Eric Gorton
Appearances
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Well, it was funny. Well, a couple of things kind of played into it. 9-11 happened and I was working as a dice dealer and it kind of was the triple storm, right? It was kind of like the perfect storm that came together, which wasn't really the perfect storm. So 9-11 happened and I knew that hospitality could probably not work out very well. The writing was on the wall.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I knew very early on that if you work an honest day's work, you're going to get paid for it. And that transmitted into doing janitorial work and going and delivering pizzas and being a pizza man and just everything up and down the line. I went, I've pretty much had every job that you can imagine.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I didn't get fired or anything like that, but you know, as you know, the city shut down for a couple of, you know, two or three weeks. So I'm kind of freaking out because you're relying on tips to keep your life going as a dice dealer, right? Um, so I, I kind of pivoted real quick. There was a guy that lived like two doors down from me. His name's Dave Strauss, never forget him.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And he was working for a company called Zep, Zep manufacturing, where they sell specialty maintenance products.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So it's, you know, they have over 2,000, 2,400 products in their catalog. that you can literally sell to anybody, whether it be B&B or, you know, even the individual who's running a small garage in their backyard. They need parts cleaners, lubricants, cleaning products, hand soaps, you know, even paper towels, toilet paper, everything.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So I can sell everything from restaurant to automotive garage or anything like that. And basically, he got me an interview. And within a matter of days, now I found myself training to become a ZEP rep. A Zeprep. A Zeprep. So that was kind of cool in the very beginning because... All through my entire life growing up, people always told me the old- You should be in sales.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
You should be in sales, right? You are missing the boat. You're always going to be in sales. Just go and work in sales. And I didn't want to be in sales. I didn't. I never thought of myself as a salesman, but I always had that personality where it was just in your face all the time. I'm on all the time. And, you know, that's kind of the way I grew up, whether it be good, better, and different.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
That's the way it was. So going to work for Zip, Um, within about two or three months crushed it right out to the gate, right? Grab my two briefcases filled with, you know, my demo products would walk to every single business that I possibly could walk in, introduce myself to the manager. I, how you doing? My name is Eric Gordon.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I see that you have this, this, this, this, I could probably save you money, not only on dilution, but you know, um, paper towels and hand towels and mops and buckets and shit like that. Right. So I crushed it right out the gate. And then like two or three, like four months after that, I was diagnosed with cancer. And I had a very come to Jesus moment, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Well, let me go back for a quick second before I go into that story. while I was doing ZEP, now I had my access to, you know, cleaning products and stuff. I got a job cleaning the school when my kids went to school at night. So I'd go and work at the casino during the day, right? I'd get off at like two o'clock in the afternoon.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I'd go and work and sell cleaning products from two o'clock until six o'clock at night. And then I'd go and clean the school from like eight 30 until like 11, 12 o'clock. See, okay. So,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
You know, I didn't even think about that, John. I really just I knew what I had to do and I knew there was no other option. I knew that there was a young boy that was looking up to me. that needed a guy that I didn't have as a kid. And I knew, I made a promise to myself at a very early age, I must've been 11 or 12, that number one, I wanted to be a father immediately.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I couldn't wait to get married and be a father. That was my goal at a very early age. But as soon as I knew I was having a boy, I promised that he will never look at me the way I looked at my dad. And whatever his story was when he exited my life, that's neither here or there. But I knew that I just wanted to set a better example. So I knew that I just needed to provide.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
At the very least, I just needed to provide. I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't know where I was going to end up. I knew I had the opportunity or I knew I had the potential, but I just didn't know where I was going to end up. And I remember my wife and I used to just sit down and she would just reinforce. My wife is just... You know Shelly, right? She is just my biggest fan.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
