgage, you know? I can take that sacrifice and a paycheck to learn this knowledge. In three, four years, you know, I’ll have way more information than any of these other agents.' And then from there just, you know, it just won't even be fair.

You know, it’s insane how untapped of a market the leases are. It's insane! Nobody wants to do and nobody, but it’s like especially being young, not having a lot of expenses, and just learning—you do those leases when nobody else does them and that will come back to you and then you make their dollars in sales.

I’ll give you another example. I had a client who is from Toronto—I’m not gonna say any names—but this client ended up leasing three places from me since I’ve met him. One of them was for $11.5 a month; the one he’s in right now is for $14.5 a month; and he also rented one from me for $8.5 a month. I was the first one he leased from me. Through him, his buddies from Toronto came down, and he leased a place to one of his buddies for $8,500. And yes, now I’d only give up too much of this information until it actually happens, but I’m working with him to buy a couple of places in new development buildings in downtown LA. He has about three to four million cash; he wants to buy about five to six units. So that’s going to be, you know, in maybe the next one and a half, two years because this new development, and you know, of course, presale condos, you know you get a discount on them. People love that stuff! But you know just with these simple leases, and those were short-term leases… so I mean don’t, you know, you make like five bucks, no money on those leases, nightmare clients, nightmare deals, but what’s gonna come from the wraparound on it? It’s gonna come, you know, some good deals, definitely!

I’ll also talk a little bit about being twenty-two, about just being young—and nobody asks, oh that’s something you have to—you're telling me though. Okay, so I'm still full-time to school. I graduate this May. So, you know, I’m 22 years old. What’s actually really interesting is when I first got into real estate, I remember we were at my brother’s house, and we were talking. And, you know, half of Graham— I said, 'Look, you know, I really want to get into real estate; you know, it’s the only way I really see myself becoming financially independent, but I’m really stuck on, you know, I’m 21 years old. This—I got my license at 21.' And Graham said, 'Oh, don’t worry about the age, man, don’t worry about the age.' And I was like, 'I just can’t see myself, you know, as a 21-year-old, I’m gonna go get these three, four million dollar listings.' It just doesn’t make sense to me. Graham said, 'Dude, learn the information and your age really won’t matter because if you know the stuff, nobody cares how old you are.'

What’s really interesting about that, I’ve met agents—I’m talking top producing agents—who are 30, 40, 50 years old, and it blows my mind how little stuff they know, how it’s—I mean, it’s so average. So many people are still alive, but they're so incompetent, it actually blows my mind. So, you know, with that being said, being 22 years old, not one of my clients has asked me how old I am. Not one of my clients has ever asked me how long I’ve been in the industry; they all just assume because of the way I carry myself, the confidence I have and the brand image that either I’ve been in the industry for a while, been around the industry for a while, or, you know, I’m a little bit older than 22. I’ve only had one client actually who I’ve told my age to, and he was actually blown away. He was completely shocked! And he was even more shocked when I told him I was in school part-time or full-time; I mean doing real estate only part-time. And you know, just that alone—him knowing that—his respect level for me, no job—they loved it jumped. He was like, 'Wow! This kid's really out here. He’s hustling. He’s in school; he’s in real estate; he’s working around these listings that are three, four, five million dollars!'

You know, he’s really… he’s got a good head on his shoulders. And, you know, with that, it was just even more credibility, yeah, aspect, the credibility, and then the referrals come forth!

Yeah, I mean, if you’re 19, you’re like, 'Yo, what’s up, dude? You know, what’s up?' Full let me see this. It’s like obviously they’re not gonna respect it, but if you’re 19 and you hold yourself to a really professional level, you really help people out— if it ever comes up, you actually tell them you’re 19, it blows them away! And they’re actually even more likely to work with you at that point because they’re going, 'Whoa! I have a lot of respect for this person; I don’t want to let this kid down!' You know, because at that point, they feel bad too! So like you played that up a little bit with everything else, and you basically got yourself a client for life. They’re never gonna use anybody else after that!

So what are a few of the takeaways then for everybody watching that you recommend or some of the lessons that you've learned?

Definitely one of the biggest lessons that I would recommend to any new agent or anybody who's trying to get into the real estate industry is you really, really, really need to take a big step back and sacrifice those early paychecks for the info. I know it really sucks to think about it like that—I'm gonna be doing all this work, I'm not gonna get any money, whatever—but you're gonna get so much information that's worth way more than that dollar, I guarantee it!

Definitely check out the lease market if you live in a big urban community; there's a lot going on around you. I know a lot of people, especially in LA, they're buying out all these big buildings, they're redeveloping them, and they're making them huge apartment buildings, you know? And really just don’t quit! It’s a really tough industry; it's super demanding. It's been known in the older generations that, oh, don't get into real estate, don't be a real estate agent, this and that. I love it! It’s fuel. And how much fun is it? It’s one of the most fun industries I've ever been experienced or I've had the chance to experience.

