Relationships Beat Everything in Real Estate | How $84M Producer Builds Long-Term Deal Flow

Sammy Lyon (00:00)
I would I know this is probably annoying because everybody says it, but I would post on social media regularly. ⁓ it doesn’t have to be highly produced, it doesn’t have to be like but you know if I were a real estate agent or broker starting from zero right now, I would not start a new account. I would just

Tell all my existing people like, hey, I’m here, you know, I would go tour properties video, I would go to events, ⁓ just meet people. ⁓ obviously I’m not a door knocker cold caller, but that works too. But yeah, I think I would just make sure that everybody knows that, you know, I’m available and then try to partner up with people who know who are more experienced and just sort of learn from them.

Scott Bursey (02:29)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we have a heavy hitter in the house. We’re sitting down with Sammy Lyon of Lyon Ideas and Dow Capital. Sammy has spent the last eight plus years absolutely crushing it, moving over $84 million in volume across 100 plus transactions at Dow Capital. He’s a machine when it comes to volume and consistency, and he’s bringing the exact high octane fuel.

You need to scale your own game. Get ready to accelerate pros. Sammy, welcome to the show.

Sammy Lyon (03:06)
Thank you, Scott. I appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (03:08)
It’s just awesome having you here, my friend. And to help our pros get up to speed, please give us the front row seats on how your queer ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Sammy Lyon (03:20)
Okay, I like the the fuel here. well it honestly I guess like all good fires ignites with just a little little spark, a teeny little spark. and I was I was worked for 10 years ⁓ in education, nonprofits. ⁓ I did really cool ⁓ projects with educators in schools, ⁓ loved what I was doing.

And a colleague of mine just kind of mentioned like, you should, you know, I I know you’re looking to buy a house. You should buy a, you know, a triplex and live in one unit and rent the others. And I was like, What? That’s brilliant. I never thought of that before, which is funny because I mean this was twenty eighteen. and yeah, that little spark, man, I am so grateful. ⁓ to Lissette for sharing that because

It just yeah, I got obsessed. I listened to podcasts, I read books and ⁓ kind of the grant ended that I was working on and ⁓ I don’t know, I was thinking about what to do next and I’m just super grateful that that opportunity came at the right time and kinda just dove full full speed into real estate.

Scott Bursey (04:44)
Sammy, that journey is nothing short of incredible. And we’re grateful to have you on the show today. You know what really struck me and why I’m so excited to dig into this today is the sheer level of discipline required to sustain that kind of output. Closing over a hundred transactions and moving 84 million dollars in volume isn’t just about hustle. It’s about building a machine. Your work is a clear definition of consistency.

Sammy Lyon (05:59)
I my sleep would re would ask that I maybe do a little bit less than that, but I appreciate the I appreciate the compliment.

Scott Bursey (06:12)
And Sammy, let’s dive right on in here. With over eight years in the trenches, what is the one core strength that allowed you to bridge the gap ⁓ from your early days to moving eighty four million dollars in volume?

Sammy Lyon (06:25)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, ⁓ that’s a good question. I think that because it was a career change for me, I had to kind of let people know, like, hey, I’m actually doing this somewhat different thing than, you know, social justice education, environmental education, ⁓ real estate, you know, and so I had to like talk to people and you know, just share that. And so a lot of it

Frankly, was built on relationships. Like, and I’m really grateful that when I started, I had a mentor from day one, ⁓ who was my real estate class teacher. And he’s, you know, ⁓ now obviously much more than that. He’s a friend and a mentor, ⁓ and my business partner. ⁓ but that he had a similar style, right? So he was not a cold collar, you know, door knocker, which I think our

incredibly successful for a certain pers personality type, but I think for me it was all about the relationships. And so I was able to leverage, you know, the relationships that I had from outside of because even in any career in any industry, everyone touches real estate at some point because someone wants, you know, doesn’t matter what work you do, you’re scrolling Zillow and you want to buy a house. So

