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Rise to the Top: 10 Game-Changing Lessons learned over a decade! · The Real Estate Agent Playbook

• 0:00
  Wow, 10 years in the business.
• 0:02
  I am so excited to bring this video to you.
• 0:05
  It actually brought me back a little bit to think about
• 0:07
  the 10 years of my experience.
• 0:09
  I can't wait to share my 10 lessons that I've learned from 10 years
• 0:13
  in the real estate business.
• 0:15
  Stay tuned because I think each and every single one of them is something
• 0:18
  that can help you, whether you've been in the business for, you know,
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  20, 30 years, or you're just getting in these things I hope will help.
• 0:25
  So stay tuned.
• 0:31
  What's up guys.
• 0:32
  Jeremy Cain, eXp Realty and the real estate agent playbook.
• 0:34
  Super excited for this one.
• 0:36
  As I celebrate my 10 year, crossing over 10 years in the real estate industry.
• 0:41
  Obviously a lot of, you know, my dad was in the industry as my
• 0:43
  managing broker before I left.
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  His company for a huge opportunity here at eXp in the, in the wolf pack.
• 0:50
  So that's a huge part of, of my lessons and part of my journey.
• 0:55
  But if you would be so kind, please like comment, subscribe.
• 0:58
  If you're watching on YouTube, please share the show.
• 1:01
  If you're listening on the podcast and, drop a review, if it's something
• 1:04
  that, you know, speaks to you.
• 1:05
  So let's get into it.
• 1:07
  Ten lessons from my experience that I hope help you.
• 1:10
  Let's go.
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  First things first is when I first got in the game, I was obviously going to a lot
• 1:15
  of classes and getting the certifications and ethics classes and all of that.
• 1:19
  And I was sitting there and It hit me.
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  I was like, my only job as a real estate agent is not to get sued
• 1:25
  and not to make somebody mad.
• 1:27
  And it seemed like every single year, you know, the update classes and things
• 1:30
  would, would constantly tell these horror stories of, you know, little finite
• 1:34
  mistakes or sometimes bigger mistakes, that, that got people into trouble.
• 1:39
  And so you have to operate your business.
• 1:42
  from a perfectly ethical and, you know, wholehearted perspective.
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  And just know that if you're doing the right thing and you're constantly trying
• 1:51
  to do the right thing, you won't get sued.
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  It's when you, when you start getting in the sketchy realm that you will.
• 1:57
  So it took me a little bit to realize.
• 1:59
  that I could, you know, be myself and operate my career
• 2:02
  as I do, without getting sued.
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  But that was my first lesson was I have to, you know, I have to be
• 2:09
  careful for sure, but I also have to be myself and I have to, and, and being
• 2:13
  myself will allow me to work within the guidelines of, you know, that.
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  And sometimes you get sued just because you get sued.
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  Sometimes you get sued because you do something stupid.
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  My whole goal was just to do the job, right.
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  Be a good person and it, it all worked out.
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  So that was my very first lesson in real estate.
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  Absolutely.
• 2:31
  Next thing that I love about real estate is the unlimited ceiling.
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  One thing, when I started thinking about it, that was actually more of
• 2:39
  a, an issue than a, than a blessing is the unlimited basement, right?
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  There is no floor.
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  Your floor is zero.
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  You could absolutely not sell any houses and put all this work in and not do it.
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  So positive is definitely.
• 2:54
  You know, the unlimited ceiling of your income, the negative is you're always
• 2:59
  working to get out of the basement and as driven as I am, and always feel like,
• 3:04
  you know, I'm starting over and, and that kind of carried over to my business in the
• 3:07
  first couple, I was the traditional agent that I would get three under contract and
• 3:11
  I'd focus so hard on closing those three.
• 3:13
  That I wouldn't prospect.
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  And then if you sat down prospecting for two or three months, then you set yourself
• 3:18
  back as, as far as your production.
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  So you have to be aware that there's no ceiling to constantly drive for
• 3:24
  more and do more and be better.
• 3:26
  You also have to be aware of that floor and you have to constantly, you
• 3:29
  know, continue to build your business as, as no one's coming to save you,
• 3:32
  that paycheck isn't going to be there.
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  And so you have to balance and plan and being a financially.
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  You know, responsible is absolutely something that, that changed my, my
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  career forever is, you know, you, you get big wins and then you have lulls,
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  you know, now I'm at a point where, you know, it's pretty consistent,
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  but I have to say the reason that, you know, I got comfortable and.
• 3:57
  Got consistent quicker is because I got consistent with how I paid myself,
• 4:01
  not necessarily how many transactions I did each month or whatever.
