Daniel Berger - Adventures of a Real Estate Broker: and other stories - Part 2

In this engaging interview, Daniel Berger shares the journey of writing his first book, The Adventures of a Real Estate Broker: and other stories, blending storytelling with practical insights. Discover how his diverse jobs, family support, and passion for helping others shaped his unique approach to real estate and personal branding.

This is Part 2 of a 2-part interview.

https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Real-Estate-Broker-stories/dp/B0FMYNJSYQ

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Hello, and welcome to That's Good Pick It Up. This is Robbie Woodard, founder of Best Ball, and producer of this podcast for my friend Nate Hoxman. This is part two of a series where Nate is chatting with Daniel Berger about his book, Adventures of a Real Estate Broker and Other Stories. We hope you enjoy this podcast as well as the many others on the Best Ball Network. You can find them at Bestball.com or on your favorite podcast platform. Be sure to like and subscribe so that you don't miss an episode. And now, part two of Nate's chat with Daniel Berger. That's good. Pick it up.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Let's go through some of the stories briefly. We won't, you know, divulge everything, but some of them are just so good. Can you talk about um being a busboy at the Japanese restaurant? I loved you know hearing those stories of how those people kind of took you into their family, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:33

They they absolutely did. So Taiko, which means drums, in 1984. I was probably um I graduated in 87. So I guess I was a freshman in high school in 1984 on Long Island. It was the first Japanese restaurant. And uh so the way that we got the busboy job is my friend's brother, so the restaurant must have opened two or three years before. All of the bus boys were graduating, and they needed new bus boys. So my friend's brother was in that group of bus boys that were graduating, and they needed new people. So we basically became all the busboys. We basically went from seniors to freshmen. Um and and what was interesting about again, this was 1984. There, you know, uh these people hadn't been, the Japanese people hadn't been in the country that long. They were coming to America because so it was interesting. The the the Japanese people that were generally here were people who wanted to be different because America to them was the land of individualism. And Japan in the 80s was really more about being a, you know, being one, being all the same, right? Like if you would have seen a bus tour in New York City, they all would have the same luggage and wear the same types of clothes. The people that were at Taiko had earrings and colored their hair, were and were were were different. A total mot link for legitimately. And and what was amazing also to me was their love of golf. My my parents grew up in the city. I I lived across the street from a golf course on Long Island, the Lynx Club. I never my parents never did anything with golf. I didn't do anything with golf until I worked at Taycho, where part of my compensation, so I I would work there over the summers as well. And um part of my compensation was that they would take me to Beth Bade State Park to play golf before the restaurant opened. And everything about it, I mean, I I say in the book, like uh I would go, I I'd stayed at their house a couple times or I'd get there and then we'd sleep after work and then we'd go to the golf in the morning. But like whenever I was there, I could never even look at anything on the wall. If I saw a painting or a picture that I liked, they would say, here, you have it, take it. But we want you to have it. So they were the most giving people um and and were so respectful. And so it just it was it was really more, it was not just a job. It was like very important of how it shaped me. Um, I ended up at some point uh tutoring the owner's children when when I was a senior and they needed help with English or or or or math. Um so I helped them. Um another funny story from the book is they they had a sushi restaurant up at well that so they had one in Rockville Center, the town that I lived, then they they opened another one in Marikwell. I was ended up, I'd done every job there. That was when you were there, I I was there. If the if the um the um the dishwasher didn't show up and they needed to say, Danny, can you do that? So then I was the dishwasher that day. At one point, when I got a little older, a senior, they're like, you can be a waitress. So they didn't call it a waiter because they were very much like that was a woman's job. But they were like, you can do it, but we're calling you the waitress. I go, you can call me anything you want, as long as I can keep the tips. So um, but I bar attended, I did whatever. But but um I was probably a sophomore junior, probably a junior when this story happened. And the sushi bar would work up at Hunter Mountain is a ski resort out in upstate New York. Um, they would have the sushi bar Saturday and Sundays, probably it would open at about 11:30 for lunch, and it would close at like seven o'clock on Saturday, and maybe on Sunday it closed at like five. And so generally they were tired, they were whatever they were doing. Um, and when the the car was going up, it was like sometimes it was a van. This one case, it was basically like, I don't know if you remember from the Brady Bunch, it was like this this station wagon with like wood paneling on the side.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Um, was was like the the Brady Bunch or Partridge family type of uh, and it was me, it was the owner and full of fish, right? I think that did maybe another another, so it was all full of, and the fish is just it was either in like a styrofoam cooler or just on ice, right? And we're driving up, and and Hiro Ishikawa is the owner. He was too tired to drive. He's like, Danny, can you can you drive for me? And we probably left, we probably left at like 5:30 from Long Island or 5 30 is maybe it was seven, maybe. Um, because it was only about two and a half, three hours. It was about three hours. So I was like, sure, I'll drive. The only problem is I only had a learner's permit, right? And so the the rule with the learner's permit in New York is that you have to you can only drive with your parents. So I had the per I I I I must have had the permit on me. I'm driving it up, and and like maybe 10 minutes from the mountain, we get pulled over. I get pulled over for speeding. And so I roll down my window, the police officer comes over, I show my, and he's like, I'm assuming that's not your father. But no, he's my he's the owner of the restaurant. We have a sushi bar at Hunter Mountain. And so it was probably the first of many tickets that I've gotten, not I didn't get. And so it was an amazing story, and Hero was dying, and every, you know, that story was probably told a hundred times at the sushi bar that day. Yeah. But it, but but it was just like stories like that. We also catered rock concerts. So I got to be backstage for like Phil Collins, uh, for dire straits, for rush, for you know, so the experiences that I had with that were were amazing. So that that and I tried to write, I tried to talk about like a lot of the jobs that I had, that was that was you know one of my early jobs that I had uh prior to real estate.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

