Exec. VP & Global Real Estate Advisor, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty & CEO/Founder, Heider

Ep #11: Daniel Heider

In episode eleven, we stop in Washington. Dhani Jones speaks with Daniel Heider, Exec. VP & Global Real Estate Advisor at TTR Sotheby’s International Realty and the leader of the HEIDER team, the Washington, DC area’s preeminent white glove residential real estate concierge about what it takes to close the biggest deals in one of the country’s hottest real estate market.

TTR Sotheby’s International Realty logo
Industry:
Real Estate
Advisor:
Daniel Heider
We're trying to build instant rapport. We're trying to control every single variable that we can so that we can represent our judiciary obligation to the folks that we get to work with every single day at a maximum level. Negotiating is what we do all day, every day. We wear a lot of different hats. We're private investigators. We're attorneys. We're interior designers. We're therapists. We're kind of life transition experts, I would say
Daniel Heider, Exec. VP & Global Real Estate Advisor, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty

Daniel Heider's experience

Daniel Heider

Modern Dealmaker & Real Estate King

Daniel Heider is Washington’s wunderkind of real estate and widely regarded as the Capital Region’s preeminent authority on white-glove service and premium real estate marketing. Consistently one of the highest producing agents in DC, Maryland, & Virginia, and #1 in sales company-wide at TTR Sotheby’s International Realty for a second consecutive year. Daniel is the youngest Executive Vice President in the firm’s history. 

  • Exec. VP & Global Real Estate Advisor, TTR Sotheby's International Realty
  • CEO/Founder, Heider
  • Associate, Washington Fine Properties
  • Sales and Marketing Director, Washington Fine Properties
  • Board of Directors, Washington Performing Arts
  • Board of Directors, National Symphony Orchestra

Episode highlights

Optimising your presence using the technology of today

 

 

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Dhani Jones (00:03):

The Pathfinder Podcast is presented to you by Ansarada. Ansarada is the modern deal in virtual data room technology designed to make M&A, capital raising, divestments, restructures, and IPOs as simple as possible. Since 2005, Ansarada has been trusted in over 24,000 transactions and powered over one trillion worth of deals. Ansarada is a secure space that includes workflow tools, AI power data rooms, built in question and answer and integration frameworks. It's the data room trusted by modern deal makers. You can start for free today at Ansarada.com. You know I like a winning team, so say it with me, Ansarada.com for your next winning outcome.

 

Intro (00:44):

Welcome to The Pathfinders, the modern deal maker series brought to you by Ansarada. Now, here's your host, Dhani Jones.

 

Dhani Jones (00:55):

Welcome back everybody to The Pathfinders, presented by Ansarada. I'm your host, former NFL player, investor, and entrepreneur Dhani Jones. Today, I'm joined by Daniel Heider. As you could tell, he is the master of ceremonies, the king of the city, the real estate entrepreneur that he is. He is an executive vice president and global real estate advisor at TTR Sotheby's International Realty and leader of Heider, Washington DC area's preeminent white glove residential real estate concierge. He's here with us today to share some of his deal making stories, insights into the current real estate market and, maybe if we get lucky, some tips on the best type of properties to invest in. Daniel Heider, welcome.

 

Daniel Heider (01:41):

Dhani Jones, what's going on, man?

 

Dhani Jones (01:44):

Hey, you know what? I'm just so happy that you're able to join us here on The Pathfinders. It's interesting, in some of my research, I'm learning all these new things about you. We've known each other for a little bit of time. We spent some moments together, broken bread, and just gotten to know each other, but I didn't realize that you were born overseas in Italy.

 

Daniel Heider (02:03):

That's right.

 

Dhani Jones (02:04):

And that your father was working for the US Naval Criminal Investigative Services. I mean, that's a pretty intense job. I wonder as we're getting started here, tell us a little bit more about your background that maybe I don't even know and how did that experience growing up in Italy and your father having this intense job sort of translate into the move towards real estate, or did it even have an effect on it?

