Build Your Own Wealth, Not Someone Else's: A Real Estate Revolution

The real estate industry is undergoing dramatic changes with brokerages taking on private equity, reshuffling leadership, and adapting their business models to survive in the evolving market. 

As agents, we must balance serving our clients excellently while also staying informed about industry developments that directly impact our businesses and long-term wealth creation.

Topic Covered in this episode:

• Traditional brick-and-mortar brokerages have multiple layers of ownership where commissions flow up from agents to team leads, franchise owners, and corporate leadership

• The transformation in real estate parallels other industries that were disrupted by technology platforms (Netflix vs Blockbuster, Uber vs taxis)

• Building your own wealth rather than someone else's - get an exit strategy!!  Creating an exit strategy in real estate allows agents to build willable assets and avoid selling homes into their 70s

• Having the right business partners can accelerate success by providing strategic advantages and industry insights

Reach out to explore partnership opportunities that could help you build wealth while still providing excellent service to your clients. You don't need to choose between client service and business awareness—the most successful agents excel at both.

Chapters

• 1:12 Market Updates for Real Estate Agents
• 3:16 Balancing Client Service with Industry Awareness
• 5:31 Major Brokerages Announcements and Changes
• 9:47 The Traditional Brokerage Payment Structure
• 14:39 Disruption in Real Estate: The Netflix Effect
• 17:52 Building Wealth and Creating an Exit Strategy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

Today, on March 20th 2025, I want to talk about what's happening out in the market. There have been so many announcements lately, especially let's look, you know, in the last two weeks. I can go over them and I will with you, but I want you, as a real estate agent, to do a couple things, and today I am going to speak a little bit out of both sides of my mouth, or look at both sides of the coin, because I think it's important as business owners. So you know, thinking about the last two weeks and what's been announced, I don't know where you're at as far as in your career, how many years, what brokerage, if you're on a team, if you're a solo agent, whatever it may be. What I want you to think about is, again, you are a business owner and I've seen a lot of things on social media lately where agents are just like who cares? Put your head down, get to work, serve your clients, go find new clients. Don't worry about what's going on in the industry, which, again, one side of the coin is absolutely. You owe your clients fiduciary duties, so you need to show up at the highest level for them and make sure that you are doing good by them 100%. Could not agree more and flip it over. Other side of the coin you're a business owner, you're 1099.

Speaker 1: 2:10

You're an independent contractor and, personally, when I was at my career of 13 years, I stayed that long because I respected the leadership and I knew that they knew what they were doing because they surrounded themselves with coaches and mentors and advisory boards and were always looking at the big picture and one year out, 10 years out, 15, 20 years out, and building these big, amazing plans. And they knew what the competition was doing. They knew what was happening in the market. So how do we balance that as independent contractors? Because, yes, put your head down, get to work. All of that makes sense and I did that for a really long time when I got into real estate. I just joined Keller Williams, I joined my friend's team. I put my head down, put the blinders on and got to work and I looked up years later. I never even interviewed another brokerage. I didn't know what. I did it now, which, again, everything happens for a purpose and a reason and I am so grateful for my time there. And other side of the coin, shame on me. Shame on me for not looking what was out there and potentially getting better negotiating power for myself and my family and on my behalf, or understanding what truly is happening in the market and with other brokerages and with the industry as a whole.

Speaker 1: 3:33

So, as we go through the announcements and what's happened the last two weeks, I want you to think about that and I want you. Obviously, when you're at your highest energy, you're taking care of your clients. You're doing all things you need to be doing to moving the transactions forward and showing up and doing a fantastic, amazing job for your clients. So what are you doing on your free time? What are you doing in the evenings? What are you doing when you have a drive time? Are you listening to music? Are you Netflix binging? You know, just saying I deserve this time down because I'm so exhausted, which that's a whole.

Speaker 1: 4:16

Nother episode about leverage that we'll talk about, but think about it. You need to be listening to podcasts that are going to level up your game. You need to be understanding what's happening in the market in your industry, instead of binging YouTube or Netflix. Definitely watch YouTube, but watch something that's going to educate you and get you to understand what is exactly happening and how it may and will affect you in your business overall, because and I'm going to do another video on my YouTube channel about this but the old model of of how real estate is done that was established in 1906 is changing. Just, I believe that it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when cloud-based brokerages are going to take over and most of the brick and mortar that you know now will no longer be, and I can show you exactly why I think that. So watch for that video on my YouTube channel.

Speaker 1: 5:22

But the bottom line is is that you need to understand what's out there. You need to understand what's happening and what's coming and be a true business owner, a holistic business owner. And if you don't want to do that, if you want your lane to be in sales, where you show up and you just sell and you don't worry about all the other BS and stuff going on, then you need a business partner like me. You need someone that will do that, that will keep you up to date, will take care of you and make sure that you know what you need to know, so that you can focus on your lane, which I wholeheartedly believe. You can do that, and you just need to be partnered with someone that can enable you and leverage you to do just that.

