Building a respectable real estate empire is not a walk in the park, even for those with huge capitalization and marketing budgets. The tough competition among real estate companies can get very discouraging, especially for those who started out small like Dan Lee, owner of PlumProperty. Determined to make a name for himself in the business, he thought of a distinctive way to stand out and get people’s attention – through entertaining and engaging real estate videos. 

True enough, Dan and his company started to get the attention they wanted. From a small business, it blossomed into a large company in just six years. At present, it has 45 staff members and has achieved $1.5 billion in property sales since its establishment in 2016. If anything, Dan has proven that a creative mind can go a long way for any kind of business. Real estate promotions need not always be serious. By making his promotional videos and materials funny, he attracted the niche he wanted. 

Dan is extremely proud of his humble beginnings. In a highly competitive kind of business, it is often rare to meet someone with the humility to admit his early struggles. He is thankful for all the lifelong lessons he gathered during the time he was starting out. Thanks to them, Dan is where he is meant to be today. 

“Start small, keep your fixed costs down. Clients don’t care about your flashy office. They care about service and results. A lot of clients like the fact that you are a small business and are hustling to achieve your goals and are more willing to support you with their business,” Dan shared. “Treat your staff well, and your best staff like heroes, engrain them in the business, and reward staff frequently for great results. Hold amazing team meetings, make them fun and motivating, celebrate the wins with everyone, celebrate anniversaries and birthdays and top performances.”

The entrepreneur and lovable influencer used his personal apartment when he launched PlumProperty together with his best friend. In his first year of operation, Dan did not tell his clients he had an office to prevent his clients from seeing the real condition of his business. Instead, he would simply ask to meet them in cafes or their homes. “We have grown fast because of our investment in social media and our entertaining style of advertising,” Dan revealed. 

In his second year of operations, Dan felt the pressure of raising his equity for his business to survive. It was during that time that he almost went completely broke. The market was very challenging, and his 12-man team was not selling any property at all. He was forced to borrow money from a friend to sustain his operations. In the third year of PlumProperty, Dan encountered challenges with his business office. He was running the business using a house and was flagged and given due notice to leave after 30 days. He was forced to look for a decent commercial space to move his business there. The move turned out to be quite a blessing as the new opportunity afforded them a lot of room to grow. By the following year, Dan had already added more people to his team.

After much patience and hard work, Dan became a well-respected real estate agent. He is a three-time industry finalist for Large Agency of the Year in his state and a two-time finalist for the Industry Sales Person of the Year. In addition, due to his unique style of marketing a property, he made it to the Today Show for a segment. 

PlumProperty is where it is today because Dan Lee never gave up on his dream. Instead, by simply pushing forward with his ambitions, he was able to reach his goals.