The Only 10 RULES You Need To Sell Millions | Josh Altman

Forget about the money. When you see the smile on a person's face, it's the greatest job in the world. I'm the first one in the office every day. I'm the last one in the office every day. Uh, it's a passion of mine, real estate. It's not just opening up a door and letting somebody walk around and look at a house. Uh, that's not what I do. Some realtors do that. I just feel like that's wrong.

He's an American real estate agent, real estate investor, and reality TV personality. He appears on a television show, Million Dollar Listing, on the Bravo Network. In 2013, he was ranked as the number 30 real estate agent in the country by the Wall Street Journal with sales of over $200 million. He's Josh Altman, and here's my take on his top 10 rules for success. Rule number 1 is my personal favorite, and as always, if Josh says something that really, really resonates with you, please leave it in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. Enjoy.

Number 1, you all can tell you gotta love what you do, and I love what I do. I love real estate. My favorite part about what I do that I'm so excited every morning to wake up to is that time when you get to pass the keys over to a new buyer of a home, and they actually bought the home, and you see the smile on those people's faces, okay? That's priceless. You can forget about all the other stuff, forget about the money, when you see the smile on a person's face, it's the greatest job in the world. Think about it. We help people achieve the American dream, which is owning a home, and we get to be part of that, and if you're part of that, those people love you forever.

You know, you give this great example of how you were on the treadmill next to Tyler Perry and you were bold, you kind of talked him up, you ended up selling him, selling his house, but you approached him and you said, are you ready to sell one of your houses? You already knew that he owned two houses, you knew where they were, you know, so isn't that also a big part of this? You have to really do the hard work.

Yeah, and really preparing yourself to be lucky, putting yourself in situations where you can get lucky, where it's not so much luck, it's preparation. I tell a story about how I'm standing inside a line in Starbucks And I'm not at that Starbucks 'cause I like coffee. I'm at that Starbucks 'cause that's where all the wealthy people and all the celebrities in Beverly Hills go every morning. I meet a guy in line in front of me, I end up showing him a house later that afternoon, and he buys a $12 million house. Some people would say that's luck. For me, it's all about being in the right place, and there was a reason why I'm there, because I'm an expert in my community and I put myself in that situation. I always say in order to be a successful salesperson, you gotta know your product. Okay, that's the single most important thing. You got to know it like the back of your hand. Yeah. Otherwise you can't truly sell it and you got to believe in it. You don't believe in it if you don't know it, right? Exactly. So I am very, very good and I can look anybody in this business in the world in the eyes and say I am an expert at Los Angeles real estate. I study it. I know more than 99.999% of the people out there. Okay. I flipped houses, I financed houses, I sell houses, buy them, all that stuff. So I'm very confident because I'm very good at what I do. I do because I'm an expert and I work very hard. You do the work to become the expert. It's not just falling on the lap. It's— yeah, I'm the first one in the office every day. I'm the last one in the office every day. Uh, it's a passion of mine, real estate. So it's— I don't consider it work, but I literally study it. They call me the Rain Man of real estate. There you go. It's like, how much is a house on the 900 block in the Flats of Beverly Hills? And you can be within like $100,000 easily all day long. I feel it's super important these days to be 24/7, okay? Alex had said it before, buying a house is the biggest investment of somebody's life, 99% of the time, okay? That's a big deal. We do it every day, we forget how, you know, nerve-wracking it is and how important it is to these people, so you have to make yourself available. You have to be 24/7. If I'm making a big investment, that person better be available to me. And there's a funny joke because in Beverly Hills, in a high-end market, you typically know who you're going against in a listing appointment. In fact, I think the last 10 listing appointments, the person has seen the other 5 agents, the same exact 5 agents every time. And you know, every once in a while you get that awkward moment where you're walking out of a listing meeting and the new agent is walking in, and you give them this look. So, it's very important to be available, and what I do, a secret with that, when all these people are meeting with these clients, and this will be our little secret at ERA, you tell the client, listen, I want you to call me and the other people, and I want you to see who's available, okay? At random times throughout the day, because I know that these other high-end guys or girls, they're so, you know, above everything that they have secretaries and assistants and buyer's agents and this and that, And they don't give their direct number out. And I pride myself in being available. Everybody has my cell phone. I always pick up the call, and I think that's important to people. So that's a little trick that I use. I've always been, and to this day, the first person in the office and the last person to leave. I started out like everybody else. I walked up and down the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles till there were literally no soles left on my shoes. I mean, that's how much I door knocked. And I door knocked every door, and I really kept it basic.

Basic.

