Today we’d like to introduce you to Julian Park.
Hi Julian, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Before I start – if you’re reading this, there’s a warrior in you. Hundreds of thousands of ancestors fought for you to get to this point. Reach out to me. I want to collaborate with you, especially if you’re a millennial in the SFV. We’re in this together.
I am honored to share my story and I promise to be as vulnerable as possible. It has Odyssey-like qualities: I began my life winning, then hit my lowest point for several years through high school and college – only to complete the arc with a Renaissance-like triumph.
I am self-made. I became a millionaire at 28 and am in the top 1% of earners in America. I have bought seven houses and am under contract to buy two more as of this writing. I started with nothing and can retire by 35. I am not saying this to brag – I want to share my story because you can do the same as well. This story matters because unlike a lot of the other interviews, I specify this emphasis on financial success, which helps me get back to the one thing that matters most: time. I don’t want to be working this hard for more than a few more years.
***Part 1 Childhood: Auspicious Beginnings***
My story starts in North Hills East. If you live in the valley, you know why I make the distinction. Gang wars and gunshots would ring out for the first few years of my life.
I grew up in a lower-income community to a Korean father and a Vietnamese mother. Both of their families came to America in part because of wars against communism. Today, North Korea and Vietnam are communist countries. To my parents, America meant opportunity.
As with most Asian-American families, education was a priority. From grades 1-8, I was always top of my class. I went to Balboa Magnet for the Gifted and Talented. Then, I went to Porter Middle School, where I got a 4.0 every year.
I was eventually voted Most Likely to Succeed. I felt untouchable.
I had been told my whole life that I was meant for greatness. However, a good portion of my early-age success was due to a strict Asian upbringing. My father, who I owe a portion of my success to, would drill with me endlessly. I would memorize whole presentations word-for-word for 10 minutes. It wasn’t an enviable childhood internally. But along with this would come the verbal and mental abuses that come with success.
My mother was also incredibly smart at her job, and learning about her working hard at her salary job for her whole life inspired me as well.
It was grueling, but it was all I knew. I started to expect success to come easy. Furthermore, I felt that I could only be loved due to success. This would end up leaving a gaping hole in me.
When I got into Granada Hills Charter High School, I was on top of the world. I did exceptionally well in my freshman year of high school.
However, my mind began to wander. What else was out there?
***Part 2: The Downfall***
My parents’ marriage already had been disintegrating for years. Their hold on my academic life would slip with it. As seems to be the case with most high school kids, I was thrust from my innocence into the real world.
By my sophomore year of high school, I was smoking marijuana. I was interested in girls and ended up getting my first legitimate girlfriend. I also – and this may make all the dudes out there chuckle – got an Xbox 360 with Xbox Live. Around 2007, there was a boom in video games that included Halo 3 & Call of Duty 4, which was addictive. My brain was rewired for all of these different dopamine rushes. Suddenly, sitting in front of a book and studying was the last thing I wanted to do.
In the span of a year, all of this happened, and way too soon. My parents started their divorce at around this time. My grades started slipping quickly. I became a C-student. My sense of self-worth was gone. Without all of my academic success, why would anyone want to befriend me?
The transformation was complete when on my 17th birthday, I smoked so much weed in the morning before class that I elected to just go to detention of actual class. My parents got a call on that birthday telling them I didn’t make it to class.
Despite all this, I somehow got into UCSB (Univerisity of California, Santa Barbara) – the West Coast’s predominant party school. As you can imagine, I got drawn deeper into distractions. It was endless drinking. I became a straight C-student. I felt immense guilt because my parents had officially divorced, yet they were paying for part of this college experience while I was fucking around.
By my sophomore year of college, I was at rock bottom. My friends and I had moved into this party house on Del Playa, which is the main party street in town. Our door was never closed. Dishes were never done. Our bathroom reeked endlessly. I never had money.
My grades were marginally better, but I had been handcuffed for a Minor in Possession of alcohol. I had to go to court and attend Alcoholics Anonymous. This included calling my parents and asking for money to pay for my ticket fees.
It kept spiraling. It had been four years of alcohol, weed, and mediocrity. I didn’t know what it was like to feel good about myself anymore.
Somehow, I knew I needed to reset. I knew that I needed to somewhere and rediscover who I was. I don’t know how it happened – but I ended up signing up to study Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan.
Three months later, I was there. I knew the clock was ticking because again, my parents were helping to pay for this too. My curriculum was really just writing Chinese characters every day. Somewhere in there, I re-learned how to learn. I would sit and write the same characters every day, and I was good at it.
For the first time in years, I was good at something. Stroke by stroke, character by character, I would learn Chinese. Then, I was speaking it. I owe this country for changing my life. I turned everything around.