And you you did a great job of you know showing the reader how those jobs shaped you. And you know, you were it seems like you were born to be a salesman from your, you know, delivering papers to you know working for Poland Spring, you know, all those jobs had to have contributed to to where you are today, don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Absolutely. So it's so yes, I've always so delivering newspapers and penny savers, I probably started at eight years old. Um, you know, the Keiko was more customer service and dealing with people and things like that. Um the, you know, my first job out of college, I sold well in college, I sold ad space for my school newspaper, and it was commissionable. And but like I had a deal, I made a deal with with Domino's Pizza. They were taking two-page, full color page ads, um, you know, that were like$900 each time. They were running at$1,800 a week. I my commission was like 20%. Um, so so I've always been like selling like that. And then my first job out of school, I sold insecticides and herbicides in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I actually lived in Walnut Grove, Mankato, which is basically where Little House in the Prairie was uh was based out of. So I think those were more selling. I would say that what's interesting about real estate is I don't view it that I sell. So the I think the time that I do sell would be if someone has me come to their house and they want to know why they should use me to list their house. Yep, that's probably a little bit more me selling. But when I represent a buyer, for the most part, it's customer service and making sure that they get the right house. And I think one of the stories that I talked about is that I had 200, I worked with a client that I showed them 205 separate houses over the course of like 13 months. So sometimes we would go back and see the same house two or three times. That didn't count as more than one house. That was one house in the store three times. And and people were like, why aren't you just fire them? A lot of people, after 40 houses, you're like, there are some agents that think if you don't buy a house after 20 times, I'm no longer working with you. And I was like, they want to buy a house. We just haven't found the right house that meets their needs. And so I, you know, it was basically every Tuesdays and Thursdays, we'd get in the car, I'd pick her up, she'd give me the list. I'd have pre-made the appointments. We, you know, sometimes her husband would go, sometimes he wouldn't. He he felt like she's never gonna buy a house because she loves getting picked up by me. I drove her, and sometimes her friends would come or whatever. Um, 205. The 205. So the what's interesting is I showed this house in White Claims, New York to another client. The client says, no, it's not for me. And I'm like, I know who's who would want this house. And and basically I must have FaceTimed them from that house and said, I found the house for you. I go, we're gonna end at 205. And they're like, they were like, there's no way. And then they basically I sent them the listing. They're like, okay, when can we see it tomorrow? And from them not having good bids, they never really had a good bid because they never really liked the house. It was more like settling. So their bids were off because they're like, well, if I can get it for$150,000 less, I'd buy it. And this was like COVID, right? I'm like, that's not a that's not that's not a thing. But we found this house, their bid was spectacular. It was like$1.2 million, all cash, and we closed like within a month. And so it turned out that I still probably made like$100 every showing. So that's like, to me, that was fair, yeah. Right? Sometimes you make more. So I didn't have a problem, but what even better than that? Then eventually her mother passed. I ended up selling um a multifamily for a million dollars for them in the bonds, and they've referred multiple people to me. So they they enjoyed the experience so much that their entire family now are real estate agents. So they actually had a friend that was a real estate agent. It was interesting to me that they didn't work with that friend to buy house.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

