KGCI: Real Estate on Air - From Finance to Real Estate: Ditching Autopilot with Gurpreet Thind

Episode Date: January 17, 2026

Summary:This episode is an inspirational conversation with Gurpreet Thind, who shares his journey from a career in finance to building a successful real estate business. The discussion focuses on the mindset required to make a significant career shift and the importance of intentionality over living on "autopilot." It's a high-level, motivational episode that encourages listeners to take control of their lives, define their own version of success, and find the courage to pursue their passions, even when faced with uncertainty.

Come back, everyone, to another episode of Behind Closed Deals. I have the pleasure of, I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce your last name, but Gerprit. The last name is, it's just thinned. Yeah, no, but I'm always like Gerprit, I don't know if I should say it, thinned or. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, okay. Okay.

Have a pleasure of sitting down with a dear friend of mine, Gerprit, Thind, and welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today. So, as you guys know, our podcast. purpose is to bring entrepreneurs and leaders to our podcast to talk to you about how they've made it and the struggles that they've had to go through in order to end up to, you know, where they are today. And, you know, with you being in real estate, and I remember you telling me your background is banking. Finance, so that was, you know, a huge difference, but not really.

It kind of incorporated into that. I would love to know your path of the path that you've taken from finance to get to real estate and then where you are in real estate. What made you choose real estate as opposed to any other industry and where you see yourself five, ten years from now? Sure. I would love to. Thank you for having me, first of all. My pleasure. So an old coach of mine actually said this to me and I've really started to lean into it. Gee, you're a unicorn. I'm a unicorn.

Aw. Because I'm an empath on the extreme scale, but I'm also an analytical brain on the other side. And those two things usually don't mesh together. They don't, yeah. I'm a first generation Canadian. And everything I've done in my life, I've kind of had to figure it out myself.

because there was no one to lean on. There was no one to... Mom and dad were busy surviving. And their groundwork has allowed me and my siblings and our extended family to thrive and make choices, which I'm so grateful for. But, you know, had to go to university. That was not a question.

That's just a cultural thing. Yes, yeah. Even that I was a black sheep because I wanted to do business. I wasn't going into the traditional stems of like science and technology and that, came out, started working in finance. I spent 15 years of my career in finance. I loved it.

I was very good at the number side of the things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But as I grew in that and as I grew out of my introvert shell, I realized I really enjoyed dealing with people, and that was the empath side of me that my life had kind of prep me for. That was starting to come out. And I got to a point where, I was doing very well. I had a six-figure income. I had nine weeks vacation.

I wasn't happy, though. I wasn't comfortable though. I was on autopilot. Yeah, yeah. And I've said this before. Autopilot is death if you have any kind of ambition. Yeah. Isn't that the truth? Yeah. So I got to a point 15 years in. My wife and I were a couple of years married already. We had one investment property. And I was like, I'm doing all the work. The agent was a good friend of mine. He was opening the door. And any time I asked him for an expert opinion, I got scripted with, well, what do you think about that?

And I was like, dude, don't script me. Yeah, tell me. You're my friend. Tell me what you think. And my wife and I were talking, and she's like, you're not happy at work. You can do this. Like you have that whole analytical side.

You can break it down for people. And you get along well with people. Give a shot. So I made up my mind. I think the universe was listening because I was about to, I was waiting for my bonus one year. I was a month away and I got downsized and it was the best thing that happened to me. Wow.

HR called me in. They're like, gee, we're downsizing you. I'm like, okay. Yes. We're giving you X dollars and whatever. They gave me a great package and she's like, take the weekend, think about it. And I'm like, I'm sorry right now. I had a big smile at my face.