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  I constantly hear agents say I want to do two transactions a month
• 4:08
  because they want that consistency.
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  They want that financial stability.
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  Well, you can close six in a month and not close three for two more
• 4:15
  months if you're managing your money appropriately and you're giving
• 4:18
  yourself a salary and all the things.
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  So that's really when I saw a turning point in my career was when.
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  It wasn't about, you know, how many transactions I close this month, but
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  more about filling that, that bank and that having that cushion, paying myself
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  a salary, not overspending when I had big paydays and not, you know, having
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  to pull back a ton when I had, had less closings or whatever in the month.
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  So being consistent with that piece, absolutely.
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  You know, allows you to eliminate that basement or the floor,
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  so to speak, the next lesson.
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  And one of my favorite things and something I've always held true
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  to is just be yourself, right?
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  People like you for being you.
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  You don't have to be overzealous.
• 5:00
  You don't have to constantly be like, Hey, do you know anyone
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  who's going to buy or sell?
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  You can't make real estate part of every conversation.
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  People will make it a part of every conversation.
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  But if you, as the agent are constantly thinking about the transactions and you
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  have that stress because your financial, you know, stability is not consistent.
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  That's when you have to really, you know, hone in.
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  So realize that people want to work with you more because you're you.
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  Then you're a real estate agent.
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  So I learned this pretty early on.
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  Didn't really want to be the commission hungry person.
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  I was lucky enough that my girlfriend now wife, could support us.
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  So there was not a lot of financial pressure.
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  So I totally empathize with those that, you know, you're the, you're
• 5:40
  the sole provider or you're, you know, the breadwinner or whatever.
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  But at the end of the day.
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  If you can focus on just being you and having your own personality, not
• 5:50
  necessarily worry about that commission and that next check to put food on
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  the table, that's when you can really start to see your, your career expand.
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  And that's something that I had from the very get go because if I didn't close the
• 6:02
  deal for two, three, six months, I knew that my family would be taken care of.
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  Now, my family was a lot smaller then, so now if that were to happen...
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  You know, if I didn't have that financial consistency, it would definitely,
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  you know, come into play if I didn't have multiple streams of income, like
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  I do have at eXp Realty, I would challenge all real estate agents that
• 6:22
  are watching this to really look and see, okay, what if my market, you
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  know, flipped or crashed or whatever.
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  Where would my money come from?
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  What would I have to do?
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  Because if your brokerage isn't providing stock options, residual income in
• 6:34
  the form of, you know, leadership and that kind of stuff, you really need
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  to, you know, step back and consider what would happen if, you know, the
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  market changed on a dime and dried up.
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  And that's absolutely one of the biggest lessons I learned from coming over to
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  EXP before it became a major problem for me because I was able to diversify.
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  And create three streams of income from just doing what I had to do.
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  So, that's, that's absolutely something to, to consider is you can probably be
• 7:03
  less intense and in your client's face if you're at a brokerage that not only
• 7:08
  has a fair split, but compensates you for everything you do as an agent, including
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  bringing your, your buddies on as.
• 7:14
  As agents and things like that.
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  And the next one, I always talk about this, a podcast to listen to, Andy
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  Frisella, Real AF, talks a ton about, you know, the two year room, right?
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  And just understand how you conduct yourself out of the
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  gate is absolutely something.
• 7:30
  The barrier to entry is really low.
• 7:32
  That's why you see a lot of You know, maybe not so positive things when you
• 7:38
  first get in, there's just agents trying to get their feet wet doing everything
• 7:41
  they can scratching and clawing.
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  But the whole point is you've got to try and get out of a two
• 7:47
  year room as fast as possible.
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  You can be in the two year room for two months as an agent, you can be in the
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  two year room for 20 years as an agent.
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  It just really depends on how you conduct yourself and how you carry yourself and,
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  you know, how, how much work you put in.
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  At the end of the day, you do have to put in work.
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  This isn't just, you know, clients falling from the sky
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  because it is a competitive world.
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  People know a lot of real estate agents and so you have to understand.
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  That your ability to get out of the two year room matters so much on how you
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  conduct yourself, how you, you know, relate in the industry at events and
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  network with other agents, because that matters at the end of the day, people,
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  you know, see how you're, how you're doing and you can easily level up and get
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  connected with the absolute right people.
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  If you're in the right rooms.
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  And so that'll absolutely help you get out of that two year room.
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  If you feel like you're at a brokerage where, you know, They're trying to
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  keep you in the two year room, which unfortunately is the case in some of
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  those, you know, team centric, you know, they want you to be the buyer's
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  agent and they give you just a little bit so you can't, can't say no.