She's always been just such a great proponent of my life, right? And encouragement in my life that she always just gave me, you know, the tools that I needed to make sure that I didn't go out of my mind.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So that leads me to my cancer. Yeah. I was diagnosed with abdominal cancer and it was the scariest thing ever, right? And here I am working three jobs, I was diagnosed. I went through several doctor's appointments. They couldn't find what was going on. I knew that I didn't feel right. I knew there was something going on.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Normally, I was very high energy and was very lethargic, and I was just tired all the time. I was grumpy. My attitude changed, and I knew there was something wrong. They tried to put me on mood-altering drugs. They tried to put me on different things, and they thought it was just my stress level and stuff like that. I said, listen, there's something going on.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And luckily, I went to this one doctor and he sent me out. He tried to put me on this. It was called Effexor. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. I don't even know what you call it. It's a mood altering drug, right? So it's supposed to get you back to normal.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I took one pill and I was just like, this is not right. I'm totally never taking this again. So about three, four days later, I made an appointment to go back and see him. Luckily, this guy called in sick the day that I went and there was like a first year resident or maybe she just became a doctor that was in his office and saw me instead of him.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
She basically said, okay, I'm going to send you for a sonogram, right? Because, you know, if you're telling me that you don't feel right and there was this little tiny lump that I felt that basically, you know, I don't, I didn't even think it was different, but I pointed it out to her. She said, I'm going to send you for a sonogram.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Yep. So, here we are. My father-in-law took me to that doctor's appointment. The whole way home, I'm crying. I get home. My wife and I, you know, we're like, oh, my God. The very next day, I'm on an operating table getting this tumor. Right? So, I wake up, you know, of course, there was things involved. But I wake up the next day. They were like, okay, good news is we got the tumor out.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
You know, we could tell that there was something going on in there. We're going to send it out for a dissection to see if it was malignant or not. And it turned out to be malignant. I caught it very early on stage one. But then they said, you have to go through radiation, which is, you know, it's not as bad as chemo. I'm certainly not, you know, I'm not downplaying it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
No, no, no, no, no. But radiation is no picnic, man. It, it, it takes its toll on the body. Right. So while going through that, I'm still working all three of my jobs, right. Going to clean in the school, going, I'm barely out of surgery and, and, you know, kind of going through the motions. And I went out with a good friend of mine, his name's Pasquale.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Um, and he took me to lunch and he knew what I had been going through. Very good friend leading up to that point. And he was in real estate. And, you know, just like everybody else, he goes, man, when are you just going to give it up and get into sales? You should be in sales. Even going through that tough time, I still had the personality. I was back, right? And I had that sales personality.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
He was like, dude, you're wasting your time. Just go do it. So funny story is, and I don't think I've ever told you this, three years prior to that, I thought I was going to get into real estate, right? So I went and enrolled myself in real estate. I went to two classes, looked around me. I said, this is not for me. No, it was, you know, just different people than me at that point.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And I said, you know what? This isn't for me. I'm going to go back and be in the casino business. See if I can grow through the ranks. and become an executive, which I could have very easily done at that point. I made very good contacts. They loved me. One of my best friends was the president of the Paris at that point. He wasn't my best friend at that point.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
It wasn't until after and I got into real estate that he became my best friend or one of my best friends. But I said, you know what? This is just what I'm going to do. But he took me out to lunch and I was like, you know what? just going to try it. So I went out, I didn't have any money, no money at all, nothing. And at that point we were on a very, very strict and tight budget.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
My wife was working full time as a kindergarten teacher. And I said, you know what, I got to do something. I don't want to kind of let her know that I'm doing this. So I went out and got a Discover card on my own, unbeknownst to my wife. And I said, I'm just going to go for it. I went out and charged at Century 21 over on Eastern Road. And I just put it on there.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I said, you know what, I'm just going to go guns a blazing. She's at work all day. At that point, I took a FMLA, family medical leave of absence from the casino. So I wasn't working during the days. I was still doing the janitorial and ZEP. But I had my days to myself. So she'd leave and think I was just kind of like laying on the couch and recovering from cancer surgery.