Thach’s Bio

Realtor, developer and philanthropist Thach Nguyen hopes to inspire and empower billions of people to reach for their dreams by sharing his life story and showing them that anything is possible.

A Vietnamese refugee who once lived in a homeless shelter, Nguyen became a real estate agent with Windermere Real Estate in 1991. Through his legendary determination and persistent door knocking, he became one of Washington state’s top real estate producers. Nguyen later joined John L. Scott Real Estate where he sold more than 130 homes a year. He became a millionaire at age 27, three years ahead of his aggressive schedule. Today, he and his team continue to help families buy, sell and invest in real estate.

Capitalizing on his keen market insights, Nguyen began acquiring property and started developing single-family homes, town homes, apartment buildings and commercial properties in 1996. Nguyen and his partners opened their biggest project to date, a 251-unit downtown Seattle apartment building, in 2008 and three others are in development.

Driven by a desire to help others, Nguyen participates in various philanthropic ventures. He created the American Dream program and started working with Seattle ’s First Place School to help homeless families. Since its founding in 2003, the program has helped 25 homeless families move into permanent housing. As the chair of the advisory board and contributor to First Place , Nguyen is also helping the agency turn its parking lot into 40 to 50 permanent housing units. He is a board member of the Scoutreach Foundation, which raises money to give everyone a chance to participate in scouting.

Nguyen also co-founder of The Gift, which is also an online community at http://www.GivetheGiftToday.com, to connect people and teach them how to achieve their dreams by being of service to others.

Nguyen is married, has two young children and lives in Seattle.

The following clip was recorded as an exclusive on CBS, “The Early Show, American Hero.” The Early Show recognized Thach for his philanthropy, achievements, as a humanitarian and a successful real estate agent who wanted to give back to his community that supported his success. Most importantly it highlights his own journey with his family from crisis to fulfilling the American dream of fortune.

Thach’s Story

Thach Nguyen’s Journey: Once Homeless, Now Millionaire Home Seller

Giving Back and Connecting People; Making A Difference In The World

Thach Nguyen was only 4 and a half years old when his family got a phone call that would forever change their lives. The Vietcong were about to invade South Vietnam. If the Nguyens wanted to get out of the country, they needed to get to Saigon as fast as they could.

The April 1975 call came from the U.S. Military base where Thach’s dad, Nhon, worked as a translator. Thach’s mom, Ngot, was making egg rolls when the call came in from Thach’s dad, and she instantly panicked, Thach remembers. She was 29 and pregnant with his sister. Thach was the second youngest of five boys, and the trip north to the Saigon airport would take at least four hours.

Not quickly packed half of the egg rolls for the trip, and gave the remainder to the neighbors. She scrounged up all the money they had and tried to figure out how to notify her relatives that they were leaving their home, which Thach remembers as a small hut with a thatched roof. Ngot found it hard to packas many belongings as she could into one small suitcase.

“We had one suitcase for the 7 of us, $20 in our pocket and we had absolutely no idea where we were going,” Thach said.

As they got on the road, they joined tens of thousands of fellow South Vietnamese also hoping to leave their homeland. The Vietnam War had been raging for all of Thach’s life, and in March, North Vietnamese’s General Van Tien Dung began advancing on several South Vietnamese cities. Word spread that Saigon was the ultimate target.

Nhon Nguyen’s boss was among the American civilian and military personnel in Saigon who were being evacuated just days prior to the city’s fall. Many Americans refused to leave without their Vietnamese friends and dependents. Initially, it was illegal for the American Defense Attaché’s Office (DAO) to move the Vietnamese to America. Eventually, however, the DAO began illegally flying undocumented Vietnamese to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.

(Link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Saigon)

Not One But Two Flat Tires

On the way to Saigon, the Nguyens stopped to tell Ngot’s mom, sister and other relatives that they were leaving and she hoped that they would agree to leave with them.

“My uncle lived on the way to Saigon but he wasn’t home,” Thach said. “We stopped at my grandma and aunt’s house but they weren’t home either.”

The Nguyens then ran into trouble. An hour into the trip, a flat tire delayed them 20 minutes. Two hours later, the car broke down, again with another flat. They were just 20 minutes away from the Saigon airport, and they had used their only spare. Although it would be nothing for a car to travel the rest of the way, it was too far for the young family to walk.

“After panicking for a while, my dad figured out how to fix it, and we were on our way again,” Thach said. “But when we arrived at the airport, we learned the plane had already left.”

Nhon, who was 34 at the time, was able to reach his boss and learned other people also missed the plane. The last C-140 would arrive early the next morning, he was told. “While the rest of us slept on a bed, my dad slept in the Jeep so no one would steal it. He wanted to make sure we would get to the airport,” Thach said. Thach remembers asking his dad if he knew where they were going. “My dad only knew we had to get out of Vietnam quickly.”

Homeless: Twice

Despite the utter chaos caused by hundreds of people trying to get to and board the last American cargo plane the next morning, the Nguyens arrived and boarded safely. After a stop in Guam, and an emergency landing in Oahu because of a mechanical problem, they finally landed in San Diego and went to live in Camp Pennington’s barracks.

