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Top Producing Agent Conundrum: Why I Didn't Become a Team Lead or Broker · The Real Estate Agent Playbook

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  Congratulations.
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  You made it.
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  You're a top producing agent.
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  Now the questions are rolling in.
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  When are you going to start a team?
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  When are you going to start your own brokerage?
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  Today, I'm going to talk about my experience with those questions, what
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  I did to flip the script and how we can help you make the right decision
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  for you and only you stay tuned.
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  What's playbook.
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  This one is going to be great because I truly had spot in my heart where I
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  knew I could not possibly be a team lead because I didn't want to start
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  taking advantage of other people's time while suppressing their careers.
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  And as a managing broker, I felt like it was just too much.
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  I was, it would have been more in the logistics and all of that.
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  So I'm going to talk about everything that I went through and hopefully
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  give you some key insights to help you make that decision and take
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  the next step in your career, even if it is to go down that road.
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  If you like what you hear, please throw a comment.
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  If you're going through something and I say something that, you know,
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  gets your, your mind thinking, definitely write a comment.
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  I would love to start the conversation with you.
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  But as for now, like, comment, subscribe, and let's get into it.
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  Okay, so the traditional top producer real estate path, the KW way, kind of,
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  you know, become a top producer, figure it out, and then start to grow a team.
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  Right.
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  And so that's, that's definitely the way of the bigger brokerage started
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  team within the, within the model, you don't have a ton of, you know, the
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  managerial broker responsibilities, however, you do have the ability
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  to leverage other people's time.
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  You can get some of your time back, maybe do some of the top income producing
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  activities while, you know, some of your newer agents or, you know, staff members
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  or whatever are helping with some of the lead generation and marketing stuff.
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  Essentially, you know, Brian Buffini always says you're wearing
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  four hats as a, as a business owner and a real estate agent.
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  This is allowing Some other people that wear some of those hats where
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  maybe you're lacking certainly team.
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  It's great, right?
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  But the problem is when you're starting a team You're kind of in that coach or
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  managerial role verse being one of the team players And so a lot of times, you
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  know, it works out and it's great and you have these buyers agents But the buyers
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  agents typically, you know come and go right people understand that they are
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  focused on building your team's brand verse building their own And once you get
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  into it and you get a hold of it and maybe a few deals under your belt, absolutely,
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  there's a reason, you know, that a lot of new agents love to go to a team or
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  feel like they're pushed to go to a team.
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  However, the longevity of this and the constant turnover and things that come up
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  is absolutely something that team leads alike constantly are battling, right?
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  And we've, we've gone to this point where, you know, kind of the status quo is.
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  You know, I'm going to join a team.
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  I'm going to get some leads.
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  I'm going to pay a bigger split here.
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  Sometimes they pay a bigger split on their personal deals.
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  And that was, that was my thing.
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  I couldn't possibly, you know, take a step back and allow other
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  people to do my job, take half of their commission for doing what.
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  Ultimately was my job as a real estate agent and then you know continue to
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  do this and do this certainly if i'm providing them A lead and doing a lot
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  of lead gen and all of that and we're actually doing 50 50 of the work Okay,
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  I get it but if i'm simply providing the lead source and they have to call
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  and they have to you know, Qualify the lead and get them into get them
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  in the car as we like to say and and show them houses and then Negotiate
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  the contract and then you know, where do I come in as the team lead, right?
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  And if this is my team's brand and I don't have a stamp on it.
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  It just wasn't my of how I wanted to do it.
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  And I always tell people that, you know, if I had a team and I was growing
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  the team and to be successful and to make the money and leverage and, and
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  make up for all those leads, and I'm cutting in half essentially out of my
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  commission, then, you know, essentially you have to leverage these people and
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  you have to be like, okay, yeah, you're on a 50 50 split, you know, whatever.
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  Maybe it's bigger with, with the leads I provide, but then that
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  just doesn't make sense, right?
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  I am.
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  In my opinion, limiting those agents ability to grow their business if I'm
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  taking 50 percent of their commission on their self generated leads.
