Avi Becker went from Lyft driver to $30 million real estate producer by his late twenties, scaled to $20 million in year two through expired listings and cold-calling, then took an 11-month travel sabbatical. He rebuilt his business focusing on open houses and power-hour prospecting, now building a YouTube brand and Airbnb business with his fiancée.
Chapters
5,000 bucks says you can't do it.
I'm in. 5,000. Let's do it.
All right. So what if I told you I'm sitting down with a friend who joined real estate at 24 years old, but prior to that was a social media intern, became a $30 million producer, and then did the wildest thing that I love and respect? He took 1 year off from real estate, traveled the world, came back and crushed his first year back. And that's my guest today. Avi, good to see you, man.
Tom, I'm so stoked to be here.
This is a— I don't know how many times I've reached out to you, but every time I see him, like, dude, we got to, we got to talk about this. We got to talk about the experience. But first, for the person that doesn't know who you are, give a little backstory. Why did you get into real estate? You know, you were an intern and then you're in Santa Barbara, California. So they get context for that. Just give a little backstory on you.
So, yeah, I'm Avi. I'm 30 years old. I live in beautiful Santa Barbara, California. I'm so blessed to live there. Originally from Boulder, Colorado. I grew up playing lacrosse and we would come to California for lacrosse trips and I fell in love with California and I knew I wanted to live here at age like 16. So I went to UCSB, that was my top choice of school and I'm so lucky to go there. Go Gauchos.
Yeah.
In my senior year of college, I was taking some classes that I really resonated with that were entrepreneurship-based classes and I was kind of falling into the entrepreneurship rabbit hole and I read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.
Yeah.
And I saw you have some Tim Ferriss books all throughout the office. And I really started to think about, how could I build a life by design? You talk about all that all the time. And how do I create passive income and create freedom and structure? And I was thinking like, what could I do that creates that? And I just kind of thought, oh, real estate could kind of make sense. And I was working at a gym at the time. It was a gym kind of like Orange Theory, just training clients. And one of my clients that I trained was a real estate agent. So I talked to him. I've been, you know, messing around with some other companies doing social media marketing as like a little internship. I said, hey, like, I'd love to learn about real estate. Could I do your social media? And that's kind of how I fell into that. But I, you know, got super lucky just kind of stumbling into real estate. I didn't really grow up dreaming of being a real estate agent, having parents that were real estate agents. But real estate's one of those things where you can create any type of life you want. And I really feel like I've done that, and I've done that with your help. And you talk that, you know, every day.
Level 10, baby. So someone's gonna be listening right now, I mean, they're gonna be like, yeah, but can you? God, like, it's so hard. And real estate is so 24/7, 365, especially when you're doing $20, $30 million a year in volume, taking care of clients. But what I want to call out, and I want to get your psychology on this, is you were asking yourself a different set of questions. A lot of people get into the business, they're like, how do I attract clients? How am I going to make money? You know, how much money can I make? And they, they kind of go into it more traditionally that route. Maybe it's a second or third career. Maybe they got fired from a job and they're like, I got to sell houses. You went in like, how could I create passive income? How could I have a great business? How could I have more free time? Like, You went at it a totally different approach. Where did that come from and how did it work out?
Totally. I don't know where it exactly came from. I have entrepreneurs in my family. My grandpa's an entrepreneur. My dad was an entrepreneur. And so I always thought it would be really cool to build my own vision and build my own business the way that I see fit. And I think a lot of people in real estate, they get into real estate because they, they want to create their own vision. And I even remember, so it was Summit of 2019, we did an amazing visioning exercise and it was really cool to just think about if anything's possible, what could I dream up? And after reading The 4-Hour Workweek, if you haven't read it, or, you know, people are listening this with kids who are graduating college, it's an amazing book to read and just be like, here's what's possible, even though it's not the mainstream of, you know, get a job, work until you're 80, retire when you finally have a couple golden years off. But in the book, Tim travels the world and creates passive income, and I was just so inspired. You know, I wanted to see the world, and I had a lot of questions about like, what is possible? And so I think I had that kind of mindset coming into it, but it definitely took took a lot of learning, a lot of failure, a lot of, um, mistakes that I saw other people even make to really commit to my vision. And I'm so grateful that I committed to it because now it's such a great story, and I have a lot of other visions that I want to make come to life.
So I want to bounce around a little bit just because we have so much context, and I want to get to the year off and what that was like. What did you do before you left? What'd you do when you came back? Which is really like last year being your first full year. Yeah, but unpack— there may be someone listening right now, Avi, that is a brand new agent and they might have some unmet expectations for what they had to do, what they should have done, the results they produced. What was your first year like? And what happened when it finally clicked?
Totally. My first year when I got my license was about January of 2019. And I really— I set a goal to sell a house within 2 months.
Yeah.
And I had written an offer within 2 months on a flip to the— I'm just like cold calling a for sale by owner that could have been a flip opportunity. And we didn't get it. And I was so disappointed. And basically I was doing open houses every weekend. I was watching a lot of Tom Ferry on YouTube. I was reading books, and I was just so frustrated because it just felt so difficult to crack in. You know, I— it was 3 months with no sale, and then it was 4 months, and I was working a couple different odd jobs. And I started driving Lyft because I was like, I don't think I can buy groceries this week if I don't, you know. And I didn't want to ask my parents for help, um, and it was getting really, really difficult. And I was kind of just feeling like desperate, like, did I make the wrong decision? I was seeing my friends who graduated college, like, being able to take vacations because they had jobs that paid a normal salary.
Sure.
