KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Sales to Ownership with John Tsai.

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Hey everyone, welcome back to behind closed deals. I know with this podcast, you guys are all expecting and wanting to learn so much about real estate and getting to know real estate agents in the industry and the path that they take. I say this in almost every podcast, the glamorous career of real estate. However, no one really knows how tough it is to climb that ladder. When we enter into real estate, we enter knowing that, you know, we're going to be selling houses. No one really knows how to own a business. I have the pleasure of having a dear friend of mine, John Sy, who was also serving as the president of EXP Realty Canada. And that's how I got to know him the most is during that time. And before that, he was just John Sy. Now he's my little brother, Johnny. So I'm really

happy to have you on here. You call me mom, but that's okay. We're not going to, we're not going to talk all with that. John, it's been amazing to see what you've done in just a short time that I've gotten to know you. And then the conversations that we've had about, you know, not only your professional life, but your personal life and what it took for you to get here. I mean, you were facing all odds when you got into real estate. young kid, not the best dresser. I've got to say that. Thank God for Crystal for coming into your life. You're, you know, it's just, everything was kind of like collapsing on you. And then how, how did you start? First of all, why did you choose real estate? Thank you for asking. I chose real estate because that was the only thing that I actually understood.

good and coming out of University of British Columbia, I had no idea what I was going to do with my psychology degree. I could become a social worker, but I was just really lost. And while I was on vacation in Taiwan, I met this man. He was a Caucasian gentleman in Taiwan, working out midday. And I'm like, Will, what are you doing here on a Tuesday afternoon? Don't you have to work? He said, no, I'm retired. I'm like, what do you mean? How old are you? He said, He said he's 42 years old, and I was 22. And he said, well, I sold my language school, which I built over the last five years. And now I just invest in real estate here in Taiwan.

I'm like, wow, well, I want to be just like you. I want to retire by 42. And what would you have me do if you were my age again? He said, go read the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Now, within the book, it's all about passive income, building a business. and most of it was real estate. I didn't understand anything else but the real estate part. And that's how my life changed that day.

It brought me to the world of rental properties, residual income. So I got into real estate thinking that I was going to retire from day one. But here I am 44 years old, still not retired. However, that psychology degree came in handy. It did. Yes, it did. I'm very grateful that, you know, it's coming full circle. And I'm using it every day.

But I'm grateful for the opportunity for real estate. I mean, you got into real estate knowing that you were going to sell houses. Did you imagine that, you know, down the road that your dream is to have a team, the size of your team, to have an organization? Like, was that in your thought process when you were thinking, hey, I want to get into real estate. My goodness. Absolutely not, actually. The grand plan, Nadia, was to buy 10 homes and for each home to give me $1,000 of residual income every month.

So I can retire off of $10,000 of residual income. You wanted to be well. Yeah. So that didn't work out. Yeah. Because I had at 1.9 housing. houses and I had to sell them off because, you know, there's ups and downs in the business and negative cash flow here in Vancouver. Even in nine houses, my residual income every month was like

$3,500. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, when you, when you get into it and you start owning these investment properties, it's all, it's a juggle. Like now you're juggling your business, your, your real estate business. It's your career. It really has not become a business of your own because you really got into the career of real estate. And then when we change that mindset, when that mindset flips and says, I now want to be a business owner, what do I do to become a business owner? When was that moment for you? Last year.

When we met, right? I'm totally being honest because I just thought of myself as a real estate salesperson. Right. And as long as I make more money than I spend, I'll be okay. Yeah. And then you get distracted by so many things as supposedly glamorous when you make a lot of money. You want to go buy stuff. Oh, yeah.

Which I did. And then it was not until 2022 when I went completely broke. The market dropped 40% overnight. And I spent all my money. and next thing you know, I had a $360,000 tax bill. Yeah. That's not what you do as business owners, which is what you do as an egotistical real estate sales agent like I am.

