- 5 months ago
This week on RealTrending, Tracey Velt sits down with David Keener, the CEO of Premiere Group at Real Brokerage. Over the past 8 years, Premiere has expanded to over 27 states and almost 300 agents across the U.S.; they joined Real just eight months ago.
David talks about the innovative structure of the Premiere teamerage and the potential of ancillary services like mortgage and title. He also talks about using the firm’s status as a C corporation to maximize its shareholders and leveraging Real's API tools to enhance agent success.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
How Premiere Group’s member-owned model fosters high retention and collective success
The strategic transition to a C corporation and its impact on agent involvement
The role of technology and business intelligence in driving growth and efficiency
The benefits of dual licensing and ancillary services for increased agent income
Leadership principles that emphasize setting an example and fostering community
Related to this episode:
PREMIERE Group at Real Broker, LLC.
https://joinpremieretoday.com/
David Keener | LinkedIn
http://linkedin.com/in/david-keener-2b1302
Real Brokerage
https://www.joinreal.com/
HousingWire | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
David talks about the innovative structure of the Premiere teamerage and the potential of ancillary services like mortgage and title. He also talks about using the firm’s status as a C corporation to maximize its shareholders and leveraging Real's API tools to enhance agent success.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
How Premiere Group’s member-owned model fosters high retention and collective success
The strategic transition to a C corporation and its impact on agent involvement
The role of technology and business intelligence in driving growth and efficiency
The benefits of dual licensing and ancillary services for increased agent income
Leadership principles that emphasize setting an example and fostering community
Related to this episode:
PREMIERE Group at Real Broker, LLC.
https://joinpremieretoday.com/
David Keener | LinkedIn
http://linkedin.com/in/david-keener-2b1302
Real Brokerage
https://www.joinreal.com/
HousingWire | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00How do you create that stickiness that keeps real estate agents with your firm?
00:05Well, David Keener, who's the CEO of Premier Realty at Real Brokerage, has come on the
00:11podcast today to explain exactly how.
00:14And one of those ways is dual licensing, which I think is fascinating.
00:18And he has a lot to say about it.
00:20So enjoy the podcast.
00:22David, thanks so much for joining the Real Trending podcast.
00:26Hey, thanks for having me.
00:28Yeah, so I want to talk a little bit about your teamerage.
00:31So Premier, you kind of describe it as a member-owned, agent-centric teamerage, and you're with Real.
00:37So tell me a little bit about your team and the culture of your team.
00:44So Premier has actually been around for about eight years.
00:47We've been with Real for about a year and eight months now.
00:51We actually span across 27 different states, just shy of 300 agents.
00:56Most of that growth occurred over the last four years.
01:00Yeah, we were at about, I think, 1,750 to 2,000 transactions a year.
01:05We just hit over a billion dollars in volume.
01:08It's been a pretty exciting time, to say the least.
01:10But yeah, we originally joined with Keller Williams a very long time ago,
01:15then joined with EXP.
01:17But again, now we're at Real, and there's no better place to be right now.
01:21So explain to me, are those the people in your downline, or are they actual team members?
01:27No, that's a good question.
01:28No, that's not my network.
01:29That's my team.
01:31Those are actual agents that are a part of Premier,
01:33and they actually have their stakeholders in Premier.
01:36And that's what makes us unique, is we are member-owned and member-operated,
01:40unlike any other real estate team I've ever heard of.
01:42Okay.
01:43Go into a little more detail for that, about how you're structuring it, and how that works.
01:49Yeah.
01:50So it is probably the number one question I get is,
01:52how is it that we have such a high retention rate?
01:55Because this is real estate after all, right?
01:58You know, every two years, an agent starts getting a little itchy,
02:00and looking at the grass on the other side.
02:02You know, I've been in business, building businesses for about 30 years.
02:06Prior to the real estate industry, it was in technology.
02:10But during the course of building those businesses, these were W-2 employees.
02:15One of the things that we were able to do with those employees that were helping me build these,
02:19me and my co-founders, build these businesses was stock options,
02:23in lieu of a full salary, because let's face it, you know,
02:26money is very important, very tight when you're starting out.
