Watch: “Losing money should not be an option in brokerage”: Thad Wong

“Ego is what you’re talking about. And ego is blinding. Numbers aren’t blinding.”

This was Thad Wong’s response when asked about how his peers in residential brokerage continued down a money-hemorrhaging path for years, a period in which the industry was supposed to be disrupted, but that disruption turned out to be a mirage. Now, with investors showing no more patience for cash-bleeding firms, things have changed, and Wong believes it’s his time to strike. Having bought the rights to Christie’s real estate brand last year, Wong and his firm, @properties, are in the midst of a national expansion.

“If you don’t have a brand that’s associated immediately with luxury, it makes it really difficult,” he said. “Because in real estate, you’d rather trickle down than trickle up.”

In his most intimate interview to date, Wong sat down with The Real Deal‘s Hiten Samtani to talk through his maverick career, his approach to family and fatherhood, and his operating principles for running a brokerage.

Watch the above video to see how Wong feels about agents buying equity in his firm (“Never, ever, ever”), his experiences with racism in Chicago (“I was called a chink a few times”) and how he thinks about money and political influence (“You have to figure out who you are and what you stand for.”)

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