KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Brandon Tomlin

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

What's up everybody? It's your five-star relatives for Joshua Ingram, partnering with Page Properties Team, brokered by EXP, on another episode of Brand New Podcasts called the Dream Builders Podcasts in Las Vegas, right, at the EXP Con. I'm with Brandon Tomlin with EXP. And listen, Brandon, this is a special guest.

I met him at the shareholders event, and now I finally get to talk to him. However, I can miss out on the co-host, Bradford Page with Pages. There we go. Hey, pleasure. Thank you, Bradford for getting you. So, man, Brandon, I mean, what's been going on in Dallas, Texas?

I mean, you, right now, we're in Las Vegas, and have you been joining yourself so far? Man, thank you for that intro. Good to see you, Bradford, Ann Jossman. Appreciate you guys. You know, it's cool getting people around, not even just the country, but EXP's got 24 countries in the world. And so we're getting to meet up here in Vegas. You're meeting people from all over the world. And coming from Dallas, it's a hub, and it's a really fun spot.

But it's cool to kind of switch things up a little bit. We talked about the Savannah area, the development you guys have with Hyundai coming in, one of their biggest locations. Dallas is the same way. It's just crazy to see the growth in certain hotspots of the country. For instance, Dallas has the Toyota headquarters. We just brought on in North Dallas, where I was in Frisco, just brought on the brand new PGA headquarters. So, you know, the Professional Development Association headquarters.

I already volunteered in one event a few months ago, the first senior PGA tournament. You could hold that quiet sign up and go. Yeah, I was doing all the. Yeah, a lot of people do electronic boards nowadays, but Senior PJ, they wanted to kind of do some more vintage and more original. And so I was doing the scoreboards and putting up the magnetic signs and everything for everybody. Yeah, it's awesome, man. The score updates and stuff. Yeah.

It's good to be here, and I'm looking forward to talking to guys for a little bit. For sure. Listen, man, so I heard on Monday that you gave a speech for the young professionals of EXB. How was that? Yeah, it was a pleasure and it was a blessing. I got to be on a panel of four other agents, rock star agents, social media. social media pros, yeah, 4 p.m. on Monday, and talked all about different... Everybody's having fun.

This is Vegas, man. All about different topics, but one of the perspectives I can give is being a young professional. I'm a state leader from Texas, and it's been pushing strong. This year, the E.XP Con here in Vegas has kind of just been a different animal with the young professionals group. We did an awesome mixture last night, had probably 100 young professionals out there hanging out. And networking and everything. And that's just so important in today's world.

Today's real estate market, today's business, and it's feeling connected, especially with EXP. It's funny, we're a virtual company, but I literally feel so at home and so well connected. Yeah. With so many people across the world and the United States because of small niche groups, like the Young Professionals group. And so it's been really fun to do networking events. Last week we had an event in Dallas, and we had some agents just connect.

and a lot of us were here coming to EXP cons. We got to reconnect here. We got to talk to all about how do you leverage a group such as young professionals, how do you leverage it with your social media to then drive your business forward? And that was a big topic of conversation. And what it does is it provides legitimacy. You see, I mean, people look at your accounts. They look at your Instagram, your Facebook, your TikTok, your website, whatever,

but they want to see that you're involved, that you're connected, that you've got connections when you're helping someone buy or sell a house. Now, you're just not writing contracts when you're opening. indoors you're actually connecting with the community the people and you have a heart for those people exactly it's all about it's all about your how does somebody look at you what is what is your reputation yeah and so it's been a really a blessing to be involved with the young professionals group and and we're just pushing forward man i know we kind of met through one of those meetings back in may at shareholder summit yeah and it's super cool to see guys like you who are young and hungry and

and you're pushing your business forward and you're maximizing your time here. To do stuff like this and be out here. And your clients and different agent friends and everything, people see that. And they respect that and then they want to connect with you. For sure. And, you know, man, like I said, we had a good time in Orlando, but this time is even better. So my other question would be Brandon, since you did give a speech and you was helping other young agents, what have you learned from this EXP experience?

