David Rosen from The Rosen Team with Douglas Elliman Real Estate talks about how he got into real estate and how he built his business. David and DJ discuss the importance of customer service in the real estate business. David talks about the letters he sends to potential clients to get to know them and how this helps build the relationship. David also talks about the videos he and his team use for listings. Finally, David talks about how you can provide value to your clients.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
David Rosen can be reached at 917.524.9680 and DAVID.ROSEN@ELLIMAN.COM.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment we’re going to be speaking with David Rosen of the Rosen team from Douglas Elliman in New York. Before we get to David, just a couple of quick reminders. The best way to continue to support our show is to tell a friend think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing from top producers like David and send them a link to our website, you can find us at keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done, I think we’re over 300 episodes at this point can be streamed right from that website or just have them pull up a podcast app on their mobile device and search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. And second, please follow us on Facebook every single day we find an article that’s written online specifically designed to give real estate agents tips about how to grow their business. And of course we publish all of our podcast episodes there as well. So you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod or just go to Facebook and do a search for keeping it real podcast and you’ll find us and now on to our interview with David Rosen.
Alright today on the show we have David Rosen with the Rosen team in the Douglas Elliman in New York City. Let me tell you a little bit about David David is regularly included in the America’s best list of top brokers in the state and city and is also among the top 1% of brokers at Douglas Elliman real estate, which is the largest residential firm in New York City, a native New Yorker he and his family live in Crown Heights Brooklyn. With over 17 years of sales past clients have included actors supermodels the president of Google Ventures, the defense minister of Germany, and the President of Danny Meyer’s Restaurant Group, I actually just read it a thing about Danny Meyer’s, just before we got on, I’ll have to mention. David is also an avid investor in his own business, he uses his art school background to constantly challenge the way in which he communicates about his business. In doing so he’s negotiated excellent deals for both buyers and sellers. Please visit David at his website, which is the David rosen.com. And you can also follow him on social media. Go to the David rosen.com. Scroll to the bottom you’ll see all of his his social media accounts and he has all sorts of amazing videos, which we’ll talk about here on his website. David, welcome to the show.
David Rosen 3:51
DJ. Thank you. Thank you very much.
D.J. Paris 3:54
I was so funny. So you mentioned Danny Meyer’s I just read literally minutes before we started that he is I don’t know if you’ve seen this as like breaking news, I guess that he is requiring people to bring in vaccination cards I think even not at all of his restaurants. But he’s basically basically saying if you if you want to die in here, we’d like you to be vaccinated we’d like you to show proof so he’s like the first big restaurant or to say, this is kind of the way it is will be very interesting to see how people respond to that. But I applaud his courage that is a very courageous thing.
David Rosen 4:27
You know, I met that client the way I’ve met most of my clients, which is simply from having listings people come in, you know, you meet them and whoever they are, that’s who they are. Right. And so we worked with them on now a few transactions not Danny but you know, the C C level executive insurance. And I’ve been to a few Danny Meyer’s restaurants myself, so of course it’s a real treat, but you know, I read his book. I think it’s called setting the table and some business book and it’s filled with great nuggets and he is A genius not only a genius chef, but one of the things he says in that book is that whenever he Danny goes into a restaurant by himself, which he has done in his life, you know, of course, hundreds or 1000s of times. He always is very focused and mindful on how the staff treats a diner whose dining alone. And I think that we all can relate to what it’s like, going to a restaurant by yourself. Yeah, never like you and me that we can remember the time before cellphones, and right, it’s almost a harrowing experience. You’re gonna go sit there by yourself, and everyone’s gonna look at you, how come you don’t have any friends?
D.J. Paris 5:42
I remember when I first graduated college, I went ended up working for Anheuser Busch. We were doing, I was a marketing guy. So I traveled all over the country, helping these local distributors, you know, with their marketing efforts. And it was kind of like the circus coming to town because I would bring all this cool stuff, and they would from corporate and they would get to use it and you know, whatever events they were hosting. And so I often ate alone. And you’re absolutely right. This is pre I mean, I had a cell phone, but there was no internet on it. It was, you know, it was I had a beeper, actually, and a cell phone, which is, you know, shows you how old I am. But I remember I would I would think that all the time, it was like, Okay, what book Am I gonna bring with me? And, you know, like, it was always just a little bit embarrassing, even though it shouldn’t be. But But you’re absolutely right. So I’m sorry, I interrupted your story. Go ahead.