And I didn't have that. And then I was, you know, watching a lot of your YouTube videos, feeling really down about, you know, my effort. I just wasn't having any results even though I was putting in the effort. And then I picked up the phone, called you guys, and signed up for coaching, even though I didn't know how I could pay for it. But I was just like, I have to find someone who can teach me the ropes, because even though I had mentors and I was watching videos, I needed that individual help. and that kind of roadmap, because I was doing everything, but I just wasn't doing it the right way, as a lot of agents do it their first year.
It's almost always these little tweaks and adjustments. Could be your personal psychology, how are you showing up for others, but it could be the questions that you're at. There's that, that's where I think the value of, like, I'm a trainer, and I deliver training, and my hope is that they can then process in their world, how does it apply to them? But when we're working one-on-one, I know exactly what you need. And I think that's the biggest difference. So, so out of the gate, you just destroyed it. You signed up, you become a client, and you just killed immediately.
I wish I would be a great Tom Ferry representative. I was like, I signed up for coaching and I sold a $10 million house the next week. No, no. My first year in real estate in 2019, I sold one new construction that was kind of outside of my market. I'm in Santa Barbara and this is in Buellton, about 50 minutes north. And it's because I had been reaching out to landlords to help them with rentals, like just doing the showings for just basically like cash. And I met someone at the rental that then ended up buying a place with me later in the year who didn't go for the rental. But it was a great opportunity to just get in front of people and learn how to show houses. But yeah, my first year in the business, one house, I think it was about $520,000. But towards the end of that year, I had a lot of momentum. Me and my first coach Patrick, your brother, we got into expireds, we got into tactics, we got into mindset, we got into high-level learning. And I think I had a whole psychology shift really that summer. And I signed up with him at the very beginning of the summer. But by the end of the summer, I felt like a new person. And then the year after, so that was 2020, obviously it was a COVID market and there's a lot of craziness.
Sure.
But I did about $20 million the next year.
So really, yeah, really your first full year. Well, no, I guess technically your second year, right? Yeah. So year 2, $20 million.
Mm-hmm. Year 1, $520,000 with still like working the full year.
So, and doing some Lyft.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
So first of all, you know, congratulations. There's an incredible amount of perseverance that is required. I think every person listening, we've all been in that scenario where we're like, you're doubting yourself. Is this working? Am I following the right path?
Totally.
What kept you going?
That's a good question. I think that I was just— my back was kind of against the wall. I had applied for some other jobs in tech as I graduated and didn't get any of them. Sales, obviously. And I was just like, if I don't figure this out, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have a plan B. And I just, you know, I was definitely thinking maybe I made a wrong decision or maybe there's something better out there for me. But when I kind of got into working with Patrick and got some reassurance, like, you're okay, like, it's normal to be maybe 6 months in the business as a 24-year-old kid and not be able to convince people to spend 7 figures with you in a luxury market. Yeah, exactly.
Where everybody knows 3 real estate agents.
Totally. Way more realtors than like even everyday people, it feels like sometimes. But yeah, I think that, um, that reassurance from him going to Summit, meeting all— I have a bunch of people that I wrote down at the end of this that I want to give shoutouts to because there's people in this ecosystem that really changed my life.
Do it now.
Yeah, give it to Kevin Stewart, um, Devin Tryon. Seeing these other young kids that were about my age selling millions of dollars real estate was like, okay, if they can do it, maybe I can do it.
Because in my market, there's not many younger people I just saw Devin in Hawaii at an event I did, and I'm like, dude, I'm so proud of you. Like, he's killing it. So I love the shoutouts. Okay, so let's go back to $20 million in your first year. How many-ish, you know, Santa Barbara, that could be one transaction. So how many transactions-ish, and then what were you doing from a lead generation standpoint to make that happen? And I want to know a little more about how you had to sell yourself as now a 25-year-old.
Yeah. So I think I really first got into seller expireds and seller-focused lead gen. I really was just at that point doing open houses, but not even having good tactics for my open house. Yeah, I had a sign-in sheet just like I was listening to your interview with Patrick. We were talking and then you talked about that too. Like, I just had no idea what I was doing. So I was doing open houses.
Anybody taken the time to explain to you the process of buying a home during the pandemic? Just that kind of stuff.
Totally. I started to get high level on my open houses. I started to sign up some listings through expireds. I really got into social media marketing with the help of, you know, your ecosystem. And I just really started to work on converting at every opportunity and presenting myself and doing a buyer consultation, doing a deep dive seller consultation, not just, you know, winging it at every opportunity. And so I studied, I was watching all the content that you had on YouTube, watching even the deeper dives that were at that point on your website, which is now obviously like REVI, and you have all these masterminds. But I really started to learn from a, instead of just a, let's just go to the open house and try to figure it out or ask, you know, some people in my office questions. I really tried to get a higher level learning. And my teammates as well, Joe and Garrett, who, you know, were the foundation of my start, they were really helpful as well. But they were high-level producers and they were definitely, you know, they were on their, you know, they're producing on themselves so they can, you know, I really for a little bit was lost. And then, you know, finding you guys and finding the ecosystem really helped me put everything together. But yeah, we had a lot of support in my office too, for sure.
So I just had Shannon Gillette on the show and she was— I was asking her, like, if you're talking to a newer agent that was struggling today, what advice do you have? And she was like, join a team, like whether it's forever or for a short period of time, you know, you did. When did you join a team? Was it straight out of the gate or was it later?
Straight out of the gate. I started as the social media intern and then was joined right as I got my license. And that was really helpful to be able to learn from the team and also market to say, even though I haven't done a transaction, yeah, I'm going to market myself as a team. But the thing is, you can do that with your brokerage. There's a lot of other ways. To. But, you know, joining some type of mastermind group or team or some sort is really going to elevate you, especially if you're brand new and young. That's a tough place to be sometimes in a higher market.
