Transcript of Intern at 19. $750M in Property Sales by 26 | Lukas Kerrebijn

You've had $750 million in sales before the age of 30.

So there were definitely people telling me, well, you're too young to do this. It's not going to work. Well, the next Friday we got there and I brought 7 investors. And on my way back, I got calls from all the investors that came and they all wanted to buy specific properties.

No investors, no connections, no plan B. Just a 19-year-old intern who thought the entire real estate industry was doing it wrong. 7 years later, 8,000 investors, €375 million in properties sold across 2 countries. This is Lucas Carabin.

Our hiring rate is 100%. We've never had someone leave our company. These are the 2 factors to scale any business.

Oh, €750 million in sales before the age of 30. What was your first sale like?

Yeah, so the first deal we did was obviously in the Netherlands, in the country where I'm from, and it was actually— I am from Amsterdam, so I'm from the city, but the first deal we ever did was in a village called Vlaardingen. And back then I was 19 years old and I was actually doing social media campaigns with my company in order to gather leads from basically anywhere. And one day I got like this email response from a property owner in the village of Vlaardingen saying, hey, I'm interested in selling my property. The website you guys have, it seems interesting to me because we were like online, we were advertising with the fact that we can sell without charging any costs to the seller. We can do like no financial arrangement clause. We can sell a property within 2 weeks. And with this particular client, it was very important for him that we were able to sell the property quickly. So I came there to basically go view the property and he was like, how old are you? So back then I was a little scared to say I'm 19. So I told him I'm 25.

He was like, wow, you look very young for your age. I was like, ooh, if only he knew. But then actually what I did is I came to an agreement with him in terms of the selling price and everything. And I knew this was an amazing deal. It was like a good ROI potentially if you were to buy the property and rent it out. I know for sure that I could get an investor to buy this property, one of our investors that we already gathered through also social media campaigns, basically. Well, then after I viewed the property, I called some of the investors up. I was like, I think I have an interesting deal for you. Would you want to come and visit the deal or the property with me in two— uh, would you want to come and visit the property with me in 2 days? Well, the next Friday we got there and I brought 7 investors, and on my way back from from that specific property, I got calls from all the investors that came and they all wanted to buy this specific property. So I was like, the first one to put in an official offer will get it.

But that really opened my eyes. It was like the first time I had like a vision of starting a real estate platform in which we sell real estate to investors. And it was the first time that it actually was working out. And I guess ever since then, things just took off and it was such a big motivation. It was such a big thing for me to happen that thereby, I guess, everything we do nowadays was fueled in that specific time frame. Because I guess it took us like 3, 4 months to do the first deal. But after doing the first deal, it was a matter of weeks until we did the second, the third, and the fourth. So yeah, that's really how it started.

So when you were 19, you're an intern, you saw something that other people didn't see. You saw a problem that needed to be fixed. Did people tell you though, like, Lucas, you're 19 years old, you just started in this, what do you know about the problems that we need to solve?

Oh yeah, of course. I guess being stubborn is sometimes a quality as well. So there were definitely people telling me, well, you're too young to do this, and it's not going to work, and it's not going to be this, whatever. But I never really paid attention to that, to be really honest. If I have a goal, if I'm focused on doing something, that I'm focused on doing something and I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure to get to that specific point. So while I was at the internship, I actually, I was only there on Fridays and I think I came by maybe 3, 4 times. So spread out over a period of 5 weeks max. I quickly found out like it was a market in Amsterdam. Everything was selling. Didn't really matter what you were trying to sell. You will put it on like Fynda, which is the Dutch Yeah, the biggest real estate marketplace basically. And you would have 40 people viewing the property. Me as the intern, I would do the viewings. The notary would make up all the contracts and the real estate agents, they would get 1 or 2% commission.

And I was like, what do agents even do? That really doesn't make any sense. You're trying to sell something here which anyone can sell and you're getting paid 2%. Oh, that's easy money. So that's the moment where I was like, I want to start a real estate platform through which people can sell real estate without having to pay a commission. I was going to do that by solely selling to investors because these investors, they would pay our company a little fee. Well, the big advantage of selling to investors is that they can offer like much faster deal processes. So like instead of having to wait 8 weeks until the financings are arranged, investors can put on the money on the table within 2 weeks, sometimes even within a week. So therefore the speed was already guaranteed. Investors could also buy multiple properties. So the moment I found one investor that really wanted to work on a portfolio, he could be a client of mine for a longer period of time. So therefore there were a lot of advantages. And basically the platform I founded was trying to bring sellers and buyers in contact through our platform.

