Mike Ferry’s Podcast the Original: Daan De Raedt on Treating Your Team Like an Asset, Leading Without Ego, and Building a Business That Doesn’t Need You 12 Hours a Day – Tony Smith Interviews Daan De Raedt

In this episode, coach Tony Smith sits down with Daan De Raedt of Property Collective in Great Falls, Virginia. Daan moved from Belgium to the US in 2005 to follow his wife. A year later, he started in real estate doing admin work for a Mike Ferry broker. Years of prospecting expireds and FSBOs followed before he built his own team. Today he runs a brokerage of about 12 independent agents. He also leads a small sales team of three agents and two full-time admin. This year, the team is at roughly $130 million in closed and pending volume. That adds up to about $3 million in team GCI and $1.8 million in personal GCI. In this conversation, Daan talks about the years of grinding that built his database. He also shares how one coaching call changed the way he sees his team. Finally, he explains how he redesigned his schedule without giving up income.

From Belgium to a 20-Year Real Estate Career

Daan’s start in real estate came through family. His father-in-law, a real estate attorney, introduced him to a broker who followed the Mike Ferry system. Daan began with admin work and a few sales calls. He then joined another Mike Ferry team, where prospecting became a daily habit. Expireds and FSBOs were his main focus. After three or four years, he and his wife started their own team around 2011. As the business took off, his wife left her corporate job to work with him. In 2018, they opened their own brokerage, Property Collective.

Eight Years of the Grind

Daan is candid that his growth wasn’t fast. It was a steady climb of 5 to 20% a year. Reaching 50 deals on his own took five or six years. His personal production eventually peaked around 80 listings sold. What built it was about eight years of following the Mike Ferry schedule “literally like a religion.” He was in the office at 7 and role played at 7:30. By 7:45, he was calling new expireds before anyone else could. Prospecting ran until 11. Most afternoons brought one or two listing appointments, three to four days a week. That work left him with a local database of 500 to 700 people. They still send him repeat and referral business today.

Looking at Your Team as an Asset

Daan once set a goal of $1 million each in commission sales, flip revenue, and rental cash flow. Sales have hit that mark many times over. His rental portfolio now brings in about $20,000 a month. During one coaching call, Tony pointed out something important. Daan checked on his rentals almost daily, always looking for ways to improve cash flow. But he didn’t think about his team the same way. Yet the team generates $600,000 to $800,000 a year for him. Seeing the team as an asset changed how Daan leads. He became more engaged with his agents and more focused on their progress. Their productivity rose as a result. Rather than adding more people, he wants to grow the income of the agents he already has. He also wants an office he enjoys walking into every day.

Leadership Without Ego

Daan says he’s still learning to lead, but a few principles guide him. First, he has open and honest conversations with his agents. Every quarter or two, he asks what’s missing and what he could do better. He also asks what keeps them on the team and what might make them leave. Second, he doesn’t cherry-pick leads. About ten years ago, he decided to only work listings. Now every buyer lead, even a $2 million one, goes to the next agent in the rotation. Third, he gives his agents the benefit of the doubt on split or lead-source questions. An extra $5,000 isn’t worth damaging the team environment, he says, even when he thinks he’s right.

A Schedule Built by Design

Daan’s days used to start at 4:30 or 5 a.m. and run 10 to 12 hours. Now he drops the kids off at school a few times a week. By 8 or 8:15, he’s in the office. The first hour goes to hot leads and database calls. Next, he spends 30 to 45 minutes in the team’s CRM, coaching agents on their follow-up. Appointments are booked at 11 or 1. After that, he heads to the gym and picks up the kids. At first, working 3 to 5 hours a day felt “almost too good to be true.” He kept wondering if he should be doing more. Tony reminded him that he’d proven the system over 10 to 15 years of hard work. And if anything changed, Daan still knows how to get back on the phone.