A former law school dropout got his real estate license in college as a summer job. At 22, he meant it as temporary before law school, but a baseball trip to South America delayed everything. He stayed in real estate, eventually leading Seven Gables, a firm he didn't found but now runs.
I said, just, I'm an open book. Ask me anything you want.
Yeah. Yeah.
So it was great. It was really fun, actually.
Well, you may have just said that to the wrong guy because I have so many questions.
Okay, go for it.
So, so give people some context, though. How long have you actually— how many businesses have you started before you started real estate?
I started one, two businesses as a young person, and that was it before real estate. That was it. What did you do before? You're not going to believe this one, Tom, but I was in college.
Yes.
And I was on my way to law school.
Yeah.
And I was asked to tour South America with a group of college baseball players.
Yeah.
And we did. And as a result of that, I ended up being late back for law school because I wasn't getting emails. I mean, emails, wasn't getting letters and mail down there. It just was not going to happen. So I couldn't start. So I was like, okay, what do I do now? Right. So I had a real estate license. I had acquired it one summer during college. And so I went back and I said, why don't I just do some real estate? I'll do that for a while.
Yeah.
Okay. So I started by accident, like probably most people in this business.
Sure, sure. Not many people— it's been said, and now I think it's shifted. Certainly we've watched over the last decade, probably because of things like Million Dollar Listing and, sure, you know, the sort of just the success of agents. But a lot of people said for years, this is a second, third, fourth career. Sure. So did you start out as a first career and then you said you started a couple of the businesses?
Oh, the real estate business itself. Yeah, I started when I was 22. So I got into the business and by accident and figured it would not last that long. I planned to go back to law school and pursue that career.
Yeah.
So did you? No, I didn't. I pursued a graduate degree eventually about 5 years later, 6 years later, but not at that time.
So, so when did you— and I say this with the most respect— have the audacity to buy a real estate company, to start a real estate company? At what point in your career did you have the notion to become a broker?
Well, you know, it was— it's a windy road and there's some luck involved in that and there's some loyalty involved in that. The founders of Seven Gables— I was not the founder of Seven Gables. They're wonderful people. Today I just carry on the tradition I think that they started.
Yeah.
And the ability to lead that company now and sit in that position is an honor that I kind of dreamed of, you know, at some point in the past.