I have a great, very successful friend that always told me that she has a mentor who's 20 years old. And at first I'm like, how? What? I don't even understand. This makes no sense. You're 50 years old, multiple exits, and you have a 20-year-old who mentors you. And it got me thinking that when you're young though, and you're just getting started, you're also not blinded by all the issues and all the damage and trauma that comes along later in business, right? Do you think that's helped you along the way, that having this young vision and you don't have all these fears and traumas and things that may come along later in life?

Yeah, 1000%. When people ask me, what is your number one piece of advice for young entrepreneurs, it would also be to start early. Like, you don't have that much responsibility. You don't have a family yet to take care of. Like, your finances are not as important yet. You have all the time in the world, and obviously you have he has so much to experience in life, but also in business, so to say. So I guess that boldness that I had, that like maybe over— overly confident that I was, really helped me in pursuing all of this. That's for sure. And I guess also what makes it interesting, especially in real estate, because I would say it's a very traditional market, right? It's definitely not a market where you think of young people, or maybe you would think of young real estate agents that work for an agency, but not necessarily of young people doing real estate developments and construction. So I guess the fresh look that I had on this market by actually making real estate sales more transparent as well, but also by just optimizing and making the whole process more efficient, and there was just a market fit for that specific, um, yeah, clientele.

And therefore, I guess, definitely things worked out properly. Yeah.

So talk about being bold. Something that I found myself is platforms change, rules change, laws change, which can completely disrupt your business. I know that happened to you, the Dutch market, the government changed some of the rules, which changed everything in your business. You then went out to a whole new country, to a whole new market. I built Founder Story from a $50 microphone, and the most important thing is I didn't do it alone. For years, I've been using Upwork to hire marketing, editing, branding, you name it. In fact, the editor who cut this very episode and the team behind all of Founder Story branding found them on Upwork. The quality of people is top notch and paying people is simple. Upwork is a one-stop platform to find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across development, data, marketing, operations, and more. With Business Plus, you can access the top 1% of talent on Upwork, and with AI-powered shortlisting, you'll get matched to the right freelancer in under 6 hours. No endless searching required. It's free to sign up and posting a job is easy. Visit upwork.com right now and post your job for free. Free. That is upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow.

That's upwork.com, upwork.com. How was that experience for you? And then what was the change that needed to happen?

Yeah, well, so it was like two-sided, I would say. Like in the Netherlands, the government was basically making real estate investors, they were making it impossible for real estate investors to buy properties and then rent them out with like good returns because everything was capped. So for example, I would rent out a property for €2,000 a month. Now because of the new point system, I was only allowed to rent it out for €1,100 a month. Thereby my ROI would almost go down by 45 to 50%, making it impossible for that property to be even profitable. So a lot of investors had to sell their real estate. There were other rules in regards to investors not even being allowed to buy specific properties. There were tons of things going on. And I guess the worst part of it all was how, yeah, not reliant people can be of the Dutch government. And that really caused problems, like the investor trust within the Dutch market. Yeah, it really shifted. So investors were looking for other markets, but so was I. And I also had like this feeling, I was 23 years old back then when I moved to Dubai.

I wanted something new. Like, I've lived in Netherlands my entire life. I was ready for a new challenge. So that was the moment we went to Dubai initially to look for properties for me and my business partner for ourselves to invest in. But the moment we started doing that, we saw that there was a huge demand from Netherlands of investors that also wanted to purchase properties in Dubai. So that's the moment we were like, besides of having our Dutch company, let's also start our venture here in Dubai and help people with buying and selling and renting out, managing properties in the UAE. And up until this day, like right now, obviously because of the whole war situation, the UAE is a bit more tricky in regards to investments. Cannot deny that, but the market has been very strong. It's a great place to be. I love being there, love living my life there. I love having a center in the UAE. And it's actually one of the best things I've done and something I'm proud of that I made the decision to Yeah, actually go and do it because it's obviously a completely different country than the country where I'm originally from.