So I hope the young people, agents that are just getting started listening to this is from day one, please just put away 25% for taxes to whatever you want with it after that. I don't care. 100%. Pay your taxes, be diligent with your finances, keep your head down, keep working. and stay humble. Yeah. You know, it's interesting that you said it was only last year that you decided that I am

actually a business owner, that I am not in a career in real estate. And when you become a business owner, you're awakened by the reality that I am not only responsible for myself and my family. How many people do you have on your team right now? On the team right now, 71. So you're responsible for 71 families, plus. plus your own. And any mistake that you make along the way,

you're not just impacting yourself. You're impacting those 70 people and their families. There has got to be times where you look at it and you say, this is too much on my plate. I am ready to throw in the towel. I can't do this anymore. What keeps John driven? What keeps you going every single day?

I thought about that yesterday, actually, just completely give up and just say, you know what I'm going to sell my team to somebody and let me just quit and and because it like you said, it is a lot of responsibility. It is. And, you know, every day, you know, I just got on a call today with our team and every day when I see the motivated agent's faces and I see them being inspired and really getting value from our team, from our coaching, from our mentorship, from our resources and giving them a great life and having

time for their families financially and time. It's so fulfilling to me. So that's why I will never quit because I'm here to serve. You know, I've gone from making a lot of money selling real estate listings and buyers to now really helping a lot of agents. It really, it drives me and it fulfills me. And it's given me a new life in my second career now. Exactly. Exactly. And it's, you know, you're changing lives every single day. Now go back to, you know, how many years now from when you started to now? Have you been in real estate? Sorry?

18 years. Oh, so just about the same, almost the same time for this time. So it took you 18 years to realize that you actually own a business. If you were to go back 18 years ago, what would you have taught yourself to say that this is not my career? This is a business that I'm going to start because it's going to. to impact so many lives. What would you change? I would change the first thing is don't buy stuff

that you cannot afford, right? As again, I bought the car that I could not afford, bought the clothes that I could not afford, and I bought all these things from my girlfriend then, now wife, things that I could not afford, just to look good. And unfortunately, in the real estate industry, there's a lot of looking good.

So if you can block out that noise as a young person, it's hard. Very hard. And you just stay diligent and discipline with your finances. You can retire way earlier than 18 years. That's my thought. I think anybody should be able to do it in 10 years. If you keep your finances very slim, you have a very lean business. You should be able to retire off of that, right?

depending on how extraven you want to go, but I think this is 10 years you should be able to. I think once you change that mindset that you have, right? Like, you know, you've got this mindset that I am making. I mean, let's face it, when real estate agents, when we get commission checks based on the market that we're in and the province that we're in. I mean, we're talking BC. We're not talking to $3,000. We're talking $15,000. We're talking $50,000, $100,000, depending on the property that you're selling.

as easy as it comes in, it gets spent right away. And the advice that I always have for real estate agents is, guys, like when you're coming into this, treat it as a business, would draw money on a biweekly basis. Build that equity as you're building that foundation so that you never fall off track. Because once you fall off track, it's a very slippery slope. That car becomes very attractive. That watch becomes very attractive. And that's where you start to lose sight of things. But it's how do you train your internal mind to do this at the beginning stages

when you want to look so good? It's how do people get rid of that ego, John? It's really tough. I think you'd have to focus on what's really important behind all the money, all the flash. What are you looking to achieve ultimately with real estate? My word was freedom. Yeah. But instead, when along the journey, I got distracted by other things, which was not freedom.

Right. Which was debt. Yeah. They don't looking good. Yeah. So if a young person listening to this, if you can stay diligent and not look at, block out all the noise, I think you can, again, retire way faster. But it's hard. It's hard because you want to look good.

But the agents that have never looked good from day one are now looking really good. Yeah. My peers are completely out of production and have built a nest egg that they can retire on. Right. And yet I'm still grinding. So please, if you're listening to this, stay disciplined from day one. Did you need a mentor along the way? Do you think a mentor would have changed something along those 18 years?

I think because I followed mentors that made me want to grow. Yeah. But they didn't teach me how to keep the money. So financial management is not taught in real estate sales. I only learned real estate sales. I could sell a lot. But I was never taught the financial education in keeping, saving, and minimizing taxes. None of that.

