Meet Kevin Kwan: Real Estate MatchMaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Kwan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
After graduating high school I got a job at Bank of America as a teller for the summer. Before heading off to college I submitted my resignation and gave my two weeks, but my manager said that I could not quit. She said that if I quit her retention rating would go down and that would affect her bonus. She made a deal with me, since I was going to a college that was about an hour away she said that I was going to be coming home on weekends so I could work on weekends for the time being. This ultimately led me to working at the bank longer and as a teller I noticed a lot of people cashing big checks. We always had to create small talk so I always asked people what they did who were cashing these large checks, and the common denominator was always real estate. So as I was finishing up college that was the career I wanted to pursue because I saw how much money you could make. I never thought of it as starting my own business, but more of a career choice I would try to see if I could make it in the industry. 16 years later here I am with a bag full of lessons on how to operate your own business and a lot of hard life learned lessons along the way as well too.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
The foundation of my business is based on doing the work we do the right way the first time, not cutting corners and to be different. I am a true believer in order to stand out from an already very highly competitive industry, I need to be completely different from what everyone else is doing. I find most agents tend to just do as what others are trying to do and they don’t set themselves apart in this industry. Being different starts from how I operate my business with my team and how we service our clients all the way to the marketing that we do to sell our properties. One of our tag lines is “Every Home Has A Story, so let us tell yours.” Every home does have a story and my team and I sit down with every property that we sell and create not a typical real estate listing video but a video that has a story and that can also explain the home as well too. Some times its a story we create from scratch, sometimes its an actual story of the owners, but we try to get as creative as possible with every one of our listings. With every buyer we work with we are creating that story with them as they embark on the journey of being home owners. This type of marketing is what has really excited me over the business recently, is being able to create these stories for the world to see.

I got to how I am today business-wise from the trials and tribulations of learning the business the hard way. Days often turned into burning the midnight oil and one of the most valuable lessons I learned was that I did not have to be the only source to handle all the business or manage a transaction and creating a team was one of the best decisions i ever made to better service my clients and to be more efficient with my business.

What I want the world to know about my brand or story is that my team and I are not what you may think of a real estate agent or team and the challenge for our brand is to preserve from all the preconceived notions of what a real estate agent is. Often times real estate agents do not have the best reputations. We are often referred to as used car salesman, or all about the sale. I think this is partly due to the fact that the barrier of entry into this business is too low. What I mean by this is, its too cheap to get a real estate license, you will also have many agents who work in this business part-time or something to occupy their time in retirement or to keep “busy”. Because of this you will get people who really should not be in this business, and those are the bad apples that ruin the reputation for our industry. My challenge is to defy those standards of what people think and really show them we are team that really puts our clients best interest forward and we are here to protect our clients in the real estate transaction. And to top it off it blows me away that people will hire a real estate agent that does this business part time, when this will be the biggest asset most people will every purchase and they will trust a part time person to help them manage that. I believe that being in this business we are truly here helping people with their needs in real estate. I often called their needs, “problems” because there is a need and they hire us to create that solution to that problem. Some problems are good some are bad, but that is our job to create the solutions. But in order to handle these problems effectively and efficiently this is not something a part time agent should or can handle as there are many obstacle within every transaction. So to keep matters simple always interview and always research who you would want to represent you and do always just use the person who was referred to you or a family friend or relative that does this “part-time”

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Itinerary

Monday – Pick up friend in the morning and head over to the Huntington Library in San Marino. We would walk the grounds of the gardens and break at one of the local eateries to enjoy the views and also grab a quick bite. After walking thru the gardens and the exhibits off to dinner. We would head over to Newport Seafood in San Gabriel for the world famous lobster to cap off the day.

Tuesday – To start the day we need coffee, so we would head to Pasadena to Jones Coffee Rosters for coffee. Once coffee is in hand we would make our way around the corner to Lucky Boys for their breakfast burritos. Once our bellies are full, we can head up the street to check our Pasadena City hall which is my favorite building in all of LA. Since we are close to old town we would enjoy a walk on Colorado Blvd in Old Town Pasadena which is where the Rose Parade starts each year on New Years Day. There are plenty of stores to shop at. For lunch we can stop by Bone Kettle for their bone broth noodles and after lunch we can shop some more in old town Pasadena and even make our way to the Paseo which has more shops. After all the shopping we would head to Monterey Park to Duck House for their peking duck and also duck soup which has earned them a Michelin star.

Wednesday – We would head to Arcadia to the Arboretum to visit the beautiful flower gardens for the day. After a long day at the Arboretum, we would make our way to Thien An Bo 7 Mon in Rosemead for the fried whole catfish and order the 7 course beef as well too.

Thursday – With a late start and a plan for a hike, we would make our way to the Pasadena Sandwhich Company to pick up some of the best sandwiches in town. We would take them to go and head on a hike in Eaton Canyon and head for the falls where we can enjoy lunch and head back for the day. For dinner we would go to Bistro Na in Temple City for some of the finest asian cuisine.

Friday – To get more shopping in for the day we would head to the Americana in Glendale. We would have breakfast/brunch at eggslut and shop for the day starting at the Americana and head to the Glendale Galleria across the street. We would make it to happy our in Old Town Pasadena at The Cellar which is a cool wine bar that is built in a basement off Colorado Blvd. After a long day a quick bite is the best option so we would head down the street to Arturo’s Taco Truck to catch some of LA’s best street tacos to cap off the day.

Saturday – It’s time to catch some horse races at the Santa Anita Race Track and place a few bets on some ponies. After a day at the racetrack we would head to the Derby for dinner which is where a lot of the jockey’s, horse trainers and horse owners go to eat after race day.

Sunday – Before heading back off we would catch dim sum which is asian brunch at Capital Seafood in Arcadia.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
One of the biggest life changing moments for me that completely transformed my life, the way I do things and credit a lot of my success was attending Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within.

Website: www.SGVlistings.com

Instagram: kevin_kwan_

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