Yeah. And that was 11 years ago and I haven't looked at. That's amazing. Was there a particular person in your life that made you or influenced you to choose real estate? Or was it always in the back of your head? I think being in the finance space and seeing like the stocks, the bonds and all that stuff. And then just looking at the world at large, every multi-millionaire billionaire, real estate was their foundation of their portfolio. And even though I was in finance, I couldn't pick a stock or bond for the life of me,

but I could say, I know this brick and mortar place, it costs me X, it carries for Y, and it's going to make me X dollars a month. It's the one investment that you can make that you can predict. Yes. The outcome of that. And then because I was a data guy, I also started looking at, well, who's moving? into the area are they gentrifying I think one of the best things I learned when I was early on one of my mentors said gee if there's a a coffee time in the neighborhood

it's a good time to get in if it's a Tim Horton's it's starting to gentrify it's a Starbucks you missed the boat wow that's a great analogy so if I'm looking for real upside yeah I'm looking that there's no Starbucks in the neighborhood if it's a mom-and-pop shop or whatnot, those are the places. And so when we started investing, I was able to leverage my finance knowledge of, hey, I can take this equity out of my principal place and buy the next one. Are you actively an investor as well in real estate? I've slowed down. I will be ramping up because of my boys and because of where the industry is now and where we are in our marketplace. I need to get in now for them so that they have something when they're ready to kind of leave

the nest. Do you feel that being, see, for me, I always feel real estate is a career that leads into a multitude of different paths. So it's not just real estate. It's you can get into coaching, training, you know, marketing. You can get into the most important one is investment properties and building your portfolio. And I love that you said at the beginning where, you know, the billionaires of the world, if you look at their portfolio, it's not stopped. It's real estate. So for you, is that how you feel that you are going to take that path is into this is what I want my kids to learn off of me in order to build their portfolio for the future? Yes. I mean, as a parent, you know this. At the end of the day, I just want them to do what will make them happy. Our job is parents is to allow them the freedom to do that.

And I think real estate for me is going to do that. So I started with one of the big brands because I thought that was going to help my career. I'm an introvert by nature. Like a lot of people in this industry is kind of crazy. Yeah. And it didn't do anything for me. And then I went to a very tech-based company in Toronto. They did a bunch of data like stats, like price per square foot and all this stuff.

And I was like, hey, this plays to my analytical mind. Yeah. It's going to give me a kickstart. I'm going to give up my commission. But it speaks to me. And I became a top producer there the first year. A year in, they asked me to take a step back because of my experience to help manage the company. And I ended up taking them from 40 agents to about 210 in an 18-month span.

Wow. But I also discovered my love of coaching. Wow. Because I was getting the calls because I was the guy in the office. and in that 18 months I had my hand in one way or another in over a thousand transactions that I would not have done in my lifetime yeah and so I became quote unquote C O without the title without the money yeah and when I asked to be taken care of I got the old

political politics and stuff like that yeah said you know what it's not yours I'm gonna jump back and say it's not mine and and I did that and then EXP came along about a year later through Rick Dylan who's a good friend of mine and when I started looking at the model I was just like this solves so many of the gaps in the industry it allows me to be the salesperson I become an owner without minimal investment like absolutely minimal investment doing what you do every day was to sell real estate. Right. And on top of it, they're offering me the third stream of actually,

if I'm going to help agents succeed and grow the company, I'm going to be rewarded for it. And the fact that I could will that and build that business and leave it to my kids. Yes. So I don't care if they want to be doctors, lawyers, whatnot. When they're 18, they're getting their real estate license because daddy's building something for you. And that can be your passive income stream for the rest of their lives. That's the big differentiating factor. Is that, you know, it allows you when you're at a traditional brokerage and there's a lot of good traditional brokerages, however, you're always working to build someone else's business and someone else's retirement plan as opposed to being with EXP, you are building your own business and

your own retirement plan. And by doing that, you are attracting agents to the company, but with the attraction, you are also giving every single agent you attract the same opportunity that you have, which is something unheard of. And that's what I think brings a lot of the collaboration in the company and the togetherness. Now, we are a virtual brokerage. How do you feel what was the biggest difference for you being a virtual brokerage and belonging to a brick and mortar? I think coincidentally just coincided with the pandemic. Yeah. So everybody was virtual at the time.