Speaker 1: 6:11

So, getting into the announcements, one of the big ones, I was at Keller Williams for seven years, I believe. Gary established the company in 87, maybe 83. I think it's 87. And for the first time ever they took on a private equity from Stone Point Capital. And it's the same firm that highly invested in CoreLogic and LoanWorth. So what does that mean? What do you think that means? Why do people bring on business partners? You know, I have another gentleman that I work with I did not run these numbers, I don't have these numbers in front of me and I was told that Keller Williams lost 40,000 agents last year. And I said, really, how's really? He's like well, you had 160. Now you have 120. What's the math? And I'm like, wow, yeah, you know it's changing and they're much like many other brokerages upping their fees, changing things, leadership's changing. Yeah, it's really interesting to sit and watch With.

Speaker 1: 7:17

That said Real, real, another cloud-based brokerage, probably really eXp's only competition potentially for cloud-based brokerages. They shuffled their leadership and their president stepped down. You have to pay to be part of their rev share. Their fees are going up. You know, potentially, when they've been profitable? It is questionable.

Speaker 1: 7:41

I feel that real is in their adolescence, where eXp was established in 2009. We've been through the adolescence. We've been through the hormones and the acne and the teen years and it's interesting now because we've done it. We've been through it, we've taken our knocks. It was really hard at times and we figured it out, we persevered and now we're in our old wisdom age where we are just doing the most innovative, amazing things. The leadership is strong, the systems are strong, the technology is strong. I mean, there's a huge announcement, in a good way, coming at eXp, where Glenn Stanford and Leo they got like hundreds of agents in a room and it's like this is what we've heard, this is what we want to do. Help us build this, help us break it, help us make it better. Let's do this for the agent. It is truly an agent-centric company because the agent has 50-50. Of every dollar that comes in, 50% goes back to the agents. Whether it's in stock or revenue, they give it back and it's phenomenal.

Speaker 1: 8:51

So, thinking about that, look at what you get from your brokerage, especially if you're at a brick and mortar. I know that. I got a lot of awards. I got ribbons, I got statues, I got hats that say I'm a capper, which was, I think, genius, it was really cute. Medals I mean all of it, and I don't have one of them, to be very honest. I know some people put them on shelves and told them very proudly. But I'll take the money, I'll take the stock, I'll take the rev share over awards and statues and plaques and medals all day long, because that's what's going to help me build my legacy of wealth for my family and not someone else's, not the team leads and not the regional broker owner and not the broker owner of my franchise.

Speaker 1: 9:45

I mean, you think about it. There's so many layers of people that have to get paid. When the agent's at the bottom, the agent is the one that once they sell something, boom, that commission goes and it pays, it pays up. And what about what if you were the agent and you were at the top, along with the owner, glenn Stanford, and every time money came in, you got to be a part of it? It's genius. And no wonder there are so many cloud-based brokerages that are trying to duplicate and rip off this model, and good for for them.

Speaker 1: 10:20

I think everyone should have healthy competition, but no one is nowhere near and has gone through and put their time in like eXp has, and it's just a fact. So if you want more information about that, let's talk because, as you can tell, I'm really passionate about it. We need to start building our own wealth and not someone else's. I did it for way too many years and I'm not going to do it any longer. There's just no reason. So Rocket Company they bought Redfin $1.75 billion.

Speaker 1: 10:53

What Compass on the doorstep of Berkshire Home Service merger Will it happen, will it not? I don't know, we'll see. And Compass is also fighting tooth and nail to eliminate the clear cooperation rule. I mean, so many things have happened in the last two weeks in real estate. And, yes, take care of your clients.

Speaker 1: 11:17

And I really do think you should educate yourself as a true business owner, a business owner that in order to take care of your clients, the best, you need to take care of yourself. It's kind of like put the oxygen mask on yourself and then you can take care of others. If you are just being a technician and chasing transactions and trying to figure out what's going to happen next, and in survival mode and just really reactive versus responsive, there's another way, a better way, because I have been there, I have done that. I have been able to pay my mortgage, I have been able to pay my mortgage and bills. I mean, the roller coaster of real estate is real and it is hard and it doesn't have to be that way, because who you partner with does matter, and know that when you partner at a brick and mortar whether it's Keller, whether it's Remax, coldwell, berkshire, I mean whatever you have your top leader or owner, the top.

Speaker 1: 12:24

And then they open up regions, so you have your regionals, and then those regionals find broker owners or franchise owners that take on all the risk and those franchise broker owners have to hire team leads, find the building, get the admin and pay for all of that. And then they hire the agents. And the agents are the ones that when they sell something, their commission triggers and pays up. You pay your team lead, you pay for the building, you pay for the admin and then you pay your broker franchise owner and then you usually have a royalty fee or some type of fee on the side that pays your regional and your broker owner. And then leadership case your regional and your broker owner and then leadership.

