From His Family’s Taqueria to Selling Townhomes, Young JPAR Agent Rigo Guzman is Insta-Successful
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During the formative years when most young people are trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, Rigo Guzman is dreaming big, and bringing almost 130,000 followers along for the ride.
Originally from Mexico, the young JPAR Real Estate agent moved to the U.S. when he was 10 years old. As a young teenager, he began working with his brothers at their small Mexican restaurant, Guerrero’s Taqueria.
“I was a waiter and a cashier,” Guzman said. “I had a lot of experience working for tips and doing everything I could to make the customers happy. I wanted to pursue a better opportunity. What attracted me to real estate was that I noticed a lot of people getting rich from it. I didn’t have any money or any college. I thought maybe, instead of selling tacos, I could sell houses.”
He graduated from DeSoto High School and, shortly thereafter, became a U.S. citizen at age 19. He began studying for the real estate exam and got his license on his 20th birthday.
Social Graces
Now just 21 years old, Guzman is still fairly new to the real estate game, but his youth has proven handy when it comes to social media.
This kid has 129,000 Instagram followers.
You read that right.
For context, JPAR Real Estate — the whole company that serves as Guzman’s broker — has 2,826 followers.
“Even before I got into real estate, I was following a lot of Instagram Realtors that were killing it,” Guzman said. “I thought it was a big deal if someone had 20,000 followers. I did everything I could to make business my first six months. I cold called; I door knocked. It’s hard to meet a 20-year-old and trust them to represent you in the purchase of your home. I was chasing down buyers that didn’t want to work with me. I knew I needed to make a change.”
Guzman wondered how he could show people what he does and how hard he works. He began doing just that.
“I started scheduling houses and going out to look at them,” he said. “Instead of taking a client, I would just record videos. My first video got 2,000 views. I thought that was huge. I saw that I could make a greater impact.”
So he began shooting video, editing, posting, tagging, and hashtagging three times a day.
The trick to getting and keeping a lot of followers, he says, is consistency.
“Six months in, I had about $5,000 in my bank account,” the bilingual Realtor said. “I told my brothers I was not going to work with them at the taqueria anymore. Then I went crazy on social media.”
Social media marketing is a huge piece of generating business in real estate, says Tom Ferry, who coaches other agents on how to be more successful in a competitive industry.
Numbers Game
It’s nice to get 200,000 views of a home tour and 1.5 million likes on a listing, but the real benefit is when potential buyers reach out because they like what they see, Guzman said.
“Those are just Instagram numbers, but the actual real estate numbers come with that,” he explained. “They check my stories and see what I’m doing. People who want to work with me are calling me. People see that I’m successful.”
In his first year, before he could legally buy an alcoholic drink, Guzman recorded about $5.5 million in real estate volume.
“One check these days covers about two years of what I was making selling tacos,” he said.
He covers the North Dallas, Frisco, and Forney areas and says he’s undeterred by those who say he’s inexperienced.
“A lot of older buyers want to work with someone who understands them and their needs, but a lot of younger, first-time buyers want to work with someone who is young and energetic,” Guzman said. “It’s easier to get a buyer for a $400,000 home than a $1 million home, so I stick with what I’m good at. My oldest client is 35. My youngest is 19.”
Ninety-nine percent of Millennials (and 90 percent of Baby Boomers) begin their home search online, as opposed to in-person referrals, according to Sprout Social.
Guzman plans to continue growing his digital marketing game and share that knowledge with others. He and girlfriend Marisol Gallegos, another young JPAR Realtor, have helped each other get better as sales agents, Guzman said.
“I want to do educational videos, vox-style [animated] videos. I want to start a channel to share knowledge with younger buyers,” he said. “It’s stressful. Sometimes I feel like I’m just working for Instagram. But clients come in and say, ‘Are you Rigo? It’s kinda cool when people recognize you from Instagram.”
One thing’s for sure. Rigo Guzman has learned a lot in his short career, and this is just the beginning.
“I moved into a skyrise [apartment] and got a car this month,” he said. “Sometimes I can’t even believe it.”