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  But at the end of the day, you're constantly in this cycle and you're
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  not getting out of that two year room.
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  You're constantly doing the same thing over and over again, putting money
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  in the team leader broker's pocket.
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  Versus your own.
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  So working to get out of that two year room, out of that cycle, I totally
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  understand if you join a team to get, you know, that experience, but a lot
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  of people burn out by not getting off of that team when the time comes and
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  at the end of the day, you're just.
• 9:16
  Honestly, leverage for the team lead to make more money.
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  So getting out of that two year room is absolutely part of it.
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  How you carry yourself, how you, what your work ethic looks like on the front end
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  will absolutely be the deciding factor.
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  If you're in the two year room for 20 years or 20 minutes.
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  I don't know.
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  What do you want to do?
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  The next one is kind of a, a good one.
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  The good old boy club wants to stay the good old boy club.
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  The, the absolute, you know, guard.
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  You know, this comes in the form of imposter syndrome these
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  days, kind of, on social media.
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  It's not like, you know, that one team that absolutely dominates the office
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  and, you know, you feel like gets all the leads and all of that stuff.
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  That's, that's kind of what today's imposter syndrome looks like on.
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  On social media, like I wish I could have what they have, et cetera, et cetera.
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  The truth is the good old boy club is absolutely something that's real, right?
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  But it's not that hard to infiltrate again.
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  The barrier to entry is low.
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  Sure.
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  Team leads and.
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  You know, some of the good old boys will absolutely still crush it.
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  But that does not mean that there's not room for you to build your own path and
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  absolutely do well in this industry.
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  Closings happen every day and every closing typically
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  produces two commission sides.
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  So you have to, you know, really focus on that and not focus on like, Oh man,
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  I have to be a part of that and give my soul to that in order to be successful.
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  The good old boy club will be the good old boy club.
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  But there's always room and it's not that hard to blaze your own
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  path, as long as you put the work in and you develop your own path.
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  If you're taking the good old boy club's blueprint and trying to follow them
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  and then compete with them in the same market, definitely not probably going to
• 10:54
  be the best, best route because they have experience, they have dollars, they have
• 10:57
  capital, they have all the things that they need to compete the way they do it.
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  So you just need to pave, pave your own road and...
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  You know, not compete, you know, alongside them, but compete in a
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  whole different, different niche or, you know, way of doing business.
• 11:13
  The next one was really interesting to me because immediately you're,
• 11:17
  you're infiltrated with all of these different brokerages and everything.
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  It didn't take me very long to understand that my clients probably couldn't even
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  tell you the brokerage I worked for.
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  So it's important that when you're looking for a brokerage that you
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  find a good fit for your personality, somewhere where you're going to be
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  pushed, where you're going to become the average of the five people you
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  surround yourself with, and that you're constantly going to be leveling up.
• 11:40
  Because the logo that you put on your sign doesn't matter.
• 11:43
  The clients want to work with you, and you can build your brand.
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  You can build your brand starting day one.
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  And people always, you know, brand, colors, logo, all that.
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  That's not the brand I'm talking about.
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  I'm talking about your story.
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  Put it out there.
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  You know, be present.
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  And, and develop your brand more so of how you conduct business and how you
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  treat your clients and how you treat other industry professionals, and you
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  will be much happier and much more successful than worrying about the logo.
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  And, you know, working for this brokerage, even though you're giving
• 12:14
  them six figures a year, which is absolutely ridiculous if you're paying
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  your brokerage anything more than.
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  You know, 25, 000 a year.
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  You're absolutely out of your mind because the truth is that brand
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  doesn't do what you think it does.
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  You are the brand people want to work with you.
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  People want to work with you as the agent.
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  And so you develop your brand as far as how you treat your, your,
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  your standard has to be on point.
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  Through every client and you will see you will grow much faster with a high
• 12:46
  level standard of how you treat people Because then they will constantly refer
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  you so don't get caught up in you know Oh that that company sells the most
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  houses that company does this You are the brand when it comes to selling
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  real estate for your clients The the brokerage brand does not matter as much
• 13:02
  what matters more is the support And the camaraderie that may come from the agents
• 13:07
  If you go into the office When you're interviewing a managing broker, stop
• 13:11
  and ask some of the agents what they do.
• 13:13
  Stop and ask some of the agents for some ideas or, you know, anything
• 13:16
  like that and see how that goes.
• 13:17
  Because most of the time those brokerages, especially the ones
• 13:20
  that are geographically restricted, are going to really put a lot of
• 13:24
  pressure, you know, they'll, they may say some stuff at first, but...
