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eXp Realty founder Glenn Sanford believes in a better compensation model for agents and brokers.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it — it’s a phrase eXp Realty Founder and CEO Glenn Sanford lives by. It is a mantra that has helped shape not only his own career, but that of thousands of real estate agents for whom business as usual is now radically different thanks to his innovative spirit and entrepreneurial drive.

Before launching eXp Realty, Sanford established a reputation as “the big idea guy” — launching a restaurant delivery service much like today’s Uber Eats, except three decades ahead of its time. He then learned the ropes of internet startups and used that background to reach out to consumers when he went into real estate in the early 2000s, where — in only his fourth year — he helped close more than $60 million in deals. Even though he received profit share from the national franchise he worked for, Sanford ’s income level was nowhere near what he had envisioned after he had brought more than 180 people to the company.

“ Glenn always challenged us to think bigger.”

— Brian Culhane, member of eXp’s founding team

Sanford thought the owners of the local franchise office he was working under were not managing their money well, and the company was turning very little, if any, profit. As he watched the revenue roll in and then a large portion of it be handed over in desk and franchise fees — money that he had discovered, courted and delivered — he saw an unnecessary glitch in the system. He remembers, “What really bugged me was that there was no way for me to be a shareholder in the parent company.”

Sanford believed agents and brokers were the ones doing the heavy lifting and deserved the benefits of being a shareholder and income based on the level of their contribution. Brick-and-mortar franchises and all of their trappings, he was convinced, were the limiting factor that was holding agents back.

eXp Launched in 2009 With 24 Agents

The perfect storm for Sanford ’s new idea presented itself in 2009. “The U.S. housing market had crashed which put pressure on brokerages large and small to stay in business,” says eXp Realty Vice President of Marketing Operations Gabe LeBeau. “In the early years, a handful of us worked from downtown Bellingham in a closet-sized office humming with the sound of web servers that were stacked in the middle of the room. But the reality was that we were not making enough to keep the doors open and the lights on. Something had to change.”

Sanford’s idea for a defensible structure — one not dependent on a physical location and its costly overhead — would put them ahead of the pack. And whereas only a few years prior almost everyone had dial-up in their homes, by 2009, smartphones were in practically everyone’s hands. Poised for a cloud-based real estate revolution, eXp Realty was born.

Sanford and his team spent long hours working on every detail within their new virtual office, endeavoring to answer the question that started it all: could they create an economy-proof brokerage model and build the real estate company of the future?

“I recall a conversation with Glenn about the idea of using a virtual office to stay connected and to replace the costs of brick-and-mortar office expenses. Days later, Glenn sent us all home with our computers and shut down the office. The next day, we all worked from our homes in our first virtual office,” remembers Gabe.

The team watched as his theories were tested in real-time and with real-life transactions. The ubiquity of the company across markets was an obvious win, and the agile nature of the company’s infrastructure allowed Sanford to easily tweak his ideas. Progress was made one agent at a time in the early days, with monthly growth rates in the five to 10 percent range. “We always wanted to be the best and build a global organization, but there were moments when we questioned why it wasn’t growing fast enough,” says Brian Culhane, a member of eXp Realty’s founding team. “Glenn always challenged us to think bigger.”

“ We clearly struck a nerve in the industry with our value proposition and agent-centric mindset.”

— Alan Goldman, eXp Realty Chief Financial Officer

As they worked to build momentum, they had the luxury of operating on a small scale, even while they had national reach. “It always had a ‘Ma and Pa’ small business feel, even though we were attempting to build a cutting-edge tech-based real estate company,” Brian explains. “In the early years, there were fewer than 10 of us slugging it out each day to build the business that became eXp. We must have believed it was possible, otherwise, it wouldn’t have happened.”

The company went public in 2013 in order to distribute equities to agents, who then numbered around 300, but it was the agent ownership initiatives that rolled out in 2014 that set the company on fire. Word-of-mouth marketing among agents snowballed. And in 2015, the company swelled with 100 percent growth year-over-year — a trend that continues today.

“ Glenn has created a culture that promotes engagement and a place that makes real estate fun again.”

