KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Unpacking the NAR Settlement with Kendall Bonner.

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Hey, everyone, Glenn Sanford here. And today on our expansion podcast, I'm excited to bring Kendall Bonner on. She's a icon agent out of Tampa, Florida. Join not too long ago, I think in the last year or a half or so, and had a really kind of an interesting journey to EXP. But maybe, well, first of all, welcome Kendall. Thank you. I'm honored to be here today. Awesome. Well, thanks for being here. And obviously, you've got a really unique background in real estate.

But maybe you could just share, you know, how did you get started in real estate and your sort of co-background? Because I think you're still active in another industry, at least keeping some of your license up to date. But what's your background? How do you get into this crazy business? Yeah, and I'll try to make it as brief as possible, but I do like to go backwards to bring people forward. And again, thank you, Glenn. It's an honor to be here today and to share with our colleagues and, you know, industry leaders what, you know, I've learned and how I can, how, whatever I can do to help others, I'm always happy to do. But I, when I was in high school, I told my mom I wanted to be a teacher and she said they don't make any money.

try again. And so she actually told me, you know, for my mom, she was a doctor. She was an MD. And she said, JD, MD, PhD, pick one. Because going to college for in my household was like going to high school, right? Like it was not a choice. So myself and my two brothers, all three of us have college degrees. And I'm the only girl. And I did go on to law school after college and graduated law school at 24 years old. back in 2003. And so I've been a Florida licensed attorney for going on 21 years now. And in 2011, I basically had found myself a little bored with what I was doing because I actually never planned to practice law in my head. I wanted to just get the degree and go back to school. I thought maybe I'd go back and be a professor or something along those lines and get a PhD. And so anyway,

met my husband in law school and he said, hey, we need to pay our student loans back, so you're going to have to practice law. And so I did that for quite some time. And then in 2011, I decided to get my real estate license for fun because I thought maybe I would do it part time and quickly realized, in fact, within 30 days of that decision, decided, oh, no, this is a full-time career. And I had my own law firm with my husband at that time. And so I decided that I wouldn't take any more. And I decided that I wouldn't take any more clients and I would just transition into a full-time real estate agent. And so that's how I got here. Okay, awesome. And so that was 2011. What's been your career like since then? I think you've done a few few different things, taken a couple different journeys in that

that 13 years. I did. So when I got it, you got a into real estate in 2011, I came in as a listing agent. In fact, probably for my first one or two years in the business, I did not know how to work with buyers. I, you know, was primarily a listing agent. I would hold even like, you know, double digit listings at one time. Many of us, if you were in the industry at that time, you know what that time was like. It was a lot of short sales and and other things like that, a lot of distressed property owners. And so I did that for three years before I was solicited by a brand to open my own brokerage. And so I opened my own brokerage, a franchise brokerage back in 2014 and started from scratch as an agent of one.

I was the only producer at the time, had more staff than agents. And so I grew that from scratch and fell in love with leadership at that time, right? So through that journey, realize I had loved working with agents, helping agents grow, taking the lessons I had learned, exposure, the time that I could take to invest in educating myself, I would, you know, basically take that and, you know, reframe it and educate other agents. And then in 2021, I started a team and decided to test that because I wanted to learn. I wanted to, you know, I've always had this philosophy of learn test, teach. So I'd like to learn new things, test them, make sure they work, and then teach other people how to duplicate. And so I had

learned all this stuff as a broker that like around marketing, real estate sales tactics, technology that I saw a lot of agents needed to know more about, but as a broker, I couldn't test it quite the same way as I could as a team leader. So I transitioned into that so I could learn these other tactics and strategies. And that's how I ended up as a team leader just since mid-year 2021. So heading into my third year here now as a team leader. Oh, awesome. And now you've been with the EXP, I think what about a year and a half? Is that about right? Just barely a year. Like March makes one year. Okay. Literally one year ago. I think maybe just the fact that you've already hit ICON kind of through me and go, oh, well, okay. But I knew it wasn't a huge length of time. What was it that made you interested in?

in EXP and what kind of got you over to EXP? Yeah, it was a great question. And I get asked this question a lot. And, you know, my answer is still the same as it was back then, which was it really came down to relationships for me. And some of the, it came down to that relationship's number one. And I'll break these down in a second. It also came down to opportunity.