• 13:28
  In the end, when you're actually in the heat of it, they're not going to
• 13:31
  share their secrets because ultimately you're competing in that same market.
• 13:34
  So definitely something to consider support.
• 13:37
  Absolutely.
• 13:37
  First and foremost, but let's see what support you're offering.
• 13:40
  Let's see the trainings.
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  Let's see the actual, you know, attendance of the trainings, or let's see the
• 13:45
  programs that you're going to put me through because a lot of people are
• 13:48
  just selling you, you know, used goods basically, because, you know, they have.
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  They have a notebook that they throw at you, or they have
• 13:55
  these mentors that haven't been selling real estate for 30 years.
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  Actually talk to some agents if you're in those, those situations
• 14:02
  and see how it really is.
• 14:03
  See what that culture is really like, because ultimately that's what matters,
• 14:07
  is what the brokerage gives you, over what the brokerage, you know, requires
• 14:11
  you to put on your signs and your, your commission splits and all of those things.
• 14:15
  The next one is multiple streams of income, and I've touched
• 14:18
  on a little bit about this.
• 14:19
  Real estate on its own can create multiple streams of income.
• 14:23
  Right.
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  If you're at the right brokerage, obviously you have buying, selling,
• 14:26
  investing, some places you can manage properties, you can recruit at some places
• 14:31
  you can get paid for coaching or courses.
• 14:34
  So there is a ton of things that you can generate income by within, within
• 14:39
  a, you know, real estate career.
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  So definitely if you're looking for a brokerage, look at that.
• 14:45
  How, what are the.
• 14:46
  different income streams.
• 14:47
  What happens if my market turns over and I absolutely have no, no leads and no deals.
• 14:53
  Is my income completely shot or is there a way to diversify and, you know, maybe
• 14:58
  build some, you know, recruiting and maybe build some courses and classes
• 15:02
  and maybe build an organization.
• 15:04
  Absolutely.
• 15:05
  I say this because I was one that had one single stream of income.
• 15:09
  Luckily for me, the market never crashed before I realized
• 15:11
  I needed to generate more.
• 15:13
  I always had some rentals and things like that.
• 15:15
  However, rentals are, you know, not going to, they require time invested or I have
• 15:21
  to pay money for people to manage them.
• 15:24
  Whereas if you, you start growing an organization, as my good friend
• 15:27
  Connor says, you know, a house isn't going to go down this road and
• 15:31
  recruit another house for you to buy.
• 15:33
  However, agents can do that and really sort of create that passive income flow.
• 15:38
  So understand that there is a lot of opportunity for income in real estate.
• 15:43
  And there's a lot of opportunity that involves some risk, but
• 15:46
  there's also opportunities that don't involve a ton of risk.
• 15:49
  And I would challenge you to really make sure that you are
• 15:51
  diversifying your income when you, you know, start, first start out.
• 15:56
  Because if I had done this when I first started out, my financial, you know,
• 16:00
  back office would look a lot different.
• 16:02
  So, just know that you can absolutely do that.
• 16:05
  Just know that in real estate, a lot of those things that are available to you
• 16:10
  require time invested back into them.
• 16:12
  And so, you know, when you stop investing time that goes away, just like, you
• 16:17
  know, if your sole income is, you know, selling homes, the day you retire,
• 16:22
  you can sure you can try and pass your book off to somebody and maybe collect
• 16:26
  a few referral checks from it, but your income essentially goes to zero.
• 16:30
  And so.
• 16:31
  Developing those streams of income, whether you're stepping away from the
• 16:35
  business, you're stepping, you know, just to the side of the business, or,
• 16:39
  you know, the market shifts, which is outside of your control, you want
• 16:42
  to make sure that you're covered and have some diversity of income.
• 16:45
  The next one, and this is huge because a lot of agents ask me all the time,
• 16:48
  you know, do you cut your commission?
• 16:49
  Do you do this?
• 16:50
  Whatever.
• 16:51
  Obviously, we're not allowed to talk about that.
• 16:53
  But people aren't as greedy when you bring value and you create value for them.
• 16:59
  Here's what I'm saying.
• 16:59
  As a listing agent, I'm going to try and list your house for absolutely the
• 17:03
  highest possible number that will give us the most results, the most offers, and
• 17:07
  get you the highest dollar for your home.
• 17:10
  Ultimately, at the end of the day, I let my clients set the price of their home.
• 17:13
  I give them a couple strategies.
• 17:15
  And we go from there.