David Rosen 6:27
No, I mean, and that’s the thing. So Danny would would make a big point of that, if he was going to be at a restaurant by himself. And they treated him well, of course, he was going to bring friends back. And of course, he’s Danny Meyer’s, if he’s bringing friends back, or he thinks your restaurant is excellent. Well, that’s a, you know, thing you want if you’re in the restaurant business, and I guess how it translates into our business is that, for example, if you were to Google real estate agents in New York, you might find me at the top of that list, because I’ve done a lot of marketing and SEO over the time. And I actually get a call more than once a day, from somebody who found me on Google. And this is what it sounds like. David, I want to know if you have people looking in fill in the blank, South Carolina, Virginia. I have a timeshare in Orlando, you know, you name it, you can’t imagine it’s someone who’s thinking outside of the box because they want to sell their home. And yesterday, I showed it to a woman who’s got the most amazing home in Virginia. And and of course, I don’t know anyone that’s going to help her hypothetically, you could say, well, maybe she I would be able to find another broker and give a referral. And that’s a possibility, of course. But sure. But you know, I get calls like that are people who want to rent very inexpensive apartments are people on Section Eight housing vouchers, maybe their tests, all of those calls. And every time I think about the Danny minor Meyer story about dining by herself, and that’s what those people are, in some cases, if you treat them excellently good things will happen. And that’s sort of the standard that I’ve always held myself to.
D.J. Paris 8:11
Isn’t it amazing to as somebody as successful as you’ve become, and customer services? Is everything we everyone listening? Of course, we all know that. But isn’t it always shocking how low the bar is, can be set for other agents, right? We, we all know that it is always remarkable. I once I once interviewed one of the top producers here in Chicago, and like, there’s about 44,000 realtors. And she’s like, maybe number five out of so she’s a big deal, and a super nice person. And I said, What do you think you do differently than everyone else? And she goes, Well, I know I’m not smarter than anyone. So it’s not that. And I know I don’t I mean, I work hard. But I don’t know that I work that much harder than every one. So I don’t think it’s that she goes, honestly, she goes, this is kind of embarrassing to say, but I just return every phone call. And I call every one of my clients before they feel the need to call me. In other words, if I’m working with somebody, and even if we’re in the process of buying or selling or renting or whatever, I don’t want them to have to call me and go, Hey, what’s going on with with my current situation? So I said, Okay, well, yeah, of course. And what else do you do? And she’s like, that’s pretty much it. I thought, you know, customer service is just everything. And your point is so well taken that you have this great SEO, and you’re getting these phone calls, and they’re not always phone calls that are going to land lots of business, but you still spend time returning those calls and speaking to those people and helping them and I imagine that has only really been beneficial overall to your career.
David Rosen 9:42
You know what it is absolutely, DJ and what the way I see it is that you know, every time you step up to bat, you want to be able to hit the ball. You know, every time you get on the court, you want to be able to hit the shot. So you’re always going to bring the same, you know, game to the arena And that’s what it’s always got to be. Why should you have, you know, a D game? Like, why should you show up? You know, never not looking good. You know, this is gonna sound awful. And if I was the younger version of me, I would have never said this. And if my young son hears this someday I think he’ll be embarrassed. But I want to tell you something. And once upon a time, I was a waiter, and, and I was a waiter in midtown Manhattan. And there was an amazing watch store. It’s still there. It’s called torno. But they move locations. But anyway, I would walk by it every day. And I look in the watches, and I was obsessed. And then finally, I ended up becoming a real estate broker. I moved to Phoenix. That’s where I started my career. I was there for seven years and moved back to New York. Anyway, when I was in Phoenix, I made enough money to buy a Breitling, you know, fancy.
D.J. Paris 10:49
Oh, sure. Yeah. Amazing. Watch.
David Rosen 10:52
I bought it at that. torno. And and, you know, it was cool. It wasn’t, you know, it had some character. And then I, you know, sort of leveled up one day in the future, and I had an omega is more expensive, and it would have rubber band, and it was fashionable, and it was cool. But what I realized having a Breitling and an omega, is that what the best one is a Rolex. And now I have a gold Rolex. And the reason I have a gold Rolex is not because it’s fashionable, says something about my character or anything. Because no one in the world doesn’t know that a gold Rolex symbolizes wealth and success. And that’s the whole damn point of spending more than $1 rather have a Casio or a gold Rolex
D.J. Paris 11:37
opinion. Yeah, no, it’s a really good point too. And and this, you know, I think what what we’re talking about too, is treating a real Realtors business as an actual business and thinking about it as a business owner. And that’s been, in my experience with the successful agents we have at our firm, and then all the agents we’ve interviewed for it for the show. It that’s really I think, a lot of times the distinction is I’m not just a realtor helping buyers and sellers, and renters and investors. And yes, I do that. That’s what I do. But I run it like a business. And I think about, you know, like you said, you’ve put money into SEO so that you do show up organically when people are searching for there’s a reason why you do that there is a business reason for that. And it’s it’s for lead generation, and it’s also for branding, and a lot of other amazing benefits. So let’s actually let’s start at the beginning, because I’d love to hear how you got into real estate before you became the success that you are today. So tell us so you started in Phoenix? Is that my understanding?
