Expand, Dominate & Profit

Real estate offers a ton of opportunity for growth and wealth creation, but it’s not without its risk, and often that stops more cautious would-be agents from getting their start.

While most successful agents would say the risk is worth the reward, taking the plunge can still be intimidating for new or part-time agents. Is there a way to get into the business while mitigating as much risk as possible?

How can we be more strategic in our approach?

In this episode, the Founder and CEO of Elite Advantage Team, Mike Swenson shares how to get big results while staying cautious.

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• Advice for part-time agents looking to go full-time
  
  Anyone thinking about getting into real estate full-time should be going in with as much clarity as possible. Run the numbers in reverse, have an idea of how many transactions we’ll need to do, and know what’s at stake.
  
  
  
• Why we need to avoid pushing too hard, too fast
  
  One of the things that makes real estate so lucrative is the opportunity for repeat business, but we won’t see those benefits if we exit the industry too soon. It’s important to pace ourselves if we want the long-term advantages of being in this business.
  
  
  
• How to stop working harder and start working smarter
  
  Going into real estate without a strategy will only slow us down, so analyze every aspect of the business from a logistical standpoint. Before serving a particular neighborhood, consider whether it has a high turnover ratio and solid average sale price.

Guest Bio

Mike Swenson is the Founder and CEO of Elite Advantage Team and the host of the Real Freedom podcast. Growing up in a small town in southern Minnesota, Mike moved to the big city for college and earned degrees in Entrepreneurship (back before it was cool) and Financial Management from the University of St. Thomas. He started out working for a non-profit for a couple of years in their finance department before moving over to focusing on operations.

Looking for more opportunity & growth, Mike transitioned to working on the operations side of a real estate team. In his 6 years with the team serving as COO, he helped grow from a handful of agents and around 150 transactions (ranking 395th with their brokerage) to having expansion teams in 5 states and closing a total of 619 transactions (ranking 13th with their brokerage) and had the designation of being named the 31st largest team in the United States (including all brokerages).

Taking his love for Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Systems, he decided to then launch his own team - the Elite Advantage Team - serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul and surrounding areas. Check them out on Facebook and Youtube as well.
Also, he has spent time as a coach (high school-aged boys basketball), has taught financial management courses, ran a finance blog, & even has had a license for life insurance. He has spent multiple years in coaching in his real estate role through their Breakthrough, Mastery, and Transformational paths.

To find out more, visit:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-swenson/
https://www.relfreedom.com/
https://www.eliteadvantageteam.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KiEHOrzJMyKUwBWgqX4Q/videos
https://www.facebook.com/mswenson13/
[email protected]
https://www.relfreedom.com/
https://www.relfreedom.com/blueprint

Eric Pearson has grown one of the biggest independent brokerages in the nation in 6 years - with over a thousand agents and 3 billion in sales. He has been able to grow beyond some of the biggest challenges that teams and brokerages face. 

Usually, when teams get bigger, the value that agents get becomes capped in some form or fashion. 

As a result, the pressure is put on details like splits and retention becomes difficult. Pearson Smith Realty has found a way to create a win-win for both the business and the agents on the team. 

What are the biggest value points Eric has built into the foundation of the team? How do we give agents the culture, support, training while still giving them ample room to grow and succeed in their own right? 

In this episode, the founder and owner of Pearson Smith Realty, Eric Pearson shares the strategies they’ve implemented to grow a big, successful brokerage.

Guest Bio

Eric Pearson is the CEO and Founder of Pearson Smith Realty, a residential real estate brokerage built around core values of customer focus, respect, honesty, and personal accountability. Voted as one of Washington Business Journal’s Fastest-Growing Companies in 2018, Pearson Smith Realty supports their agents through customizable packages of lead generation, transaction management, and technology with an agent-focused approach built on agent productivity and culture.

Eric has been featured on industry shows such as the Team Building Podcast, The Close, and GSD Mode; spoken at events around the country including Zillow’s Premier Agent Forum, Realtor.com Results Summit, BoomTown Unite, and NAR Annual Conference. He supports several charitable causes including the Special Olympics, Make-A-Wish Foundation, EHCO, and The Wholehearted Foundation. Outside of real estate and various other companies of which Eric is an owner, he enjoys his

A sellable business is a thriving business, so even if we’re not planning to put ours on the market in the immediate future, it is something we should be looking into creating. Where do we start?

What do we need to know before trying to sell our businesses in the real estate space? 

