Latest / NOISE vs SIGNAL by Inman / Building SERHANT.: Founder and CEO Ryan Serhant on AI and the Future of Brokerage

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Building SERHANT.: Founder and CEO Ryan Serhant on AI and the Future of Brokerage · NOISE vs SIGNAL by Inman

0:00
Hey everyone, I had the pleasure of talking with
0:01
Ryan Serhant, an absolute rock star in the real
0:05
estate industry. We talk about a number of different
0:07
things, including a steel cage match between
0:10
him and Robert Reffkin. Who walks out a winner?
0:13
Stay tuned to hear. Hey, everyone. This episode
0:16
is brought to you by Lofty, the agentic AI operating
0:19
system for real estate. Lofty's AI doesn't wait
0:22
to be prompted. It works proactively on behalf
0:25
of your agents to uncover new listing opportunities,
0:29
engage leads, schedule meetings, and drive more
0:32
transactions. Lofty turns every agent into a
0:35
top producer. Visit lofty .com to see how agentic
0:39
AI can put your business growth on autopilot.
0:43
Everybody in the business of home has a pitch.
0:46
Almost nobody gets asked a hard question. This
0:48
show fixes that. Welcome to Signal. I'm your
0:51
host, Inman CEO Tom Bohn. Each week we sit down
0:54
with top producing agents, industry CEOs, prop
0:58
tech founders, and the people shaping the future
1:01
of the business of home. Then we break down the
1:03
week's biggest headlines and decide what's Signal
1:06
and what's Noise. Let's get into it. Hey, everyone.
1:14
My guest built a brokerage from zero to nearly
1:17
a thousand agents in five years, turned a Netflix
1:20
show into a recruiting engine, and just told
1:23
the industry that the whole future comes down
1:25
to two names, Compass and Ryan Serhant. Ryan,
1:29
welcome to The Signal. Really appreciate your
1:31
time today. Thank you so much for having me.
1:34
And we actually crossed on Friday, 2044 agents,
1:38
by the way. 2044 agents. Congratulations. That's
1:41
amazing. Before we get into your incredible success,
1:44
truly in real estate, I need to ask a question
1:47
that's on a lot of people's minds. You start
1:49
as Dr. Evan Walsh on As the World Turns, an evil,
1:53
murderous doctor. How much of the real Ryan Serhant
1:56
is in that role? Oh, gosh. You know, he was incredibly
2:02
ambitious. I think I share in some of Dr. Walsh's
2:07
ambition. But he was ambitious at all costs,
2:10
which is why he murdered a bunch of people and
2:12
then his grandmother killed him. Yes. Which was
2:16
also known in the actor world as being fired
2:20
from a job. That's how they do it. I remember
2:24
getting that script and reading it. And then
2:27
it was like, Evan Walsh takes syringe to the
2:30
chest wrestling with Lucinda, his grandmother.
2:35
And then it's just it. And I'm like, wait, but
2:37
then what happens there? It's like, no, you die.
2:40
Like, OK, but then what about tomorrow? No, you
2:43
know, you die. You're done. What about like no
2:46
more work from like it? It took a second. Like
2:49
it was like a little bit. It was it was shocking.
2:52
It was it was that was a hard one. So my son's
2:55
an actor in the Upper East Side of Manhattan
2:57
as well. How long before he's working for Ryan
2:59
Serhant as a realtor? Listen, I, you know, the
3:02
realtor thing for me was not abnormal. There's
3:06
a lot of people who go into arts, theater, music,
3:10
you name it. And they try to figure out how to
3:14
make money on the side so they can serve. five
3:17
and support themselves and buy ramen and do all
3:20
the things. And if their parents aren't supporting
3:22
them financially, and some are some, you know,
3:26
for me, you looked at my checkbook. Yeah. Then
3:29
you have to get a survival job. You wait tables,
3:31
you bartend, you do all those things. But when
3:34
you're you're you're an artist, a big part of
3:36
what you're doing is selling yourself. So as
3:38
an actor, you're selling your I'm going to rooms
3:40
with people who don't know me. They don't necessarily
3:42
want to know me. They judge me in three seconds
3:45
just based on how I look. And then second four
3:48
and five is the sound of my voice. So I got five
3:50
seconds to change a potentially poor first impression.
3:55
And then I go to try to convince them just using
3:59
the tool that is my human form that I should
4:04
be worth their dollars and their reputation.
4:07
That's hard. And that is an incredible, incredible
4:11
skill in sales. So whether you're then selling
4:14
real estate or cars or insurance, a lot of artists
4:17
move off to sales. And then listen, like I fell
4:21
victim a little bit to, oh, I just paid my rent.
