 Follow-up emails and all that and I still do the doorknob, you know, I still do the cold calling. I still really Yeah, yeah, like for example, like I never stopped, you know, I have like 80% of my business is referrals Yeah, you know 8085 is is referrals and everything else and through social media But I don't stop the basics, you know the basics continue growing your business What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of road to 10,000 10,000 agents if you guys are wondering. I'm with my guy Juan Carlos. I'm not even gonna try to say his last name And we're with our buddy here Roop, what's up, buddy? What's up, man? How you guys doing? Thank you Ricky and Juan for having me on It's an honor. Thank you guys. Yeah, a hundred percent man. Where are you? Where are you located here in New York, Westchester, New York? Nice nice. Oh man. Yes, sir. Well, yeah, you know just tell us a little bit I guess man. I mean, I just found out you're one of the top remax agents in the world. So Tell us a little bit about what you do man, how long you've been selling and kind of what you're into So I've been in the business for seven years now. I started seven years ago a funny story I tell a story all the time. I went to college to become a doctor, you know, a typical Indian story my background I am Indian, you know follow your culture follow your values and I kind of took the opposite road But I'm glad I did because it was a very successful road even though it has its bumps like every other road, right? I'm so, you know been in business for seven years. I'm an investor as well. I flip homes. I develop houses I work with a lot of investors myself and yeah, man So seven years and this is where I'm at, you know, and the first quarter so far 2021, you know I already closed about 15 to 20 million dollars, you know on the road to do about a hundred million Practically, you know, I have a team as well, you know, I have not really a team But I have like another agent that works for me a buyer's agent slash listing agent And then I have a transaction coordinator and assistant Roop, you're pretty young for the for the people listening on the podcast. You can't see him How old are you? I'm 28 years old. I started when I was 2021 around that age right right right in college and then when I when I graduated That's when I decided hit what the hell am I doing? I am not gonna become a doctor, you know Bio chem degree now. I got a real estate degree by just learning on the go Yeah, man, we share that in common. I have a bio degree as well and I'm putting it to good use selling real estate, right? Exactly, exactly. What kind of properties do you sell up there? What's your niche? So when I started then you said I had was it was more single family and multi-family houses out in the Bronx And Westchester County the average price point at that point at that time was 300 to 500 now We're in 2021 prices have increased as you know market is absolutely crazy You know now the price point that I'm working at is starting around like 600 and more a single family house But I've now dominated the luxury market. So I've hit the luxury market really hard in Westchester County I told myself in 2021. I was nothing but million dollar homes and that's what I've been doing so far So, you know knock on what has been going well, you know, my volume is the game, right? That's why I always say yeah Wearing a business where it's predominantly dominated by older agents, right? You go into your neighborhood and you have some agents I've been selling there for 20 25 years. How are you competing with these agents who own so much of the market share and have been there for agents? So that's a good question Like, you know, a lot of people do ask me that like, you know, especially in the luxury market, you know You have people have been living in these neighborhoods like they're the wives are like home state like stay home moms, you know But their their husbands are builders or they're in like in the hedge fund world Especially here in Westchester. The way I've been dominating that market is by like social media man I've been I've been hitting the social media very very hard people in my neighborhood like people in the area in Westchester County Now that the generations have changed is a lot become a younger dominance, you know, they have found me there You know, it's like it's funny like I'm gonna tell you guys a story 1090 ma marinec avenue that I just sold in white planes New York for a million three fifty the way they found me Was because of their daughter and their daughter found me through Instagram, you know And their daughter said listen This is the guy you need to list your house with and I went on with three other agents, you know I went with Julia B. Sotheby's from like she's a top agent in their office doing nothing but luxury A compass agent and then a hula hands Lawrence agent that's out here That's really top in the luxury market, but they want me because I'm a lot younger I dominate the social media market and the way I just I guess market these homes It's not your typical to throw in the MLS, you know or do like your post the postcards I didn't know there's a just listen just sold in the neighborhood So they really really like that and I got the house sold in the day. So which was awesome. What's your favorite platform? Um, Instagram Instagram Instagram for the younger people um, and then for fate like the younger crowd I would mean by like 18 to like 28 and it's funny though when I say ricky you just made the cutoff man