The first home Raymond Lord III ’11 sold as a newbie real-estate agent was $3 million.
Three months prior, he’d started waiting tables in the Hamptons, with a self-imposed six-month deadline to make this venture work.
“The energy you put out,” says Lord, “is definitely where the universe will direct you later on.”
Lord worked his you know what off to get that sale, despite no experience. Three months earlier, he had never thought of selling homes.
This is where Lord’s other life motto — of embracing spontaneity as one of life’s best forces — comes into play.
During his final senior semester, Lord visited New York City as part of the alumni office’s externship program. Afterwards, another student was going to the Hamptons for a job interview to sell homes. He suggested Lord be co-pilot.
“We get out there, and he says, you might as well interview,” remembers Lord, sitting in a restaurant area turned daytime office near Central Park. “I had no skin in the game, so I answered everything just as I saw it. At the end of a long day, they said, ‘Well, we think you’d do well in real estate. Let us know if you’re serious by Monday.”
It was Friday.
He decided to go for it. What was the worst that would happen? If it didn’t work; he’d go to plan B.
“Sometimes the best things in life are the most spontaneous,” says Lord.
He trained as the rookie at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, and his deadline motivated him to succeed. He researched. Networked. Called, called and made more calls.
The $3 million home purchase was made by sending a penny as a birthday gift. The recipient, a gentleman who owns many Long Island properties, liked Lord’s thoughtfulness and flair.
Lord has now been selling Hamptons real estate for five years with Elliman. He co-founded a team and has expanded to selling NYC apartments.
Lord didn’t have a real estate background, and he didn’t work up the traditional way, slowly moving from lower-priced homes to bigger markets.
“If you have the right mindset and think outside the box, you can do it,” he says.
That applies to everything for Lord. Want it? Find a way.
He’s applying that belief to other entrepreneurs chasing innovation, funding the Geneseo Ambassadorship of Disruption he created this year.
Student recipients receive a $5,000 award through the college’s Center for Inquiry, Discovery and Development to pursue business ideas that create something new are and serve a need. Think Uber and Airbnb.
“The disruption concept for the scholarship is important because it shows people the way they think about something could happen,” he says, “instead of thinking it has to be done the way it has been ... I want to help someone if they have an idea, to give them resources to create that.”
Lord also supports mentoring for the LGBTQ youth community in New York City. He’s lucky, he says, that he was accepted. Many are not. He contributes to and has helped with fundraisers for programs that focus on LGBTQ people sharing their stories with teens in the same situation.
“I wish I could bottle that feeling, of relief and happiness to just be yourself, and give it to someone else,” says Lord. “It changes your ability to become successful. If you can help one person in one small way, it’s a win.”
— Story and Photo by Kris Dreessen