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Lessons from Local Leaders:

Christian Givens

The Deal That Didn’t Close — and the Career It Built

Christian Givens on Integrity, Client-First Service, and Why The Givens Group Delivers a Luxury Experience at Every Price Point

Born Into It — Sort Of

Christian Givens says he was born into real estate, and he says it like he’s only half joking. His father was a master plumber who transitioned into contracting when Christian was in middle school, then started flipping houses in DC, and eventually built a small portfolio of rental properties in Maryland, DC, and Baltimore. Christian was around it.

Like a lot of people who grew up adjacent to the industry without being in it, he absorbed BiggerPockets. He listened to the podcast obsessively in college. He learned the vocabulary, the philosophy, the investor mindset. And then, at 22, he bought his first property in Virginia — and had a real estate experience so genuinely positive that it planted a seed he couldn’t quite shake.

“She helped us identify our goal based on what we were looking for, and it was a very fun transaction because she was just fun to work with,” he says of the agent who guided him through his first purchase. “And I was like — this is actually kinda cool. You get to just be out in the world and you’re not at a desk all day. And for me, being at a desk all day just kills my soul.”

He got his license. He discovered that real estate was not, in fact, easy. And somewhere in the early days of building his career, he had the experience that would shape everything that came after.

The Deal That Didn’t Close — and the Lesson Worth More Than the Commission

Christian was newer in the business. He needed the money. A client was in a transaction that fell apart, and he could feel, with the particular discomfort of someone who hasn’t yet learned to hide it, that the client could sense his frustration — could sense that he needed this deal to close.

That feeling was the teacher.

“From that transaction, it made me realize: my need is second place to my client’s need. It doesn’t matter what I need. My job is to serve my clients. Their best interest comes first, always. My clients don’t ever need to know my financial needs. Put it to the back, no matter what.”

He talks about this not as a philosophy he adopted but as a shift that happened to him — the kind that only happens when you feel the wrong thing and recognize it clearly enough to decide you’ll never feel it again. The recognition that his financial anxiety was leaking into a client relationship, and that it shouldn’t be there at all, was the aha moment that permanently reordered his priorities.

Today, he says with quiet pride, when a deal falls apart he’s genuinely fine. Not performing fineness — actually fine. He’s not reliant on any individual closing. He can ask “what’s next?” and mean it. That freedom, he understands now, is not just a marker of financial stability. It’s the thing that makes it possible to truly put clients first. You can’t serve someone’s best interest if your own financial pressure is sitting at the table with you.

Who You See Online Is Who You Get in Person

Christian has strong feelings about authenticity — and equally strong feelings about the gap that exists, in some corners of the industry, between how agents present themselves on social media and who they actually are when you meet them.

“I just cringe at fakeness,” he says, with the directness that shows up throughout his conversation. Christian has encountered agents who have built polished, engaging social media presences and then shown up in professional contexts as someone entirely different. He’s noticed it. He’s decided he will never be that person.

“Who you see online is who you will see in person — whether it be shy me, or if I’m going through something personally where I’m just not in the best headspace. I’ll be very upfront. You’re trusting me with such a big transaction. You need to trust that I’m actually going to show up and be the person you hired.”

This authenticity has a practical consequence that he describes with a kind of delighted clarity: by the time a new client reaches out to him, they’ve already spent time with his content. They know who he is. They know how he talks, what he values, what his energy is like. The initial conversation isn’t really an introduction — it’s confirmation.

And it goes both ways. “Now I’m basically interviewing them,” he says. “Because they already see who I am. And I’m just figuring out: are you not crazy? Are we actually going to close a deal? Are you a good fit?” The interview flows in both directions, and the transparency that makes it possible is built into every piece of content he puts out.

Social Media Is How You Get Clients. Craft Is How You Keep Them.

Christian uses social media to generate business, enjoys creating content, and has been doing social media marketing since college — he had an internship in it, he’s been editing video since then, and it genuinely doesn’t feel like work to him. He’s clear about all of that.

He’s equally clear about what social media is not a substitute for.

“Know your craft. Outside of social media, great — that’s how you get clients. But I also know my job. I know the contracts, I know how to speak, I have business etiquette. I am a professional, ultimately, at the end of the day. I’m not just a social media agent posting pretty house tours. I know my job. Become a student of your craft.”

The distinction matters because the real estate industry has made it easier than it’s ever been to look credible online without actually being credible in practice. Someone can build a following, generate leads, and win clients before they’ve developed the professional fluency to serve those clients well. Christian has no patience for that model — not because he’s dismissive of social media, but because he understands what it’s supposed to be: the front door, not the whole house.