I think that was really helpful for me. And then I think that focus on relationships was has been just the heart of my business because I’ve also gotten to grow with my clients. And so, you know, a client who maybe bought a house, then bought a commercial space for their business or leased a place, or they bought an investment property, and then now we manage their investment property or

⁓ I have some really incredible nonprofit clients that sort of reached out to me with the seed of an idea like, Hey, what if we bought this property and made it affordable? And now they’re on their, you know, fourth acquisition, ⁓ getting funding from the inaugural, you know, LA County funding program, you know, public funding. So like I’ve actually gotten to grow with them. So I think the relationships has been

so beneficial for all of us because then I get to really serve that client’s needs, you know, over the course of their whole journey in real estate too. And I’m not just like, I only do this one thing.

Scott Bursey (09:05)
That focus on relationships is why you’re still standing while others are fading, to be quite frank with you. And Sammy, help us understand. Managing 100 plus transactions is a massive lift. What’s one bottleneck in your systems that you’ve had to work around to keep from burning out?

Sammy Lyon (09:59)
I try to, you know the like important, what’s that quadrant of highly effective people? It’s like the important and urgent, the important, not urgent, the you know, not important, not urgent, not important, urgent. ⁓ I try to manage my time with like obviously you have the important and urgent, and that’s usually like you’re in escrow, you gotta, you know, problem solve, you have to handle this. So you’re sort of like servicing your

your current clients. That’s I mean, you gotta like you gotta be on, you gotta make sure that you’re walking them from start to finish. ⁓ but then I think there’s the important but not urgent, which is like, you know, prospecting, reaching out, you know, hosting my events for clients, like just maintaining those relationships. and then I think those the often like the setting up systems falls into that category. So ⁓

I’m just trying to it’s a little inefficient and a little scattered, but every time I see like, I have to enter this you know, I s I’m sending this same email to ten people, you know, over and over again at the begin and I keep forgetting to ask them about this. You know, I’m able to say, you know what, let me spend an hour, let me go into my CRM, let me set up an email template. And now like

I just click that template and it sends in exactly what I need. So those are the types of things that ⁓ I’m trying to do in my business. I think that’s probably also the biggest challenge is as we’re scaling, like, okay, what are the repetitive tasks that we need to be aware of? And yeah, there’s a lot of balls in the air. And we’re dealing with like other people’s properties and cli, you know, tenants and

their hopes and fears about what they’re purchasing. So it to me I take it very seriously. So I’m like, okay, what are the ways that I can keep balls from dropping?

Scott Bursey (12:08)
And recognizing the bottlenecks is half the battle, isn’t it? Yeah.

Sammy Lyon (12:14)
Definitely. Yeah. I think saying like, ⁓ is there a better way to do this? and I would say, yeah, the biggest bottleneck is probably like the sheer amount of things that need to get done is maybe starting to exceed the current capacity. And so figuring out how to leverage, I don’t know, like a this I mean, we’re not in I’m not interested in having like a 30 people.

team like we’re just a very small brokerage and we like it that way and we want to keep it that way and that’s how we ⁓ offer boutique services but you know there’s that balance of like well where do you need to grow a little bit to take that volume and make sure that you’re still serving clients well.

Scott Bursey (13:02)
Sammy, I love that. And curious, given where the market is shifting, where do you see the biggest open door right now for a pro who’s looking to scale up their transaction volume?

Sammy Lyon (13:16)
⁓ I’m like, do I wanna do I wanna share this? Because it’s been such a boon for us. But for in terms of like where we are seeing things move is just we’re we’re expanding a lot of our property management ⁓ arm into affordable housing. We are in Los Angeles, greater Los Angeles area, so I think that’s a you know a specific

If you’re in kind of high cost of living areas, I think that’s a different opportunity than other parts of the country.

I missed it. What what was your question again?

Scott Bursey (13:59)
Yeah. So the transaction volume. Where do you see? Let’s go just a little bit deeper in this. You’re in the LA market. Where do you see the market going ⁓ the next twelve to twenty four months?