• 17:16
  However, you know, I can demonstrate through my value, through my marketing,
• 17:20
  through the me generating excitement to enlisting my value, right?
• 17:25
  And essentially I'm working for free because I'm going to take what the client,
• 17:28
  you know, should make on their home and I'm going to try and get them as much.
• 17:32
  As I possibly can, right?
• 17:34
  So if that includes, you know, extra marketing and managing a situation
• 17:38
  where we have multiple offers, that's absolutely what I'm going to do.
• 17:41
  And essentially most of the time when I'm listing homes, I can work
• 17:44
  for free, because they have this number that we're like, okay, yeah,
• 17:48
  that's good, we're good to go.
• 17:50
  But if I get them 25, 000 more and pay off the commissions for
• 17:53
  the whole thing, then that's good.
• 17:54
  That's just money in their pocket, higher net to them.
• 17:57
  And that's really where it takes place.
• 17:59
  So just realize that people aren't as greedy when you bring value as an
• 18:03
  agent, as a listing agent, as a buyer's agent, people expect that you get
• 18:08
  compensated, you know, the way you should.
• 18:11
  And so that's, that was a huge lesson for me because it
• 18:14
  was always like, Oh, I'm new.
• 18:16
  Am I going to be able to, you know, get the, the market
• 18:18
  commission rate or whatever?
• 18:20
  And the truth is it was more about the value that I brought.
• 18:23
  If I showed up every day and brought the value, I got paid.
• 18:26
  And so that's the beauty of, of the free market and the real estate
• 18:30
  industry is everything's negotiable all the way up or all the way down.
• 18:35
  So make sure that you're, you're developing that value stack and it'll
• 18:38
  be a lot easier to, you know, fight for those commissions and, and ask
• 18:42
  for those commissions when, you know, at listing appointments or buyer's
• 18:45
  appointments and things of that nature.
• 18:47
  And the 10th most important one is, you know, helping people
• 18:51
  change their lives is so.
• 18:53
  Inspirational.
• 18:54
  It's one of the most important things you can do as a human is help people change
• 18:57
  their lives using your knowledge or your, you know, inspiration or whatever that may
• 19:02
  be, the first step is listening, right?
• 19:05
  Listen to what people are saying, whether you're at a listening
• 19:08
  appointment, someone's telling you exactly what they love about their
• 19:11
  house and how they wanted it marketed.
• 19:13
  Or listening to another agent at another brokerage, talk about, you know, their
• 19:18
  struggles and how, how you can help because the first step is listening.
• 19:21
  You can't change lives unless you know what you're working with.
• 19:24
  You can't change those lives unless you understand where they're coming from.
• 19:28
  And so that's absolutely the reason I'm in this industry is because
• 19:32
  I can help people change lives.
• 19:34
  I can help people change their own lives.
• 19:36
  When I was 19 years old, my dad helped me buy my first house.
• 19:39
  I turned that into seven doors.
• 19:41
  You know, a residual income that's, that's higher than the average
• 19:44
  salary based on those rentals alone.
• 19:46
  And so, we have to, we have to listen first and, you know, help people
• 19:51
  get to where they want to get to.
• 19:52
  And we can't force them to it.
• 19:54
  We have to provide them with the information, provide them with the
• 19:56
  knowledge, so that they can take those next steps and they can absolutely crush
• 20:00
  it and they can change their lives.
• 20:01
  But it all starts with listening and listening to what people's needs are.
• 20:05
  So those are my 10 lessons.
• 20:07
  I hope that they help you.
• 20:08
  We kind of went down some different roads, talked about my brokerage
• 20:12
  change and that kind of stuff.
• 20:13
  But really, the 10 lessons can all relate to a great production business or a great,
• 20:18
  you know, agent attraction business.
• 20:19
  If you are at eXp and hopefully, If you're interested in learning more
• 20:24
  about why I made that switch from the cheapest brokerage out there, you
• 20:28
  could find to where I'm at now and absolutely changed my life forever.
• 20:32
  Took 10 years off my retirement.
• 20:34
  I would love to talk to you about that.
• 20:36
  I also, you know, I'm so grateful to all my clients, 10 years, over 350
• 20:41
  homes sold and absolutely 350 more to go and 10 more years in this industry.
• 20:46
  You know, doing what I can to help change lives.
• 20:49
  So thank you so much for your support.
• 20:51
  And if there's anything I can ever do to help you, just talk game plan
• 20:55
  or anything like that, please reach out, there's a link below, but again,
• 20:58
  please like comment, subscribe, share the show, and we'll see you next time.
• 21:02
  Go get a win today.
• 21:03
  Bye bye.