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And as soon as she would leave, I'd get dressed, I'd go to surgery 21, I'd study all day, come home, put the books away and she never even knew, right? Here we are fast forward about six weeks later, she woke up the day I was gonna take my test and I said, you know, I've been doing real estate for about six weeks now. And, uh, I didn't let you know, but I feel really good about it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm ready to take my test. Little did she know I was taking my test in about an hour. Yeah. So she had that day off for some reason or another. She was home that day and she was like, Oh, okay. You know, she was a little apprehensive. I told her that I had gotten a discover card. We have $330 worth of debt that I probably needed six weeks to pay off. Um,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And I came home within about an hour and a half. I was like, I passed both of them. Good, right? She was like, wow, that was really impressive. And what are you going to do? And I met with Century 21 because they kind of groomed me. And I went there and, you know, the one thing that didn't make sense to me, they told me everything that I had to pay. And I was like, well, what do you mean?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Like, I'm in real estate now. I got my own license. I don't, but you know, it's franchise fees and everything like that. So I came home and I was like, all right, well, If this is what everybody does, I'm going to do that because I don't know of anything different. Luckily, I didn't. The very next day I got called by one of my cousins who had a part-time real estate license at that point.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And he introduced me to the owners of a company called Merit Realty at that time. Very small boutique. It was almost like the movie Boiler Room, right? And I walked in and met with this good friend of mine, still to this day, Rob Yamaguchi. And he basically sold me. He told me everything that I wanted to hear at that point. The gooch. The gooch, right? And he...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
He basically laid it out and first month out the gate, I did five transactions. Second month I did six.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
It was like at the end of 2002 into 2000. So 2002.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Signs in the front. Oh, you were just hammering that. Just signs. So funny thing is, when I first got into real estate, everybody was like, all right. I remember sitting at the table, a gentleman who owned the company at that point, very, very intense guy. His name's Aaron. And he went around this table with all the new agents. And it was me and probably six or seven 20-year-olds.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And he went around, how old are you? What are you going to do? What's your goals for that? So he came to me, he goes, what's your name? How old are you? I said, 30. He goes, you'll never make it in real estate. I said, okay, challenge accepted. So they, at that point there was no website.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
But at that point, there was no websites. They just had leads that came in. In the morning, they would have an answering machine that they'd write down all the leads. They'd have 15 to 20 pieces of paper that had phone numbers on them of people that called. The Glenn Gary leads. Oh, my God. The Glenn Garys. Mitch and Mark. So every night, if...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So every night you would have these leads, but if you didn't get in touch with them, most agents were like, ah, they didn't answer. And they put them on this pile in the corner. And this pile grew from two feet to three feet to four feet. By the time I got there, the pile was about three and a half feet, right? So I came in and they were like, you know, what kind of skills you got?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I said, I've never made a real estate call in my entire life. And you've heard this too. When you get into real estate, the one thing they want you to do is tap into your sphere of influence. Call your aunts, your uncles, your friends. And I didn't know shit about real estate. The last thing I'm going to do is drag these people that I know and love into real estate and then be my guinea pig.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So I was like, forget it. So I walked to that pile and I grabbed from the bottom, the oldest leads that were like six months old. And I just wanted to get the marbles moving. I wanted to get the cotton out of my mouth. I came down with such a canned pitch that I can say it in my sleep backwards. Right. every single morning I would come out.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Well, like I said, first month out that gate, from the bottom of that pile, five transactions. I remember my first transaction I had, I didn't even know I was supposed to get an SRPD. So we went through the whole transaction. It was like three days before closing. I'm like ready to close. He was like, wait, wasn't I supposed to get disclosures or at least a prelim or something? I had no idea.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Anyway, back to your story. When I went through my first transactions, it was just all about getting people through the door, right? And once you got them through the door, it was almost like, all right, now you got them in the tank. I almost thought someone else was taking care of it, where... no one really held my hand. It was, it was trial and error. Right. So don't do that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