 

Daniel Heider (02:29):

I think definitely it did. Having a peripatetic upbringing where you're used to kind of shifting around and being in different places, making new groups of friends, definitely bodes towards establishing rapport a lot faster. I was born in Naples, Italy, which I'm really proud of. Naples is home to the things that I love the most, the greatest food in the world, pizza, and of course, the most premium tailored suiting.

 

Dhani Jones (03:00):

That's why you dress so well. It's because of your upbringing.

 

Daniel Heider (03:03):

Exactly. Well, I can't say that we lived in Naples for too long. I was there until I was four years old. We came back to the DC area where my grandfather was born. We're multi-generation Washingtonians in this sort of capital region area. My mom grew up in Northern Virginia with her four sisters and her brother in a small little house in Springfield, Virginia. We then moved to Alexandria, Virginia. My parents got divorced when I was small. Small, I don't think I've ever been small, but younger. My dad is from Williamsburg, Virginia and has really traveled around everywhere. I spent my high school career in Mississippi and back to DC.

 

Dhani Jones (03:44):

You got Mississippi. You got Maryland, DC, Virginia, Washingtonian. You got Naples. You got Italy. Where does real estate come into play? Because if I were going down the track of just like the things you love in terms of food and fashion, it wouldn't necessarily translate into selling people's dreams and allowing them to realize the greatest opportunity of home ownership.

 

Daniel Heider (04:07):

Well, those natural affinities towards things that make me feel good is really kind of the bedrock of what I do every single day, right? That's the differentiator of what Heider represents in a very robust market where things have been done a certain way for a long time. A lot of those principles that we adhere to are kind of the old fashioned way of doing business, right? We value people. We value the experience. We value things that are great and premium and sometimes simple. When you get a taste for a lot of different parts of life, you get to adopt and pick and choose things that kind of you want to embed into your aura and project out.

 

Daniel Heider (04:48):

I've always loved being somebody who has helped in transitions where my friends needed a little advice. Real estate was a pathway for me to be an important advisor to a lot of families and individuals who are looking to make the right move.

 

Dhani Jones (05:06):

I think that that white glove service and that personal interaction and that concierge way that you mentor and coach people converts to your success. Brokering some of the highest residential sales in the capital region, that's where it shows itself. I wonder, what was the first real estate deal that you ever closed and what did you exactly learn from it?

 

Daniel Heider (05:31):

The very first real estate deal that I ever closed was a referral from someone who is a partner at a big law firm, communications law firm, downtown in DC. I was working as a breakfast server in a restaurant, and this guy used to come into the restaurant every day. When you work as a server, for breakfast, you typically work breakfast and lunch, right? He would come in with his business associates at lunch pretty much every day. I got to know him and I started thinking about getting into real estate. I'd taken a position with this other firm in McClain. I had shared that with him and he referred me my first deal, which was a house in Potomac. It was a two and a half million dollar deal.

 

Daniel Heider (06:19):

At the time, I was working for free with the person who I kind of got started with. I didn't make any money on that deal, but what I was a whole lot more value, which was the experience of sort of the technicalities of getting insights and writing a contract and understanding really the level of detail that goes into servicing a client at that level.

 

Dhani Jones (06:42):

Because you served breakfast and maybe some lunch at the same time, I'd just have to ask you, are you a corned beef hash can person, or are you a corned beef hash cut person? Because I think there's a big difference between the two.

 

Daniel Heider (06:56):

Well, I'm going to tell you right now that while my background may position me as somebody who is super fancy, I will tell you right now, you give me Libby's corned beef hash out of the can. You want to put that on the skillet. All right. Throw a little butter on there. You got to get it nice and brown. It's got to be crispy. When it comes to the table, it's got to be crispy.

 

Dhani Jones (07:17):

Tell them, Heider. Tell them, Heider, how it's cooked.

 

Daniel Heider (07:20):

Here's what I want to do then, then I want you to take two delicious farm fresh eggs.

 

Dhani Jones (07:26):

Thank you.

 

Daniel Heider (07:26):

Crack them right over the top, and then I want you to steam them until they're over easy and then present it to me. That's it.

 

Dhani Jones (07:32):

We are on the same page. Alas, we digress.

 

Daniel Heider (07:36):

Yeah.

 

Dhani Jones (07:36):

But we had to talk about it.