It's the extra support. I felt like Kyle, who's a great broker of ours in Boston, he's on the show. I think he's like 29. God, maybe, maybe he's 30 now. And he's like, I just needed to be around other people, A, that were my age, B, that, you know, and maybe a little bit older, right? Maybe a little bit younger. But like being around people that were my age group because it's a different— I don't know, it's a different objection in your own head and sometimes it's different with the clients. So I'm curious. I know you sold a couple of $10 million houses.
Just one.
Just one. Yeah, it was one really good one.
Yeah.
Did the client ever like— did you ever actually experience the objection, the concern, like, hey, you're kind of young? Did you ever get that or was that just in your head?
I maybe have had that. I'm trying to think if I've ever really had that. Most of the time it's in your head for sure. And when it's in your head, you're going to experience it in the type of interaction connections you have at the open house. And yeah, um, like we— like you said, surrounding yourself with these like-minded individuals, that's one of the ultimate gifts of what you've created in this ecosystem or this community, is that you meet people whether you're first year in the business and you're older, whether you're experienced and whatever age, you're going to find people that you gel with or you're inspired by. And they're oftentimes going to take the time— like Devin and Jay Bond and all these guys— I hadn't sold a house and they would take the time to, um, you know, do practice cold calls with me and role play with me. And they already had very successful businesses, but that was instrumental. Learning how to handle objections, learning how to talk about, you know, instead of feeling uncertain, I knew what I was going to say so that people didn't bring up the age. And then by the time, you know, last year I sold a house for $10.6 million, that wasn't an objection because I've had the confidence. I've sold multiple, you know, mid-level 7-figure deals. So I really felt like I could do a great job. And I knew these, you know, these clients, they knew a lot of the ultra-luxe you know, brokers that dominate in our market, just like a lot of markets do, where there's the $10 million plus crew that do a lot of the work. But it was really awesome to do that deal. And on the other side, I was representing the buyers. The sellers was represented by like the top dogs in town. And they, at the end of the transaction, like, you did a great job.
That's great.
And that was a cool experience to be like, now that I can do that, now the bar is set. Now let's go for maybe a $20 million or something like that. Yeah.
Or just a few more tens.
Yeah.
Hey, $10, $5, $7. Someone right now is listening. They're like in Indiana going, screw you, turning off this podcast right now. You know, again, every market's different. Hey, I know I'm interrupting the show, but check this out.
You know, when I built my business back in 2004, I was very clear, whoever gives away the most high-value content for free, free, is going to win the game. And I think it's one of the big reasons why my company and my 193 coaches have been named the number one coaching and training company in real estate for 12 years going. But my question is, like, we do all this stuff on content and, you know, video, podcast, But have you ever been to tomferry.com/tools? tomferry.com/tools, T-O-O-L-S. If you've never been, you should check that out today because there is so many playbooks, systems, strategies, marketing hacks, tactics from top agents, from coaches. There's so much there. If you thought the podcast is good, tomferry.com/tools, check it out and then send me a DM on your favorite social channel. And let me know what you think.
Hey, I'm interrupting my own show with a little PSA.
What are you doing August 3rd through the 5th?
Well, it's going to be my 23rd, maybe my 24th. I should probably know that.
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Totally. So one of the things I was so curious about when I got notified, hey, Avi's gonna take a year off. I think that's probably every agent's dream. To be able to step away. I know people that struggle to go away for a weekend, and, and the whole time their phones— I mean, I experience it as a CEO of multiple companies. Like, it doesn't seem to matter where you are in the world, when people need you, they need you, and they let you know. So talk to us about the year before you took off, and then what did you do to like get yourself ready for it? And then tell us about the experience, and then we'll get to the how you got back and what you're doing now.
Totally. When I first started in real estate, when I had read 4-Hour Workweek, I always thought maybe it'd be cool to do an extended travel, but I never really thought it would be like what I did until I kind of got later into my career. I was really focused on scaling. I was selling more houses and I was kind of feeling some burnout and feeling some, you know, some thoughts of, am I just going to, you know, sell houses for the rest of my life and just do this and always try to double my, you know, business every year? And I think I really just had this moment hit me where I was like, okay, I'm approaching into my mid to late 20s. I don't have nearly the responsibilities that I'm going to have someday. You know, family, all those other type of worries and, you know, just obligations. And if I don't do something really, you know, epic or really unique right now, I might never do it. And so what I did is I just promised myself that I was going to do an extended period of travel. I didn't sell myself it was going to be 11 months, which has ended up being— I was just like, I told myself I'm going to travel, I'm going to figure it out. And I worked with Patrick to kind of create this vision. It had to do with, you know, I bought an Airbnb property which allowed me to travel and create that passive income. I was kind of scaling up. I had someone helping me out, working kind of under me. But what I did is I was like, I just bought a one-way ticket to Bali because I was just like, I need that little push, that little dig. Because I was talking to other people, a lot of other real estate agents being like, you've worked so hard to get to where you are, how could you step away?
You're going to lose your momentum. You're not going to get it back, right?
But in my head, I was like, how can I not step away? Because if I don't go now, I'll probably never go, and I'll always think about what if, you know. There will be other, you know, real estate transactions to be done. I have a lot more to do in my business, but this was kind of like a once in a lifetime moment seeing where I was at and seeing that. And so I bought the one-way ticket to Bali like almost a year out from when I left and I didn't have a return ticket. I was like, I'm just gonna figure it out and go for some extended travel. And that's what I did.
So why Bali?
I think Bali just really called to me cuz I'm a surfer. Yeah. There's a lot of digital nomads.
Yeah.
It's something I'd just, I'd been there actually once briefly cuz I studied abroad in Australia and I wanted to go back, but I was like, what a great place to launch cuz I'm gonna meet people from all around the world and get a lot of inspiration of like where to go next. And that was exactly what happened. Like, I was able to, you know, I have some crazy stories where I was in like Southeast Asia and I met a friend from the Netherlands, and then I go to the Netherlands, I get to visit him. Like, there's all this cool serendipitous cross— yeah, cross-mixing. And that's what happened that year.
