KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Gretchen Carlson The Truth Behind Building a Real Estate Team

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

You're listening to Expansion, the podcast for EXP agents. Expand your skill. Expand your value. Here's your host, Glenn Sanford. Hey, everyone, Glenn Sanford here, and this is the Expansion podcast, where we talk about personal and professional development and actually production here at EXP Realty. And today I have Gretchen Carlson. She's out of Central Florida.

been with EXP since 2018, Icon, and she's been going through building a team over the last year. And I'd love to hear how that's going. But welcome Gretchen to the podcast. Thanks for having me. Oh, you're welcome. So now, you've been in real estate for a little while. Maybe you can just tell what's been in your background. How did you get into real estate?

How long you've been in real estate and all that good stuff? I'd be happy to share. Have a pretty quick story. I actually started while I was in college and I managed luxury apartment communities. And I did that for several years. And then my husband and I, when I got married, we moved to Florida. And I managed luxury resorts. I was a owner relations manager and I handled all the big multimillion dollar houses on the beach and condos.

And from there, in 2000, got my real estate life. license and I worked with one of the top agents in Destin, Florida for a couple of years and then moved to Orlando. And I actually ended up becoming a regional vice president with Land America Financial Group in the title business, Gulf Atlantic title, Lloyd's title and Commonwealth, it's Virginia, Louisiana, and Florida. And I did that for eight years. I wanted a Monday through Friday job.

We were adopting a baby and just didn't want the life of a real. at that time. And when the market crashed and everything changed, I got recruited by Keller Williams. So I ran a Keller Williams office in Windermere, Dr. Phillips here in Central Florida for a few years and really got back into the real estate industry, became a man or managed a couple of other brokerages after that, as well as being a real estate trainer and coach. And then I joined EXP in 2018 and haven't looked back since. I was on another team helping with agent attraction and helping with coaching and training and managing within the team and then separated from that group and started my own team with my business partner last year April. It's almost a year.

Okay. So that's my back. I've done a little bit of everything. A little bit of everything. So what's been? Like maybe before we dive into your, you know, starting a team, what was the biggest contrast? Sounds like you were a KW team leader. But what was the biggest contrast between Keller and EXP from your vantage point? Absolutely. I think that it is the fact that we truly are an agent-centric company. I think Keller Williams tried, but there was too much.

of throwing agents up against the wall to see if they stuck. They've got training, but after they're done in training, they're kind of on their own. And depending on your ALC or agent leadership council to fill in when they are high producing agents themselves, I just think that there are some challenges within the model. And I felt like once I joined EXP, there's so much support truly around you. and true authentic sharing. You know, back a few years ago, when you did the contest of sharing your listing presentation

and the amazing amount of people that shared it was the proof to me that this company and the agents that are part of EXP truly do share. And at the past brokerages, it's like this. Everybody is scared to death to share anything because they don't really, they say that they're going to share and they're going to help you,

but they don't. It's everybody's secretive. We're here. Everybody's like, here's my listing presentation. Copy it. Rip it off and repeat it and do it and share it. And it's more collaborative.

People really care about other agents and about helping within EXP. And I'm extremely passionate about that myself. I will help and share anything I have. Anybody can copy anything I've, God and take it out there. I'm proud of that. Awesome. By the way, we haven't done a content or something like that for a while. Right. I've been around a while. Yeah. But is there anything, and I'm just thinking, just brainstorming here, is there anything that you're going,

if I could get help here and we could sort of do a little contest around best way to do X, Is there anything that you're looking for? Like, how do I do this better? Maybe I'm thinking of... Well, I feel really good about what we're doing. I think that right now, I would like to see agents sharing how they're handling the buyer brokers agreement

and the conversations with the buyers. I mean, I know that a lot of people are worried about the new environment that we may be moving into in regards to the commissions and working with our buyers, but I think that we need to be using that regardless. We are still experiencing situations where buyers here are working with agents and they're showing them homes and then they're getting their cousin to write the offer. And they're not, they're still not using the buyer, the buyer broker agreement like they

should be. Right. Yeah. No, great point. You know, it's a, I think when I was a buyer side agent almost exclusively, And it feels like there's going to be a little bit of a change in how we do that in the future. Before it's just you get a buyer in your car, you show them houses, and you hope they write an offer with you, and that's how you got paid. And in the future, it's going to require a lot more disclosure conversations of how we're compensated and potentially even their tacit agreement for compensations.

for us as agents rather than it being just passively offered through the through the MLS. So it's you know, times are definitely looking at a change. So you've built obviously a, you're building a real estate team. How has how has that been this last year? You mentioned this is a new part of your business. How is that went? I think it's been going amazing. I think that agents that are starting a team have to go into it, understanding that sometimes your own personal production is going to take a hit for a while. I am a still producing agent, and so is my business partner.

