Podcast - Brett Rosenthal, Lawyer Turned Tech Salesman Turned Top 1% Realtor

Off Market Podcast: Brett Rosenthal, Lawyer Turned Tech Salesman Turned Top 1% Realtor

Brett is a top 1% realtor who has closed over 150 transactions representing $75M in sales over the past two years. Brett initially got exposed to real estate through his parents' office but quickly migrated away from it to law and tech sales. After a brief stint in both, he returned to his hometown and reignited his passion for real estate.

In this interview, Brett highlights the value of focusing on personal relationships with clients, rather than just the numbers, and shares tips for new agents, such as finding a mentor close to their experience level and treating clients well for repeat business. He also advocates for a more comprehensive approach to building a client base, outside of buying leads from data providers. Brett concludes by stressing the importance of hands-on mentoring and adapting to each client's unique needs. Sit back, buckle up, and get ready to hear firsthand what happens when someone is bold and brave enough to pursue their personal legend.

Transcript of the Episode

Austin: Welcome back to another episode of the Off Market Podcast. This week we have Brett Rosenthal. He's ranked in the top 1% of agents in the nation, having completed over 150 transactions worth over $75 in just the past two years. He was also recently announced by Philadelphia magazine as a top producer in his area. If you're looking to buy or sell properties in the Philadelphia area or the surrounding suburbs, Brett's your guy. Brett, welcome to the show.

Brett: Thanks for having me.

Austin: So tell us a little bit about how you got into real estate. I know that you worked at a technology company and then you worked as an attorney. And then you got into real estate law. I would love to hear that, the career path and trajectory into how you became a top producer.

Brett: Okay. I guess I'll start when I was like a little kid and my parents became, uh, realtors. My mom became a realtor, and sucked my dad into it years later and then sucked me into working at like one of their offices on the weekend as a part-time job where I pretty much hated every single agent and said I would never be a real estate agent.

And this was before like computers where you actually had to call an agency to make appointments. And we didn't have cell phones and stuff like that. So it was like a lot of calls on a weekend while I was just trying to like, make some money.

And then I went into, uh, I went to college and I went to law school. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. I did. Become a lawyer for a little while, kind of like got burnt out and didn't like the other types of laws that actually make money. Um, so I got out of that and was living in New York City and got into sales, like internet, telecom, when it was like, kind of like taking off, loved it.

And then eventually like years later, after moving back to Philadelphia, family kept saying, you should just try it, try real estate, try real estate. And then I just. I did it and it kind of just clicked and rolled with it.

Austin: Obviously you didn't start as a top producer in Philadelphia. So I'm sure those first couple of years were just a slugfest, right? You were building up your book of business. You were trying to find buyers. You're trying to find sellers. You're trying to network. What are some of the things you did in the early days that either worked or didn't work so well?

Brett: So I guess for the first six months, I was just totally lost. Everybody was telling me to do certain things that just weren't. What I liked or could do. But once I started just doing what I wanted to do and kind of getting out there, meeting people, starting with a real little sales and not worrying about the big luxury sales, it just started to like click, and the more experience I got doing these little ones, like kind of built me up to, to just keep rolling.

Austin: So as a snowball, you started with the small listings and then you started going after a little bit bigger listings and bigger listings. That's an interesting tactic. I've heard people going from both sides. Some people will start at the top, try to go after the most luxurious properties in their area.

And if they sell one, then it's kind of a snowball, right? It's a domino. If you can tap the first one, you can get the second one. But that process of getting the first one is actually a very big. Hard nut to crack. Um, whereas if you start with the smaller properties and sort of work your way up, maybe it takes a little longer, but you learn a whole heck of a lot along the way.

Brett: So I think I actually, I think I actually learned more. I learned more. In these small weird ones than the bigger ones. Well, yeah, and also the buyers are very different between somebody who's purchasing a property that's quarter of a million dollars versus three four or five million dollars very different buyer set very different perspective around what they're looking for and how they perceive the value of a property.

Austin: So you obviously had some success and and then you parlayed that success to becoming one of the top agents in your area. So what were some of the tactics that you used either early on or as you were scaling your business to actually become one of the top agents in your area? Were there any things that worked really well, whether it was finding a niche or maybe it was outbound or marketing or like, what are some of the unique things or strategies you use to try to become a top producer in your area?

Brett: Yeah. So I don't even know if I'm a top producer, but if you say I am, I mean, I I'm doing well, but there's a lot of great realtors in this area, but I think what I've, what I did for one, I don't really worry about what everybody else is doing. I've learned to just. Let them do what they want to do and focus on like treating it as like a day to day job.