I'm still in the game, bro The reason I say that and people they people laugh at me why you target like the 18 year olds is because they have a huge Decision making when it comes down to with their parents, you know They kind of like talk to them and tell like listen like stop taking like these senior citizens and Try and get the your home sold when you want the most money got to hire someone young And this is the person to go for and then facebook is more for like the 30 and up, you know And I dominate the facebook world as well lengthen. Um, I use lengthen but more for like just networking Um, I don't really try to sell myself on lengthen and I you know, I try tiktok man I don't know like i'm verified on tiktok and all that. I just don't use it I don't know. I just can't get into it. I don't like dancing. I don't think I could do the whole dancing thing Shout out to john lahara though He's crushing it on there. Yeah killing it killing it killing it. Yeah 100 man. Yeah, all the different platforms So yeah, I mean i'm on every platform. I'm with tiktok I just kind of like repurpose other content and just kind of dump it there I did get kind of like focused on it for a second and I had some videos You know do some cool things and I got up to you know, almost 100,000 followers and stuff But like yeah, I just work creativity on that end Yeah, you have to like use the app and like get really into and spend a lot of time on it That's the thing you gotta spend a lot of time on that one to really make it work And I don't really have a lot of time so but it's a good place to just dump some content So I got some guys that are making some really good content for me and you know I put it there and you know it it gets some views and I'm kind of like whatever It's just another place to do something and kind of try to yeah, that's what I did You know, that's what I did like that's why I have like my own media team You know like I have my own videographer photographer that kind of like follows me around He's on salary base and I decided that I need that I think that's a very big thing and that's a value that brings my agents that join the team as well Right because they struggle with the whole content creating things, you know, I'm good with the ideas But you need somebody shooting you at all times that can help you manage that, right? So that's why I have Steve my guy that works with me. He does all my content creating We have a whole list every week. I use YouTube now I'd actually start getting paid from YouTube, which is awesome I started vlogging on there talking about real estate talking about lifestyle and showing Show casing my properties, which is awesome So it's definitely been a benefit on using YouTube as well I think YouTube is probably one of like the underrated platforms till this day Because now a lot of people try to dominate that right and once I got control of it and understood it And try, you know, creating really quality content It kind of sold, you know, so I'm continuing doing that as well by putting blogs out there every week Check me out if you haven't loop sing Subscribe and like That'll be awesome I think uh, we'll put your we'll put your YouTube and all your stuff in the in the description and stuff, but Like uh, like YouTube for me It makes a lot of sense for like a market like yours, right where like it's a huge market. I'm in Alabama Okay, by the way, like nobody's nobody's rushing to move to Alabama and stuff like the people moving The people moving in my market are already in Alabama. They're just moving from one part of the state to the other Uh, so like I don't know that like the youtube thing. I think it's great for the bigger cities Right because people are searching. There's a lot of traffic Like houses in new york or in west, right? Yeah, and had nor la or miami And so you have a lot of traffic. Uh, I you know, I got a big YouTube channel for my coaching But I have a little channel for like real estate too and I tried that I went that route for a little while I just couldn't quite crack the code because there's just not enough traffic of people searching for properties in my market Kind of deal But what I want to do is kind of understand Before one takes this whole thing a different direction Like social media people are always like agents really want to know like what like how do you crack? How do you hack that? How do you crack the code for like what exactly? You know, do you do uh to build your business on a social media platform to where you're actually getting Leads you're actually closing deals like are you running ads are you know, okay? You want to you're a new agent you want to you want to build your business on social media? So you make a post right and then what? saying like that so um I kind of tell I kind of tell this to a lot of people that enter the business is like you know people people get confused when they When they think about instagram like they say hey, I got to keep posting houses or I got to just Say for sale for sale for sale for sale and honestly speaking that becomes very tiring Right a lot of people don't even want to see that what they do want to see Is you you know, they want to see like your personal lifestyle They want to see who you are you need to mix it up. So I recommend posting three times a week Um, and if you're posting your your homes for sale, I recommend doing that But I honestly would do it just on my story. I wouldn't really focus that on my feed If you have a business page And it's strictly just say for example like the