How I made $136,474.43 in 30 days as a Real Estate Agent

What's up you guys, it's Graham here. So I ended up getting quite a few comments on my income breakdown video for one month in particular, and that was in April of 2017, where my income that month was a hundred and thirty-six thousand four hundred and seventy-four dollars and forty-three cents. Given all the comments and questions regarding this, and why that month in particular was triple or quadruple the previous month's, I felt this is something worth elaborating on a little further in discussing how I was able to achieve this and what's involved in doing this as a real estate agent.

Now, by the way, I hope that some of these principles and techniques would apply no matter what business you're in. Even though I'm in real estate, I'm hoping that you can pick and choose and implement some of these as well, regardless of what business you're in. So don't click out of this video thinking, "I don't care that Real Estate's. I only subscribe to the bit connect." means don’t click out because I'm hoping that these techniques would apply no matter what business you're in.

So let's get into the income breakdown. Now, the majority of this was a result of me selling a seven million dollar house here in Los Angeles. I got another four thousand dollars or so of rental income, and then finally got about twelve hundred and forty-six dollars in YouTube ad revenue that month. Now, there's probably some other little minor stuff thrown in there that adds on to that income, like little lease commissions or other little tiny deals or some stuff that won't really make a huge difference, so I'm gonna leave those out. But let's focus first on the biggest one, and that is the seven million dollar sale that I had because obviously this is the bulk of the income that month.

I'll discuss exactly how I got the clients, how that came to be, and everything revolving around that because, keep in mind, growing up I was not someone with seven million dollar connections. I did not grow up with seven million dollar houses. I grew up in areas where people were renting their home for like 1500 to 2000 dollars a month. So I'm not somebody who started off with any wild connections or multi-million dollar friends or family or anything like that.

So what happened, and how can this apply to you as well? Honestly, it really just happened organically and grew over time as a result of long-term consistency, follow-up, and customer service from some of the clients I met at the very beginning of my career in real estate. The seven million dollar client was actually someone that was referred to me. So the client that referred me this huge deal was actually someone I met in 2013. He called me off a lease listing I posted on Craigslist. We talked for a little bit, and I ended up leasing him the very first home I showed him. I believe it was also the only home I showed him. He ended up signing a long-term lease on that house. He was happy, I was happy, it was easy, done.

Now, what many people do in these situations is just collect their check, move on to the next one, and forget the original client ever even existed. But for anyone in sales or any sort of customer service industry, the best clientele that you're ever going to get is always going to be your existing business. They're gonna be the ones that refer you more business, and anytime you get in with somebody and they use you once, if they're happy with their experience, they're going to come back to you. You don't need to continue going out hustling new people once you have a large enough existing base of happy, satisfied clients, and this is exactly what I did.

I just continued following up every four to six months. I would send an email just asking how he's doing, if there's anything I can help with, how the house is going, and then I'd also invite them to any office events or parties or anything unrelated to real estate, just so I can get to know them and build a connection outside of business. I make sure to do this with every client I end up working with because it's inevitable at some point in the future they're going to refer you more business that happens to be just as awesome, and then that is another person that you can put in your database that will do the same thing.

So sure enough, three years later, that same client hit me back up saying he wanted to find another property, and sure enough, just like the first time, he ended up getting the first house I showed him, which was amazing. It was a house up in the hills with a view of the entire city. It was perfect, so we ended up signing a long-term lease, and just like the first one again, he was totally happy. Also starting a deal on the first and only home you show them is also great. When you get to know a client and really understand what they want, you can really pinpoint the few specific homes that you really feel are gonna be the best fit for them.

This just cuts away all the bull, all the time wasting, and you get right into exactly what they want, and a lot of clients really appreciate that. But here's where things get interesting. After another few months, that same client called me up and said that he wanted to refer me some other business for another really high-end lease. Now, because this is a referral, you really have to go above and beyond. Referrals are the type of business that could really make or break the past relationship you have with the first client that referred you. Anytime someone ends up referring you somebody, they really go out on the line and they put their own reputation at stake, and they expect you to deliver.

So if you don't, it ends up making them look bad. Plus, anytime someone refers you business, it's really such a huge compliment that they really have that much trust in you to refer you to someone they know. So it's so vital that anytime you get a referral, you treat them like royalty; you pull out the red carpet, you do everything you can to make sure they're happy. And that's exactly what I did. The referral was initially looking for a high-end lease, but after looking at a few properties, he concluded that it's probably better off for him to buy something instead, and his budget at the time was up to ten million dollars.

Now keep in mind, growing up and starting in the business, I had none of these wild connections. I knew nobody who was buying ten million dollar properties, but here I was, years later, in a position to help somebody find a ten million dollar property. Now keep in mind, to get to this point, it took me almost nine years of working in the business, and it was also about four years after I originally met the person that referred me him. It's pretty trippy to think about. It's really the cumulation of a lot of work put in, a lot of follow-up, meeting a lot of people to meet the types of people that refer you that type of business.

I really think it's so important to have a long-term outlook on everything you do. When I first started working as a real estate agent, I knew I would be doing this for decades, so I really wanted to build up a very happy, solid foundation of existing clients that I knew would use me again, refer me more business, and that would continue to grow over time. That means at any time I get a referral or work with someone for a second or third or sometimes fourth time, I go above and beyond for these people because it means so much to me that they trust me and appreciate me enough to use me again. That means the world to me.

Sure enough, just a few months later, this referral ended up buying a seven million dollar house for a pretty good deal. We found a seller who needed to sell, and the house had some cosmetic issues. We were able to scoop it up at a pretty good price, and doing this led to my best month ever in real estate and also my highest sale ever at seven million dollars. Now before this, my highest sale ever was five and a half million dollars in 2011, and this came from a leased client that I also met on Craigslist, who ended up using me twice before he used me a third time to purchase his home, like I said, for five and a half million dollars.

