I Wish I Knew This 20 Years Ago…
If you could go back 20 years and start your real estate career over, what would you do differently? Fiv Realty CEO Nazar Kalayji gets this question all the time — and his answer isn’t about scripts, lead gen, or marketing budgets. It’s something much simpler, and much harder to fake.
“Hey, this is Nazar, the CEO of Fiv Realty. I get this question all the time, and here’s the answer. If I can go back 20 years and start my real estate career all over again, what would I do differently?
I would have joined a team. Now, you might argue 20 years ago there weren’t teams — it wasn’t prevalent. I would have joined an independent agent. I would have become their assistant, or done something — just shadowed them, become their chauffeur, whatever it was — just to be able to rub shoulders with them as they went to listings and showed homes, and how they did the nuances of it all, how to negotiate properly, how they handle the stress and the ups and downs of this business.
I would have done that for about six months before I really got my feet wet into the business. Because even though most agents want to join this industry and make a ton of money, the money will follow. But the systems, the processes, the nuances of the day-to-day — that’s the magic. That’s the key to really knowing how to set up a foundation to be successful.
And yeah, you’re right — as an agent, you could do it yourself. But why? Why have to reinvent the wheel? Just might as well do it right from the very beginning by learning from the best.
So if you’re either brand new, or even an agent who’s kind of struggling, I would invite you to join a team. At Fiv, we have lots of amazing teams you can join. And even if you are an independent agent, I highly recommend you figure out a way to partner up with a brokerage — ideally Fiv — that can give you the skills needed by rubbing shoulders, even if you’re not necessarily a part of their team.
Learning from the best is going to be your best way to avoid the mistakes those agents had to go through to learn what they know now. And the cool part is you can do all of this by connecting, by putting yourself in the right circles.”
— Nazar Kalayji, Fiv Realty Follow Nazar on Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | TikTok
Why “Learn First, Earn Later” Is the Advice Most New Agents Skip
Most agents enter real estate chasing the same thing — commission checks. It makes sense; it’s the whole reason the industry looks appealing from the outside. But Nazar’s advice flips the usual order of operations. Instead of production first and skill-building later, he’s suggesting the opposite: spend real time absorbing how an experienced agent actually operates before you’re the one carrying the transaction.
That’s not a knock on ambition. It’s a shortcut around the most expensive part of a real estate career — the mistakes you make while you’re still figuring things out. A missed contingency deadline, a negotiation that falls apart, a client relationship that sours because you didn’t know what you didn’t know. Those lessons cost money and reputation. Watching someone else navigate them first costs nothing but time.
What “Rubbing Shoulders” Actually Teaches You
Nazar’s example — becoming an experienced agent’s assistant, or even just their driver, for six months — sounds almost old-fashioned in an industry obsessed with automation and AI tools. But the skills he’s describing don’t show up in a script or a CRM workflow:
- How to negotiate under pressure, not just in theory
- How to read a listing appointment and adjust in real time
- How to manage the emotional highs and lows that come with deals falling through
- How to structure a day, a pipeline, and a follow-up system that actually holds up
These are the parts of the job that separate agents who last from agents who burn out in year one. You can read about them. You can watch a training video about them. But proximity teaches them faster than anything else.
Why This Matters Whether You’re New or Just Stuck
This advice isn’t only for brand-new agents. Nazar’s point applies just as much to agents who’ve been in the business for a while and feel like they’ve plateaued. If your pipeline has gone quiet, or you’re doing the same volume you did three years ago, the answer isn’t always more leads — sometimes it’s proximity to people who’ve already solved the problem you’re stuck on.
Joining a team, partnering with a mentor, or aligning with a brokerage that actively puts you in the right rooms can shortcut a struggle that might otherwise take years to work through alone.
Putting Yourself in the Right Circles
At Fiv Realty, this is built into how the brokerage operates. Agents have access to teams to join, weekly masterclass sessions, weekly training calls, and a nationwide network of agents who are actively building — not agents who joined years ago and went quiet. It’s the kind of environment Nazar describes in his own story: a place to rub shoulders with people further down the road than you are, without having to figure it all out solo.
If you’re a new agent trying to build the right foundation, or an experienced agent who feels like you’ve hit a wall, this is worth exploring. Reach out and we’ll walk you through how Fiv’s teams, training, and support system can help you put yourself in the right circles.
Phone: 435-212-4233 | Email: join@fivrealty.com
About Fiv Realty: Fiv Realty is a high-split, low-cap, cloud-based brokerage built for agents who want to keep more of their commission, build passive income through revenue share, and collaborate with a nationwide network of growth-minded professionals. Learn more at fivrealty.com.