So much. I love the energy in Dubai, the energy, right? People, everyone's doing deals. Everyone's looking to scale, grow. They're building casinos. I just heard outside of Dubai and UAE, like there's so much going on. What is some strategies you use to market and expand to ensure that people knew who you were and what you do?

I guess our biggest advantage was the fact that we already had a huge client base in the Netherlands of Dutch investors. So obviously there were other Dutch parties in Dubai trying to sell real estate to Dutch investors, but we already had the contacts, we already knew the investors and we were already a trustworthy partner of theirs. So a lot of them were like, you guys have helped me out in the Netherlands, I trust you guys, you can also help me out in the UAE. So that's one thing. And another thing, I think Dubai sells itself, right? I mean, If you go there, I'm sure you've been several times, like you're describing the safety, the level of service, the comfort it has, like it's really something you want to be a part of. And then I guess the market also really, yeah, played its part in it. I guess a lot of people had this like fear of missing out over the past couple of years because so many people were like, oh, I made so much returns on my properties in Dubai. In my opinion, a lot of the times you're overexaggerating a lot, but that's on a side note.

So I guess the combination of us having the investors combined with Dubai being Dubai, yeah, really made it a huge opportunity. And then we did sponsorings with several fighters, with Glory Kickboxing. We sponsored the Dutch football team, some Formula 1 activities that were sponsored by our company, Arti Dubai, which all led to, I guess, more brand awareness, more sales, and therefore more growth of our business.

How is this sponsoring Formula 1?

I mean, we didn't sponsor Formula 1 driver. We sponsor drivers that drive the Porsche Cup, which is actually the race prior to the Formula 1. But they are like, they're all combined in the same event. And I guess for us, and that goes for every sponsorship, because I always get that question, especially from Dutch people, like, why do you decide to sponsor like this football team? Or why do you decide to sponsor Glory? Does it really convert? Do you get so much sales out out of it. And I would say our main purpose of our sponsorships is not necessarily, uh, sales. Like, obviously you have a bit of brand awareness. Then second, and I find this the most important thing, like, from a business perspective, is that through our sponsorships we attract so many, like, young people that want to identify with our brand. And therefore our hiring is just extreme. Like, I guess 5, 6 weeks ago I shared on my LinkedIn a post in which I stated that we're looking for 4 new, uh, acquisition agents, and we got over 350 applications for that job, which is like, that's extreme. So that obviously helped out a lot.

Then third, it's nice to sponsor people that have a dream. Just like we have a dream, we help out people with building and pursuing their own dreams, and we found that important. And then of course, sales do play a little role in it, but it's not the main, I guess, purpose of doing these sponsorships. So It's a combination of a lot of factors and sponsoring these drivers, helping them pursue their dream in combination with us obviously having certain benefits for our brands. I guess it's just a win-win and that's something we always pursue in anything we do.

A lot of times younger people, money from what I'm finding is not the number one reason why they work somewhere. It's fulfilling their dream, being a part of something, being a part of something cool, being a part of something that aligns with them. So what a genius way to hire top talent. You talked about their biggest dream. What is your biggest dream?

Yeah, if I may go back one, one second, like, to add to that, like, what I have found through that is that the moment we, we started doing these things, we really also, um, started to get job applications from people that actually suit our brand DNA, and therefore our I guess our hiring rate is 100%. We've never had someone leave our company. And that's just like for every business owner, the amount of time and money you invest into people that join your company but then leave in 1 or 2 years, it's extremely costly. And for there, and therefore it was extremely valuable, or it is extremely valuable for us that people do not leave the company. And our whole business is built around the people we have as well as the IT systems and AI nowadays. I would say these are the two factors to scale any business. Coming back to your question, my biggest dream, um, it's actually funny, I was telling you before, uh, we got on this, uh, like, call that we just acquired a big land in Morocco, in Marrakech, so next to the Ritz-Carlton with a beautiful view of the Atlas Mountains.

But my biggest dream is to build sport complexes for unfortunate children that do not have the finances to that do sports, and I want to do that in Africa. So our first sport complex will actually be built in Marrakesh. And basically, yeah, to really share the vision of this all is that young children will have the opportunity to do sports which otherwise they would not have. Through this, they can become professional athletes, they can hopefully join the UFC, they can become professional soccer players. They can make a lot of money and therefore reinvest in the villages they're from and thereby creating a better Africa, creating a better world through sports. Because our whole company, everyone in our business and everyone in our company has a sports background, which is also very nice, I guess. So we really share these values with each other. But that's really my dream. And I guess that's what we're working on right now.