Does selling only apply to broker-owners, or is there an opportunity for team leaders to sell their businesses, too? 

In this episode, Executive Vice President of First Team Real Estate and Founder of Homearly Real Estate Group, Jay Bourgana shares how he built and sold a successful team in just 4 years. 

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• Why marketing should be the priority
  
  The key to building a sellable business lies in having a clean, easily identifiable brand message. Hire a marketing professional early on in the process to make this a reality.
  
  
• How to maintain company culture even as we grow
  
  Having a great culture is essential for attracting potential buyers. To do that, we have to keep pouring into the team and give it the attention it needs. Think of company culture as a garden: unless we’re tending to it frequently, it will fall into disarray.
  
  
• How to eliminate the risk for our buyers
  
  We can’t expect to offer an easy transition if every aspect of the business depends on our involvement. Setting up our businesses to thrive in our absence is non-negotiable if we’re planning on selling. 

Guest Bio

Jay is a “recovering” management consultant turned business owner. He has had experience in banking, manufacturing, and management consulting, including years in China and Europe. Jay started the Homearly Real Estate Group which grew from $0 to $150M in residential real estate sales in less than 5 years, subsequently acquired by the $5 billion First Team Real Estate. He is passionate about building businesses, teams, and investing in growing or mature small and mid-size businesses.

Jay was born and raised in Morocco. He currently resides in Orange County, California with his wife and two children. He loves to spend time with his family, travel and is passionate about engaging in the community, developing young entrepreneurs, mentoring local businesses, and volunteering with local non-profits

Jay’s life’s purpose is healing ill businesses, thus creating opportunities for people to transform their lives.

To find out more, visit:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-bourgana-519a7865/ 

https://www.homearly.com/

Many of us aspire to build bigger businesses, and the great thing is, it’s within reach! However, if our goal is expansion, we have to be willing to develop ourselves as leaders.

Strong leadership is non-negotiable for growth, but what does that actually mean? 

What's the difference between a great leader and an average one, and what should we be doing if our goal is to take our teams to new heights? 

In this episode, CEO of Northrop Realty, Creig Northrop shares how to lead your business to big results. 

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• The key to building a bigger business:
  
  If our goal is expansion, it’s not enough to be a leader in name - we have to be leaders in nature. That means being present, being hands-on, and never asking someone to do something we wouldn’t be willing to do ourselves.
  
  
• The importance of investing in our agents:
  
  It’s one thing to give our agents leads, it’s another to ensure they know what to do with them. We have to pour into our agents so much that when a lead comes in, they know how to crush it no matter what.
  
  
• The 3 C’s to better leadership:
  
  Caring, consistency, and confidence are the key components of any successful team. Remember to embody all 3 by memorizing this: ‘close’ without the ‘c’ is just ‘lose’. 

Guest Bio:

Creig Northrop has over 30 years of experience in the real estate industry and is CEO and founder of Northrop Realty, A Long & Foster Company, which specializes in residential real estate in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Florida. Northrop Realty was named #1 Specialty Brokerage by Real Trends in 2020 after completing 2,500 transactions for a combined value of over $1 Billion in Volume in 2019.

Creig and his wife Carla started the Creig Northrop Team in 2000 and went on to become the #1 Team in the Nation an unprecedented three times. Accomplishing the pinnacle of performance as a Team, Creig and Carla sought new levels of success and in 2018, they announced that the Creig Northrop Team would become Northrop Realty, A Long & Foster Company.

Today, Northrop Realty is a full-service brokerage that employs more than 200 energetic professionals – all of whom offer distinct specialties focused on ensuring extraordinary service to their clients. With a talented staff and an ‘Everybody Matters’ mindset in place, cultivated 20 new teams, and opened 10 offices within the first full year as a brokerage. The brokerage continues to evolve with innovative marketing methods, a powerful real estate sales process, and internal continuing education for Northrop Realty agents and administrative staff. Northrop Realty will continue to evolve with new technology and robust marketing methods coupled by a powerful real estate sales process and educational training for the public and Northrop Realty agents. The extensive network of professionals is renowned for connecting buyers with sellers and delivering positive results with innovative marketing.

To find out more, go to:

https://www.northroprealty.com/agents/creig-northrop/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/creignorthrop/

Or call him directly on 410 531 0321

With real estate teams set to pave the way for the future of our industry, building them gives us an opportunity to not only expand our businesses, but create legacies for ourselves. 

