KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk with Investor Clients

Episode Date: June 28, 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 today I'm really excited to talk to a very interesting agent guest on the expansion podcast, a gentleman named Gary Wilson. and he's really set up a pretty unique business in real estate.

I've been with EXP, I think, since 2020. He's an icon agent in real estate 22 years, but maybe Gary, you can just kind of give a little bit about your background. I know we're talking a little bit about stuff. You're technically an icon agent out of Cheyenne, Wyoming, but it doesn't even sound like you hang out there that much. much. No. Yeah, thank you for that's, I've been to Cheyenne before, but I've never actually live there. So for those listening, this actually plays into a much bigger picture. And what I did is I set up an LLC in Wyoming, got my real estate, or eight brokers license there, so I could incorporate there in order to run a national team. I, I knew from traveling all over and investing

all over that, that, that I could, I could do this. I could have a national team because investors are investing 56% of the time out of state where they live. That means half the transactions are not even in your market. So I thought, well, I needed to be in those markets. And that's what we built the team. Well, Wyoming lets us do that. I don't have to live there to set up an LLC there. I don't have to live there to have a license there. So I did everything correctly according to the state and paid for some good service providers. And now because of the platform that EXP gives me, I have been able to set up a team and we're in 38 states in almost 60 MSAs, and I've done it in literally in about three years.

I just could never have done that anywhere else, and that's really one of the reasons why I'm here because it's not least possible. But, Glenn, I mean, your operations guys and all the states, phenomenal. I mean, the level of support. I've never had anybody say, we'll do it this way, do it that way,

or do it our way, or don't do that anyway. They were saying, hey, let's see how you can help you make that work. You know, I mean, it's an amazing, amazing platform. And that makes this possible. That's the key, you know. So I know a company you used to be with, you know, basically created a term called expansion. And they were supporting what they called expansion teams. I heard like two or three weeks ago, they literally shut down expansion.

And you've been doing this at EXP now pretty amazingly. maybe talk a little bit about what what is what what do you focus on what are the type of of clients you generate what is how do you know coach and train and support your agents and you know all these different markets maybe just a little bit about that sure well just to help people understand I'll kind of give you the 30 second example explanation is most of the other real estate brokers companies wonderful people they all have something that they're good at something they're known for but they all follow the franchise model which is an old model it will always be here we're always going to have calmore banker and central 21 all those guys they're going to have their place in

history but the industry has been evolving for for over a decade now and we follow what's called the organization model so the old franchise model if you want to have an expansion team you'd literally have to set up shop in an office somewhere wherever you're going to operate and if If they want to get paid. And then the region wants to get paid. Of course, the company itself wants to get paid. Well, at the end of the day, and I did the math on this, you know, this is my background is computer science, so I can't help myself.

I calculated that the end, the agent at the end of the transaction would get 22% on average. And that's a fact. That's not like hypothetical math. That's based on their model. And I told, I said, there's no way this is going to work. That's going to create a job of varying with a lot of unhappy people. So I came here in the XP and all of a sudden we don't have all those barriers. It's like a giant playground.

It's like a sandbox. And the XP provides us the best toys, the best tools and great supervision to be able to build these dreams and these visions. So the way it plays out, Klan, is it may sound strange to people who have a traditional franchise model-based team or they're locally based. And you have a team leader generating all the leads. you have an ISA setting up the appointments. You've got a listing specialist and two or three buyers agents. I'm not trying to knock that model. That works well for a long time and it has,

but it would not work well if you're trying to set up shop in 38 states. Or in our case, we wouldn't be in 50 states. So what I did was I attracted people that I had taught in the past. I taught for eight years traveling all over the U.S. and Canada. And I knew the people that had the entrepreneurial gene. they had that business mindset. They had the growth mindset. And I thought, all I need is 10 of those people, right?

It really, you don't even need 10 people. So I attracted those folks first. I knew that they could help me coach. I love coaching. I love teaching. And I still do it today. I still am involved with the transactions. I know it sounds like, well, how can you do that with 100-something people on a production

team in 38 states? It's because I'm not in production myself, for one thing. I totally devote my time to my students. I call them students on the team. So we have five levels of engagement, Glenn. Level one is we meet 101. I literally coach everybody in 101. I don't limit the calls.

