#425- Mail-Right Show: ReaJ vs Exp Reality Are You Looking To Move Brokerages in 2024?

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ReaJ vs Exp Reality: Are You Looking To Move Brokerages in 2024?

In the current real estate industry, two major online-based brokerages, eXp Realty and REAL Broker, stand out. Although they offer comparable platforms and revenue-sharing programs, these companies have distinct differences. Let’s explore the disparities between eXp Realty and REAL Brokerage to help you determine which one best suits your needs.

#1 – Commission Cap

*eXp Realty

Both brokerages save a lot of money compared to franchise-based organizations because they are cloud-based. Because of this, they can reduce the commission caps and pass the savings on to their agents. **eXp Realty**

Commission Cap: The annual commission cap at eXp Realty is $16,000.

REAL Broker.

Real Estate Brokers: A maximum commission of $12,000.

This round’s victor is apparent. You can save $4,000 annually by using REAL Broker since they have the lowest commission cap! However, does that still indicate that working for Real Broker is more economical? Do you think we should discover?
The commission splits between REAL Broker and eXp Realty are.

#2 – Commission Splits

eXp Realty

Commission Split: eXp Realty offers an 80/20 split.

REAL Broker

Commission Split: REAL Broker provides a 15/85 split.

In this round, REAL Broker again wins, giving its agents a better-split ratio than eXp Realty and most other brokerages. This means more money in your pocket!

#3 – Fee’s

Fees are another way brokerages generate revenue from their agents, so knowing all the fees a brokerage charges its real estate agents is crucial.
eXp Realty

eXp Realty charges:

$149 Start-Up Fee
$85 Monthly Cloud Brokerage Fee
$25 Transaction Review Fee
$40 Risk Management Fee per transaction (caps at $500)
$250 Transaction Fee after you cap

Real Broker, In addition to its annual cap, REAL Broker charges:

$249 Sign-Up Fee
$750 Annual Fee
$285 Transaction Fee after you cap
$30 BEOP fee for each transaction

The Real Broker doesn’t charge a monthly fee; you only pay the annual fee after closing your first three deals of the year. If you don’t sell any homes, you don’t pay any fees, period.

When comparing fees, consider the overall impact on your business and which structure best suits your needs. Remember to factor in these fees when deciding between eXp Realty and REAL Broker.

#4 – Stock Bonuses

eXp Realty offers its agents 5 ways to earn free stock within the company:

Earn shares on your first transaction of each year
Earn shares when you cap
Earn shares when an agent you sponsor completes their first transaction
Earn $16,000 worth of shares by hitting their Icon Agent Award
Agent Equity Program allows you to purchase shares out of your commission at a 10% discount

REAL Broker offers its agents 4 paths to earning free stock in the company:

Earn stock by capping each year (the amount varies based on stock price & number of agents in brokerage)
Earn stock by attracting new agents to the company
Earn $24,000 worth of stock by hitting their Elite Agent Award
Purchase stock out of your commission & receive up to 35% free additional shares with a max of $8,000 free stock a year

#5 – Revenue Share

eXp offers its agents up to $2,800 a year for bringing in a new agent to the company out of that new agent’s $16,000 a-year cap. Any agent you directly bring in will be in your tier 1. So if the agent you bring on then brings on another agent, that second agent will be in your tier 2. Their revenue share program can go up to 7 tiers with various compensation for each tier. To unlock the rewards for all 7 tiers, you must bring on 40+ qualifying agents in your tier 1. Qualifying agents means they need to be producing agents who are closing transactions.

REAL Broker offers a similar revenue share program, except they give you $4,000 for every capping agent on your tier 1 you attract to the company. You can receive an annual revenue share for up to five tiers deep, and you must recruit at least 25 qualified agents to unlock all five tiers.

#6 – Software Included

Both companies utilize Workplace. This platform, created by Facebook, is like a series of Facebook groups JUST for business use without all the distractions of personal content and ads. You can mastermind with other agents, search for an agent, and directly message them. Both eXp and REAL also have additional training resources within the workplace.

eXp uses Skyslope for transaction management, while REAL Broker has built its proprietary transaction software, reZEN, which is very user-friendly and easy to use.

eXp Realty uses Inside Real Estate and KV Core for its agents’ CRM and websites, while REAL Broker offers its clients Chime for their CRM and Website needs. Although both services provide similar tools, Chime has a significant edge over KV Core.