And I think that when you go into it knowing that and you're okay with that, because you kind of have to step back a little bit to move forward in the long run. I think also understanding the expense of doing it right, you've got to really understand that. There is a huge expense to it, but I've loved every bit of it. I think one of the fun things is we have not, to date, we have not called one agent or recruited or attracted one agent to our team.

They have all been calling us. And it's been overwhelming. And we've not been turning anybody away that truly fits into the philosophy that we have, which is true sharing and helping support the agents. We have followed your motto, Glenn, of that we are agent-centric. And our team is truly agent-centric. It is about helping them. And if it means jumping on a Zoom with them right then and they're

to help them through a situation, that's what we've done. And it has been very, very rewarding. It's amazing what it's been like. And we've got, I think there's 16 of us now. We've grown very quickly. And, you know, we've been through a tough market right now, but we are having such proud moments of agents writing their first offer that are new agents to agents that are getting listings now and just really growing and watching

them. It's a really proud moment to be a part of that. Oh, very cool. Now, what is your, what's your unique value proposition to agents? Are you focused heavy on inbound lead generation? Is it a coaching and training of agents? Is it a combination? Is there, what is it that sort of helping you grow the team and what's kind of setting you apart in the market? Okay. I think that Nelson Cruz is my business partner, and he's been with EXP now for a few years himself. And we have a unique value proposition. He is extremely techy. And he has handled all of our tech stack and what we're using on the technology end of things and set up all of our social media. We have a social media manager that handles all of the social,

because that's such a crucial point, part of our business now. And I've stayed on my lane of what I really truly enjoy, and that is real estate training and coaching. As a certified mentor with EXP, I've had a few agents that I was that was working, that I was working with in the mentor program that have actually joined the team. Some have not. But I love coaching and training. So I've been able to really work with them on that aspect of it. And being that we both have our separate lanes, obviously we work together with that. everyone, but that's how we have been strong with the agents that have wanted to come over to work

with us, is that we're offering that. We are doing lead generation, but we allow the agents to really work their business and be a business owner within the team. And it's been a very much supporting them and helping them and not criticizing or micromanaging them in any way. It's been about, hey, what can we do to help you with this? And that's what we've concentrated on. So it's kind of an extension of your mentoring of agents and now it's helping them really sort of get there. How is that went for you?

And what's maybe what's one thing that's worked really, really well and maybe one thing that you're maybe didn't or you're struggling with? I think what I'm struggling with is. is still being a producing agent and managing a team. I struggle with that. I do have a full, you know, I have a real estate coach that I work with weekly on making sure that I am concentrating on my business as well,

but everything I do, I'm teaching them and helping them with. I think what has probably been the biggest struggle for me has been just the expense of what it really costs to get a team going, the right way to, I mean, buying 200 open house signs and just making sure that we are offering them all of the tools to be successful. So what you have for one, you have for all. That's probably been the biggest thing for me, but other than that, I would do it. I'd still do it again over and over because it's been so rewarding to help the agents that have joined us. It's been very rewarding. I just love working with them.

We're a big family. We all help and support each other. We all talk over each other because we get so excited about things. And it's been amazing. Absolutely amazing. Okay. Excellent. So I'll ask you kind of a little bit of a question. I used to make a joke.

And it was there was some, every joke has some elements of truth in it. Otherwise people won't find it funny. But I would say if I really wanted to make money, I would have just stayed an agent. That's kind of true. That is kind of true. I look back and I'm like, wow, okay, I probably would have closed a lot more deals and I would be making more money because it's tough.

But I still don't think I would change it because I think that because of my passion for being a trainer and coach, I feel like I'm getting the best of both worlds. And not everything is about money to me. I enjoy helping people and I feel very fulfilled. And I don't think I would trade it in for anything. Oh, excellent. No, which I think is, I think there's a lot of,

a lot of us that are that way as well. Because I think there's also the other, one is helping the next generation of real estate agent. And that obviously feels good. And then it, eventually the idea is, is you can have all the money that you want. I heard this yesterday or a couple days ago from somebody.

You can make as much money as you want, but if you don't have time freedom, then it doesn't really matter how much money you make. And so sometimes, you know, creating ways to create more time and money freedom. Usually sometimes the money has to come down a little bit and then the time freedom goes up. And that's where the happy place kicks in.

I'm not complaining. I am very, very blessed. every which way. I mean, my husband and I would be married 25 years next month and our daughter's doing great in school and, you know, everybody's healthy and happy. So, best time to start a team. There you know.