The only problem is, many agents are unsure of what it takes to build a team from scratch. Where do aspiring leaders even begin? 

How can we build the kind of teams that help us make our mark on the industry, and what can we do to attract and retain top talent?

In this episode, industry veteran and leader of The Cliff Freeman Group, Cliff Freeman shares how he built a successful team in just one year. 

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• Why teams are the future of real estate:
  
  Individual agents simply don’t have access to the same resources as teams do, and that puts them at a grave disadvantage. Over the next few years, individual agents will be almost entirely pushed out of the market because they just won’t be able to compete. 
  
  
• The importance of investing in our agents:
  
  Over 80% of agents exit the business after their first year, and that’s because they don’t receive the support they need. As team leaders, we can retain our agents and get a killer ROI by providing them with the right structure and systems. 
  
  
• Why traditional brokerages are no longer valuable to agents:
  
  Once upon a time, brokers were at the center of the real estate equation because they provided agents with a wealth of information. In the age of the internet, accessing knowledge is easier than ever before, making the need for brokers almost entirely obsolete.

Guest Bio:

Cliff Freeman is the leader of The Cliff Freeman Group. An industry veteran of more than 30 years, Cliff has been a highly sought-after professional coach for more than a decade, with a portfolio of clients ranging from sole practitioners to large teams generating over $150,000,000 in annual sales. Cliff is a native Dallasite with expertise in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and in 2020 he was selected as the cover agent for Top Agent Magazine. Cliff is also the host of the Cliff’s Notes Real Estate Podcast. 

To find out more, visit:

https://www.dfwsearch.house/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/clifffreeman/ 

https://www.facebook.com/CliffordFreemanJr.eXpRealtyLLC/ 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuKYg2rGMbP-fw_gSs3ebOnLqjR-fmUNx 

Or call 214 817 3931

You can also contact Cliff directly on 214 680 5403

Or email him at [email protected]

Something many leaders can relate to is a feeling of being emotionally, spiritually, and physically drained by the pursuit of success, but we don’t need to reach that level of exhaustion. If we surround ourselves with the right people and stop trying to do it on our own, we can build booming businesses without sacrificing our personal wellbeing.

Working with the kind of talent who share our goals and values is the key to sustainable success. That being said, finding and retaining them is often easier said than done.

What are top producers looking for in leaders, and what can we do to meet their needs? How can we hang on to our agents and help them grow alongside us? 

In this episode, Founder of Hatch Realty, Erik Hatch shares how building a ‘teamerage’ helped him cut his weekly work hours in half, all while growing his business to astronomical heights. 

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• Why the people in our organizations make all the difference:
  
  It’s easier to build a business when our teams are filled with trustworthy, honest individuals who want to succeed as much as we do. These are the people who will stay by our side, even when we make a wrong move. 
  
  
• How to retain the right people:
  
  No top agent wants to hit a glass ceiling, so remove anything that could hamper their growth. Be open to discussions about rewards and benefits, and agree to adjusted commission splits on the proviso that they reach a goal that ensures everyone wins. 
  
  
• The importance of meritocracy in our teams:
  
  Allowing some agents to progress to a new career path and denying it to others creates a breeding ground for resentment. Keep everyone happy by ensuring everyone has to earn their place and the benefits that come with it. 

Guest Bio:

Erik Hatch is an entrepreneur, public speaker, Realtor, author, coach, investor, do-gooder, husband, father, and mediocre golfer. Erik has 25 businesses that he owns/operates with the help of some tremendous partners and relationships. In addition, he has built 2 non-profit movements that have raised nearly 3 million dollars to help serve kids and families in need.

Fargo, ND has been home to Erik his entire life. It is where he and his wife Emily met -and where they’re raising their 2 kids (Finley and Simon). Erik is an alumnus of North Dakota State University and Fargo North High School. Hatch’s passions are simple –serving others and having fun while doing so.

When Erik was 9 years old, he won a watermelon seed spitting contest at a local grocery store…so you’d be foolish not to trust him in real estate!

Out of college, Erik went to work as a youth minister for nearly a decade. It is here that he really fell in love with cultivating deep relationships and harnessed his passion for inspiring and uplifting anyone he came in contact with.

Erik started Hatch Realty in 2014 with a passion to do things differently than the status quo. He wanted to create a place where the most incredible people wanted to work and all his energy would be put into helping them to reach their dreams. Erik knew that great people would deliver world-class service for all those they could serve.

