Real Estate Agent Success Story: From Failed Exams to First Deal Under Contract

Kristian Gray (00:00)
I think it was the finance part. When I moved down to Texas I didn’t have no finance comfort. I had to get a job right away and I had I mean

I mean it’s a podcast world. We gotta be honest, right? That’s why we’re here. I couldn’t pay child support, I couldn’t pay my bills, I had a brand new truck I couldn’t pay for. When I say I gave up everything, I pretty much went to having everything to being homeless. And

I started from the ground up. I rebuilt my life.

Michelle Kesil (02:03)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Kristian Gray, who is an Army veteran turned real estate professional based in San Antonio. So really excited to have you here today, Kristian.

Kristian Gray (02:19)
Yeah, I’m super excited as well. Thank you for having me.

Michelle Kesil (02:22)
Sure, let’s dive in. First off, for those new to your work, can you share what your main focus is?

Kristian Gray (02:27)
So my main focus in my life right now is just real estate and investing and just creating a good business plan for my future and my family, especially my son. I wanna set him up for success down the road and I wanna basically he’s ten now, so I wanna set him up for when he’s eighteen. Yeah, something to dive into right from the get go, something that I wasn’t prepared for whenever I was younger.

Michelle Kesil (02:48)
That’s great. And how did you get into real estate? What did that journey look like?

Kristian Gray (02:52)
So that journey is really kinda complicated because I lived in Ohio for most of my life. I left for military for several years and when I came back to Ohio I didn’t didn’t know what my life entailed and I went to Ohio State University, got a bachelor’s degree, and when I got that bachelor’s degree I ended up failing my national board for dental hygiene six times in a row. So when I did that, the dental hygiene career was not

it wasn’t in my future plans anymore because I at that point I didn’t want to give up but I was around real estate, around my family my entire life and my brothers and my uncles told told me that I was always gonna be good at it and if I were to get into it. But I feel like

With my son down in Texas, I felt like my piece of my heart was was missing and so I gave up everything. I coached soccer teams, I was working at the post office full time. I finished school and so I gave up all that to move down to Texas. And when I did that, it I just put my path in God’s hands and so when I got on here

I got a job at UPS full time and I started real estate classes and I d didn’t know if it was gonna be for me or not. Because it’s because I went through failing a exam several times in a row. So I was nervous on that side. So that’s how I got into real estate. I took a chance, leap of faith, and here I am, got my real estate license. Actually went into contract for my first deal today, so that’s a a huge step in the right direction. So it feels great. Feels great for sure.

Michelle Kesil (04:27)
Great, congratulations.

What do you feel have been some of the main keys that have allowed your business to get started?

Kristian Gray (04:34)
The resources, conversations, the meetings, always talking to people every single day, every conversation I have with anyone that I ever meet, whether it be in Chick-fil-A or Walmart.

E B, anyone says how was your day? Like those conversations I always, always try to find a way to lead with family or occupation or something that leads to them asking about what I do that leads to real estate being a topic in the conversation. just trying to build those connections, trying to lead me to be successful. And I think me with my nonprofit organization here in San Antonio has helped me build veteran relationships and build like

that credibility and authentic like with my background and what I’ve been through.

Michelle Kesil (06:08)
Yeah, and what have been some of the biggest obstacles that you’ve overcome and learned from as a real estate agent?

Kristian Gray (06:18)
So I think one of the I mean it gives me goose months because it was so hard to get through when I got down here. I think the biggest obstacle was my SOI, my sphere of influence, because all my friends, families, connections, resources are all in Ohio. So when I moved down here, like I slept in my truck the first two nights here. I went from sleeping in my truck to writing a book all within three months and getting my real estate license and I feel like I had no friends, no family. I mean I had my son.

but as far as those connections that that support staff just wasn’t there. So I felt like

How can I build that? So I literally spent days and hours of researching people online and finding the right priv profiles and making the right friends and people who had that group around them that supported them that looked like they were successful. Those that is what I was trying to find. And I I found that.

And keeps me in check and keeps me along the right path to make sure I don’t veer off.

Michelle Kesil (07:18)
And what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Kristian Gray (07:22)
one of the main things I’m focused on right now is being a good dad of my son and then just serving families and preparing for my nonprofit organization event later on this and getting the word about about my book. I mean, I I was in the shoes of someone that was struggling, that was hard to

study and pass exams and so when I wrote my book I wrote about how to pass the exam. I put the outlines in there. I I put basically other people in my shoes that are going through a hard time that maybe doesn’t know what route to take when it comes to studying for the real estate exam. And so I outlined and word for word everything they need to know in order to pass the exam is in my book. it also talks about all the roadblocks that I went across and that I that

broke through to get to where I am today.

Michelle Kesil (08:13)
Amazing. Can you share one of those examples from the book?

Kristian Gray (08:17)
So an example from the book is

I think it was the finance part. When I moved down to Texas I didn’t have no finance comfort. I had to get a job right away and I had I mean

I mean it’s a podcast world. We gotta be honest, right? That’s why we’re here. I couldn’t pay child support, I couldn’t pay my bills, I had a brand new truck I couldn’t pay for. When I say I gave up everything, I pretty much went to having everything to being homeless. And

I started from the ground up. I rebuilt my life.

I mean, yeah, I had the veteran background and so I had a good resume to get it get to get a job, but I couldn’t just get any job because I wanted to be a part of my son’s life. I wanted to help his mom out with pick him up from school and taking care of him. So it took a while, it took a took weeks to find the right job and once I found the right job I used some of my my military

schooling to pay for my real estate course and I knew getting into real estate from the get go wasn’t gonna just pop off and just started mak making a bunch of money. I mean this was back in March, April. I had just not win the contract for my first deal. So I had to so I’m still a supervisor at UPS in the morning, so I had to live off that until I started building my resume, building my pipeline with real estate.