legacy group, which is my team's name on that page alone I'll just post my listings, but on my personal page I'll post what I'm doing on a daily basis what listing appointments. I'm going on How many how many homes I'm showing and this is all on my story base You know, so when you're posting a post you want to be able to make a description That you could connect with your audience So I think it's really coming down to who your audience is So that way they can keep interacting with you Because they're going to see your success no matter what right? So instead of just saying hey for sale this for sale that Showcase a little bit about yourself showcase like who your family is showcase what you like You know where you go showcase the city that you live in You know, I think that really helps because that shows people like listen this guy is not just You know a typical realtor. He's not just a salesy person. You know, he's actually a family man He's actually like he has a he has a life, you know, and honestly, that's how I've been connecting a lot because all my all my clients Every single client out of 34,000 people that follow me on instagram Um, you know, I would say half of them are my clients and they and I reach out to all of them Like when they go on vacation, you know, I call them and I'm like, hey, I just saw you went to Italy How was it blah blah blah like and like now you're connected with these people on a personal basis And and it's helping You know and um, and it's not a just and now you go into a conversation. They're like, oh, you know what roop It's funny that you called me I actually have a lead that's like or I have somebody like a friend or family member is looking to sell You know or buy, you know, so it just kind of picks up you pick up leads that way without actually trying to pick them up Yeah, we see more and more where agents are just posting just sold just sold on their personal page And it kind of makes them look like someone's managing their account or their robot So it's a variety in their lifestyle. But what I'm saying is is like what I'm saying is is like if you have zero followers You're a brand new you just started your page If you run stories and you post three times a week and all that stuff and you're getting like five likes a picture And you know, I'm saying like you really know engagement like how do you you're sitting here saying, okay I'm posting for sells on my story. I'm posting cool things in my post now. What you know, like I'm So yeah, you can definitely You could definitely pay for the ads on instagram and pick like I would use like the marker Like where your area is in a 30 mile radius or like if there's a if there's a certain niche They are like a market that you want to tap into so for example, I'll give you an example in westchester county Scarsville, new york, right? I'll put I'll drop a pin there And I'll say I just want to market it to that radius, you know So that that way people continue to see it and a lot of people get like baffled like they're like they get scared Like oh, I'm going to spend so much money For them to see and honestly, you don't you could spend 10 dollars a day or 15 dollars a day, you know Until you start seeing more traction you see you start seeing more leads and you could spend more and more money You know, so when you're spending this money, what's the goal? Like you spend the money. They see the post Honestly, get your folks get get get your face out there. Get your face out there I think that's the most important thing people my my biggest fear is that I don't want anyone ever contacting me Saying hey rup, do you still do you still sell real estate? That's like my biggest fear in the business when when that happens I feel like you should even be in the business anymore You know because then you're just not doing what you need to do and that's selling yourself, right? So People should always when they see, you know one and they see one they could they should only be connecting one to real estate You know when they see me, they should only be connecting me to real estate and you yourself as well, right? um, my question is gonna say man I'll just say ricky like you with you like I wanted to ask you like when I when I when I searched you up and everything And want to tell me I'm hopping on this podcast and everything which is I first of all again. Thank you so much for having me on Um, how did you do it? You know like you were the number one agent? I don't think even at that time social media was like such a big thing You know, I guess when I got in the business Yeah, when I got in the business it was 2002. I was 20 and uh, there was no facebook or anything nothing YouTube wasn't even around like this was back in the caveman like dark ages and stuff and There was barely mls literally barely mls The guys before me the the older guys were telling me how they had to like There was this book that came out every month and that was literally their mls They wedded on that book and by then half the stuff was sold But that was how they kind of kept up with what's for sale But they networked with each other like they would tell each other what had they had coming up And all the agents would kind of have this networking group. They would call when they had listings and stuff But um mls was like a game changer like mls What you don't understand is brazil is 30 years behind us technologically like they have they don't even have county records They don't even know what's sold for what? You know the agents that sell stuff They hold