After about five or six months, it was very clear that I was, I was going to succeed in real estate from the managers at Merit Realty. So What did they do? They tapped me into being a manager as opposed to trying to sell real estate.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Well, I had, it was lucky for me because you, as you know, in 2004, five, six, and it was a zoo. So I was, I was, I was cutting my teeth and becoming a manager and making my mistakes, but I was managing 70 agents at that point, which was amazing. Some of which I'm still in contact with. And I was also being able to sell my own real estate. So I was actually doing pretty well, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And it was a fun time. But then as you know, 2008, nine, 10 and 11 happened.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And that was a stark reality in how to shift in real estate. And that was my first life lesson in either give up, put up or shut up.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Yep, me included. So it was all good.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
We pivoted right into it. When people didn't even know what the word short sale meant, we were already immersed in it. We were knocking doors, offering people to buy them out or give them cash for keys and negotiating things like that. But me, internally, I said, this is a perfect opportunity to try and go after a market that everybody just forgot.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So I always admired the big players in real estate. probably remember Jeannie Sutherland. You probably remember Frank Napoli Sr. And there was a lot of, a few others that I really admired in the way they did business. But as that crisis happened, their TV commercials went away, their marketing went away, their pretty magazines went from 40 pages to four.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Yeah, it was like a flyer at the end. Went from the real estate book to the real estate pamphlet. That's exactly right. In the supermarkets, remember? It was this big. And then all of a sudden it became like a flyer. It was a flyer. So in my mind, I said, this is a perfect opportunity to try and get in front of these people that are being forgotten about because the budget's not there, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Everybody was hunkering down. They didn't want to spend any money on advertising. Well, I didn't have any money at that point. And I was... I was raising two children. I had bills of my own. The money that we were used to making in 2003, four and five, swindled away and five transactions went to one transaction a month.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And then I thought to myself, well, there's gotta be a way that I can get in these people's lives. And I basically took it upon myself to just put my words on copy paper, print on Merit Realty's free copy, fold it myself, put a piece of tape on it and walk neighborhoods at night because I couldn't afford postage.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
That was my way of trying to get in front of people and let them know I'm still working. I'm not going anywhere. I'm still going to be in your life. Although you're not going to get a pretty flyer or a color brochure, it's going to be what's happening in real estate. And I'm going to become more of a friend as opposed to someone that's just trying to sell you a home.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I tried to build a community around me where I had the answer to anything. You wanted a... You wanted a good Italian restaurant recommendation, call me, right? You need a landscaper, call me. Someone to clean your house, call me. I know someone great.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So the fountains is still considered my baby. I lived there for 10 years. Luckily after I've established a, a voice and a, and a presence in there. But in the very early on, I was, I was basically a guy that I knew that there was something missing and I knew there was a beautiful neighborhood that consisted of 198 homes. They were bigger homes than I've ever laid eyes on at that point in my life.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And it was the neighborhood that really reminded me most of home. It was green. It was lush. You know, I remember going in there one time to drop something off and my wife was with me and we drove through the neighborhood. I said, baby, we're going to live in here one day. It's just so beautiful. And of course, you know, Shelly. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
She believed in me, but, you know, it was hard to believe at that point.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I'm still working for Merit Realty and I'm printing off the pages and trying to get my story out. But then they wouldn't let me in the neighborhood. It's a guard gated neighborhood and there's guards 24 hours a day. And every time I'd pull up, if I didn't have business there, they'd turn me away. Um, so I had to figure out a way to, to try and infiltrate the neighborhood.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And my best line was every night I'd pass by and I'd see the same guard. And every once in a while I'd pull up just to say hello to him and ask him questions about the neighborhood and you know, what's going on in here. Do they have any Christmas type festivities and what's it like in Halloween around here and stuff like that. So, um,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