So you're gone for 11 months. Just name some— just tease us. Give us some of the places.
You obviously the Netherlands, you're in Bali, like 30 countries in total, 30 countries in 11 months. Some of them, like, I went to Estonia for a day.
Sure.
Yeah. From like Finland.
That's enough.
I love Japan. I actually went back to Japan to propose to my now fiancée. I saw you in Japan a little while ago.
I was just there a couple—
like a week ago. Yeah, we almost crossed over. But yeah, I love Asia. And yeah, my 30-trip journey, some of the countries I was in just for a couple of days, some of them I was in Bali, it was extended and I went back to Bali like 2 or 3 times when I was in that little pocket. But I really didn't have an itinerary. I'd plan it 2 or 3 weeks out in advance. I would get one-way trips. I would find little opportunities. Sometimes I even went and I was volunteering and helping out to try to like give back to a community.
That's cool.
And I just really did what my heart desired that year. And I was like, this is going to be the one year where I can just do whatever I want because life is going to change.
Yeah.
And yeah, I was— it was— I have no regrets on that year. And like I said, people were saying, how could you do this? And in my head I was like, how can I not?
Yeah, how can I not? So what do you think the lesson is for the person listening right now who maybe, maybe it's just, you know, prior in their prior work, maybe they had an opportunity where they get— they got 2 weeks off and they got paid. And now they're, you know, they're doing what we do. Like, you kill, you eat.
Yep.
So, so they're nervous about it. They're also nervous about losing momentum. They're, they're nervous about like, what if the most important buyer calls the week that I'm gone and wants to buy a house? Like, what would you say to that person? Maybe just to give them permission to take that time?
Yeah, that's a great question. I think everyone, especially if you listen, everyone has their own dream. And their dream might not be 11 months off. That might sound crazy, but maybe it's just a full week off, disconnected from your cell phone with your family. And the truth is, it's the easiest person to give up on a dream or to give up on a goal is your own. Like, people are— it's easy to write something off and say, well, I can't do that. You're not going to give up on your child's dream if that's— you're going to help support them. But with your own dream, it's kind of easy to write it off or sweep it under the rug. And I think sometimes you just really need that little push or that commitment. And you have to think about, what can I do? What's my one-way ticket to Bali. Maybe that's just booking that campsite where there's not going to be any phone service, right? Maybe it's just telling your spouse or your, you know, your kids that we're gonna go here at this date, telling your coach, telling, you know, people in your network. What can you do to commit to yourself so that you can't, you know, pull away from your dream? Because there's always a million reasons why it's not the right time. Here's the worst thing that can happen, you know, maybe that amazing buyer is going to call you that week and buy a property with somebody else. But I mean, I mean, so what? You stuck with your dream and you're going to be grateful that you did, even if you miss out on opportunity. So I would challenge someone listening to be like, what can I do to commit to my own dream?
What is so inspiring is, you know, you're 30, I'm 55, about to be 56, that you made that commitment, you followed through on it. And there was every reason why you could have dropped out of the deal. Hey, I did it a year ago. Who cares? It's a few dollars. Maybe I did it on miles. I was a— I was on the golf course on Saturday with two really good friends. And within a matter of minutes, one tells us, I have cancer. And the other one says, hey, such and such, who we know just died 2 days ago. And 53 years old, just heart attack, super healthy, former, like, you know, professional athlete, gone like this. And we spent almost the entire round talking about the importance of, like, prioritization, saying yes, doing the work that matters most to us, doing the things that are really hard that we have to do no matter what. But when that stuff is done, it's time to be with our friends. It's time to be with our family. We need to say yes more. We need to say yes to the trip. We need to say yes to the goals and dreams because life is short. But you got that early.
I think you helped me a lot. And there's a lot of quotes that I remember from specific summits. Am I allowed to say a cuss word? Not even one of the bad ones on this podcast.
It's all good.
Okay. But you said, I don't know.
My producer there, Brandon, is like, he's like, yes, go ahead.
Perfect. I don't know which summit it was, but you might remember this and you might not. But you said at the end of the summit wrapping up, you said, I don't know what you believe in, if you believe in God, if you believe in a higher power, but whatever you believe in, that higher power, whatever, you know, God you believe in, they didn't create you to be a half-assed realtor. And I was like, oh my God, that's so perfect. And everything in life, I think there's opportunities to half-ass it and there's opportunities to go all in. And when you go all in on your business, when you go all in on your dream, you feel really worthy of good things. Yes. And then the good things kind of just show up for you. But I think they really go hand in hand where there's a lot of people who are saying, oh, I don't want to take more vacation, I want to build my business. You can have that same kind of all-in mentality, you can have that same kind of commitment to your own dream and goal with your business as you can with, let's say, a vacation.
Yes.
And I think I've been really inspired by what you preach and what you create. I think you're kind of creating this new age of real estate vision that's not all about, you know, doubling your business and your team every year until you're 80 years old and then you get to walk away. You're creating a real estate agent that's high level, high service, emotionally intelligent, has dreams, has, you know, other hobbies besides just selling houses, but also does a really great service and a high-level business. And it's not just like, oh, let's automate it and then take vacation all year. Yeah, I think it's really cool to watch the kind of next generation of real estate agent from like— I've been at your events of your dad's, which are so awesome, which are mindset focused. And yeah, what a cool experience to go to him.
Yeah, go, go, 9 to 11.
Yeah, and I think there's a way to be all in on your business and also all in on your dreams outside business.
