Anthony Abou Jaoude’s maneuvers to becoming the Godfather of Dubai Real Estate

The “Godfather” of Dubai real estate has earned that title through his high sales volume, 9.5 billion dirhams, almost 2.5 billion dollars. In 2019, he was one of three in Dubai real estate who leveraged social media. He remained in Dubai while the rest went bankrupt and left. What’s more, he hosts the foremost podcast, Dubai Stars, and educates and mentors aspiring brokers, giving courses and sharing knowledge in his books, the two Amazon bestsellers, “Take Charge” and “Take Action”.  

 “Everyone is looking to make a quick buck, I always looked at the long-term vision of creating my own network, growing it, and having repetitive deals”. Even if it cost him money, he would tell clients to pass on a transaction if it’s not good for them. Otherwise, he’d encourage them. “I’m the one-stop shop for all my clients. Other brokers get out once the deal is closed and the papers are signed. I’m their eyes and the ears”, says Anthony.

Spur of the moment

At twenty-nine years old, he went to visit his family in Dubai. He hadn’t seen his uncle in fifteen years, and he’d never met his nephews. He came to Dubai for one week and stayed for twelve years. “I arrived on a Thursday at 11:00 pm, the city was all lit up, unlike Lebanon, and had high buildings, I thought: just gorgeous”. The next day he went to the beach, got in the hot water, saw people of all nationalities, a whole new world, and was delighted by the novelty.

His uncle told him: “You’re really good in sales and fifty percent of Dubai is based on real estate. You should apply, you never know”. Saturday, they prepared his resume and applied. Sunday, he started getting phone calls. Monday, he began interviewing. After four days in Dubai, Anthony was employed.

At first, he couldn’t make money. The market was bad at the time and he didn’t understand it. It got so awful in two months that he had to sell his iPhone 5C for 300 dirhams, 80$ which he stretched to last him a month. He spent 10 dirhams per day, 5 on water and a cheese sandwich from the supermarket, split in half for lunch and dinner. The other 5 dirhams were for the metro, and he walked 5 kilometers.

On the 26th of his third month, he got his first rental and a 600$ commission. Finally, he had some breathing room. His breakthrough came when he persisted for five months asking for exclusivity on a building. After kicking him out multiple times, they finally said yes and he began making good money.

Persistence pays off

To his advantage, he had spotted an untapped market in hotel apartments and set his sights on a building owned by a prominent family. He pretended to be a client, to see a one-bedroom or three-bedroom because his family was joining him from Lebanon. Liking the project a lot, he asked to speak with the sales director. Since he didn’t have an appointment, Anthony agreed to wait. As fate would have it, the director turned out to be Lebanese. “I was curious to see who’s this man waiting for me for three hours, what do you want from me?” To which Anthony answered: “Don’t misunderstand me. I’m here to change your life”.

The director gave him his number, asked him to arrange a meeting and come back in a suit, with a proposal. He researched extensively how to prepare a proposal and went back. The director opened it, barely gave a glance, closed it, threw it on the table and yelled out: “Rejected!”. That scenario was replayed on three other visits till Anthony finally figured he had to change his approach.

There were two other similar buildings close to the one he had his eye on. He started bringing food to the security guards and asked them which apartments were empty. He got potential clients and showed them the buildings in question and the more expensive and fully furnished apartment building next door.

“Every day I would go by the director’s office with 1 or 2 clients. Finally, one of them liked the prominent family’s apartment better and rented it”. Six months after he first arrived in Dubai, he got an exclusive agreement, forever changing his life. He began making 20,000 dirhams per month.

When Anthony made his first million around June or July 2018, he didn’t spend a dime. He was afraid to get lazy and stop hustling. Instead of celebrating, he kept working fifteen-hour-days for two years, as if it hadn’t happened. “I let myself believe it in Covid in 2020. My wife was worried, and I reassured her that we have enough to live for 500 years”. 

The fort knox of Real Estate

His journey to the top was riddled with challenges, but he learned to become emotionless in business. “A deal is just a number, if I lose one, no problem on to the next”, proclaims Anthony.  After one year in the industry, there was a shift. “I have no ego nor pretension, but when I started doing better than my friends, they changed”. He became an intruder and he figured out it was because he held up a mirror to their shortcomings.

They had the same knowledge, laptop, phone and opportunities presented to them, but they couldn’t do what he accomplished. “I began to learn that as I evolve, it’s inevitable to lose friends, places, whatever it may be. It’s an ugly phase to implement but once done, nothing can shake you in life”.

In 2019, he sold a mansion in Mohammed Bin Rashid city for 70 million dirhams. The woman buyer made a cash downpayment of 1,000,000 and signed the papers. He traveled to London for a roadshow, and the next morning, they called telling him the husband had got into an argument with them and cancelled the transaction. “I would’ve secured 1,000,000$ from this deal. I didn’t even blink”. In previous rentals, if he lost 1,000$ it would’ve been devastating.

A solution to every problem

Despite being akin to a robot in business, Anthony is invested in Lebanon, and is currently developing three projects, in Faqra, Kfardebian, and Beit Meri. Furthermore, thanks to a plan he devised, instead of losing 70% of their money in the crisis, Lebanese citizens put them in Dubai and doubled their savings.

Instagram was his serious business tool in 2020, when everyone was stuck at home, he was thoroughly active on social media. “I got deals for people to buy properties in Dubai and pay for them from their accounts in Lebanon. They couldn’t get their money out of the banks at the time”. The market in Dubai skyrocketed in end of 2020, early 2021, when Covid ended and there were many inquiries from Ukraine and Russia.

Having achieved unparalleled success in real estate, Anthony would tell his younger self walking into his first property showing: “Don’t stress, take it easy, you will make it very big. It’s such a beautiful learning curve, so embrace it when it’s high, and embrace it when it’s low.”