Sammy Lyon (14:14)
I do think there is an interesting balance happening with buyers and sellers, ⁓ that there are fewer buyers. And so I think like even when interest rates went up, if we’re gonna talk residential, ⁓ even when interest rates went up, you know, people were kind of like, well, the prices should go down, but they didn’t because there were still so many buyers looking. ⁓ you know, maybe instead of

50 buyers looking at two houses, maybe there was 30 buyers looking at five houses. But you know, there was still not enough. ⁓ but now I feel like there’s four buyers looking at ten houses. And that’s kind of like, you know, that’s putting the the pricing pressure on, and I think sellers are finally like getting to that place where they’re either adjusting their expectations or just not selling.

⁓ so I think it’s a great time to be a buyer. ⁓ if you can, but I also think the financing and is is tough. ⁓ so I think that there’s opportunities. I do see some movement happening in commercial spaces that we haven’t in the last few years. ⁓ I would say most of my transactions right now are commercial and I think that’s reflective of kind of the movement that’s happening in the market.

Scott Bursey (16:24)
Sammy, that’s some powerful stuff right there. Please give us a play by play, if you will. You know, high volume creates high exposure. What is the one market risk you’re keeping the closest eye on right now to protect your pipeline?

Sammy Lyon (16:40)
I do think it is

even though I just said I think there’s opportunity in being a buyer. I do also think it’s one of the hardest times to be a buyer. ⁓ I think that the market is all over the place. I think it’s not just about interest rates. It never has been, but like it’s also about job security. I mean, if you buy a house and then you lose your job, right? That’s that’s a very different situation than

you know, if rates go up or down a little bit. So ⁓ I think it’s a very challenging time to be a buyer. So even though I think it there’s a lot of opportun like if you’re looking to buy real estate right now as a buyer, I think you have a lot of opportunity. But I also not to I mean, of course this is coming from a realtor. So take it with a grain of salt. But I think there is no more important time than to have like a true experienced buyer’s agent in your

court because ⁓ there’s not really like easy low hanging fruit, you know, out there. Like every transaction has some like we have something to deal with or a title issue or ⁓ I don’t know, a financing question. Insurance is a big especially in California. So, you know, most of what I’m doing is like problem solving and helping kind of guide through. And I just ⁓

I think that that’s like a big risk, I think, to be a buyer and not have an experienced agent actually representing you.

Scott Bursey (18:20)
Smart. That’s what keeps you in the long game, you know, for the long haul. And that is some really good strategy. Sammy, you’ve done a ton of work with the team at Dow Capital. How has that collaborative environment changed the way you view a deal compared to when you were operating solo?

Sammy Lyon (18:42)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I’m very, very lucky. ⁓ we’re just a very small team and all super smart and highly effective. And ⁓ I’m very grateful. ⁓ there’s a couple agents that I work with like pretty consistently. And the I mean, we are on a text thread with the client from day one as a team, like

They can talk to either of us. I think it’s helped, you know, it’s like I’m not I have a young kid, like I’m not always available at this on a Tuesday at five PM to look at something. and I think just being able to support each other. ⁓ I think all of us are used to, you know, real estate. You’re just on all the time. ⁓ but we try to like take vacations sometimes and you know, maybe turn off our phones for a little bit. So supporting each other.

⁓ and yeah, I just I think like as a client, I hope and I think people see like, Hey, we’re all here for you. ⁓ you know, you’re not just relying on one person who may or may not be available at that time.

Scott Bursey (19:55)
You know, oftentimes you can go faster alone, but you go further together, don’t you?

Sammy Lyon (20:01)
Yes. I like to go fast together, but I know I need to sometimes slow down and go further together.

Scott Bursey (20:11)
And speaking of your ⁓ small team, what would you like our listeners ⁓ to know about that team that you’re a part of?