And also, I would say the third thing would be. you know, growth opportunity, right? So like, and so opportunity kind of gets broken down to multiple ways. But relationship piece. I had watched one of my closest friends that I had known for over a decade or for about a decade go through. We always were on these similar journeys side by side. You know, she was always about a year and a half or a couple years ahead of me with doing certain things by the time we met. So she had had a franchise brokerage that she had. She had about a year and a half before I did. And I watched her and we learned from each other through those experiences, right?

And I learned from my friends who are also broker owners, our team leaders, our single independent agents. I believe in learning from others, whether it's what they do well and the mistakes that they made, right? My mom always told me, you know, there's wisdom in the fact that you don't have to make the mistake to learn the lesson. And so I was constantly, I'm a forever student. So I'm always looking to other people. What did you do well? What didn't you do well? How are you succeeding?

What mistakes did you make along the way? And how can I learn from them to create more opportunity for the people around me? And so watching my dear friend do so well at EXP was such a fabulous treat, but also understanding that, you know, there was an opportunity for everyone that can joins the company to, you know, and everyone has their own experiences with EXP, and I totally respect that. And everyone comes to EXP for different reasons. But I love the idea of being one, borderless, right? Having been a former broker owner where you're limited to your brick and mortar, and if nothing else, the territory within which that you operate.

And so, you know, you can't, you can only help the people that you're around, really. Like, being a part of their business and being a part of their life is often limited to your physical location. And with a company like the XP, you're borderless, right? You get to work with anyone anywhere. And that was really exciting to me, especially because my relationships and my brand had grown outside of, you know, my local marketplace. In fact, I often feel like I'm more well known outside of Tampa than I am within Tampa. And so that was really appealing to me in terms of growth and opportunity there. And then, of course, the opportunity, I believe that a single source of income is a business failure.

Every business that should have multiple streams of revenue. And so for me, what I loved, another thing I loved about the XP was that it offered multiple streams of revenue built within its model. And I think that's a really important opportunity for agents, especially because this is one of the few industries where retirement is not really, not only is it not really the option, but there really is no consistent plan for it. And so this creates that plan for you. It allows you to give the foundational elements to that. And it's not limited to any particular agent or person. Anybody can take advantage of this opportunity. You can choose to participate in it or not, and either of those are okay,

but at least you have the option and you have the choice and you have the opportunity to do those things. And so that was what I saw is that as a broker owner, the opportunities were limited to me as the owner. As an EXP agent, everyone I came into contact with who was a part of my world in my circle has the same opportunities that I have. And that is really powerful and important. empowering, I think, from not just myself, but the people around me. Awesome. No, good stuff. So question, obviously, you're a broker owner.

You are a broker owner. Yep. And how would you compare the opportunity, maybe in multiple ways, whether it be stress, liability, income leverage of being a broker owner versus being an agent at EXP. How do those two compare and contrast? I have no desire to go back. I'll say that. I will say this about being a broker owner.

There were positives if you get into it for the right reasons, right? And even with the right reasons, that doesn't mean it's the best place for you. And I would say the right reasons could be, hey, you enjoy leadership, you enjoy helping other agents and things like that. You want to see them grow and succeed. You want to transition out of sales, personal production, right? Which is what I did. However, with it, you gain a lot of headache, responsibility, stress. You often lose community because agents don't see you as their peer anymore.

You're someone else and meaning you get isolated. And so it's a different kind of working relationship with agents that you have as a broker, a record, as opposed to being the agent. And it's not always, you know, the funnest position to be in. It's not always as rewarding. It can be, like I said, very stressful. And then, you know, whereas if you can transition into this world, what I do love about, expe is that you can have a brokerage within the brokerage, right? Like, it's a model that's designed to let you

build community. And, you know, and that's oftentimes what you're building as a brokerage is a, is a form of a community if you're lucky. And if you do it right, which is easier said than done. And so, you know, at EXP, you get to do all of those things without the liability, without the responsibility of having all the paperwork, like, especially in today's marketplace where we're at right now where so many changes are happening in the industry, you need resources and you need the ability to tap into some of the best legal minds, some of the best industry minds to pave a path forward. And when you're a small or even a large independent brokerage, it's really hard. Like I said, you're isolated oftentimes and you don't always have the network. People don't always open up all the

details with you and you don't get to have access to all the resources that you can when you become a part of a larger model or larger network. And so to me, I find so much value in the fact that I get to work with some of the best leaders in the industry because I find XP keeps collecting them, some of the best brains, some of the best leaders, some of the best agents out there. and now we're all in this together and we're all over the world and all over the country in North America and we get to collaborate and work together to protect, you know, the consumer or to protect the industry. And that's really powerful too. So I feel a lot less isolated, even though I had a great network as a broker, but I recognize that that was rare, that most brokers don't have what I had.