But that's where they're working out. And I've always, every time I post something on Facebook, she is constantly, he's the best, he's so good, whatever. And she was, they were the first people at the at the house at the at the book signing. They're chapter five, 205 houses. They were unbelievable. They came, they wrote amazing things about the book on Facebook. They're like my biggest fans. And and that just shows that you don't give up, especially like I never pushed them. And if they didn't like a house, we wouldn't bid on it, right? So um, because you have to, if you have the long, the long game, you know, in your view, you you treat things differently than if you're like, you know, transactional and and thinking only about this this week, this month, this quarter, this year. You I have people who were um I've done 10 or 10, like the blind chapter 10 is Brian and Antoinette Network.

unknown 13:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

When I wrote the book, I think I had 10 deals with people that they've given me, them and their 10 people. Since then, I now have two million dollar places that are on the market in the bonds because because they view me that anything real estate, Danny's the guy to go to.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Yeah, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Um, and so um so so so we that's how you that's how I view it, right? Yeah, so you you can't look at people as dollar signs. You they're everyone's people, and I've done deals that are so tiny, like I've done$20,000 land sales, I've done a 250 square foot apartment that went for like they bought it for 40,000. Four years later, we sold it for 55,000. But like, that's a it's not a train, it's you look at it like a person, and I was there to help somebody, and that's what they felt comfortable buying. And I actually made almost no money. I actually probably made no money because at some point the woman got sick and I donated most of it to her her medical uh uh go go fund me. Um, but again, she was always saying things on on Instagram and Facebook and referred people to me too. And so, you know, it's kind of like pay it forward. Yeah. Yeah. I really that's been my that's been a strategy that's worked for me, kind of the golden rule. Um, you know, like people were like, so chapter 14's Danny Warbucks, where I've basically taken this 94-year-old person that has no family, and the things that I I've had to go to court to stop uh his foreclosure. I've had to fight with Social Security. They actually turned him off Social Security. I had to prove why that he's alive and they shouldn't. He hadn't been to a doctor in 10 years. I took him to his first doctor's. I, you know, moved him from a hotel that he was at for three years, and I helped, I, I, I fixed everything there. I then researched what uh senior centers, you know, senior living places to put him in. And people are like, you're not related to him? I'm like, yeah, no, he's a client. Because there's nobody else. There is nobody else. And I'm I'm so blessed that I'm able to have the time, the energy, the money that I can help other people. Because if I was in their situation, I would want to have a benefactor or someone to help me. Um, and to be fair, it may it does make me feel like I do get positive feelings for helping Andrew in this case, right? Like I was just there yesterday, and um, you know, we were chatting it up a little bit, and you know, he likes his his job. We were talking about the snap benefits and um, you know, a little hiccup of that going away. But what's interesting is he has enough money in his card. I said, they just didn't refill you for Mar for November. You still have money on it because he's in a place that's feeding him. I'm more like getting it for for others, you know, he he qualified for it. So I'm making sure that I'm I'm getting, you know, um, you know, enough juice and milk and you know, other other items, you know, uh, you know, yogurts and things to make sure that he uh you know has what he needs uh uh to supplement. But um, so it it's I've learned a lot of things about Medicare, Medica. I got him on Medicaid, um, you know, uh and and everything to do with, you know, him losing the house and then fighting in court to to prevent his uh condo from being taken from him. Um so it's it's quite interesting. But um, you know, it's it just you just you just try to help people. And um again, I feel so lucky that I'm able to help people.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Yeah, that that certainly comes across in the book, just your willingness to go above and beyond to help others. Do you have time to go through a couple more?