02:29So we equipped them with stock options.
02:30In other words, you know, a vested interest in our collective success.
02:34And what I learned over, you know, again, 20 years until I got into real estate was,
02:40I did very well financially.
02:42But what I walked away from was,
02:45when we were able to hand over those envelopes with those checks,
02:49you know, their percentage or their share of what we're able to sell for,
02:55it changed my life.
02:56And because it changed their lives.
02:58And it hit me, it caught me off guard to see single family moms with a six-figure check
03:03that, you know, was making a salary of $40,000 a year,
03:07or an accountant that worked for free for a couple years to be sitting on a $300,000,
03:12you know, dividend, you know, for just being along for the ride and having faith in that
03:16we were going to get to that ultimate place.
03:19You know, then I got into real estate again, about eight, nine years ago and said,
03:22I want to replicate that.
03:23But again, not in technology, in real estate.
03:27So literally from day one, I wanted to build up a team or brokerage on a national scale and do just
03:33that.
03:34I wanted to pay it forward.
03:36Give people a vested interest in the collective success of a bunch of people kind of going in the
03:42same direction, doing everything they can.
03:44And at the end of a journey, having something to hold on to of substantial value.
03:48So what we did was about two years, almost two years ago, we flipped from an LLC to a C corporation.
03:57And that's important because you can't give out or have more than greater than 100 shareholders
04:03in anything other than a C corporation.
04:05So we do.
04:06We have greater than 100 shareholders.
04:08That's the members of Premier.
04:10So every real estate agent you ever hear that's affiliated to Premier, they're my business partner.
04:16And I'll get into more detail here in a little bit is my guess.
04:19But that's exciting because what it does is it creates stickiness.
04:23Who would want to leave something they have a vested interest in?
04:26You know what I mean?
04:27So, yeah.
04:28So let's go into that.
04:30You know, that's a lot of cooks in the kitchen.
04:32And so talk to me about how you structure it.
04:36So everyone has a voice.
04:38But there's you still maintain that, you know, the business like it is.
04:46Yeah.
04:46So I'm the CEO.
04:47I make the final decisions.
04:49There's a board of directors.
04:50If something ever happened to me, you know, they find a replacement.
04:53And we exist as we are right now, just with a different person at the helm.
04:58So in terms of what stake they have, that comes by way of a stock option agreement.
05:03And how many stock options they get is based on their tenure, how much they've contributed towards, you know, the splits and things like that.
05:12And that's what dictates or determines how much equity they have in this collective success known as Premier.
05:18Okay, great.
05:20And you said you came from a tech field.
05:22And I know Real, you know, I interviewed Tamir at The Gathering.
05:26And I also interviewed him for a podcast.
05:28He talks about how Real is a technology company.
05:31And they're all in on AI.
05:33Is that what attracted you to Real?
05:36And how are, you know, what about that are you interested in?
05:41You know, AI wasn't even really mentioned too much when we made the decision to come over to Real.
05:46The reason we made that move, you know, there's a couple of really solid reasons.
05:50One would be their API access.
05:52So, Real has a system they call Reason, R-E-Z-E-N.
05:57That's the system that every agent logs into to, you know, conduct their transaction management operations.
06:03But it also keeps track of a network if you have one, the rev sharing, make it basically a whole business.
06:09But what made it compelling for us was the fact that they also opened up that infrastructure
06:14and provided API access to people like me with a technology background
06:19so I could extract the data that I wanted and put it into interfaces and systems
06:26and use them as I felt necessary.
06:29In other words, they weren't holding my data, my information, or transactions hostage.
06:33That was a primary reason of coming over, as well as the more flexible model they had
06:39or approach towards real estate teams.
06:42You know, in my opinion, before we made the move, and it took us six months of due diligence
06:46before we made this move because it was a critical one.
06:48We needed to be affiliated with a brokerage that got it, that real estate teams were the future,
06:55that real estate teams do provide a lot of value.
06:57But more importantly, they gave them the flexibility to operate as they felt necessary
07:03rather than, you know, giving down certain rules or restrictions
07:07on what you could or could not do as a CEO of a real estate team.
