There’s a reason XCamp is popular; it’s because it’s by agents, for agents. Known affectionately as the “unconference conference,” it’s always packed with agents who are eager to learn and grow their businesses from the minds of the best talent at eXp. At Wednesday’s opening day of the eXp Shareholder Summit, attendees were treated to a wealth of wisdom.
“It’s all about collaboration. The more we collaborate together, the more we benefit,” said Beth Silverman, who, along with Elizabeth Riley and Renee Funk welcomed the influx of agents, and directed the process. Agents scribbled topics of interest on Post-it notes and after 30 minutes, a list of topics and speakers was chosen, based on the majority of the crowd’s interests.
There were 12 sessions:
- Lead Generation and Prospecting, with Ricky Carruth and Shawn Getty
- AI and chatGPT in Real Estate, with Phil Stringer, Chris Vogt, Gogo Bethke
- Social Media with Demeeka Cobb, Michael Duggal and Julie Nelson
- YouTube, with Kim Wilkin and Levi Lascsak
- Team Building, with Renee Funk, Ariel Vargas and Ben Laube
- Airbnb and Short-Term Rentals, with Jeff Funk, Michael Pendergraft and Mitzi De La Cruz
- Real Estate Investing, with Beth Silverman, Rachel Warrell and Issa Israel
- Listings and Farming, with Nikki Klein, Elicia Michaud and Kevin Kendrick
- Luxury Real Estate, with Kim Fraser, Vanessa Nunez, Gail Demarco
- Agent Attraction, with Noelle Nielsen and Jacqui Bowman
- Agent Attraction and Setting Your Mindset for Success, with Hank Avink, Rich Tomasini and Mitch Riback
- Breakout Farming, with Kevin Kendrick, Nikki Klein
Lead Generation and Prospecting
eXp Realty agent Ricky Carruth said he uses a technique: Dig into the “why” they are buying or selling. If someone wants to buy or sell in the next 6 months or year, your next question should be “why?” Until I know that, I can’t do anything or follow up because I don’t know what they are trying to do. Also, it does two things:
- This person now feels I care about them
- This person tells me exactly what I need to do to help them
“It’s not always the appointment. It’s not always about the deal. What I am trying to do is create a relationship with every prospect.”
Shawn Getty said he uses a formula to find their dissatisfaction. It’s a matrix called the “Fortune Formula” and it’s meant to find their current dissatisfaction.
“I use the “what” and not the “why.” For example, ‘What in your life has changed or what doesn’t work anymore? Can you tell me more about that? What do you mean your commute is 20 minutes longer?’”
He said this opens up the dialog so he can take their current pain and give them a future promise.
“I need to go into the negative of their life to find the solution,” he said.
Other suggestions:
- Write a blog about whatever you’ve learned. It provides two things: Learning for you and information that others can rely on.
- Go to Instagram, go to Stories and scroll all the way to the back of your stories. Click their story and give them a comment. Spend 15 minutes a day, working backward to forward and it will put people back on your algorithm. Spend time on your feed and comment on them.
- Search for hashtags of the city you live in. (Hiking, running, etc) and comment on all of them. This will help you build an audience of like-minded people.
YouTube:
Kim Wilkin, Levi Lascsak and Jackson Wilkey presented to a curious audience who lobbed plenty of questions at the experts.
Some takeaways:
Kim:
- Film what YOU would want to watch and the conversations YOU would have every day.
- Have a clear call to action in your videos.
Jackson:
- The whole YouTube funnel is keyword research. It’s a search engine. People search and want an answer immediately.
- Don’t mix in topics about your dog or what you’re wearing. Stay on topic or the algorithms will get mixed up. If you want to have different topics, you will need to build different channels.
- Get a video editor. Whether it’s a virtual assistant or a real editor, you need to put the time in and train them on what you want. Once you do, you will be rewarded tenfold.
- I will outrank you with a better, longer video. I rarely shoot under 18 minutes. If you can get to that 8- 10- and 12-minute videos, you will rank. We do not do shorts.
Levi:
- The people on YouTube are extremely intentional. If you want to funnel people where you want them to go, be precise. Give them directions.