Yeah, well said, my friend. So I know one of the questions people are gonna ask is, like, I mean, I was just gone for 3 weeks, the longest vacation I've ever taken, ever, ever, ever. And the first day back, you're just like, where do I start? Yeah, but you were gone for 11 months. Yeah, talk to us about the restart, because the person listening right now, like, they took 3 days off, whether they were on vacation or not, they just sort of checked, checked out. Some people I've been doing this for 75,000 hours. Obviously, the number of times I've heard from predominantly high-powered, very successful women that they take care of everyone. It's just their DNA, right? Whether it was as a mother or they take care of their husband, they take care of all their clients and they work themselves into the ground. They typically get sick of the flu and then they're off for a week.
Yeah.
And they're like, and they're like, oh, I read books and I got caught up and I called friends. And then when they come out of it, they're like, they feel like they've lost all the momentum.
Yep.
So what did you do to get started? What advice do you have for the person maybe is listening who's like, yeah, I'm just not feeling the momentum myself right now. So what do I do to get going again fast?
Totally. I think one thing I love, Bob Proctor, and I listened to a lot of his books and podcasts. He has something he calls the success zone, and I can always feel when I'm in the success zone, and that means that I'm listening to good podcasts and books. I'm being efficient with my time on social media and posting actually for business. I'm prospecting hours of power, open houses and feeling good about doing it. And then there's times when I'm not. So I think when I first came back, I was like, okay, I got to get back into a little bit of rhythm and a little flow. So I started doing open houses in my favorite neighborhood of Santa Barbara where I know the market, where I know the off markets, just having those conversations and kind of breaking the ice with people. And my first year back, I converted a handful of open house clients. So it's always good to remember that, you know, if all else fails, if YouTube goes away, if Instagram goes away, if people forget who I am, I can go to an open house and I can find clients and connect with them and help them. Yeah, I got back into expireds and I'm still working on ramping up my expired game. And honestly, just joining back into the, the network where you have all these masterminds and your work with Jeremy and all the other things that you have going on, when you're feeling stuck or in need of some inspiration, just jump in and listen to the content that you create. I mean, you create amazing free content. There's obviously even more once you dive into Revy and stuff, but I feel like when I'm really feeling good, it's when I'm learning, absorbing, you know, feeling good about my calls. Because when you're not feeling good in real estate, it's a scary— your mind's a scary place to be, right? When you're just like, I do not want to make the one phone call today. I'm just going to scroll Instagram or YouTube or whatever. It's not a good place to be. And you're going to feel those results after a month or two of being there where your pipeline's like, oh, I'm glad you brought up Bob Proctor because that like, like to me it's the flow state. Yeah.
How fast can I get back in the state of flow? So I got to go to the gym, right? I got to list out my priorities and I'm like, okay, these are all the things I'm going to do. These are all the people I got to follow up on. This is how I'm going to get complete. Totally. And then I text. As soon as I got back, I text like 7 or 8 of the most, you know, Refkin from Compass. Hey, man, what did I miss? Yeah, like, you know, what did I miss? And everybody's like, nothing. You're good.
It's all good.
The world didn't fall apart. I hope you had a great trip. Yeah, that also gave me permission to like, okay, cool. I'm just going to jump back in. Yeah, right. Then it was like, okay, clients, calls, prospecting, deals, follow-up. You just, you just get like into the flow state.
Totally.
But I want to unpack something you said. Open houses. You brought it up like really 3 times now.
Yeah.
If you were, if you were sitting with an agent today and they're like, I think I do open houses, like, you know, like I say, hey, you know, here's the flyer, there's a sign-in sheet. Like they got like the basics down. What have you found to be the most effective, whether it's the high end or not, at an open house to engage somebody in a way that has them open and receptive to working with you if they don't already have an agent.
Totally. I have a good takeaway that's from another— I don't know if he's still in the network, but Corey from Las Vegas, Corey Touche, and I—
yeah, yeah, yeah.
He told me once when I was very early in the business, he said, when I go to an open house, I'm trying to have my charisma and charm up to the levels of if I was going to meet my spouse's parents for the first time. And I was like, if you go to the open house and you're sitting like this and you're on your phone, you're not going to convert anyone. You have to be stoked to be there, excited to be there, welcoming everybody in with a smile. I know it sounds cheesy, but your energy really does like radiate and people want to work with people who are fun and engaging. So obviously that's, that's the start. Your mindset's got to be right. Don't go out drinking the night before. Be there ready to host it, ready to help people answer questions about the house and also help people find a different house when that house isn't the right one.
Yeah.
Having off markets on hand that are in the neighborhood, I always try to say, hey, this is the Patrick Ferry line. Has anyone taken the time to show you the options that are available off market as they're walking out the door? Yeah, because that's a great way to engage with someone.
Oh yeah, no, show me what he got.
Totally. And I don't do a sign-in sheet. I don't want to be salesy. If someone's working with their agent, I completely respect that. That's a great way to break the wall and say, do you have someone showing you these off-market options? And I just kind of keep a new note on my phone for every open house, and then I load them into my CRM, and I'm making sure I'm going to follow up with them multiple times within the month, just touch base and try to get them either into my office for a consultation or out to see some other properties. But if you go to the open house with the mindset of like I could meet someone that can convert in a month or 2 months or 3 months and be excited about it. You'll see the, you know, it's a transformative difference from when you're just in there just to be like, oh, I have to work this open house or something like that. Yeah, there's a lot of people that have that mindset and they just shouldn't work open houses, probably.
Right. I mean, huge shout out to Corey because that, like, you know, we've all talked about— I think it's actually Carl Jung who says how you feel on the inside radiates to the people on your outside. Yeah, but what an excellent framing. Act like you're about to meet your, you know, spouses, parents. Yeah, you want to be on.
When you met Kathy's parents for the first time, I bet you were like, I'm going to light it up.