Many eXp agents have found that Chime offers superior features and functionality compared to KV Core. As a result, some eXp agents choose to purchase Chime at an additional cost of over $500 a month, even though KV Core is already included in their package. In contrast, REAL Broker agents can access Chime for just $40 a month, making it a much more affordable and attractive option for them.

Episode Full Show Notes

[00:00:15.490] – Robert Newman

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the MailRight podcast. Today is episode number 425. John and I have been doing this 400… Well, I joined the show at episode number 138.

[00:00:30.110] – Jonathan Denwood

You’re a newbie, Robert. You’re a newbie. I’m a newbie.

[00:00:33.350] – Robert Newman

We’re closing in on my 300-show anniversary, which I feel pretty proud about. We’re going to talk In the last couple of podcasts, we’ve been mentioning a lot-I’m sorry, listeners, you’re going to have to watch the video.

[00:00:54.870] – Jonathan Denwood

He’s got one of his cats flicking its tail right in front of Rob. What are you doing to those cats, Rob?

[00:01:01.460] – Robert Newman

Well, he was howling outside the door, which means that he was going to be part of the podcast one way or the other. At least right now, you’re not hearing him. So anyway- We’re pet friendly on this podcast. Exactly. We highly… Never mind. I’m not going to get into it. But he’s a rescue, so if anybody wants to rescue animals on their side, thing interests, I highly- Funny enough, Rob, I feel I can rescue every day. All right, so we’re going to try to stay focused, which is difficult for John and me. If you’re a long-time listener, you already know that. We will discuss the differences between real and eXp and share our thoughts about these two brokerages because they’re both at the forefront of a digital revolution. They’re part of many changes that are hitting the real estate industry. And if you want to, for those of you who are crypto people and DeFi people, which are probably not a huge part of our audience, but this for this particular show, I’m going to say that the decentralization is hitting the entire real estate industry and decentralization from brand and things connected to main brokers.

[00:02:13.050] – Robert Newman

This isn’t going to be relevant to all of you, but some of you have already been seeing it. Major metro markets are the most deeply impacted. California, the Pacific Northwest, New York, and places like this, we’re really seeing a big change happening in the way that real estate agents train themselves, the way that they pay their community, commissions, what they consider good compensation packages to be. At the tip of the spear, there are two brokerages that are really at the forefront of this conversation, in my opinion. I don’t know if you agree or not, but it would be real and eXp. So before we dive into this, what I think is going to be a really meaty and really exciting subject for us to talk about, and we’re going to try to tie it into how that might impact your marketing as well. But before we get into any of that, John, number one, do you agree that these are the two companies at the forefront? And while you’re giving your thought on that, why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself?

[00:03:08.550] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, before I start, Rob, I’m so impressed that you’ve managed to do this intro because if you’re watching this, listeners and viewers, his cat is swigging his tail right in front of Robert’s face consistently. And he just… Rob does the intro like nothing’s happening. I’ve got to say, Rob, I’m very impressed. But to be true for Rob, I wasn’t up with real. So I’m really in your hands with this episode because it balances itself. In some of the episodes, Robert isn’t the expert, but I’ll be interested in hearing your views on this particular one. And I’m also the founder, the joint founder of Mel-right. Com. We are a CRM, a lead generative platform for real estate agents. It’s really incredible what we offer. We also offer a library of great WordPress real estate website themes from which you can choose one, and you can then utilize the power of Facebook to get some leads. Back over to you, Robert.

[00:04:24.530] – Robert Newman

Beautiful. Okay. Well, my name is Robert I’m David Newman. I’m the founder of Inbound RMS, one of the only inbound real estate marketing companies that exist. We focus on content and SEO-driven results. We focus on a long-term view instead of a short-term one with your marketing. We focus on you owning your marketing mechanisms because I’m a big believer in taking control of everything related to your marketing. Actually, though, we don’t talk about it a lot. As far as I can tell, so does John. Today, we will talk about one of the more exciting developments in the real estate industry. John, in general, I’ve said to many people, and you and I have talked offline about how we often feel the real estate industry is 10, 15 years behind other industries, especially as it relates to agents changing the way they do marketing and things like that. But do you still agree with that? Is that still something that you buy into?

[00:05:32.220] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, I think it does. It’s so fragmented, isn’t it, as an industry? The past five years have been a learning exercise because I’ve got deep roots in WordPress and web design, but it’s been a learning curve for me, and I didn’t realize how fragmented the industry was and that there are different silos of people isn’t it, and groups in it.