He was actually a retired Jersey cop that had pretty much the same accent and mentality and look on life that I did. So we made a friendship. His name is Dan. And after about a week or two of stopping in and forming this friendship with Dan, every single night I'd come home, I'd stop at McDonald's, I'd get him a cup of coffee. Every single night. Right. 99 cents. Right.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So he really appreciated that, especially in the, in the colder months. And that turned into a really good friendship to where is now I had a way to get in the neighborhood. He'd look, he'd look the other way, press the button, press the button. He'd let me in. Or I remember one night they were cracking down on people coming through the neighborhood, the HOA.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So Dan, it was before cameras and stuff like that. Dan told me that at the end of the neighborhood, there was a gate, right? With a pedestrian entrance and gave me the code to pedestrian entrance. So I went to my son at that point, had a letter carrier. It was almost like a mail carrier that he used for school. And I filled it up with 200 pieces of what Eric Gorton's marketing was at that point.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And I brought my seven-year-old son and we would walk the neighborhood and just stick the little pieces of paper in everybody's mailbox to try and get my story out, to let them know that this house is available. I was promoting other people's listings just to let people know that this is what's on the market, this is what's sold. I wasn't claiming they were my listings.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Way pre-internet.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
No, not at all. And especially all of the marketing went away. So now people are starving for information about their homes and their neighborhood, and they weren't getting it because nothing was coming in. You really had to go scope it out or call somebody. And then once you call somebody, you're on their radar and they become a stalker, right? Yeah. But that's exactly what I did.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I was a stalker. And I went out and I tried to make relationships and friendships with all of these people. So, you know, every three, four, five nights, my son and I used to just go into this neighborhood. I, you know, because I was working all day at that point, it was my time to spend with my son. My daughter was still younger. So, you know, I couldn't take her.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And by the time I got home, she was probably either in bed or in her pajamas. But Michael used to wait for me all the time. Yeah. As soon as I got home, we going tonight? Yep. Let's go. Jump in the car. We'd walk around and we'd play a game because I never knew if the HOA was driving the neighborhood. So I play hide and seek behind the trees, right? Car comes. Come on, Mike, get behind the tree.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
He'd run to one side of this road. I'd run to the other and we'd kind of hide from the car that's passing by. And every once in a while, I'd get a phone call from either.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
No, I'm just kidding. He's not. Just kidding. So right after that, then the HOA used to call me up and say, listen, it's a federal offense to open up people's mailboxes without putting postage on it. So me thinking of a way around it, I went to the post office and I bought one penny stamps. And I just stick it on a piece of paper without an envelope and stick it in the mailbox.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And it got to the point where it become a joke, right? I made friends with all the HOA guys. You know, every once in a while, I try to bring some information to the HOA when they had a meeting in the neighborhood. And I'd stop by Vons or, you know, there was a pizzeria called Giovanni's Pizza. They made the best cannolis.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And I'd stop in with a dozen cannolis that I got from the guy because he knew me. Rather than pay three bucks a piece, he'd give them to me for two bucks a piece because they were made yesterday. They weren't the fresh ones. So I'd bring cannolis to the HOA meeting and these people would just, you know, like... Who is this guy, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So I remember, it took me two and a half years to get a listing in there.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Two and a half years to get my first phone call for someone to say, okay, I've seen you working in here. you know, at that point, Cheryl Davis was the biggest name in the fountain. She owned a home in there. I'm not sure if she was living in there at that point, but she sold a home that she owned to the, to the guy who delivered my children, Dr. Torres. Okay.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And he was one of my, you know, my one main guys that, you know, I, I made friends with him because you delivered my kids, right? Like, you know, like, so then he introduced me to his neighbors and so on and so forth. So two and a half years later, this guy gave me a chance. to sell his home, but he said, you know what? I know you've never sold a home before in here.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And I know that you've dealt with real estate, but you're going to need something to break in in here. And I'm going to give you this listing for 30 days. And I'm going to give you 4%. And at that point, everybody was charging 6%. Like that was the days of 6% and it was nothing less. I said, I'll do whatever I have to, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