 

Daniel Heider (07:38):

Maybe some crusty bread.

 

Dhani Jones (07:40):

Little sour dough. Little Texas toast with some bread. All right. All right.

 

Daniel Heider (07:44):

Oh, I like that. I like that.

 

Dhani Jones (07:45):

Back to real estate. My mind just went towards breakfast because I'm a big breakfast fan, but you're the youngest executive vice president at TTR Sotheby's International in history, right? I think that from that moment when you were working and you had that opportunity, that drive obviously was unwavering and you just said, "Look, I'm just going to go after it. It doesn't matter sort of for my age. It doesn't matter my background, where I'm from, what I like. I just know that I want to do about it." But I know there had to be some challenges that you faced in breaking into the industry. How did you rise to the top so quickly? What walls did you break down along the way?

 

Daniel Heider (08:21):

Number one, I tried to never drink my own Kool-Aid too much and get high on my own supply.

 

Dhani Jones (08:28):

That's what we're here for. You can just drink your own Kool-Aid. Talk about it.

 

Daniel Heider (08:32):

I am still breaking through barriers. I'm still just scratching the surface in my mind. That's what really kind of pushes me every day is that we feel like we've just gotten started. But I think one specific instance that I think you'll find meaningful is that when I began my real estate career, I began at a firm called Washington Fine Properties here in Washington. That's a phenomenal carriage trade brokerage firm, white glove services, really old school mentality across the board. When I started there, I was literally the assistant's assistant. Okay? I just told you, I was working in a restaurant working breakfast and lunch, right? But also working as the assistant's assistant in this company.

 

Daniel Heider (09:14):

I went and I met with the owners of the firm and I said, "I'd like to be the youngest associate in the firm. This is my plan and this is what I want to do." And they told me that at that specific firm, that there was a five to seven year mentee window that I needed to establish before I could actually have my name on a sign, even though I was a licensed real estate agent and had my license. I left that meeting feeling a little discouraged, but confident that I was going to expedite that process. I added and front loaded a ton of value when I didn't know the business, the sort of aspects of the paperwork, and didn't really have a deep repertoire of clients. I was planning events. I was adding value however I could.

 

Daniel Heider (10:00):

I was hosting everybody's open houses. I was doing floor duty. I was showing up every single day. I'm not talking about Monday through Friday. I'm talking about Monday through Sunday, every single day, making sure that if there was an opportunity, that Daniel Heider was grabbing it. Fast forward the story a bunch, in two years, I became the youngest associate in the history of that firm. Completely broke the mold of their mentee process. That was a really good thing for me and it was a really great thing for them because I thought... I think that right now, and was true back then, that there's a new crest of folks coming up right now. The old way of doing business, the old way of real estate is becoming more and more and more and more irrelevant as time goes on.

 

Daniel Heider (10:48):

It's time to pass the baton. I was fortunate enough that they did that and they gave me the opportunity. That's a really good example, I'd say.

 

Dhani Jones (10:56):

You got to be able to work in all aspects of the business in order to understand the business, and you got to be willing to go over the top in order to be able to even start at the bottom. I think that in a lot of ways some people don't recognize that because it's so easy to figure things out nowadays. Some of the effort and time that you need to put into it can be overlooked and you've been able to do that. I think another thing that you've also been able to do is to incorporate, as you're thinking about new ways of business, is utilizing social media. People call you the millennial king of DC real estate, right? I'm using all of the terms that I've been able to find and source about you, Danny. Okay?

 

Dhani Jones (11:39):

In that, you've been able to master the use of TikTok. Talk a little bit about your embrace of social media and technology in general, because I feel like in and of itself changed the game.

 

Daniel Heider (11:51):

Yeah. Well, the smartphone today is what the television was to our parents and what the radio was to our grandparents. If you're not fully optimizing your presence on the most relevant machine that every single human being in modern earth has in their pocket at any given time, you're leaving a lot on the table. You're leaving awareness on the table. You're leaving money on the table, connectivity on the table. Social media was always a big part of kind of my ethos. I had an evolution that started with my own Instagram account where... Of course, when I had limited resources coming up and really all of the eyes were on Facebook and Instagram, I was doing all of the posting myself.

