With winter upon us, there’s no better time to start thinking about moving to Florida. With a record-breaking real estate market that is making heads spin, the right agent is the key to helping you find just the right property for your lifestyle.
Good thing for Joe Brikman, The Modern Day Agent. No stranger to the South Florida real estate landscape, Joe has amassed a roster of more than 100 clients since he first started a little over a year ago and has since helped over 25 families find their dream home. That’s no small feat in a cutthroat market where the average home that hits the market sees multiple offers. If that isn’t impressive enough, he published a book in February titled, “Fixing Broken: The Ultimate Guide to Thriving in the Face of Adversity,” detailing his experiences and life story…thus far.
A resident of Bal Harbour, he said that as a real estate agent, “my job is to help people gain clarity with their finances and plan for their future. Armed with a team of seasoned professionals to assist you at every stage of the process.” Joe bills himself as a “solution provider” to get you into your dream home hassle-free. He made it a priority to build a service-based business and made it super easy for people to get in touch with him. “We’re a five-person team and I also have a team of virtual assistants. So any day of the week, any time of the week, if someone is reaching out to us from a different country or time zone, we always have somebody who is available to answer any questions or concerns.” He said he set himself up in a way that allows him to go a little farther so that someone is always available. “That’s how I set myself up … to create something a little bigger than myself where more people can be helped because ultimately I am a solution provider.”
A native of Crown Heights, his father was diagnosed with cancer when he was just 13 years old. “As the oldest of six kids, I had to grow up really fast.” But it was a long bumpy ride that was riddled with challenges, trauma and tragedy. He ultimately reached a point where he felt the need to seek help in order to learn how to deal with his loss and trauma. A string of unfortunate events prompted him to embark on a journey of self-discovery and improvement. He began to focus on making himself better and learning how to make himself more valuable to other people. Reinvigorated and armed with newly acquired life skills, he proved himself resilient and focused on how to really tune in to other people’s needs.
In 2018 Joe founded a successful security company. He then decided to join the IDF and set up his company to run smoothly and efficiently, heavily relying on proprietary automation and inside sales staff to keep the entire experience smooth and simple. This paved the path for the company’s growth even during the time he served. In fact, the company was being run so successfully that another company ended up buying him out when he finished the army in 2020.
When he returned to the states he enjoyed a brief stint in commercial finance but found that his heart really was in person-to-person direct sales. Thoroughly familiar with mortgages, having worked in that field prior to becoming an agent, he felt the time was right to pursue his real estate license.
He describes himself as self-made and said, “I started from the bottom on my own with no hand-outs … it’s important for people to realize that even in today’s day and age that it is very well still possible to accomplish whatever you set your mind to if you try and if you commit to really doing that, and believe in the power of God’s hand.
Possessing an inherent entrepreneurial spirit, he also finds he has an innate need to help people—a combination that is hard to find in a sales-oriented industry. With a wealth of experience from working in seven different industries, he worked his way up in sales from the bottom up, learning about all the pitfalls plaguing various aspects of the business. Armed with that experience, he makes his clients his top priority and, with the help of his well-trained team, is accessible to them 24 hours a day.
His driving ambition, can-do attitude and business philosophy allowed him to achieve records in a short time that people twice his age with much more experience have only just achieved. “I have a very heavy positive energy that follows me wherever I go and the reason it follows me is because I carry it with me.” His approach to life is all about finding a way to fix a situation and moving forward. “This is life and you have to accept that. Once you do that you really begin to improve things, not just for yourself, but for others.”
One of the things he’s noticed in the real estate business is the number of people who are lacking education and knowledge about the industry. “You hear all these crazy horror stories of people who are under contract to buy a house and have problems, and many times these problems continue after the closing. I hear this often that people don’t have anyone to talk to when something goes wrong in the middle of a transaction.”
“Some people got into this business because they are trying to make money. Some people get into this business because all you have to do is show a few houses and—boom!—you made 30K.” But he cautions that while it’s indeed a wonderful thing to make that kind of money, it is a model that is simply not sustainable. “At a certain point, their clients are going to realize that this person’s head and heart is not in it.”
Establishing for himself a substantial social media presence, Joe has followers on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube, bringing his professional savvy to an audience of well over 100,000 people. He sees it as an opportunity to let people in, and give them an idea of who he is, where he’s been and how he can help them. “Fifty percent of real estate agents don’t sell more than four or six houses per year. They have no experience when it comes to negotiation or deal procedures. I was in this situation on election day.” He explained that as a brand new agent who had just passed his exam, he knew he still had a lot to learn. So he hired a coach who was already successful in the industry, in order to learn how to be successful. “This is how you win your first listing. This is how you sell your first house. And case in point, I was under contract on my first sale just 14 days into real estate.”
“The average person doesn’t sell a million-dollar house until they do a whole bunch of rentals and they’ve been pushed around for six months. Everybody tells you in order to be successful in this business you first have to chase after sellers. Or you first have to chase after rentals… But at the end of the day, all you have to do is close one deal and then you made all your money back. This sounds nice, but you are not actually winning, just covering your actual overhead. You are not actually making money. This is how 50% of the business is, and why so many people have issues and stress.”
Joe said he regularly gets calls from people all over complaining that the person they are working with “doesn’t know what they are doing. Sometimes it’s because they aren’t negotiating effectively or they can’t get the contract signed. “Seventy-eight percent of the contracts that I did in 2021 had multiple offers on them.” He said his clients typically end up winning because of the relationships that he’s cultivated within the industry and his team that provides support at every step in the transaction.
“These are little things that people who are just chasing money don’t have the time, effort or energy, know-how or willingness to sit and actually go through all of the steps of what it takes in order to be successful. People are just trying to take the top off of it.”
As for those real estate agents who try to live above their means by driving in a flashy car or sporting other seemingly material wealth without having a greater, bigger service in mind, they will not be around in a couple of years. “They will be outpaced by other companies. It’s been happening forever.”
“Real growth comes when you are busy focusing on other people. It’s about coming out there and showing up every day for your clients as you would for yourself.”
“It’s not about me although I am currently in the top 0.5% of real estate agents in South Florida, or one of the top new agents in my area with the highest volume of sales. What’s important to always remember and recognize is that success is possible if you keep trying. Remembering and reminding yourself not to give up, and not allowing others to discourage you or tell you your dreams aren’t possible or that you are not capable… You are only as capable as you tell yourself you are. Clarity and a growth mindset can be the difference between making it and truly winning.”
To contact Joe Brikman, visit The Modern Day Agent at www.joebrikmanrealestateaganetinmiami.buisness.site
By JLNJ Staff