He goes, you got 30 days because at that point, I got a relationship with somebody else. The other thing is it's 30 days, but you can't put it on the MLS. Oh, man. 30 days. Oh, man. Put a sign in the front if you want to. You do all the marketing anyway.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So, and my whole philosophy was I was always just trying to get people to say, well, you know, most people who live in the fountains know people who want to live in the fountains. Sure. Right? So... I immediately went to work. I planted a sign in his front yard. I basically handed out flyers every single day. Anybody who came and went got a fly, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Or got a piece of paper that said, Eric Orton, I have this listing. If you or anybody, you know, wants to either scale up, scale down or bring somebody to live in the fountains. This is, you know, we're having an open house this weekend. There's a gentleman in there. He's no longer with us. Really great guy, Keith. And, um,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
He walked in and basically said, my son just graduated from college in USC and I want him to live in here. This is where he grew up. He ended up buying a house. I double ended it. And literally that was the beginning of it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And that was my marketing, right? You promote everything that you do, everything. I just had one open house, you know, first week on the market or first week exposed that it's not even on the market. A guy walked in, we negotiated a deal. He closed literally within two weeks.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I'm still selling the story out of that neighborhood at 198 homes. I've sold 154 of them. Do you have a life goal to sell them all before you die? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I'll do it before. Well, not before I die, before I retire.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Well, you know, there was a lot of things you have to adapt to where you want to be and how to get there. Right. And you need to, you need to basically, you know, I hate to use this cliche because I hate when people say to me, but it's so true. You almost got to fake it till you make it, man. You got to put it out there and say, I'm the best and I want to prove it to you. Give me a shot, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
But to go into different neighborhoods, I think the fact that I knew so many people in town at that point, I rubbed elbows with all of the right people. You know, my kids at that point, when I transitioned and started to go into different neighborhoods, my kids were in Bishop Gorman, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I started, you know, knowing different people that lived in different neighborhoods, social events turned more plentiful to where I can shake hands with different people. And they gave me a shot, introduced me to other people. So, you know, for those of you, do you think it was the relationships more than the marketing? I think it was a good 50-50, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Because at that point, you know, when I started to immerse myself in the luxury market, obviously you make a little bit more money. I had a little bit more of a marketing budget, right? Whereas, you know, I couldn't scale the fence and bring coffee to every HOA, right? But- You know, you start to identify where your core audience is.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And then once you establish, let's just say you get a listing in one neighborhood. Now you can geofence where before the internet or during the internet, before the geofence became popular, you had to almost go to the title company and do your own manual geofence.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Oh man, way different than what you see now. Yeah. way different. Well, maybe not way different than what you're accustomed to because when the lights go down and, and you know, we're chilling and doing our own thing, it turns into the old Eric Gordon a little bit. Which is an understatement. Strong Island comes right through. Strong Island definitely comes through.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Yeah. You know, it's, it's, it's funny. You, you, you first have to evaluate or, or kind of, you know, You have to know your audience, right? You can't go up with an Eric Orton attitude and talk to somebody that's completely inverted, right? You can't speak to somebody that has a shy attitude and come out like guns a-blazing. You have to adapt to what they are.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So you have to almost evaluate, you know, how you're going to approach somebody, right? And I think that's been a big... a big attribute of my own that, that I'm a very good adapter. I can walk into a room and I can, I can sum somebody up within a matter of minutes.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I know it, obviously I don't know your whole life story, but I can tell the type of person you are before I even say two words to you, right? I can listen to you say a couple of things and I can know how I can mirror the way you're speaking and, to make us have something in common.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I think probably there's a certain level of that it's in my core. Yeah. But I also think that over the years that I've been able to hone in and sharpen that skill.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I think, and I'm the same way because, you know, people constantly approach me now. They're always trying to sell me something. With success in real estate, everybody's always trying to sell you something that they want from you in real estate. And it's nothing bad. I appreciate the sales and I appreciate the hustle. I appreciate when people come at me and I love to hear,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