 

Daniel Heider (12:36):

It was kind of a mash up of my perspectives, the way that I view properties, the things that I felt to be relevant, I would curate, and then I got a lot of attention. And then as video started to come into the fold more and it became all about short form video, I was the first person in this Mid-Atlantic region to go all in on video. I was investing so much money, money that I didn't really even have at the time, to make sure that we were standing out, that our clients' properties were positioned in a way that nobody else's were, and that we had an arsenal of... I mean, terabytes and terabytes of premium video content that we could then repurpose with catchy music and interesting transitions.

 

Daniel Heider (13:22):

And then that kind of evolved and spun into doing kind of more over the top attention grabbing initiatives that we've done today. Right now we have the most amount of followers on TikTok for the global real estate industry. It's pretty awesome. We've got really cool people that follow us. A bunch of the shark tank folks follow us. I think even Dhani Jones follows us. It's a pretty big deal.

 

Dhani Jones (13:50):

Are there any tips to utilizing TikTok? And is there any sort of methodology or philosophy that you take into consideration when you're staging a house, because you do really go over the top and you really do invest in yourself? Frankly, that's the only way to make it. I mean, but I've seen drone shots. I've seen luxury automobile shots. I've seen high heel shots. I've seen premier suits. I feel like some of your history is coming back into those TikTok videos.

 

Daniel Heider (14:16):

Luckily for me, real estate has not only been an avenue to build a brand and to make a good living, but it's also been a creative outlet for me. It's become such a source of infotainment for millions of people with the popularity of shows like Million Dollar Listing and HGTV and all of these mediums that showcase what it is that we do and kind of give it a sexy spin. Trust me, not every day in this world is as sexy as a Lamborghini and a Aston Martin and a big glamorous shoot. But I'll tell you that in the world of positioning homes on the digital front, which is the most relevant front today, it's not a print ad, it's not the syndication on various other platforms, it's how people perceive your home through the screens or their smartphone and their laptops and their desktops.

 

Daniel Heider (15:17):

I think we do a really good job of that. I think our advantage is and was that most folks in the market think that TikTok is just this erroneous layer of little girls doing belly dances and have absolutely no idea how incredibly powerful and valuable this has become. I can take a 15 second video of your house, Dhani Jones, and guarantee you, and nobody else can do this in the Mid-Atlantic, nobody else can do this in the world on TikTok, I can guarantee you that at minimum you're going to get hundreds of thousands of views. Some of our views reach over 25, 26, 27 million views.

 

Daniel Heider (16:00):

Think about that, you quantify that amount of people, this is huge reach. My philosophy is that the most popular listings win. And it is a popularity contest. I guess, if you've seen Mean Girls, I'm Regina George.

 

Dhani Jones (16:20):

For those that haven't seen the movie, go out there and watch it. Danny will be starring in the next...

 

Daniel Heider (16:26):

You haven't seen it, have you? You don't even know who Regina George is. I'm really disappointed in you.

 

Dhani Jones (16:29):

I'm sorry. I apologize.

 

Daniel Heider (16:31):

I will fill you in after this. We'll have a whole tutorial. I'll break it down for you.

 

Dhani Jones (16:39):

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Dhani Jones (17:17):

Pretty cool, right? Check it out at Ansarada.com/quote. You know I like a winning team, so say it with me, Ansarada.com for your next winning outcome. How do you find your clients? Because if everybody were to know that Danny Heider has millions upon millions of followers, I just feel like they just could come from anywhere, but you are talking about the competitive nature of the business.

 

Daniel Heider (17:47):

Sure.

 

Dhani Jones (17:48):

Whether we're talking about luxury properties or any properties, I mean, it's competitive. How do you find your way through the crowd?

 

Daniel Heider (17:57):

Well, I'm really glad that you asked that question because it's giving me an opportunity to talk about what the cornerstone of my business has and it will always be, and that is we serve people at an exceptionally high level. Not only in our tact in negotiating and presenting homes appropriately and having a bolstered recent track record of selling luxury homes, it's relationships that make my business go round. The folks that look at our property marketing that see these big mansions and beautiful opportunities, I don't think they think about where the trust level comes from in order to even present a home like that. That is built on relationships. It's built on a level of bonafide performance.

