Oleg Bortman of The Brokery: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Real Estate Industry
An Interview With Jason Hartman
You can’t be everything to everyone, so pick a niche and nurture that. I believe in the power of finding your niche and being an expert in a particular geographic area in real estate. Real estate agents will often chase transactions all over town, and it can leave them burned out without a deep understanding of any particular communities or neighborhoods. When a real estate professional lives and breathes a local area, it gives them an advantage in getting their clients top dollar for their homes and becoming the go-to expert on the lifestyle and amenities the neighborhood offers.
As a part of my series about the ‘Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Real Estate Industry’, I had the pleasure of interviewing Oleg Bortman.
Oleg Bortman is Associate Manager and Co-founder of The Brokery, a relentlessly local residential real estate brokerage with three offices in the metro Phoenix area, and a fourth opening in Scottsdale at the end of the year. Oleg’s passion is real estate. He loves working with buyers, sellers and investors as well as helping agents grow their business.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the Real Estate industry?
In the late 90s I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, and that inspired me to follow a path where I could have my money work for me instead of me working for my money. Within 12 months of reading the book, I bought my first investment property. From 2003–2005, I acquired another six investment properties. All the passive income inspired me to get my real estate license in 2009 in Arizona.
Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
I was sitting a shift at our office in the Arizona Biltmore resort when a gentleman came in and told me he wanted to buy a condo for about $180K and he would pay all cash. He said he had just come back from Las Vegas where he won big. He handed me an envelope with $10K earnest money in cash and asked me to hold all of it until closing. I didn’t know what to do, so called my broker. We signed a piece of paper stating that I was holding this money until I could open up title. I came home and my wife was like “What is all this cash?!” The whole scenario seemed so unlikely to me; I have to admit I really doubted this sale would close. But I was proven wrong. The buyer closed on the condo within 30 days! I learned you can never judge a book by its cover. You just don’t know if the person is legit.
Do you have a favorite “life lesson quote”? Can you share a story or example of how that was relevant to you in your life?
Some people say the glass is half empty. Some say it’s half full. For me, my glass is always full. My perspective on life is that everything that occurs is always for the positive, no matter what the situation is. There’s always a lesson to be learned, and I look at any lesson life hands me as a challenge to raise my bar to the next level.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Yes! We recently closed on a property that will be the new home to our Scottdale office. This will be the fourth office for The Brokery. Not only will we be better equipped to help the Scottsdale community with their real estate needs, but we’re also providing new opportunities for our agents who focus on Scottsdale. We expect to open the new Scottsdale location at the end of the year, and we can’t wait to welcome new agents to The Brokery and give them all the tools they need to succeed.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Our tagline is Relentlessly Local. We are all connected in the community and make it a point to give back to the local community as well. We support local restaurants, local philanthropies, local vendors through farmers markets at our office… we genuinely want to be a part of the community we serve. We recently hosted a Dogs & Donuts community event to benefit a local animal rescue organization, and I ended up adopting our sweet dog Bailey that day!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My parents brought me to America when I was very young. They left everything behind for an opportunity for my sister and me to grow and prosper. I credit everything to my parents. My father taught me character, integrity, and a strong work ethic. My mom taught me love, common sense, and the ability to hustle. Back in Ukraine, my mom used to sell anything and everything as a vendor at farmers markets to make bread for the family. She always taught me how to work multiple jobs and to think outside the box. When my family came to America, she became a seamstress here in America. She had true hustle. First, she earned how to sew, then eventually she ended up buying the factory from the guy who hired her. A year later, she sold it and opened up a commercial cleaning business in New Jersey. When I was a teenager, I would always help mom at night cleaning at her commercial businesses.
Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the Real Estate industry? If you can please share a story or example.
Real estate changes every day. Even when you do 1,000 transactions, you think you’ve done them all and then you see something new that you’ve never seen before. It requires you to really be quick on your feet and analyze and make the right decision. It is never boring. And the best is when you get to have a positive impact on peoples’ lives. We recently had a listing in Paradise Valley, AZ. The client was the mother of a friend. Another dear friend called and said their mom needed to find a house with great views, all one level. And I was like — oh I have one for sale. And they were like are you sure? It had been on market two weeks. My friends came to see it first and loved it. Then their mom fell in love with it. Both the buyer and the seller were women in their late 60s and we were friends with kids on both sides. It’s moments like that when you truly feel like you’re in the right place, doing what you were meant to do, and it feels amazing.
I love seeing our agents experience endless amounts of success in their careers. One of our agents graduated from ASU, joined our company, and now three years later, he bought his first property, and he got his broker’s license. He will probably sell over $10 million this year. Another agent came over to The Brokery 4–5 years ago, and he just bought his second home. He’s now an agent, homeowner, investor, and successful business entrepreneur. He will also do over $10 million this year.
