Home

10%

Dan Shanyfelt used CSUB experience to fire entrepreneurial spirit

Shanyfelt to be inducted into Alumni Hall of Fame

By California State University, Bakersfield

February 19^th, 2025

California State University, Bakersfield alumnus Dan Shanyfelt came to CSUB because it was the university he could afford. He graduated with the kind of wealth the university is best known for — friends, mentors and advocates who helped him become a whirlwind force for innovation and excellence in the real estate industry.

Shanyfelt’s success in both life and business, say friends and business partners, comes from his humble beginnings as well as his intelligence, instincts, drive and an abiding fearlessness.

A humble start

“I was a military brat. My father was a naval commander. My mom worked as a concierge for the Bangkok hotel. They met during the Vietnam War,” Shanyfelt said.

When the couple returned to the United States, he said, his family moved around while his father worked for prisons.

“Growing up, we were very, very poor. I grew up in a mobile home. I always thought my house was the best house because it had wheels. It was only later that I found that maybe it wasn't the coolest thing,” Shanyfelt said.

They lived in Wyoming, then Southern California and finally in Bakersfield, where Shanyfelt attended Bakersfield High School for two years.

“My mom is Asian. So, like any good Asian mom, she made sure I earned good grades. I graduated top of my class in high school, crushed the SATs, was a National Merit scholar ... a very traditional Asian academic resume,” he said. “I got into every school I applied to. I was accepted to Cal, USC and Colorado, but where I really wanted to go was Cornell which I was also accepted into - with honors. I originally wanted to be a hotel and casino manager. I wanted to go work for MGM so I could run a casino.”

But despite his achievements and passion, Shanyfelt’s family didn’t have the money for a big-name school. CSUB offered him his best chance at a university degree he could afford.

“I talk to a lot of `Runner alumni and people that actually go to CSUB. I hear the same story, over and over. It was definitely not our first school choice. We come here for financial reasons, for local reasons, for family reasons, whatever the case may be. But, in the long run, it ended up being an incredible blessing to go to CSUB,” Shanyfelt said.

It was the people of CSUB that made a difference for him.

“When I first went to Cal State, I had a giant chip on my shoulder. I thought I did everything I needed to in high school, I should be at Cornell. I should be getting ready to be another Robert DeNiro running my own casino,’” Shanyfelt said. “That was definitely an obstacle in my head.”

He met his first mentor at the university in a less than conventional way for a business major — on the staff of The Runner, CSUB’s student newspaper.

“My roommate kept telling me, ‘You should come to The Runner,’” he said. “Also, as a bonus, there were a couple good-looking girls who worked there, as well, I'm not gonna lie.”

Judith Pratt advised the student paper and she and Shanyfelt clicked. He said he’s driven by action and practical experience rather than the contents of a formal lecture.

“My first mentor was Judith Pratt. If anyone knows Judith, she is a Canadian firecracker,” he said. “I learned more in that brief time with The Runner than I did, honestly, in a lot of my other classes.”

The Runner was an operating newsroom with tight deadlines and a demanding atmosphere. There was work to get done, and Shanyfelt thrived.

“I really enjoyed the high-frequency, high-pressure atmosphere,” he said. “And Judith really helped me explore and develop those skills.”

Pratt and his experiences at The Runner helped him experience a business in a real-time environment and develop tools that helped him as he sought ways to pay for his college career.

“I wrote for a lot of other places because of the Runner. I wrote for The Californian as well as for a lot of sports magazines as a stringer. It was kind of cool to build a little portfolio,” he said.

Bakersfield Attorney Joel Andreesen has been a friend of Shanyfelt’s for more than two decades and has a deep appreciation for the entrepreneurial path he’s taken through life.

“From the beginning, Dan had to be a fighter. He had to work his way through college, find as many jobs as possible to help him pay for everything. He knew that nobody was just going to hand it to him,” Andreesen said. “He delivered pizzas. He worked in the Athletics Department as an intern. He was the editor of the Runner. And then he also moonlighted for the Bakersfield Californian writing sports stories. So he was very, very driven at a young age. But ultimately, Dan is an entrepreneur and a businessman, so all of these experiences helped shape and mold him into what he is today.”

A new perspective

Shanyfelt said his eyes quickly began to open to the benefits of being at a small, more personalized university.

“You have very personal relationships. You get to meet your professors. You get to engage,” he said.

He got an internship in the Athletics Department and was able to work with local legends like Rudy Carvajal. They helped him further develop his mind for business.

“I remember having beer with my professor at the Student Union when they served beer. And I remember playing in a fantasy football league with a bunch of the staff,” Shanyfelt said. “It's a very different experience than what I thought a big school would be like. Because of that, it led into all sorts of opportunities and jobs. And I still have relationships and friendships - more importantly - with a lot of the people that I worked with 25 years ago.”

When he graduated from CSUB, Shanyfelt thought he’d stick with the sports business theme and maybe end up as a sports agent. Then he realized – after working for a few Major League Baseball organizations – that professional athletes can sometimes be “prima donnas.” It wasn’t his thing. He got into real estate in the early 2000s, when the market was hot.

Shanyfelt with California State Treasurer Fiona Ma.

Dan Shanyfelt used CSUB experience to fire entrepreneurial spirit

Entrepreneurial success

“My first couple of years in real estate, I didn't really understand where all these commissions were going. I mean, if anyone's familiar with real estate, there's these giant commission splits. And back in the day, pretty standard was a 50/50 split,” he said.

The broker — who provided the business brand, office and infrastructure — received half. The agent who sold the home got the other half.

Shanyfelt learned the model. Then he broke it.