I don't care if they're with me for 10 years. I give them the same time that they get if they're brand new. But more importantly, that's just willing to engage. We also have morning scrums. We get everybody up. We get going. We pump everybody up. We solve problems.

We answer questions. Then they're off running for the day. We have a weekly class. I call Monday Night Live. every Monday night, 7 p.m. Eastern. And it's all about education. We're not, we're not, there's nothing to buy or sell or recruit or anything like that. We're just simply teaching. And we open that up to the whole world, by the way, because we had agents bringing in other agents from other workers. And so let's just make it free and open it up. And that's what we did.

That's the third way. The fourth way is we have mastermind groups. Mastermind focuses on a specific subject like doing, you know, subject to purchases or assumptions. How can you assume mortgages from USDA, FHA, and VA. You know, we have masterminds to focus on specific strategies. And we meet biweekly, all of those are my weekly meetings. And then once a month, the entire team gets together for a giant strategic session. So we call it strategic planning. Obviously, we're in multiple markets. So what I do is I take all the input I get from everybody on all the markets, have macro data and micro data and microdata, micro being the market specific, Macro being everywhere.

So we go over that and I tell people, this is what we're doing strategically to prepare for the market the way we believe it's going to unfold based on the information we have. And people love it, especially the entrepreneurial business builder people. Now they're doing it. And there's other people in the XP

following the same model because I get I mean, every week somebody's asking me to be on their lunch and learn or something like that. And the cool thing is here at EXP, I'm glad to do it. You know, the rising tide lists all ships. I've got I've got Karina what's her second. Gangeland, I think. She's coming on tonight on my Monday Night Live to talk about AI. We already use AI, but she's the master. She doesn't get

anything out of it materially, but we became, we call ourselves blood brothers and blood sisters, because we hit it off right away. It's just the most amazing thing. So we have that way to engage, but really it's the five different levels of engagement. And that's how we keep everybody glued together. The five levels of engagement, that's critical. Awesome. No. So you're really leading with just being super supportive of agents in your group.

Now, the thing I've noted was you're focused a lot on the investor community. Is that correct? Yeah, we certainly do serve traditional clients, helping the buy and sell their homes. But, Glenn, what I did is I built an entire platform just for investors. It's in addition to what we already get from EXP, which is phenomenal in itself. So in the platform that we develop off to the side, it does focus on investors and investing. So I do teach my agents how to invest in real estate. I want them to experience that part of the American dream, but they're going to have additional streams of income.

But more importantly, I want them to be able to walk the wall. and talk to talk with their investor clients. And the beautiful thing is investors don't just buy and sell one property every 10 years. I mean, our average transaction flow per client on the investor side is four transactions a year. That's pretty darn good when you consider most of half our time limit is spent attracting the business. We have to earn the business before we can actually produce. So we're earning the business once and yet we're getting paid four times a year by that one client. So that's the one reason, the main reason why. The bigger reason, again, is like I mentioned earlier, I knew back about 20 years ago that more transactions were being

done across state lines for investors. I was one of them, including me. I've been investing since January, 1986. And now I can invest with confidence anywhere in the country practically because I have team members there that I've taught. That's one reason. The other reason is the data is so much more available today. We had data 20 years ago, but now it's literally at our fingertips. We can pay for data aggregators to grab all the data for properties and people anywhere in the country. So it's just, there's information, the technology, the network of having a team in 38 states makes us a very compelling value proposition for our investors from U.S., Canada. We have investors in 13 different countries right now investing with us, mostly U.S. space.

But it's because of those three things, Glenn, the network we developed, the information and the technology that EXP gives us. I mean, KVCorps is an amazing CRM. That's been a huge game changer for us, by the way. KVCorps. Thank you for making sure we have that tool, you know? Oh, no, my pleasure. No, I mean, I came from an internet lead gen background. So there were certain things that I knew were important.

and KV Core really kind of check the box on a ton of that. Some people have other CRMs and website lead gen platforms that they like better, but at the end of the day, it's similar to what we say all the time, which is the best platform is the one you use. And KV Core, you know, probably at least 60, 70% of icons, KV Core's their CRM of choice, which is pretty cool to hear as well. So now, when you think about lead gen for all of these, you know, for agents that are on your team, are you handling the lead gen side or are you, is it the coaching training and then they're doing the lead gen?