Why do you love Marrakesh so much? Out of all the places in Africa, why did you choose there?

My business partner is from Morocco, so therefore we do have a great network in Morocco. And his uncle, who will also be part of this whole business, we have a shared passion for sports. He used to own gyms in the past and he's also from Morocco, so therefore there's alignment with Morocco. But I also see Morocco, I think right now it's actually the wealthiest country in Africa, and I think there's going to be a lot of growth in this company. Geographically speaking, it's like very central part of the world, actually. It's close to Europe, it's not too far from Asia, and it's, I would say, the closest country to the US in Africa. And the World Cup is going to come to Morocco. Uh, they have a great kingdom, so there's amazing leadership. It's like, politically speaking, it's very stable. So there's a lot of growth and potential in Morocco. And, um, yeah, obviously also because of, uh, the connection my business partner has with the country.

Wow. I want to go to World Cup Morocco. That sounds epic. Who do you think is going to win the World Cup now?

Well, that's actually a funny one. Tonight at 3 AM local time, we have the Netherlands versus Morocco. So there's a little bit of tension between me and my business partner, Dale. But I think Netherlands will win. I think Netherlands will win by 2-1. I think the ultimate favorites for the World Cup would be France. Maybe Argentina, but I think Netherlands do have a solid opportunity as well. So let me just be as bold as I was when I was 19 pursuing my business. I think the Netherlands will win the World Cup.

Where you're at right now, when you think back to the boldness that you had at 19, have you gone through any of the dirt mud that happens in business that may have changed your perspectives around not just the boldness, but how you do things, how you see things? Has anything changed from when you were 19, or are you just completely the same?

Now, of course I've changed a lot. Like, I guess I've— throughout the 7 years I've experienced so much, both in Netherlands and in the UAE. I think also being in two of these different worlds gains you so much experience and knowledge, and therefore I've matured a lot. I've become not as boldly invested in like ideas that I have. It's far more controlled. Obviously I have a team of more than 30 people right now. Therefore, I have responsibility of more than 30 people as well. So it would be foolish of me to have the same boldness that I had 7 years ago while I was doing and doing everything by myself, to do the— to do it on the same, same way right now. But anyways, the motivation is not less, um, the aspirations and the, the goals have not became smaller. And, um, yeah, the, the, the confidence that we will crush these goals and it will make everything that we try to do happen has also not become smaller. Only, I guess, the way in, uh, the way how we go about it and go do the things we have to do.

I love that you still are motivated, even more so it seems. And the fact that you now have 30+ people that rely on you gives you a totally different motivation and perspective than when you're 19 years old, nothing to lose by yourself, go all in. When you look at Dubai in 2035, because there's a lot of stuff that's been happening, there was a lot of excitement. I hear things are ramping back up again, but if you think about from now to 2035, what will investors miss that they wish they had seen?

Well, I think if we are looking at it right now, I think the biggest opportunity is Abu Dhabi. I think Dubai, like when we speak of the UAE, everyone speaks about Dubai. I think the current trend is also like within the UAE is that Abu Dhabi has become far more interesting at this current moment. That's because of all the mega projects being launched there. I think price quality-wise, what you get in Abu Dhabi is far more interesting than in Dubai. So if you look at square feet prices for projects in Abu Dhabi located next to the sea, they're far better, far better priced than in Dubai. So I guess that's something people should not want to miss out on. I guess in general, just investing in the UAE, making sure you buy properties in premium locations from premium developers, that will always do well. Like, in the end, there's so many people coming to the UAE because of its business climate, because of its taxes. Like, can't deny that. So people with money will come to the UAE. And therefore people with money also want quality properties. So my personal suggestion or advice would be to invest in quality real estate, both in Abu Dhabi as well as in Dubai.

And then in 10 years you'll look back and I'm sure you've done a great investment.

When you think about your business in 20 years from now, where do you want to take this thing? What do you hope that you had done at during that time? What accomplishments or success do you hope you have had from now to 40?