Yeah. So from day one, I would get a sales coach. so you know how to sell to make money, get their money coming through the front door. But then how do you keep it? Maybe you need a mentor over there as well. Who is really good at keeping money? I never had a mentor like that. I just had a mentor that told me you must buy a Lamborghini so you can look good and make more sales.

I think that's a phenomenal point that you bring up. Isn't that the number one thing that we struggle with in schools today is that our kids are getting educated, but they're not getting educated on what's going to help them. life. My kids are very well educated, but you know, yours are still young, but I look at them and I say, you came out at school, I had to do your business plan. I had to help you with this. You don't know how to manage your money because if you have a thousand, you're going to spend it. So it's, I think it's so important to go back to the basics and say, I need a mentor to help me grow my business, but I also need someone to teach me the basics of it is how to keep my finances in check. And you're

right, a lot of real estate agents. I mean, when the market was up, I can't tell you how many agents I've seen go out and buy cottages and boats and new cars and this, but the market comes down. The market never remains the same. It's always going to go up and down so that it can, you know, it can correct itself. And that's what they don't see. Unless you've been in a down market, you don't know what a down market means. It comes fast too.

And we came in at a bad market. Like we didn't come in at enough market. So you would think that, you know, the skill set would be a little bit differently. But, you know, where you've come from and the responsibility that you have to, you've taken on. And I mean, you and I have talked extensively about, you know, a God rest of the soul, your dad passing away and having to take on the responsibility of now, not just Crystal and the kids, but also your mother and taking care of your entire family and your brother. And things like that, how do you keep it from weighing so heavily on you that you're just, the added stress of having to take care of more and more people. Well, I'll tell you, I don't know if you remember this.

My first week when I was announced president, I had two panic attacks. I remember that. Yeah, so I think every day we just, then I just need to focus on, okay, well, what's in front of me right now? If I just take one thing at a time, don't pay attention to, don't get ahead of yourself.

Right, if I could just take care of what's in front of me, get that done and then the next thing and then the next thing and then the next thing. And know that it will never be all done. Yeah, never. It's homeless. Yeah. So you can come from a mindset of I'm playing an infinite game of every day doing stuff and getting better every single day. Then you can kind of calm yourself down.

It's not finite. This can go on forever. And there's always more things to do. So don't get stressed out. Just take it one thing at a time. How have you managed not to lose? your human, humble self when dealing with others. Because that's a trait I see in you.

Thank you. As, you know, being with you for a year as you were president, knowing you on a personal side, professional side, I've never seen someone come up to you and talk to you and you weren't very humble as if you belonged in any crowd that you were thrown in. How do you manage to keep that? I am not perfect and sometimes, you know, the ego does come out, but especially when someone comes at me, you know, they, they, you know. Defensive mechanism, absolutely.

But I just had to think about, okay, well, everybody's dealing with a battle right now. Yeah. And if I can come across this person's experience today, how can I make it better instead of make it worse? Yeah. If I, my intention every day is to contribute and serve people, then when they come into my experience, that's my intention for them. So if I can come from that, then it's just humility. It's not like ego or cockiness. I'm just here to serve.

You definitely, that shows very well in any situation that we've been in any, you know, atmosphere that we've been in. I think it's super important that no matter how much you grow. in your career and in your business. I mean, you've achieved so many milestones, having the size of the team that you have, having a beautiful family that you have, but then also let's talk a little bit about the organization that you were able to form

once you move to EXP, and what that means to you and how you're able to also juggle that. Because, you know, again, we go back to, you got into real estate, that was your career. You decided to get into business. Now you own team. You have that business going.

but then you also have that organization. And how do you manage all of that? Like what is your organization? What does it mean to you and how do you manage all of it? It's about leaders creating leaders. And the organization right now, it's a group of leaders, right? And I can name them, you know, the GSPs, the jacksize, you know, the John 2Blares, you know, all those guys.

They have their own organization. and I'm just supporting them. So thank God, you know, the system works. The EXP ecosystem works because of that. If they were just one man taking care of that many people, I would be face down right now. Yeah, yeah. But yes, there is a lot of work.

