Why I Closed My Realtor Office in Seoul

Hey cuz,

You know how people say it’s tough to get a realtor license in Korea?
And even harder to run your own office?
Well... I did that.

Glass door. Fresh logo. Business cards stacked neat.
It looked like success. kk

But every day I sat there thinking,

“This ain’t the job I fought for a license to do.”

Clients came and went. Deals closed. Phones rang.
But something didn’t feel right.

My wife’s an expat. I’m a returnee after two decades abroad.
Naturally, I started helping foreigners.
Half the time, I was explaining systems other agents never cared to learn.
The other half, I was explaining why those systems worked that way.

That’s when it hit me.
My real work wasn’t behind a desk.
It wasn’t in listings or paperwork.

It was in the translation--between how Koreans do real estate and how foreigners experience it.
Between systems. Between cultures.

So I packed up the office keys and walked out into the Mapo wind.
It wasn’t a failure. It was an upgrade, customized.

Now I’m back on the street, laptop in the backpack, coffee in hand,
writing you these letters instead.

So if you ever find yourself lost in the maze of Korean housing,
remember--your cousin already got lost there once and came back with a map. kkk

More letters coming soon, cuz.
We’ll make sense of this place together. ☕️

--Cousin JK