Sammy Lyon (20:21)
⁓

Just I mean, tootin’ my own team’s horn. They’re amazing. I just got off the phone with a client and was asking, you know, how are things going with property management? He was just like, you guys are great, so responsive. He was calling out Marissa, who’s ⁓ one of our partners on the property management. And it just makes me feel good to be like, Well, I think they’re amazing, but I also like when my clients think they’re amazing. ⁓ but yeah, I think that just

you know, integrity is number one, you know, like we’re all gonna we all make mistakes, but there’s never it’s always because we were trying to do the right thing or we moved too quickly and we accidentally, I don’t know, skipped something, but like never because we’re you know, there’s any nefariousness. Like it’s just very integrity trying to do the best for our clients. Sometimes too much. I’m like, wait, we maybe need to do less for our clients.

⁓ but yeah, we’re we’re just really trying to be of service. So I I’m very, very proud of my team. The team. We’re partners.

Scott Bursey (21:34)
That’s awesome. And Sammy, let’s dive into the high octane stuff. If you had to start from absolutely zero today with nothing but your phone and your laptop, what’s the very first move you would make to start building that pipeline toward your next million?

Sammy Lyon (21:52)
I would I know this is probably annoying because everybody says it, but I would post on social media regularly. ⁓ it doesn’t have to be highly produced, it doesn’t have to be like but you know if I were a real estate agent or broker starting from zero right now, I would not start a new account. I would just

Tell all my existing people like, hey, I’m here, you know, I would go tour properties video, I would go to events, ⁓ just meet people. ⁓ obviously I’m not a door knocker cold caller, but that works too. But yeah, I think I would just make sure that everybody knows that, you know, I’m available and then try to partner up with people who know who are more experienced and just sort of learn from them.

as well. I mean, it’s tough to find. ⁓ I think a lot of brokerages talk about like mentors and stuff, but it’s usually just like a commission split. ⁓ I’m talking about like a truly someone who you can call and like ask questions and figure out, you know, how do I get this done?

Scott Bursey (23:07)
Sammy spot on. And you’ve given us a lot of really good words of wisdom here today. But if let’s say some of our pros are listening and they’re they’re just thinking about getting into real estate. What’s some advice that you would give them?

Sammy Lyon (23:25)
⁓

No, I know, it’s like there’s never really a good time, I guess, to get into real estate. ⁓ I mean, I don’t wanna be mean and say like, don’t or make sure you have a backup plan. Because I truly like I didn’t have you know, I quit my job and was like, Okay, you know, I’m going all in. I hadn’t done any transactions for anyone but myself ⁓ when I decided to go full time as a real estate broker. So

You know, I think the whole like, ⁓ you know, work part time, work do it part time until you make enough, like, I don’t know if that works because I don’t I don’t think being a realtor is a part time job. ⁓ you put in a lot of work for things that are gonna pay out, you know, three, six, nine months, if not twenty four month. I literally just talked to a client yesterday that

We met in twenty twenty one, so five years ago. ⁓

That’s how long it takes sometimes, you know, and or longer, but I think it’s, you know, being in the long game. So I think having the balance of like you need to make money, but also you need to be setting yourself up in a way that like you’re gonna be here. Do you wanna help somebody buy a house and then they call you a year later and you’re like, ⁓ I quit real estate? I mean, I don’t know.

Scott Bursey (24:55)
It sounds like building the systems where you can stay in the game long term and fully capitalized and have a really good career. Thank you for that, Sammy. And for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you. What is the best way for them to reach you?

Sammy Lyon (25:13)
Yeah, for sure. I I am active on social media. ⁓ on Instagram I’m Lyon Ideas, L Y O N Ideas. And my website is lyonideas.com. ⁓ our property management company is Dow Property Group, ⁓ which is an arm of Dow Capital. And yeah, that’s pretty much a way to get in touch with me.

Scott Bursey (25:38)
Awesome. Sammy, this has been a pleasure. Thank you for joining us today.

Sammy Lyon (25:43)
Thank you so much, Scott. I appreciate it. It’s fun to talk to you.

Scott Bursey (25:47)
And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with the lineup of elite guests, just like Sammy Lyon, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you on the next episode, everyone.