New Realtor Networking Tips, First Listings, and Atlanta Market Opportunities | Akeem Raji

Akeem Raji (00:00)
Well, aside from network events, I would tell people to focus on building relationships, right? Some people network and they meet people and then that’s the last you hear from them. They’re just hoping, hey, hopefully they give me a call. They remember me. No, people remember a person who’s in their face. They remember a person who they can trust that has great ethics, you know? So building relationships is the most important part in this field. I feel that if somebody can trust you, they’re always gonna go with you.

Dylan Silver (02:01)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Akeem Raji is a realtor in the Metro Atlanta market for the last three years, and he made a transition from corporate and music into real estate. He’s also working on a program mentoring new agents and investors. Welcome to the show, Akeem.

Akeem Raji (02:17)
Thank you, I’m glad to be here.

Dylan Silver (02:19)
Now, when we talk about getting into the real estate space and then building your brand and your book of business, you know, it’s not always easy transitioning from one career into another, specifically from corporate into real estate. How did that come about for you?

Akeem Raji (02:35)
Well, it’s something that was always in the back of my mind. We’re doing corporate and also pursuing a music career. I had family members who were into real estate. I had an uncle that had a couple properties. ⁓ Even with speaking with my father, he has real estate overseas. So it’s something that was always in my mind. But working corporate, sometimes you can get stuck in that rut of that nine to five and being a W-2 person, that’s what I call it, versus a 1099. ⁓

kind of just a little bit intimidated about the field. I just didn’t think at the time I was able or ready or I just had the capacity to do it because I had so much going on. But I took that leap of faith back in 2023 and I was like, listen, I’m gonna go for it. See my uncle do it. I see a couple of colleagues that I know that’s getting into the space and being very successful. So I was like, why not take a chance?

Dylan Silver (03:28)
I’ve

had

the similar jump that I made, know, talk about going from W2 into real estate. And no one really talks about logistically how to do this. You know, do you burn all the bridges and quit your job? You know, do you take your real estate courses and try to find a way to do it? You know, for me, it started out wholesaling and I got a job, another W2 job in the wholesaling space, but that was my pathway into real estate. How did you manage that bridge from corporate into real estate?

Akeem Raji (03:59)
Well, it was step by step. It was gradual. ⁓ Obviously, I kept my job, but I went ahead and took my classes. I took a four-week course. I think it was four- to six-week course to get my license. After I get off work, I would go straight to class. I would study. ⁓ And eventually, when I got my license, I just went ahead and just started getting out in the field, calling people. And I was part-time at first. And then gradually, I started getting better.

getting more confident under my wings and then just learning more about the industry.

Dylan Silver (05:18)
What

was that first ⁓ listing for you? How’d you find the first one?

Akeem Raji (05:23)
I found it through a colleague teaming up. Once again, collaboration is the key. If you’re a new realtor, make sure you collaborate. Don’t feel like you have to know everything, you know? ⁓ It’s all a learning process. It’s fun. Make sure you collaborate and get a mentor. So that’s how I got my first listing, really, through my first colleague. We had a class together. ⁓ He’s selling his personal home, and then he said, hey,

You’re the only person I really want to be with me on this journey. I trust you say let’s team up and market this listing. So yeah.

Dylan Silver (05:57)
I’ve seen this strategy work in a number of different ways. And I only recently learned about co-listing. And I think that this could be a great thing because especially for agents who are just getting started, and you kind of don’t want to be alone on the journey, but also too, I’ve seen this. don’t know if you’ve seen this, Akeem. I could almost gift wrap a referral to someone and they might not take it if they don’t want to work with someone that’s not a friend or family. They want that closeness before just taking on a new client. But if I have something under a listing agreement myself,

Akeem Raji (06:20)
Right.

Dylan Silver (06:27)
you know, the legwork done of the paperwork, they might say, okay, well, let me just hop on there.

Akeem Raji (06:31)
Right, correct. That’s exactly how it worked out. ⁓ And then off of that, I got my first two clients probably last year. My first closing was last summer and then I had another one three months after that. Now it’s all through a sphere of influence. Word of mouth is probably your biggest bet in this business. Of course, you wanna build your clientele by things like cold calling, putting yourself out there, marketing.

doing open houses, just going to different networking events, passing out your business cards, and just getting familiar with the people. So it’s a lot of things that go into it.

Dylan Silver (07:06)
Now, when we talk on a granular level about what is networking, and you mentioned sphere of influence, a lot of people using those terms these days, I’ve seen as well that people can get caught up in being on Zoom calls or going to an event, but it’s not translating into business. You’ve of course done the networking, and we’re talking here now on the show, but it has translated into business for you.