Is it some combination of the above? Yeah, it really is a combination, but I will tell people with the brand new agents, we're literally working with them hand in hand. I mean, it's where it's it's guided, guided learning. They're learning and implementing at the same time in incremental steps. But fundamentally what I do, Glenn, is I do a podcast every week. I have blogs. We're on all the social media channels.

We have a massive YouTube channel, you know, two primary websites. So we generate a lot of, a lot of traction, a lot of activity from the consumers. We're getting phone calls and emails every day. We do hand those out. So here's my philosophy. Primarily, I want to take. teach people how to fish, okay? At the end of the day, if I'm a great servant leader, I'm going to teach my people how to be independent producers, how to be financially independent and financially

free, whether they're with me or not. That's my mission in life is to improve a life of every person I meet. At EXP, we're given the platform to be able to do that. It's based on sharing. We all grow and prosper and we share. So I do teach them how to market. You know, we have a, we have a marketing, what's called a marketing sequence document. And marketing is really a matter of having a plan, a marketing plan that encompasses one to maybe three marketing campaigns that work in work in conjunction with each other. We might do a letter campaign combined with a social media campaign, followed up with a phone calling campaign. It's, I teach everybody how to do this, have a, have a marketing sequence. Well, marketing has four different levels. Level one is just a

basic stuff. Build your database, get a monthly market update turn on. By the way, everybody listening, even if you're a veteran, I was going to say new people listen, but everybody listen here. The best advice I could ever give you in production is make sure every record, every contact you have is on KV Corp. No exceptions. I don't care for it's your grandmother, your daughter, everybody needs to be on your database. And everybody should a minimum should have a monthly market update turned on. And the third thing is, you should be calling them on a regular basis. If you did those three things, I'm willing to bet you you're going to convert it about 10% of your existing records. That's minimum. That's floor, you know. So back to what I was saying,

Glenn, is we teach them this to get them to their next level, which is level two marketing, which involves more social media, YouTube, link, and all that. And we show them how to sync them up as far as keywords and key phrases, what we call SEO. Level three and level four is much more advanced, doing, you know, you know, live events, getting on local television or radio. I can show them how to do that, too. That's like level four. So that's the way we do it. Now, behind all that going on, I'm a realist, too.

I know volume is down. Volumes down for everybody all over the country. If you look statistically, it's, it's, I don't want to give you the numbers because I don't want to scare anybody. But the point is, it doesn't mean you panic. It means you're prepare. You're going to produce if you simply keep a level ahead and prepare. I work with people that like we have at the XP who are willing to help you.

So what I'm getting at, Clint, is sometimes people just need a fish. So we do have that ability, and I don't charge anything for that. I don't take a personal referral fee on the once I end up personally. I just sometimes people need a fish, and that's why we do that. So we can handle both ends of that spectrum, but I do leave with education. Education plus information plus action is what gives us results. So, any case, that's my philosophy on the fish. Oh, no, great stuff.

So when you think about, like, you've got a fairly large team. What's your, a couple questions. One is, what is your economic model with your team? Like, is it a, or how does your team work versus, you know, other team styles? Obviously, I think you were at KW and they have the MRAA model. This sounds like something entirely different. in a lot of respects. It is.

We literally took the traditional team model and turned us on its ear. And again, I want to be respectful. I'm not knocking the old team model, guys. If you have a team in your locality, absolutely follow that model, okay? But my philosophy is, I want to create leaders,

but I want to create independent, financially free, financially independent producers out there that could produce at any market at any time, whether they're with me or not. That's just my philosophy. I lead with education,

an education-based team. The way it works structurally is we only ask for the minimum commission that's required by EXP, which is 25%. And we do that on a temporary basis. Now, everybody's different. Some people come in Glenn and they knock it out of the park in the first three months. Other people takes three years. Sometimes people have to care for children or their parents. So we're sensitive to that. We don't make everybody, we don't try to fit the round pig in a square hole. We do what's called a vision an exercise and it helps me understand where someone is in their life right now. And then therefore, what do they have available resource-wise to contribute to this business sector developing? And if it takes three years, it takes three years. But what we do,

