This week's contributor profile is Ryan Serhant. Check out his work on his Inman profile. I had a little q-and-a session with him, and here is what he had to say: RYAN'S INMAN PROFILE Ryan Serhant graduated from Hamilton College in 2006 with degrees in English, Literature, and Theatre. After college, he moved to New York City for a starring role on the iconic soap opera As the World Turns. Always up for a challenge, Serhant took the advice of a friend and decided to pursue a career in real estate. He walked into the offices of Nest Seekers International, one of the largest real estate brokerage firms in New York City, and was offered a job. Serhant’s dreams were about to become a reality in more ways than one. Serhant’s tireless work ethic paid off and he was quickly promoted to Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Nest Seekers International. In less than five years, he had sold nearly one billion dollars in real estate and was ranked as one of the top 20 real estate brokers out of 28,000 in New York City by The Real Deal Magazine. Serhant has garnered an excellent reputation and counts some of the world’s most influential people as clients. His friendly demeanor and unwavering dedication to clients is one of the keys to his success. In fact, Serhant believes that anyone can achieve success in real estate by building a brand that is appealing, personality driven, unique and strategic. He developed his winning strategies through hard work, dedication, creativity and innovative thinking, but cautions that the work will only pay off if you believe in yourself. Serhant’s motto, “Expansion. Always, in all ways.” is fitting in that his real estate team has grown to include eight seasoned agents, allowing him to service clients all over the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Serhant’s extraordinary success brought him back to television when he was least expecting it. Producers of a real estate television series cast him in a starring role. The series, Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York, is a huge ratings success and airs internationally. His television career has expanded to include appearances on 20/20, CNN, CNBC, The Today Show, The Insider, and Bloomberg TV, among others. Serhant is frequently quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal China, Boston Herald, New York Post, and New York Daily News. Serhant takes pride in his accomplishments and his success has allowed him to help others. He supports several non-profit organizations including Share Our Strength, Habitat for Humanity, The Human Rights Campaign, and Charity Water. | What made you want to contribute? I find a lot of real estate advice columns to be very repetitive and impersonal. Real estate agents don't get any help from black-and-white interviews. I feel that my real-time responses to actual questions from readers are refreshing. I'm brutally honest about myself, my track record, my successes, and most importantly, my failures. If I can help even one person out there by being honest and open about my experience as a real estate agent, I will be ecstatic. What has been your favorite piece of feedback so far? Someone sent me an email saying that "I tell it how it is" and that my advice helped them close their first sale for $350,000. That was awesome. What do you do in your spare time? I try to spend as much down time with my fiancé, Emilia, as possible. We are planning a wedding right now and that, on top of work, on top of filming "Million Dollar Listing," means I don't get to spend as much quality time with her as I'd like. I make it a conscious effort to put my phone away and just cuddle as much as possible. What advice would you give to other aspiring real estate professionals? If it were easy, everyone would do it. When you lose a deal, when you hate the business, when you get yelled at by a client, when you drive by a listing with a buyer and get lost -- those are the moments you savor. Every mess up, every mix up, every minor failure is just a build up to the reward of being an entrepreneur and running your own business. Wake up every day excited, say ready, set, go the moment you step out the door, and don't come home until you're as excited as you were when you left that morning. |