The deal doctor: How a Miami agent closes $25 million+ a year selling condos to plastic surgeons

Struggling to find a lucrative niche this year? You’re not alone. With leads scarce and deals drying up, you’re probably considering niches you wouldn’t have touched with a ten-foot pole in 2021. Probate, divorce leads, short sales — everything is on the table when you have a mortgage to pay. Leads are leads, right? There’s just one problem: every agent in your office is in the same boat.

Efrain Daza might have a solution to your lead problem. Daza found a niche that launched him onto the Real Trends Verified list after just five years on the job. It worked well enough to make him the number one agent in his office — no small feat in Miami, where the best luxury condos often get snapped up by insiders before construction even begins. Here’s the niche: He sells pre-construction condos to foreign buyers, nearly all plastic surgeons and doctors from his native Colombia.

We recently sat down with Daza to learn how he did it. He walked us through how he generates and vets foreign buyer leads remotely, his white-glove approach to servicing clients and offered his advice for agents considering entering his lucrative niche.

No pressure, no diamonds

Like so many of us, Daza only considered real estate as a career after a rough patch in his life. After filing for bankruptcy in Colombia, he relocated to Miami, where he struggled to find high-paying jobs. He was broke, stressed out and miserable. Then his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Surrounded by gleaming luxury condos and crypto millionaires driving Ferraris,  he wanted in; he just wasn’t sure how yet. His mother suggested real estate:

“Going into real estate was my mother’s idea. I told her I was unhappy, but if I left my job, I didn’t know how I would pay my bills each month. She told me, ‘Efrain, you’re good at selling. Why don’t you try selling houses?'”

Expand your sphere of influence

Getting someone in another country to know, like and trust you enough to handle their transaction isn’t easy. And if you don’t have experience working international transactions, it’s nearly impossible. It’s not like you can just plunk down your credit card and buy international leads from Zillow or Market Leader, and online ads yield mixed results, at best. This is why Daza recommends starting with your sphere of influence (SOI) — a strategy he discovered one fateful day on the treadmill at his local gym:

“I met someone at the gym who was also from Colombia. He told me he was a plastic surgeon. He asked me what I did for a living, and I decided to be honest with him. I told him that I just got my real estate license and didn’t really know what I was doing yet. He told me his daughter was moving to Miami from Colombia and needed an apartment. He asked if I could help her find one.”

While you might not get as lucky as Daza, the first step to building an international client base is to expand your SOI. Having personal connections helps, but setting aside time each week, or even better, each day, to intentionally develop your sphere with expats (short for expatriate: someone who resides outside their native country) can work just as well.

• Next steps: Start with expat Facebook Groups, but in-person networking produces better results. Head to a local coffee shop, restaurant or community center and start meeting people. According to Daza, it’s the best (and only) way to land your crucial first client.

Learn how international transactions work

The client had a $1 million budget to buy one apartment for his daughter, but Daza, with help from his broker, Micheal Suarez, advised him to purchase multiple investment properties instead. It worked. The client was ecstatic. Daza earned more money from one client, his first, than he had in several months at his previous job. He was also helping people from his country invest in the American dream. He was hooked.

Daza and Suarez developed a business plan to capitalize on the success of Daza’s first deal. They realized that wealthy people in Colombia view real estate in the United States as a safe and potentially lucrative investment opportunity. They decided to focus on building his book of business with other plastic surgeons in Colombia. He had found his niche.

• Next steps: Begin considering how you can rebrand yourself as an international real estate investment advisor. The first step is to learn the basics of transacting in the United States as a foreigner. It’s not as complicated as you might think. Foreign national loans often have lower interest rates than loans for citizens, a fact Daza discovered when he purchased his first home in Miami.

Become your office’s investment property guru

After mastering the international transaction process, Daza knew he needed to learn as much as possible about the investment properties his clients were most interested in: pre-construction luxury condos.

He started touring new developments and forging strong relationships with the developers. According to Suarez, Daza’s work paid off in spades. He is now the go-to pre-construction expert in Suarez’s 100-agent office. Recognizing his talent and hustle, developers often cover the costs of Daza’s trips to Colombia to network with potential clients.

• Next steps: If you’re working condo buildings, learn everything you can about them. Which buildings have the best amenities and branding? Which lines in the building are most sought-after and why? Which units have the best views? You should be able to rattle this information off instantly, because this is precisely what you’ll need to do in the car with your international clients. 

Come up with a white-glove client service plan

Once the referrals started rolling in from his first client, Daza quickly realized they needed more help than traditional buyers. He knew he had to be part Realtor, part tour guide and part investment advisor — a tall order.

To take his client service to the next level, Daza handles almost every detail of touring Miami with his clients. He picks them up at the airport, brings them to a hotel he has chosen for them, and drives them around the city to show them the sights and explain the nuances of Miami’s neighborhoods and the many new developments in the city. He even offers to lend them his personal car if they want to drive the city alone.

Overkill? Perhaps, but Daza and Suarez both attribute his success to his dedication to providing exceptional customer service. It’s what helps separate Daza from the hundreds of other Colombian immigrant Realtors in Miami. Anyone can help someone buy a condo. Daza offers them a concierge-level service. The difference is everything.

• Next steps: Consider how you can exceed expectations for international buyers. List their pain points — opening a bank account, not knowing where to stay, not having a car — and then come up with a detailed plan to solve them. How can you make their trip and transaction easier and more personalized?

Your turn

Know an agent who’s thriving despite the odds and has actionable insights to share? We’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us here: [email protected].

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