Glenn, is once they've hit that team threshold, we only do it once. It does a reset like a cap does. They go from what's called group A to group B. You know, group B that are technically not on the team anymore. We just, we have to, it's the protocol. We have to follow the rules. And that's what we do. We say, now you're going to be in group B, which you're going to have to pay nearly as much as 5%. But at the same time, you're back on full cap. You're going to the expe, you're a solo agent. But we work together as an organization. And the organization is growing dramatically. And I really wanted that, Glenn, for myself and my team members, because I didn't want people, I wanted to train people, but I didn't want them leaving. And I'm thinking,

well, how do I solve that? And the way I saw that was talking to people like, like, you know, Dave Kornord and Amy, Amy Weaver realized we can use the group philosophy, group A and group B, group B, A is the technically the team. Group B is you graduated to be an independent person, but we still work together. I still coach them. You know, I do it essentially for free because we don't, five percent just pays a light bill. But that's how we accomplish it. You just have to study the rules and follow the rules and do it the right way.

But I wanted long-term relationships. I want to invest in, you know, Boise, Idaho without having to be there. But I can because I've got an agent there that I've trained. And I know the systems they have it. It makes it so much easier to do this. those things and work with other clients who do the same thing. But back to the structure, it's an education-based team. And the only way to accomplish that is to let them graduate, let them fly out of the nest. That doesn't mean they're not in your family anymore. But when they've

hit that first threshold, you've got to be the leader and push them out, you know, otherwise they're never going to learn to fly on their own. And we're all entrepreneurs. We're 1099 contractor people. We've got to really learn how to be independent if and when we need to. still hang around. We still work together, do you have fun things together, invest together. But I want them to be able to go on like right now I'm training six people how to build teams across the country. And one of them is not even on my team. So it's just what we do. But but now I know they're going to go out there and they're going to pay it forward and they're going to look for the leadership underneath them and build those, build that leadership. That that is the best compliment

I can ever, ever receive is when someone flies away from the nest. And then six months later, those some kind of YouTube video or a podcast or whatever and says, you know what? I work with Gary Wilson. He's the one that taught me how to do this. Nothing feels better than that kind of a compliment, Glenn,

when someone does that, hey, thank you, Gary, for teaching me what you taught me. I just want my first duplex. So now I've got revenue share, stock ownership, commission income, and rental income. That's my, that's my mojo. That's what I still get up every day, Glenn, just as excited as I was when I first started.

And that's, and that fulfillment is what brings it to me. Well, awesome. Well, last question. And then we've got to wrap here today. But if,

if there was one piece of advice you could give to XP agents, what would it be? Man, I wish I could come up off just one. But I would say, you know, for you listening here, especially if you're kind of new and you're not on a team,

man, join groups, engage with, each other and great gauge with people. We have local events, get-togethers, happy hours, regional events. You can't, don't stay in your cocoon. Some of us are independent because it's just our nature. But in business, just like in sports and entertainment, in the military, and anywhere in life and you walk like family, the more you engage with each other, the further you're going to go, the more you're going to learn things. You're going to develop some awesome relationships.

So to me, it's all about engaging with people on multiple levels and in multiple ways. Just do that one thing. And if you want to take these around, just join somebody's team. There's hundreds of teams out there. And I know a lot of those guys, join a team. It's the easy way. You don't do it the hard way. That's fine.

But engage and network and socialize with people and learn from them and grow with them. That's the key. Good stuff. Gary, thank you so much for this. This has been both inspiring and educational for me just to hear how you're doing things. You've got a website. I think it's My Investment Services.com. Is that correct?

Well, really, we actually rebranded that, but the one, there's two websites, real estate with Gary Wilson.com. That's the old My Investment Services. That's for the general public. For the agents, it's a global investor agent. In both cases, we give a lot away. We have classes. We give our books away.

We just give and give and give. And as a result, it's everybody, everybody benefits. But yeah, I appreciate you doing that. Those are the two websites that work together. Good, good stuff. Well, thanks again, Gary. Thanks, everyone for listening. This has been a great, great podcast.

And until next time, you know, keep on keeping on out there. and look forward to this getting out there here, probably about three or four weeks. It'll be live. Thanks again, Gary. Thank you, Glenn. Thank you, everyone. You've been listening to Expansion.

Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes. Thanks for being the best part of EXP.