or to see people try and better themselves, right? That's all well and good. But, you know, to stay memorable, you can't be fake, man. You can't be fake. You got to be real with people.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Well, the first thing I always try to remember, and it was, it took a little bit of time to realize this, but don't focus on what you think people have. Everybody's got their own story, man. You never know. There's a guy probably out there that you may think is flexing. He's got the great car and the great house and wears every beautiful watch. You don't know what his bills look like.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
You don't know the amount of money he's bringing in. You may perceive that he's got a lot of money, but you don't know where he's at. If you stay true and become a friend, I always try to mesh with people just from a friendly standpoint. Even when I was a kid, it wasn't always just trying to one-up somebody or trying to be the most powerful voice in a conversation.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
But me as a kid, I was definitely a little bit high maintenance. I was definitely a hyperactive and very rambunctious child, to say the least. I gave... I don't want to say I gave my mother a hard time. My mother was a single parent, raised us, raised me and my brother from literally rags to... I always say from welfare to the White House and then back, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
You genuinely have to care about what people say as opposed to what you're saying all the time.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Oh, yeah. Without a doubt. Yeah. Both you and I know that at face value. Welcome to Vegas. And I try not to judge people. I really do. It's hard. Coming from New York, it's kind of bred into your soul. You got to make sure that you keep people at arm's length. Because- You know, growing up in New York was no picnic, right? There's a lot of great people, but there's a lot of shitty people there.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
There really are, right? And especially when you interact with people in the city, in Brooklyn, you know, it's not fun all the time.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Find the right team. Yeah. Find the person that's going to take a genuine interest with you that is not thinking of you as a dollar sign, right? Really someone that really wants to see you succeed. And also remember, you know, you get on a team, a team is not forever. This is basically a training experience and a training portion of your real estate. You get paid to go to school.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
That's exactly right. Now, there will be a split. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, if you have a good team leader, they want you to succeed and go on my own. I never want my agents to stay with me. There's only one agent that I ever want to stay with me for the life of my career. And that's your son. And that's my son. He's got the last name Gorton.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
There you go. It don't matter. Just being with you, John, is a gift enough.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
My mother really achieved a lot of greatness and... It was because of her that she enabled me to do a lot of the things that I did that really transmit and resonate with the rest of my life growing up. So me as a kid, I was very intense and very Long Island and very outspoken, rambunctious, hyperactive. ADHD, everything and anything you can think of.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I did never let a moment go by when you didn't know that I was in the room. Yeah, for sure.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I did. So as a very small child, I had the very fortunate experience of growing up with a gentleman by the name of Michael Massone. He was the guy that I named my first child after. And he was a World War II vet. I mean, he was the quintessential man that you wanted to be a mentor. And He literally did not allow me to be lazy.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
You would get me up at the age of eight and literally put a rake in my hand and say, okay, we live on the street. You're going to rake in rake the leaves in the gutter. And at the end, you know, I just be thinking I was doing it for nothing. He slipped me a $10 bill or a $20 bill. So I knew very early on that, you know, if you work an honest day's work, you're going to get paid for it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And And that transmitted into doing janitorial work and, you know, going and delivering pizzas and being a pizza man and just everything up and down the line. I went, I've pretty much had every job that you can imagine.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Yes and no. My mother was very, very loving and giving. She didn't, she wasn't always able to afford what Eric wanted, but she always found a way to make me not, let's, let's put it this way. I did not, I did not want for anything, but I was not spoiled. I did not have a silver spoon. I did not drive the fancy cars or have the high end everything, but I had what I needed, what you needed, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