Michelle Kesil (10:17)
Yeah, definitely. And well, that’s great that you’re on the path and starting to see the fruits of your labour.

Kristian Gray (10:18)
So that was a huge robot,

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Michelle Kesil (10:28)
Sure. And what are you most looking forward to? Any specific goals or opportunities?

Kristian Gray (10:32)
Yeah, so my goals are right up on a whiteboard right behind us. I wanna save twenty K by the end of year. I wanna finish the contract on my duplex that’s being built at bridge ground next month. I have credit cards, a couple of loans I wanna pay off by end of the year, and then I want to invest a certain amount into a trust for my son. and then a couple other small things, but they’re all on my whiteboard. Those are a few of

And then my biggest one is to sell five homes by the end of the year. and right now got one supposed to be closing in in a few weeks, so that’ll be the first one.

Michelle Kesil (11:06)
Amazing. And what are some of the strategies that you’re sharing in your book or to those that you’re looking to help get into real estate?

Kristian Gray (11:19)
So some strategies and some ideas behind people getting the real estate I feel like would be

when I talk about failure, when I talk about giving up. And a lot of people when they want to be successful in life and they want to be productive, some people don’t want to go through the hard path and go through go through the deep end before they can rise to the surface. And sometimes you just have to dive in the deep end headfirst and getting used to the water temperature. And then because for years I was I was scared to jump in water. I w I was scared to dive in first. But once you jump in your body gets used to it and you get comfortable and then that’s how you rise to

occasion and my book talks about pushing through failure, pushing through not giving up. failure’s bad and good. It’s like hot and cold. If you have failure, this one side where you

you give up and you don’t learn from it. But there’s the other side where you go through failure but you learn through what you what you made mistakes and how you can achieve getting past it. And I feel like my book talks about how I went through failure and how I learned from it and I took it, I threw it on the ground, I stomped on and moved forward. And that’s how it’s all about motivation and failure in my book.

Michelle Kesil (12:27)
Yeah, that’s great. And what do you think is like one of the most important things for someone getting real estate to learn?

Kristian Gray (12:36)
One of the most important things about real estate I would say with someone brand new would be

You gotta have patience. You gotta know the area. You gotta know what you’re going into. you can’t just sign up and pass a test and get your license and think you’re gonna be successful. You have to know the game, you gotta you gotta know your competition, you gotta know the area, location, price, and

And those are the top two things in real estate. You gotta know your location. You gotta be familiar with the area. People who get who want to use real estate agents for deals and investment and commercial properties, they wanna have that trust and credibility behind their name. You can’t just get on social media like a lot of people are doing and get a videographer and look pretty or look handsome and make a good video that sounds good with a good song on it. You gotta know the area, you gotta know you gotta know what you’re selling before you sell it.

and I didn’t know that was one of my biggest roadblocks was I didn’t know San Antonio when I first moved down here. So before I even got into real estate I learned the area. I got a big poster on my wall. I wrote down every city, every school district, every builder that was building communities in the area and I learned those builders. I learned where they were building at, what they were offering, and on the school district and I interviewed several teachers and several restaurants and stuff in the area and I just learned everything there

to know about San Antonio. I think so I think that’s the biggest thing is where you’re getting your license at. You gotta know the area.

Michelle Kesil (14:46)
Yeah, that’s amazing and totally true. And what do you think has made the biggest difference in networking and meeting the right people?

Kristian Gray (14:56)
It’s just you have to keep your circles small and you gotta be selective. You can’t just go out there and be friends with everybody. You gotta be friends, you gotta find a good circle with of people that are there to support you to see you win. a lot of groups that I tested out to be to be part of, I feel like we’re just a pyramid scheme or they’re just all talk but no show and

gotta find the right connection of people that’s gonna support you, that’s gonna that answers the phone whenever you call or has questions or willing to hop on a Google Meet, hop on a Zoom call to walk you through things step by step to make sure like you know what you’re talking about. And that’s that’s huge. And how I did that was I did research on people online. When I found profiles that I liked, I looked at their followers, I looked at their videos, I looked at the comments, I looked at

their past deals. I followed them for a certain amount of time and what they posted and where they posted at and what kind of connections they had. And I and I feel like it wasn’t easy. I mean it took me two, three months to find the right people.

Michelle Kesil (16:01)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, that’s great because you’re clearly in it for the long game, so you know that relationships that actually count are the ones worth connecting more with.

Kristian Gray (16:15)
⁓ Yeah.

Michelle Kesil (16:15)
Great, well before we begin to wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you and your book and everything that you’re offering?

Kristian Gray (16:29)
Yeah, so this is my book right here. The Road to Becoming a Real Estate Agent, for rock bottom. It’s just it’s a great book. yeah, has my has my bio on the back, it’s on Amazon. so The Road to Becoming a Real Estate Agent. Everything you know in there and it’s I actually put it big text, big lines people can take notes, easy to read. I made it a fourth grade level reader, made it simple ’cause

Obviously, us adults sometimes we’re out of school for a long time. We need some needs something simple to read. And then my Instagram is my name Kristian Gray T X. So it’s just K-R-I-S-T-I-A-N-G-R-A-Y-T-X. My email is my name [email protected] So it’s short for San Antonio, Texas.com.

they can send me an email, they can follow me on Instagram, and then I’ll reach out to them. I’m a very quick responder and yeah, I’d be more than happy to talk to anybody and my phone number is (567) 333-0032 They can text or call me anytime.

Michelle Kesil (17:30)
Perfect. Well appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Kristian Gray (17:33)
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

Michelle Kesil (17:35)
course. And for the listeners tuning into the show, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Kristian who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you on the next episode.