 

Daniel Heider (18:48):

In real estate, every single thing that we do is recorded, right? Every single thing that we do is published. You can literally go online and look at every, since the beginning of my career, everything that I've ever sold. Every transaction that we do is just an expression of an immense amount of trust that families put in our lap to get the job done for them. We take that really seriously. The best majority of our clients, people wouldn't believe, comes to us by way of referral. It comes from the folks that we've helped for years and years and years. Sometimes it's our friends that refer us someone. Sometimes it's somebody who we meet in a retail environment. One of my biggest clients came to me because she worked in a retail store and just we liked each other.

 

Daniel Heider (19:37):

She felt that they would be served well with me. I was just referred $7 million client from my personal trainer. People make the world go round. I think what's really caused our business to ascend very quickly in the eyes of I guess the standard is that not only are we expert marketers and have a big presence on kind of the digital front, but the meat and potatoes of our business, the data, the grunt work, the things that aren't glamorous, those are the things that are on point and that's really what makes this all possible.

 

Dhani Jones (20:18):

Relationships matter flat out. Period. I mean, if you people don't understand that, then you won't necessarily have a business, but you get that.

 

Daniel Heider (20:24):

Always.

 

Dhani Jones (20:27):

I think that in that relationship and in that transaction where one of the biggest moments in somebody's life, and it doesn't matter if you're paying $100,000 or if you're paying $100 million, that is one of the biggest transactions that any one person or family or partnership will invest in. How has your deal making mindset helped you in negotiating on behalf of your buyer or seller?

 

Daniel Heider (20:58):

If I'm negotiating for a purchaser, I always think in the corner of my mind that this is going to be my listing in an average of four to seven years. I'm going to be marketing this home, and I'm going to be looking through a comp deck and a data set with the sellers that I'm representing. I want to be confident about where they acquired it. Obviously we can't control the market, right? They're going to be peaks and valleys. But I think what really helps us is keeping in mind that, to your point, this is the most important decision that people make. We're never cavalier with people's money.

 

Daniel Heider (21:39):

The thing about a real estate agent that I really want to get across to folks, because with Zillow and all of these kind of third party portals, there is this growing notion of people in America that think that real estate agents are this commodity. That it's just a middleman that shows up and they don't really do much. You know what? That's a really bad way to look at what it is that we do, because most people, especially in a market that's tough and rough and tumble like Washington, you need to know that a real estate agent is essentially like an attorney without the law degree. We're writing these contracts. We're coming up with specific addendum language. We're strategizing. We're asking important questions.

 

Daniel Heider (22:23):

We're trying to build instant rapport. We're trying to control every single variable that we can so that we can represent our judiciary obligation to the folks that we get to work with every single day at a maximum level. Negotiating is what we do all day, every day. We wear a lot of different hats. We're private investigators. We're attorneys. We're interior designers. We're therapists. We're kind of life transition experts, I would say. That's why when you go to DanielHeider.com and you watch our introductory video, I really wanted that to speak to what our ethos really is. At the end, you see these words at flash on the screen and it says "your home is just a start." What I meant by that is that buying the home with us is just the byproduct of a real relationship that's been built.

 

Daniel Heider (23:19):

Our relationship begins way after the settlement table, right? We're here to facilitate things for our clients that go above the common realm of typical real estate services.

 

Dhani Jones (23:35):

It's that team, right? That's what ultimately makes it go around. I mean, I know from the NFL, I can't be successful unless those that are around me are working together in order to be able to kind of move towards the goal, our common goal. That's what the game essentially taught me. How have you picked your team of your professionals and how have you set your benchmarks, especially in the Washington region? I mean, you sold Mike Tyson's house. I mean, I've seen some of the amazing properties that you've done, but it really does come back to your team. How did you assemble your team and how do you all work so well together?

 

Daniel Heider (24:15):

I used this analogy the other day and everybody kind of got a chuckle. I assembled my team like I've just purchased the most unbelievable home and I'm furnishing that home with the most impeccable furniture. You know you can't just go to Marlo. You can't just go to these discount... You can't go to Restoration Hardware and just buy all of your furniture there.