David Rosen 12:38
Well, yeah, so I was I went to art school, and I graduated. And at my first job out of art school, it was right after 911. And the job market wasn’t great. And apparently, you know, being an illustrator wasn’t a great career path to begin with. I don’t think I realized that in time.
D.J. Paris 12:56
What kind of what kind of illustrator did you want to like
David Rosen 12:59
Illustrator that really wanted to be like a fine arts painter from the 1700s.
D.J. Paris 13:04
Wow. Like impressionist painting, and you wanted to be an impressionist are
David Rosen 13:10
very, very Yes, like very realist like neoclassical realist style, or like other stuff to kind of like graffiti. I didn’t have a whole big plan. I just was drawing pictures. Yeah. So there I go, graduate 10s of 1000s of dollars in debt, drew a lot of pictures and my first job was Dunkin Donuts. My fourth Job was a waiter at a restaurant in midtown Manhattan at Manhattan. It was a stop at Whole Foods along the way, right? Delivered groceries with a degree find you and and so of course, that’s when I became a real estate broker. And I worked for a cousin of mine. And we moved, he moved me to Avondale Arizona, he had done a seminar on how to make a ton of money flipping homes, and okay, kind of It’s his birthday today actually had a cousin Adam. And he was my mentor. And he had bought about 10 homes in Phoenix, this was 2004. And he bought them with $1,000 a pop, there’s $1,000. And when he closed on each one of them, they were up about $100,000 in equity in that year, amazing. And he only had to put up no money, basically. And he didn’t just do that himself. He actually sold about three or 400 homes and all these new home subdivisions with this other guy. So I moved out there, I was a waiter. My prior experience was you know, casual fine dining. And, and, you know, I pretended I was a construction expert looking at all the inspections, the walkthroughs and I learned a lot and we sold 1000 homes, probably in the first few months there, you know, and this is unbelievable, because, I mean, it was literally if we would do you know, we would work with developers and like send out to his client list. Like we have this opportunity and everyone thought I’m gonna you know, make Good fortune. And for that year they did. I mean, of course, we know how that story ended. But in that year, it was a good year to be in that business, and even the next year and the year after that, and then I got into flipping homes myself. So I was 24 years old, I was in a strange land, and it’s a totally new world. I had no friends, no connections. And so I really became enmeshed in the business. And, you know, I learned a lot. And so that was great for three years, and then the market crashed. And then I lost all the money, I’d made a man having the money when I got out there. And then I had less money because I was also, you know, owed money. And, and then the next three years, I learned about short sales and property management some more and, and we sold about 160 homes and a property company that I started with a mortgage lender, who I you know, met through business networking, and and then we were able to successfully sell that company. So that’s like seven years in Phoenix, in, you know, 20 sentences. But it was an amazing time. That market is doing great. I love it there. I mean, it’s a gorgeous place to live a lot of people from Chicagoland, you know, and yeah, now the places like Phoenix and sure nothing like New York, then I come back to New York, my stepfather was, in the last years of life, I wanted to be close to my family. And, and I don’t regret it, obviously. And it’s been a great experience to here in New York, you know, you don’t I don’t own the brokerage, instead of being at 100% split, owning the brokerage. I’m here at a company where they take, you know, different splits and they take from most of the realtors who might be listening to us. But you get a lot for that.
D.J. Paris 16:39
I would Yeah, they have a well established brand. tagless element is the number one firm in New York. So there is a reason why could you do your own firm? Sure, of course, you could. Anybody could. But they’re providing I imagine tremendous value to you.