Yeah. And so as we were transitioning, EXP already had all the tools and systems in place for you to thrive. Yeah. So it made it much easier. Going back to something you said about the ritual. retirement and everything, that was the reason I left finance was I was busting my butt and my managers were making the bigger bonuses and all that stuff. And I was like, what am I actually building? And even at EXP, my first year, I think I didn't completely understand the model

because I came in and I was like, oh, you can't have Nadia, I'm going to recruit her. Right. Because she's a top agent. And it wasn't until. I flip my mindset to say, wait a minute, I'm an owner here. Yeah. I don't care if Nadia signs with me or Rick or somebody else. I want her at EXP because she's a top agent. And guess what? She's going to add to the bottom line, which means as an owner and a stockholder,

I'm making money anyways. And that's the secret sauce that leads to the collaboration that we see with so many of our big, big teams and producers. Yeah. is they have that mindset of we're all owners in this together. I 100% agree with you. And that's what makes it so easy is that there is no competition. No. We are all working for the exact same thing.

And everyone that we bring on, it's because we want to give them that same exact opportunity. Now, we look at different generations. I mean, we look at the broker owners. Now, the majority of them are at a retirement stage phase of their life. If we looked at the younger generation, coming into real estate. How do you think they are looking at real estate? Are they envisioning real estate in a brick and mortar?

Or is a virtual, the more type of brokerage that they're going to be leaning into and why? I think it's virtual, whether they know it or not. And I think that social media culture is the perfect example of that because their lives are online. My kids are into Minecraft. They're seven and nine, my boys.

Yeah. And I went to them, I'm like, why are you guys playing video games? I bought you this video. You're watching somebody else play the video game. Why aren't you playing it? I bought it for you. And my little guy turns around. He's like, Dad, but he goes, you watch basketball.

Why don't you go play? And I was like, you know what? That is a very good thing. And he's going to be the salesman. I know it. Yeah. He's wired that way. But because their lives are,

iPad, iPhone, online, their whole interaction. Like I see my cousins that are in their teen years, they're all together in the room and they're all on their phone. But they're all conversing and they look up once in a while, hey, what are you doing over there? And then they go back to their phone. And they're all caught up on each other's conversation. A hundred percent. Yeah. And so I think that younger generation, they're plugged in.

It's, they're hardwired almost. It's like they're born with the iPad in their hand. Yeah. And so it's second nature to that. Yeah. And I think, you know, with the younger generation that is coming into real estate, they're very innovative. And everything is so, I mean, I remember my kids going to a high school not too long ago. And the high school, the library could not have been bigger than the size of one of your offices because they checked out books on iPads. Yeah. So things are changing so much that, you know, kids as they start to grow up and want to get a career and they get into real estate, they're looking. at what is going to give me not only the best service, but the fastest service at my fingertips. And the fingertips is the key here, is what is going to give it to me on the go, in the car. I don't want to have to go into a physical location because to them, time is everything. And anything that they can save time on is just absolutely perfect. So I think it's going to be really appealing for agents, especially what I find is when they are doing sales,

and they can do it in multiple provinces. They can do it in different provinces, which would give them that opportunity. Or if they're doing attraction, they can do it in multiple countries, which would give them that opportunity. So that's something that I feel is going to be really appealing

to the younger generation. Now, pivoting completely off of that, you had condo.ca. Yes. Tell us a little bit about condo.cai and the success of condo.ca. So that was my second brokerage, the analytical mind, amazing leadership, very forward-thinking ahead of their time. That's where I really got my start. That's where I got to build a database of business.

And that's the one where they asked me. I ended up being the director of business development and finance because of my background, but also because of the people skills, which I had just started to discover. about myself now did you own that brokerage I did not okay but I was the only non-owner on their board wow because of the trust that I had created with those owners right and a couple of those agents have followed me here at EXP yeah a couple are at other cloud brokerages but I learned so much more I'm so grateful for that opportunity because it was my first prop tech exposure Right. Okay.