 

Dhani Jones (24:40):

Wait, wait, wait. Restoration Hardware has... First of all, that cloud couch is amazing.

 

Daniel Heider (24:45):

Oh, it's my favorite couch in the world. By the way, just so you know, the chair... No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The chair that I'm sitting in is from Restoration Hardware. The couch behind me is from Restoration Hardware. The lamps are from Restoration Hardware. I have a lot of Restoration Hardware. My desk that this laptop is on is from Restoration Hardware. It's on a dig at Restoration Hardware. But if you ask my friend Darryl Carter, he calls it furniture by the pound. My point is, is that when you're furnishing an exquisite residence, right, it's curated. It's a little bit of this, it's a little bit of that, and it strikes a perfect balance. I would rather have the perfect pieces and by parallel the perfect people than have a bunch of kind of folks who can just fog a mirror.

 

Daniel Heider (25:30):

I've gone about my team curation very slowly and very methodically. The first I would say draft pick, Dhani, was my managing partner, Justin DiFranco, who started with me at Washington Fine Properties 11 years ago. We started at the exact same time. We shared... There was a dividing wall between our office. I was on one side and he was on the other side. We didn't really talk that much because I always had my head down, as I told you. I was always just working. I wasn't really sitting by the water cooler.

 

Daniel Heider (26:08):

When I quickly kind of went from mentee to sales associate to major salesperson on a team that was broadly recognized within that firm, and then decided that I wanted to move my business to TTR Sotheby's International Realty, the first person I called was Justin, because I recognized in him a level of commitment and drive that's just rare. Justin is the kind of guy like me who... I mean, there is no end to the workday, right? We work seven days a week. No matter where I am, I'm always checking in. I'm always taking the important calls. I'm always listening to the concerns. I'm always available no matter where I am. Justin matched me on that front. We built this business together.

 

Daniel Heider (26:59):

Right now we've got 10 folks that work on our team. What makes our team composition different is that the majority of the Heider team is composed of specialty assistant positions. We have multiple full-time in-house marketing folks. We have a COO who's just dedicated to our business operations, right? We have a client care coordinator. We've got our executive assistant, Sam. We've got a really incredible net of people that support us on the back end so that we can do the things that are most important, like taking this podcast with you, or showing up and really being present at a showing where it really counts.

 

Daniel Heider (27:47):

We're not this team of just a bunch of salespeople all crammed in an office together sharing our sales numbers, right? To me, that's not really a team. What we provide is just a completely different universe of services.

 

Dhani Jones (28:01):

How does your team approach a $200,000 house and how do they approach a $45 million house?

 

Daniel Heider (28:08):

With the same regard to that client's investment as we would... I mean, it's the same level of care. Because for us, back to that sort of grounding principle of relationships, you don't know where your next client is coming from. I've heard this term that somebody used, a developer used, and I think it's important. He goes, " You know, Danny, I'm not a hog. I'm just long-term greedy cause." This was off the tails of a conversation that I had where I was saying, "You put so much into your developments, right? You don't just go to Home Depot and buy the cheapest thing. You really care. You really invest in these spaces and people feel that. Why do you do that in a market that's so robust and people will just pay for anything? I'm just curious to know."

 

Daniel Heider (29:05):

And he said, "I'm long-term greedy," meaning that a lot of the folks that end up buying this particular developer's properties end up hiring him to custom build down the road, right? It's like doing people right, right? Doing people right. When folks have a great experience, they talk. And when they have a bad experience, they talk even more. We want people talking all day long about what they've experienced with us and how that's made a meaningful impact on their transition. It's like the hotel that goes the extra step when you're staying there. You may stay at a nice hotel. But when have your shirt ironed, your shirt comes back and there are collar stays that are branded with the hotel's name.

 

Daniel Heider (29:57):

It's in a nice bag and it's delivered with care. It's like, yes, the commodity of the hotel is great, but it's all those little extras that really leave a real lasting impression. Whether it's getting a client a reservation last minute at The Diplomat on a Friday night at 8:00 or...

 

Dhani Jones (30:15):

I'll take it.