that to their chest because they don't they want to that information is like gold to know what something sold for and To comp something out, you know i'm saying like uh like south africa no mls like you don't realize mls I know you talked about how i'll just put on mls. No mls is like The reason why i'm able to sell 100 properties a year to be honest with you if i wasn't one of these other countries You know i could probably do it, but man would it be tough right mls indicates to everybody And so you know got to be appreciate where we are man to be in america to be in the real estate industry where we are But to answer your question if for me it was all phone calls direct mail and email that's all i could do That's all there was to do you know and then because of that And the fact that my space came along and basically Didn't work You know i kind of ignored facebook because it was like okay. Here's another my space And then i kind of i know i ignored it literally for like A decade You know i'm saying and yeah i just continue to make calls and do my direct mail and do my email And what i realized was my weekly email that i do It was really the foundation of everything that i still do with my real estate business now I have a business where i've built such a brand That in 2017 i quit doing everything but the weekly email and i still knock down 100 deals every year just passively through repeats and referrals and referrals or referrals so Everybody has their own journey man of like how you do it and You know, um, you know what strategies work for them and what their strengths and weaknesses are You just got to do what works for you and do it at a high level You know and build that database up. So like you when you get a lead in everything What You know, what do you do? To to continue to grow that brand like do you do anything outside of social media? Yeah, so um social media is just an add-on i go back to the basics You know i started with the basics So i have a i still use top producer I know people laugh at me when i use top producer like what the hell you're using but i haven't changed it Um, so when i get a lead in for example and to keep following up with them I have like their date of birth their their home anniversary their emails their phone number And i keep them in a plan so For example, if i had like a great conversation with you And i sold the house to you and we and we did awesome I'll put you in a gold plan and if i did you know what like i'm gonna stay in touch with you every two months You'll get like a weekly email for me or like a every other month like an email for me This is about random things like my newsletter and etc telling you about the market And then if i had it like a great relationship with you But it probably wasn't like you know, I feel like you're the type of guy There's like to be bothered all the time, you know I have you in a silver plan right and that silver plan would stay in touch with you every three to six months You know and it would like reach out to you for your birthday your home anniversary your kid's birthday and etc And then the the last plan is a bronze plan like I like we I sold your house You and I still like each other, but I know you don't you like that type of person like listen I'm don't keep selling me like I'm I got you you know type of thing I reach out to like every eight months or every seven months, you know like or every four months You know like depending on the person so Um, I have this I have all these plans in my in my crm and I continue to do that follow-up emails and all that And I still do the door knocking, you know, I still do the cold calling. I still really Yeah, yeah, like for example, like I never stopped, you know, I have like 80 percent of my business is referrals Yeah, you know 80 85 is is referrals and everything else and through social media But I don't stop the basics, you know the basics continue growing your business, you know like cold call I cold call my marketplace. So for example, like You know, it's funny like I call I cold call like What I did in the pandemic was I went to the pizzeria like the local pizzerias And I I took all their gift cards, you know, and I bought like tons of gift cards And I went through my entire neighborhood and I dropped off all these gift cards say hey I've been around me because nobody was getting out everyone was staying home You know and in that in that area like for example, I got maybe like 300 to 500 people that responded back within a year Saying thank you so much, you know, and I would cold call back. I'll cold I would cold call them You know, I still I still cold call my expires the fizz bowls the first for sale by owners the expire list Um, and I I tell my team the same thing. I tell them like listen I like door knocking cold calling sending your mailers they always work You always go back to the basis because I always say you don't need to you don't need to keep reinventing the wheel The wheels are already invented for you And listen that that was a smart idea because those people will never forget you as the guy who said hey This guy got me a free pizza. I'm gonna call him for anything real estate as opposed to the other person What do you do for us? You know so pretty smart move Yeah, and I was and I always follow up with them, you know till this day, you know Like my family they own Indian restaurants, you know So like I didn't they like I it's funny because when I reach out to him Hey, do you guys like Indian food and I'll say 99 percent of the same people say