4:25
I'm with one client for the month. Huh? What
4:31
if I did that tomorrow too? Could I pay next
4:33
month's rent ahead of time? That would be insane.
4:39
I don't want to lose this creative. And then
4:41
the power of the cell phone and the power of
4:43
YouTube and Instagram. And then obviously Million
4:46
Dollar Listing. I was able to bring it all back
4:48
together. But to go back to the original question,
4:50
I am nothing like Dr. Evan Walsh IV, the murderous
4:53
doctor. Other than he looked exactly like me
4:56
because I was him. And he was very ambitious.
4:59
He was very ambitious, very ambitious. In fact,
5:01
we're going to drop a photo of you in those days
5:03
here for the thing because we love to share stuff
5:06
like that. So look, I think that once you're
5:09
in the arts, you're always in the arts. So how
5:11
much of you is an actor first, a media mogul,
5:14
or a real estate tycoon? Which one of those is
5:18
the real passion? You know, I'm a leader first
5:20
and foremost. I really enjoy leading people and
5:25
watching them be great. going back to what we
5:29
just talked about ambition i think the people
5:33
who don't like me i think are rubbed the wrong
5:37
way because they don't like my ambition they
5:41
don't like how loud or noisy i might be but if
5:44
they truly understood how many other people underneath
5:48
me win when i win they would realize that it's
5:53
not actually ambition it is unbelievable responsibility.
5:58
Isn't real estate a loud and noisy profession,
6:01
though? Don't you have to be to break through?
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Today, I think I've made that so. But when I
6:08
got into the business, no. And listen, there's
6:11
lots of off -market transactions. There's lots
6:13
of this business that goes completely under the
6:16
radar. I don't think you have to be loud to break
6:18
through. I think you have to do what works for
6:21
you. Like, if I could have at the time. been
6:25
a real estate agent with no platform, I could
6:28
totally have my private life to myself. I could
6:31
just make money and sell homes. I'd probably
6:36
choose that. There's a lot of sacrifice that
6:38
comes personally with doing it the way that I've
6:40
done it. That said, I've been able to move much,
6:43
much, much, much faster doing it my way than
6:46
doing it the other way. So if CBS calls you tomorrow
6:49
and says, hey, Ryan, we really want you to be
6:51
the new tracker. You're our guy. You look like
6:54
the tracker. Let's do it. Yes or no? One, I don't
6:57
know what that is, what tracker is. It's the
6:59
number one show in the country, but okay. Second
7:03
to owning Manhattan, of course. I did email for
7:06
the entirety of the World Cup. I just work. It
7:11
is all I do. So the answer would probably be
7:16
no, but I like experiences. I like opportunities.
7:19
Netflix reached out and said, hey, do you want
7:22
to come do our new reality show based on Squid
7:25
Game with Dylan Efron and Tristan Thompson and
7:28
Mel B from the Spice Girls? And they were like,
7:30
you'd have to come to London for a week. And
7:33
that was in February. And I looked at my calendar
7:36
and was like, I definitely cannot afford a week
7:38
to go play a reality TV game show. But also,
7:41
listen, when you die, they divide up all your
7:46
stuff. The people... who didn't really care about
7:49
you say i'm sorry to the people who did there's
7:52
a procession and then everyone gets in their
7:55
car and goes back to work and slowly but surely
7:58
whatever doesn't fit in the eulogy no longer
8:00
matters so who am i to turn down a cool opportunity
8:05
one of our agents her whole goal of coming to
8:08
work with me and doing content and etc was one
8:11
make money i want to i want to make money i want
8:13
to help people and i really love real estate
8:15
but two if i could ever get on broadway I don't
8:18
know, another place in the new world of media
8:21
where I could be a working professional, but
8:24
also create a personality, then doing it at Serhant
8:27
in a professional way. And she did that. And
8:29
she was just cast on Six on Broadway. And she
8:33
starts, I think, August, in the middle of August
8:35
or something like that. So you will see me on
8:37
Squid Game playing these ridiculous games, running
8:39
for my life, being way more stressed than any
8:41
real estate deal I've ever done, by the way.
8:43
That was emotionally traumatizing. I've got to
8:46
love a lot of your team, the Naples group in
8:48
particular. And you do recruit some wildly incredible
8:51
talent. So kudos to you. Last time you were on
8:54
an Inman stage, you made the very interesting
8:57
comment that said there's only going to be two
8:59
players left in the world. It's going to be Compass
9:01
and it's going to be Serhant. How's that going?