What granular steps did you take and might you advise others to take so that those networking events that people are doing translate into dollars?

Akeem Raji (07:41)
Well, aside from network events, I would tell people to focus on building relationships, right? Some people network and they meet people and then that’s the last you hear from them. They’re just hoping, hey, hopefully they give me a call. They remember me. No, people remember a person who’s in their face. They remember a person who they can trust that has great ethics, you know? So building relationships is the most important part in this field. I feel that if somebody can trust you, they’re always gonna go with you.

Dylan Silver (08:10)
Yeah, mean, 100%. I think one of the trickiest things about being a newer agent is for a good reason, sometimes people have this imposter syndrome feeling, well, why would someone give me the business here? But I think that’s where when we talk about co-listing, this comes into play because if you did the legwork to go find someone who does need to list their property or needs someone help representing, you can at least be the bridge and someone else on your team

Akeem Raji (08:15)
Mm-hmm.

you

Dylan Silver (08:40)
or in your brokerage who may have more experience but doesn’t want to go facilitate the entire relationship.

Akeem Raji (08:47)
Right, I agree with that. So, go ahead, I’m sorry.

Dylan Silver (08:50)
Now,

when we talk specifically about this idea of then going from that first listing to then scaling up in the business and people have these goals, hey, I wanna sell 10 homes, hey, I wanna sell 20 homes, hey, I’ve sold 20, now I wanna sell 40, you’re along that path and you’re in the on-ramp into a budding career in the real estate space. What has been some of the biggest bottlenecks for you that you’ve overcome in this timeframe?

Akeem Raji (09:52)
⁓ I would say the biggest bottleneck is the market and the economy. ⁓ It’s been a big deciding factor of people who want to buy and people who want to sell. Obviously, we know the interest rates are extremely high right now, and it’s a lot of uncertainty. So many things are going on. We got the war. We got this gas prices going on. So I would say trying to combat that is just really talking to the folks and educating them their opportunity.

you know, and coming at it from the standpoint, hey, listen, you have this much equity in the home. You’ve been here for 10, 20 years. It’s a lot of equity. You can use this and move on into another property or just moving on to buy another investment property or, you know, there’s a lot of opportunity and distress properties as well. Build it up, put it out there, rent it out. Short term rentals are big thing now. So I give them, I educate them on so many levels of real estate, not just buying and selling, but

different opportunities they can come as far as coming in as an investor or turning it into a business as well. So, and there’s a lot of programs out there. There’s down payment assistance. There’s a lot, yeah, you know, especially for first time home buyers, there’s a lot of incentives that a lot of new constructions are giving away to buyers to, you know, encourage them to buy more homes. I don’t know if people know about this, but a lot of new construction companies and builders are buying loans and buying down the loans.

Dylan Silver (10:59)
EW

Akeem Raji (11:18)
and to where you can get a buy down, where opposed to buying a home at the 6 % rate that it’s at right now, you can get it at four or even lowest 3%.

Dylan Silver (11:28)
Yeah, I mean, the whole buying down and working with a builder who has some level of in-house financing is a huge benefit to folks. And I think one of the reasons why working with builders is so appealing for many people, frankly, is because people may have this experience of getting turned down potentially from lenders outside of new construction, even with first-time buyer incentives and down payment assistance. People have this experience that can

Akeem Raji (11:48)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (11:58)
and be very frustrating for folks. And on top of that, I know you see this, because I see it too. You have a lot of realtors who frankly feel like they’ve graduated from working with first time buyers and don’t want to work with first time buyers.

Akeem Raji (12:10)
Yeah, that is very true. Me personally, I’m open to it. I don’t think I’ll ever get to a place where I’ll never work with a first-time buyer. I see everything as an opportunity. And like I said, we are in the business of serving people, whether you look at it or not. Real estate, you’re serving people. So it doesn’t matter if they’re a first-time buyer or this is their second or third rodeo. You should treat everybody the same. it’s a career of service, and you’re giving back in teaching.

Dylan Silver (12:38)
I think one of the things that becomes challenging for both buyers, first time buyers, more established buyers, and then ⁓ realtors is that you do have this thing where it’s like, okay, I don’t wanna have to go through this process. When was the last time that I bought or sold a home? Or this may be the first time if you’re looking at the buyer perspective. And then realtors feel like I’m selling X amount of homes or I’m getting burnt out. I wanna go do something else. And I think really there’s a way to make everybody happy, but it’s probably doing a thing

Akeem Raji (12:44)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (13:08)
a little bit differently than have been done previously.