David Rosen 16:55
Yeah. And so when I when you’re right, they are. And when I arrived back in New York City, I worked. I met this guy through the Tom Ferry coaching organization. And I’m, I’ve been a Tom Ferry coaching client for over 10 years. I’m in the team plus coaching now. And I met a guy named Josh Rubin, who was himself pretty successful, but not at the top of the Echelon like he is today. He is now among the top few brokers in New York City. And when I joined him, he had a smaller team and I was I became his assistant. And I worked with him for four or five years. And when I joined his office Million Dollar Listing, New York hadn’t started yet, but the people in that office included Fredrik Eklund, and John gums his partner, Leonard Steinberg, who went on to be the first guy at Compass. Holly Parker, Raphael De Niro was in that office. Other guys who, you know, might not be known nationally, but the new is literally the number one selling office in the country. And I just stumbled back into it as this guy’s assistant not knowing nothing. And I learned the New York City Market. And, you know, I didn’t know the nuances of this market like I do today. And it’s a very complicated market. But the things that we talked about in the beginning, like, you know, returning people’s phone calls, I knew how to do that.
D.J. Paris 18:26
So So what’s it like for you know, all again, we have we have listeners from all over some of them of course, rural, some, some live in more urban environments. New York is such a complicated places, as you mentioned, for real estate, we know its pricing is is is very challenging, their rentals are challenging, there’s, there’s always inventory issues, and then there’s lots of co op boards. So there’s that to deal with, as well. It’s a challenging market, I would think, or an intimidating market, at the very least, and tremendous competition from all the other agents. How were you able to like distinguish yourself, and what do you think sets you apart from and again, being that you got to be lucky enough or created the luck yourself to be in an environment with lots of other really amazing people who went on to even bigger and better things? I imagine you picked up a lot of great just sort of habits and strategies from them?
David Rosen 19:25
Well, it’s always it’s always a mission and I’m certainly not there yet. And gosh, you know, COVID really knocked us back a bit, not just professionally, but like personally in a lot of ways, but good things came out of it. Um, I would say that you know, the, the most important thing to remember is that, you know, I’m not the biggest fish at all right? So you always know that and that’s a good thing. I mean, right. You know, who wants to be the top of the, you know, the top person and then you can never succeed you can never grow, you know? I’m doing better than I did. But there’s so much more to do. And, and generally speaking, you know, whatever that looks like, is a matter of your own effort and defining your own goals. But things I did differently included, you know, really having my own brand. And I started that with a website called applesauce. I thought that was clever. It’s great. And honestly, it wasn’t that clever. I mean, maybe it was it has some people following me, you know, now it’s the David rosen.com. You know, I, you know, I tried to be cool with the Breitling and the omega and now it’s just the Rolex. But, you know, I tried a lot of things. And I didn’t all work. I’ve done parties that were like a CBD infused private dinner, which was fun. I love volleyball game, I’ve, you know, I did a Mother’s Day manicure event with a psychic. You know, I love that. It all of that make me money? I don’t know, honestly, I don’t know. And I say that if you zoom out, the trajectory has been like this more or less. Yeah, I can. So, um, and that my personal like, you know, position, both in the marketplace. And you know, in terms of where I’m at, has gotten better, because of things like that, I think, yes,
D.J. Paris 21:21
you have a tremendous amount of fun in your business, I can at least that’s the what’s coming through. And I think that too, is probably helps when times are tough, because as maybe a more creative person with your background. And you know, the schooling, which obviously, you’re an artist, as well, being an artist and a business person are two very unique skill sets, very distinct skill sets, right. So the artist is more free thinking, creative doesn’t like a lot of confines and structure. Although I can’t speak for all artists, obviously. But But generally speaking, we know artists types, and we know business types. And, and usually they’re not super connected, but you have been able to, to to do both. And I think that is really remarkable. And I imagine that creates a lot of fun in your business because you you get to be creative, and do these cool ideas and events.
David Rosen 22:12
Well, this is going to shame me and and humbled me, but there was an Oscar Wilde book that I read in college, I think it was the Portrait of the Artist, Dorian Gray. And I’m not saying I sure even read the whole book. But I remember this one line. And it says he, you know, the main character says, artists are boring people. Great artists are boring people, all they do is obsess about their art. But almost a second rate artists are incredibly fun and interesting people with a wide range of, you know, skill sets and knowledge bases. And maybe I wasn’t a great artist, maybe that’s why I became a real estate agent. But as a second rate artists, you know, I’ve, I’ve had my, you know, my hat and a lot of rings or whatever. And you know, you get to meet a lot of people and try a lot of stuff. And I guess, you know, and not be afraid of failure. And I think that is within our real estate industry. Right? If you look at Barbara Corcoran or Dottie Herman, the CEO of Douglas, Elliman, they’re, you know, you could you could bet that they will make a social media post every, you know, 30 days that says something like, what defines you is getting off the ground or whatever, something like that, you know, yeah, and that’s, of course, resiliency is the key to success in business. But, you know, art teaches you resiliency, because if you care about doing something great, and then you don’t do it great. And you just try it again, that’s that’s a good bit of practice. And then I see so many of the agents that are on my team, even they’re afraid to call people maybe, you know, or I’m afraid sometimes all the time. I’m make my calls follow up deal with this issue. It’s not easy, and doesn’t get easier. But, you know, that’s where the, the experience comes in, which is just like, what’s the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is you do nothing.