 

Daniel Heider (30:16):

Yeah, I got you go, Dhani. Call me anytime. We'll do it.

 

Dhani Jones (30:20):

But I think it's also you've been incredibly successful. We've said that multiple times. It's true, that long-term relationship no longer is transactional. It's transformational. The profit that you're able to garner as a result of it, you're not only able to invest in yourself, but you're able to reinvest in your clients. I think for you, one of the most amazing things about you is your philanthropic ways in the DC area, right? Taking some of those relationships over the time and placing some of that capital in places like N Street Village, DC Central Kitchen, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and so many others. Talk a little bit about your charity work and why giving back to the community is so important to you.

 

Daniel Heider (31:11):

Well, I grew up at the hands of very earnest people. My mom was a hairdresser and a secretary, and my dad worked for the federal government. They did a really good job of providing a framework to me that let me know that what I had was really exceptional, right? And education, a loving family, food, happiness, toys, all of those things that we tend to take for granted. I don't know. I was lucky to have grown up with that framework that my parents really gave me and my family gave me. Paying it forward is just a non-negotiable. I mean, we are so fortunate to be able to call this job our lives.

 

Daniel Heider (32:08):

I feel like I'm in a dream every single day, that I get to work with people that I genuinely care about and help them through something as meaningful as buying or selling a property. And then at the end of the day, our fee for that gets to be and a portion repurposed into helping people who really need it. I'm always open for ideas and ways to support the community. I don't know. I think that hollow lives are started by not keeping in mind people who really need your help.

 

Daniel Heider (32:47):

I always feel my best. I mean, it literally contributes to my steam, my locomotive, the reason why we work hard, the reason why we continue to invest and it's the reason why we continue to wake up every single day, seven days a week, and work on our vacations, because it makes me feel good to be able to impact people that can really use it.

 

Dhani Jones (33:12):

Hollow lives. You said hollow lives are started when you only think really about yourself. Fulfilled lives are when you're helping others.

 

Daniel Heider (33:22):

Absolutely.

 

Dhani Jones (33:22):

You've helped so many people along the way. You've made the DC area a better place. We always like to end The Pathfinders by talking about meals and deals. You mentioned The Diplomat in DC area, right? Which is your favorite celebration of a winning deal, right? Whether you go to a restaurant, a bar, a party, or people, I kind of have my idea of what it might be, but I want to know where do you like to celebrate?

 

Daniel Heider (33:53):

We make it a point to break bread with our clients after we do something significant. I'll tell you, that always changes. It's never just one restaurant. It's like there's more thought that goes into it. I've got a client. I'll give you an example. I have a VIP global client who just purchased a home from us yesterday that was our own listing, it was a private listing, in Great Falls for 10 and a half million dollars.

 

Dhani Jones (34:25):

Woo! 10 and a half million?

 

Daniel Heider (34:28):

10 and a half million. I sold it to the seller a year ago for seven million. Okay? I've got two very important friends of mine that are involved in this mega transaction, it went to settlement yesterday, that brought them together. They're friends. We're all friends, right? I'm thinking to myself, what are we going to do? There's this new place that just opened up. Zuma basically has opened in DC and it's called Shoto. It's beautiful. There's a DJ. It's just like a fun celebratory environment. Dhani, you know what? It may be difficult to get in. If you need an extra nudge, I got you because we always take care of our clients.

 

Dhani Jones (35:13):

Well, that's the thing about Heider, they have that white glove service, the concierge mentality. It's about long-term relationship building. It's not transactional. It's about relationships. You've given us an amazing breadth of understanding of not only your business, but how you can too transform your life from delivering breakfast to delivering happiness to so many people around the DC area. I just want to say thank you, Danny, for joining me today.

 

Daniel Heider (35:43):

Thank you for having me.

 

Dhani Jones (35:44):

It's amazing to see the work that you're doing in the residential real estate market. For everybody else, I hope you were able to learn something about how Heider's team really came together and is investing in deal making from a whole new angle. If you're enjoying The Pathfinders, please make sure to leave a review so more people can find the show. Until next time, I'm Dhani Jones and this has been The Pathfinders presented by Ansarada.

 

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