And have fun with it. Yeah, good, good stuff. So now if you, what is your, what is your, I mean, it sounds like, is it Nathan? That's your business partner? Nelson. Nelson. So Nelson, so Nelson, so when he's focused, he's focused more on the online lead gen inbound strategies. What is what does that look like to is it coming into a CRM? Do you have a particular website that you use? How is that done? It's it's actually, it's all connected

together. We do use follow-up boss and you know, we work with realtor.com, Zillow. We've been working with street text with Facebook ads, generating leads through Google, and everything is coming in through follow-up boss. It is very well integrated. And our back-end system also works with follow-up boss on all of our lead searches. We're doing a lot of automation through follow-up boss to handle replies back to, you know, the leads that are coming in through email, text messaging, as well as action plans and tasks through follow-up boss. It's been a great system for us, and everything is integrated. He does a

much better job at explaining it to everyone, being the tech support aspect of our team, but I understand it, and it's working amazing, how it's all integrated with our, even our website, and our one thing that's unique about our website is that because we are so agent-centric, when somebody logs in and goes into an agent or does a search for a property, it now stays with that agent. It doesn't come back to us as a team. It goes directly to them. Their QR codes all go to them, not the team.

We have integrated so that when we're looking for, the buyers and sellers and people that we've worked with for a rating and how we're doing, it's going to the agents. We started integrating with Rate My Agent. So it goes to the agents sites, but it also puts it on MVP Home Group site as well. So instead of everything being about the team and going to the team, it goes to the agent first, and then the team picks it up on the back end. as well. So that's been probably the biggest difference about us is that we're putting the agent first.

If we give the agent a lead that they're sharing a portion of the commission, they own that lead now. It's theirs. They take credit for it in MLS. They get the reviews. It's about them building that relationship with that buyer or seller. So we're putting the agent first and not the team first. we are the back-end support to help them to grow their business. And I don't know that you've ever seen a team like this before, what we created. We didn't want it to be team first. We wanted it to be agent first. Okay, excellent.

No, it's a great, great way to approach. And so far it's working for you. It's amazing how it's working. I think that's why so many agents are coming to us. They're asking us what we're doing and how we're doing things. And there's been a lot of curiosity out there in our local market to what it is that we're doing. And I've just put it out there. So if they want to know, they can come in and watch this.

Okay, excellent. That's what we're doing. And it's been amazing. Now, so Gretchen, maybe just to wrap things up here today, maybe I'll just ask about one piece of advice that you would provide to an EXP agent. what would it be or any agent, but let's, you know, I'm thinking maybe expe agents specifically. Honestly, it's called pick up the phone. I kind of have a joke of, you know, money, no money, that I tell everybody I've been saying that for years, but you cannot build a relationship through texting and email and you've got to pick up the phone and you've got to pick up the phone

and call your sphere of influence because they are your biggest supporters. They want to give you referrals, but they don't necessarily know to unless you ask them. So pick up the phone and follow those processes. When you do that and you've got systems in place and great people around you to support you, you can take your business anywhere you want. Awesome. And being with the bridge doesn't exactly hurt things either. Right. That certainly makes life a little easier. And I don't know the number, Glenn. I think I was somewhere in fourth. early 5,000 when I joined, which is crazy because it wasn't that long ago. And now, you know, when you start seeing 90 plus thousand and you think back that you were so new, I mean, I met you,

the first time I met you was in New Orleans back in 2018, I think. And it's just, I've loved to see where the company has gone and be a part of it. It's wonderful. Well, thank you for being part of it. And thank you also for sharing and giving back to the real estate community and obviously the EXP agents at large. And thanks for spending time with me as well. How would somebody sort of follow you if they're wanting to be either stuff you're doing or just connect with you in general? Well, I'm Gretchen Carlson, Realtorson. Not Gretchen Carlson, past Miss America, Fox News and Friends. She has my website name. But I am. and the only Gretchen Carlson so far that I've been able to find in the National Association of Realtors.

I'm very easy to find on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, EXP, Gretchen Carlson Homes, Gretchen Carlson Realtor, or MVP Home Group, brokered by EXP Realty. Awesome. Well, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you for taking the time today to share what you've been up to some of the growth initiatives. that you have, you know, starting to build a team segmenting how you're empowering your agents. It's been great to hear. And hopefully, and I'm sure that a bunch of agents are going to pick up some great ideas here and help them go to the next level as well. So with that,

Gretchen, thanks again. And thanks, everyone, for listening to this episode. Thank you for having me. Awesome. Thank you. Bye. You've been listening to Expansion. Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes. Thanks for being the best part of EXP.