From Mortgage Rookie To Real Estate Leader

What if the real unlock in real estate isn’t a magic lead source, but the courage to ask better questions—every single day? We sit down with New Jersey listing specialist Daniel Mesrobian to trace his journey from a teaching major to mortgage rookie to top producer who rebuilt his life through mentorship and relentless practice. Along the way, we unpack why control of listings sets the market narrative, how to qualify sellers with precision, and what a daily prospecting rhythm does for confidence, pipeline, and close rates.

Daniel takes us inside his playbook: the talk tracks that open doors, the 10 pointed questions that turn a “maybe” into a clear yes or no, and the mindset shift that comes from proximity to high achievers. He shares the unvarnished truth about 2009’s crash and how learning to listen—really listen—built resilience and results. We also explore how he uses content and his own podcast to serve agents first, giving away scripts and frameworks that spark wins and naturally draw people into deeper coaching. If you’ve ever believed the myth that one luxury deal solves everything, this conversation will recalibrate how you think about skill, structure, and scale.

Beyond tactics, Daniel’s personal habits reveal the engine behind consistent performance: reading for hours with a black coffee, skiing and biking to reset, and showing up in the Green Room to prospect live where agents can hear real calls from start to close. For homeowners and buyers, he offers a simple path: get a comprehensive plan from a pro, decide with data, and act on timing that fits your life. For agents, the mandate is clear—specialize in listings, master the ask, and let repetition compound into authority.

Ready to level up your approach to real estate, whether you’re buying, selling, or building a career? Follow @DanielMesrobian across platforms, check out his webinar on qualifying sellers, and join the Green Room to hear live calls. If this conversation helped you think sharper about the market, subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a quick review to support the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:03

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Garfield Bowen.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you looking for a real estate broker or investor? Well, one may be closing the deck. Today we have the pleasure to introduce your good neighbor, Daniel Rebone. Ribonian with the Rabonian team.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

You were close, Mesrobian, but we'll give you we'll give you a pass on it.

Building The Mesrobian Team

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Listen, we're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your company.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

So I run a team uh called the Mesrobian team. We are in uh New Jersey. Um we also have a uh a group of agents that uh are partnered with us as well. We have about 52 of them. And uh yeah, we help sellers, buyers across the state just realize their hopes and dreams with the buying and selling of real estate assets. Uh I also buy assets myself in real estate. So uh yeah, it's a l large part of what we do, helping people basically realize their uh their dreams.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

So, Daniel, how did you get into this business?

From Teaching To Mortgages To Realty

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Uh well right out of col it's a great question. Right out of college, I uh I went to college to teach, but very quickly after that I was recruited by a mortgage company and uh didn't know a thing about what a mortgage was at age 23, 24, but they trained me and uh so I did that for about 10 years and then jumped over to the real estate side in uh 2009, right after the mortgage uh crisis. So that was a fun time to be a real estate agent.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Yeah, so from teaching a mortgage to real estate, and you're probably still teaching right now, right?

Myths Of Fast-Track Real Estate

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Uh for yes, I mean I do coach and mentor agents and uh that are in my uh in my organization and otherwise. So and I do enjoy it. I enjoy teaching very much.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

What are some of the myths and misconception of the realtor space?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Uh that you can come right out of real estate school and be a millionaire in a year. Yeah, that's always the one I get most.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

You just have to sell one one really big house, right?

Listing Focus And Phone Skills

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Now we know marketing is the key to every business, and you're saying you're pretty much focused on New Jersey. Uh but who's your target customers and how you currently attract them?

Training Agents To Convert

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Uh so I'm what you would call a listing agent. Uh I do work with buyers on referral, but for the most part, 80 to 90 percent of my uh deals closed are listings on the listing side. Uh and what I do is uh I've enhanced and and really honed that skill of you know talking to people daily on the phone uh over you know more than a decade. So then what I'd now do is I teach uh either you know agents coming right out of school or even agents that have had their license for a while that just have never really had the proper training on what to say and how to say it to uh to different clients, whether the a seller is on the market for a while and they came off because they expired, uh they're trying to sell it themselves, uh maybe somebody in their own sphere of influence, uh a friend, a family friend or a neighbor, where they just don't know an agent doesn't know what to say and how to approach them. Uh and I actually train and coach and mentor agents on how to do that.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

I'm looking at your setup there, and um and I don't know if you're currently doing your own podcast, or that's something that you're looking to get into.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Uh, I actually have my own. I've had it for a few years. Yeah, it's just called the Daniel Mosrobian podcast. Uh I have a good number of subscribers, and um so we put out content daily, real estate content for buyers and sellers, but also for agents too. It's really mostly agent-centric, to where they get uh you can say tips and tricks, but more along the lines of pointed guidance, skills and tactics that I've learned over the years that I've done this, to where I just basically give it to them for free. Uh, and a lot of times what'll happen is they'll see success in their own careers and then want to learn more about uh myself and how I've gotten to that level. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

So it's almost like a recruiting tool to get people to come on on your team.