D.J. Paris 24:12
Right? That’s actually that’s, that’s worse than being hung up on boards, or having somebody say, Stop calling me because at least then you could move forward from from a rejection, and it never happens. It never never happened.
David Rosen 24:27
They always want to talk to you. They’re always fun and friendly. I just got a referral today from a guy who I remember when I first met with them and they interviewed other brokers and they ultimately hired me to sell their home. It was the video the listing video that I sent to your producer actually the with a drone and I yeah, looking for the home. That was a really fun one. But that guy was like super scary, you know, just like super powered finance guy, you know, one at a price that he would never get to sell his home. But we ended up doing the Deal and like, you know, he put all these barriers in the way. And it was scary. And luckily, I have a team, I think, going through this with friends that are your colleagues is great, you know, the company culture, the team culture. And, and and, you know, we got him through an I have a buyer letter, you know, that’s the most effective marketing tool that I do, or at least among them.
D.J. Paris 25:26
Can you share it? Can you? Would you mind sharing a little bit of that?
David Rosen 25:30
Oh, man. Yeah. So the biggest, you know, source of my income is probably past clients and referrals. And then the second biggest, isn’t my farm, those of us in the real estate profession know that a farm is when you like, mail to a certain building, and I’ve, you know, I have certain farms, but I don’t have a huge market share, unfortunately, in either of them, and they’re decent sized farms, and I could certainly improve, where I have been more effective. The events are helpful, the social media is helpful, Google’s helpful, but these these buyer letters, which are legit, you know, I meet tons of buyers, I have about 20 listings at any time, and, you know, maybe 10 are in contract interactive, we get, you know, X leads a week through each one. And then people want to find the home. New York City doesn’t have a ton of inventory, like you mentioned before, and we never have I mean, it’s always the tight market. So it’s completely valid to say to so and so I’ve got a buyer and I work with you know, I have a follow up boss CRM. So I’ve got a lot of buyers in there, maybe about 10,000. And we send these letters, they’re, they’re targeted, you know, if I’m sending a letter to two bedrooms with washer dryers with good views, and Lincoln Square, you know, I mean it, but then I’ll send them as many of them as possible. And then I use certain psychological elements to actually get a good response and the main one I do. And DJ I mean, I hope
D.J. Paris 27:00
I see you hesitating. I don’t want you I don’t want secrets. There’s
David Rosen 27:04
a book, there’s a book called start with no, that I read recently, that I came through a lot of other you know, people say read this read that, like basically Chris Voss and the book never split the difference. Yeah. This guy’s book Start with no, I think his name is Jim camp. And he’s no longer with us. But he’s a corporate negotiation trainer. So the first line of my I have a buyer letter says, I also don’t like receiving solicitations in the mail.
D.J. Paris 27:32
Yeah. So basically, what you’re doing is you’re overcoming an objection before the objection comes up. And this way, there’s really, it acknowledges it affirms a person’s objection. So they feel good. And then it allows them just a little a little, it gives you another few seconds before they may throw it in the trash. Because they’re like, alright, yeah, I’m annoyed too. Let’s keep reading.
David Rosen 27:57
Yeah, and that’s the biggest, best, the biggest source of new people. You know, there’s always the people, you know, but how do you meet the people? You don’t know? Yeah.
D.J. Paris 28:07
I love that. So So basically, you know, you’re sending letters to owners saying, Hey, if you ever want to sell, I would love to talk to you. And right now, what a great opportunity, because and I don’t know how much things have appreciated in New York City at the moment. I know here in Chicago, everything’s appreciated quite a bit. And so those those letters will be very helpful to homeowners here in our local market. And I imagine I’m sure things have appreciated in New York as well. So I suspect that those letters are very popular currently. What a great idea. I you know, it’s funny, we’ve done over 300 episodes, I’m trying to I’m racking my brain trying to remember if, because there’s a lots of different farming letters and people have have shared some of those that might be that little sort of objection handling that you do at the beginning. I don’t know that anyone’s ever, ever shared, or the if I have a buyer thing in and of itself I’ve not heard of, so I appreciate you sharing. That’s a really, really great idea. And I want to talk about some of your videos too, because this is really, from a creative standpoint, I’m, you know, I’m sort of a writer, I’m a marketing guy. I’m not an artist. Unfortunately, I don’t have that skill set. But I appreciate really cool marketing and you have done this in the visual medium with some of your your video blogs, do you mind sharing some of what you’ve done? Just because I think our audience would be in by the way, you can see all of this if you just go to the David rosen.com But do you mind sharing some of the ideas that you had fun with?
