Adam Kauffman’s love for real estate was ignited when he was 9 years old, dropping off letters of interest in mailboxes of the homes outside Cleveland that his parents were interested in buying.
“They dragged me around houses as they were looking,” he said in an interview. “I don’t know what it was, but I just loved it. It was just like a calling I had.”
It wasn’t long before Kaufman — a self-described “precocious kid” — was spending weekends riding his bike around the neighborhood’s open houses.
“The Realtors hated me because I used to walk in and tell them the house was overpriced,” he said with a laugh. “It wasn’t on purpose; it just happened. I became this walking encyclopedia. I knew everything that was for sale … And I definitely had my opinions back then, and I would let them be known.”
By age 15, he was helping people sell their houses by owner. As soon as he was 18, during his senior year of high school, he took night classes to get his real estate license. On summer vacation from college (he attended the University of Rochester), he’d sell houses.
“When I graduated from college, I went right home,” he said. “My dad wanted to kill me, but I wanted to sell real estate full time.”
Three years later, Kaufman said, he’d grown his business — and assuaged his dad’s concerns about real estate as a viable career.
Now, Kaufman, an agent with Howard Hanna, ranks among Ohio’s top-producing real estate agents.
“I worked and worked and worked,” he said of his success. “I joined a country club. I joined charitable organizations. Anywhere that I could meet people who were going to be potential clients was where I was at. I ate, I slept, everything was real estate. Every breath I took was about real estate.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What is your house like?
There was one house in Shaker Heights that had always been my favorite home since I was a kid. When I was about 13 years old, the house sold, and I went to the open house with my dad, and I just always loved this house.
I had sold it a couple of times during my career, and it was just, every time I walked into the house, I loved it. It’s a 1927 Tudor. It’s architecturally the most amazing house. It has a three-story living room. It’s got a two-story master bedroom. It’s just the coolest house.
I’d bought a piece of land, and I was about to break ground. I ended up not [doing so] for a couple of reasons, a health scare, but it was the best thing that ever happened. So, I was living in an apartment, and I very quickly bought another house. After I bought it, I was like, I don’t like this house. It just doesn’t feel right. I painted it. I put some carpeting in. And I resold it.
I just kept looking at house after house after house, and I didn’t like anything. But it was the day before Thanksgiving, and all of a sudden, I look on the Multiple Listing Service, and the house I had always loved came on the market, and it was an agent in my office. I ran upstairs and I said, “Susan, I want that house.”
Now, I’m living in the house that was always my favorite house. I like everything about it.
Who is your mentor?
I had a mentor named Barbara Reynolds who was the head of my company. As I started to get really successful, she sat me down and said, “The choice is going to be yours. You’re going to be the one that everyone looks up to, or you’re going to think that you can break the rules because of your success.”
That was the best thing anyone ever taught me. And I, of course, said I’m taking the high road.
What is the most bizarre thing that has happened to you on the job?
I’ve had so many. I sold a house once, and I walked in — the husband’s in the kitchen and I’m in the foyer — the wife walks right up to me and plants one on me. I mean, like I’ve never had one planted on me before. She was like, ‘I just think you’re so cute.’
What are you binge-watching right now?
I’m not a huge TV watcher, but I do watch a little bit. I’m sort of old school. I love "Law & Order SVU." I like the "Chicago Med" and the "Chicago Fire" series, and I did just watch season three of "The White Lotus." It’s cool. It’s kind of disturbing.