9:04
Great. So far. Do you stand by that still? Yep.
9:09
I think that was like six months ago. Yep. Listen,
9:12
I think you have to, as a brokerage, If you want
9:15
to be in the brokerage business, you have to
9:18
make a decision. You're either empowering the
9:21
property first, and then the person is the byproduct
9:25
to get to the property, or you're empowering
9:28
the person first, and the person is the product
9:32
to get to the property. And it might be the wrong
9:38
decision. I don't know, but I empower the person.
9:41
Like our tech empowers the people. Our brand
9:44
empowers the people. Everything we do, I do this
9:47
as a living. I sell real estate alongside our
9:50
agents. I'm about to, I get off with you and
9:52
I race to the airport and I go to Texas to open
9:55
Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas. All
9:58
with agents, by the way, who were paid so much
10:02
money to go to Compass, who come to us for free.
10:07
I buy $0 of revenue. All 2 ,044 agents who've
10:12
joined us up until last Friday, I don't know
10:13
what it's going to be today, come not for money.
10:17
Because if you come for the money, you stay for
10:18
the money. They come for the opportunity and
10:20
they stay for the results. That's why my GCI
10:22
retention is 99 .2 % amortized over those, what
10:27
has it been, five years that I've been doing
10:28
this. And so we are very, very much about the
10:31
person. I think the brokerage industry. As a
10:34
whole, though, that's why I look at these mergers
10:36
and I'm like, maybe I'm just too dumb to totally
10:40
understand. But I think the industry is massively
10:43
over -agented. I think it's radically underproductive.
10:47
I think the average agent completed 10 transactions
10:51
last year. I don't think that's primarily an
10:54
agent problem. I think it's a market problem.
10:57
I think it is a real estate industry problem
11:00
because we've created an asset class that is
11:03
not infrastructure the way we all think it is
11:06
because we all need to live in a home. But we've
11:07
turned it, we've created it as an asset. But
11:10
I think it's also a broken operating system problem.
11:13
I think the future belongs to fewer. better obviously
11:17
ai powered agents the same way when i got into
11:20
the business early on i was competing against
11:22
agents they didn't know how not to advertise
11:25
in the new york times that is where they would
11:27
get all their their traffic that's where they
11:29
would get all of their open house traffic and
11:32
i was this seems crazy because it was 2008. the
11:36
internet had been around for a long time a lot
11:38
of people had dial up 10 years prior but they
11:40
only used it for email everything else was still
11:43
in paper and i think having Hundreds of thousands
11:46
of people manually pushing paperwork through
11:48
disconnected systems is not the way the future.
11:51
Every other firm I see is a subscription based
11:53
business or it's run by a total wacko. So like
11:56
I don't know who else is who else is out there.
12:01
Also, I am very much and I've said this incredibly
12:05
publicly. I say this to all of our agents and
12:08
I'm in the make money business. I am still trying
12:11
to find a CEO of a real estate company. That
12:14
is also in that business. And which means that
12:17
they're making money somewhere. Right. And it's
12:19
on the backs of salespeople. Give me an example.
12:23
Can you be specific? Give me an example of what
12:25
that looks like. How much money does real make?
12:29
How much money does eXp make? How much money
12:33
does Fathom make? How much money does LPT make?
12:35
How much money does LMNOZ? I don't even know
12:37
what the fuck these companies are make. They
12:39
are subscription -based businesses that want
12:41
to grab market share and they either make money
12:43
on the backs of recruiting or on selling services.
12:46
I've interviewed people at like... I've interviewed
12:48
people at Real. Like right when the CEO of Real,
12:52
he got in trouble for sexual harassment or something,
12:54
or he was dating his own agents or some bullshit
12:56
psychopath stuff. Like a bunch of his people
12:59
like tried to leave. And we're always, sure,
13:01
let's take interviews. Like, so what's it like
13:03
to be at the brokerage? Oh, no, no, we're not
13:05
a real estate brokerage. We're a fintech company.
13:08
The fuck does that mean? Well, we're trying,
13:11
we're finding different ways to make money off
13:13
of our agents. We sell them different services
13:15
and different fees and different this and different
13:17
that. And then they ask me, they're like, how
13:19
do you operate? You're so expensive. Me? I don't.
13:24
I'd rather have a brutally honest agreement and
13:27
conversation with the salesperson who's willing
13:29
to work with us and not secretly nickel and dime
13:32
them forever. And maybe that's just because I
13:36
do this and I know how the business works. Yeah.