Like everybody thinks real estate, you don't have to work sometimes or you're, you know, if just wake up in the morning and treat every single day the same and not necessarily work on the same thing every day, but work on something that's like going to either work immediately or just like longterm, it's going to, it's going to, and that's what it did.

I think it, I would think it's more of like a do something every day. And then. In a year, they're all going to start coming. And I think that's what that started happening. Also, like I said, I worked on anything. I didn't turn down anything. And some of the smallest things in the world, like a $15,000 piece of land ended up being like four listings.

And like, then I got clients from that and they just kind of kept going. So I didn't turn anything down basically. I still, I still, yeah, I think that's.

Austin: That's a really interesting and novel approach and, uh, and I like it. So obviously you've had success. And going down the path of success means that there are a lot of things that can change in your life. What are some of the things that have changed in your life, specifically from real estate?Has it opened up new opportunities? Maybe you're not working with new people, like what are some of those cool things that you've been able to do because you've been involved on the real estate side of things?

Brett: So my cell phone is used a lot more than it ever was. And I've talked more in the last six years than I had in the entire rest of my life, probably.

But you meet so many people like on a day to day basis. And some of the people not only become your clients, they become your friends, or you meet somebody through that, or you meet your teammates that you bring on the team and become friends with. And, you know, opportunities like this to do a podcast. Every time I do it, I meet someone that I was like, ah, I was like a good experience. So just stuff like that.

Austin: Can you maybe share one of the most exciting deals you worked on? Cause I've heard that sometimes it's not even the big deals that are the most exciting.

Sometimes it's like a deal that you thought was going to fall through and it was a slugfest and then at the ninth hour, you get some magical buyer to come in and buy it. And save the day or, and something like that. And it's just, it sounds like some of the most exciting deals can be something that is completely different than when you thought going into it.

Brett: I'm trying to think most of mine are the opposite. There's like these crazy situations that happen. Um, But I've, I've had like, okay. So a good situation is like I sold a pretty big house to a client and there was, it was, it was like an organization that, that constantly buys houses. Um, but not necessarily all in Philadelphia, like all over the country and they bought one and there was some kind of glitch with the title.

And it's just, It was just taking too long and they had to get a house. So they said, let's, let's go, let's go find a different house. So we went out on like one weekend and like found them another house. And I was expecting them to just like, you know, terminate the first transaction. And they were like, no, we want both.

Um, so that was a good one. Yeah. One Z turns into a two Z. That's, that's a new one. On the other side, I had like one of my first transactions, um, came to closing and it was like a really young couple buying their first house and The lender, I guess, told them they need this amount of money to come to closing.

So they got a check, came to closing. And when they, something changed where like the total went up by like 12 cents or something like that. And they literally did not have 12 cents in their bank account. And we had to do something creative to get, but like that was all they had to their name. So that was like, interesting on the day of the closing to, I guess it always counts to count the pennies, pick up the pennies and the dime and I said, I'm like, do you guys need dinner?

Austin: So a lot of people that listen to this podcast are, are relatively early on in their careers, right? So there are new agents that are just starting out. If you were to give some tips or advice for people that are just starting out in their career, what would you share as like, the one or two things that they should be thinking about or doing or acting on every day?

Brett: Okay, so the first thing, I just told somebody this yesterday that I was interviewing. The first thing I would say is like, treat it like a 9 to 5, at least a 9 to 5 job. For the first six months, wake up every day and figure out something that you're going to do throughout the, not for an hour for like the entire day.

And don't necessarily listen to what every single agent that has been doing this for 20 years is doing, because a lot has changed. I still battle with people saying like that might work, but this works a lot better. You should try it. And they're. People are just set on their ways, which again, it can work, but there's just so many better ways to do certain things.

So I would say, keep an open mind, try to find a mentor. Who's like one, two years in the business versus like someone who's been doing it for 30 years. The other thing I would say is like. There are tons of lead sources out there that you like to pay for money like Zillow and stuff like that and they can get you started but like you, the agents that rely on that is like their only way of generating business In my mind are just going to fail at some point because eventually those They're going to run out.

Zillow might stop. Zillow's changed its programs a million times. Like you don't know when that's going to end. And then you have like no fallback on like building a client base and also like treating your clients like gold, not just like you sold them a house goodbye. Like you have to continuously like work with them.

After you sign the contract to buy the house. I think that's helped me like just get repeat business over and over again.

Austin: Can you talk about some of those specific things that you, you will do or have done for clients? I've heard people will do things like sending thank you notes, handwritten thank you notes, or following up on anniversaries or remembering people's birthdays and just shooting them a note.

I think some of the smallest things I've heard. At least can translate into the biggest results for clients in terms of just maintaining that relationship. What are some of the things that you do that are kind of unique or, you know, taking an extra step to make sure your clients feel like you're their ally?