Yeah, great question. It really is all about proximity. I think Bradford, you just mentioned that. Yeah, our last guess was proximity is power. Yeah. And there is no doubt about it. Exactly. So I'm going to say, I think a lot of people in this market,

it's probably in reality that a lot of people are, it's a different experience. You know, I got in the real estate world just about a year ago after I graduated college from Texas, A&M and college station. And so I entered into a real estate market that was different. That's right, here you go, here go. Into a real estate market that was a lot different than what people. people were experiencing around COVID time, even beforehand with the relatively stable market,

but lower interest rates, price points were still affordable. Then you jump into this market, high interest rates, high price points. I'm in Dallas. No inventory. No inventory. And Dallas has been affordable for so long, but we really are facing, to an extent, a countrywide affordability issue to an extent, especially for guys in our early to mid-20s, friends of ours, our network. And so yesterday I was sitting in an event and one of the guys said, I choose not to involve myself in the recession and I'm like that's a cool thing not participate in the recession that's right I think with that is more of a mindset like you need to have that abundance instead of the scarcity mindset that's good you always think about

recessions you always think about the downs that negative but when you think abundantly this show every day is a great day you live in a dream that's why I tell people I'm better to good I'm better the most yeah we had a private group we went with last night one of the questions in a list of questions people topics to go over. And one of the questions was, who benefits from this market that we're in right now? You know, obviously you can pretend

you're not thinking about it, but you know, obviously the reality, there's things in the market going on, so who benefits? And you know, the easy one is cash buyers. The kind of deeper one is people who have agents who really will go deep and find solutions for these problems going on.

The affordability problem, you know, you're looking into assumables, you know, wrap-arounds. other way, you know, subject to, other things you can do to help both buyers and sellers. So understanding you come here and you learn all this and you put that into your, your quiver when you go back and do your business. Who really benefits in this market is agents. You know, I went through the crash at 2006, 7, 8, excuse me, and a lot of agents get out

of the business because they didn't have those solutions. They weren't willing to dig in and find out about foreclosures and short. sales and do all the work that was involved in that. So people are going to benefit from this or agents who are connected to people who have these solutions and their clients. It's all about, yeah, how can you stand out? How can be different than other people? There's more competition than ever. I know people are talking about there's going to be a mass exodus of real estate agents. And there will because they don't want to work that hard when it gets hard. Exactly. Yeah. So what do you do when it gets hard? And one of my financial partners, he told me people look good with the market

It is easy, but people are good when the market is hard. And the market, if it's hard and you can succeed at a bottom market, then I mean, you're being so much better when that market's healthier and quicker and stronger and faster. For sure. And that's what Bradford tried to tell me. He's like, man, you're getting into crazy time. I think it's the best time. I try to talk him out of it.

But it was really a test to see how bad he wanted to make it happen. That's good. You've got to have that stick to it in this. So you've been in real estate. For how long? You've spent it, 13 months now. And with EXP? With EXP?

Right out of the get-go. All from the gate, yes. Smart decision. Of course, you don't have a lot to compare it to, so you don't have any of those stories, but that's great. So are you already kind of working with other agents and helping them kind of see the light, and what do you have opportunities? Great question.

So we've got a family team in Dallas actually called the Tomlin team, that's my last name, because my dad actually has been in real estate for about 13 years now. Oh, okay. So he started with another brokerage. was with him for about eight years and heavily involved and loved the opportunity. Don't tell me you're not with EXP. And so he moved our real estate team over in 2018 to EXP after really a few years of talking with family and strong consideration, talking with financial partners.

And you know, it's a big jump. It's a big decision. Yeah, absolutely. And when you have so much of your foundation with another brand, with another company, and you're so comfortable there, and you see something that's new. and it's siny, but it's also scary. And he's supporting, I've got three sisters, and so we've got a big family of six,

and when you're supporting that many people, whatever decision you make it's got to be a smart decision. You don't just jump to the next thing to come down the line. That's right. He was introduced to the YXP model in 2015 and took a few years to really digest it.

2018 moved us over. I just started college at Texas A&M at that point. I wasn't for sure on real estate. I knew I wanted to do it to some extent someday, but when I graduated from A&M, I looked at what I want to do. I saw so much opportunity, not just in real estate, but also in the EXP model for a long-term growth.

And guys like us, we've got years, and it's tough right now, but it's like figure out what you're good at, find your niche, find your people. I know who you are. Who you are, exactly. And I took that time in college to kind of figure out who I was, because sometimes I'm like, man, did I even need college? Like, I'm talking to friends who are now 18, 19, graduate in high school,

and they're like, hey, I just want to get into real estate, and you can nowadays, you know? Yeah. For me, it was more of a leadership. social service experience that I need. For sure. You also got all those connections because they're all going to be going to be going to be buying out and doing real estate.

