Mikey Abrams is not your average Realtor. When he hired an assistant a few years ago, the first task he assigned her was to help with the 10 costume changes he would be needing at his upcoming client event. She said, “This is a … real estate job?”
“When I got started in 2015 I didn’t know how I was going to market myself, so I did a little R&D — Rip Off and Duplicate — but everywhere I looked, I saw agents in banker’s suits smiling in pictures, and I thought, ‘That’s not me.’ I’m the Director of Training at Texas Pride Realty, and one of the first things I teach agents is that authenticity is so important,” Abrams said to me when we spoke recently after one of his signature client events.
So who is Mikey Abrams?
Mikey Abrams, Serving D-FW The Real Tea of Realty
Abrams has a BFA in Theater from Southwestern University and pursued a career as an actor in New York doing internships at Don’t Tell Mama, a world-famous cabaret in the theater district. Abrams eventually returned to his roots in Texas, becoming a high school theater teacher in Garland ISD for 15 years before making the leap to real estate.
“I was always curious about real estate, and when I decided to make a change, I put it out there on social media.” Abrams got lots of bites, but it was Bob McCranie from Texas Pride Realty Group who made the extra effort. McCranie noticed that Abrams was doing “Cabaret” in Grapevine, playing the Emcee. “Bob showed up and sat in the front row center wearing his nametag. He told me, ‘I’ve seen you onstage, and I think you’ve got great potential as an agent,” Abrams recalled.
Abrams started out selling to former students, friends, and people he knew through his theatrical career, and his business grew from there.
“Bob always encouraged me to be who I am, and that’s so important. As an agent, you’re selling trust: if they don’t believe in you, what makes you think they’ll spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with you?” So it seemed natural to use his musical theater talents in his marketing, and it certainly sets him apart.
If that means I don’t get everyone as a client, fine. You need to know who you’re working with, and that wouldn’t have been a good working relationship anyway. Alice Walker said that there is no greater power than being your authentic self. I try to base everything off that. Sometimes I step in shit, but at least it’s my own shit.
Mikey Abrams
Martini Mikey Realtor & Quarantine Cabaret
As many actors before him, Abrams has also worked as a bartender, which translated into a Facebook page and a video series, “5 o’Clock Tales,” giving real estate advice over drinks (with recipes, of course). During the pandemic, Abrams decided he wanted to cut back on drinking, and started brainstorming a different way to connect with people virtually. It had always been a dream to open his own cabaret, and that dream became a reality with the “Quarantine Cabaret” Facebook Group.
What started with a video series of “Bad Movie Musicals,” (like Abrams playing the Michelle Pfeiffer role in a sing-a-long of “Grease 2”) became a place for all kinds of live performance-starved folks to share their talents. Theater groups shared their plays, kids whose recitals had been canceled did their thing, and people sang in their living rooms — it became a worldwide variety show with more than 50,000 members in a matter of weeks.
Once people could safely gather, Abrams brought the group live with a performance of “Grease 2” at The Pocket Sandwich Theater.
Musical Theater Game Show
Today, Abrams uses the performances as marketing events for client appreciation nights and to generate new business. I attended the most recent event, a Musical Theater Game Show night at The Pocket Sandwich Theater in its new location in downtown Carrollton.
Not only was the house packed with friends, clients, and colleagues, let me tell you, the man knows how to put on a show. A series of game show-style games with audience participation was broken up with songs from guest performers that brought the house down. Fabulous prizes were sponsored by Integrity Mortgage and Independence Title.
Does it work? Abrams told me he generally sells a house or more from each event. And I can tell you that on the way out, there were several of his signature monthly postcards on display. While I was waiting for a friend, I heard no less than five different people comment on them, saying some version of: “I love these. I can’t wait to get my postcard from Mikey every month.”
Now how many people say that about a real estate postcard?