13:41
But, you know, a lot of the agents that work
13:44
for us, one, we get a lot of flack because they're
13:46
young and they are. We have agents who are older
13:51
and I love it. So I'm like, great, please, please
13:54
help train these kids who are growing up in the
13:57
industry and they've grown up with me. Yeah.
14:01
And I think there is no better brand platform
14:05
to build an incredible opportunity for yourself
14:08
and for your career. than us, which is why we're
14:11
moving so fast. Less agents, more tech, which
14:14
brings me to your simple platform, which you
14:16
call the DoorDash for work. Tell me a little
14:19
bit about that, but also tell me, is it a productivity
14:22
tool that lets agents do 3x more or is it a way
14:26
to reduce headcount or both? It's a way to reduce
14:29
headcount. I mean, my agent productivity, I think,
14:33
is already the highest. in the industry because
14:36
we don't we don't take agents who do less than
14:38
10 million dollars a year in most states and
14:40
we don't take principal agents who do less than
14:42
50 million a year and i'm not trying to build
14:44
the biggest company to then figure out what to
14:46
do with people i'm trying to build the best brand
14:49
reputation is incredibly important there was
14:51
an agent we just apparently we hired on friday
14:53
one of those 2044 so maybe we're 2043 right now
14:56
who you know i got a dm this morning at 7am from
14:59
somebody screenshotted something awful that this
15:03
person that we just hired, apparently, said to
15:07
a potential client over text. And we immediately
15:11
checked into it, immediately went through it.
15:13
He had a whole defense and he was in the moment
15:15
and he had a rough weekend, this, that, the other.
15:18
100 % fired immediately. One strike policy. I
15:21
don't care. And he does a lot of business, came
15:22
from another big firm, a lot of business. I'm
15:25
like, that's the way you are two days before
15:28
you officially start with me. Imagine the way
15:30
you've been as a human being for the last. 20
15:33
years, let alone for the next two years going
15:36
forward, absolutely not. I think the, you asked
15:41
about simple, not about behavior, but listen,
15:44
I think the last 20 years are about who could
15:47
scale agents and listings. And I think there's
15:49
a lot of firms who are still trying to do that,
15:51
scale agents and listings. I think the next 10,
15:53
at least, we'll see about 20, are about who owns
15:57
the underlying AI layer of that customer journey,
15:59
from first search to final signature. My mission,
16:03
other than just helping people move forward,
16:07
we help our buyers move forward, we help our
16:10
sellers move forward, our agents move forward
16:11
in their careers, our staff move forward, is
16:15
to create, one, the only AI -native real estate
16:18
firm in the country, which we are, but then also
16:21
a platform, which is what Simple is, that automates
16:23
operations, enhances pricing and marketing. gives
16:26
every salesperson the leverage of a full agentic
16:30
support team because technology powers the process,
16:35
but people drive the outcome. And I don't think
16:39
that changes. Do you ever see that product being
16:41
a standalone? You can sell it into other groups
16:44
or is it always the secret sauce that you build
16:46
at? We get asked all the time. Potentially, we're
16:49
releasing Simple 2 in September. It's been a
16:52
huge amount of my... my time and work, but it's
16:57
also just been fun because it's just a different
16:59
part of my brain compared to what I've done over
17:02
a long period of time here. So potentially, yeah,
17:05
I think we have to see how it goes. So you are
17:08
obviously incredibly successful, brilliant, and
17:11
you have an opportunity to advise the CEO of
17:14
Inman of what the hell he should do to make Inman
17:16
the most relevant, high -performing media network
17:20
related to residential real estate. What would
17:22
you tell him? I think you're already doing it
17:25
by doing this because now you'll have this. And
17:28
I think you're banking these episodes before
17:29
you put them out. And so you're controlling narrative,
17:31
which is really important. And you're also connecting
17:34
to the characters that you write about, right?
17:37
News is great if you connect to the characters
17:39
you write about. But if the news now doesn't
17:42
have perspective, then it's just news, you know,
17:45
and you don't need it. So I think you're doing
17:47
a great job of bringing perspective to... a very,
17:52
very respected news brand. And you're also doing
17:56
something. I think we talked about, maybe, maybe
17:58
I can't remember when we first met the first
17:59
time in building out your advisory board. Yeah.
18:02
Like around yourself, you know, it's one of the
18:04
first things I did when I first started, because
18:06
I don't know, I have no idea. Like when we started
18:08
serving at man, like I, I was like, what I had
18:11
to talking to agents in California and Atlanta.