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Um You have to talk about the pornhouse.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

So the I was gonna talk about another thing, Fatso, but we Oh yes, those those are the two I was going to next. So the another thing Fatso, that's the one I changed the name of the person.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

Right, I figured.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

The person obviously has some uh mental things. But what's interesting is the owner of um the the owner of of that apartment, I helped rent it a couple of times. We picked somebody in who wouldn't leave, and we ended up having to evict the person because we he needed to sell it. I think he had some tax liabilities that were coming due and he had to he had to um pay and so we needed to sell. We had to get like eviction. This woman's like, so we put the house in the market, and the person that's living there is a nightmare, and she was making it so difficult. So, like every time we had a showing, like the owner had to go. Not me, the owner had to go. Yeah, and so it turned out that there were stories about the owner in the Daily News, in the in in the well, daily news, but also the New York Post. He happened to have owned a strip club. He happened to probably, this is way before I even knew him, happened to probably forget to pay some of his taxes. Um, you know, that sometimes happens when you're in a cash business.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

And um, so there were stories about the guy, and she basically left me like 14 voicemails in a row that were basically going off on him about he's a horrible person. The funny thing, he was the greatest landlord. He wasn't mean to her. He basically was like, no, he had been in prison at least for I don't, I think he did more weekends. I didn't ask him, I could do enough reading about it. To me, he was always so pleasant, followed up, I had no problem with him whatsoever. But so she's sending me all this stuff. I'm like, okay, that's his past life. People are allowed to have past lives. Um, yeah. But and then she's complaining, like, so when the house was the it was funny, our the apartment's on the market, and I kept getting so many leads from people. And then I I I I realized pretty quickly that she was calling other agents to see if we were really selling the house and she was putting an offer. She didn't have any funds to do it. Her brother-in-law was actually paying for her. I would I really said to her brother-in-law, why don't you just buy the apartment for her? But but then there was a problem is she was such a bad tenant that the building wanted to kick her out. So it was kind of like all these things, and like you cannot even imagine. So the last voicemail of these 14 that she left, and I I don't I I deleted all of them except for this one. She has a really raspy voice, and I and I actually saved the voicemail, and I play, I can I can send it to you. I played it for people, I still have it. Um and I the end of the chapter is is actually word for word what she left on my voicemail.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Yeah, I liked that.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

And it starts off like, and another thing, fat so like in this really raspy voice. And to be fair, that was my pre-Ozempic day. So so I was fatter. I still, the funny thing is I went from like 245 pounds to I'm like 210 now. And um so um between Zap Balno Zempic and Zap and Wadobi, I'm you know, actually, one of my that's another story for another day. One of my clients put me on the, he's a doctor and he put me on the drug. So I do have to thank him for that. Um, but so I still identify as a fat person, so if that helps with the story at all. Um, so that was a crazy story. We ended up selling it, but it was so painful. It was so he ended up getting a restraining order against her, and the judge, like, this is a guy that's been in jail, gets a restraining order about his tenant. And the judge during the uh during this the the the case was basically like almost almost got her for contempt of court during like a during Zoom trial. It was like on Zoom, it was crazy. It was you came to make this stuff up. So that's why I was like, how did we tell them the story? And so that was kind of the story.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Just I can't imagine. And you had other stories where you, you know, sold houses that were in just unbelievable condition, right? You open the door and you're just like, holy like that happens, that happens a lot.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Um luckily there are still a lot of people that are trying to get, you know, houses for uh uh flips and you know, fix flip uh fix and flips. So that's generally so you have to position it and price it right to be able to do that. But yes, what's worse is that there I've had houses that are like that with people that are still living in it.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

