KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Duane Richins on the Future of Real Estate: From Prospecting to Empire

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

SummaryThis episode provides a powerful exploration of what it takes to succeed in the real estate industry of tomorrow. Featured guest Duane Richins, a top-producing agent and business owner, shares his unique perspective on how the fundamentals of sales and a CEO-level mindset are more important than ever. The discussion reveals a clear blueprint for moving beyond a simple transactional business to building a scalable empire that can provide true financial freedom.Key TakeawaysMaster the Fundamentals: Richins emphasizes that despite all the new technology, the future of real estate belongs to those who master the fundamentals of prospecting and communication. He highlights that consistent, high-impact activities like phone calls and in-person connections will always be the most reliable source of leads.From Agent to CEO: Discover that the key to building a scalable business is a shift in mindset. The episode provides a clear blueprint for transitioning from an agent who does all the work to a CEO who builds systems and leverages a team to achieve massive results without burning out.The Power of an Unconventional Path: Hear how Richins built a multi-million dollar business by using an unconventional approach. He shares his story of leaving a traditional career and using a door-to-door sales mentality to build a massive network and dominate his market.The Long-Term View: Understand that true wealth is not in commissions but in building a long-term business. The episode highlights the importance of having a clear vision for the future, whether it's building a brokerage or investing in real estate, to create a legacy of wealth and time freedom.Topics:Duane RichinsFuture of real estateReal estate prospectingReal estate businessTime freedomCall-to-ActionReady to take control of your real estate career? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and start building your future today!

Hey, welcome, guys, to the Power Half Hour. This is episode 130. I can't believe we've done over 130 episodes. And today, we have a very special guest, also from EXP, and a great coach out of Utah. And Dwayne, we found each other on Instagram, I believe. And, yeah, now that we're both at EXP, I'm super excited to know what you're about, what you provide. and how you can bring value to our audience. So welcome.

Thank you for being here. Hey, thanks for having me. Awesome. Yeah, so do tell us a little bit about how you got started in real estate and what the whole story is like. I'll give you a little reader digest version. Initially, I started it as a medical career and was doing really well, ended up teaching some stuff

at Stanford Children's Hospital. And I had a bunch of buddies that were selling door-to-door alarms. And they were just crushing it every year. making more money and more money. And I was at the top of my game. And so I dove off, left a medical career, and went into doing door to door sales. And I made more in that first four months

than I had ever made in the six years that I had done in the medical field. And so it was an eye-opening experience of what sales can do for you. And through the last next six, seven years, I was top 10 for this alarm company. And, you know, Vivint, a lot of people have heard of them before, but I started making crazy money and investing in real estate,

realize I was like, oh my gosh, door-to-door real estate would be insane. And I don't know if anybody that's gone door-to-door as a real estate agent. So that's what initially got me into the path of selling real estate door-to-door. Wow. Okay, so six, seven years in alarms. And then before that, in the medical field, so when did you transition into real estate? What year? 2016

2016 so eight years that's not a long long time and you're able to succeed at a high level from door knocking

so did you jump right in door knocking from day one so I didn't to be honest with you I was making about $500,000 a year selling alarms and so I was nervous what a door to door hey

what a door to door real estate would look like. I was like, man, this is a different product. It's a bigger transaction. So I went in part time thinking I'm going to do this part time. My first month I sold 10 homes all door to door and had no clue what I was doing,

didn't have to do paperwork. I spent a bunch of time to the broker's office because I was screwing everything up. And so I took month two off and went back and sold alarms. Month three, I sold 14 homes and then took month four off again. And I did this kind of off and on. so I could figure out stuff, but I ended up selling 89 homes my first year part-time. Wow, part-time, 89 homes as a solo agent doing door-to-door. Did you make calls at all, or it was just purely door-knocking?

It was all door-knocking because my thought process was, as a cold caller, man, I don't like picking up telemarketing calls. And I did want to call friends and family. And so I'm like, I know door-to-door. If I can get in front of people and talk to them directly, I've got an appointment every time they open the door. So I was all about the door to door side. Very niche, man. I love it.