- If you’re Ryan Serhant, you can talk about your life outside of real estate, but that’s because he has an international audience.
- Idea for a video: Do a “5 pros and 5 cons” about your city. Talk for 3 minutes about each and you have a 30-minute video.
AI and ChatGPT in Real Estate
This is the hottest topic in real estate right now and let’s face it, the world. Here are some takeaways from the panelists Phil Stringer, Chris Vogt and Gogo Bethke.
Gogo Bethke:
- chatGPT is only as good as your question and it’s only a couple of years old. You need to teach it and ask the right questions to get the right answers.
Phil:
- When you start a new chat, you need to use a specific prompt as part of your request: “Analyze the following text for style and tone of voice. Apply the same exact same style to all future responses.”
- The prompt I use for blog posts is a mile long. If you can specifically tell it in deep detail, you will get a better response.
- 90% of us are using AI, but 99.9% of us are using it wrong.
- You need to think about how to use it outside the box so you have an edge. Open up your minds on how to use AI.
Chris:
- There is something called prompt engineering. For example, when you start asking your kids questions, they might not get it. You need to ask better questions upfront so you don’t have to refine it over and over.
- The tool is only as good as the person using the tool.
- AI is not going to replace your job. It’s not going to take over your job. But an agent who utilizes AI will. AI is more of an assistant intelligence.
- AI is going to be the great equalizer. If I am in a wheelchair, I can go just as fast as another person in a car.
Team Building, with Renee Funk, Ariel Vargas and Ben Laube
This session focused on how to attract good, quality agents and how does one go about finding them.
Renee said, “When someone asks to join me and my team, I ask them: ‘What does team mean to you?’ Then I ask myself “Who are the agents I am seeking to serve and how can I rise to teach them to their level of greatness?”
On the idea of who should you hire, she advised to do a “task audit.” Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the center. In the next 7 days, track every activity you do from rising to going to sleep. Which of these items can you be delegating? The first thing is to get a licensed transaction coordinator.”
Ariel Vargas, on interviewing potential team members: “Transaction coordinators are number 1. They should be someone on your downline because you want to make sure they have skin in the game. Then replicate that and teach others to do the same. Identify people in your downline.
Money comes as a result of serving others.”
Social Media
Demeeka Cobb started the session by giving three tips for social media:
- Your profile photo. Do not use a photo of your dog, a house or avatar. Make it fun. Not a stuck-up business photo. Be yourself. Authenticity will win every time.
- Your profile bio. Make sure it speaks to your target audience. Make sure your overall slogan is true to yourself.
- Link in your bio. Don’t make it difficult for people to reach you. Give them choices in multiple ways. Use Beacons or Linktree. They want to know how to reach you. Confusion leads to inaction.
Julie Nelson:
- You can have a good social media game, but if you’re not consistent or disciplined or managing your days, you’re not going to be effective.
- Everything you do on social media should be designed to have a conversation.
- The top agents in this business are not more talented than you are – they are more consistent.
- My No. 1 social media is YouTube and TikTok. I’m leaning into those two platforms
Michael Duggal:
- Think about what you’re posting. What is the benefit of posting a “Just Sold” or “Just Listed” post. Does it give you a connection?
- The first week of every month, take the market numbers from the previous month and make a video about it. Include: Days on market, the average price, number of new listings and number of homes sold.
- Two weeks later, interview a mortgage broker and get in front of their audience.
- Spend time and add people to your social media platforms. Get your audience up to 500 – or better yet, 1,000.
- I use YouTube and email for lead gen and Instagram for agent attraction.
Demeeka:
- YouTube shorts – Shortform content is doing amazing. It’s all about SEO. Keyword search. Think about what people are searching for.
- TikTok is my no. 1 platform. You get in front of more people faster and it can migrate to other platforms.
Airbnb and Short-term Rentals
eXp Realty agents are dealing with a somewhat new kind of buyer: Finding short-term rentals or Airbnb’s for potential second homeowners and investors. Panelists Jeff Funk, Michael Pendergraft and Mitzi De La Cruz gave plenty of advice.
Mitzi De La Cruz said, “If you want to leverage an investment to make money? Airbnb is the way to go.”