Every single week I'm doing eight training calls over Zoom. And then, you know, I'm flying everywhere to see these groups, that group. But it takes work, right? But again, I'm here to serve. and that's what fulfills me. So it will never burn me out. That makes any sense. So that's how I've been juggling it.

And, you know, I can't wait to see what's next. I think it's going to be super fun to see how we evolve. Looking back now, do you ever think back of when you started your real estate career? Had you had EXP from day one where you would be right now? Bye-bye. My thoughts exactly. What? I mean, I look at, you know, sometimes I sit back and I'm reading books and then I stop and I think and I'm like, Glenn.

How did you wake up one day and think of this? How did were you able to impact? I mean, like who would have thought all these years later, 14 years later that you've impacted almost 90,000 people around the globe? and not just impacted them. Them is one story. It's their families and how you've helped them. And I think about, you know, if this was when I started my real estate career,

you're absolutely right, John. We would be high-fiving somewhere else. We'd be gone. Yeah. But it's amazing how, you know, that's why I brought up the organization. That organization is going to be part the majority of your business, right? So talk to me about how you see that running as a lifelong career for you.

Again, it's the infinite game of growing and getting better. I'm going to always be the leader of the group. And, you know, I'm going to always be doing what I do right now, putting on events, you know, supporting agents. I could do that forever. How did it go? How is it different than having that same organization or that same team elsewhere. So I'm an agent. I could have this team anywhere else. Why EXP?

Why EXP? Because we're going to be around forever. That's exactly it. What the company is, is a profitable company, and we are debt free, and we have cash in the bank, and we're very diligent in our finances and investing in revenue generating assets to keep us even more profitable as we go. So we can have this for generations. Yes. So then when I die, EXP is going to still keep going. And I can will my residual income,

my equity to my kids, which takes care of generations to come. And they can do the same thing and on and on and on. And that's the beauty of it. You get into real estate. You're in this career. You build a business. You're working for another broker.

You're paying for the retirement plan. You're putting in so much effort in order to help them retire and sell. their business and no one steps back and says, if I build a business, I want it to be for me. Why are you building a business, especially in real estate when you're working so hard for somebody else? And this is what EXP has been able to give us, is be able to build it, but build it for ourselves. And that's why we call it our organization within EXP. So for me, like, this is not just an opportunity to sell real estate, but it's an opportunity to be able to earn

income with so many different, you know, so many different streams of income that you're not just relying on the sales. You know, you're a great salesman, but this allowed you to be able to take your business to a broader perspective of not just being just a salesman, but a business owner and then having that organization. I've grown so much since I came to the company and it really gave me the opportunity to grow everything else in my life. Yeah. You know, because of getting close to Glenn yourself, you know, growing as a human being. And you've taught me so much about life. And Glenn and Michael, just incredible hard work every single day

and the humility that you guys have, not just the wealth I've been able to gain, but it's also personal growth. And I think that's what truly matters, the collaboration, the support, the love that I get from you guys. And that's priceless. It truly is. It's both ways. It's, you know, having that bad day and being able to vent it in a text and all of a sudden it's a happy moment and we're like, oh, okay, we're not upset anymore.

And it was just on another podcast. And, you know, we were talking about how to handle stress that comes on into your life. And, you know, stress never goes away. Problems never go away. You know, it gets better, though, is the way. handle them. That's the only thing that gets better. So if I'm able to handle the stress and handle the situations better, then I've grown as a person and as a business owner. And that's what leaders are there for is to be able to handle it better. Yeah. And to help others grow in the

process of problems. 100%. 100%. Well, John, thank you so much for being on this podcast. You are a wealth of knowledge, a good friend. Can't wait to meet up next. And I wish you all the best. I know you are just going to do amazing things. This is just if you've only learned that you owned a business last year, you are going to take it to whole new heights. I promise you that. Thank you. Thank you for all your support and, you know, everything that you do for Canada, for EXP in general, we can't thank you enough. You know, I wish I could pull, you know, out of my own pocket and give you all my money. That's how much you're worth. You are priced with, Nadia. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, John. Have a great day.