And, but now over at EXP, I just had this phenomenal network that I can tap into at any time. Access to you and Leo and Michael and Carolyn and Amy and all of your amazing leadership that you've built at EXP and along with all of my colleagues. So that would be one of the major differences I think is access and, you know, not feeling isolated, having a bigger community, things like. that. Right. Now, you, I believe, like less than a week ago, you went and did a kind of a breakdown on what's going on relative to the NAR settlement. Obviously, you looked at it and formed some initial sort of, you know, opinions. And you, of course, have a different lens than a lot of people on that you also have. a very good legal mind being a practicing lawyer. What has been your biggest,

what are people not understanding, if you don't mind me asking, or maybe not diving into the details? What is it that right now there's a lot of people unsure? Is there anything that has sort of stuck out to you as maybe myth information, meaning not actually, accurate, but being spread that in your mind could be corrected in some capacity. Gosh, that is a wonderful question and a big one.

And I would say some of the things that I notice that people are misunderstanding and misinterpreting is the use of brokerage or biore representation agreements and how they work. And in fact, I heard someone say online that, you know, I don't like using them because I feel like I want a client to choose me based on my service and I don't want to lock them into a long-term contract. And honestly, I was so frustrated at listening to that. I stopped listening because I said, this is based on inaccurate information. And, you know, the truth of the matter is, is that on a buyer brokerage agreement, all the terms are negotiable, first of all, whether it's exclusive or non-exclusive. If it's got, if it's a brokerage agreement for one day or 12 months, if it's for one property or territory, like we will have choices and how we shape these agreements. You can have an

agreement that gives an easy exit clause or one that says, hey, I'll let you out for a fee of X. Again, all those things, you know what those look like? exactly how we negotiate listing agreements. All those same flexibilities with a listing agreement, right? We can bring with us to a buyer brokerage agreement. So assuming that a buyer brokerage agreement somehow locks a client or customer in long term or somehow traps them with a bad agent isn't necessarily true. It just per it actually is a protection. It's actually going to be, I think, a great thing. I'm a big believer in buyer brokerage agreements. I've been coaching and training my agents to use them from back when I was a broker,

you know, 10 years ago. So I believe in them. I believe in the consultative approach, meaning, you know, being a professional and having a sit down meeting with the customer before you show them houses. Because at the end of the day, how can we help them achieve their dreams or their goals if we don't even understand what they are? Right. So it's having those meetings, having those conversations first.

So that way we can tailor our services for the needs of that customer. Maybe that customer needs something special. Like maybe they're looking for off market properties. Well, you would not know that unless you had a consultation. Maybe they want to be aggressive when they're negotiating and they want to know what are the best strategies that I can use to be the most aggressive I can be to buy the next home, buy my next home. Again, how will you know that if you are not having that consultation with them? Maybe they don't need to look at 10 houses. They know exactly which house they want and they just need you to help them write the offer.

Again, all those things will come out and can be discussed and articulated through that consultation and then also be written into an agreement so all parties know what to expect. I have a saying that I've said for many years, the breakdown of every relationship you've ever had in your life, personal, professional, family, it does not matter. often leads back to unmet expectations. And part of the reason why we have unmet expectations is because we are terrible at communicating them. And so if we can get better at communicating them and putting them in writing, the clear it is and the more likely we are to follow through with what we said we would do. Awesome.

No, great, great stuff. Maybe I'll jump over. I know you have a life motto. I think it's the acronym, am grit. Maybe you can just share a little bit about grit and then how does that play a role in your career? Yeah. So I was reading a book called Grit by Angela Duckworth. Maybe, I don't know, we'll say eight years ago. And it was such a good book because I think so many people, we confuse success with talent or, you know, or just or work ethic or what have you. And she talked about

grit from a psychological and scientific perspective. And at that time in my life, I was going through a specific challenge as a broker owner in my business that had me questioning whether I should do this or not. Like, why do I put myself through this as a broker owner. This is painful. This hurts, you know. Do I really want to do this or not? And so, and reading that book, I was, you know, I'm a faith-based person. So I personally, I was praying about it. And, and I said, Lord, I'm reading this book called grit. And, you know, can you give me an acronym for grit? And so anyone that knows me knows I'm full of acronyms for a lot of different things. And it came to me instantly. And it was greatness is a result of intentional tenacity.

