Why Most People NEVER Get Rich in Real Estate | Ryan Serhant

0:00 How much success in real estate comes down to timing versus strategy?

0:04 I like to think it's strategy because I I

0:06 like to think that I can't control the timing.

0:08 Like in hindsight, it's all on the timing.

0:11 Like we we started the business in the depths of co great timing at the time.

0:16 Worst timing of all time.

0:18 But looking back, oh wow, that was like really really great timing.

0:21 You get in at the bottom,

0:22 there's no fanfare and you get to just ride the market,

0:25 especially the co housing market all the way up.

0:29 I I try not to focus on timing at all.

0:31 I don't think you can time the market.

0:32 I think people who try to time the market or people who

0:34 also like don't buy convertibles because oh my god it could rain.

0:39 Like that's not a great way to live life.

0:42 So I think if you just have the right

0:43 strategy and you just move forward slowly but surely,

0:46 you'll hit good markets, you'll hit bad markets,

0:48 but at the end of the day, you'll come out on top.

0:50 What does your current portfolio look like now?

0:52 I own real estate in New York.

0:54 Um we buy and we sell real estate as we see good deals.

0:57 Um, a lot of my life has gone

0:59 into building this company over the past five years,

1:02 even though we raised money last year.

1:04 I I have a wealth adviser that that tracks a lot of stuff.

1:08 I have a separate guy that does all my crypto stuff.

1:10 Um, I stay pretty asset light for the most part.

1:14 Do you think that you would have been better off just

1:16 holding all of your real estate as opposed to buying and selling?

1:21 No, not really.

1:22 I'm not like a serial real estate investor either.

1:25 I'm like too in the business, you know?

1:27 I'm on the on the brokerage side.

1:29 When you do it all day long,

1:30 you see good deals and you want to jump on them, but at the same time, like

1:34 I like investing in in other stuff that's not real estate just

1:37 because I spend so much of my life in the real estate business.

1:41 What's your craziest investment that you made?

1:44 craziest investment to the most random investment I

1:48 made um where I've already sold like 50%

1:51 of my position is probably outside of like all the crypto stuff and all that um

1:56 into uh major league pickle ball when it was first formed um went into a team

2:00 with Drew Brees uh LA Mad Drops and that was

2:03 just such a random kind of like really how did you pick that?

2:09 Uh, I just ended up knowing people like I

2:11 just know I have a lot of clients through

2:13 real estate who just do lots of different things

2:16 and it just seemed like a good early opportunity.

2:19 I feel like we all miss early

2:21 opportunities all the time because you're just like, I don't know, I don't know.

2:24 And I didn't really want to miss another

2:26 early opportunity and it's worked out so far.

2:30 Yeah.

2:29 How does it work out investing in buying a pickleball team?

2:32 Just do sports teams people buy they buy and trade

2:34 into shares of said teams or said league all the time.

2:38 Like you don't actually see it all the time, but every NFL, NBA, MLB team,

2:42 NHL team, like very rarely are are the teams just sold to a new billionaire.

2:48 A lot of times they'll say you 10% for a billion.

2:51 A lot of this, that, the other.

2:52 I have a friend who works at a major major private equity firm

2:55 and they're doing a $3 billion financing of one of the major teams right now.

3:00 And you'll you probably never read about it.

3:02 And so it's it's tax efficient and um uh people buy into it like

3:07 hey I want to buy 50% of that team I'll keep everybody wholeah and

3:11 that's what Patrick bad David did.

3:15 Yeah and there's a huge tax incentive.

3:16 My understanding is that you could bonus

3:17 depreciate quite a bit of a sports team.

3:20 I'm not exactly sure how it works but basically almost your entire

3:23 investment could be written off and then deferred quite a bit.

3:27 You guys should buy a sports team.

3:29 What's the minimum?

3:30 What sports team should we buy?

3:30 And yeah, what how much do you need?

3:32 I should go into like uh intramural soccer.

3:34 Like maybe volleyball indoor soccer team.

3:37 We would invest indoor soccer.

3:38 I do.

3:38 Yeah.

3:39 There's a game tonight actually.

3:41 Are you on the team?

3:42 I'm on the team.

3:42 Should we invest in you?

3:43 Is Is that basically what you're asking for?