I absolutely love this because nobody's teaching door to door at a high level. So I appreciate you guys doing this. And it's very old school. What do you say about that? It is old school. No one does it. And it's not very common because it's not easy. You know, Ricky Caruth said, you know, it's not going to be saturated.

Door knocking is never going to be saturated. YouTube is never going to be saturated. Actually, cold calling is never going to be saturated because nobody wants to do it. So how are you increasing the mindset of the agents that work with you in your coaching program that door knocking works at a high level? Oh my gosh. Honestly, it's the easiest thing in the world. If you'll go out and actually just knock the doors, I don't care if you're spectacular, your pitch.

If you will just go knock the doors and get in front of people, You'd be surprised how many agents have the door open and they say, actually, we're looking to buy or sell and we just didn't know who to contact. And it's an absolute laydown and they pick up a buying a cell from just getting out there and getting in front of people and having it a numbers game. Do you believe that's a mindset issue then? Because a lot of times agents go out there, they're already thinking, okay, I'm going to knock this door, but door knocking doesn't work. Do you work with them on the mindset behind it? Yes. So we do a lot of mindset training.

But in reality, it's more of a mindset of you're not a pest. You shouldn't apologize for what you're doing. Because oftentimes agents will knock on a door feeling like I'm bothering these people. But in reality, we're professionals. We know way more than the average person knows. And they need our information. This is the most expensive transaction they're ever going to do on their life, they need us to knock on their door, they need us to educate them. And if agents will just

shift that mindset right there to, I'm a professional and they need me, that will be a game changer for the majority of the agents that are knocking doors. This is a game changer right here because you need to first think that you are valuable, that you have the information. And this is one of the biggest assets in your life. And we're here to help. So don't be apologetic. in knocking on doors and reaching out to people. This is your job. Let me ask you a question. How would you know, like, how many doors you need to hit to get to one sale?

Like, people in your coaching program, let's say, as an average. So on an average, you know, they're about 250 to 300 actual contact. And that's what we strive for every week. I want everybody doing two to 300 contacts per week. week. And you will find plenty of people. I've got countless people in our coaching program that have 10 listings that are picking up just every week they're picking up new clients.

And it's all based on just getting out and getting in front of it. Now, as you get better at your pitch and asking the right questions and doing all of that, I only knocked for two years before I was able to leave doors and just go off of repeat referral clients. But I got closing every seven doors I would pick up a listing. Every seven doors. So meaning every seven conversations, but obviously you knock a lot more doors. Right.

Right. Okay. Guys, every seven contacts to a listing taken. Okay? That's no joke. But you need to be very high level at that point. You must have knocked thousands of doors by that time, right? Not hundreds of thousands of doors.

So I think that's a big misconception that a lot of people in real estate think, oh, I'm a door knocker, but they actually go out and knock around an old. open house for an hour. For Jeremy and I that have done door to door in other atmospheres, in alarms and different things like that, door knocking starts at like 930 in the morning and goes till 10 o'clock at night. No, wait, wait, hang on, hang on, hang on. Just say that again, so we could hear it again. Real door knocking starts at 9.30 in the morning and goes till about 10 o'clock at night. And when you're doing that many doors, you get really, really good at reading people and asking questions.

No kidding. So the way I see it is when agents ask me, when should I door knock? And I would tell them this, Duane. I would say that you should door knock from four to six, Monday to Friday. And then on the weekend, it would be 10 to 12 on the weekend or Sunday night at around 4 to 6 when people are home. But guys, if you really want to make this work, it's 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. So that's no joke.

So I'm going to give you an objection here. But that's so tiring, Dwayne. It is. It is. But it's worth it. Here's what I always tell people. If you could go out and work a regular job, eight to ten hours a day, and I paid you $1,000 an hour to do that, would you do hard work?