Brett: Right. So I do the basic stuff. Like you just said, I do like send an anniversary. I sent a birthday. During like the Christmas holidays and stuff like that, the ones that are bigger, I do send like gifts, but I actually think like the clients that I've had that, like, I have a good relationship with are less real estate related and more like personal.

And actually when I go into listing appointments, I totally throw away real estate and I just like try to become like a person with them, um, which I found. Works a hundred times better. So like, I'll like, you know, the, the Phillies are in the world series. And I know this guy likes baseball. I'll send them like a funny picture of something and they, they'd love that.

And they, they start sending it to me back. And like, it's just more like keeping in contact with them throughout the year, because there might be one day when their friend says, I want to move to, I want to move to Philadelphia. Like, and he'll say, he just texted me, give him a call, stuff like that. Yeah, that's interesting.

Austin: I was chatting with Carrie a few weeks ago and she was talking about how she had this, this listing and she was competing against, I think there was like 10 or 15 other, other realtors who were also competing for the same listing and everybody was boasting about how they were the top producer, the top this, the top that.

And she just told them like, Hey, look, I'm, I'm not a top producer yet. You know, I'm, I'm relatively early in my career. That's not me. Like if you want one of those top agents, like feel free to work with them. Like, here's what I'll do for you. And like, ultimately I just want to set you up for success. And it was just a totally different mindset shift and he hired her on the spot.

And so I think it's, it's for most people. They just want to feel like they're heard and they have an ally when they're buying or selling, which is obviously very different from somebody who's just looking at it from a purely numbers perspective of, let's just go close this property. And you kind of have to adapt to like the particular client.

Brett: Like as an example, I'm not a cat person. I hate cats and I usually don't like people that have cats, but like, I went to this listing and there was like seven cats, so I had to like cater the conversation to cats and how they're great and maybe lie a little bit, but like it worked and like they liked me.

Cause I was an, and I am an animal person. I'm just not a cat person. And, um, it's just like, you know, just sometimes like. I just feel like throwing the real estate aside and worrying about it like on the second conversation like works better than actually just sitting down. This is the numbers. This is this.

This is what I can do. I'm the best. Like stuff like that.

Austin: So if you were to go back and you had five minutes with a younger self and you could say whatever you wanted in those five minutes, give them a piece of advice or maybe just tell them something you had learned or like share an experience.

And you, and you had those five minutes with a younger Brett, what are some of the things that you would tell yourself?

Brett: Um, I guess, I think the main thing is like, don't listen to everything that other people tell you to do because it worked for them or it's good for them. I think every single person has like something that they do well, and they should just go with that and not necessarily listen to everybody else.

And like, everybody tells you when you get into real estate, go get a mentor, go get a mentor. And like, Yeah, in ways it helps, but I also think like you have to learn how you can do something. Yeah, it's different. Everybody is on a case-by-case basis and everybody. Everybody needs a different thing. I guess my last question for you is, if somebody was looking for a mentor in the real estate space, how does that conversation look like?

Like, what, how do you find them? And then what are the things you should be looking for? And like, ultimately, what is it that you're trying to accomplish from getting a mentor? Because I've heard lots of people say, Hey, get a mentor, get a mentor, get a mentor. But what does that actually mean? And like, What are you looking for and how do you choose the right one?

Oh, okay. You're probably asking the wrong person. I don't necessarily, cause I don't necessarily know if you need a mentor. And I think, but I do think if you take, if you do want one, you should find one. You shouldn't just go out and find the best real estate agent out there. You should find one. That's going to be somewhat alike to you and aligned to like things you do.

I run a team of agents and like. The whole thing that I think is different from others and is that I don't need to have like classes on every single aspect of real estate because I went through that and when I got out of it, I was like, now what do I do? And like, I felt like it actually helped kind of like help me, like kept me back because I was so worried about doing some of the things that I was taught versus just going out and doing it, even if, even if you mess up.

So I think like hands on mentoring is the best, like coming with me to a listing appointment. And that's actually how I learned how to do listings. I went with an agent who was actually my brother. And um, when he like went in there and said nothing about real estate, I was like, what are we doing here? And then he just got the listing.

And then I started like learning, like that's probably the way to, I think so it's just like hands-on mentoring, I think is better than, you know, Sitting in a room and listening about numbers and how you should do this and how you should get leads and stuff like that.

Austin: I love it. Well, thank you so much for sharing Brett. And I, uh, I appreciate all the, uh, all the advice and tips that you've shared and you have an incredible story and I know you'll keep going. So thank you very much for coming on today.

Brett: Thanks so much for having me.