If you’re looking for real estate success stories, you’re in the right place. In May of this year (2022), ICC hosted a real estate conference in the beautiful Florida Keys. As a part of that conference, I brought up a panel of top producers to speak to the attendees about their real estate success stories.
If you missed this conference, you can enroll in our FREE online course, the ICC Real Estate Conference 2022 Summary Replay, and gain access to several of our powerful mastermind sessions and videos.
Hal Sousa shared his amazing story of emigrating from the favelas (ghettos) of Brazil to the United States. He rapidly learned English and is now selling over 180 homes per year, flipping more than 50 homes per year, and has an investment portfolio with over 80 long-term rental units.
Hal Sousa is a highly successful, top-producing real estate agent. If you didn’t know his back story, you would just think that he is a hard working real estate professional that has gradually worked his way up to being a top producer.
Hal’s story, however, is very inspiring. When it comes to real estate success stories, this might take the cake. Hal immigrated to the United States from Brazil when he was 19 years old. He didn’t know any English and started his first job in the U.S. at a dairy facility. He also worked as a bartender, dishwasher, a janitor cleaning bathrooms, you name it. Hal worked odd jobs as he learned English and saved up as much money as he could.
Once he saved up enough money, he was set on buying real estate. When he was 23, he purchased his first rental property. He lived with his mother to continue saving money. As he saved up all of his money in a shoe-box, he knew that he wanted to continue this real estate journey. This is where it all began for him.
Fast forward to today, and Hal just recently purchased a two-acre property, where he is currently building his dream house.
As Hal saved, he continued to buy more real estate. For many years, he struggled, doing everything himself. He was flipping houses himself, managing the rentals himself, buying investment properties himself … Hal was selling 100 houses per year, all by himself. Of all the real estate success stories that I’ve heard during my career, this one is pretty phenomenal.
This kind of workload will burn anyone out. I coached Hal on the benefits of building out a team to support him. This is exactly why I wrote The High-Performing Real Estate Team. It teaches the benefits of a team, and gives the job descriptions, structure, and systems you can use to grow a successful and sustainable team. Hal hired his first admin last year, and it has been a game changer for his business (and his work/life balance).
Most successful real estate professionals struggle with life balance. Today, we are giving you a free download of the Life Balance Wheel. This is a great tool that will help you with life balance.
The Life Balance Wheel contains 8 “spokes”. These spokes represent facets of your life. Spirituality, health, work, social, development, recreation, family, life-planning … each of these areas need to be constantly improved. Subscribe below for access to this free download.
We’re always saying it: success follows clues. Work/life balance issues are why a lot of Realtors and real estate team leaders come to us here at ICC and hire a coach. It’s hard to get on the right track by yourself — you simply don’t have the time to develop the systems and structures needed to support your own growth.
With an ICC coach in your corner, you don’t have to go it alone.
When you can leverage your team members to do administrative tasks, you give yourself time to do the things you are good at. Hal was feeling weighed down, doing everything on his own. After he hired his admin, he was free to pursue new investment opportunities. And, he gave himself more time to enjoy life and spend time with his family.
The hardest part for Hal was giving tasks to someone else. This is real estate team leadership 101. As an immigrant, he is one of the most hardworking people I know, and he has shown that through his incredible story. But, he is learning the importance of delegation and building a team to support his goals and dreams.
As Hal continues to grow his team, I’m excited to see where he goes. He’s only just getting started. Like all real estate success stories, there’s always the next chapter.