And it got me really focused on where this industry is headed. I think what's really interesting between EXP and the condos.ca, our partner Zucasa, who came on board a couple of years ago, those companies were very client-focused. Yes. The clients were digesting digitally, online socially. Exactly. ExP was the first one that came out that was agent-centric. Hey guys, as agents, this is how you're going to leverage technology to serve as the clients

who are already using it. That was the big appeal to me. And then when I saw they brought Zucasa into the fold, I was like, okay, they're marrying there too. This is awesome. Perfect. Yeah. And I feel like the traditional brick and mortar, there's still a place.

There are some phenomenal broker owners out there. Oh, yeah, yeah. But I feel like they're going to become the boutiques. Yeah, it's not, it's definitely not for everybody. I mean, I spent 17, 18 years in a brick and mortar before I moved to EXP. So I don't move very easily. But now that I am at EXP, I would find it very difficult to go back to a confined space. You know, I remember sitting as the broker manager, and when I see A.E.S.P., I would find it very difficult to go back to a confined space. You know, I remember sitting, I remember sitting

as the broker manager and when I see agents in the office it actually makes me nervous how could you be sitting there all day why aren't you out there looking for business so you know a lot of our time is spent in our cars driving showing properties you know doing offers but even our offers are all digital so we go back to our home in the comfort of our own home and do all of that so it definitely makes it a lot easier for us than having to go into an office but we also have Vrbella Frame which is a virtual world that we can connect with everybody so I think that's pretty cool it's very cool I mean they have the metaverse before it

yeah yeah yeah right yeah and the big teams always had offices yeah so Ibrahim one of our Jennifer Jones Justin Haver yeah these guys had their own offices those aren't going away yeah teams will always have their own space they're always gonna have their own space it was never in the traditional brokerage because they needed more elbow room or whatever the case was. Yeah. And the fact that you can have a team literally across the world that EXP operates in when I mean, what are we in 24 countries? We're in 24 different countries. Yeah. So the fact that I could have an agent in every

single country if I wanted. Yeah. Is like kind of mind-blowing at this point. It's amazing and you know the nice thing is is that you know like you mentioned those teams is if you're driving by their office and you need to stop in because you have to work, what I love about them is that the door is always open. And we see them calling it an EXP hub open to everybody that wants to come in and work. So the collaboration is definitely there. Now, you're where you're at today. Where do you see yourself five years from now and 10 years from now?

I really truly believe in this company. I'm an EXP lifer. And I've had the privilege of helping over 100 agents at this point change their lives. My goal is to make that a thousand. That's amazing. Because I truly believe it. And I really want to get into leadership with the EXP. I want to be in the room making decisions for the future to make this industry better.

You definitely have the characteristics. You've done a phenomenal job leading the agents that you current, the organization that you currently have. Thank you. look up to you and respect you and your coaching is second to none. It's phenomenal. I think your goals are amazing and that's what we always continuously, you know, go for more, go for more and never give up because we've all had the moments where it's like, I'm not doing this anymore.

You know? Why am I doing this? I'm comfortable. Why should I be doing more? But it's those leaders that never give up that continue going because there's so many people that depend on you. And I mean, it feels great, but it's also heavy. It's very heavy.

And one thing I'm very appreciative of is with EXP, you are literally a phone call away. When I'm having those days, I know I can pick up the phone. Nadia, I'm not feeling so hyped. Like, what's going on? What can I do? I know I can pick up the phone and call Rick. Yeah. He is one of my biggest advocates outside of my wife.

Yeah. For the first time in my life, when I leave the room, I know good things are being said because of the people that are in that room that know me and trust me and love me. Yeah. And that is so empowering for me. It really is. It really is. And I've always been the guy to run through the wall for you. And there's so much strength in knowing that now I have people who are going to run through it with me.

Yeah. Very, very well. said. Well, thank you so much for being with us on this podcast today. And I wish you all the best and looking forward to one day seeing you part of the leadership team. I plan on it. Wonderful. Thanks.