All right. It was, um, it was a, uh, it was a lesson in, you know, making sure you live within your means. Okay. And that's kind of, That's carried me through my entire life. I mean, you know, it's very easy to make a little bit of money and then live way beyond your means. And I never got to that point. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So... You know, after a short stint as being a fireman in New York, I realized that I did not want to stay in New York anymore. And I wanted to get married and move away from New York. Right.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Well, it was kind of in my blood. My Uncle Mike was a fireman. My brother was a fireman. A lot of guys within my inner circle. A lot of the guys that kind of from afar stepped in and gave me the tools that I needed to become a man were all firemen or cops, right? So it was like, you know, going through life, I always really just wanted to be a fireman. My brother became a cop.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And, you know, very soon after that, you know, kind of realizing where we were in that scope. I knew that that wasn't the scope.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Yeah. And when I came out here, you know, the truth is I took the fire department and test, but we learned very early on, right after I got married within three months, I was going to have my first child. And we had no idea how long that, that was going to take. So I got into the casino business. I went and became a dice dealer. Okay. Right.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
so i i went and worked downtown i worked at the plaza working on what they call the cheap table um which is basically quarter crafts yeah and uh worked there for nine months perhaps quarter crafts they call it the bird table but it's because it's cheap cheap cheap right um So, I worked at the Plaza and then opened up the Monte Carlo and finished off my career in the casino business.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
After going through being a floor boss and a boxman and an assistant pit boss, I hung it up and basically became a real estate agent.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
Yeah, old Dolly's been here for 65 years serving drinks. And it was hard because you got used to making that steady money. Right. And it was they fed you three times a day. It was steady work. Right. And, you know, I kind of thrived in the in the casino business because I was I was a good dice dealer. I really was.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I, you know, commanded my my table and had a crew and we made money and it was a lot of fun and. But, you know, after a while, it just was like, what am I doing? I'm watching this dice go by and everybody's passing me. I'd see guys come to the table with, you know, 10, 12, 15 grand. It's like, there's more money I've ever seen in my entire life.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So true.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So I was a fireman, not to be confused. I was a fireman on Long Island. It wasn't a New York City job.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I was a fireman on Long Island. It was great, and I wanted to go through the whole system. Took the fire department test in New York, right? It was just, you had to be a legacy to get into that. There had to be a job opening for you to get in there, and you had to know people. Although I knew people, it was those jobs weren't available at that point. Yeah. Right. So.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
So you had a ceiling where you were. Exactly. And, you know, quite honestly, it was always a dream of becoming a stockbroker. I always loved Wall Street. You know, you could have been Jordan Pelford, buddy. Boiler Room is one of my favorites. favorite movies growing up. Right. So it was like, I really felt like I was Gordon Gekko.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
I really did like, but in my own little head, because I had no finance experience, I barely graduated high school. I did go to college, but luckily I did go to college because that's where I met my beautiful wife of 30 years today. Um, and you know,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
It was worth the tuition, by all means. But, you know, it was in the back of my mind, my mother exposed me to, as you said, she was in the White House, always exposed me to heads of state and dignitaries and powerful people where I admired them from afar. So we used to live a very... It was almost the imposter syndrome because you'd put on a beautiful blazer or a nice suit.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
You'd go out and go to the D. Sapersky Center and hobnob and rub elbows with all of these heads of state and powerful people. And then I'd come back to Island Park in my two-bedroom house. And literally, we had to pull together a couple of bucks out of the sofa to get a pizza. So it was tough for a while, man. It really was. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And there's a certain, you know, there's a certain feeling that you got to keep up with your friends, right? You don't want to be the odd man out. You want to kind of put that brave face on. You don't want anybody to know what's going on at home. So you got to be out there and just be that guy.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Building an Empire from the Ground Up: Insights with Eric Gorton
And I relied on my personality that's carried me through my entire life to kind of just fake it as I was going through it. And it wasn't until I got older that sometimes you just can't fake it. And the closest friends that you have to you know what you're going through, but you still want to just kind of be a normal guy.