“I remember, when I was in Las Vegas for a conference, I saw a model that had just started to gain traction on the East Coast. And it was a fascinating plan,” Shanyfelt said. “It was a model that would basically be predicated on volume. (The broker) is going to provide the system, a process, and support and the agents are just going to do their jobs but will keep almost all of their income. I wanted it to be the Costco of real estate.”

Shanyfelt got tremendous resistance at first from the more traditional brokers, and his business faced the same tough first year or two that any business faces. But the times and industry were changing. Real estate agents were developing their own personal brands and were able to spread those brands over social media and the internet.

Shanyfelt was there to meet the moment.

“When he was starting to create Miramar Real Estate, he started with a couple of agents. But then he began talking to agents, encouraging them to come and look and see how (his) business model was working,” said Andreesen. “And pretty soon he was having ten agents at a time and 15 agents at a time, 20 agents coming over and joining him because he had carefully researched, he had gone and talked to people and he had set this organization up to succeed, and it was going to succeed through the agents he brought in.”

And with the agents came the sales.

“We started slowly taking away market share, and we started slowly building market share, to the point where, by the time we hit 2012, our market share just in Kern County was more than the next three companies combined. It was actually one of the largest market shares per capita in the nation at the time. And only because we put the power and the income back with the agents.”

Brian Hurley, the president of Gradus Management, met Shanyfelt during the 2008 housing crisis. At the time, Hurley was part of a real estate management company that managed a national network of real estate brokers with the goal of reselling the flood of foreclosed properties created by the crisis. Hurley kept a close eye on the key performance indicators of those brokers.

“Again and again, this guy in Bakersfield, California kept coming to the top of the list,” Hurley said. “So I figured I better meet this guy named Dan Shanyfelt.”

Since then, the two men have become friends and business partners – co-managing a housing fund together and complementing each other’s very different business styles.

“Dan and I came from very different backgrounds,” Hurley said. “I had a much more formal approach to business, much more strategic, much more planned. Dan was scrappy. He was willing to take on opportunities. He was willing, in some cases, to basically shoot first and aim later.”

The pair have learned from each other, Hurley said.

“I think what I was able to show Dan is that sometimes stepping back, looking at a situation and being very, very strategic and planning very carefully gives you an edge with regards to the final deal,” he said. “In return, Dan has taught me not to pass on opportunities just because the planning isn't entirely complete.”

It is Shanyfelt’s ability to find those opportunities that sets him apart, Hurley said.

“You know, real estate is a business with endless opportunities, but a lot of those opportunities aren't immediately obvious. They’re hidden under layers. And Dan has a very, very keen ability to peel back those layers and to find opportunity within them,” he said.

And Shanyfelt has a powerful combination of fearlessness and can-do attitude, Hurley said.

“Not long after we met, I told Dan I was interested in investing in rental properties in Bakersfield, and by that I meant a house, maybe two. So, the first deal Dan brought to me was a portfolio of 30 houses. So I quickly said to Dan, I don't want to buy 30 houses. I can't buy 30 houses. I don't have the money to buy 30 houses,” he said.

Shanyfelt wouldn’t let the deal go.

“Dan said again and again, ‘Brian, this is a good deal. We can figure it out.’ And he was right. We figured it out. And that became the kernel of a business portfolio that has grown for ten years and is now a successful investment fund,” Hurley said.

Shanyfelt has a way of working with people, building relationships and using those relationships to deliver wins for many people, Hurley said, and that skill is something he learned while at CSUB.

“As much happens inside the classroom as outside the classroom with respect to a university education. It's not just about integrating equations or solving for formulas or writing in verse,” Hurley said. “It's really about the relationships that people build. It's about overcoming adversity. It's about figuring out how to work with resource scarcity. It's about figuring out how to work in teams.”

Shanyfelt, he said, understood that fact and capitalized on CSUB’s powerful ability to create those relationships.

“Dan is a great example of someone who took advantage of the community relationship that his university had and has found a way to build a career in which he has given back to the community and leveraged the relationships that he built through the university,” Hurley said.

And once Shanyfelt realized success, he said, he took the next step and began hiring and supporting fellow CSUB graduates.

“Dan is a person who made his own success, and I think that when he sees an opportunity to help someone else who is in a similar situation, he really leans into that,” Hurley said.

Paying it forward

Shanyfelt has stepped beyond the business basics, as he became successful, to give back to the real estate community, Kern County and CSUB.

He is an advocate for affordable housing and very involved in minority real estate professional groups where he’s tireless in his efforts to help others succeed in the business.

But Andreesen said Shanyfelt works behind the scenes intentionally – staying off social media and only using his silhouette in advertisements. Accepting the appointment to the CSUB Alumni Hall of Fame is a little out of character for him.

“I don't really like to be in any type of spotlight at all,” Shanyfelt agreed. “But I feel like this is important because there's a Dan out there right now going through it.”

He knows what it’s like to throw your last dollar at a deal, hoping you’ve done enough to ensure a win. Shanyfelt said he knows what it’s like to fail. He wants other young people to know that they can take a loss and rebound. He wants them to know they can stay connected to their own community, set their feet under them and push for the next big win.

“There's a ‘Dan’ out there right now who did what he or she thought was needed to get to whatever (dream) they had in their mind,” he said. He wants them to know that, “the disappointment is temporary. That fear, that adversity, you have to have it. A lot of times it's an investment. You're investing your emotional capital and your mental capital. Just understand it is an investment. And eventually you continue that path. And it's that path that is put before you for a reason.”

If other `Runners can see him up on the stage and hear his story, Shanyfelt said, they might be inspired and that makes it worth his time in the spotlight.

“Adversity is part of us. I'm a big believer in embracing it because adversity sharpens you,” Shanyfelt said. “You have to get past the fear of failure. You have to get to that point where you're welcoming adversity. You have to learn to love 'no', because every 'no' is one step closer to 'yes.'"