I mean, you're going to be leading them on the way. That's right. You guys have heard of, I mean, yeah, I wear this big gold, shiny ring and people see that and there's an Aggie connection. The Aggie network's very strong. So I plugged in to the Dallas A&M Club. And so find ways to get plugged into your local community. I volunteer at golf tournaments. I plug myself into monthly business lunches, happy hours.

We actually just started the Dallas A&M business network club and so we from the Dallas A&M Club we formed a business network kind of like a B&I if you all heard of B&I guys so we've really formed a specialized one within Dallas A&M alumni and now we're all business owners that are that are helping each other build their business and so that's just a way of being creative to say hey how can I leverage my community my network this A&M alumni network from my college what how can I best utilize that to my business yeah so you think coming in into the EXP model, that kind of helped you kind of understand that spirit of collaboration.

Oh my gosh. Versus, you know, we're in a weird business. So, you know, we work with other agents, and we have to have a good relationship, whatever company you're with, and work well with them. Yeah. Because buyers want to buy, sellers want to sell, we want to help them get together. That's right. But at the same time, we're competing for whatever the business is that's out there.

So my experience was, you haven't been with another brokerage, you haven't been with another brokerage. I love my brokers before, was with him 2003, but not the same thing. You know, they're competing with you. It was the collaboration wasn't there. Right now, we're talking to somebody who's a whole other group across the country somewhere else. And we collaborate because we're all going to benefit. You know, stock goes up, bring more people in, really start to dominate the market.

You can actually actually work. We all benefit from different states. And referrals. So, you know, anybody coming to Georgia. That's right. I don't have you got some peace there, but you know, you definitely got to hook us up and, you know, we'll look the same way. Even though I'm originally from Boston, there we go. Cowboys all kicked our ass the other day.

But we had our time, you know, team history is in cycles, just like the real estate business and everything else. Right now, you know, yeah, New England's kind of on the downslide. But it's a great point you make is that the previous work for my dad was at for eight years. I mean, you know, people held their cards close to them. Oh yeah, in the same office. In the same office, exactly. And so you're looking to learn and people aren't as keen into doing that. But EXP's model and collaboration culture, it really is such a culture thing.

Everybody here, I'm like, man, I feel so at home. I feel so supported by so many people, whether that's just the Young Professionals group or with Dallas, we've got a big group that we call Team Expan. It's a lot of the same family and real estate partners and everything. And so it really has been such a blessing. Yeah, we brought a broker friend of mine down to Orlando because he was kind of considerate and looking at it. Yep.

You know, I think when you go and you see the video and you hear all this stuff, well, that's hype and, you know, all this, they're trying to sell something. But when you come down, you see live and you start feeling that spirit of what's going on. It's like, okay. It's different. Because everybody's approachable, you know,

and it's not like nobody's better than anybody. Well, Glenn Sanford set up the model that, you know, he's such a visionary. He set up the model that we all gain by collaboration, you know, where that's not the same anywhere else. Well, it's crazy. I mean, it's, we don't take for granted the fact that this is a virtual company. I've got some friends who are in Brick and Mortars and going into the office,

and nobody's in the office. And they're like, I feel like I don't even have any support. I had a friend. She's with a company in Dallas, and she didn't even, couldn't figure out how to write a first contract. Nobody in her office would help her with a showing. Oh, wow. So she had no support.

And I'm like, the fact that that's an in-person company, and they act like that's where you're getting a lot of support, we don't take it for granted. And so we do take full advantage of any opportunity we can get to be fully immersive and fully bought in. I mean, we're at this in-person conference where I'm seeing friends that I've only met online on Zoom calls, who we connect with every week from the young professionals calls,

and we're hugging each other for the first time in person, and we're hanging out every night, and we're having mixers and we're masterminding. We're doing today this afternoon. And you all, it didn't cost you anything to come here, right? You know, it's an investment. Somebody yesterday told me they were like, they were like, don't look at it as an expense,

look at it as an investment. What can you get at it? And so what we need to do is be intentional. Yeah. You know? Very intentional. You don't go here to come just have a good time. Go play the machines or something like that.

Although if you want to, you know, that's what you do. You can do a little bit of both, you know, why not? Or you want to go eat at a place that just keeps putting meat on your plate. That's nice. Some Brazilian steakhouse. Yeah. I didn't know what we were there. Man, I, I, I, it was like me having, you know, as a kid,

and I ain't any festivals like that, but man, if you took me there, I looked over at one point, Josh was kind of like, Yeah, yeah, I zone down. You feel it's some time of way, man. So it's a time to celebrate, for sure, but we're only here for four or five days. How do you maximize that time? Because we go back home real quick. Yeah, yeah.