Network is the other thing he emphasizes to agents building their careers. You’re going to run across other agents repeatedly in this business. Your name is going to precede you. How you show up in professional relationships — not just client relationships — matters more than most new agents realize. “Have your name be respected,” he says simply. “You can’t be one way on social media and everybody sees you differently in person.”

Connection Is the Business

Ask Christian what separates a transaction-focused agent from a client-focused one, and the word he reaches for is connection.

Christian knows what his clients are eating. He knows where they’re traveling, their communication style — not as a technique, but because he’s genuinely curious about people, and because genuine curiosity produces the kind of relationship that outlasts any transaction. He invites clients into his world too, sharing what he’s doing and where he’s going, because the relationship works best when it flows both ways.

“I really believe you should make an effort to connect to the core of who your client is. That doesn’t mean you’re going to click with everybody or everyone’s going to be your best friend. But for the most part, I enjoy 99% of the people I work with. And I’m always sad at the end of a transaction — because now you’re leaving.”

That sadness at the close of a transaction is, counterintuitively, exactly why his client appreciation events matter so much to him. They’re not just a business development tool — though they are that too. They’re the mechanism he uses to stay intentionally connected to the people who’ve passed through his professional life, to create a space where his clients from different worlds get to meet each other, and to watch connections form between people who might not have found each other otherwise.

“I believe it’s a good networking tool for my clients,” he says, “because we have clients in all these cool spheres — contracting, medical, legal. I want people to make connections, get to know each other.” He finds genuine joy in watching friendships form at those events. That joy is not incidental to his business. It is his business.

Finding Your Lead Generation Method — and Avoiding Burnout

For agents trying to figure out how to generate business, Christian’s advice is practical and refreshingly free of dogma: test things, give them real time, and pay attention to what you enjoy.

There are fifty ways to generate real estate business — social media, door knocking, cold calling, FSBOs, expireds, mailers, events, referrals. Not every method is right for every person. The goal isn’t to find the method that works for someone else. It’s to find the method that works for you and that you can sustain.

“Find three to four things that you have the capacity to test for six months,” he says. “And if you’re finding that you enjoy something more than the other thing, then focus on that. That’s the big key to avoiding burnout — doing things you enjoy.” Social media doesn’t feel like work to him because it isn’t, for him. He loves it. He was already doing it before it was part of his career. That’s the signal he’d tell any agent to look for: the lead generation method that doesn’t feel like suffering.

What New Agents Need to Hear Before They Start

Christian’s advice for anyone considering getting a real estate license is direct, specific, and worth hearing before you hand over the exam fee.

First: this is not a business that will be built overnight. Give yourself two to three years. Most agents who leave the industry do so within the first two years, primarily because there aren’t enough closings in year one to feel financially stable. If you’re going full-time from the start, have six months to a year of living expenses saved. Without that cushion, your financial anxiety will show up in your client relationships — and Christian knows from personal experience exactly how that plays out.

Second: find a mentor who is doing what you want to do, and shadow them. He didn’t have that at the start, and he believes it cost him years. His business partner Keesa — who was his coach before becoming his partner — helped him understand where his business was actually coming from and lock in on what was working. “I would be ten times further had I found that out the gate,” he says, with the equanimity of someone who has decided the timeline was probably right anyway.

“Find a mentor that is doing what you wanna do and shadow them. Have savings — at least six months to a year of expenses. Don’t be stressed about finances when you’re starting. And give yourself two to three years. This is a long game.”

The Luxury Experience — At Every Price Point

The future of The Givens Group, as Christian describes it, is built around a single conviction: the quality of the client experience should not depend on the price point of the transaction.

He wants every client — regardless of what they’re buying or selling, regardless of where they are in their wealth-building journey — to feel like they have a team fully in their corner, like the process is being handled with professionalism and care, like they made the right choice. Not just a functional transaction. An elevated one.

“I want it to be a luxury experience, no matter what price point my clients are at,” he says. “So I want it truly to be elevated. I want you to know that you have a team behind you that is in your corner. And to just know that you made the right decision choosing us.”

People remember how they were made to feel. That’s the truth that anchors everything Christian Givens has built — from the early deal that taught him his clients’ needs had to come before his own, to the client appreciation events where connections form and friendships begin, to the vision of a team that delivers something extraordinary to every person who trusts them with one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.

Faith. Family. Goals. And a commitment to showing up — online and in person — as exactly who he is. That’s the foundation. Everything else is built on top of it.

Connect with Christian Givens & The Givens Group

The Givens Group serves buyers, sellers, and investors across the DMV area.

📱 Call or email at (301) 221-3635 or [email protected]

📸 Instagram (personal): @christiangrealtor

📸 Instagram (team): @group.givens

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