[00:05:59.910] – Robert Newman

There’s a lot of different silos. And there’s a very small silo, about 13% of the industry that has been gravitating, has been keeping up a little bit more with the digital revolution. And what do I mean by that? So John and I talk a lot about video and agents that are generating commissions and traffic off video and how they’re leveraging video inside hyper-local strategies, and they’re doing all sorts of… But you know what? That’s not the typical agent. It’s a very small part of the industry when you look at the industry as a whole. What is still dominant in terms of marketing? It’s the old school Book of business, word of mouth. I’ve got a network that I built up over 20 years, and I mail those people and send those people little gifts, magnets, and things like that. That’s still almost 100% the standard way to do it. Now you have people doing Twitter, and you have people doing Instagram, and you have People leveraging messaging. They’re communicating directly to their audience, similar to how Elon Musk does with Twitter, communicates directly to you, the consumer, and for better or for worse, that’s how he manages a good percentage of his business.

[00:07:17.830] – Robert Newman

Public perception has led to a lot of financing, a lot of stock increases, and all sorts of things. Well, that change has been rare in the real estate industry. I bet most of you listening to the show couldn’t name more than one or two agents that you hear that seem to have a natural voice about how technology is impacting real estate transactions, and then they’re trying to go directly to the consumer and explain these differences. Well, real and eXp are the brokerages where that small handful of agents are gravitating, that 10 to 13%. They’re gravitating to digital-first real estate marketing platforms, like real estate agent platforms. These platforms are applying a multi-level marketing compensation package to agents because they don’t have a brick-and-mortar network of offices, which, right off the top, eliminates 30 to 50% of the cost of running a brokerage. If you’re virtual, you’re going to save, or at least I would make the assumption that you would save a lot of money in rigid and fixed costs. Do you agree with that, John? Do you think that that’s an apt assessment?

[00:08:30.300] – Jonathan Denwood

It is. To be honest with the audience, I have a slight problem, especially with eXp, because I need to learn more about how Rill operates. But I have a problem with eXp, and it might not be totally fair, but it comes from my background because, obviously, folks, I’m English, and in the early ’80s, multilevel marketing operations in the UK were totally illegal, and you can go to prison. It’s not only a civil illegality but a criminal offense in the UK to run a multi-level marketing business. And you can go to prison by running one. And there are people that have gone to jail for running one. So because I’m from that background, folks, it’s very difficult for me to get my head around that in the US, it’s still legal and it’s still quite totally… When it comes to the law, to run a multi-level marketing operation. And eXp, in my opinion, has elements of it. It denies that its core business philosophy and structure are based on MLM principles, but it’s certainly got a very strong taste, in my opinion. And because of my background, I have problems with that.

[00:10:25.090] – Jonathan Denwood

I think many of our listeners and viewers don’t have a problem with. But I just wanted to explain to you, Robert, why my reaction might seem a bit strange to you. That’s why I’ve just said what I’ve said.

[00:10:45.130] – Robert Newman

So in the second part of the show, with John’s permission, ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to use an incredibly deep article that I found on nextgenagents. Com. I couldn’t do a comparison better. There’s no point in me writing an article or creating an article because they did the best job that you’re going to see somebody do online. So I’m not going to recreate it on my platforms. But John and I can provide insight and commentary to the details of this. And of course, two of our guests, previous guests on the show, are the real spokesmen, which I found fascinating. Matthew Lawson, who you might remember as the guy that founded the YouTube Real Estate Mastermind channel, which is huge at this point. He’s a real guy, and he’s been on our show before, John, and he’s on the NextGen Agents article. He’s featured. He’s becoming a heck of a spokesman for real, it appears. At least that’s what it appears like to me. Before we dive into the nitty-gritty in the latter half of the show, I want to position this in a John, your comments reflect. It’s eerie because you just made this comment without, I don’t think…

[00:12:07.130] – Robert Newman

I didn’t link John, the next Gen article. I actually just looked it up. But I will say this, his comments are eerily reflective in the next Gen article because what eXp has created was a really aggressive growth model, but they were a little lackadaisical on the way that they created the rules for recruiting agents. And there are complaints circling the industry about schemes, basically somewhat not cool, somewhat fictitious schemes that agents have created to put… What they’ve done is they’ve created downlines of eXp agents, but some people have put those agents under their own name and basically offered training. So some of the commission that we should go to that agent are now going to the upline. And it’s a huge scandal, but there’s nothing illegal about it. You signed an agreement with both entities. But what’s happening is that some eXp agents are doing a lot of recruiting, and they’re not necessarily doing it ethically. That’s basically what it all comes down to. And it is because of the multi-level marketing. Somebody has created a compensation system and a structure where you as an agent, if you’re a good trainer, a real estate trainer like me or John, let’s just say that we wanted to train salespeople on the digital marketing side, but we didn’t want to be real estate agents.