*Part 3: The Renaissance***
When I came back, I was unstoppable. I soon finished my studies EARLY for two majors – Psychology and Communication. I got a sales job selling roofs, windows, and paint. I started making 5k a month, which was bonkers for a 20-year-old in 2013. I used some of the funds to start an online business that ended up making even more money.
Two years removed from Taiwan and graduating from college with a double major and a sense of self-worth, I decided to buy a one-way ticket to Vietnam. My online business was doing well enough by then, where I was only working a few hours a day. I took some online courses to get my English teaching certificate and I was on my way to Asia.
I continued on this path, squeezing as much out of life as possible. I would take my motorbike to the streets of Vietnam and ride for days – only stopping at random hotels to sleep. I hopped around from country to country, free to soak up life. I would teach English for good pay sometimes, and free other times. As a 21-year-old, I had seen so much already. I would ride from the beaches of Da Nang to the farmlands of the countryside. I met lifelong friends. I moved to Tokyo about eight months in and continued on living life to the fullest.
I had forgotten what it was like to feel fear or doubt – but therein also lied the problem.
After about a year, I was itching for another challenge. I wanted to prove myself. I wanted a stable career, a house, cars, and something tangible to truly prove to my parents. I signed up for online real estate courses in my Tokyo apartment and began drilling. I bought my ticket back to the Valley and signed up for my real estate exam immediately.
Within one month of coming back to America, I was a licensed real estate agent. I was 23 years old.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Make me struggle. I love it. That’s how you know you’re creating something amazing. I have a masochistic love of workaholism.
To be fair, the closest thing that came to a struggle was when I was 24 with $10,000 in credit card debt before I closed my first transaction. I was ten months into the business. My first check was for $2,000. I had doubts here and there, but I was so deep into it that I didn’t think about failure.
I knew I had to make it at all costs. By year 2, I made about $100,000. In year 3, I doubled that again, and in year 4, I have doubled it again.
Now, I’m focused on challenging myself. After you start making more $200,000 a year, your quality of life doesn’t change that much. You’re really just working based on ego.
So what’s next? Making a million dollars a year.
I know I may sound like a tool. But I’m 30 years old and I started with no family in the business or handouts from a team leader. Does it hurt to ask yourself – how far can you really take this? I should be doing that in less than 2 years.
We’ve been impressed with Get Real Valley, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I thought you’d never ask. I’ve already disrupted the local SFV real estate industry.
Here are four things that set me apart:
1. My Instagram is bar none, the best real estate page in the SFV. Even as a standalone SFV lifestyle page, it’s up there. I also have grown it in a way that actually generates revenue. A lot of folks think that just posting videos will generate revenue – it does not.
Not only is my content superior, but I actually generate from it what most realtors make in a whole year. My videos cover local restaurants, houses for sale, and other SFV-specific topics. I am the first to do this at a consistently high level. It has been six years of and as of this writing, I have organically arrived at 9600 followers.
Here are some video examples:
– Sushi eating contest
– Why I hate Porto’s
– The Valley’s Cheapest Condo
– Official SFV In-N-Out Rankings
– Top Northridge Mall Bars
2. I am the only one to have produced detailed biographies of all SFV neighborhoods – Find this on my YouTube. Believe it or not, it hasn’t been done. Mine were all professionally shot. I believe a few may have started, but the amount of research and actual filming time is insane.
3. I do mortgages at a high level. Traditionally, there is one real estate agent, and there is one loan officer. I am the only one in the Valley who does it at the level that I do.
It only made sense to me – why was I giving business away to other loan officers when I could do it faster and better? To this day, I have no idea why more folks in the industry don’t do this.
4. I was already doing well in my first 3-4 years, but my bus benches put me on the map. If you see upside-down benches in the Valley, then that’s me. I started by getting 50 benches and making all of them upside down. I would track everyone who called me and try to convert them into business.
5. Few other tidbits:
– One of the highest offer-acceptance rates in the SFV
– Best open house signs in the SFV
– Pretty much the only notable young Asian realtor in the SFV
– Have taken multiple agents from other teams where they were not producing and have helped them create successful careers (I have a team who I love and pour my heart into)
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
My industry makes too much money. What began as agents just showing homes has ballooned into this monstrosity where the business is not about selling houses – it’s a sales and marketing obsession.
80% of our time is spent hunting for these monstrous commission checks. While most jobs’ wages have stagnated, we get a raise every year – because our commissions are based on the purchase price.
This needs to change. Our commission rates are already coming down. There is no reason a seller should have to pay five years of equity out in commissions just for someone to take pictures and upload it online. The difference between a good agent and a bad one is night and day, but do we really need $50,000 of commissions to sell the median house in the Valley?
Contact Info:
- Website: getrealvalley.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/getrealvalley
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVZjCh76I4&list=PLpRrrEr-2OD2b-sZvMM1Jr0upGugXsPz4
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/julian-park-realtor-northridge
Image Credits
Kevin Salinas