David Rosen 29:38
Absolutely. So um, you know, again, none of this stuff DJs coming, you know, they don’t wake up in the middle of the night necessarily and just say I need to do this. So kind of that is how it ends up happening. But before the middle of the night, waking up with inspiration, there’s been seminars, other people’s stuff and so you know, So Seth Godin, who I think is speaking at the Tom Ferry Success Summit is someone I’ve listened to he wrote a book called all all sellers are liars or something like that. And then they cross out the word liars to storytellers. And another guy I listen to a lot is Daniel Pink. And sure, I think the the impetus for all the marketing on a macro level is simply that you do something that appeals to the, to the right brain, we’re talking about emotions, you know. And, and, and that it’s a pattern interrupt is not what you expect, I get 100 emails that tell me the percentage, the sales increase on a week by week basis. And I know that not one of my customers gives a darn about that. Right? So when I did the series, like I have a trivia show called New Yorkers know, highlights different neighborhoods. And I have a series that I just finished called, if I was the mayor, where I talk about pretty like interesting and radical ideas like parking at fire hydrants, for example, why can’t we park in fire hydrants, you know, have more parking? And then if and if there was an actual fire, they’ll just smash up your car. Okay, that’s the risk. That’s the risk. Yeah, not a lot of fires. So you know, people need parking. So that’s one idea, or I love it. I had some other weird ideas like building an underwater laboratory with a seawall to help protect New York City, which I know that’s not going to necessarily happen. But okay, did your real estate agent send you a video talking about building an underwater laboratory with a flood wall to protect? You know, the city? No, I know that. So you know, something different. And then with New Yorkers know, I worked with a great production team called Hallelu productions, who, you know, work with a lot of good people, not just real estate people, but like, you know, very professional production value, and they helped me script it a bit. And, you know, the, the, the facts are interesting, that history is interesting. And in New York City, like Chicago is a compelling place. And most of us have no clue where we live anyway. Like, I know that I’ve learned how much I don’t know. And of course, it’s just staggering. You know, all the things I didn’t know, I’m, you know, lived here for 30 of my 40 years. So, you know, I have fun with it, like you said, and, and, you know, that that makes customers see me as a real person. And what’s the point of marketing, if you’re a real estate broker, the point of marketing is to get people to hire you to list their home, that is the literal point of real estate sales business, is not to get buyers listings, get you buyers, your job is to get listings. With listings, you can do a whole lot, as we all know. And so I’m gonna go deep, I’m gonna go hard on forging new relationships. And once I meet those people, I have any little snippet of information, compelling them to continue to think of me, as someone who has a pattern interrupt who has something to offer them, so they don’t unsubscribe, and I, and I can see who opens my emails. And those people, including people in Chicago, are some some very impressive. Business people, in some cases,
D.J. Paris 33:25
have you found that since you have worked with high level business executives, you’ve worked with celebrities? Have you found that working with people who who have, you know, some some notoriety in either the business world or the entertainment world is that it doesn’t require a different set of skills versus like a first time homebuyer who is not in the public eye? You know, are they? Is it different to work with, with people at that level? Or is our it’s everyone really kind of the same?