And every person will raise their hand and say, yeah, I would do that. If you'd pay me $1,000 an hour to go out and do this. I would do it all day long. Guys, we make more than that as real estate agents. We just don't put in the effort we should to be able to quantify that and build it at a massive scale. Well, it's true. And when you're hitting 250 to 300 contacts per week, that's about, you know, that's 50, 60 contacts

per day. Okay. So that's, that's legit. And that's a lot of, that's hundreds and hundreds of doors per week. okay now I want to talk about rejection because this is big in today's we just found out I crunch the numbers in greater Vancouver

in my area the last two years were the worst selling years in 30 years in Vancouver okay and people are leaving the business because they can't take the rejection but the ones that do stay

we're going to devour market share so how are you getting your coaching clients to get over the rejection that they get on a daily basis. I mean, it's all mindset again, John. If you look at it, this may be the worst years we've had since 1963. Sure. But in reality, we're still selling a lot of real estate. Heck, I've closed over $5 million in February myself off repeat and referral clients.

You're still in production? I just repeat and furl. That's it. Just repeat in furrow. Okay. Right? So I still sell about $30 million a year in real estate every year. But it takes me about an hour and a half.

to do it because I have all the systems in place where everything's done for me. But needless to say, there's still tons of real estate that is happening right now. It's just a matter of having the mindset that it's not a doomsday market and there's still plenty of deals. The people in our coaching programs are killing. In fact, I got to highlight one of our guys in Singapore that's in our coaching program, an area that I don't know. I've never been to Singapore. This guy, John, is doing 600 contacts a week. Okay. If we talk about rejection, wow.

He's putting up the last two weeks, he's put up six listings a week by hitting those kind of numbers and just getting out. He's starting early in the morning and going 12 hours a day. And he's killing it. So it's a numbers game. Yeah. At the end of the day, it's a numbers game. No matter how you look at it, it's a law of numbers. It's a law of ratios.

And you'll get better as you go. But the good news, what I heard just now was, hey, you do this. You do this for two years straight, knocking 300 doors a week, 300 contacts a week, you're going to be able to live off of your database. That's exciting. It's huge. So is that something that you guys coach in the coaching program? Like, okay, well, let's cultivate this database at the same time.

We've got to go door knock every single day. What system do you have for the agents to succeed in that? You're going to laugh, John. My time in real estate, I never used a CRM. So I did follow-ups. I didn't do, I did client events, and I knocked doors. So I would only take now business. I look back and look how foolish that is because of all the clients I could have captured.

If they weren't ready to buy or sell with me within a month, I kicked them to the curb and said, contact me whenever you get ready. And I did not follow back up with them. So, yes, for our clients, I'm pushing hard the now business because I want people to deal with clients that are ready. Because too often as real estate agents, we chase those clients that say, yeah, we want to do it. And seven months down the road, you're still following up with them. And they have not transacted.

And it's a very scarcity mindset, in my opinion. And we need to have a way bigger abundance mindset to where they're chasing us, wanting us. So that's a big mind shift that I think a lot of agents need to make. I love that. They need to be chasing us. And if you're not doing business with me in the next third, 30 days, call me back. Call me when you're ready.

I love that. And, you know, because I'm a big Mike Ferry guy, right? And he preaches that a lead to him, a guy doing 100 deals a year would be someone who's willing to do something buy or sell a home within the next seven to 10 days. And Mike would throw them away if they weren't that, which comes back to it's not scarcity. It's actually abundance mindset because I. I can get more here. Right?

So you're not holding on to all those dead leads or someone who's not doing something right now or maybe doing something in a couple years down the road. Why wouldn't I want to hang on with that guy? Totally agree. The scarcity mindset is agents will hang on to this person saying, man, I've got one. I don't want to let go. They want to transact, but they don't look at the timeframes.

And they miss so many deals because they're hanging on to this one deal for way too long. Oh, gosh. I love that. I love that. And I think we need to think more like that. For someone who's not doing something now, you don't need to call them on daily basis. Just throw them in the database. You want to do the email blast, great, but just leave them.

I think that's a great idea. So let me ask you this, too. When you go out there door knock, I used to just door knock expire listings for sale by owners. I rarely door knocked around my open houses. What are you having your agents do door to door? Which source? I want them to park their car in a neighborhood. and get out and knock every door.