Well, first and foremost, I hope to have 4 healthy and loving children. That will be my number 1 priority. Second of all, and I think that's already what we're currently building in Morocco, we, like I said, we purchased a nice plot of land that we're going to build apartments there. It'll be like roughly 400 apartments, 80 villas. And we're going to build a wellness resort with a gym, like a wellness retreat. And then also the, yeah, the sport complex, like the charity we're doing for the, for the unfortunate children, so to say. And that's just something I want to roll out more in the world. I want to do and build nice things with great people that really contribute to the wellness of, yeah, the people on the planet, basically. So if I look, yeah, and into the future in 14 years, I hope we can build more of these sport complexes. I hope we can build more of these wellness resorts. Sports, because for me, I guess with that, everything that I like or love doing comes into play, which is entrepreneurship, which is sports, which is doing good for other people, which is children, because I, I just love children.

And then also real estate, because in the end we're building stuff, and I do have a passion for real estate. And doing that with the people that I love— I have really amazing business partners. I'm most proud of the team that we have in our company that are all good friends of mine as well. Yeah, just doing amazing things with amazing people. That's what I hope to do for now and for the rest of my life. And I'm sure that with the people I'm surrounded by, we'll be able to do that.

What advice would you give to somebody who's in their 40s now, who feels like they're in a rut? They want to make a change. They want to be an entrepreneur. What advice would you give to that person?

Yeah, I mean, you can always look at why you cannot do something, but I guess you have to put things into perspective, right? I'm sure there's people that have done the same thing that you want to do who were in far worse conditions. So you can always come up with an excuse on why not to do something, but in the end it comes down to what Nike always says, and it's just do it. And I guess that's very cliché, but on the other hand, I guess there's so much truth to it because I could also— in my case, when I was 19, I could have come up with 1,000 excuses to not go do what I did. Like, oh, you're young, so maybe I should party more. Oh yeah, I'm young, so I'm not experienced enough. Oh yeah, I should go work for a corporate first to gain some experience. Like, there's always going to be excuses on why not to do something, but it's about, I guess, the other thing— why should you do it? And also, for me, like, there was no alternative. The fuel inside of me was just saying I have to do it, so might as well just go do it.

And then I guess nowadays also with AI, there's so many tools that can help you out to be more successful and therefore, uh, yeah, to make the probability of you being successful more likely.

What do you think about the word manifestation? Does that mean anything to you, or is it laughable when people talk about manifesting?

No, from— for me, it's everything. It starts with a vision. I actually had a— I was in Munich last weekend, and I had a conversation with one of my closest childhood friends about this. We were speaking about, uh, whether or not life starts from a vision, you go from vision to reality, or you go from basically reality to a vision. Well, for me, it always has started with a vision. It starts here, and the vision obviously is based on like real-time experiences, but it starts with a vision. And yeah, that's how it's always been for me. I believe very much in manifesting. I think all the, at least the good people that I'm inspired by, which are mainly professional athletes, they all had this thing with manifesting, uh, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, whoever. I've read all their books and manifesting has been a thing for all of them, and it's been a thing for me myself as well. So I'm a true believer of that. It starts with the mind.

If you could meet one of those superstars, one of the athletes that you look up to, who would it be? You can meet only one. You could have dinner with that person.

I would want to say Cristiano Ronaldo, but the issue with saying Ronaldo is that I find Messi a better football player. But like, from a mentality standpoint, I'm more inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo. So I guess I would call Cristiano Ronaldo for the dinner, but I would ask him to take Messi with him.

I like that. See, that's out of the box thinking. That's manifesting right there.

We'll see one day, right?

One day you're going to have the jersey up.

That's for sure. In terms of manifesting, what I am manifesting is that people like children that come to our foundation at the age of 6 years old, in 15 years' time will fight for the UFC. And it's me and my business partner going to that UFC event, seeing a child that has become an athlete through our foundation, seeing a football player that used to play in our foundation that made it into Barcelona, Real Madrid, whatever team like that. That's what I have envisioned in my, in my mind. And I'm, yeah, I'm sure in 10, 15, 20, 25 years, whatever, we'll look back on this podcast and be like, ah, there you go.

I feel like it's great when you have your own success,, but there's nothing like the feeling of seeing someone that you helped then get to their dreams, which I think you, you totally agree on. Lucas, founder of RD Dubai, you better get Forbes 30 Under 30 at some point before you're 27. I hope they give it to you, but this has been great and I appreciate you being here.

Thank you for your time. Thank you for having me. And it was an honor and a pleasure to be on the show.