To find out more, go to:
https://www.hatchrealty.com/

https://www.hatchcoaching.com/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikhatch1/ 

Books mentioned in this episode:
https://www.amazon.com/Who-Not-How-Accelerating-Teamwork/dp/1401960588

https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Real-Estate-Agent-About/dp/0071444041

The most successful real estate salespeople are prospecting machines who effectively generate leads and convert them into appointments. If we want to grow a business, we have to replicate our prospecting efforts. One of the most powerful ways we can do that is through an ISA. 

A thriving inside sales machine is the key to future growth, and it can be the most profitable piece of marketing and the pinnacle of a real estate business.  

How do we hire and train ISAs who can replicate our prospecting results? How can we turn the skills we gained in previous careers into unique value in real estate? 

In this episode, I’m joined by Real Estate Uncensored co-hosts Greg McDaniel and Matt Johnson to talk about how to run the ISA model at a high level.

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• The importance of knowing our numbers:
  
  When you run the ISA model, you have to give yourself a cushion to account for the leads that don’t go anywhere. You can expect anything from 25% to 30% of those leads to be cancels, reschedules, and no-shows. Tracking and understanding those percentages can make our results more predictable. 
  
  

• How to train our ISAs for success:
  
  If we want our ISAs to successfully reproduce the results we get on the phone, we have to set expectations from day one and create clarity around the benchmarks they have to reach to have a successful day. When they know what number they need to hit in order to be successful for that day, they can go towards that goal. 
  
  

• How our previous jobs can set us apart in real estate:
  
  Bring your past experience into real estate. It allows us to capitalize on something we know really well to enhance our real estate business. Many people have background skills in other areas that they are ignoring because they are trying to follow what other people are doing. If we leverage those skills, we can create unique value.

Many real estate businesses are messy and lack the cadence and operating systems that allow for scalable and sustainable growth. This shows in the results they get and their inability to meet goals. 

The most successful real estate leaders master every aspect of running a team, and they create clarity around the activities that impact profitability. When we get to a point where we can forecast the results of our business, it shows that we understand the systems, our people, and our market. 

What are the key systems we need to implement, and how do we make sure we’re implementing them the right way? What is the biggest mistake agents make on their first team hire? How do we farm at a high level? 

In this episode, I’m joined by real estate disrupter, founder of Agent Academy, and CEO of Beer Home Team, Dan Beer. He shares his real estate journey, the biggest lessons he’s learned, and a unique perspective on eXp.

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• The biggest mistake agents make on their first hire:
  
  By creating a hiring structure that doesn’t scale, we limit the business right from the first recruit. Build your team with the end in mind. Don’t focus on trying to keep costs low in the short-term by hiring people who don’t have the capacity to grow with your vision. Staff for the business you want, not the one you have right now. 
  
  
  
• How to succeed with farming:
  
  When it comes to prospecting and lead generation, there’s simply no shortcut, we need to be consistent and persistent. We need to be willing and able to farm for at least 6 months to get anything out of it. Get to a point where you actually like and enjoy farming so it doesn’t feel like a chore. That way, we’re able to keep doing it. 
  
  

• What drew Dan Beer to eXp:
  
  The challenge most agents face is not being able to get consistent coaching from other leaders in the industry, because those people aren’t financially tied to their success. What’s significant about eXp’s revenue share model is that agents have the financial incentive to help each other grow. The financial alignment creates an incentive for agents to collaborate and share knowledge on a deeper level as partners, not just peers. 
  
  

Guest Bio:

Daniel Beer is the founder of Agent Academy and CEO of Beer Home Team powered by eXp Realty. Dan's trademarked 5 Day Blitz™ home selling process helped produce 280 homes sold and over $211 million in sales in 2019 alone. Beer Home Team is ranked as one of the Top 50 Teams in the nation per The Wall Street Journal and Real Trends. Other recent awards include the 831st fastest-growing private company in America across all industries by Inc. 5000. Agent Academy is now the platform he uses to teach others how to duplicate his success and build a strong, profitable real estate business.

For more information, visit https://agentacademy.com/ to learn about The Millionaire Farming Protocol and Dan’s other coaching program. Follow @danielbeer_ on Instagram.

When it comes to what it takes to be successful, most people want the short-term gain because long-term consistency is a lot harder to maintain. In real estate, this mindset is clear in choosing between selling real estate and becoming an investor. 

No one wants to invest in real estate because getting to the outcome is slower than the quicker results of selling real estate. Being consistent with investing is the ultimate vehicle for generational wealth, especially when we use the BRRR strategy. 

What is the most valuable skill an investor needs to have? Why is it so important not to expect instant gratification with our business ventures?

My guest today is a real estate agent, investor, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Thach Real Estate Group, Thach Nguyen. He talks about his journey and why real estate investing is worth pursuing.

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• How Thach went From 25k to 150k Instagram followers in under 12 months: 
  Consistency and persistence beat instant gratification. Thach was able to build a huge following organically by putting in the hard work and putting in the time instead of letting the need for instant gratification make him cut corners. This is a mindset he applies to everything, from door knocking to investing. 

• How to use the BRRR Model to invest:
  The BRRR Model is one of the most powerful ways we can start building long-term generational wealth. The central goal of this strategy isn’t to fix and flip, or to sell a property off quickly, it’s fix and keep. 
  
  
• How to determine which investing strategy to use:
  The best deal as an investor is a BRRR deal, but not every property we come across is a good candidate for BRRR. For a BRRR, you should get 30% or higher in equity when you’re done. The next best thing is a flip which should give you a 20-25% margin, wholesale is 15-20%, and if the property will have an equity margin of 0-10%, it should be a list. 

Guest Bio:

Thach Nguyen is the CEO & Founder of Thach Real Estate Group, a Seattle-based real estate company, and a seasoned investor and developer. During his 30 years in the real estate industry, Thach and his team have assisted over 2,500 families to create their own American Dream. He is also ranked Top 1% of all real estate professionals nationwide. As an inspirational leader, Thach is a sought-after speaker, philanthropist, and author and co-founder of “The Gift”. Thach has been featured in The Seattle Times, NW Asian Weekly, The Early Show, Puget Sound Business Journal, The International Examiner, and many more. For information, and to follow Thach or to learn more about his programs, visit @thachnguyen.

When it comes to what it takes to build a successful, expandable, and dominant real estate business, there’s no workaround for the fundamentals. There’s no replacement for following a process that works. 

When certain key aspects are dialed in, our businesses become a place of endless opportunity. One of the most overlooked pieces in building a team is financial alignment. When everyone in an organization is financially aligned, there’s a collective incentive to truly buy into the business model, drive for collaboration, and even become a part of our recruitment.  

eXp has created an expansion model and growth mechanism that has proven to be a huge opportunity for agents. My guest today is a successful real estate leader who has brought 84 people into eXp and generates $250k a month in revenue share. 

What are the biggest things about eXp that are making it such a huge magnet to agents? How does the eXp model accelerate the expansion process? 

In this episode, I’m joined by business growth strategist and coach, co-Founder and CEO of the National Association of Expert Advisors and eXp Realty Broker Associate, Jay Kinder. He talks about what it takes to grow beyond 100 transactions and his journey with eXp.

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• What it takes to cross the 100 transaction mark:
  Making calls is the one thing that separates agents who have had a high level of success from everyone else. There’s no workaround for the hard work and effort of calls and the results you get from them. To learn the skills that you need to have, you have to get enough repetition in.  

• How to build stability in your real estate operation: 
  To build and scale a successful real estate operation, you have to focus on the listing side of the business. Listings turn your business into an inbound system, meaning you won’t always have to chase business, and you keep the pipeline full. You have to get people calling you. 

• The one thing that causes problems on real estate teams:
  Misalignment in compensation is the biggest problem in business and the biggest impediment to true growth and talent retention. eXp is an incredible demonstration of the power behind having people who are financially aligned and moving toward the same goal. 

Guest Bio:

Jay Kinder is an agent, business growth strategist and coach, Co-Founder and CEO of the National Association of Expert Advisors and eXp Realty Broker Associate, focused on Revenue Share and adding MASSIVE value to agents. 

Jay built a very successful real estate business in Lawton, Oklahoma selling over 4,321 homes and becoming #2 Worldwide for Coldwell Banker several times before taking his business independent. His best year, Jay sold 531 homes and began teaching his strategies for building successful real estate businesses in 2005 with business partner Michael Reese. Together they built Kinder Reese Coaching and National Association of Expert Advisors to be the top coaching and training organization in the country for agents seeking to build mega agent teams. NAEA made the Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies 6 years in a row and has trained thousands of the top agents across the US and Canada. To get in touch send an email to [email protected].