And how do you foster those relationships that we built and connect to those people on social media? Staying connected, it's important. So the people you may get your information, you get our information. I know you get more things you want to know about young professionals. And I don't even know about our organization in Georgia right now, but it may be something that, you know, you really get heavily involved with. Oh, yeah.

You're good at what you're doing. So to really build that up. These are all things you bring back and you've got to put them into your quiver and make it work. And then just build a plan and just like you said, bring other people involved. It's all about having that plan. Because it's easily to these conferences and say, I have all these notes and I'm going to just keep doing my thing that I did before I came to Vegas. But you've got to make a business plan, plan of action. And change the way you structure your business because we're learning so much good stuff right now.

But I did share with Joshua when we go back like we're going to do the red eye going back Thursday. So Friday's a wash. I told him, he's like, I want to get all these things going. I said, no, you take your weekend. You go chill, go walk on the beach, go to the sunshine everywhere, do something fun and just kind of let you. that all sink in because you can do everything but you can't do everything all at once. So, so EXP does have some challenges. You know, one of them is some sponsors will bring you in and just kind of let you go. Yeah. I've had people call me up and say, how do I do this on a contract?

Because I know I've been doing business for 20 years. You know, I'm with EXP. I'm a new agent and I'm like, well, yeah, I mean, I'll help you out. What's going on? So we answer the question. I want to know, like, who's your sponsor? Yeah. Okay, and they, well, I don't really know, you know, because they just jumped in the X-P. And I was like, well, didn't you go through the mentorship program? We've got some growing pains with our mentorship program. And, you know, if you're with a team, you're going to get that, like you and your father and everything else.

You're not in that situation. But we get some challenges there that we're looking to improve. There's a lot of people out there and probably some people see this and say, oh, I did the XP and I didn't love it. It didn't work for me. Yeah. So, you know, I just encourage you to talk to people who are going to give you that support and what's going on. It's the same deal. So, I mean, Texas A&M, we're not quite as big as EXP.

We've got 70,000 students. EXP has got about 90,000 real estate professionals. 89, I think. 89, I think. Yeah. So you can get lost in any situation, especially something this big, but it's your responsibility to an extent to plug in. True. And to say, okay, look, I know I'm not, I wasn't given maybe the best cards or I've had some hard times in this where I'm at right now.

but you do have the opportunity to find your niche. And so, yeah, for me, it's been young professionals and everything. And to make such a big ocean a small little pond. Yeah, and then you eat that big fish in that small pond, but you're actually feeding all the other fish so they can be big as you. Yeah. That's awesome, yeah. So I can see both of you guys been doing some big things down there.

My last question, Brandon, how can the people get in touch with you? Yeah, great questions. So I'm most heavily on Instagram and Facebook. I would say so Brandon Tomlin, you can look my name up on Facebook. My Instagram handles Brandon underscore Tomlin 99. That's the year I was born. So I'm a 90s, babe. Oh, I'm 98, dude.

December 30th, 99. Oh, wow. You just made it. Love to connect on those. My phone number as well. 214-908, 2914. Love to call text, connect, all that good stuff. If you guys are ever at these events, we'd love to connect.

We'll be building the YP, Masterminds. We do them every Friday. Check them out on Instagram as well. EXP Young Professionals, that's the tag. We'd love to connect to you guys as well if you're in that kind of that season of your life and you want to plug it in that way. For sure, for sure. But otherwise, man, I'm grateful to be on here today and looking forward to just push our businesses forward. That's awesome. And listen, our mission with our podcast, the Dream Builders podcast, is to help buyer, sellers and agents and small businesses

connect with the resources and knowledge to achieve their goals. This podcast is sponsored by Pays Properties Team, the Dream E&T, Real Estate for a Reason, and Make Real Estate Fun again. Thank you so much, Brandon, for coming out, man. It was such a pleasure. I can't wait to see you in everything that you do. I'm speaking like that. Everything that you touch, turn to go, and I can't wait for us to continue to learn each other, grow, man. This man, even by to buy drone and stuff, and about to take it to the next level. Man, I love it, man. I love it. So y'all go ahead and be safe, and I catch you on the next episode. Thank you guys. Appreciate you all.