Akeem Raji (13:11)
I agree with that. gotta, I feel like in this business, you gotta learn how to innovate, right? There’s so many opportunities within real estate. You can venture on to being a commercial, going into commercial. Like I said before, short time rentals, going more into investing side of the things instead of just being the realtor. You can always do that. I’ve been entertained with the fact that if somebody asks me, hey, will you ever,

start your own brokerage and have realtors under you, you just kind of just delegate and oversee everything. So it’s so many things you can think about. And even this platform right here that’s dedicated to realtors and investors, I can turn to media and just teach and use that platform to teach other upcoming realtors ⁓ the way to go in their journey and help them out in their steps. yeah.

Dylan Silver (14:04)
Yeah, I mean, when you mentioned getting into investing, when I got in as a realtor, I was half expecting every realtor to be thinking like an investor. What I then realized is most realtors are not involved in that realm at all. And it’s actually a very small segment, a niche of real estate agents who are at all interested in investing or working with investors.

Akeem Raji (15:10)
I agree. I think a lot of realtors kind of get discouraged when working with investors because it’s a different realm, right? Versus a buyer, you’re doing more of the guiding. You’re guiding them through the process. You’re the one that’s educating them. Then when you’re dealing with an investor, they already know what they want. They’re stern, they’re firm on what price they want to pay or what price they want to sell their property at. So it’s more of a, I guess,

I don’t want to say battle, but it’s more of dealing with the back and forth between the person who owns the actual property and person who’s trying to buy. Because the investor is always going to try look for a deal.

Dylan Silver (15:52)
I do want to pivot a bit here, Akeem, ask you about the Metro Atlanta market where you’re based out of. I’ve seen actually a lot of investors in Atlanta reach out to me, ⁓ and I’ve had a number of different folks asking, you hey, do I know anybody in Texas or do I know anybody in Atlanta? It does seem to be a major hub of investing really in all segments.

Akeem Raji (16:02)
Yes.

Yeah.

Yes, there’s a lot of investment going on. It’s a lot of flipping, a lot of distressed properties, a lot of ⁓ buying and flipping. ⁓ They’re building up a lot of areas here in Metro Atlanta, bling that we have the World Cup coming in this summer. So that’s big thing. So a lot of people are coming in, investing a lot of neighborhoods, just revamping Atlanta.

Dylan Silver (16:33)
Thanks.

Akeem Raji (16:42)
to where it was and just kind of cleaning up certain areas. ⁓ But I would say there’s a lot of investments going on, especially ⁓ further out of Atlanta. You see places like maybe an hour or so out, like places like Noonan, you got Douglasville, you got Dallas, a lot of those places, new constructions, they’re getting older homes, they’re renovating them. So it’s a lot of stuff going on.

Dylan Silver (17:06)
Now, if we can get a little granular here, give away some gold for the audience. You mentioned kind of the urban sprawl of Metro Atlanta. If you were potentially looking at making an acquisition in one of those expanding markets, where might you go? You mentioned a couple cities or a couple towns. And then also too, what might be the expected acquisition price if someone was, let’s say, looking to buy a distressed property in one of those markets?

Akeem Raji (17:25)
Mm.

I would tell somebody to go to West Atlanta, the West side of Atlanta. A lot of stuff is being built there pretty fast. A lot of business are moving to that area. ⁓ I would say the expected price, if you were to get a distressed property that you want to put some money into and fix, you’ll probably be starting at anywhere from the mid-hundred thousands going into the lower 200,000s.

because of the potential of the cops in the area and how fast they’re building up. So your initial investment will probably around, yeah, the a hundred thousands going into the 200,000s. And I would also look into Noonan, which is a city that’s probably like maybe an hour outside of Atlanta. A lot of people are moving down there. It’s a lot of more cost efficient people who are looking for more of a, you know, I guess bargain.

Dylan Silver (18:07)
Yeah.

Akeem Raji (18:31)
for more land and more house. And ⁓ that’s a great place that’s building up right now.

Dylan Silver (18:38)
We are coming up on time here, Akeem. Any new projects that you’re working on, and then as well, what’s the best way for folks to reach out to you?

Akeem Raji (18:45)
Yes, sir. I am working on a coaching program right now that you guys will see in all my platforms. This is basically one on one coaching for different realtors that’s just coming into the industry. People who are looking to transition from one career to another, I’m here to motivate. I’m here to coach you guys to actually teach you to give you the mindset to actually transition and pivot the right way. ⁓ For any questions and

And extra information, you can reach out to me at Raji_the_Realtor. That’s my Instagram. You can look me up on YouTube, Raji the Realtor as well. Those are both main my main platforms where I kind of just push all my projects, all my information’s in my upcoming listings.