Finally, I’m excited about being able to help owners expand their real estate investment portfolio and benefit from the consistent growth that we’ve seen in the Phoenix market for the last 15 years.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest? Please share stories or examples if possible.
It’s extremely easy to get your real estate license, which often results in having many agents with very little professionalism. It becomes a little too casual of an environment — especially when you are dealing with million-dollar transactions.
I see a lot of ego in the industry — people wanting to be the next TV star vs. understanding the business, how to structure contracts, and running their business like a business.
People often chase transactions instead of creating a business that’s sustainable. That short term mentality is a concern.
There are too many brokerages out there acting like experts and undercutting the market or providing info that is not accurate to the consumer. It’s this type of behavior that led to Zillow getting out of the market.
There is a need to better protect the consumer more. Offerpad and Opendoor don’t even provide sellers’ disclosures.
At The Brokery we highly recommend that within three years of having your license, you get your broker’s license. Continuing education is extremely important. We require business attire and hold people to a higher standard. One agent at a time, we are changing the dynamics of the industry and raising the level of professionalism in this industry.
What advice would you give to other real estate leaders to help their teams to thrive and to create a really fantastic work culture?
Stay true to your model. Hold all agents accountable at a high level. A collaborative work environment is crucial for all agents to grow and develop.
Ok, here is the main question of our interview. You are a “Real Estate Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 non intuitive things one should know to succeed in the Real Estate industry, what would you say? Can you please give a story or an example for each?
- Run your real estate career as a business and stop chasing transactions. As an agent, if you are always focusing on finding the next deal, you are leaving the success (or potential failure) of your business up to fate. If you approach being a Realtor® as a full-time professional and establish a solid business plan, run the numbers to understand your annual profits and losses, budget for expenses, and hold yourself accountable through coaches and mentors, then you are taking control of your destiny and truly gearing up for success. Once you have your systems in place and show up consistently, ready to do the work every single day, then your referrals will start rolling in and the people within your network will take you seriously. In order to be considered a true professional in this industry, you have to act like a professional and do as the professionals would do.
- Keep it “old school” — stop texting and start calling! I come from a generation that did not grow up with cell phones or social media. Email started to become popular when I was in my twenties, but it was still a foreign concept to many. When we needed something done or wanted to connect with someone, we picked up the phone and called them or set up a time to meet for a face-to-face conversation. Now, it’s rare that an agent actually calls you. They would rather send an email, DM, or text to ask people in their sphere for their business. If you can push through the fear of rejection and call the people within your network to set up in-person meetings, you are much more likely to gain their business and close a deal with them. You can get a much better feel for where they are at in their process and essentially “cut to the chase” to find out if they actually want to buy or sell a home with you.
- Your network and sphere of influence are more valuable than your followers on social media. What do I mean by that? Well, don’t get me wrong, social media is cool and a way to brand yourself as a real estate agent, as well as remind people you haven’t spoken to in years that you are in the business of buying and selling homes. It’s a great supplementary piece to help maintain your business in this modern, tech-driven era. However, it’s a passive way of gaining clients and referrals. As I mentioned previously, meeting people in your network face-to-face and calling them on the phone will go much further than someone seeing your face pop up for half a second on their phone before disappearing as they continue to scroll through their Instagram feed and forget about you almost immediately.
- You can never follow up too many times. Keep trying with potential clients until they actually tell you to stop. Unless someone says they are not interested in working with me, I continue to follow up with them. Sometimes this can last for years before it actually turns into a deal, but real estate is a long game. It takes years to build momentum, maintain it, and grow it. Buyers and sellers are often consumed by the emotions, thoughts, and experiences of their own journey, so they are not always able to be up front with us because they are not entirely sure what they want or need and require time to figure it out. All you can do is remain patient, consistent, and offer some type of value. Eventually, it pays off in some form or another.
- You can’t be everything to everyone, so pick a niche and nurture that. I believe in the power of finding your niche and being an expert in a particular geographic area in real estate. Real estate agents will often chase transactions all over town, and it can leave them burned out without a deep understanding of any particular communities or neighborhoods. When a real estate professional lives and breathes a local area, it gives them an advantage in getting their clients top dollar for their homes and becoming the go-to expert on the lifestyle and amenities the neighborhood offers.
Because of your position, you are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I would teach people that humanity should always take precedence over winning and to exercise common sense on a daily basis. We need to get out of the ideology of two political parties opposing each other on nearly everything. With a humanitarian approach and an open mind and open heart, life can be better for everyone.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
@olegbortman on Instagram
Thank you for your time, and your excellent insights! We wish you continued success.