Avi, my wife gave me a— well, then my girlfriend, she gave me a script. She literally says to me, look, when you walk into the house, the first thing you need to say when you see my dad is, is that a Cadillac I saw in the garage? I kid you not. I go, is that—
he's like, rapport, who's it?
Who's— and I'm like, show me that car. We walk outside, then we walk in, and she's like, all you need to say is Did this room come with the house or did you guys build this? He built it with his hands. And then who did the fireplace? 3 things. I walk out that night and literally my then girlfriend, she calls me on my cell phone, which was probably the size of this, you know, bottle of water. She's like, you nailed it.
Let's go. But yeah, having that mindset. Yeah, 100%. Because you're there to connect with people. And obviously the majority of time that people walk in, they're probably not going to buy the house that you're hosting. But having that understanding that, hey, I'm going to help people at a high level. And even if that's just helping them answer questions about a rental or, you know, figuring out what they need long term. One of my favorite, you know, the $10.6 million house that was a 5-year-in-the-making deal. And I've also had some first-time buyers that have been 4 or 5 years in the making. And I honestly love those deals because it's like I didn't give up on them. They're so grateful. They're the first ones to refer me to all their friends and family because I stayed by their side while they looked at houses for 5 years. And I mean, that's, you know, in this business, we're here to help people. And I think when you go back to that, it makes the business a lot more fun.
So I literally did a training this morning for longtime friends and clients, DJ and Lindsey Dalla Sala, and in their culture. So for context, they did 1,100 transactions last year. At the end of March, we were at 435 transactions closed and a couple hundred pending. Like, we're on pace to get close to doubling the size of the business. And when we looked analytically, for my friend listening right now, listen very carefully. It's a very small percentage of the people that we're closing this year that were leads from this year. The vast majority are 18 months old, 3 years old, 5 years old. Because if you go back to September 2022, the rates went from, hey, I can get a rate at 2.35 to 3 to 4 to something with 7 and 8.
Mm-hmm.
And that made all the sales cycles longer. So the fact that you're doing this, so I want to unpack this. What advice, what do you do? How often do you follow up with someone that Brandon wants to buy a house? He met him in an open house 4 years ago. How often are you in communication with that person?
I think anytime there's something really relevant that makes me think of them, obviously I'll keep them in my CRM and try to follow up probably weekly for the first couple of months until they really like tell me, hey, I want you to follow back up at this date. Yeah. And that's awesome because then you can— this is another TF line. Hey, just following up as I promised. Exactly. Following up on my word. But every time there's something relevant, there's even times where I've met with a seller and they're interviewing multiple agents and there's an open house in their neighborhood and I'll be like, hey, let's go see this open house, see how it compares to yours. Yeah, that helped me get a $2 million listing where I was like, hey, let's go check this out. And, you know, he's interviewing between 3 agents, but I'm staying top of mind and giving him relevant information.
And you were the only one that got him in the car and said, let's go look.
Yeah, exactly.
Great strategy.
Totally. So I think, you know, if you meet a buyer at an open house, and you don't know exactly their timing, and there's maybe a pocket listing that's obviously top of mind for them or something else that you think they would like, depending on how much, you know, rapport you've built with them, just saying, hey, let's go check this one out just for fun if you want. I'm not here to, you know, make you, you know, sign a contract or pick me right now, but here's some options. Let's go check a couple open houses out together if you want, and just be, you know, of service and of help. And I've had some really cool experiences where these people walk into the open house, they're so nervous, and then they write me a 5-star review being like, Avi was fun to work with. He made the process so easy. And when they— I remember how they were when they walked in. They were like, please don't talk to me, please don't talk to me. And you know, it's fun to convert from that level where immediately, like, they're not referred to you, they're cold lead walking through the door, and you help them out. And it's, you know, I think when I was leading up to my burnout before I went on my trip, I got away from the fact of how much fun it is to help and serve people, and I was more focused on the scaling and the volume. And like, okay, I really want to focus on the higher of the ultra luxury, but like right now I have an offer out for $3.275 million. Also, I'm about to write an offer on a $270,000 mobile home and I'm like stoked for both these people. I'm like, I really want to do my best for both these people.
Yes.
You know, it's not like, oh, the mobile home, oh, that's going to be boring. No, it's like I can help this guy get a really great deal, right? And I'm still stoked on obviously the $3.3 million opportunity. So of course.
So I was looking at the numbers, right? So year to date. So remind me, remind me, $4.2 million closed, $2 million pending. And, and but this is a reset year. I think we need to, we need to go. I wanted to cover the open house stuff and then you led me down the path of follow-up, which I hope everybody's paying attention to. You have to follow up way longer than you think. Sales cycles are longer. It's not about your timing. It's about their timing.
Don't give up on people.
Well, if you do, it's okay because they'll find someone else. True. They do all the time. So like, so, so please follow up. But let's talk about you said before we were on camera, you're like, this is a reset year for me.
Yeah.
So, so you get, you know, you've basically gone from 2023 Thanksgiving to October 2024. Last year you had a killer year, $21.5 million. And you're like, well, I sold a $10 million house. I'm like, well, the scorecard just says $21.5 million. So congrats.
We'll take it.
This year, though, you have a goal of $23 million, but you're resetting. You left your team.
Yeah.
What the hell is that about?
Totally. I joined with my team in 20— Yeah, 2018 is when I started interning.
Yes.
And we had an amazing run together. My two other teammates, Joe and Garrett, just crush it out in Santa Barbara. They've been in the business since the early 2000s.
Legends.