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  And so, I know there's other models and there's other ways to do it, however,
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  I just didn't feel that that was right.
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  Leveraging other people in order to have a better personal life
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  was not my idea of fun, right?
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  So then, you know, the managing broker role, as you guys know, When I did make
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  the move to my current brokerage, I, I was the next broker in standing, right?
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  I was going to be a manager of, you know, one of the biggest
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  transaction shops in Denver.
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  And I had, we had talked about that and that was kind of up in the air.
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  And you know, my dad was the managing broker and when he retired, I was
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  going to kind of step into that role.
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  However, before that happened, I stepped back and I looked,
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  okay, what is my dad doing?
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  Right?
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  He's in charge of agent hotline.
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  He handles all the litigation.
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  And he's in that office 40 hours a week, right?
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  And I knew his salary, we don't need to talk about what it was, but it
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  was going to be a serious, time commitment for not the salary
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  that would replace my time, right?
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  If I had to stop being out there serving clients and doing all the things so I
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  could be in an office to make a salary, then first of all that would take more
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  time away from my family, doing things that I actually didn't really want to do.
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  Just to say I, I made it, right?
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  And then, having to still go out beyond that time.
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  Obviously, there's a lot of office time.
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  But beyond that office time to go out and show properties and so on.
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  And so it didn't make sense financially for me to step into that role.
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  And then obviously, starting up your own brokerage shop certainly sounds great.
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  No bosses, no, nobody telling you what to do.
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  However, there's also no resources.
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  Right?
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  So you have to build the resources and you have to build a, you know, product that
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  someone is willing to, you know, come in and buy into and say, Hey, certainly you
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  can have, you know, some of my commission or you can have my monthly transaction
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  fee or whatever that looks like.
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  And so it was either start from the ground.
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  Okay.
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  Take an opportunity here.
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  And actually I did have an opportunity to make well over six figures at
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  another brokerage, another pretty popular brokerage as a managing broker.
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  And it just didn't seem like I was going to be doing the
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  things that I wanted to do.
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  Not to mention my gross commission was literally at 500, 000 a year.
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  And the six figure salary, even at the, you know, better offer,
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  was not going to replace that.
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  However, it was going to take some of my time away from that, you know, pretty,
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  pretty nice gross commission earnings.
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  So, I made the decision that none of that was for me.
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  Right.
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  So then I continued to focus and certainly I can leverage, you know, a TC and some
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  certain, certain pieces of the pie, you know, videographer, photographer, sign
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  company, sign installer, lockbox holder.
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  Like they all do that stuff, professional photography.
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  So.
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  I had all of that in place.
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  So I do have a team.
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  It's just not a team of agents, right?
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  So i'm in the mix doing the income producing activities, which I still
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  am today But the secret was I actually like that stuff And certainly one day
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  as I build my organization, I will step back from that But there was another
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  opportunity there Okay, so let's look at the difference between broker and team
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  lead kind of as we go as I mentioned right we have To start from the ground up
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  or plug into this system where there was requirements my time to be the broker side
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  A team lead now requires, I mean, for the most part, there's no sense in having a
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  team if you're not going to provide leads and help them be busy because there's
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  only so much training and stuff we can do before you have to get out in the field.
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  Right?
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  And certainly if I'm training someone to get out in the field and manage
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  their sphere and do all of the things and they're self generating
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  leads, well, You know, ultimately that that's not really a team.
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  That's more of a broker setup, right?
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  And so as we kind of look at the difference team leads, we need to
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  create a lead generation source, right?
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  That's kind of outside of what I already do naturally especially because
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  I'm so focused on sphere of influence So when people, you know raise their
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  hand and they say hey, I want to buy or sell they want me Which is okay.
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  Like, I understand that I could leverage my time a little better.
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  However, that's that side.
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  And the broker side, creating something completely from scratch, taking on all
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  of the overhead, you know, the brick and mortar, and the office, and the
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  technology, and all the things that I would need to offer my agents in order
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  for them to be successful on top of teaching them how to be a And so that's
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  the kind of difference in today's day and age of the team and the broker.