— Jeff Whiteside, eXp World Holdings Chief Financial Officer

The company’s modest team, all of whom were wearing multiple hats to stay afloat, began to expand in the midst of staggering growth. “We clearly struck a nerve in the industry with our value proposition and agent-centric mindset,” says eXp Realty Chief Financial Officer Alan Goldman. “One of the biggest challenges we faced was the fact that we were a young company with little infrastructure. I think we all realized the potential, but we were not sure just how pervasive or quickly we would be able to penetrate so many markets so quickly.”

‘Building the Rocket Ship While Flying’ Feeling

What began as only two Texas agents in 2015 has now grown to more than 3,500 with the help of Sheila Dunagan, eXp Realty’s Managing Broker for the Texas market. As she scrambled to keep up with the growth without the administrative infrastructure in place yet to support her, Sheila had all Texas-related calls routed to her cell phone, totaling about 60 to 70 calls each day. When she spent an afternoon with Sanford at an eXp Realty function, the unsustainability of that system came to a head.

“Glenn was trying to tell a story, and I kept stepping out to answer the phone,” Sheila recalls. “When I explained that I was the Texas phone operator, he listened. A few days later, Glenn called and told me he had a solution. It always impressed me that he truly listened, remembered and fixed the pain point. That is one of my favorite character traits about our founder.”

“ When I go to work every day, no matter what I’m working on, everybody benefits. We’re all going to be a part of this together.”

— Glenn Sanford, eXp Realty Founder and CEO

A constant willingness to adjust and problem solve has been crucial for a company that is breaking the real estate mold and creating a new one, but Suzy Truax, a California agent and member of eXp World Holdings Board of Directors, believes that frenetic fixing stage is in the company’s rearview mirror. “The momentum of the last two years could best be described in this way: we went from storming in 2016 to norming in 2017 and 2018 to performing in 2019,” Suzy says. “In the 2017 hyper-growth phase, we still had that start-up texture, that ‘building-the-rocket-ship-while-flying’ feeling. No longer distracted by putting out fires, this incredible team is focused on the future vision and opportunities.”

Now Sanford ’s mission is to help agents get off the hamster wheel of listing and selling real estate to instead join a community of support and inspiration that offers more opportunity. “It’s incredible, especially considering that we are working remotely, but Glenn has created a culture that promotes engagement and a place that makes real estate fun again,” says eXp World Holdings Chief Financial Officer Jeff Whiteside.

Agent Growth Exploding Year-After-Year

Sanford ’s original goal was to reach 10,000 agents by 2020, but that milestone was blown out of the water in 2019 when their agents surpassed the 20,000 mark. Still that same big idea guy, Glenn has even greater dreams, including growing eXp Realty into other verticals, much like Amazon expanded from its foundation as a bookseller into a global merchandise giant. But those extensions would only serve to empower and expand eXp Realty. International expansion is also a key item on Glenn’s agenda as the company has opened up shop in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia with future markets on the horizon.

All of this growth and innovation has created a remarkable opportunity for eXp. As Alan explains, “The vision itself has effectively stayed the same in terms of what we can offer our agents. What has changed is our ability to serve a significantly larger agent base. We can start our next chapter of expansion outside of the United States as well as new product offerings as it relates to affiliated services. This was part of Sanford’s vision back in 2015 and with enough concentration, we are now able to build out that part of our business.”

Sanford sums it up perfectly. “I don’t want to do things that compete with the larger vision. When I go to work every day, no matter what I’m working on, everybody benefits. If we get into one of these other verticals, it’s not going to be outside of our eXp World Holdings infrastructure. We’re all going to be a part of this together.”

Editor’s note: This has been reprinted from “Excellence” magazine, which was published in October 2019 and distributed to attendees at EXPCON in Las Vegas. To get your own personal copy, you can order it via the eXp store.

Disclaimer:

These figures are not a guarantee, representation or projection of earnings or profits you can or should expect. They also do not include expenses incurred by Agents in operating their businesses. eXp Realty makes no guarantee of financial success. Success with eXp Realty results only from successful sales efforts, which require hard work, diligence, skill, persistence, competence, and leadership. Your success will depend upon how well you exercise these qualities.

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