18:14
I was like, wait, how do you do deals? You what?
18:18
Really? So we built a, you know, we built in,
18:22
we continue to update it and this, that, the
18:25
other and advisory board of just great salespeople
18:27
around the country. Now it's around the world
18:30
because of sellit .com. And I think it's really,
18:32
really important. You got to hear from your constituents,
18:35
you know, what they want to see, what they want
18:37
to hear. And I think you're doing a really, really
18:39
great, great job with that. Well, I appreciate
18:41
that. So let's talk about Sell It for a minute
18:43
because I find that really fascinating. You obviously
18:46
have a multimedia approach to everything you're
18:49
doing here. Sell It is a place where people can
18:51
get trained and credentialed. How does that sit
18:53
against the Tom Ferries of the world and some
18:55
of those other players out there? Where do I
18:58
even want to start? I think Tom Ferries is awesome.
19:01
I think he's the man I've known him for a long
19:04
time. I think anybody who devotes their life
19:07
and their career to educating others, I tip my
19:10
hat to you because you could be doing other things.
19:13
I learned a lot from Brian Buffini when I first
19:15
got into the business. I think I still have those
19:17
DVDs somewhere. Sell It, for me, initially, was
19:22
an extension of the book. I wrote Sell Like Sir
19:25
Ant. People bought that thing all over the world.
19:28
It's like, all right, so what do I do? So I did
19:30
a TV show called Sell It Like Sirhan for Bravo
19:32
that ruined my life for four months. And that
19:34
was like, that was an exercise I can't ever do
19:37
again. Like that took me out of selling and that
19:40
hurt that year for me. I'm like, well, how do
19:42
I connect to all these people? Getting hundreds
19:45
of emails a day at that time from people reading
19:48
the book and wanting to work with us. And I don't
19:51
work with these people all over the world. And
19:53
so I guess they could just follow me on social.
19:57
I can add them to my mailing list. I can try
19:59
to save everyone's contact, but how do I create
20:02
a community? And there was no Patreon back then.
20:04
There was, you know, in 2018 and 2019, you know,
20:06
none of these kinds of community apps. It's like,
20:08
okay, so you know what? I really do like encouraging
20:11
people. I do like helping people. I love, dude,
20:14
I love, like I may like get teary eyed, but like
20:19
I, one of our sell it members, Paulina Mattson.
20:21
Okay. She was one of the earliest adapters of
20:24
sell it. you know, back when it was like Serhant
20:26
before it became sellit .com and stuff, you know,
20:29
a mom in Arizona listened to everything we taught,
20:33
like took it all to heart, did the actual work,
20:37
then said, whenever Serhant's got to come to
20:39
Arizona, we were only in New York City. It's
20:42
like, Arizona? What's the temperature? Eventually
20:45
we started expanding. The temperature is hell.
20:48
That's the temperature. We tap on everyone's
20:50
shoulder. She becomes a founding member of Sirhan
20:53
Arizona, one of our founding agents. And she
20:55
just sold two weeks ago now, the single most
20:59
expensive single family home to ever sell in
21:02
the state of Arizona. And like I, that, that
21:07
is the difference between sell it and. everybody
21:10
else. One, it's led by a guy that actually does
21:13
this because when she was doing that deal and
21:15
calling me, you know, we have a broker of record.
21:17
She can call anybody and asking about how, you
21:20
know, different ways to negotiate and what's
21:22
happening in the marketplace right now, not just
21:24
from an educator, but from an operator, from
21:27
an executor. And we are incredibly helpful that
21:30
way. And two, we give people a path towards career
21:35
brilliance here at Sell It and not just scripts
21:39
and information. I think a lot of the real estate
21:42
educators, just like most digital education and
21:47
coaching right now across the board, you see
21:48
this with a lot of these companies, are having
21:50
a really, really hard time in the era of Claude
21:53
and ChatGPT. For 20 bucks a month, you could
21:58
go into an LLM and ask it to coach you. It's
22:02
not the same. It's not. It's wildly different.
22:06
Yeah. It's not. Not. not so far off sometimes,
22:12
but we have great coaches. We have an awesome
22:15
app, a huge community, and there's a ton of referral
22:17
business. And so that's really our community
22:19
angle. So for me, it's content to community,
22:24
to code, that's simple, to commerce, that's the
22:27
brokerage. That is my flywheel and I just spin
22:30
it all day long. It's studios to sell it, to
22:33
simple. to surhand the brokerage and then round,
22:36
round, round. Love the flywheel concept. Absolutely
22:39
love the flywheel concept. Use it all the time.