So I'm not looking for expires. I'm not looking for FISBOS. I'm literally going door to door. Now, I don't want you to go door to door because you're going to waste a lot of time knocking on doors that someone's not home. So you watch for signs of life,

but yes. So we have a door knocking app, John, that we just are developing that will release here probably in the next 10 days where they can track everything right from their phone, put them to a database, get them to where they can send handwritten letters from there. When they knock on the door, they know the client's name, they know credit history,

they know when they bought the home, equity, they know everything about the client before they even knock on the door. And we use that a lot in the alarm industry, but we've built this for real estate. And it'll be a game changer for doing real true door-to-door real estate. So it's going to be a lot of fun. Wow. And so you're incorporating some tech into door knocking. I love that.

Amazing. So tell me a little bit about the coaching program. How does it work? What is the outline? What is the synopsis? Like, how are you coaching these people through Zoom calls? Or are you, like, out on the field with them? What does it look like?

So we have, Jeremy has flown out. Jeremy's my head coach. He's a beast. If you guys haven't followed Jeremy on Instagram, the guy sold 75 homes his first year. And just a massive, dude when it comes to real estate. But our main source is Jeremy does a one-on-one call every week with them,

where he spends 30 minutes with them diagnosing their business and helping them get to the next level. I'm on a group call with them once a week. And then we have huge, massive accountability sessions. We do a lot of competitions. But here's one of the key factors is every day we're doing role plays twice a day. And role playing what they would get on a door approach twice a day to help them fine tune their pitch.

So when they get in front of a live customer, it's just second nature for them to roll off exactly what the objections are. So show me, show me a script, like a door to door. If you're just parking your car, what would the script be? So it's pretty simple. And I tell people it's not about the script. It's about listening to your client and engaging them to be sold how they want to be sold.

My opinion is just, hey, my name's Dwayne. I work for EXP. Did your neighbors tell you I was going to stop by and see you? The majority of the time you're going to get a no at that point. But what it is is a focus redirect. It causes them to think what neighbor would have said that. And it does happen because as you start selling a bunch of real estate, people do talk. And I'll say, he's going to be coming by.

And so it's not like I'm fabricating this big old story. But Dwayne's going to come by and listen to him because he's crazy knowledgeable about the real estate market. But 99% of the time, they're going to say no, the neighbors haven't said anything. Cool. I never thought about buying, selling, or investing in real estate. Buying, selling, wasting, okay. Take what they go from there.

And oftentimes, I want a no, John. I really want to know. Because if they're saying yes, that means they've already reached out to other agents. They're already in the process. I want to help them buy now with me and earn their trust and business for life. So I want that to know at that point. Okay. So let's just say I say no.

No, I'm not looking to do anything. right now. Where do you go from there? Cool. Is this your forever home? No, we're looking to upgrade maybe in about five years. Okay. Why five years? Yeah, you know, all the kids are still in school and, you know, if they, you know, move out, we'd like to actually get a better home. Cool. So you want to upgrade? Yeah. Now, if you could do that sooner and save a bunch of money by doing it sooner, would you consider it? What do you mean by that? Good question. How well do you know the real estate market? Not too well. I mean, we've been here about five years.

Okay. What do you feel like the market's going to do? Go up or down? I think go down because the interest rates are so high. Okay. You think the interest rates will cause it to go down? Yeah. Okay.

So if rates were to go down, what do you think is going to happen to buyers? Do you think it would create more buyers or less buyers? More, I think. Now, if we look back, let's just say two years ago when interest rates were 4%, what were homes doing? What were home prices at? Oh, yeah, just bananas. Yeah. Going through the roof, right?

Yeah. Now, people were offering way over a list price. So would you consider this to be a great time to buy a house or a horrible time to buy a house based off of interest rates? That's actually a great question. I don't know. I mean, so I'm going to be in competition of the interest rates go down. So right now the interest rates are high. It just depends on my capability and my finances and purchasing a home.

But yeah, I mean, right now I'm not really thinking about it. So I'm not going to take the action. And that's what most people are doing. So that's why oftentimes right now we can save even up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I can walk you through how that works. So if you were to go in and put in an offer on a home that's been on the market for, let's say, 50 days. How much do you think we can negotiate a purchase price? I'm no idea.

You're about 20 to 30,000 bucks. Let's just say $20,000. Okay. You're going to be able to get you down there. Now, also at that point, you're going to be able to ask for closing costs. Closing costs typically run about 2% of whatever the home price is. What type, what price of home would you be looking at? 700,000.

