We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matt Drago a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Matt, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about one of the craziest things you’ve experienced in your journey so far.

I have a very personal story in Real Estate that I believe sheds a light on how I perceive this business and my clients. The profession of being a Realtor should only ever be about one thing: To Bring Value. Bringing value is about discovering the clients needs & wants in buying or selling homes & creating a customized strategy to bring those goals & aspirations into reality.

My story is a very recent & ongoing one. I’ve been helping a very nice woman for over 3 months now. She used to live in my farm area–the area a Realtor may choose to dedicate his resources to & update the community to become their local expert–had since moved out of state, and was going through an incredibly traumatic time in her life. Her father had just passed away. Unfortunately, leaving a home behind that was in disarray, bad condition, and had liens against the property.

She needed a path forward and someone to guide her… I happened to be door knocking the area with some updates when I knocked on her door in the random week that she had come to California because of this terrible life event.

We struck up a conversation about all the kind things her father was & still is to her, and how she was at a loss for what to do about the house. I connected with her as she reminisced about her dad, and learned about how he had been instrumental in the community. He’d helped to bring local wildlife to a manmade lake that benefitted his entire community, among other stories. Trust me when I say it was a tear-jerker. I knew one thing in that moment. I had to help.

Regardless of the outcome, I needed to research every possible way to help her; use my amazing escrow officer, my title rep, my broker, my team lead & anyone I needed to give her a moment of clarity. But that still wasn’t enough, because of the condition of the home and the liens against it.

I was honest about it’s value, realized it was a match for an investor, and delved head on at solving the question: Could I help her make a profit on the sale of the house–meaning that I would also get paid for my own work–or was the house too far under in liens to be profitable?

It wasn’t even a question for me to spend my time working on this, even though I might not end up getting paid for my time. Because the job to me is about bringing value. And that is what I was going to do.

Sadly, this story is ongoing. The house is set to foreclose, and I put her in touch with a probate lawyer (at no cost) and a CPA wiling to charge less to help her, the HOA board, my escrow officer, and my team of professionals.

The truth is I carry stories like this one with me every day. I’d call them my “WHY” in Real Estate, what makes me do what I do: bringing value to my clients no matter what the outcome or situation is.

Matt, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My background in becoming a Realtor ironically came from both being a bartender & an actor. As I got into real estate, I realized that it had a a lot of similarities to acting–needing to present properties and information clearly–and that it was like bartending which requires you to be tuned in with conversations all over the map.

I met some real estate professionals & was given an opportunity to intern at The Corcoran Group in NYC one of the most successful big city brokerages of all-time. My love for getting to see beautiful apartments & explore a city I love drove me to learn all I good, while also pursuing acting.

My journey for acting however led me to LA, making it a reset. Starting back with bartending, and waiting for my opportunity to get back into real estate in CA.
That took time, but when the pandemic happened I realized given the circumstances, and the idea of “home” being more important than ever to people that it made sense for me to go back to my real estate roots.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My grandma.

A lot of my upbringing usually ties into something about my love for my grandma. After all, I got into Real Estate because of her.

She was a kind-hearted person. Sometimes tough exterior, but a kind soul to the core. She lived in a rent controlled apartment for many decades. While rent control can be a great thing for people, there are often downsides. In grandma’s case, the building she lived in was always looking for ways to potentially get her out of the building so they could rent her apartment at a much higher cost to someone else.

She would get scared, “Am I going to lose my home?”

I had to take that notion away from her. I had to help. That’s how I started to have more conversations in public circles about real estate, and thus sparked the right one in the right situation, and found my self on the path that led me to where I am today.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Simply put the people around me. I believe in surrounding myself with people who are aspirational to me in terms of their business and real estate knowledge, and I try to be an open book and learn everything I can from them.

I think it is important to always be learning, and to always be open to someone else knowing more than you do. This is what helps you grow, and I think is also what has helped me to build a good reputation among my colleagues and clients. I try to be kind and open to learning from everyone I meet, and to back those qualities up with hard work. I’ve been very lucky to be around a lot of people who have helped me grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dragorealestate.com
• Instagram: @dragorealestate
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/dragorealestate
• Linkedin:  https://linktr.ee/dragorealestate
• Twitter: @mattdrago
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@dragorealestate
• Link Tree: linktr.ee/dragorealestate
• Business Card: https://popl.co/card/QxOwhxwa/1/s

Image Credits

SchlickArt