22:41
You know, one of the things that really fascinates
22:44
me about you, and it shouldn't because obviously
22:45
you're successful and it should be. part and
22:47
parcel to it, but you are incredibly dialed into
22:51
the day -to -day business. I used the example
22:53
of the Naples Fort Myers team and, you know,
22:56
they're talking about how we're getting, we're
22:58
getting DMs and we're getting calls from Ryan
23:00
Serhan at nine, nine 30 at night recruiting us.
23:03
You're not passing this off to your team. You
23:05
are literally hands -on. What is the discipline
23:08
underneath the speed and how do you keep that
23:10
going, you know, with, with, with you at the
23:13
head of it? I have awesome people. I just, I
23:17
surround myself with people that are so much
23:19
better at things than me so that they can make
23:23
me look good. So that, that story, like, you
23:27
know, is, is not just me waking up and saying,
23:30
let me just do all the things. No, it's Yasser,
23:34
Yasser Ponce, who runs the state of Florida.
23:36
It's Tiffany McQuaid in Naples. It's our individual
23:40
leaders and managers and just great people around
23:43
us who are helping guide me. And they coach me
23:47
as much as they coach and work with all of our
23:50
salespeople to sell more and more and more. I've
23:52
got an awesome, awesome team here from finance,
23:56
which I'm very, very close to, to our operations
23:59
team. My chief business officer, Jen Elise, has
24:02
been here. Today, actually, I don't know when
24:04
we're going to air this. Today is Jen's 11 year
24:07
anniversary with us. And that's when I had a
24:11
team. She started in 2015 and then helped us
24:14
start the business. And so I'm incredibly loyal
24:18
to my people, potentially to a fault, but I really,
24:22
really appreciate it because you can work anywhere
24:24
and they just make me better. You know, owning
24:27
Manhattan is without a doubt a recruiting and
24:29
lead gen engine, right? And what happens when
24:32
that gets the call that, hey, sorry, Ryan, we're
24:35
good. We're moving on to something else. Does
24:37
that slow you guys down or can you keep the juggernaut
24:39
moving? Owning Manhattan is like a magazine for
24:43
me. Like it is a ton of work. It's a ton of production.
24:49
And you do this annual magazine and you put it
24:53
out there. And it's there and people are either
24:56
going to read it or not read it. And so it's
24:58
definitely, definitely helpful. But in terms
25:00
of our operations, I think if Instagram shut
25:03
down or TikTok shut down or LinkedIn shut down
25:06
or YouTube shut down, we'd have like a problem
25:09
and we'd have to pivot to whatever the new platform
25:12
would be. Our ability to drive share of voice
25:15
across agent and consumer mindshare 24 -7 across
25:22
social platforms. from Tokyo to Toledo is unlike
25:30
anything that exists in this business. And it
25:33
drives not just lead flow for salespeople, but
25:35
also like real deal flow. You know, I like, you
25:40
know, there's a reason. I mean, I do green screen
25:42
sessions three days a week. I've yet to figure
25:44
out how AI can fix that. I've tried. I've tried.
25:48
It's like robot Ryan. Like, welcome to 123 Main
25:53
Street. And it just is. I'm like, man, I got
25:56
to do this by myself. I have an idea. OK, this
25:59
is going to be the probably the biggest fundraiser
26:01
in the history of residential real estate. OK,
26:03
very media savvy. This is this decision here.
26:06
But you got to tell me two things. Whether you're
26:08
in and who walks away the winner. OK, we go WWE
26:13
style. We do a steel cage match in Madison Square
26:16
Garden with you and Robert Reffkin. Who walks
26:19
out the winner? That shouldn't take that. I like
26:29
Robert too much. I have a good relationship with
26:33
Robert. Unfortunately, I think we'd probably
26:36
just hug it out and then split the proceeds.
26:41
That's probably... That's probably what would
26:43
happen, you know, or we would set up, you know,
26:47
if it's WWE or F, like we'd set up a thing. I'm
26:49
like, all right, so just like kick me in my right
26:52
knee because it kind of hurts. I'll go down hard
26:54
and then we can. You'd script it all out ahead
26:56
of time and walk away with the proceeds. I love
26:59
it. No physical violence for me, unless you come
27:04
at my people and then I will. And then I will
27:07
fight back. I agree. He's a great dude, but that
27:09
would be a fun scenario. So when are we going
27:11
to do owning Fort Myers? Because last time you
27:14
made the comment about Fort Myers being where
27:16
Brooklyn was 20 years ago, my house values went
27:19
up about 5%. So let's do more of that. My God,
27:22
I said something the other day. When was it?