David Rosen 33:58
I gotta be honest, EJ, I think it’s not. I mean, you got to, you know, you gotta have confidence in yourself. But if you approach everything you do with integrity, it’s going to be the same thing every each and every time. So, you know, when I worked with, you know, XYZ person, yeah, it was fun, you know, and it was a good story to have. But ultimately, you know, a few things that I’ve learned. One is nobody ever, you know, is looking within their budget. Everybody always wants something that cost more. Yeah, doesn’t matter what their budget is, you know, you think they’re looking for a $5 million homes gonna make them happy that $5 million buyer wants a $12 million home. The $15 million buyer wants a $70 million home, just like the $200,000 buyer wants a $250,000 home right? And that’s and the richer they are depending on who they are, the harder it is to maybe get them to be Like, you know, wow, this is what we can get for this, um, it’s really about what’s motivating them to sell, or buy. And and I think that what you learn about very successful people is that, you know, and what I try to teach the people on my team is, you know, they don’t have a lot of time, they don’t want to hear you, you know, talk their ear off about things that, you know, like, don’t pertain to them, you know, keep it short and sweet and simple. And, you know, and they’re looking for that, and they can pick up on it, you know,
D.J. Paris 35:37
definitely, I’m sorry, I wanted to go back real quickly to your, your newsletter idea, because this is something that and again, we’re, you know, certainly we’re not here to criticize anyone’s marketing efforts. And I’ve, we have agents at our firm that send out, you know, through various systems, they may, they may be using, you know, a monthly email newsletter about real estate, and you know, the markets up, it’s down, inventory, is this, whatever. And you’re right, really, nobody cares. The only people that care are, of course, the people that are looking to buy or sell at that exact moment, maybe, maybe they care, maybe they’re still just going to delete email. So we would always say, well, at least they’re seeing your name before they delete it. And that inherently, I guess, is a good thing. But to then go a little bit beyond that to say, but I want to create content that people don’t want to delete, that they might actually enjoy. Like, you’ve done videos on how you would address the homelessness issue in New York, you’ve done really interesting comment that
David Rosen 36:32
was very controversial, you know, a lot of I imagine, yeah, a lot. I got one nasty reply from somebody who said, You’re heartless, and you’re an asshole. You know, you seeing this as a business proposition, I have responded to that person. So I respond to everyone. And I got a very warm reply from someone who ran a Homeless Advocacy Program is I don’t know if you remember me, but you sold my neighbor’s home. And I did remember them. And of course, I knew that I sold their neighbor’s home, and maybe they’ll sell one day. And of course, homelessness is a major issue. But you know, and this in on that subject, my wife sister happens to be involved in that industry, for lack of a better term for the city of New York, she isn’t supportive housing. But yeah, like, nobody wants to talk about homelessness, and it’s a big problem. But, you know, the next thing that I’m doing is something else that you’re not supposed to talk about. The next series of videos I’m going to do is on schools, and here in New York, we have a rule that you’re not supposed to tell people, if they if the property is zoned for a certain school, because of the variations on the law, it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get into a certain public school, if you live in a certain place, we can say that, you know, you can look at this website, you know, there’s ways of couching it, but you know, we’re, it’s sort of a redlining type thing. So nobody to know that brokers know anything about schools, including me, and I’m a new parent. And so I thought to myself, well, maybe there’s something here. So I’m gonna go deep with, like, a real big, you know, thing on schools, you know, I’m not going to say, PS one is better than PS six, hypothetically, but I am going to try to, you know, do as much to educate myself and others about, really the school system in New York, which because of these rules, people don’t talk about, and, you know, to your other point DJ about, like, you know, maybe not everyone’s interested in this thing that that I do, but like, think about all of network television, you know, people can make an awesome TV show, maybe it’s on Netflix, or whatever, but not everyone’s gonna like it. Everyone’s gonna like what I do, not everyone’s gonna like every restaurant, but I don’t care, maybe someone will like it.
D.J. Paris 38:47
Right? And, and I think maybe even what I think is most interesting is you have a point of view. Oftentimes, agents are unwilling to create marketing material, or just to have a point of view in the fear of, you know, I don’t want to offend, I don’t want it and I know you’re not intentionally trying to offend anybody, but or maybe you are,
David Rosen 39:10
but you can’t, but it’s hard not to sometimes it’s,
D.J. Paris 39:14
especially now we, you know, we it’s a very, very, very sensitive society we live in at this point, you’re in America. But I love the fact that you’re saying, Hey, here’s my point of view. And if you like it, that’s great. And again, you’re a very nice person. So I suspect, you know, you don’t get a tremendous amount of negative feedback. But just having a point of view about something is the perception of an intelligent individual. So the perception of somebody who says, you know, I have an idea here, and it might not be the best idea, but here’s what I’m thinking about for for example, that homelessness or you know, an underwater seawall, right, yes, maybe that’ll never happen. But here’s my thought about it. And you really, it’s funny from a psychological perspective and audience goes, well, that’s kind of interesting. thing like we think about great broadcasters, they, you know, well if you’re like a newsman, you don’t maybe have to have a point of view because you can just report the news. But for everyone else, you know, the really successful ones have a point of view and you have a point of view and not just about non real estate related issues, you have specific thoughts about real estate too. And you’re willing to share that. And I think that is because you’re willing to do the deep dives and learn, like you were saying, I didn’t know about Tribeca, and here, I live here, and I really don’t know that much. Now, I’m going to do a deep dive and I’m going to talk about, you know, schools and whatever areas you’re gonna focus on, boy, I think how valuable you already know how valuable but think to our audience, how valuable would that be for any new parent in or somebody thinking about starting a family in that market to understand how the PS school systems work, how it works, where you live, and just even from an informational perspective, that is way more exciting to me, then, hey, by the way, the markets up 15%. Again, that may not apply, I think, that might not be as interesting too.