[00:13:36.880] – Robert Newman

Both eXp and real allow us to do that and receive commissions for doing it. And the way that you’re getting commissions is you’re receiving a very small piece of the earned commissions of the agents that you recruit and train. And so it is a new model where that appeals, mostly in my experience, to guys like Matthew. He’s a It’s a perfect case study where he was already… A broker isn’t going to provide Matthew a lot of value. Number one, he’s doing all his own lead gen. He relies on company branding or brokerage branding at not at all. When people come to do business with him, they’re already sold on Matthew Lawson. They actually don’t care where he works. They don’t care whether it’s Keller Williams or whether it’s Sotheby’s Luxury. They just don’t care. That I mean, and I’m pretty sure that we could probably go back in our show notes, John, and look at that episode. And I’m sure he said something to that effect, that when he gets calls, they’re sold on Matthew. They don’t really… They’re not paid too much attention.

[00:14:44.610] – Jonathan Denwood

I just quickly, before we go for our… Got about three or four minutes before our half break, is that the concept of a digital brokerage and the bit that is separate to the MLM element of it, I’m fine with it. I’m fine with it, them distributing shares because especially eXp, they are a publicly quoted company. I have no problem with that. The problem was, the problem, because of my background, is I have a I have a real problem with the MLM element of it, or the taste of it. I really have a problem with it, and it’s because where I come from, Robert, because I just consider it And it’s not the case here in America, but I consider it, because of my background, to be iffy, to say the least. I really don’t want to get involved with it.

[00:15:59.920] – Robert Newman

Which makes sense. I have gotten involved with MLM stuff as a professional sales guy and a professional sales trainer and a professional sales leader. I’ve been approached hundreds of times. I’ve actually been approached three or four different times for eXp by various clients and people that know me and know my reputation in the industry. They all want me to get involved with eXp, and so far I’ve declined. The reasons for that is simple. It is It’s a very complicated thing to build a downline in an MLM. You can do it if you are somebody like me who’s already a CEO and already built companies, and you understand every single element of building a company, you provide a lot of value in your mentorship, and then in which case I would say my continued percentage from all my downline is worth it. There are people out there that provide a huge amount of value to less experienced people, and you pay them for them training. You just constantly pay them for training. But a lot of MLM people are professional signers. They just sign you up and they let everybody else always provide all the value if they provide any value at all.

[00:17:09.220] – Robert Newman

And they basically hire in masses, kick them in the asses, and hope that something sticks. In other words, somebody else provides the value. What they did is sign you up for the opportunity. And that’s where it gets really shaky, especially since multi-level marketing is somewhat of a pyramid, which is why it’s illegal in Europe. It doesn’t matter how you slice the pie, somebody, the handful of people at top are always at top. That’s it. We’re going to put a pin in this, and we’re going to go to break. And when we come back, John, are you okay with me sharing the screen?

[00:17:44.160] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah. Okay.

[00:17:46.010] – Robert Newman

When we come back, I’m going to use a presentation feature, and we’re going to dive into the incredible differences between real. Then in the bonus section of the show, I’m going to actually share my thoughts because I I asked for this show to be done, and I have some thoughts about why Reel is just right now on fire, and it’s taking a lot of the top agents They’re growing exponentially, and I think I know why, or at least I have an understanding of why they look more interesting to me than eXp. Without any further ado, we’re going to go to break. Stay tuned, and we’ve got some exciting stuff for you. All right, let me edit this out. I’m going to go to share the screen. Here’s our client. Can you see Matthew’s beautiful face right here with my mouse? Okay. We’re going to start here. Okay, we’re just going to… And then I’m just going to… I’m going to read, and then you and I will offer our thoughts. But honestly, it’s just some small differences. The big huge difference is down here in the conversation. This is the massive difference, which I didn’t even know, but we’re just going to talk about it real quick.

