On this episode of The Massimo Show, Rod continues to feature elite commercial real estate brokers, this time sitting down with Nikita Zhitov. Nikita is a different broker with a different approach that has led him to exponential results.

Born and raised in Russia, Nikita immigrated to the United States when he was fourteen. He went from beginning the 9th grade knowing no English to buying his first property, a 16 unit apartment building, 3 years later with $500 in saved up lunch money during his senior year. He was 18.

Nikita soon flipped the property for a $50,000 profit and quickly became “obsessed with the sport of real estate acquisition and creative finance.” He dropped out of a full ride scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill for a full time career as a real estate entrepreneur. With no money, no credit, no resources or connections, Nikita averaged buying about a property per week. When Rod asked how he did it, Nikita simply said “That’s the beauty of real estate…real estate offers thousands of tools to structure deals creatively.”

Rod and Nikita went on to discuss his innate intellectual curiosity, his pursuit of the American Dream and his emphasis on continued learning and development. Nikita implied knowledge is paramount, having learned through research, tools, mentors and programs such as The Massimo Group, “if he can learn one thing…it pays for itself many times over.”

They also discussed the recession, how Nikita lost focus and direction and lost it all at 24 years old. When Rod asked how he started over, Nikita stated “Starting from ground zero is the perfect place to start, you’ve got a clean sheet of paper.” He “had all of this knowledge…how to make money in real estate,” so that’s when he went into commercial real estate brokerage.

Nikita is now the broker in charge of CityPlat Commercial, a brokerage entity in the Raleigh-Durham NC market, with his young team of 20. Listen in to hear his unique approach to running his successful brokerage company.