“It was like a shelter with no privacy. Only my dad spoke English,” Thach said. “In order to spread out the refugees around the country, we came to Washington as part of a group of 500. We moved to Tacoma after about four weeks.” Again they were homeless.

And then the Nguyens met Charles Zethler, a volunteer who wanted to sponsor a family. He took in the entire family to Sumner where they stayed for a little more than two years. Zethler’s generosity showed Thach the great impact just one person can make in the lives of others. Small acts can lead to profound changes.

“I remember some of the extraordinary things that Charles and his mom, who was 60, did for our family,” Thach said. “His mom drove my dad to work every day – 45 minute each way – for six months until my dad passed his driver’s test.”

Charles and his mom also co-signed a loan so Nhon could buy a car.

Finally a (Rental) Home

Nhon eventually made enough money and rented a drafty two-bedroom house in Rainier Valley for $150 a month. He was only making $500 a month at the time. “The house was moldy, cold and a dump, but to us it was a palace compared to where we came from,” Thach said recalling the one-room, thatched-roof house in South Vietnam.

In elementary school, kids picked on the Nguyen brothers because they had funny haircuts, wore clothes from Goodwill and ate free lunches. In middle school on Queen Anne, the kids picked on Thach because he wore knock -off Izod shirts and fake penny loafers. Thach made up his mind then to prove he was as good as the other kids.

Thach graduated from Franklin High School in 1988 and followed his older brothers to South Seattle Community College where he learned how to fix airplanes. Upon graduation, no one in Seattle was hiring. So Thach, still living at home, started bagging groceries at Safeway. To earn more, he added parking cars at Tai Tung, a Chinese restaurant, and started working at an auto body shop.

“When I learned my friend Linda Chan was studying for her real estate license, I told her I would like to do that because deep in my gut I always knew I would be a good salesman,” said Thach. Chan agreed, and in his spare time, Thach studied and then got his real estate license.

The 21-year-old then asked Brian Fairchild, manager of Windermere Real Estate’s Seward Park office, for a job. “Brian said that the youngest agent working in the multiple at that time was probably 36, and asked me what I could offer them at 21 that would be a benefit to them,” Thach said.

“I knew I was a hard worker, and I told him that my dad knew a lot of people in the Asian community, and that I heard that I actually had to pay him, so what did he have to lose by hiring me if he doesn’t pay me anyway?”

His First Million

Thach was hired and became the youngest agent at Windermere and the youngest person in the multiple listing service or MLS. “At that time I didn’t know that people weren’t going to buy a house from someone who was 21,” Thach said. “I only sold seven or eight houses every year for three years straight, and didn’t make very much money. I was ready to quit.”

But he didn’t. He adopted the successful strategies of a national real estate coach, learning how to actively search for sellers and listings rather than waiting for clients to passively come to him. Having an inventory to show buyers was important, he learned and so committed to knowing how to overcome objections and convert sellers and buyers quickly. Thach also learned the value of truly listening to and connecting with people.

Thach applied his new knowledge quickly. He committed himself to looking for sellers every day, 5 days a week, with the goal of making 100 calls a day. He did just that for 10 years.

“My fourth year in the business, I made a quantum leap and sold 20 houses,” Thach said.

Three years later he made his first million – at the age of 27. Selling that many homes a year isn’t done by a lot of agents – locally or nationally.

Thach eventually joined John L. Scott and became one of the Seattle real estate company’s top agents. He then leveraged his success in residential sales, parlaying it into real estate investing, residential development and home building, and eventually commercial development and building. A common theme runs through Thach’s projects: He is committed to providing homes with quality finishing at affordable prices – so that anyone can buy them. His commercial properties echo that theme as well.

Helping the Homeless; Giving Back

Remembering Zethler’s kindness to strangers, Thach also began looking for a way to give back to the country that took his family in. He and his wife began buying rental homes – before they even purchased their own first home – and decided to rent them out to homeless families. He also created The American Dream program to help house the homeless and partnered with First Place School. To date, he has helped 25 homeless families get off the street.

Thach’s dad passed away on Jan 22, 2007 after a four-month fight against liver cancer. During the weeks following Nhon’s death, Thach learned just how big of an impact his dad had on the lives of others. Through his work as a social worker Nhon helped hundreds of refugees adjust to new lives in the United States. Prior to coming to America, Thach learned that Nhon also took time to help his countrymen in South Vietnam. Now, in memory of his father, Thach annually donates money to churches and orphanages in South Vietnam where the family lived to help the parishes remodel or fix their buildings, among other things.

Thach’s main mission in life is about making a difference in the world, one person at a time. He hopes to inspire and empower billions of people to reach for their dreams by sharing his personal journey and success.

As founder of The Gift (formerly known as Contribution Networking Party), Thach is teaching others the value of helping where they are needed. At the party, people put aside their own wants and are asked to help fulfill the wishes of others in any way they can. They can volunteer their time, their contacts or their other resources to help others reach their dreams. Thach urges them to adopt this philosophy and incorporate it into their lives. His intention is to bring 5,000 people together every 90 days to experience the power of giving, truly connecting and making a difference in the lives of others.

“The level of your success is directly dependent on the number of people you serve,” Thach says. “Dream Big and Serve Unconditionally.”