Okay. So we'd save you another 15,000 bucks there. Yeah. Okay. Also repairs. You're also able to negotiate in repairs if there's something. there. We can save $5,000 there. So we're about, you know, $30,000 right there. Now we're going to flip this around. This is the lowest we've had as far as purchases since 1963. So there's a

ton of pent up demand. Sure. Let's see. Wage drop to that 3% mark, 4% mark. Yeah. How much would you have to pay over list price if you were to buy it at that price point? Gosh, I don't know. I mean, I've heard, you know, upwards of 50 grand, 80 grand, 100 grand, over asking, you know, it was just what it was during COVID, right? Right. During COVID, we saw a lot of that. And I don't think we'll get down to that interest rate. So I don't think we'll have to battle that much.

But let's just say it's $30,000. You have to pay over list price. Yeah. Okay. Are you going to get sellers to pay your closing costs if you're in a bidding more? Likely not. No. Okay.

How about repairs? No. So that other 20,000. is out the window plus you're paying $30,000 more. So really it's a $100,000 swing between buying now and paying a little bit more. Now, how much more would you end up paying if you're paying 2% interest rate higher on a home at $700,000 in your payment? I don't know. So you're about, let's just say, I want to say $2,000 a month.

Okay, we're going to shoot really high. It's going to be way less than that. How long do you think it will be before rates draw? I thought it was going to cut six times this year, wasn't it? They've talked about it. They've talked about it. So do you think for sure over the next year, rates will come down? I don't know for sure.

No, nobody knows. No one does. What would be your guess? Two years? Do you think within two years? Yeah, maybe. Rates would come down? Yeah.

If you look at that, if you say, hey, I'm paying $2,000 more a month right now, and I do this for two years, that's $24,000. Would it be worth it for you? you, sir, to pay $24,000 to make $100. If I'm a betting man, yeah, that sounds pretty good to me. Okay. And can you refinance if they were to change sooner? Sure.

So at that point, a lot of families, what they're doing is looking into, you've heard the saying, I'm going to date the rate, but I'm going to marry that house. So if we could save you a whole bunch of money on the purchase now because it is a buyer's market, you're going to be able to change up that rate at a later point. point in time. Gotcha. Okay. So tell me more about what you want to get into as far as a home. Yeah, $700,000, four-bed, three bath.

Okay. Is there a certain location you want to be in? Yeah, Salt Lake. Okay. Are you available to look at houses tonight? I mean, no, but I mean, if you can send me some stuff, I'd be happy to take a look at that. Okay. What I'd love for you to do, John, I want you to jump online and send you, me your top three favorite houses that are on Utah real estate.com tonight. Okay. I'm going to send you three based off of what I know you're looking at.

And then we'll set something up for tomorrow. How does that sound? Sure. Cool. And the reason I ask for the three homes is I want them to show me they're engaging. If they don't send me three homes, I know they're not interested. And the big key factor to that is I want them to go look. Because once they get excited about a buy, they're going to move forward with buying.

Right. So I don't go for the list. I go to get them to be excited about a buy and purchasing that next house. Interesting. Okay, good. This is eye opening because a lot of times we just go to the door. We want the listing. We want the listing. We want the listing. We want the listing. You're going from the other point of view, which is I want them to get excited about the buy first. Then, of course, the listing is then natural. Yes. Yes. It's so easy because once they get excited about new and shiny, you think about it. You go by a new car, you start looking at new cars, you want a new car. You start looking at a new house, and especially if you're upgrading, and that's all we knock. John, we target areas where they're going to upgrade. So it's always exciting. There's always turnover. And once they start looking at upgrading, those bells and whistles start ticking and they figure out how to do it. And it's

easy to get that list. Do you do the research beforehand to see if there's a lot of turnover, a lot of young families. You're not going after like senior, you know, complexes. No, I'm not knocking anything that's this. They're forever home. So I'm not knocking $700 to million homes. I'm knocking in more town homes that around the $400,000. Oh, okay, okay, okay.

This is good. This is good. So you want high turnover. You want lower price points to move them up to a bigger price point. You're not knocking those downsizers. No, because here's the cool thing. I can get them to sell a $400,000 condo and buy a $600,000 house, it's a million dollar transaction.