People are like, well, why aren't you cleaning out the house? And I'm like, it doesn't really work that way, right? So it's like that's when you're dealing with people, and I'm like, you don't want to embarrass someone, and sometimes they'll move out and sometimes they won't. But it's like I've had houses where the people are getting divorced and they don't really have money, and that's the best that they can do. And so I I'm always respectful. And sometimes I'll bring my cleaner in, and I won't show, I'll just have a little bit of a cleanup, but yeah, it's not always again like million dollar listing where you can stage things and it's that's just not how it works. And so ultimately, I I feel I I try to rule with compassion and and and try to make sure that we can get. get you know the right amount of money to um to help whatever but there's also stories of in one of one of my deals all the the people's houses were the all their the only equity was the house they didn't have money and they needed to and so what happens is you have to generally sell your house before you can get into the next place right if you don't have any if you don't have money for deposit first month rent last you know security deposit commission whatever you're kind of out of out of luck so I've had to for a client basically knowing that I'm about to sell their house I I basically lent them I've lent money a lot and I lend it at no cost to try to help them and get the deal long so the one example I had I paid their first month I paid their last security and then I said they will pay you the full year once I sell their house so they're like okay then they move in and then we find out at the last minute they didn't own their house. Well they didn't officially own their house we thought they owned their house but it turned out at the last minute an old deed came up that showed that she only owns 30% of the house and her sisters own the other 66%. And we're lucky that there was no feuding because we had to basically get the lawyers involved and get documents signed that let the the people that own more of the house give her their portion of the house. And if they didn't do that it could have been a problem. Yeah so I I also paid that those people besides paying for their first month last month and all that I also their deck was in shambles and I needed to have their deck you know like the holes in the deck fixed and then it painted and so what was interesting when that one closed I think my commission was like$15,000 and I got like$32000 in money that I lent that turned out not to be secured by their house because they didn't own their house without interest. So you know but but guess what they've referred multiple people to me. So you know you know I did it to help them but in the end of the day I got lucky because good things happened from it.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Yep yeah like you said before pay it forward and Danny they're just the the stories in the book are great we wanna don't want to give them all the way um tell tell people how how they can get a hold of the book.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Sure that would be great um it's I think it's$9.99 on Amazon you can get the um paperback uh hardcover I think is$39.99 which is great because those are it's a hardcover it's a keepsake and the pictures are in color or I think it's also on Nintendo for like five bucks and you just have to go to Amazon.com and put in the adventures of the real estate broker um or my name Daniel Vogel and even Bailey Herman Bailey is my co-writer so what the one thing on Bailey she was like well maybe I want to be a ghostwriter I said no no no if you're not putting your name on my book then I don't want you to do it. So because I'm like you're young you need this and then the other cool thing about my book is the so I went to Wash U, Bailey went to Wash U, and the cover was designed by a graphic artist who's friends with my daughter who also went to Wash U. Very cool I loved I I love that I was able to um Brook Adler shout out to Brooke who helped me do design the cover um you know that was her first book cover that she did. So I love that I was able to like everything's about like networking right and oh yeah and helping and helping people so my book is the combination of all that as well. So I I'm proud that I'm able to do that. And again I like that when people read it they don't say it sucks.

SPEAKER_03 26:48

And are you on social media? How can people find you on on social media? Do you still do that podcast?

SPEAKER_01 26:55

I I still have a podcast and luckily for me it's the same name The Adventures of a real estate broker you can you can go see it on YouTube on every other platform where um podcasts are um if you put in I think uh Daniel M. Berger Real Estate you probably would get my uh you know a link to me or I give out 914-565-0665 is actually my personal cell phone number. I get texts and calls and I can help people really anywhere in the world because if if you're in flo I just out helped a friend buy a house in Florida. I researched their town I found an agent that I thought would work with them and and and then they just bought a house in uh in Boca. So I can do that anywhere in the world I I've helped people all over. So um New York and Connecticut is more of where I work but I can always and then a lot of times I have people that might want to call just to you know they could be an agent and have questions they can be new they can be thinking about real estate. I mentor a lot of different people and unlike many coaches that charge I don't charge for my coaching.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

I feel again it's the pay it forward and um and I and I like talking to people and giving guidance where where I can that's awesome Danny thank you again for for taking the time to do this and congrats on the book and let's tee it up in 2026.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Well there you have it that wraps up the second and final part of Nate's conversation with Daniel Berger about his book Adventures of a real estate broker and other stories. If you like it there are links in the show notes to where you can find this book and support Daniel. Until next time this is Robbie with Best Ball you've been listening to That's Good Pick It Up a podcast by Nate Oxman got some exciting things in store for you so be sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss any adventures. That's good pick it up