Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Patrick Kappel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Patrick , thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
I grew up in a small town in the Midwest, dirt roads, just a few stoplights. I opened my first “business” when I was 7 years old – collecting cans in the neighborhood with my sisters and selling them at the recycling plant. I opened my second business in the 5th grade when I started a paper route and became solely responsible for the delivery of the product, the collection of customer payments, and the acquisition of new clients. Paper routes teach a young person a lot about running a business.
My parents wanted us to see the world, and every summer we went on weeks-long camping trips around the country, including a trip that brought us to San Diego when I was in sixth grade. I declared I would live here someday, and my parents have always supported that dream.
If they had not been determined to show us a world outside of our small town, I know I wouldn’t be in San Diego today and working as hard as I do every day.
My grandfather, who was a businessman himself, also imparted words of wisdom upon me at a young age and, like my parents, always encouraged life-long education and learning. Most importantly, my parents and my grandparents taught me that the most important thing that you can do to ensure your success is simple – be kind to others.
Patrick , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My real estate career really began as a young boy. I always have admired my grandfather who was also in the Navy and then became a very successful insurance salesman and owner of apartment properties. I started studying the financial markets in elementary school when I would invest my paper route money in mutual funds.
I enlisted in the Navy right out of high school. Through the Navy, I received an education in nuclear science and nuclear reactor operation followed by a Bachelor’s degree from the US Naval Academy. I then attended UCLA Anderson where I earned an MBA with a focus in finance followed by a Master of Science in Real Estate from the University of San Diego.
My real estate career never would have begun in San Diego had it not been for the Navy mentor who encouraged me to buy my first home, a small one bedroom condo in Bonita, a property I still own to this day. That simple purchase showed me the benefit and opportunity that owning San Diego real estate affords. Every time I returned to San Diego from a military deployment, I would use my savings as the down payment for a property. After serving eight years on active duty and just over the age of 30, I owned four properties in San Diego. I was growing my net worth and cash flow by owning rental real estate. I learned that owning real estate is the surest path to financial security, and I figured that if I could do this, why couldn’t anyone. At that point, I transitioned from activity duty to the Navy Reserves to begin a career in real estate brokerage. My goal in real estate brokerage was simple – I wanted to help others find financial freedom through real estate ownership, be it a house or an investment.
Within real estate brokerage, most agents and teams study “sales”. Within my team, rather than teaching my agents sales, I teach my agents real estate. Although we work in the business of real estate brokerage and sales, I see my team more so as a real estate education team rather than a real estate sales team. If you educate clients about the benefits of owning real estate, it will sell itself. I believe this different approach of education rather than sales has led to our team’s success. Most of our business comes from referrals, repeat clients, and from consumers that attend our monthly real estate educational webinars. In the last two years, our team, the Kappel Realty Group, has grown from $30M in sales in 2019 to over $140M in sales in 2021. We are the #1 large team in Compass San Diego and top 1.5% of all teams in the country. As I look back over the years, I think of all the lives we have changed and the people we have helped through real estate ownership. I’m also proud of the 10 other agents on the team. I have found a great deal of fulfillment by watching their individual growth and success over the years.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The biggest challenge I ever faced was transitioning from the military to working in the “civilian world” as we call it. I always tell fellow veterans that the hardest part of the military is not boot camp, it is not the deployments, it is the transition out of the military into the real world. When I transitioned from the military in 2015, I was not exactly sure what I wanted to do, but there was this voice in the back of my mind telling me that I should work in real estate because I had developed a passion for it. Like many transitioning veterans, I ran the job hunt circuit and applied to various companies that I could easily and comfortably slide into. Ultimately, after receiving job offers from a few very good-paying W2 jobs with great benefits, I decided to take a job that ensured long work hours, $0.00 in guaranteed income, and zero benefits. That job as you can imagine is real estate brokerage. In fact, at the first brokerage firm I worked at I had to pay the brokerage $1,000 upfront just to work there and to receive the training. Who pays a company to work for the company? It’s usually the other way around. Well, I did. And it was a great decision.
So often people are looking at the short game wanting to make a quick buck, get a nice signing bonus, or comfortable perks. If you are an entrepreneur, you look at the long game and you want to build your own ladder that you can climb up rather than climbing a pre-established “corporate ladder”. I knew my long game was to work in real estate brokerage to help others achieve financial freedom through real estate ownership. Nonetheless, during my first ten months in real estate brokerage, I didn’t make a single penny. However, I kept pushing forward knowing that, like most entrepreneurial jobs, you often must make a lot of sacrifice upfront for fulfillment on the backend. There were certainly times during that first year when I thought about hanging it up and getting a W2 paying job. There were times when I was stressed and worried about finances. But I just kept pushing on (maybe it was my military background that had instilled in me the mindset to keep pushing forward). Finally, at month 10, I closed my first transaction and made my first dollar in nearly a year. The stress subsided, but just a bit. Like any business or entrepreneurial start-up, the first year had its ups and downs. Fortunately, my business has grown since that first year. I grew my brand and my client base while transitioning from being a lone-wolf real estate agent scraping to get by to a team leader with 10 other agents working together and now transacting over $10M per month.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Within the real estate industry, there is often a large gap of knowledge in what we call the “mom and pop” investment real market. These are families and individuals who are interested in investing in real estate. Large commercial brokerage firms understand investment real estate, but usually will not work with small investors or educate them. Because of that, investors often turn to their residential realtor, the same person that helped them buy a single-family home, to help them buy an investment property. The problem with this is the fact that a large number of residential agents specialize in single family home sales and they do not understand investment real estate and the financial investment formulas, the zoning, and the overall investment strategies that that one must be familiar with in order to fully assist an investor that wants to buy a 1-4 unit investment property. Because the majority of our team members have an investment real estate background and education and I train my team on investment strategies and formulas, our team fills the void in the market by assisting individuals and families that want to enter the world of real estate investment. Our team now is involved in 7% of the market share of all 2 – 4 unit real estate transactions in San Diego County and sold 250 units in 2021, whether on the buying or selling side.
Contact Info:
- Website: kappelrealtygroup.com
- Instagram: @kappelrealtygroup
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KappelRealtyGroup
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickkappel/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcfm5u1Kg-6zGwCFIcIenuA/featured
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/patrick-kappel-compass-san-diego?osq=Kappel+Realty+Group
Image Credits
Photos courtesy of Patrick Kappel