Mentors, Setbacks, And Comeback

Hobbies, Reading, And Learning

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah. I mean you can look at it that way, yeah. But when people when people see that you're you know you're genuine in what you're doing, and really honestly, in the in when you when you break it down to its core, I'm just here giving, I'm so grateful that I've had people mentor me over the years because it was not long ago, uh a short 15 years ago, that I was living on my parents' couch in their basement because I was making bad decisions. And over time, uh we reversed that and we changed that and we got around good people, I got around, I got in proximity to high achievers, high net worth earners, and just kept my mouth shut, watched what they were doing, listen to what they were doing, and then their advice to me, I didn't question it, I just did it. And because of that, I'm in a wildly different place now than I was back then. So for me now to give back and give to agents that may be in that position, it's the ultimate, uh, it's the ultimate uh high, it's the ultimate gratitude.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

So uh Janny, when you're not busy doing real estate, uh what do you like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Uh I ski, uh not as often as I like, uh, but I do. Uh I'm an avid, avid biker, so I do take my bike out um on occasion when the weather uh permits, but in this in the wintertime we'll ski. Um I would say on any given Saturday or Sunday, you will find me in a local coffee shop with a book uh and a cup of black coffee just reading for uh for hours and hours on end.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

So the knowledge is in the book. You gotta get that knowledge to be able to teach me.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Hey man, listen, brother, leaders are readers. Somebody told me long ago that people that don't read are the same as people who can't read. And when that when I heard that, I was like, I don't know who sold me on a bill of goods that I shouldn't be reading.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Listen, we're about out of time, but we want to uh leave our listeners with one thing. If one thing they should remember about the Miss Robian. I got it right there. Miss Robian. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

What would that be? So I'm sorry, give me the question again, please.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

The one thing they should remember about your company, what what would that be?

How To Connect And Webinar Details

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Uh one thing that I remember that I would want someone to remember. About uh yeah, about my company. If you're looking, let's say this there sometimes can be misconceptions that because of prices or because of you know an area you want to be in, people may not be able to afford real estate. Uh I would say that speak to a professional, whether it's myself or someone else, get around people that you know can help you, and we'll go over with you, we'll give you a comprehensive plan to see if entering the market is well for you. And if it's not, that's okay too. But we'll give you the strategy to uh to figure that out. And as far as agents go, if you're at a point in your career where you're just banging your head against the wall, you feel like you're doing everything that you can do, and you're just not able to close deals and convert the leads that you have, reach out to me, DM me, get I'm all over social media, just type in my name, and we can have a private conversation on how to get you really converting, closing, having those conversations daily with people that need help, and then you able to help them.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

And uh a number of our listeners now are connected with you, and they have one question on their lips right now, and it's how how to get more information on Daniel and uh Misrobian group.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Uh, so what you can do is reach out to me if you're on Instagram, just type in my name at Daniel Misrobian, YouTube, it is the Daniel Misrobian Podcast, TikTok, Facebook, it's all just my name at Daniel Misrobian. Um, yeah, just reach out to me there and uh just DM me. I have I'm actually doing a webinar tomorrow uh at 11 a.m. on 10 pointed questions to ask sellers. If you're an agent and you're unable to convert, you're getting all these leads and you're just not able to convert them into sales. These are 10 pointed questions that you will ask. So every time you go on an appointment, they are bona fide, qualified, ready to go. That's tomorrow at 11. DM me for details. Just reach out, we'll send you the link and it's free.

Live Prospecting And Green Room

SPEAKER_02 9:14

And from some of our clients that's not into technology and just want to push the button numbers on the phone. Is there a number you like to share?

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah, you can reach out to me. My uh my work number is uh 973-255-8714. Uh, I also make I prospect and make phone calls uh live every morning in what's called the green room. Uh, it is my Zoom prospecting room. And uh if you're an agent and you want to listen to me make these phone calls every morning and listen to me give out that phone number on messages every morning, just reach out to me again. You can go to do more deals with daniel.com. That is the website for that. Do more dealswithdaniel.com. And you can join and join me every morning. Listen to me making these calls and talking to sellers every day.

Closing And Nominate A Business

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Listen, Daniel, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. I wish you and your business the very best and looking for it.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Thank you. Appreciate you being uh thank you for reaching out and glad to be on.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnplive.com. That's gnplive.com.