All panel experts said to be careful when promising a buyer that they will make “XYZ” on their property because there are too many variables. For example:
- Who is managing the property?
- What are the fixed costs?
- How many times will you want to use it?
They suggested that sites like AirDNA and Mashvisor can help with numbers to understand costs, net gain, etc.
Michael said, “Many of my clients are multi-property purchasers. They buy a property and then I manage it. I get photos and videos for them, By helping them jumpstart their business, I am setting them up for future success.”
Jeff chimed in with a warning to be transparent about a home’s ability to be listed on sites like VRBO and Airbnb. “In certain counties, you can’t have Airbnb’s. The last thing you want to do is sell them something they can’t do what they want to do.”
“I’ve been doing Airbnb since 1999. People are always buying and selling vacation rentals. If they do well in one, they will buy another. They are constantly trading. In Orlando, we have a huge inventory of vacation rental homes. Lots of international clients.”
Agent Attraction
Led by Noelle Nielsen and Jacqui Bowman, “Agent Attraction Tips For Growing Your Business”
Was one of the first topics during XCamp breakout. “When you first get into attracting agents, I want you to think about who you are and stay true to that,” Jackie said.
The group then discussed the challenges they face in recruiting agents, as well as helpful, effective strategies.
“As long as you can get in front of an agent and understand their needs and strengths,” Jackie said. “Then you can find the right spot for them. Understand that you yourself are the first value proposition for bringing agents on.”
Noelle cited relationships as the key to recruiting. “I would fly to have lunch with the right person. That’s how important it is.”
Real Estate Investing
Beth Silverman, Rachel Warrell and Issa Israel led a discussion on “The Ins and Outs of Real Estate Investing” as well as financing and strategic partnerships, fielding questions from attendees on a wide range of topics.
“Every investment comes with risk but with risk comes reward,” said Beth.
Issa discussed the importance of taking the emotion out of these deals:
“There is no emotion, investors just want to know the numbers.” Rachel added that investors are most interested in properties that are off-market.
They also discussed how an investment business can then feed an agent’s retail business and the importance of being well-rounded in what you sell.
Investing in valuable, strategic partnerships was also a key point all three emphasized, having wholesalers, attorneys, contractors and cleaners available with backups for each so that you are not dependent on one source.
Agent Attraction
Continuing the discussion on agent attraction, the second breakout on the topic delved into the importance of mindset and setting the right expectations when attracting talent. “As soon as you can get your confidence to the same level for recruiting as you have for real estate, you will be set,” said Hank Avink.
Building on the importance of mindset, the group talked about cultivating the right relationships and daily habits. “Make the pain of not doing something greater than the pain of doing it,” Hank advised.
Breakout Farming
“The key to successful farming is consistency,” said Kevin Kendrick, who led a breakout on farming, listings and Facebook. He also talked about the importance of adding in face-to-face contact to engage with clients.
Nikki Klein talked about the importance of leveraging Facebook correctly to drive business, “I don’t buy leads,” she said. “Last year we closed $40 million just from our Facebook group.” They brainstormed several ideas for generating creative content to drive engagement through Facebook and social media.
The group also talked about ultimately striving to be the local expert at the end of the day. Several agents noted newsletters and events as two key platforms for driving business, engagement and positioning as a local market expert.
Breaking Into Luxury
At the “Breaking into Luxury” session, the group talked about the recently launched eXp Luxury division and the tangible value and points of differentiation it offers for those who want to break into the luxury market.
“It takes just one sale, then spend the money to really get out there,” said Pete Middleton, who described his very first luxury sale and how he built his business from it.
The group also discussed the concept of “speed of trust” in building a luxury business, and chasing the right customers. “Find motivated sellers – the unhappy people,” said Gail De Marco. “Divorce attorneys are a good source of potential clients.”
Pete further explained that a focus on clients who fall in the categories of the “Four Ds” is critical: Death, divorce, debt and destination.
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Missed the eXp Shareholder Summit this year? Be sure to register for EXPCON, being held Oct. 2-5 in Las Vegas, where you can attend valuable panel discussions like this one.