David Rosen 41:02
I’m all about like, you know, Andersen windows, and, you know, granite countertops and subway tile backsplash, but you do this for long enough and you realize that you’re not going to get ahead by having the same you know, two pitches. And that’s I guess, the, you know, you have to know that stuff too.
D.J. Paris 41:24
Of course, you got it, you got to know your numbers and your firm is such a professional organization that they are a white glove firm that is is the best of the best. Is it Douglas Elliman? So this is this is where I think what you have such a unique sort of value proposition because you also with your with your art background get to be more creative than maybe a traditional agent might might think they should be. And I think that that probably just enables you just to have a lot of fun. So you have this great mix of ultra professional white glove, and we’re going to do some fun stuff too. And I imagine that has has been any. And again, I’ll say it, but if you’re not watching this episode, if you if you end up watching it on YouTube, or on Facebook, you’ll see David is just smiling the entire time he is a genuinely happy person. And he loves what he does. And and I it’s such it’s such a fun to interview you. But David, I should mention for everyone listening who might not be a realtor, or but who may be just a resident of New York and is interested in maybe working with someone like you either renting, buying, selling investing, what is the best way that somebody who’s reaching out wants to work with with you? How should they get in touch with you?
David Rosen 42:34
The best way is to call me or email me or on my website, David rosen.com, you’ll be able to find those things. If you Google David Rosen, you will find me. Very proud of that. Because it used to be if you Google David Rosen, you find the character and scandal. Who’s David Rosen. I’ve gotten that dude, I may be on your Google. I don’t know. And that might not always be that way. But the David rosen.com, or my phone number, can I just share my phone number, please, please do a 212-965-6051 That’s my office line. You could call me david.rosen@element.com. I’m hard not to find.
D.J. Paris 43:22
He David is everywhere. And you know, I again, from a marketing perspective, you’d really and he’s got a newsletter, too, you can subscribe to his newsletter right from the David rosen.com. And I’m going to subscribe because 808 We have 800 agents at our firm and I wanted to tell them, look at what this guy is doing and look at how much fun he’s having. And and also in a professional way. And you know, look at his his success. And again, it’s not just marketing. David is obviously an incredibly effective realtor. And if you are in the New York market, the New York City Market and and you know, elsewhere, near there, if you’re looking for a top agent, David is one of the top agents in New York, and you should absolutely reach out to him and he will take excellent care of you. And he does, he does get back to people that is very important to him customer service. So David, I really appreciate your time today. This was this was so much fun for us. And I hope our audience tells other people about the show. In fact, if you want to help support us, just everyone listening think of one other realtor that could benefit from hearing from this great conversation with David and send them a link to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com can stream every episode we’ve ever done right from the website in case the person you’re sending to isn’t a podcast person, no problem. Just go to our website, they can listen, if they are a podcast person, have them pull up whatever app they’re using subscribe search for keeping it real and hit the subscribe button. So on behalf of our audience, we want to thank David for taking time out of his incredibly busy day. We know how busy you are to spend time with us and on behalf of David and myself. We want to thank the audience for continuing to listen and support our show. David thanks Thank you so much. This was such a pleasure. And boy, I’d love to have you on anytime in the future too. So we’ll have to stay in touch
David Rosen 45:06
my pleasure, DJ, I look forward to, to continuing the conversation. And I can’t help but look at you and your office and think about all the amazing food I’ve eaten in Chicago. And one day after I lose this COVID 30 pounds I put on I’m going to come there with my kid. And we’re going to have some, some pizza.
D.J. Paris 45:26
You know, what’s funny is I think, and I don’t know if this is still true, it might have been pre pre pandemic, but I might have still been now but anyway, I think Chicago technically has more Michelin starred restaurants than New York, which, which, which normally is not the case normally beats us. But so I just had to throw that little jab. We are both very lucky food wise, you guys have great food. We have great food, and both great cities to live in as well. So if you’re in the Chicagoland area, come say hi to me, if you’re in New York, goes in Tribeca, go say hi to David. He’s a wonderful, warm person. And David, thank you so much for being on the show.
David Rosen 46:00
Thank you, DJ, appreciate it, man.
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