How a Christie’s agent closed $44 million+ in 2024 on Instagram by Emile L’Eplattenier, Gina Baker for HousingWire

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Over the last decade, I’ve interviewed dozens of the country’s most successful real estate agents. All of them, from Ryan Serhant to Glennda Baker to Ricky Carruth, had one thing in common: They found their ikigai early in their career and never looked back.

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that says you will only find true success if your professional niche is right in the middle of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs and what you can get paid for. Simple, but not easy.

Jose Prats is no exception. He parlayed his passion for Spanish revival architecture and his flair for making viral videos into a wildly lucrative niche in one of the world’s most competitive real estate markets — Los Angeles. We recently sat down with Prats to learn how he did it. He walked us through finding his ikigai, his best tips for new agents and his exact strategy for building his Instagram account into his primary lead source.

Jose Prats: By the numbers

Market: Los Angeles, California
Niche: Character homes
2024 team sales volume + sides: $44,400,000 + 21.5 sides
RealTrends Verified ranking (by volume): 1,184
Primary lead generation strategy: Social media, referrals
Number of Instagram followers: 114,000
Highest ROI real estate software: Copper CRM

Let your passions guide your career choices

Contrary to what most people think, money alone is not enough to fuel your real estate career. Not if you want to make it past year two anyway. Sure, it might inspire you to wake up early and work late for a year or two, but burnout is inevitable. You need something more profound.

Jose Prats learned this lesson early. Like many young people with big dreams, Prats moved to Los Angeles with barely enough money to cover a month’s rent. His dream was to build generational wealth through real estate, a common dream for immigrants from his native Cuba. He was so eager to get started that he took his prelicensing test before he moved to the Golden State. Big dreams. Small budget.

As you’ve probably already guessed, Prats’s success came slowly. He waited tables and worked at a coffee shop to pay the bills. After a brief foray into running a bicycle shop, he started working as an assistant for a prominent team leader. That’s when it all clicked for him. It wasn’t just about the money anymore:

“I fell in love with the beautiful architecture in Los Angeles, especially the Spanish Revival homes. Los Angeles is arguably one of the best cities in the world for residential architecture. My love for preserving the architecture of this city became my ‘big why,’ fueling my entire career.”

He didn’t realize it then, but Prats’ discovery of his passion for architecture built the first pillar of his ikigai.

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Try to see the world through fresh eyes

Sometimes, it takes an outsider to see what’s obvious. Most Los Angeles Realtors take it for granted that their city has beautiful homes. When they look at the famed Sheets-Goldstein residence, they don’t see iconic design elements that changed the world — they see dollar signs. Brand new to the city, Prats credits his outsider status as the reason he could connect with what so many of his fellow agents took for granted.

When discovering the love pillar of your real estate ikigai, try to view your farm area with fresh eyes. Why do people love it? What makes it unique? What are you drawn to? Maybe it’s not the mansions. Perhaps it’s the turn-of-the-century rowhouses or a wooded enclave with well-preserved mid-century homes.

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Jose Prats’ 7 simple rules for Instagram success

A passion for intricately-tiled Art Deco fireplaces and arched doorways wasn’t enough to propel Prats onto the Real Trends Verified list. For that, he needed to share his passion with the world. Enter the second pillar of Prats’ ikigai: his natural talent for inspiring others through video.

Prats’ Instagram account only started to take off after he started posting what he loved instead of what he thought his audience wanted to see. Along the way, he discovered seven rules that helped him grow his account to 114,000 followers and become his primary lead source:

Never buy followers: Prats was adamant that buying followers is a surefire way to kill your Instagram account. It might not happen this week or this month, but paying for followers violates Instagram’s terms of service and could lead to your account being suspended. It’s not worth the risk.
Jump on trending topics and audio: Instagram’s algorithm is continually evolving. What gets rewarded today might not work tomorrow. Prats recommends keeping informed on the latest trends and adjusting your strategy accordingly.
Want an easy way to keep up with trends on Instagram? Coffee & Contracts provides a weekly update with trending audio, captions and scripts for Reels and gives you professionally designed templates to jump on them. All you need to do is customize and post them to your account.

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Find niches within niches: For the most part, Instagram does not reward generalists. The more you drill down to find unique content that resonates with your audience, the better your account will perform.
Focus 80% on real estate, 20% on yourself: Prats’ also recommended focusing primarily on real estate. Unless you’re a famous standup comedian, the real estate you sell will be the most interesting thing about you, and what your audience will respond most to.
Be your authentic self: Just getting started? Prats’ advice for new users is simple: be your authentic self, warts and all. People come to social media to be entertained. Insincerity is not entertaining.
Focus on building your business, not followers and likes: When we asked about key performance indicators (KPIs) agents should track, Prats’ suggested agents focus on engagement like direct messages instead of “vanity metrics” such as followers and likes. A Reel that only gets 100 views but leads to 3 direct messages is far more valuable than a video that gets 1,000 views and no messages.
Funnel your comments into DMs, and your DMs into Zoom meetings: To turn followers to leads and leads to business, Prats’ recommends bringing conversations off Instagram as quickly as possible. The fastest way to do this is to encourage commenters to send you a direct message, and those who send direct messages to talk over Zoom.