[00:19:25.720] – Robert Newman

Okay, you can read it. Licensee acknowledges and verifies that the referral agent has not promised, enticed, or provided contract with anything of value, including but not limited to lead generation platforms, CRM, coaching trips, rebates or currency in return for naming referral agent. In other words, you cannot… They fixed this massive hole in the exp agreement. Okay?

[00:19:49.370] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah.

[00:19:50.360] – Robert Newman

All right. And then everything else we can read together, I think. Okay? All right. So here we go. Are you ready? Yeah. All right. 3, 2, 1. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. It’s episode number 425. For those of you who are able, we’ve moved over to doing a screen share. We’re once again looking at an article on next-gen exigence. Com. What we’re doing is we’re examining an article that they wrote, Taking a look at the Differences between Real versus eXp. For those of you who are willing to do a deeper dive, you should probably go read this article yourself. John and I are not making any assertions, even if we express opinions, that you should make any decisions as it relates to your real estate brokerage. We are not trying to provide professional advice that says that you should or should not leave a brokerage. What we’re trying to do is offer our opinion, take it or leave it, about these kinds of offers in general and the specifics of real versus eXp. To be fair, I have put John in this position, so he has not, and I did not send him this article in advance, so we’re going to both be doing this in real-time together.

[00:21:14.870] – Robert Newman

John, for the first time, and I’ve just started reading it, I didn’t know what the differences were. I had a very high level view of a lot of people that I respect in the industry, bailing from eXp and heading over to real. I asked the question, why? There’s so many of them. I’d say 50% of the top influencers I know are transferring. I just wanted to know why. And so this show was our answer to that question. Okay? So what we’re looking What I’ve got on the screen right now is a commissioning caps, eXp versus real. Exp charges a startup fee. They have a $149 startup fee, $85 cloud brokerage fee, $25 transaction review fee, $40 risk management fee, and $250 transaction fee after you cap. Exp also charges $149, $500 fee, and $225. In other words, for those of you who are listening to the show, there are some small differences in fees and charges, but to me, they look not that big. All right? Exp, John, I’m seeing here that eXp offers $16,000 worth of shares by hitting their agent award. Their agent equity program allows you to purchase shares out of your commission at a 10% discount.

[00:22:52.370] – Robert Newman

Now, there is a big difference here. Reel offers a lot more paths into getting stock, purchase stock out of commission and earn up to 50% fee and additional shares with a max of $8,000. Now, I want to be honest with everybody, you included, John. I own shares of both eXp and real, so everybody knows. So again, this is not investment advice. But I noticed something that is fascinating. Have you ever looked at either one of these stocks? Did you ever track it down? Is this Is there an area of interest for you, like personal interest for you at all? Do you invest in any of the companies you talk about?

[00:23:36.360] – Jonathan Denwood

No, not really, because of what I stated in the first half of the show, Rob.

[00:23:41.290] – Robert Newman

Okay. All right. Well, I do. Here’s something that is fascinating. Real has a significantly better profit versus loss statement. They’ve got a significantly higher ability to earn revenue via stock. Their cap is much higher. 24 versus 16 is a 30 to 40% difference. Purchase stock out of commission and earn 50% additional shares with a max of 8,000 bonus stock per year. They’re getting very aggressive with agents that are willing to reinvest some of their own income into stock. Their stock, which is selling at $3 a share right now, and they’ve got this incredible P versus E, like a price versus earnings. There’s much more appealing from that end of it. Basically, according to what their share price is, they’re wildly undervalued. So if, John, I think that if you’re an investment-minded agent, this might look appealing to you? What do you think?

[00:24:50.730] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, funny enough, you bring this up. I was listening to Rob Rowland, and Rob Rowland was the joint founder of an email marketing platform called Drip, and he sold it, sold the business, and it was highly successful. And he runs a podcast called Startups For The Rest Of Us. And I was listening to his week. I listened to it weekly. And he was talking… And it’s related to what you’ve just outlined. He’s related to a concept and a founder of a company called Bold. And Bold was in email marketing and something else. And the employees could buy shares in Bold at a discount, a very high discount. The CEO of BOLD really went on a Twitter storm and online marketing and attacking… Oh, that’s why… It was a competitor to Stripe, online payments. The founder went on a bit of a Twitter storm and an online PR campaign there about how bad Stripe was and how great Bold was, and you should buy shares, and definitely all the staff should buy shares, and they did. They all palled in buying these discounts.

[00:26:24.620] – Robert Newman

Sure.