27:24
Or the other month. Bluffton, South Carolina.
27:27
I saw that. And I get equal parts. Thank you
27:32
so much for putting Bluffton on the map and equal
27:34
parts. dare you. I can no longer get a table
27:38
at my favorite restaurant now. I have no pick
27:42
in this battle. I just really appreciate the
27:44
drop growth in Bluffton. I think there's easy
27:46
access to the Savannah airport. And so it's just,
27:48
I think it's, you know, it's a great, and I get
27:50
very excited about Waymo. You know, when we opened
27:52
in San Francisco, one of our meetings was sitting
27:54
there and it's like looking around and all these
27:57
development sites and spots are no longer going
28:01
to be buildings. They've all been bought by Google.
28:03
And they are Waymo parking lots. If Google's
28:06
not buying land for data centers, they're buying
28:09
land for Waymo parking lots. Just like Amazon
28:12
buying land for logistics centers so they could
28:15
get prime and put a toothbrush in your hand in
28:17
two hours. You want to be able to have a Waymo
28:20
outside. You need to have the actual car there.
28:22
And I think the real estate values on the fringe
28:24
become incredibly valuable. So my eye on once
28:30
that comes into your standard car. That is a
28:33
major, major, major game changer. I don't think
28:35
it's too far away. And I actually was in Phoenix
28:38
and did Waymo. And it was it definitely tightens
28:42
you up a little bit, you know, worried about
28:44
it. OK, what's something almost everyone in real
28:47
estate believes today that we're going to be
28:49
laughing about in 10 years and go, wow, we were
28:51
wrong? I could be totally wrong, but I think
28:56
everyone believes that real estate starts with
28:58
search. And. This battle over Zillow and the
29:04
battle over the consumer and the battle over
29:07
search. I think search was solved. I think the
29:12
transaction was not. And I think everyone fighting
29:16
for search is not the battle that I would be
29:20
in. I think consumers can find almost every poem
29:22
from their couch on any platform and they're
29:25
not going to go to one specific place. not just
29:28
going to go to Surhant or Compass or Zillow or
29:30
whatever the heck the next thing is going to
29:32
be, right? They're going to be told where to
29:35
go. Does Google change that? Google's leaning
29:37
in heavily now. Do they change that? Because
29:39
they went on Google. Google was in it before.
29:42
They had their listings there before. What made
29:44
Zillow so powerful wasn't just the data. It was
29:48
the quality and the policing of the data. Like
29:54
you can have all the listings you want. Sure.
29:56
Set up a API like everyone set it up like you
30:00
can do it. You can search anywhere you want.
30:02
But if they're not real or if they're fake or
30:05
if they're messy or if that actually sold already
30:07
or if there's no one on the other side of that
30:09
phone call, like you have one shot with the consumer.
30:13
They're going to try your thing once. Nah, it
30:15
didn't really work. And then they're going to
30:16
go back to what they knew best. That's why it
30:18
was the first time you took your iPhone out of
30:21
that magnetically sealed box and you turned it
30:24
on. You saw the little apple and everything just
30:26
turned on in 30 seconds. You're like, whoa. You
30:32
weren't used to that. So I think the next great
30:35
real estate company, and maybe people just aren't
30:38
focused on this right now, well, it's not going
30:40
to win by showing consumers more listings. It'll
30:42
win. It'll win by actually removing steps. You
30:46
know, I think that listing portal was the defining
30:49
product of brokerage 2 .0. I think that transaction
30:52
layer will be the defining product of 3 .0. OK,
30:57
this is our rapid fire segment of this. I'm going
30:59
to throw out some topics and you're going to
31:01
say whether there's signal or noise, signal or
31:03
noise, one word answer. And then if you want
31:06
to elaborate on why, well, we can talk about
31:08
that. OK, you ready for this? Billionaire bunkers,
31:12
signal. or noise signal signal why is what do
31:16
they what do they know ryan can you hang out
31:18
with these types of people now do i need to tell
31:20
them yeah no it's land maxing no of course you
31:23
know what else are you going to do with your
31:24
money like as a hedge in 2022 we did significant
31:30
land max billionaire transactions everywhere
31:34
around the country and it was it was more of
31:38
a hedge against inflation which is what happened.
31:40
And they were smart, those property values. I
31:42
sold a house in 2021 in Palm Beach for $133 million.
31:46
I think today, maybe it's worth $300 million.