Legends. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. They just do a really high level of work. But about 3 or so weeks ago, yeah, my teammate Joe, who kind of runs the Santa— he's kind of the team leader of the Santa Barbara group. He founded it. We kind of just had this conversation that, you know, what we were growing was kind of growing apart. We've been together for so long and I'm doing a lot of my own social media stuff. And building my own brand, and he's really building the brand as well. And we had this kind of agreement to, you know, leave and leave each other. And it was really hard for me at first. And, and also, I've had a lot of change this year. Obviously, Patrick was my coach for 5 years, and it's just been a year of change. I'm now engaged, and it's like there's a lot of change going on. But I think that in the past I've done so much— I've done a lot of work to my, you know, my mental meditation, inner work. And I was really thinking about it on my drive down, and I was saying, we're always going to have something trigger us, or we're always going to react, or it's always going going to, you know, make us— the change is going to hurt for a little bit. But the question is, how long? How long is it going to trigger you? Or how long is it going to put you in a downward spiral? And I felt like, you know, I was down for a little bit about this change, but honestly, I recovered really quick and have just really seen the good in it. And I've been on my own now without the team for 2 or 3 weeks, and I'm so stoked to build something completely new. And I have new goals. And yeah, it's really, really fun to build my own brand. Like, I can do whatever I want my way.
Right.
Right.
Yeah. You know, it's, I mean, I left my dad's. That was really, that was a really, I mean, I've never been divorced before and like, that's the only way I can describe it. Like, that's what it felt like, like the loss of someone that you care for. You know, today, you know, I text all the time, we're best friends and play golf and mess around. But like, but you go through that and you were like 30 years older. I was, I was, I would have been, yeah, I would have been like 31.
Yeah.
Right. So kind of, you know, similar age. I was already married, two kids. So like that part I had already had rolling. Yeah. But it's an opportunity. My mentor Mike Vance would always say this. I think it's probably Latin. Tabula rasa. Clean slate. A new beginning. And even though we're sitting here in April and this just happened a couple of weeks ago, let's call it March or the beginning of April. It is an opportunity. But that opportunity creates a lot of fear for some people.
For sure.
So what did you have to get over? And then tell us about the vision. Tell us what you want to build.
I think the fear sets in no matter what when there's change, but I've really gotten into Joe Dispenza style meditation. And instead of going to the worst place in the worst possible situation, when I get to a really calm meditative state, I think about the best case scenario and I'm like, wow, you fall in love with that best case possibility. And so when you're doing that, your, your fear turns to excitement. And I've been really focusing on that to just think about what's possible next. And I've been building that for the last 3 weeks, change the website, changed Instagram handles, like dialed everything in, got my new office, which is now in Montecito, which is literally an abundance zone for sure.
Yes.
From going from Upper State Street in Santa Barbara. And yeah, I think that the fear has really kind of dissipated. There's always going to be some fear and there's going to be, you know, talk in the back of your mind saying you can't do it. But how— what can you do to make sure that that's not the prevailing thought? That's not the winning thought. That thought's like the, no, you're wrong. Like, I'm going to show you. So I think there's always going to be fear. And I bet for somebody listening right now, you have fears about your business and, oh my God, I'm never going to sell another house if I do X, Y, and Z, or if I leave my team. But what's the best case scenario? How could it work out if everything goes right? And how can you really stay committed to that vision instead of the worst case scenario?
100%. And it could be also joining a team, leaving a team, joining a team. Not— I'm not recommending switching brokerages and all that kind of stuff, but, you know, totally. But, but change happens to us.
Yes.
Or change happens because of us, right? When it happens happened to us, we're like, aha, well, we decide it's a little bit easier. So, you know, so you go from it happened to you to now you're in the driver's seat.
Yeah.
So what's the vision? Let's say, let's say we're doing a podcast a year from today, like, I mean, come back down to Newport, man. Let's have, let's have a conversation. Tell me about what's going to happen over the next 12 months.
Totally. I really want to build my brand, my identity at scale. YouTube is something I'm all in on thanks to you and Patrick. I'm at like 3,200 subscribers, so I'm, I'm making moves little by little. But yeah, trying to upload every week. And also my fiancée, she's about to move to Santa Barbara. She's finishing up her MBA at University of Denver, and she's going to start a full-service real estate management, estate management, Airbnb management company that we're going to build together. So we're going to have multiple like auxiliary businesses. I want to buy another property that I could be like maybe a duplex where I live in and rent out the other side, cuz I'm in the Airbnb space.
Smart.
Um, and I just really want to scale my level of service. And obviously hit my real estate goals. But if I can just do my best job, commit to it, feel like I'm really, you know, creating my own goals and my own way of doing business and look back at the end of the year to be like, I did it my way this year, I'll be happy whether or not I hit $23 million. But I'm going to go for it for sure, starting now. So I love it.
I love it, man. So someone is going to be watching this. I was, I was literally just in Miami and Vincent Kessel. Oh, yeah, right. So, you know, Vince, shout out to Vince. You know, his dad is my best friend of 35 years, does 800, you know, 800 sales in like Melbourne, Florida. I don't even know, $500 million in volume, some crazy number like that. And then he leaves. He doesn't go to work for the family business. He goes to Palm Beach. And now he's in like year 3, 4. And we're talking about like, you know, you, you crush in the first year and then you doubt yourself. Can you do it in the second? Well, now he's, now he's got into a nice little routine. So, you know, I think when I, when I think about you and what you're doing, I see that same thing that like it's routine. Yeah, I got to follow certain disciplines. I got to do certain things. I got to keep doing open houses. I got to work the expired listings. What else? What else is the work that you have to do? If you, if you could outline for us just 2 or 3 initiatives, you know, you have to crush totally. So someone goes, oh, I'm stealing that. Yeah. What are those 2 or 3 things you know you have to do to get to $23 million?