And it’s definitely the only industry that I can really think at the age of 22 that you can determine how much you make. I've met tons and tons and tons of cool people. I've met Tyler Banks at an open house, I’ve met Elizabeth Garten, I’ve met Arnold Schwarzenegger; I’ve met Nicky Diamonds, I don’t know if you know him? Yeah, representative.

Yeah! Oh yeah, that's so interesting! Yeah there we go! Yeah! That is one of the cool things about doing real estate in Los Angeles; the amount of people that you meet—I’m sure it’s somewhat the same in other areas too—you’re just exposed to these people who are buying multimillion-dollar houses. And like, I have never been around that market before! Like, I don’t know anybody who really buys these houses until you get into real estate and you're able to meet these people first hand!

So it’s incredible. It’s also been the only career for me that’s ever—it’s never felt like a job. It’s always just about me hanging out with friends, seeing really insane houses, and somehow getting paid for it. I mean, that has always been how it was like for me!

And then the last bit of advice that I want to throw in there is definitely listen to Graham, what he’s giving you guys for free on his YouTube. It should be illegal, seriously! Okay? So many things that I've learned from Graham's videos, they’re gonna accelerate the business that I have in the future. It’s just those little tiny, even those golden nuggets that are in some of your videos that people just skip over. I know like sometimes I watch your videos at 1.5-2 times speed, but I always have to remind them because I say, 'Oh, that’s something good; I need to catch that, I need to write it down.'

So that's the last bit of advice—listen to Graham and listen to yourself as well, of course! To even more information in the Real Estate Agent Academy in the description! But no, in all seriousness though, I think one of the big things too is we tend to overestimate the competition. We tend to think, like, why are you giving all this away? If one person that, like—if we say, like, these are our strategies and this is exactly what we do, and this is exactly what you did, what’s to stop everyone else that watches this from doing it? The sad truth is that almost no one, probably maybe only a few of you guys, will actually implement it. That's the sad truth.

And we always tend to overestimate the competition. We always tend to think, you know, if this is good, everyone else is doing it. But the reality is very, very few people are actually doing it! Really! I mean, if you thought about how many people went after that one building, I want to say maybe one to three people went after that building. I mean, you’re really competing with maybe one or two other people—that’s your competition! Like, one or two other people! And also when you think that most agents are incompetent, the person you went after is not— I mean, that's the exact opposite of a compliment! You beat out an agent who probably most agents would never even bet on!

Everyone in the go shoot! You couldn’t even do that! No, but when you think of the average agent being terrible, it’s so easy to stand out when you just use some of these simple techniques, and it’s just, it’s easy at that point.

It’s sad when you think of the average person; you’re never blown away by the average person. And then think half of those people are worse than that. And this is no shit-talking, no, it is how it is. No, it’s reality. Happy people are worse than that!

So when you think of your competition, you generally have to think right off the bat half the people have just, you know, tossed it— I know they just tossed them to the side. They’re not your competition. And then the other half, chances are they’re not even going to bother with it.

Even though they’re really competent people and they have what it takes, they’re not even gonna go for it. So usually, you’re one of the very few people who’s actually doing it, and it’s very easy to stand out with that!

And if you’re young, you know, if you are in your early 20s, as Graham's mentioned in other videos, you know, the value you do hold as a really young agent, as a new agent, is the ability to provide an understanding to your clients that you’re gonna do whatever you have to do to make sure that you get it done properly because it is the beginning of your career!

You literally don’t have any room to mess up because if you mess up in your first year of real estate, it’s a snowball effect! People are gonna know you around the neighborhood that, 'Oh, that’s the guy who messed up this deal' or 'That’s the guy who didn’t do it properly!' So you really need to make sure that you do it properly, and with that, you know, it comes to mentorship, yeah, which is what you’ve spoken about in many videos.

You really got to seek a mentor. I've been extremely grateful; I've had one of the best mentors I can possibly have! Thank you so much for this!

So for everybody watching, if you want to follow Aria on Instagram, she’s gonna follow—I’m just gonna do a plug—I’ll have it come up somewhere on here! Follow. I got some cool content coming!

Yeah! There we go! But as always, you guys, thank you so much for watching us! I really appreciate it. If you haven’t subscribed already, you want to tell them what to do just in case they don’t?

'Why do you guys want to subscribe yet? Make sure to smash this subscribe button, smash the notification bell, smash the like button because it does really help out a lot! And also, if you are interested in becoming a real estate agent, I have the Real Estate Agent Academy in the description for everyone who's interested in checking it out—the same stuff, literally the same techniques that you did to get this!

It’s all in there, times like a hundred other videos! So for anybody interested in that, make sure to check that out! Also, feel free to add me on Snapchat and Instagram; I post pretty much daily. If you want to be a part of it there, make sure to add me there. Thank you for watching! And until next time!

And last thing, 10,000 likes and you get the Lambo sooner! Oh yeah, okay; 10,000 likes, and the Lambo comes by the end of April instead of maybe the end of May! That seems like a fair trade-off! 10,000 likes, let’s do it! That’s 20,000 likes; I’ll get a Lambo! Smash like, my smashers!