Headaches of Owning a Brokerage Turned San Diego’s Kyle Whissel Into an eXp Realty Advocate

Many independent broker-owners share similar stories of mounting stress and risk, which is why San Diego’s Kyle Whissel closed his brokerage in 2018 and joined eXp Realty. He was done with the headaches.

“When your headspace is consumed with stuff that is stressing you out — stupid things — you don’t have room in your headspace to do beneficial things,” said Whissel. 

The San Diego broker-owner ran Whissel Realty from 2006 to 2018, but said he was tired of spending more time with lawyers whenever a mistake was made in a deal — whether his team was at fault or not.

> Read why independent brokerages are flocking to eXp

His move to eXp has been nothing short of brilliant. In 2019, his team closed on more than $190 million in sales on 357 transactions and for 2020, he is on pace to do more than $200 million. 

When Whissel contemplated closing his brokerage, he was wooed by many big-name brokerages for lots of money, but he turned them all down. “It never made sense to me to get their brand name. ‘Pay us a ton of money and use our brand.’ No thanks,” said Whissel, who praised eXp’s model for allowing agents to keep their brand and grow their business risk-free.

Learn More About Kyle Whissel:

Years in real estate: Bought his first home in 2000, got licensed in 2005.

Gross sales and transactions in 2019: $190,864,848 on 357 transactions.

Brokerage history: 

• eXp Realty (2018-current)
• Whissel Realty (2006-2018)
• Whissel Investment Properties (2002-2006)

Main territory: San Diego County

Main focus: First-time buyers to luxury sellers.

Number of people on team: 40 agents and 15 staff.

Accolades, accomplishments & awards:

• Ranked No. 1 in San Diego County for transaction sides for six straight years per RealTrends.com
• Ranked No. 1 All-Around Video Influencer in North America per BombBomb.com
• Named Best of Zillow
• Most reviewed team on Zillow in San Diego County

Reasons for joining eXp Realty:

“As I explored all of the brokerage options out there, I never saw alignment between what I pay the brokerage and what the broker does for me. The majority of them charged a ton of money and relied on the value of the brand. They didn’t provide anything that would truly help my team and me to grow. One of them even offered me seven figures to join them but again, they charged a ton of money and didn’t provide anything that would help me and my team to advance. 

“I had seen a few people that I respected including Jay Kinder, Michael Reese, Chuck Fazio, and Curtis Johnson make the move to eXp and knew that I had to explore this option as these are all very smart people. I knew that they wouldn’t make such a big move unless it made sense. 

“In addition to the brand and support that every brokerage offers, eXp provided one of the best tech packages in the industry. Unlike other brokerages who are trying to build their own systems, eXp partnered with the best tech providers in the industry. The beauty of this is that they don’t own the tech. If for whatever reason an agent wanted to leave eXp, they could take the tech with them. This isn’t the case at the brokerages that own the tech. Their tech package golden handcuffs you.

“Lastly, eXp provided me the opportunity to add two additional buckets of income for myself and for my team. Now, we have the opportunity to build an investment portfolio via the stock and leveraged income via the revenue share. These two also create some magical sharing within the company because everyone in the company is financially aligned. As a result, people will hop on planes to help their partners out. This doesn’t happen in any other brokerage or coaching company because the financial alignment doesn’t exist there. To have legends like the ones mentioned above at my disposal to help my team and me grow has proven to be invaluable!”

Is there a significant experience you can share since you joined eXp?

“One of the things that stick out to me was my first eXp conference. At other brokerage conferences I have attended, the founder of the company left the stage as soon as his talk was done, not to be seen again until he was back on stage the following day. (eXp founder Glenn Sanford) Glenn did the exact opposite. He hung around and answered questions, took selfies with agents, and even shot a video with me. In his words, I was #SoStoked.”

What one thing surprised you about eXp?

“The value of culture. Coming from an independent broker situation, I never understood what it was like to be a part of something bigger than me. It’s amazing to see 38,000+ agents all with a common goal of building together.” 

What kind of collaboration have you experienced at eXp?

“While at a dinner after an eXp event, Jay Kinder dropped an insane amount of knowledge on our group when it came to radio and billboard advertising. Being someone who had years and years of experience doing this, his experience gave me the direction I needed to dive into this headfirst. The magic was that by learning from his experiences, I was able to shortcut my learning curve by years!”

Best tip to share with other agents:

“If you don’t have an assistant, you are the assistant. Your time is your most precious commodity. If you are spending your time doing assistant work, you will never get to that next level.”

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