Yep. Well, I think it's a shameless plug, but I want to plug my new coach, Tom Tzak. I mean, obviously we're here at your company, but Yeah, work, being consistent and being coachable and being ready to get coached is such a, you know, important part of my business where when I came to Patrick in June of 2019, I was so like, I have no idea what I'm doing, like just teach me. And now I've noticed that as I've gotten older in the business, sometimes I'll think, oh, I don't need to prep for this call as much. I know what I'm doing. Like I'm going to have a different mind, but I'm resetting with Coach Tom has really helped me see things from a new perspective, have that beginner mindset again because he has has so much experience in a luxury second home market. We have a lot of crossovers, so we've been working really hard together on brand new tactics and ideas, and it's been really fun to kind of go back to that blank slate like we talked about. Um, also just my individual routine and schedule. I feel like prospecting is so overlooked, and there's so many new distractions today where there's AI, there's, you know, a million different social media platforms. But I want to make sure that I'm talking to new potential customers every day if possible, whether that's just at an open house for a couple hours, whether that's for rent by owners. And I know we've got into that. I've sold a really awesome for rent by owner that I followed up with for 5 years last month for $1,350,000. Really sweet lady in their 80s that just made my job so fun, who was so grateful.
Yeah. And what's your daily discipline around contacts as an example? Like prospecting? All— I don't care if you Starbucks, walking down the street, State Street, whatever, open houses. But do you have a daily discipline around that?
I need to get better at it. But a really good day for me is when I have an hour locked in. You know, you call it the hour of power at my office, dialing potential buyers and sellers that I'm not like already like engaged with. The follow-up, that's separate. Yeah, but obviously open houses count as a good prospecting session. I'm going to do one this Saturday at a pocket of the neighborhood that I love. And yeah, when I can do a dialed-in hour of dialing, I feel really good about myself and good things just happen. Yeah.
Yeah. So what would have to be true for you to give me 200 days of hours of power or more for 365 of the next— the next 365 days? What would have to be true for you to give me 200 days?
I can do that. I can for sure do that. Yeah.
Said right now on the podcast.
I will track it. I will send you updates. Yeah.
Okay. So I don't want—
does that count open houses? Count as that? You're saying no. Okay. Just dialing. Just 200. How many days are left in the year?
Well, no, let's say for the next— let's go from today to— for a year from now. So, okay, 365 days, for sure, 200 days of making your calls. And listen, for someone watching right now, um, I like to challenge people, and I know the kind of people I can challenge. Yeah, 200 days, hour a day, got to talk to a minimum of 10 people.
Yeah.
Okay, minimum 10 people. That— so it means at the end of the year you've had 2,000 conver— these are new, 2,000 new conversations. Yeah, plus your follow-up, plus your open houses.
Yeah.
You in?
So in. That's a great deal.
$5,000 says you can't do it.
I'm in. $5,000. Let's do it.
All right.
You know, winner donates to charity. Charity. $1,000.
Listen, every— I mean, Dee Martin, there's Sandy Payne. There's so many women that I've lost this bet to. Every one of them kills me. And you know, they always do. They always do like a donation like that. Okay, so $5,000. You heard it here, right? Brandon. Brandon is our—
Yeah. YouTube as our witness.
You got to text me and Tommy Z. Yeah, every day, 1 of 200, 2 of 200, 3 of 200, 4. So we can say, oh yeah, right, let's do it. You in?
Yeah, I'm so in. I love the way that you push everybody in the ecosystem. I think I'm so grateful. I would not be where I'm at without all the help that you've supported me with, without everybody else that I met. I wrote a couple of other names that I'm giving. Yeah, give a couple more shoutouts too. We're gonna obviously— you, Tom, Patrick Ferry, Tom Tzak, Sam Medveen, Mark Patterson, Devin Tryon, Jay Vonahis, them already. Austin Nguyen, had to give a shout out to him. And Joy Noah, she's awesome.
Joy.
Yeah, I was like, these are people I have to thank because when I look back at where I was before I found you and your network, I'm really a whole new person. And this has led me to other realms of growth. And just the being open, it all can start just from a YouTube video, right? Because that's where it started for me. And some— I hope that this just resonates with like one or two people from YouTube. And one of my favorite things, whether I'm at like a Joe Dispenza retreat or at some of the other things that I've made you YouTube content about, people come up to me and they say, I saw your video and it really helped me and here's how it's happened. I mean, you have that like 1,000 times a day and it feels good. And I feel like I'm here to do a lot more than just sell real estate. And I want to inspire people and foster, you know, unleash people's potential. And I do that in real estate, but there's a lot more to be done. And so that's why I'm really stoked and grateful to be here with you.
I'm proud of you, man. Okay, so if somebody wants to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to connect? Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat? Where do they go?
Totally. Let's do Instagram. My personal handle is Avi Becker. I'm Avi Becker on Facebook. Everything. If you Google me, you'll see my information. YouTube, I'm growing as well. And if people want to connect, if they have questions about social media channels, if they have questions, if they're first year in real estate, I love to try to give 2 cents to anybody that, you know, needs it. Because so many people gave it to me when I had no sales, and they were very busy with other stuff. And even the fact that, you know, I know you're slammed with busy work, but to have me on the podcast, I'm gonna try to pay that forward for sure.
It's my pleasure, man. I'm so proud of you. All right, $5,000 bet. Let's go!
Let's do it.
Someone's paying charity in the comments. Do you think he's gonna make it? Yes or no? All right, appreciate you, man. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure you give this guy a follow on Instagram. And again, open book. If you got questions, I would absolutely reach out. But the most important thing for you is what are you gonna do coming off this? You just listened to this show, you heard all these insights. What are you gonna do? Maybe it's time for that vacation. Maybe it's time for a reset. Maybe it's time for you just to commit to 200 of the next 365 days where you do the thing that gives you the power. That's what it's all about. All right, we'll see you guys on the next show. Take care.
Peace.
All right, dude, $5,000 bet.
Let's go! Someone's paying charity.