So what it really comes down to is two things. The first one is really having a long-term outlook, and the second is just having patience. It's easy to look at someone right now where they are and think that it just happens immediately, and they see seven million dollar sales or they see them happening regularly or they see a high income, but what they don't see is that it took me almost nine years of working in the business to get that type of referral and get that type of sale. It took me meeting thousands of people to get a good enough client base where I can consistently rely on them for themselves and their referrals to provide a stable income.

In real estate, something like this didn't happen overnight. There was a lot of work involved behind the scenes, and some random lucky elements as well that I was in the right place at the right time for certain sales and certain clients because I put myself out there so much. That's what leads to six-figure commissions. It's never about trying to close the deal as quick as possible, getting paid, then moving on to the next one, forgetting about the first person. This is a sleazy car salesman approach where every customer is really just seen as a dollar sign. Had I done that, I would never have repeat and referral business, and right now, that makes up the majority of the money I make and the majority of the deals I do in real estate.

Just as an example, this month alone in May, I've had two sales. The first one was one and a half million dollars. That was a referral from a client who bought a 2.2 million dollar home for me, who was a repeat client from someone I originally leased a house to. The second deal was 2.3 million dollars, and that was a repeat client from someone I met a year and a half ago who ended up deciding to buy something. That works out to 3.8 million dollars in sales just in one month, just using my existing client base. That's without me prospecting and going out there and busting my ass to meet new people. That's just providing great service to my existing clients.

So no matter what business you're in, look at it as though you're gonna be in the business for 20 or 30 years. Every happy client will come back to you; every happy client will refer you even more business. Then, those people end up coming back to you and end up referring you even more business, and that just continues over and over and over again. Now at this point, I pretty much do no prospecting whatsoever besides holding open houses or besides posting the occasional lease on Craigslist. For the most part, I just service my existing clients and their referrals, and this leads to over 20 million dollars a year in sales volume reliably, without me having to prospect.

This clears up my time to focus more of my time giving one-on-one attention to my clients and making sure they're taken care of, and this means they're happy. If they're happy, I'm happy. So for your business, always focus on the long term. Never chase after short-term money if you know they're never gonna come back to you again. I implement the same strategies also on YouTube. I intend to be around for a very, very, very long time, regardless of whether it's YouTube or whatever else it is.

Like decades from now, anything I do now that might impact my business negatively in the future, I will not do any short-term money grab that I could try to get from my subscribers. Sure, I might make a lot of money now, but if that ruins my relationship with all of you guys, it's not worth it. So take the same mentality as well. Plan to be around for decades and intend for everyone to be happy, and they come back to you over and over and over again. This will carry you a really long way.

Now really quick to address the other two sources of income, even though they're pretty significant compared to the first. The four thousand dollars in rental income comes in about every month. That was back then; now it's a little bit more than that. They've added another property since then. Each rental property has its own account tallying up, and then at the end of the month or every other month, I'll just put whatever monies in there into my checking account, and that is what's registered on Mint. Of course, I have like a bajillion videos of my rental properties and all that sort of stuff, so I might just link them in the description.

If you guys want to check that out as well, there are so many videos on that already. Then I also have the twelve hundred and forty-six dollars in YouTube ad revenue, and back then that was like, I was so stoked to get twelve hundred dollars a month from YouTube. For me back then, that was my highest month ever—that was like a big deal to me. I was super happy to get that, and that was also part of that total figure.

So that is, you guys, exactly how I made one hundred and thirty-six thousand four hundred and seventy-four dollars and forty-three cents working as a real estate agent, and I hope you guys found this helpful. So, as always, you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. If you guys enjoy videos like this, make sure to hit the like button; it does really help out a lot. Also, if you've watched it all the way through, if you haven't already subscribed yet, why haven't you subscribed? It takes five and then— not even the tasting one second—just to scroll down there and just hit the little subscribe button. I'll wait like one second—just hit and smash it—smash the subscribe button. Then right next to it, there's a notification bell. Make sure you hit that notification bell so YouTube notifies you anytime I upload a video.

Make sure—just make sure to hit that as well! Also, feel free to add me on Snapchat and Instagram; I post pretty much daily, so if you want to be a part of it, feel free to add me there. Finally, I know I have so many plugs here, but I have a program. It's called the Real Estate Agents Academy for anyone looking to get in the business of working as a real estate agent or for anybody who's currently working as an agent but just wants to increase their volume and maybe take it to the next level. I have a program in the description; I'll offer fifty dollars off plus a free coaching call when you finish.

I love the coaching call. So if you guys are interested in that, the link is in the description. By the way, I know it's a bit on the pricier side considering what most courses are, but if you ever get this and you're unhappy with it for whatever reason, like if you decide, you know, after a week, you just—it's not worth it or it's not helpful, which I would be surprised if it wasn't. But if it is for whatever reason, just let me know, I'll make it right.

I mean, only show a full refund if anyone's ever unhappy with this. Like honestly unhappy. I'm not gonna keep your money, so you don't have to worry about that as long as it's reasonable. Like don't wait like six months or whatever and then be like, "I watched the whole thing five times!" and you'd be like, "I don't like it!" But like anything reasonable, you know, I'll be reasonable. So there's no risk in that. If you end up buying it and disliking it, don't worry about it, no harm no foul! You get a full refund back.

So anyway, that's how confident I am with it. You guys will like it and will find value in it. And that's it, thank you, good for watching!