yes, you know I'm like all right great like getting around me, you know And like they love that, you know, and they they always call me like hey like I just got a lead in large month That's a two million dollar house for me just saying hey go to my family's restaurant Or go to my friend's restaurant, you know and have dinner on me type of thing So just like you have to think outside the box in order for you to in order for you to gain something You have to give something right you can always just ask ask ask you have to give as well And I and I highly believe in that so That's awesome and guys let's let's go back to the whole topic with uh MLS's and and property exposure like outside of the us What do you guys think is the future of global MLS's you think that's a reality sometime in the future? No time soon. No time soon. I don't think so. I mean you'd have to be My goodness. I mean because you have to understand the infrastructure you have to have in place You have to have a code of ethics that people buy into Then they're going to stand by this code of ethics because it means that when you get a listing It's mandatory that you put it in MLS Otherwise you don't have an MLS people are you know I'm saying it's not really an MLS And so you have to have a code of ethics that everybody lives by In those particular countries and then you have to have brokerages actually buy into that code of ethics And want to spend the money to be part of this organization That's going to hold this and and run this I mean you talking about some serious. I mean it's not like okay We're just going to do a global website and people can just put their listings on there It's not the same thing. You know what? I mean There's a code of ethics behind it and I think that's the part of the puzzle Because I was like I went to brazil and I really this is when I first realized this I went there and spoke at our forum brazil And I and I realized this and I was like wow what an opportunity You know to build an MLS for them or all kinds of technological things you could do over there And the more and more I got to thinking about and talking to agents. I was like there is out there. I mean It would be like a lifelong mission You know To put that together. That's my thoughts I agree about it. We don't even have a national MLS like everything is so subdivided So it's like yeah, it's not enough to do over here imagine over there I think but but I think I think maybe in the future It might not be a global MLS, but I think like the major cities of world would have a MLS like they can all sell from like new york la Uh florida, you know, like I feel like those three big say especially in the united states Um, you know, I think and even even in like like say for example, like london or canada, you know, like I feel like we might have like those type of like MLS is like as one But I don't see having like a huge global MLS like if you want india or china or like brazil in it. I don't that's never gonna happen There's too many rules But I feel like everything else like the major cities of the world that sell a lot of real estate and they're we're always talking about it I feel like one day in the future that will happen, right? Because right now I do a lot of off market Right and there's things like You don't need to necessarily put it on the MLS to sell You know, but I have I guess I there's like there's like people coming with apps like crazy that you can join You could throw an off market listing on there. It could be an agent out in la saying hey Oh, I see you have this crazy listing. I have a buyer for you. I'm gonna send them your way I don't give me a 25 or 30 percent referral fee, you know so That that's working right now, you know, like there's a thing called pocket listings You know, I throw some of my stuff on there, you know Just because if I can't throw in the MLS come out of my like sellers like listen I don't want it on the actual MLS, you know For whatever reason that they may they might have but you it doesn't mean you can't sell it off the market So when I see things like that, I'm like, oh, maybe this could happen And uh, like and for example, like the three four major cities of the world or something like that Um, those are just my thoughts but I look at instagram. Instagram is your world MLS, you know, like You know, that's I look at that you build a big enough following and enough agents follow you worldwide. Boom. You got it right there It's all exposure, you know, like look at you like you have a great page, you know, like the gold bar luxury homes page It's like crazy. You're selling What 200 like 200 500 thousand dollar cars even it's not even houses at this point, you know You're selling everything luxury That's the beauty of social media You could basically build your own syndicator or your own platform To expose anything you want to the world. So that's awesome and listen rup. Thank you so much for coming on today What's the best way for people to actually get in contact with you and reach out to you? Uh, follow me on instagram. I am rup sing Um, and on facebook at rup sing. So anything really might win my name on it, you know So, uh, I'm kind of like the only rup sing that's kind of out there on instagram and stuff So it's not really hard to find so and thank you so much for having me on guys. I really really appreciate your time Yeah, yeah for sure man. Enjoy chatting with for a bit. Let's stay in touch. Yeah, we'll definitely talk guys. Thank you so much All right guys talk soon. Take care. All right. Bye