[00:26:25.680] – Jonathan Denwood

It all went pair-shaped, and what they didn’t realize, at the The CEO, at the time, he was encouraging all his staff to poll in and buy all this share. He was selling, and the company went bust. He walked away still a very rich man. I want to make clear to everybody there’s nothing illegal that was done. But it led a very bad taste in a lot a lot of people’s mouths, and a lot of the staff really got taken to the cleaners. So as you said all this to me, it’s really strange because I listened to Rob’s podcast on Monday, and as soon as you started saying this, that’s what came into my mind, Robert.

[00:27:22.230] – Robert Newman

Which is fair. And I just want to be, once again, very clear with everybody, this is an investment advice, and I don’t own very many shares of either one of these companies, eXp or real. I just own enough to have them in my stock tracker so that I am paying attention to their stock price. I personally, it doesn’t matter whether it’s this company or another company, one thing that I do know is that decentralized real estate is definitely the wave of the future. Is it really in a multi-level marketing brokerage scheme? I don’t know. That’s a fast way to build a sales team, that’s for sure. Whether or not it’s the permanent method or model. I mean, one might as well say, John, that a digital education company that was really good at figuring out how to educate people about something could step into the real estate business and train the 50 to, well, the 25% of the industry, which is about 250,000 agents, how to sell real estate at a professional level, market themselves at a professional level, and then take a percentage of all their business moving forward forever because they train them.

[00:28:31.240] – Robert Newman

That effectively is what these systems and companies are doing. There’s real value in that, I would propose. Whoever’s training the agents, there’s nothing wrong with creating an informational brand that says that if you do a good enough job and teach somebody a career, why shouldn’t you profit? But here’s the problem, and I’ve got it on the screen. There is something that eXp has drawn a lot of fire about, and it plays into John’s It’s the first statement, which he made without even knowing that this existed, because he is right. There are problems in the multi-level marketing model. It is not accidental that the UK has made this illegal, 100% illegal. That is licensee acknowledges… Here’s the big difference. It’s the major difference between real and eXp, and it plays into what are going to be my closing comments. Licensee acknowledges and verifies that the referral agent has not promised enticed or provided contractor with anything of value, including but not limited to lead generation platform CRM, coaching tips, rebates or currency in exchange for naming referral agent. That is a challenge that is happening with eXp. There are a lot of people out there that have got really aggressive with recruiting people into their downline, and they’ve gotten a little shady about how they do that so that they can collect compensation and stock incentives for recruiting It is a loophole that reel his field.

[00:30:03.280] – Robert Newman

That reason, because while we are talking about the nuts and bolts in finances, I got to tell everybody, including John, the Reasons that people are listing leaving eXp and heading over to Riyal are not based on the compensation. It is a bonus, is what I’m hearing. It is a bonus about It’s just a bonus. It’s a bonus. Why is that? What is the deciding factor? Well, John, I cruised over to real and started to check out their website and I found something that was deeply fascinating to me. The CEO and many of the leaders of the company have done the in-depth mission statement videos, really in-depth reasons for why they established Real, what the mission of Real is, who they’re trying to serve, why they’re trying to serve them that way, what specifically are they aiming to accomplish with Real. It was such an incredibly comprehensive, passionate deep dive, especially by, I think it was the COO of the company. I’ve never seen anything like it. Not from Glenn, the CEO of eXp. You see ra-ras from him, but you don’t see this thoughtful, in-depth explanation. If you headed over to Real right now, trying to learn something about them, you’re going to be able to do the same thing I did, which is you’re going to see some of the officers, the people that run the company, and you’re going to get this incredibly personal conversation about what real is about.

[00:31:54.300] – Robert Newman

It’s long form, it’s not short form. You have to invest a little bit of your time. But if you wanted to, if you wanted to invest that time, here you’ve got real leaders of the company sharing a lot of thoughts about the company in a very detailed and personal way. I was just staggered because it was so insightful. They really seem to have an understanding of what agents are caring about right now. They seem to really have a desire to serve those agents, help the agents that need help, reward the agents that are learning, teaching, training, growing, and pay attention to the quality of the experience that all real agents are having. That was a part of their absolutely stated mission statement, which is absolutely something that I’m noticing that as eXp grew, I don’t feel like they’re doing. They’re not focused on the mentorship experience that theoretically a multi-level marketing type company could Excel at, theoretically. You were precognizant about this. Now that you’ve seen that it was literally one of the main issues that was called out by Reel, and it’s also called out on this website, and it’s also like, what are your closing thoughts on this?

