The Truth About eXp Realty

eXp Realty is a regular old boring real estate brokerage just like all the others... if that's all you need. They offer broker support, technology, conference room access, marketing tools, blah blah blah, all the boring stuff you can see on any real estate company's brochure. 

It's also a brokerage that pioneered incentivized collaboration throughout the ranks, enables faster paths to growing your production, and offers a home for the complete lifespan of a REALTOR®. Here are my ah-ha's about eXp Realty...

Incentivized Collaboration

It wasn't until I'd been licensed with this brokerage for a couple years that the rev share concept really hit me; eXp pays agents to help other agents. At my previous brokerage I would help with company events and speak at annual conferences but the reason I would agree to help was purely because I enjoy giving back. I enjoy public speaking and I enjoy helping others. My justification for taking the time from my dollar-producing activities in the office was the old adage, the best way to learn something is to teach it. If I helped others, I was helping myself get more proficient in that particular subject. An indirect justification for why it could lead to more revenue. 

At eXp when I teach for Agent Truth on "How to Convert Real Estate Leads" for example... it's like 🐦🐦💎. (My wife sent me this emoji string today... it took me a sec to figure out.) I get fulfilled from giving/helping others AND I get paid when their production increases.  My enjoyment of collaborating with others has a direct incentive at this company. They share 50% of the revenue earned from their independent contractors with the upline. Increases in production then increases revenue that's shared = brilliant. Wait, did I mention upline?

Your Upline Matters

Just because you're a good sales person doesn't automatically qualify you for being a good mentor. I know this from the plethora of interviews I've done with agents that have joined eXp under someone they thought was going to teach them the ropes, but didn't.

Me: "How long have you been with eXp?"

Them: "About 8 months."

Me: "How many houses have you sold?"

Them: "None"

Me: with a flinched look on my face, "who's your mentor?"

Them: "An agent I found on youtube, but I can't remember his name."

Me: "Dang....... I wish you would have found us first."

Them: "Me too."

Mentor Believability

When you're working in an office with other agents, it's co-ompetition. Yes we cooperate, but we're also in competition with each other. Not all agents want more competition. Not all agents believe in abundance. Sometimes the things that experienced non-incentivized agents around the office share is actually intentionally trying to throw you off. It can take time to find out which agents are trustworthy and which ones are just trying to have you spin your wheels.

Insert eXp Realty

My sponsor earns rev share if I sell more houses. I earn rev share if the people I bring on sell more houses. Do you think anyone has interest in spinning wheels? Nope. We're all interested in earning more revenue. The advice becomes WAY more believable leading to faster growth.

Not all Sunshine & Rainbows

I'm not going to only share the positive truths about this model without mentioning the flip side of the coin. The reality is that the downsides here aren't really any different from other business types. You want clients to come through your door, not the neighboring store. Because of downline revenue potential there becomes a land grab for real estate agents. It's like we're in competition with other downlines to have agents under us, instead of under them. 

But wait, then how come when you zoom out you see downlines cheering for the other downlines? It's the equity piece in the company. You earn stock awards and are able to buy discounted stock in the company making you an equity owner of the brokerage. When you own a piece of something you'd like to value to go up, right? When other eXp downlines recruit a bunch of agents that improves the value of your equity ownership. Hooray beer!

The lifespan of a REALTOR®

Old, lets look at life prior to eXp:

This is a very common career path that I see real estate agents follow. After they learn what it takes to sell houses, they sell houses for as long as their motivated. As the world changes around them, they adjust and keep on pushing forward. Until one day... they don't want to adjust anymore. They are tired of reinventing their ways of attracting business. Or they get tired of showing houses, or going on listing appointments, whatever.

At that point they look around for ways to monetize their knowledge and experience. Brokers and owners are very popular roles at this stage. They either open their own brokerage and try to recruit agents or they get hired by someone else and try to recruit agents.

But what if they were able to do that while they were in their prime?

NEW! Now let's look at the lifespan with eXp:

Once you learn how to sell houses and you're good at it, you begin to attract other agents that would like to learn from you. They want you to mentor them. Because eXp has a downline revenue share model you bring them aboard and help them.

In your 20 year career maybe you attract 5-10 agents a year = 100 to 500 agents. And maybe those agents attract 5 agents a year = 500 to 2,500 more agents. You watch your revenue share checks grow from $100's a month to $1,000's a month to $10,000's a month. I've even heard of the unicorns earning $1,000,000's a month.

As you get tired of reinventing your marketing methods or showing houses instead of looking for a broker job, or opening up your own shop, you look at the passive income that you're earning from attracting agents over the last 20 years and decide to retire. #winning... as the kids say. 

In Conclusion

Did you really read this far down? That's amazing! I hope my ah-ha's that I've shared today are helpful in your exploration of eXp Realty. We put Agent Truth online to share the truths about the real estate industry and this brokerage. If you'd like to continue the conversation, please don't hesitate to reach out - my cell phone is here.

Bonus Material:

Jeff and I talk about these truths and more on this episode of The Solution: A Real Estate Podcast. Listen in to learn how the eXp Realty commission model is different and how eXp incentivizes its agents to help the people they bring to eXp.

Press play to listen to the podcast episode: