Joining eXp Realty, The Pros and The Cons
Joining eXp Realty is just like anything else, there’s going to be pros and cons. eXp Realty might not be for you but at least at the end of this article you will have a pretty good understanding of eXp Realty. Now I always suggest making a list. One side your pros, cons on the other. Then you need to see which one outweighs the other. eXp Realty might not be for you. But right now you’re probably sitting there wondering what the heck, what’s all the fuss about why is everybody joining? eXp Realty just last week had 599 agents join eXp . eXp Realty is the fastest growing real estate company in the United States history. You’re probably wondering though why. Why are there so many real estate agents leaving brokerages they have been at for 15+ years to join exp realty? Why did the owner of a 700 agent independent brokerage come over to exp? They had the opportunity to sell their real estate company for millions of dollars, but instead, he brought it to exp reality. His name is Chuck Fazio out of Arizona. And I know him personally, and I am on a phone call with him and Gogo Bethke three to four times a week discussing how I can build my business because that’s the kind of collaboration we have here at eXp Realty. Chuck and Gogo want to see me succeed.
There are agents that come here that spend like maybe six, seven months here, and then they’re gone. That’s probably because they were explained the exp model wrong. They probably were approached by an agent that said, “Hey, come, come join exp work. We’re going to build this massive downline. We’re going to have all this passive income coming in and you’re never going to have to sell real estate ever again.” And that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Because when you join eXp Realty, we are a real estate company. So we sell real estate, that’s our number one job. Now the possibility of having multiple streams of income coming in are very, very high. Now, also, when you join exp, you’re going to have all these top producing agents that you see coming over here, here to teach you and to help you grow your business. In something, we call eXp World.
What other companies out there have their top producing agents, teaching you all their tips and tricks? I can tell you from firsthand experience, I used to be with Berkshire Hathaway, and we didn’t have those top agents teaching us all their tips and tricks because lets be honest. I was taking money out of their pocket at the end of the day. We’re actually an international brokerage. So we have people from all over the world teaching at exp.
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Pros
Cons
Con #1 No Admin
I’m going to start with a con. Unless you’re bringing over your own admin and you’re going to pay them yourself. You’re not going to have an admin like you might have at your office right now. You might be used to them inputting your listings to the MLS or turning in your closing packet to them and waiting to get paid.
What you’re going to have to do is you’re going to have to input your own stuff into the MLS, which is doable. I do it myself. You’re going to have to upload your contracts and closing documents to something called sky slope, which a lot of the time I do from the parking lot of the title company. It’s literally that easy. What you do is you take a picture of the closing documents, only a few of them, and you upload them. The accounting department reviews it and direct deposits your commission check. Usually within 24 hours. I’ve never had it lasts longer than that. Just depends on how early in the day you’re closing is. Yes, it’s really that easy.
Similar process with a listing you upload your contract to skyslope. The broker reviews it. They make sure all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed.
Pro #1 Collaboration
The collaboration at this company is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I’ve taught architecture. I’ve worked for architectural firms, I’ve built homes, I’ve been a life guard for Disney and the collaboration here at exp is the top notch. I’ve also worked for Berkshire Hathaway like I mentioned above and the collaboration here is way better.
Now, whenever I say collaboration, I always want to say stop, collaborate and listen. Ice is back with a brand new addition, something grabs a hold of me tightly flow like a Hawk daily and nightly….. Sorry. I always want to do that whenever I say collaboration. But collaboration here at exp reality isn’t about vanilla ice. It’s about taking your real estate game to the next level, its about you becoming an empowered real estate agent. It’s about being better than you were yesterday. The people here have an invested interest in you doing something today. That’s going to help you sell more homes tomorrow, because why? Because everyone that sells homes here at eXp Realty becomes an owner in the company, you get stock in the company, it becomes yours. You are then able to sell that stock that they give you.
I’m not going to lie to you. You can’t turn around the next day and sell it. You’re going to have to wait three years to sell the stock that they give you. Now, the stuff that you purchase at a 10% discount, you can sell that in six months. And I know people that have done both. They’ve been here for three years and they can sell their stock and they have, and I know people that have sold their stock that they have purchased at a 10% discount.
Somebody actually just sold some of their eXp stock for $115,000 and they bought an investment home. They turned it into an Airbnb. Wouldn’t that be cool? I know somebody that also retired and sold their stock for over a million dollars. Wouldn’t that be nice if every company gave you that opportunity? Now, will that happen to you? I don’t know.
I’m not a financial advisor. Do your own research, get in contact with the financial advisor. And maybe he can advise you in that, you know, that aspect of the stock market and things like that. That’s not my forte. I sell real estate. My team and I help other agents take their real estate career to the next level.
If you want to join eXp Realty click here to see what you get when you join on top of everything you get from eXp Realty. I do have a Facebook ads course that you can purchase here, but you can receive it for free. If you name me as your sponsor when you join exp. You will learn how to run Facebook ads like all your competitors and even be able to see what ads they are running.
Pro #2 All The Training
You will get 80 + hours of training a week in exp world. Once you join eXp realty you will log into exp world create an avatar. You do it one time, and then you’re done. You don’t have to go into exp world from your computer ever again if you don’t want to, but you can. What I do is I use my phone. There is an exp world app you can download from the play store. I find it easier to catch live trainings from the eXp app because I am always on the go. It looks like this.
You can download it now if you would like but you won’t be able to use it until you either contact me for a guest pass or you join eXp Realty. Here is a sample of the classes. Now on top of the 80+ hours of training, you can get from eXp world you will also receive live coaching calls from John Kitchens and Gogo Bethke once a week as well.
The training you receive in eXp world is live training. It isn’t prerecorded from someone that isn’t even in the game anymore. You can raise your hand to ask any questions if you want. There is a teacher at the front of the classroom, teaching the class. If you’re on the go listening from the app you can talk right into your phone to get your questions answered there is a chatbox as well. When you are on the app you don’t get to see it in the same way that you get to see it when you’re on your computer, but that never bothers me. I’m always on the go. So I’m always listening from my phone. The classes are usually being taught by the top agents at eXp Realty, usually, they’re an icon agents. And what an icon agent is, is once you hit your $16,000 cap, because everybody here has a $16,000 cap, because there are no secret deals like you might be used to at your own brokerage. The only way it isn’t a 16k cap is if you are on a team.
Once you hit that $16,000 cap and you sell another 20 transactions on top of that, and you fulfill a couple of other eXp requirements, you become an icon agent. That means you get all $16,000 back to you in company stock. They say, thank you. I appreciate you. You are a rock star agent, and here you go. Now again, you have to wait to sell that stock for what, three years. Then you can sell it. The training is live training as well. This isn’t like, Oh, we’re going to sit you down on this TV, friendless TV. And you’re going to watch this. And this was recorded 15 years ago. It was by somebody that’s not even in the game anymore. No, this is what’s working. Now. This is what is they’re doing now in their business to sell real estate. Now that’s very helpful because they want to see you succeed because when you succeed and you sell homes, you get excited.
You tell more people about this business. And our stock grows by the more homes we sell, because what, what are we? We’re a real estate company. And that’s what we do first. Right? We sell real estate.
Pro #3 Opportunity to Make Passive Income
You have the opportunity to make passive income from something we call rev share. This is how it works. Just like I was mentioning earlier. Say, I get excited. I tell you about it. You were like, man, I want to partner with John because he’s a go-getter and he wants me to be successful. He is going to give me his Facebook leads course for free. You’re going to get, Gogo’s social media training for free. You’re going to get NAEA training for free. And you’re going to have access to me all the time. So that means that you want to partner with me, right? So when you go through the process, you name me, John Kinnunen, as your sponsor. And then when you sell a home instead of that $16,000 or whatever your cap is, I just helped an agent where his cap was $50,000. Crazy. I know, but that money, that usually goes up to the top to the broker. That money gets divided up to the seven levels above you.
Same thing happens for you. If you tell someone about the company and they join and name you as their sponsor when they close a transaction 3.5% of the 20% that is going to the company will go to you. I will get 3.8% of what that 20% that person you brought in to the company.
This doesn’t come out of your pocket it comes out of the companies pocket. It’s not costing you any money. It comes out of the money that would normally go to the guy at the top. Now, just like I was saying, I would get 3.8% of that $16,000 that goes, that would usually go to your broker. So it’s in my best interest, we have what’s called cascading revenue share and it goes seven layers down just like seven layers above me gets part of the $16,000 that I pay to the company. This might sound confusing but if you need clarification reach out to me.
Con #2 Some Agents Give eXp a Bad Name
There are agents out there that give us a bad name that go out there. And they’re like, “Hey, come join. Exp, come join be on my team. We don’t have to sell houses anymore. We’re going to make this massive downline. And everybody else sells houses. And we do nothing.” How many people have been approached by an eXp agent like that? It’s horrible right? They give us a bad name. They call us a recruiting company or a pyramid scheme. Have you ever been approached by an exp agent? And you’re like, “Here comes another recruiter from another recruiting company.” eXp Realty is not a pyramid scheme. Pyramid schemes are illegal and we wouldn’t still be in business. Glen Sanford the founder of eXp thought what would be the best way to compensate real estate agents and he looked at every model. This is what he came up with.
People put a bad stigma with the word recruiter when really it doesn’t matter where you work. You could work for Disney world. You could work for, McDonald’s, Walmart. If you enjoy your job and a friend of yours approaches you, or you see somebody in the same industry and they’re like, man, this sucks, blah, blah, blah. I’m not making any money. You’re like, “come work here.” This is what my company does for me here. That’s all that’s happening here is we’re excited because we’re able to make money multiple different ways creating multiple streams of income vs the one you make at a traditional real estate brokerage. That excites real estate agents. For once real estate agents can possibly retire someday. I’ve always been a business owner I used to own, or I still do own a pizza place on top of me being a real estate agent full-time. And before that, I was a general contractor where I worked for an architectural firm, but I also taught, taught architecture as well, at two major universities. So I’ve always been a go-getter, an entrepreneur. When I saw this business model, it was a no brainer for me.
Pro #4 Earn Stock in The Company
Let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about the stocks. I’ve mentioned it a little bit, but this is definitely a pro. When you close your first real estate transaction here at exp realty you will earn stock in the company and because you named me as your sponsor I will get stock in the company for FREE. When you camp you get more stock in the company. Every year when you close your first transaction with the company you get stock in the company. This is another way that eXp realty is saying thanking for joining eXp realty we really appreciate you.
Con #3 Waiting Time Period
Now, how long do you have to wait to sell the stock they give you? Very good. Three years. They did just give it to you for free so I guess its only fitting you have to wait to sell it.
Pro #5 More Stock
You’ve been paying attention. I like that. Now there’s another way to get stock in the company the icon agent program. I explained that a little bit ago, but I’ll go over it again just in case you didn’t get a chance to write it down. Here you go. So when you cap, they give you be that stock in the company, but now you do another 20 transactions after you cap, because we’re going to help you grow here at exp, and we’re going to help you reach another level, they’re going to pat you on the back say, “congratulations. I really do appreciate you.” Here’s your $16,000 back in company stock. Now there are a couple of stipulations to that.
You have to go to two exp events that year as well. Make sure you do that. Especially if you plan on being an icon agent, because you want to get that, that $16,000 back.
Some real estate companies like to say, Oh, what if it’s not worth anything? Ooh, well, what if it’s a penny stock? Well, you know what? It’s worth a penny more than what I would have gotten if I would have stuck with the traditional brokerage, right? I got a kind of a hunch. Again, I’m not a financial advisor, but I think that stock is going to be worth a lot more than a penny.
Now there’s another way for you to get stock in the company. This, you have to opt into, not everybody does, but we don’t have franchise fees here, right?
Because well there are no franchises. So we don’t have franchise fees. Now where I was from, we had a 7% franchise fee, even after I capped. So here, instead of the 7% franchise fee, you can take 5% of your commission. Now, again, you don’t have to do this. You can take 5% of your commission check and get it back in company stock at a 10% discount. Now, the reason why I brought up franchise fees is that you’re probably not missing the 6%, 7%, 8% franchise fee that you’re being charged at your current brokerage, correct? You’re still able to live? You never see that money ever again right now? This is the opportunity to invest in yourself, invest in your future, invest in your retirement. You take that 5% of your commission check, get that in company stock at a 10% discount. And then in what, how long do you have to wait to sell stock that you just got at a 10% discount? Only 6 months. Not 3 years like the stock that is given to you.
When I got with the company, it was $8 a share. How much is it today? It’s over $50 a share today. Very nice. Now that growth may continue. May not continue you look up expi, Google it, you’ll see how much the stock has grown in the last five years. That’s pretty cool. Right? Could you imagine joining exp realty back when the stock was worth .05 cents and Keller Williams agents used to make fun of eXp agents because we were a penny stock?
Pro #6 Still Can Join eXp Realty
It’s not to late to join exp realty you can still join. I believe everything happens for a reason and maybe this is your time to join. If you are already talking to an eXp agent go back to them and join and name them as your sponsor, but if you aren’t seriously talking to an eXp agent and would like to join and name me as your sponsor you can. Go to www.johnkinnunen.com/join-exp and start the process. As soon as you are on boarded you will have access to my training, Gogo bethke’s training and NAEA, and the coaching calls once a week.
Pro #7 Work Place & Workplace Chat
This goes a little bit with the collaboration When you join exp, you are going to get access to workplace, which is powered by Facebook. It is Facebook for exp agents, and you’re going to get workplace chat where anybody in the company, and this is not a joke. Anybody that works for exp is on workplace chat. You just message them. “I have a question about how to sell more real estate? How do you do this?
How do you do for sale by owners?” And they’re going to respond, because why? Because we’re all in this together, because why? Go ahead and answer this because when I do good, you do good because when you do good, I do good because when you sell more real estate, our stock goes upright? And that is good for everybody in the company. So that is why our company is built the way it is.
That’s why the collaboration here is absolutely amazing top-notch.
Con #4 I Didn't Join eXp Realty Sooner
This is the number one thing that bothers me the most about eXp Realty. That I didn’t get into real estate sooner. If I would have gotten into real estate sooner, and I would’ve seen this business model, I can guarantee you without a doubt, I would have jumped right in! You might ask yourself, why?
Because I’m the kind of person that’s like, well, what do I have to lose? I can either stay at this brokerage or I can join the eXp realty. At eXp realty I have the opportunity to have multiple streams of income, and I have the opportunity to sell more real estate because I have the top producers teaching me. Where do you think I would have gone? It would have been in my best interest to go to join exp realty and I can guarantee you, I would have. So that really bugs me. That’s my biggest regret is not joining exp Realty sooner.
Pro #8 kvCORE
Do you know what kvCORE is? It’s a IDX website on the front end and a CRM for real estate agents on the back end. It’s between 450 and $700 if you were to go out and buy it by yourself.
When you come to exp you pay $85 a month, that’s what your fee is. That includes your tech, and helps pay for eXp world and all the training we receive. On the front end, when somebody comes to your website for whatever reason, and I’ll talk about how you can get traffic. The website makes them register, and then it takes their information and puts it into your CRM. Then it automatically puts them into a drip campaign because kvCORE is smart. It knows if it’s a buyer or a seller, you set up the campaigns or you can, just use the ones that are already created for you. You can also send out mass text messages, or you can send out mass emails, video emails, because we partnered with BombBomb, which is pretty flipping cool. Right? Everybody’s doing texting, and video nowadays. If you’re not doing video with your emails and text, you’re behind the times,
You can drive traffic to your site with either Facebook posts, Facebook ads as I teach you in my course, and Instagram posts just to name a few. You can also do google ads. If you don’t know how to work, Google ads, we have a company called making it rain that eXp Realty has partnered with to run your google ads for you. You pay a monthly fee if that is what you want to do. It all depends how many leads per month your want but $250 a month and they run your Google ads for you. And you’ll get quite a few leads at least I do from my google ads. Again if you partner with me at eXp realty I will set up your Google ads for you if you would like.
Pro #9 Healthcare
When you join eXp Realty you can get health insurance through clearwater for a discounted rate. Yes. This is unheard of when it comes to real estate companies and being an entrepreneur like I’ve been for so many years, insurance has always been an issue. It’s not that big of an issue anymore when you’re with exp, it’s actually pretty cool.
Pro #10 Low Fees
The fees at eXp reality aren’t the lowest but there not the highest either. One thing they are is level across the board. There are no secrete deals. Everyone has a $16000 cap and is on an 80/20 split. The only way your cap is different is if you are on a team. $85 dollar per month fee, $25 broker review fee per transaction and a $45 E/O fee per transaction up to $500, and a $149 startup fee. That’s it.
So if any of this has interested you in, like I said, if you’re already talking to an eXp real estate agent, and you’ve had a serious conversation with them and you’re just doing a little extra research to see if what they’re saying is true or not go back to them, make sure you sign up with them, name them as your sponsor. If you haven’t sat down with an eXp Realty agent and had a serious conversation, and you’d like to have a serious conversation with me, go ahead and call me. Here’s my phone number, 734.972.7388 text me, or call me whatever works for you. If you like everything you have read you can go to www.Johnkinnunen.com/join-exp and you can get the ball rolling.
If you wanted to learn more about the team structure, put “team” in the comments below or text me. If you want to learn more about husband and wife teams, put that in the comments below and I’ll know exactly what you’re talking about.
And as always have an awesome day until next time, enjoy life!