[00:33:24.600] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, it’s difficult, isn’t it, Rob? But hopefully you can see why I I needed to explain that I’m English and what the situation in the UK is, because I feel my stance won’t make much sense to you or the audience, really. And there’s parts of For me, it’s these eXp and real that I like. I think a digital agents brokerage for the right type of agents is very attractive and very beneficial. I think the commission The commission cap, the commission splits, the emphasis on digital technology, they’re all attractive. The bit that I can’t deal with is all the bit that a lot of people also find even more attractive than the things I’ve list, which is the multi-marketing side of it, which I cannot accept because of my background It just diminishes the whole concept to me. And I don’t think it has… You don’t have the same response to it. And I’m not And I’m not attacking you because it’s cultural, Robert.

[00:34:51.960] – Robert Newman

So here’s my closing thoughts. Whether real or eXp are the answer for real estate, here’s what I believe with all my heart. The whole world, a good percentage of all marketing and sales is now happening in what one could refer to as the Influencer or information age revolution. So it is coming down to individuals that provide a lot of value to you. And if that individual has provided a lot of value to you, you are more inclined to do business with them. Or if you perceive that they, like the Kardashian’s is an easy target for me because they’ve made billions off influencer marketing, billions with a B. And they’ve sold video games, they’ve sold perfume, they’ve sold clothing, they’ve sold makeup. The list of things that they’ve gotten into successfully and made massive amounts of money on, basically on the idea of their own personal reputation is staggering. But to be fair, the Kardashian have been incredibly bleeding edge about how they leverage their influence. They’ve got a TV show, and from the TV show, they literally have turned their own reputation into billions of dollars. On a much smaller level, when it comes to real estate, there are a very small handful of agents and people like me and John that provide a tremendous amount of value to the average real estate agent.

[00:36:23.750] – Robert Newman

Why? Because we will teach you something that is not being taught by your broker. Or if it is being taught by your broker, they’re teaching you things that are 10 years old. Because most brokerages, almost all of them, including Keller Williams, including most of them, don’t understand digital. They’re still promoting platforms and solutions that worked 10 years ago. And many of these platforms or solutions are second or third best options for you as agents to generate leads. And a lot of people, even Tom Ferry, when you walk into this seminar, they’re still I’m not going to be talking to you about mailers and bus benches and digital displays. I’m not saying they don’t also talk to you about websites and things like that, but we’re in a digital first era. It’s not digital second, digital third, digital fourth. I get tired of people saying, do I need a website? It’s like, okay, I get tired of people asking me, do you need a Google profile or a Zillow profile? Or it’s like, it doesn’t matter if you do business for Zillow, you need a profile. Because it’s the biggest, it’s like the Google of real estate.

[00:37:40.840] – Robert Newman

So saying, Do I need a Zillow? It’s like, Well, yeah. Do I like that? The answer? No, I hate it. I hate telling agents that. I despise saying that to people, John. But do you need it? Yes, you need it. I’m sorry. That’s where the… Wherever the traffic is online, you need to be there, too. If you don’t want to pay them extra money, don’t. I hate that. Don’t pay Zillow extra money, but they let you build a profile for free. Should you not only have it, but maybe even have some reviews there? Because you can put reviews on a Zillow profile, whether or not you use the platform. Should you have some reviews on your Zillow platform? Profile? Yes, you should. Why? Because there’s massive amounts of people on the platform, and you’re back into some business, most likely. It’s frustrating to me that people haven’t realized, and the The only companies that are out there that are serving the digital-first agent, of which I’ve already said is less than 10% of the industry, maybe 10-13% maximum, is eXp and real. Because they are taking the idea of whoever trains you and teaches you on how to do business today in this market, we’re going to compensate you.

[00:38:52.630] – Robert Newman

Why should a brokerage that is not… I mean, again, this is just my opinion, but wherever you’re hanging your license, if they’re taking a percentage of your revenue, shouldn’t they be providing value in equal amounts to whatever you’re paying or greater? Because to me, if I was an agent, that’s what I’d be looking at. If they’re not training me or they’re not providing me something new, they’re not giving me a mentor, they’re not giving me leads, they’re just taking a percentage of my commission, the answer is, but why? If I have to go out and learn all that on my own without any help from my broker whatsoever, and what John, it seems like you got something you want to add.

