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Hi,
What I am about to share with you is highly personal.
When you read this… it takes about 5 minutes…. I am going to be brutally honest with you about a major mental and emotional challenge that has forced Julie and me to make a decision that may directly affect you.
Read on….
Let me start by saying..thank-you…..
Thanks to all of you Real Estate Coaching Radio is the #1 daily podcast for agents. Over the last tracking period, the show has had nearly 7,000,000 listens. 7 million. We are officially the #1 daily podcast on iTunes for real estate agents…we are sincerely grateful to all of you for the success of the show. Thanks to your belief in us, our book, HARRIS RULES continues to be a best seller.
Point being, we have a ton of agents listening and reading to what we have to say. We are honored to be your coaches. We are truly humbled.
I know what you are probably thinking. The market is now clearly adjusting and many of you are feeling uncertainty and fear. You must know now what to expect for the future. What should you do now NOW to prepare for the new market?
Read on,..the answer is obvious and will give you an instant feeling of confidence.
You won’t be surprised to know that Julie and I receive 100s of emails per week from agents listening to the podcast….
The #1 question we have always had was “how do I choose a broker” and/ or “when do I switch brokers”.
Our (lame) answer for decades has been, it is up to you!
Fact is, (with ONE exception) brokers are more or less all the same. Maybe broker A offers more of this or that, but at the end of the day, they are all are more or less identical.
This is where it gets interesting…
Our opinion of how to choose a broker ALL changed about a year ago. I will never forget that day…….
…….It started at 7:13am when I received an email from a long time Elite Coaching client…(Brandon) a broker of an office with 100 agents. Around 9am that day I received another rather panicked call from another longtime California broker client..(.and then maybe 20 other similar calls/ emails/ texts from other brokers and team leaders over the next week or so) They were all asking me the SAME question….
The question was:
“What is the deal with EXP Realty and why am I losing my agents to them?….”
“Why are all my best agents, teams leaving to go to EXP Realty?”
I am embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know much about EXP…
I had certainly heard of EXP. Knew they were virtual, had a revenue share model and offered stock. I had read on Inman’s site about the executive team they built…all impressive stuff.
That was it.
So, I called 3 of the top industry types whom we trust. All 3 told me the same thing. EXP Realty is offering to agents something that no other company ever has…
Ownership AND true revenue sharing. Not to mention a state of the Art Real Estate brokerage.
“EXP is the biggest thing to happen in real estate for almost 30 years” was a comment from one of the most respected, well-known industry leaders I spoke with.
(One of the folks who told me about what EXP is the former CEO of a very well known company. Maybe THE most recognizable brand in real estate. He told me that EXP is going to completely change the way brokerage works).
I still didn’t believe. I am a skeptic by nature. I still needed more information before Julie and I would feel comfortable and confident recommending any ONE broker to our members and listeners. For us, this was a HUGE deal.
I then called my friends at NAR, INMAN. All reports came back the same. EXP is going to be the biggest brokerage in the world. In just the last 2 years alone EXP has grown from around 5000 agents and will end 2019 with between 20-30,000 agents. EXP Realty is now one of the top 5 real estate brands IN THE WORLD.
But, I still wasn’t convinced. When I say I am a skeptic, believe it.
Julie and I actually hired someone to pour over EXPs public filings. (Traded as EXPI) In my mind, what they were offering to agents almost seemed too good to be true. The nice thing about a company that is traded on the NASDAQ is that all their financials are there for the reading. I am not an expert at reading 10-ks etc so my CFO hired gun did it for me. Bottom line….He told me that they have an amazing company and told me that he was going to consider buying stock in EXPI.
I was convinced, well almost.
Then and only then did Julie and I formally meet with EXP. At that point, I realized we should have told you about EXP years before. I actually felt embarrassed and ashamed for not knowing more about EXP and how they are truly helping agents.
What I am about to tell you was (for me) the final critical..and very personal….part of why I am sharing all of this with you.
Despite all that we had learned, I still didn’t want to talk about EXP on our show, to all of you. Even though I KNEW it was a STELLAR deal for agents. At that point, I was convinced that agents (YOU) would massively benefit. I still didn’t want to talk about EXP or publicly align ourselves with them.
What was MY fear?
Simple, that we would piss some of you off. My thinking was that some of you would be offended that Julie and I were promoting a specific real estate company over another. We have NEVER (EVER) aligned with any one broker brand.
We have never accepted money from any company in exchange for access to all of you. Julie and I are not for sale. We took (maybe false) pride in believing we were ‘real estate agnostic’.
Translation: we never aligned with any other companies (Zillow, Bank of America etc). Why? so you would feel comfortable listening to us without questioning our motivation.
We are from Ohio and integrity is job #1 for us.
I know you feel the same way.
Being completely honest (maybe too honest), I personally felt a little tortured by this. I was experiencing a real conflict.
Option 1: Tell you about EXP. Maybe lose your confidence because we were ‘aligning’ with a broker.
Option 2: tell you about EXP and be in alignment with our top-level mission of being of service to all of you.
So, I asked my MOST trusted adviser in life. JULIE.
She listened to my conflict and told me what I should have realized all along.
Here is what she said:
“Tim, if you are sincere about your proclamation that our highest and truest purpose is to be of service to others….if you truly believe at your core that our mission in our professional lives is to help those who choose to follow us….then we MUST tell them about EXP Realty.”
She then went on to ask me these questions:
(yes, I wrote them down)
1) Does EXP Realty offer agents something that will truly improve their business and personal lives?
YES
2) Does EXP Realty create a clear and easy to understand path for agents to obtain TRUE financial freedom?
YES
3) Are the core values of EXP Realty 10000% in alignment with ours?
YES
She then went on to say something that was akin to a hard smack in the head.. Julie point blank told me that if I don’t tell agents what I truly believe about EXP Realty that I was a total hypocrite. (coming from the person you love more than anyone else…whom you have been married to for nearly 30 years…that really hit home)
Of course, she was right.
And that is the purpose of this letter to you..
Chances are you are eXp curious like I was. We have made it simple for you to learn more about eXp Realty.
While you are thinking about it, text the word exp to 47372. Go ahead and take the 5 seconds and do that now. Text EXP to 47372. 4 Msgs/Month. Reply STOP to cancel, HELP for help. Msg&data rates may apply. Terms & privacy: slkt.io/JWQt
We will immediately text you a quick, simple to watch 7 min video. All your exp-curious questions will be answered.
You can also text me directly if you would prefer a more immediate conversation about eXp Realty. 512-758-0206. Julie or I will personally respond.
Best of everything,
Tim and Julie Harris
P.S. Go ahead and text exp to 47372. We will text you a 7 minute video that will get you started fast with eXp Realty.
Also read: Podcast: What Do You Do When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed? Rick Janson on Time Blocking & Prioritizing Your Life(, Elliman Challenges StreetEasy’s (Zillow’s) Latest Move to Manual Listings Entry
