David and Tasha Gwilt Focus on Clients From the Military in Southern Cal With the Gwilt Group

Editor’s note: In celebration of Military Appreciation Month, we are featuring eXp agents who are military veterans and are sharing their stories of service, values, and commitments.

David Gwilt oversaw big systems acquisitions and multimillion-dollar projects in his many years of service in the U.S. Air Force, which has easily equipped him for a successful real estate career in the Southern California region where his wife, Tasha, is the team lead for The Gwilt Group, brokered by eXp Realty.

David is not yet done with his high-flying military career – he still has a few months to go to reach the magic 20-year mark where he will walk away with full benefits as a major who led complex military space programs with over one hundred team members. But, he’s ready for this next chapter in life.

“I love real estate and can’t wait to do it full-time. It’s been a great honor to serve my country, and having the personal freedom to travel and live where we want after retiring from the military will be nice,” said David, who has plans to move to Florida with Tasha and start a team and add commercial real estate to their line of business, which now focuses on military clients.

“Over our careers, 61% of our clients have been military. We started by helping with rentals, but now we are into buying, selling and investing.  As a military family, we understand the needs of fellow military families in a way that is difficult to do if you have not served.”

Because of LA’s high cost of living, David says he coaches a lot of clients in investing in multi-family properties using VA loans where they can rent several units and live in one with a drastically reduced residual housing cost to create cash flow and long-term wealth. In addition, David and Tasha help clients do something called “house hacking.” 

“We identify properties for our clients where the numbers can work,” said David. “Find a single-family home and set it up as a shared living space. It’s outside of traditional norms, but no one is buying their dream home in LA unless you’re a movie star.  We teach our clients how to create wealth in this market so they can buy their dream home when they move in the future.”

Learn More About David and Tasha Gwilt:

Years in real estate: Tasha since 2015, David since 2017.

Gross sales and transactions in 2021: $40 million on 44 transactions

Brokerage history:

• eXp Realty (Feb. 2019-current)
• First Team (May 2018-Feb. 2019)
• Sonnocco (May 2017-May 2018) 
• Keller Williams (Oct. 2015-May 2017) – Tasha only

Main territories: Southern California (headquartered in LA).  The Gwilt Group team serves Orange, Riverside, Ventura, San Diego, and San Bernardino counties in California in addition to Missouri and Florida.

Main focus: Serving fellow military families and helping all clients build wealth through real estate.  

Number of people on team: 13 members across three states (California, Florida and Missouri) along with six support staff members (five that are international). 

Accolades, accomplishments & awards:

Tasha:

• eXp ICON Agent (2020, 2021, 2022)
• eXp Chairman’s Excellence Double Diamond award winner (2020, 2021, and qualified for 2022)
• eXp Certified Mentor  

David:

• eXp Military Network Leadership Team Member
• Distinguished officer in the USAF, serving 20 years from 2002-present

When and why did you join eXp?

“We joined eXp in February 2019. Our previous small one office brokerage merged with a larger brokerage in Southern California, and we lost our cap and access to the brokers.  We were already six-figure producers, and knew we could not successfully grow the way we wanted to without a cap to be able to reinvest back into our business.  We are extremely grateful we made that decision, as we would have paid $352,000 to that broker over the next 3 years if we had stayed with them instead of joining eXp.  Those savings helped contribute to our decision to reward ourselves for our hard work and buy Tasha her dream car, a 2014 Audi R8 V10+ in a rare specification.”  

What makes eXp special to you? 

“The focus by company leadership on the best interests of real estate agents that have partnered with eXp.  Agents are put first, and we have a low cap to the company that we can earn back in full if we meet the ICON production requirements.  The stock is the glue that binds us all together since we are all owners after our first sale –– it makes it so that agents that aren’t in my “organization” are willing to help me, as our team selling more homes results in increases to company revenue and eventually increases the value of the stock that those agents own.  The revenue share, which I fondly refer to as coaching and contribution income, is what incentivizes top-producing agents and team leaders to regularly mastermind with us and help accelerate our business growth by avoiding the hurdles and mistakes they made in the past.”

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

“Just a few months after joining eXp Realty, we were sitting at the EXPCON Gala in 2019, visualizing our goals. We were seated at a table with agents that had hit those goals (Double Diamond and ICON), and we told each other right then and there that we were going to do the same thing.  Since then, we have hit ICON and Double Diamond 2 years in a row leading to a 6.5x growth in our GCI in the 3 years we have been partnered with eXp.  In 2021, we reached a 7-figure GCI year for the first time ever, which was something we never dreamed of before partnering with eXp Realty.”

What is one thing about eXp that surprised you?

“The willingness of titans in the industry to share their time and playbooks with us as their business partners – it is absolutely unparalleled!”

Have you had any experience or success around eXp’s global revenue share and commercial businesses yet?

“We have helped a good number of agents join eXp and start successful careers, and continue to focus on helping agents grow their business while partnered with eXp.  We are focusing on global markets in the near future in addition to adding a commercial real estate branch of our team.  We have been receiving revenue share from eXp for a couple years now, and I look forward to revenue share day every month.”

What kind of collaboration have you experienced at eXp?

“It has been absolutely phenomenal and better than anything we could have imagined.  We have weekly masterminds with several of our mentors, a couple of which do over $1B per year of volume combined, and have had the opportunity to be a speaker at several of their events.”

Best tip to share with other agents:

“Always conduct your business with a focus on service, not sales.  Buying and selling real estate is one of the most stressful things that your clients will ever do in their lives, and we are their expert advisor and confidant, not a salesperson.  Your business will grow as word spreads regarding your integrity and how you conduct yourself in business and in life.”

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