31:50
That was a hedge against inflation. That was
31:52
also land -maxing oceanfront in what is the only
31:56
oceanfront state with the best tax policy. It's
32:03
just that one state. That's it. Texas is good,
32:07
but like... There's not a whole lot of people
32:09
getting excited about the Gulf, you know? Yeah.
32:13
You know, it's... Except for Fort Myers, Ryan,
32:16
right? Fort Myers is great. We were 50 % sold
32:19
to one Fort Myers, by the way. Yes, you are.
32:21
I love it there. I love that. And the Chionis
32:23
is sold to Penthouse. I mean, they crush it.
32:25
They're the best. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay,
32:27
costarhomes .com, mega merger with Zillow. If
32:31
it ever happens, is that signal or is it noise?
32:34
Noise. Absolute noise. Could it happen? Sure.
32:41
I don't think the board of CoStar will let them
32:44
get into the residential space ever, ever, ever
32:48
again. But again, that is a fight for search.
32:50
It's going back to what we just talked about.
32:52
Like, instead of spending all of this money,
32:54
time, and effort on protecting where we've been,
32:58
why not invent something new? Why not build for
33:01
where we're going? Like, why? I just don't get
33:05
it. I don't. I just don't get it. AI will replace
33:09
the agent. Signal or noise? Noise. Noise. Oh,
33:14
it sounds so stupid because it's so obvious.
33:18
But AI doesn't replace the real estate agent.
33:21
It replaces the real estate agent that doesn't
33:23
use AI. That's it. Yeah. The internet didn't
33:26
replace fidelity. It didn't put investment bankers
33:29
out because you could go and invest. What it
33:32
does is it creates more investors. AI, what I'm
33:36
seeing, I'm not seeing a slowdown in the growth
33:38
of agents or opportunity for us. That's why we're
33:41
opening in so many markets. You know, one reason
33:44
why you're seeing the opportunity for more, like
33:48
the barrier of entry was a little bit higher
33:50
prior to. It's a lot of work. Even before social,
33:55
you know, to get into real estate, like you had
33:58
to know people. You had to create relationships.
34:00
And you still have to do that. But now, like
34:03
what we do, I have agents, their entire lead
34:05
flow is through DM. We have agents here who are
34:09
here, but they are based a significant amount
34:12
of their business, I would say like north of
34:13
80 % is all in Asia. They repurpose Serhant branded
34:17
content, put themselves in it. and push organic
34:22
storytelling on Redbook, I think it's called.
34:25
We're the most followed real estate brand in
34:27
Asia and it drives all their leaflet. I mean,
34:31
they make millions and millions of dollars that
34:34
way. So I think it's the agent who uses the current
34:38
technology and they innovate wins over everybody
34:41
else. Okay, last question. We're gonna get you
34:44
to your next meeting. Simple becomes sentient,
34:47
okay? Oh, I hope so. and starts closing deals
34:51
better than you, do you fire it or name it as
34:54
a partner and put its name on the door? It will
34:56
close deals. It will. Oh, 100%. It will. Like
35:01
what I have seen from our engineering team and
35:04
what they've been able to build. And we have
35:06
some of the best minds in the industry that I've
35:09
pulled in part huge credit to our CTO, Greg Chan,
35:14
who spent the first 20 years of his career. Microsoft
35:17
and Amazon. And he is assembled like the Avengers.
35:23
Simple, we'll be able to go from discovery, it's
35:26
not search, discovery to close. And you just
35:30
were never able to do it before because you didn't
35:32
have agentic AI to lead the way. Everything was
35:38
push and start, push and start, push and start
35:41
previously. But yeah, I think so. And I think
35:43
that in 10 years, um five years actually i think
35:47
that'll feel incredibly normal and we will laugh
35:50
at the time when agents do contracts we will
35:52
laugh at the time when you'd have to follow up
35:54
by email with inspectors or with lenders or with
35:56
attorneys and you're coordinating everything
35:59
if you buy a house right now how do you know
36:02
where you are in the point of your transaction
36:03
yeah yeah and then and it's 2026 It's crazy.
36:10
I don't know. Ryan Serhant, a rock star in the
36:14
industry. You still have the best hair in the
36:16
industry and I still hate you for it. So we're
36:19
going to end on that. But we love having you
36:21
and love your involvement and appreciate everything
36:23
you're doing, man. You're the man. Thank you.
36:26
thank you thanks for listening to signal
36:28
follow us on instagram at inman news for more
36:31
conversations and industry insights and be sure
36:34
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36:36
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