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  And I didn't want either.
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  So what's my story, right?
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  I stepped back, I looked at my offers and I said, okay, well, I'm going to
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  go be a top producing agent at one of the fastest growing brokerages in the
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  history of real estate, EXP and I'm going to be able to do all of the things
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  that I want to do as a leader, right?
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  I can have courses, I can, you know, sponsor agents into my downline.
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  I can get a residual income from them and It's not their money, right?
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  They're on a split.
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  They pay the brokerage 80 20 of Of EXPs, 20 percent that they take on a,
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  you know, say a 10, 000 commission.
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  Agent that sells gets 8, 000.
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  EXP gets 2, 000.
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  Of EXPs money, I get a little bit of piece of that pie.
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  As a sponsor, you know, to the agent that closed the deal.
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  Or, you know, in my seven tiers of downline.
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  And so, this was the perfect scenario.
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  Because I didn't have the liability of a broker.
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  I didn't have the overhead cost of a broker.
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  I didn't feel like I was You know them by taking their commission 50 percent
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  of the brokers commission And I just felt like it was a perfect fit for me.
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  Certainly.
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  It's a smaller piece of the pie however if I can grow and then that agent can
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  grow and so on the small piece of the pie really adds up pretty quickly and
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  So that's where I had the light bulb moment I can still produce, I can still
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  help people in my, my sphere, and all of those people, 40, 50, 60 hours a
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  week, whatever I want to work there.
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  And I can also be a part of these agents, and I can coach, and I can mentor, and
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  I can do the piece that I love without having all these other expectations.
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  Team lead, providing leads, you know, putting them out on buyer consultations,
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  you know, procuring the buyer so that they can show them properties, or Broker
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  dealing with all the back end stuff, all the compliance issues, all of the,
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  you know, commission updates, and the certified education credits that we
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  need, and all of that stuff that the broker, I can set that aside, right?
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  And so, not to mention my liability as a leader definitely goes down because
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  we still have managing brokers, we still have compliance officers, we still have
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  people that are reviewing the files.
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  And so I'm able to do everything that I want to do without having to do
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  everything right and do everything in the team lane, do everything in the broker.
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  So that was my decision and I'm two and a half years in,
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  and I can't say that I'm upset.
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  There's so much provided both by my brokerage and the organization.
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  I'm a part of.
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  That allows me to not be the one person that's in charge of
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  doing all the things, right?
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  We have six seven tiers of value for people So if someone is really struggling
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  with their organization and time management systems processes, that's not
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  me But my sponsor does offer that or you know branding social media marketing.
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  I'm okay at it, but I'm not great Mike Sherrard's the
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  greatest in the world, right?
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  and so if I can start plugging these people in and build my coaching
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  platform based on this other value It's the best of both worlds.
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  And I'm not leveraging other people's time and feeling like, you know,
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  the person at the top that's just sitting around going to, you know, the
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  bar on a Saturday and making money.
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  So I hope that helps you understand the decision and
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  understand that there's options.
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  And if you love being an agent, you love being in the transaction.
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  I challenge you not to just push that all aside.
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  Unless you're ready for that.
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  And unless you're, you know, in that team situation where you have
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  a great lead generation source that you can, you know, scale, right?
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  Because that's what teams do.
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  Or you're that broker and you love the managerial role you love.
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  You know, the compliance and the holding files and, you know, dealing
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  with, you know, issues that might go to litigation and all of that.
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  If you love that, certainly managing brokers as an option for you.
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  However, I know that a rev share model at the XP especially was my number
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  one choice, and it absolutely has been game changing for my career, creating
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  a sustainable residual passive income.
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  And I am so excited that I made that decision.
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  So if I can help you, if you want to sit down and talk about it, I
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  promise I'm not going to say, Hey, this is absolutely the answer.
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  I would love to hear your pros and cons and listen from a top
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  producing agents perspective.
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  I know what you're going through.
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  If you are interested in learning more, there's a game plan call link below,
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  and I would love to help you out.
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  We'll see you on the next one.