Speaker 1: 13:12

So what would it look like if you collapsed all that middle out and you had the leader and the owner and then you had the agent and you didn't have to pay all that out. Well, that's exactly what eXp has done, and they've taken all that savings and 50-50 initiative. So every dollar that comes into eXp, 50% goes to run the business and the platform and the over 2,000 people that are in the world to support you, and the other 10% goes back to the agents. And I mean there's five different ways you can get stopped. There's just an amazing revenue share model that if you invite your friends which most people do to join, you do the same thing you're doing, which is going out selling real estate, and you actually get rewarded for helping the company grow Truly rewarded. It is phenomenal and you should at least know what you're saying no to and understand what is out there and understand that what is happening is what happened with Netflix and Blockbuster.

Speaker 1: 14:14

They did not think what was going to happen happened. They didn't think. They thought, oh, people need to come into the building, they need to see the movies and feel them and smell the popcorn and get their candy, and it's an experience, it's fun. Well, I didn't have much fun, because all the times when I went into Blockbuster, my movie was usually out. You had to rush for it and then you had to return it. And who returned their movies on time? Not many. You know how many late fees I knew that my friends and I had Jeez. It was so not convenient and that is why Netflix blew Blockbuster out of the water.

Speaker 1: 14:52

There might be one in the East Coast I don't even know if there's one left. No one saw it coming. Airbnbs what are they doing to hotels? The experience you have it's coming. What about Uber and Lyft? Have it's coming? What about Uber and Lyft? When's the last time you called a taxi for service? Platform-based, platform-based, platform-based Technology, ai it is where it's going.

Speaker 1: 15:24

So, even if now's not the time and you want to stick with your brick and mortar, great, do that. But be prepared and be ready, because as your fees continue to go up and as things keep changing and leadership is stepping down or taking on business partners or selling, or acquiring or doing all these things, that's because things are changing and as a business owner, you should at least know what's happening and what I say all the time is. Partnering with me and eXp in general may not be for you most of the time it is, but at least know what you're saying no to. You can say no all day long and don't do what I do. Do not did.

Speaker 1: 16:07

Do not make the same mistake where I just got into real estate. I put my head down, I put the blinders on, I didn't listen to anything, I didn't listen to anyone. I what they call drink the Kool-Aid, you know did what I was told and just got to work and work my ass off and I made a lot of other people a lot of money. Again, I know I wouldn't be the agent without it. I know that happened for a reason and I gained tons of knowledge and I would not be the culture mentor without everything I went through. So I am grateful for that experience and the season I'm at in my life where I'm looking at maybe an exit strategy out of real estate someday. So I'm not selling real estate at 70 years old. That's what I have here at eXp. I have an actual exit strategy where over time I can build this, build it big. It's willable for my kids and my family and my spouse. God forbid if anything were to happen to me.

Speaker 1: 17:05

I mean, there is a true, true opportunity for you to build your wealth and your family legacy and not someone else's by doing exactly what you're already doing. Who wouldn't want that? And so, if you don't know or you aren't familiar with the model, I absolutely would love to jump on a call. I'll get my information, obviously, below. Send me a message and let's really talk about it, because, in the end, you're 100% responsible for your business. Who you partner with matters. Where you're going in your business matters, and if you need help or leverage or a different understanding or awareness, that is where it really does matter where you're at and who you partner with, because in order to take the blinders off, you need to have someone there.

Speaker 1: 18:00

You know, think about all the top athletes, the top CEOs, the people that are in the top one to three to 5%, that make 80% of the money. They did not get their loan. Yes, they had to do the work and they had to put their time, effort, energy, blood, sweat, tears, whatever into it. And they didn't do it alone. They didn't. They had support. They had people that were there, that helped them, that coached and mentored them, that had done what they intended to do, and they just hooked their cart to that horse, and it just makes things a lot easier. What could take you 10 to 20 years can take you one, maybe two, if you just partner with the right people. So reach out.

Speaker 1: 18:47

I'd love to talk more about this. There's so much going on. And, yeah, take care of your clients and take care of you. Put your mask on first so you can start getting your oxygen, and then you can help the others around you too. So it's not a this or that, it's this, and that you take great care of your clients and you run your business at a high level, which means you really understand the business, because if you're just chasing transactions and running from check to check to check, that's no way to run a business and it really, quite frankly, takes a lot of the joy out of it. You're always stressed out, you don't have time to study, you don't have time to understand what's really helping in the market, because you're absolutely exhausted. Well, that's the first clue that you need a great business partner. So, looking forward to connecting soon and until next time, go out and sell something.