3:45 Well, if you want to throw money at me,

3:47 you know, maybe I'll get a goal, maybe I won't.

3:49 Probably win, but probably not.

3:52 Okay.

3:52 We're not very good.

3:52 I think we only have some winners over here.

3:54 This is our second season.

3:54 I think we've won one game.

3:56 Really?

3:57 Keep it up there, buddy.

3:58 It's gonna be any day now.

4:00 Yeah, we'll see.

4:01 It was like me playing sports when I was in school.

4:04 Like one day, Rhino.

4:05 So, how much how much do you need then to buy a picture?

4:08 I mean, everybody, you know, at that time um uh it was cheap, man.

4:12 It was I mean those teams were a million something like that.

4:16 Today, they're far far more expensive as the leagues have just grown.

4:20 But at the same time, I mean everything's a sport.

4:22 Like everything can be can be traded.

4:24 I I maybe I mean the craziest is like I there is a meme of me for million-dollar

4:30 listing years ago and I think this was 2013 and a guy said I'll buy it for you.

4:36 Um please present my offer $9 million in Bitcoin

4:39 in 2013 and the seller said are you crazy?

4:43 Never present that type of offer.

4:44 That's monopoly money.

4:45 Never do it.

4:46 I think it's like $2 billion today.

4:48 Something like that, right?

4:50 Um uh so do you still talk to that the seller?

4:54 Uh yes, I do still talk to that seller here and there,

4:57 but you have to understand where the world was at that time, like in 2013.

5:01 And it wasn't so much him saying no to Bitcoin.

5:03 It was he has a mortgage and he had like a $5 million

5:07 loan with JP Morgan who was never going to take Bitcoin as a payoff.

5:12 So, what do you do?

5:13 Like, you can't actually do anything.

5:14 Um anyway, we sold it using, you know, real money at the time.

5:18 Um uh and then I had a friend who is

5:21 a big crypto trader who I always thought was crazy

5:24 and he convinced me to go heavy into Bitcoin when it

5:27 was at 3,000 and then again when it was at 16,000.

5:31 Um and those will probably forever be my greatest

5:35 investments of all time and those will just be

5:37 pelled on a cold wallet and I'll bury them

5:40 in a treasure chest and Morgan Freeman will find them.

5:43 What are those crypto people saying now?

5:45 Do they ever give you tips and say like, "Hey, now is a good time to sell?"

5:48 No, not yet.

5:49 Not yet.

5:50 Not yet.

5:51 Um, uh, I don't I don't spend a whole lot of time on it now.

5:55 Um, but nothing recently that like jumps out to me.

5:58 No.

5:59 Are there any other tips though that you get just being around such wealthy

6:02 people that maybe you're on a a private jet with a billionaire who's saying,

6:06 "Hey, by the way, we're going to be going heavy in this area.

6:09 Here's I think that there's a term for that.

6:11 I I don't know insider trading to say, hey, we're planning a development here.

6:16 Just like, you know, I like this.

6:18 I'm going heavy in oil this month.

6:20 Yeah.

6:20 I mean, I hear some of that stuff here and there.

6:22 A lot of our clients are private equity and they end up controlling the markets.

6:26 Like, you know, we we buy and sell homes for lots

6:28 of lots of those guys and they they they're market movers,

6:32 right, with what they can do.

6:33 Um I remember distinctly being with a couple people who uh

6:37 when it was called machine learning AI was a major investment

6:42 and this is pre-Chat GPT roll out 3 years ago um

6:45 and talking about a little company that was a nonprofit called OpenAI.

6:49 I remember that conversation distinctly.

6:51 I mean that was that was a bit over my head at the time.

6:55 Um and they were really really kind of bullish on what was going to happen.

6:58 Also into Google, you know,

6:59 like um uh also with like self-driving cars like Whimo is just Google.

7:04 Those are just Google cars, right?

7:05 Just branded as Whimo.

7:07 Um I remember those conversations too.

7:09 Listen, I think the the future is

7:10 in probably generative AI applications across the board.

7:15 Um uh uh amongst amongst other things.

7:19 Real quick, how many times have you actually

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7:25 it's complete panic because I have way too

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7:31 Me telling you that it's been a game changer is a complete

7:34 understatement because I cannot tell you how many times I've lost my wallet.

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