Six years ago, you might not have thought that Ryan Greigg would soon become one of the top real estate brokers in the county.
“I was a traveling and performing DJ and musician,” he said.
Starting in his hometown of Sonoma, California, he and some friends founded a crew of DJs, and they booked and managed artists and organized tours all around the world. But Greigg, 36, realized he had to start looking for a new, more conventional career path when his son Bentley was born six years ago. Working night gigs didn’t really work when he had a child at home.
“I was going to sleep about the time he was waking up,” he said. Greigg, who had moved to Bellingham by this time, looked into real estate. “I’ve always enjoyed helping people and I like having different challenges everyday,” he said.
So he earned his real estate license and joined the Ben Kinney Team, part of Keller Williams Realty. He started learning the ropes from Ben Kinney and team leader Jillene Snell.
“I feel like they just supported me from day one,” Greigg said. “They showed me everything that I needed to do to be successful.”
He started in May of 2015. Then life took a turn. In less than a year, two members of his family died, he was involved in a serious car accident and he and his wife separated.
During that time he also stopped drinking, and to cope with it all, he turned to work.
“I was going through all these hard times,” he said, “and as opposed to using drugs or alcohol I just stayed in the office. I worked.”
His first full year as a real estate agent he sold 45 houses and won Whatcom County Real Estate Rookie of the Year. He also started giving back to his community in big ways. “
I just think money is only as good as the good you can do with it,” he said.
His goal is to be the biggest donor to his son’s school this year. He helps host fundraisers for his real estate team, including the annual Food Truck Roundup, as well as volunteer service projects.
He also involves his son in giving back to the community. Around the holidays, they sponsor a needy family, and buy them supplies and presents that they otherwise couldn’t afford.
After his successful first year in real estate, he started helping others find that success as well. He traveled to real estate conventions around the country, giving advice to other agents. That year his own homes sold took a hit, and he realized he had been extending himself too far.
“I realized that I just had to balance things out a little bit,” he said.
He’s well on his way to exceeding his previous home sales this year. He has already closed 45 deals this year, including 10 deals in August alone. But that is just the beginning for Greigg. He has very big goals for his future. Greigg hopes to eventually reach a hundred sales in a year. He wants to own a brokerage in three countries and have more than 10 agents.
Ambitious plans, but he said he can do it, through his work ethic and time management skills. For that, his past as a DJ comes in handy. The experience gave him a new perspective on time.
“We don’t often play songs for more than one to two minutes,” he said. “A minute is an eternity.”
He gets up at 4 a.m. and has his routine scheduled by the minute. A part of that, too, is learning not to agree to every demand on his time. “By saying no a lot,” he said, “I have more free time to do things that will be in line with my goals.”