I cold-called nonstop for hours a day, and I lived by a schedule, and I did that every day till slowly I'd pick up one listing, then another, then another. And you know, next thing you know, it starts to get more fun when you start making money, of course. But I started the same way as everybody else, and I have people underneath me that I mentor that I tell the same thing to. You just gotta start just the basics. You can't watch Million Dollar Listing and think that all of a sudden you're gonna millions of dollars in real estate, you know, I've been in some aspect of real estate for over a decade now. So this didn't happen overnight. This is something that has been, you know, worked at nonstop. I've studied the art of negotiation. I've studied how to read people. I've really mastered my craft and I take it very seriously. It's not just opening up a door and letting somebody walk around and look at a house. That's not what I do. Some realtors do that. I just feel like that's wrong. You gotta sell the house. Uh, you gotta, you gotta— what I like to say, sell the dream, right? Uh, you gotta sell the dream. The most important is to what I like to call surround yourself with, with your dream team. Um, I call it Josh Altman's dream team. Yeah. Uh, and it consists of a, a, a good amount of support from people that I trust, uh, value their opinion and, and who I surround myself with. I always say that You are the average of 5 people that you surround yourselves with, right? You ever hear that before? Yeah, yeah, I totally did. Jim Rohn said that. You didn't just make that up. I just made that up right now. So I think it's super important to do that. So in real estate, for example, I have the best mortgage broker who's available 24/7 for me, and we've worked our way up in the business together. I have, you know, everybody from the best title guy and escrow guy and all that. So I surround myself with this team of people who I can trust and they can guide me in the right directions of whatever I do. So that's one way, obviously, in any business is just surround yourself with some, with people who support you.

What would you say to somebody who hasn't found their work drug yet, who hasn't found that thing that really inspires them?

Right, so the ultimate goal is obviously to find something that you love to do because it's not considered work anymore and it's not about money anymore 'cause it's all about happiness and waking up excited to do what you do. All these jobs that led up to that, I always tried to find the thing that I love most about each job and really concentrate on that and be the best at that. You gotta go through a lot of stepping stones in order to find the place. I was, I worked at a funeral home. I was an assistant in the mailroom for a very long time. I had about a dozen jobs which are not so much fun in order to find the right job. And that's gonna be, everybody's gonna go through that. So give it time, concentrate on what you love about your job and be the best at that. I don't care what you do for a living. I don't care if you're the biggest celebrity in the world. I treat you the same as somebody, you know, a newlywed couple who's buying their first condo for $500,000. I talk about it in my book. I, you know, I used to be a field goal kicker, so I always say kick every football the same. You treat every deal the same. You treat everybody with the same respect. And I think that's why people come back to us, because we don't care if you're famous or not. They know that we're the expert at what we do and that we're the best at what we do. So The most important thing, and I tell it over and over and over and over again, get a mentor, okay? When I first got into the business, the first few deals that I ended up picking up were sitting open houses of more successful agents that didn't have time to be everywhere. I said, listen, I'll do anything to help you out on your properties. And, you know, they'd say, okay, why don't you sit this house that weekend? And I'd end up picking up buyers through them. It's very important to have somebody guide you to be successful. Again, it's having someone next to you who's done it, has the advice that you need, can kind of tell you the pros and the cons and what they should be concentrating on. Get a mentor. It's the most important thing. You know, all this coaching stuff that we do, there are reasons why we do this. And it's very, very successful. It's been successful for years and years. So that would be the one thing. If you can't make it, make sure you call somebody who, or link up with someone who can teach you the ropes. I thought that right now would be the perfect time to share a customer service story with you. True story. Couple years ago, I got a call from a young lady. I was all excited. She tells me she's looking for a property, and then she says the word, lease. Our favorite words as realtors. I'm looking for a lease. Ah, you know, unless it's an $85,000 a month lease, I don't know. But I was in a good mood, so I took that call, and I said, "Sure, I'll help you find a lease." And it turns out it was a $5,000 a month lease, and I took her around. For 6 months. The term was only a year. Anyways, I like to finish what I start, so I went through with it, found her an amazing place. She couldn't be happier. In fact, she was so happy that she called her father that night, and she said, "Dad, I got the greatest place. My realtor's amazing. He doesn't care about money at all." And it happened to be that her father was sitting next to the CEO of his company. And he heard the story, and that CEO said, "Actually, I'm thinking of selling my penthouse. Maybe I should use that guy." Sure enough, I went in, I met the CEO, and I got the listing of his $4 million penthouse. While I was sitting that open house on that $4 million penthouse, because that's my favorite thing to do, a celebrity walked in. And that celebrity walked around, and he checked out that incredible penthouse, and he looked at me and he said, "Yeah, this is cool. Do you have anything cooler?" I said, "Sure." So I went back to the office and I put together the list of the coolest penthouses you could find. And I showed that celebrity around, and that celebrity ended up buying an $11 million penthouse, which broke the record for Santa Monica. So from that lease, that $5,000 a month lease, which led to that $4 million penthouse sale, which led to that $11 million penthouse sale, and it is the gift that keeps on giving on and on and on. That is why customer service is so important to everybody's business.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Trevin, or Trevon Clark, asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, Leave it down in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know what did Josh say that really resonated with you the most? What rule was most impactful to you? What are you gonna apply to your life or your business? Please leave it down in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Krypton Co. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book. It really, really, really, really means a lot to me. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourselves. En whatever your one word is. Much love.

I'll see you soon.