And it was a reminder for me that quitting is not the option. Pivoting isn't always the best option. Sometimes you have to stick with the plan, right? And sticking with the plan can be sometimes the hardest thing you ever do, right? Especially for someone like me who I'm unbothered by change. Change doesn't necessarily scare me. And so I ended up leveraging that acronym to help me, not only persevere through the challenge that I was having, but also to have the standard or goal

that I set for myself to be, you know, all of those things, to be intentional, to be tenacious, and to be, you know, give my best self, be my best or greatest self that I can be to the people around me. So, so yes, that's how I define grit. It helps me persevere, helps me get through the tough times as well as the good times, right? And, um, and helps me move forward with, uh, all the challenges that, that come with, uh, anything that we do being, um, a challenge in life. And I also have another saying, you know, I try to remind people around me, we're afraid of a lot of things in life, but there's no courage or bravery without fear. And so I just want to remind people, fear is not something for us to shy away from. I, I, I think it's the,

fear should be fuel to help us actually achieve our goals, to help us achieve the things that are challenging in life and help us to achieve the things we aspire to do so that we can be great and we can be better than we've ever thought we could be. Oh, I love that. Yeah. You know, in, you know, in my way of looking at that, well, actually, maybe I'll ask you this, but or I'll ask you in a different way, in, in the, in your acronym grit, Is you've got really, you know, greatness is the result of intentional tenacity. Is there one word specifically in that group that really, you know, stands out? Yeah, for me, it's being intentional.

I think that a lot of agents, a lot of people are accidentally successful, for example, or they're reactionary in life. So I've I've lived my life, especially my business life. I learned this from my coach, David Scott, a long time ago, eight plus years ago, probably now, seven or eight years ago to be proactive and intentional. And, you know, how empowering it is to bring those two words into my business and into my life. So I try to lead with intention all the time, like very, very intentional about what I do. Some people call it strategic. I say I'm intentional about those things. Yeah, I like the word intentional better than strategic as well because strategic is kind of it can sort of, you know, it can move all over the place. Like the strategic is like, I want to make more money and then build a build a plan around that. Whereas intentional has, in my mind, has more substance to it. there's there's goals ideals in there that's sort of built in that that sort of stands up

in a way that allows you to do the right thing for the right reason at the right time versus strategy could be sort of a moving target because you don't know what your higher ideals might be right love it Hey, I know we're pretty much at the end here, but if there was, you know, maybe if there was one, I'm why you provide such amazing advice already, but, you know, if there was one thing that you could add to this podcast, one additional piece of advice that you could share for EXP agents specifically, is there anything that sort of comes top of mind? Yeah, I would say, so I have two favorite quotes that I'm on a mission to have every real estate professional here that I've learned. And if you don't mind me sharing two instead of one, I would love the opportunity. But the first one is by Alvin Toffler. He said, the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those that cannot read and write, but those that cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.

And I think that's very relevant for what's happening right now in the industry, especially in light of the NAR proposed settlement and things like that. There's going to be a lot of learning, unlearning, and relearning. So we need to have some patience with ourselves. But if we, you know, can do that, I think that we will not only survive these changes, but we can thrive in them as well. And then my second quote is from Keith Cunningham in the book, The Road Less Stupid. And he said, this is a business book. He said, the quality of your life is a direct reflection of what you make non-negotiable. And I think that a lot of agents have gotten really, really good at negotiating themselves out of their own goals.

And so I would challenge you to make certain things in your life, certain goals, certain pieces of your business and of the actions that you have to take and implement. your business non-negotiable so that you can actually have the quality of life that you desire to. So those would be my two things that I would say to agents today. Oh, no, that's great. Yeah, last one, you know, I use this phrase that, you know, business constraints are actually more important to your success than saying what you'll do, meaning the things that you won't do are actually more influential in your future success than than being sort of saying, I'll do anything. And so I think it's very important, like when we obviously started EXP,

we said, how do we build a cloud-based or a real estate broker that's not dependent on bricks and mortar, and then what would it take for me as a successful agent to want to work there? And if we could solve those two challenges, you know, nobody was trying to solve that. Nobody thought it could be done, but it was a non-negotiable. And so it became also the most powerful catalyst to what happened in the future. So great advice. Kendall, thank you so much for jumping on today. Lots of great clues for success today.

I appreciate you being on, being part of EXP and being who you are in the industry. And then I think folks can follow you maybe at your website. Bonner.com, seems like a great place to go. But Kendall, thank you again for jumping on. And thanks everyone for listening. Thank you.