[00:39:32.080] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, I think just to finish, I think everything you’ve just outlined, I can agree. I think it’s a balance. And I think when the MLM element becomes the overriding reason why somebody is involved with these digital brokerages and things like eXp. If that is the overriding aspect, project that interests them and makes them a influencer or a driver, whatever term you want to use, then I think I personally have a problem with it. I think if it’s only a small small part, and the other things that you’ve outlined are the main reasons why they like the platform, my concern isn’t so high. Is that making any sense, Robert?

[00:40:30.130] – Robert Newman

It is. But John is right. We’ve covered as much as we can in a single show. There’s a lot more to be said about this in general. For me, if you’d like to tune in to what I have to say about these things, you can find some of those thoughts on inboundrm. Com. You can also find them on, I think my YouTube handle is YouTube/inboundrmvanis. You can just go to YouTube and put in InboundReum, and you’ll see all my videos. It’s easy to find me. John, if people wanted to find you, How would you like them to do that?

[00:41:02.460] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, go to mel-right. Com. You can book a chat with me. I can show you the platform. We’re building out some new functionality at the end of this month, at the end of April, actually, a library of great WordPress Gutenberg real estate themes, which you can choose a particular theme for your website that we provide as part of the Melright package. And it’s going to be super quick and super easy to edit, and you’re going to love them. So that’s coming out the end of probably April. And when it does, I’ll be talking a little bit more about it. Back over to you, Robert.

[00:41:47.730] – Robert Newman

So, ladies and gentlemen, any market is always tough as a real estate marketer. But for those who are listening to this show, even though… I am not always firmly in the camp of endorsing somebody because I feel a social obligation. It has sometimes, at times, been a point of contention between John and me. But I will say this: right now, if I were you, if I was an agent, and things were belt-tightening, I think that conversation with John has additional appeal. His platform is inexpensive compared to most other platforms. I’m not trying to put myself in your pocketbook. I don’t know money. However, in terms of the competitive landscape, John’s solution is priced attractively. And then you have the fact that it’s built on WordPress, the fact… You do own it, don’t you?

[00:42:38.860] – Jonathan Denwood

Oh, yeah. We’re building it on a framework called Gutenberg and a framework called Cadence WP. And I’ve built out a similar platform on my other business. And we’re building out half a dozen super fast-quality, attractive themes. At the present moment, we’ve only got one. It’s similar to Real Geeks, but we’re going to provide a library of websites, and we’ll give you some white glove training, and you’ll be able to customize it yourself, or you can hire us at different levels to customize it. But if you ever decide that you want to leave Mail-right, we will migrate the website to wherever else you want it hosted. So you do own it, Robert.

[00:43:25.590] – Robert Newman

Perfect. So that’s a big deal. Anyone who’s followed me for a long period of time, including John, will know that I’m just on fire about having control of your marketing, including the ability to have a lifetime license where you can do what John just said. You can move the website to one place or another, which means you can fire John, which, by the way, you can fire me.

[00:43:48.250] – Jonathan Denwood

So it’s the same. Why would anybody want to fire you, Robert?

[00:43:52.790] – Robert Newman

And then you get to keep your… Thank you, John. You get to keep your stuff, which is essential if you decide to do work, customize, or learn to use the platform. Having ownership and control means that once you learn the skillset if you do learn the skillset, it is a durable skillset that’s likely to last and be an investment that is long-term in your real estate career. So this is an excellent time to talk to somebody like John. If I were in the position of many agents looking at all these changes and I got a lot of concern about my future budget, I’d probably be calling guys like John and looking deep into Weed Solutions. Now, for those tiny handful of you who are veteran agents, have… I’ve got a NAR. I made some comments on the NAR settlement. It’s in the process of going viral on my YouTube channel. I got like 500 views in under 48 hours. That comment is basically for those small handful of you that are veteran agents, this is the time to shine. Maybe some of you might want to reach out to me because this is the time to make moves and get your digital solutions for how you’re going to handle the buyer-side agreement and get out in front of everybody.

[00:45:04.190] – Robert Newman

Because those of you who’ve done this for 20 years know you’re not going anywhere. You’re going to Excel in the long term because many people will surrender their licenses. That means that there’s going to be less competition for all of you. That’s the day. Anyway, thanks for tuning in, everybody. John, thank you for humoring me. I appreciate it. I hope everybody got value out of the show. John, I hope you are out of the show. I understand everybody is listening, and I appreciate John giving me a little bit of leniency on this one.