But the sexy thing about that is they also have a ton of friends that are in the same demographic that they're going to refer me. Also, that's not their forever home either. They sell a four and they buy a six. They're going to sell that six and buy an eight or a nine later on the road. Yeah, that's your past client. And so I'm getting all of the referring. and database off of all of those clients.

And so there's a ton of market. Not only that is you start listing in a townhome community and you get three or four town homes listed. Like my first months in real estate, I listed 10 town homes in that one community, in a month. In the one community in a month. And so when I would walk on doors,

like, hey, my name's Dwayne. They're like, oh yeah, you're selling all of the neighbor's homes. What in the world is doing? And so I didn't even have to, even tell them what I was doing, they already knew me because of all the signs, the credibility. And I was the guy. I was the listing agent in that area. Yeah. You guys can see how powerful that becomes because if you knock that complex and you have five signs, 10 signs in the area, you automatically become the guy. Like, there's no

question. I see your signs. And at that point, the conversation is even easier. Oh, yeah, Dwayne, we've seen you. Yeah, we're looking at list, but not right now. Blah, blah, blah. And next thing you know, it becomes your client. So it's actually, if you do it well, your referral and repeat career begins a lot faster. Way faster. That's why I was only able to or only had to knock for two years.

And I can stop and sell $30 million a year in real estate. Amazing. And that just becomes. And obviously now you do client parties as long as you treat them while you call. Do you have a program as well for after you turn them into your past client? So I just do, as we knock on doors, if I can't sell them right then, I invite them to events. And so we're inviting them to movie events, Easter egg hunts, ice skating events, barbecues at the park, charity events, 5Ks. You know, every month I throw an event.

and if I'm being honest with you, I can't ever remember their names. So I hope my clients are watching right now. But a lot of times they'll show up. It's like, hey, Dwayne, it's great to see you. I was like, hey, buddy, how are you? And shake their hand. And they come to my event. But that's where I pick up almost every month I would sell two or three homes from people

I've knocked on their door and they show up to these events. And then through the RSVPs, I'll have them reach out and say, hey, I can't make it. Can I send these tickets to some of my friends? And it's like, absolutely. Get them there. We'd love to have them. Wow. Okay.

So I never want to walk with them on a real estate conversation. I never reached back out to them and say, hey, you know, I knocked on your door a month ago. Have you considered changing your mind? Are you ready to do real estate right now? Don't do that. No. It's more so, hey, I've got a free event for you. Do you want to come?

And what are these events? What do you do? So I've done everything from Easter egg hunts to we've done barbecues in the park. We've done concerts. We've done ice skating events. We do a lot of movie events because they're cheap. I love those. All kinds of events that way, just to gather people.

And I do it by text message. I'll have my assistant, do the Reach app, if you guys have heard of that. Yes. It sends individual texts like they're being contacted individually, but I can reach 500 people at a time and invite them. They click the link and hit Y to our SVP and no to not our SVP or just ignore it. And that's how I contact them every month. I love that. I love how simple you put it.

And guys, no two ways about it. What we talked about in the start is 250 to 300 homes every single week. You do that for two years. You're going to have a business for life. So, gosh, that was quick. Duane, we are at time. I'm going to trouble you to drop in your link to real D2D, your coaching program on the wall. We're going to need a part two with Jeremy as well.

Sound good? Yes, we should bring him on. He's a stud. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for all that you shared today, guys. And if you think door knocking doesn't work, repeat, listening to this podcast on repeat will change your mind. Thank you, Duane. Any last insight for the audience?

Guys, just get out there and hustle. And find people, mentors that can teach you to do it at a big scale. That's probably one of the biggest advice I could give to anybody. If you want to get where someone else is, learn from them, grow with them, keep following John and his stuff. There are so many good mentors out there that want to see you grow and succeed. Get with them and then just go put in the effort to rip off and repeat what they're doing. They'll teach you. Just go do what they're doing and you will find massive success.

Love it. Love it. Go out there and hustle guys. All right, guys. Make it a great day. We'll see you all next week. Thank you, Dwayne. Hey, we'll see you.

Thanks for having me. See it.