07:11Okay, great.
07:12And so you've expanded, you said 27 states, I think?
07:1627 states, yeah.
07:17We just opened up Alabama.
07:17Okay, so tell me, what is your growth plan?
07:20How are you expanding?
07:22And are you strategically choosing places or are they strategically choosing you?
07:27Wow, that's a good question.
07:28What's really funny is, you know how many recruiters we have?
07:31Premier?
07:31None.
07:33Everything, all of our growth has occurred almost exclusively organically.
07:37One agent telling another.
07:39And we're pretty selective about who we want in the organization.
07:42You know, I say that, but new agents are welcome here.
07:46We just want to make sure they've got a good work ethic.
07:48If they're going to be successful, they're going to leverage the tools and resources that
07:51we have.
07:52In terms of where or how we expand is truly dictated by, you know, the phone call or the
07:57email or the message.
07:58Hey, I'd like to learn more.
08:00And through a process of interviews and discussions, we show them, this is what we provide.
08:05This is how you can benefit.
08:07We then go on.
08:09If we find it's a good candidate, we first want to have a team leader in place.
08:14A lot of people look at me as the team leader, Premier.
08:16I'm not.
08:16I'm the CEO.
08:17I'm the operator.
08:18And underneath me, I have 42 team leaders across the United States.
08:22And I look at them as a proxy to me because let's face it, 300 people, I can't talk to
08:27people every day.
08:28And in real estate, it's very important to have those relationships.
08:31So the growth that we've had is determined first by, is there a person, a presence that
08:37we can have to be an extension of what we have here in North Carolina in that particular
08:42market, in that particular state?
08:44And if we have one, then we're open for business.
08:46We will allow other agents because you and I both know that real estate agents are typically
08:53very relational.
08:54They love their offices.
08:56They like to network, hang out, have a coffee.
08:58They work seven days a week.
09:00And we wanted to extend that.
09:01That's hard to do in a cloud brokerage with no offices.
09:04So I think that that's probably a secret to our success is that we open up with virtual
09:09offices and there's a dedicated resource to be there and assist them and support them to
09:14have a sense of community.
09:15Again, as a proxy to what we've done here centrally.
09:19And do you market to certain states for them?
09:21You know, because how do they find out about you?
09:24You know?
09:25Yeah, we don't do any marketing other than a website.
09:30Occasionally, our marketing folks will do an ad for a particular, like maybe we have a
09:34need because we have a certified mentoring program.
09:36And oftentimes, you know, we might get a lot of interest from a lot of new agents that heard
09:42about us, but we don't have a certified mentor local.
09:44So we might run a Facebook ad.
09:46Hey, any real estate agents out there looking to add additional financial opportunity?
09:52Come talk to us.
09:53All you have to do is, you know, let these people shadow you, help them become successful.
09:58So that's about the only advertisements that we run.
10:00Okay.
10:01And let's talk about the tools that you're using.
10:04Is it across the board, everyone that you're working with uses specific CRM, everything,
10:11all of the real technology platform?
10:14Or tell me how you're working your tech.
10:15So while I said that Reason is the platform that all the agents can use to see their data,
10:21because they're with our team, we provide a lot of services to our agents.
10:25So much so that they don't even need to go into Reason if they don't want to, because
10:28we provide dedicated transaction coordinators and managers to do that for them.
10:33In terms of the technology, we do have a set of tools and tech that we use in conjunction
10:38with Reason at Real.
10:40But so much so that they don't really need to go in there.
10:44For example, we use Open to Close as an intake form after an agent goes under contract with
10:49someone and they just drag and drop that and a transaction manager takes it off from there.
10:53We use Follow Up Boss as our CRM for lead management.
10:58We also are big fans of Fellow, which is specifically tailored towards, you know, listing leads.
11:04And we even have our own app that we spend, you know, six figures a year on up in the Google
11:07store or the Apple store for any consumer to download and have an aggregated view of all
11:13of our listings across the United States.
11:15Okay.
11:16And so how are you structuring compensation?
11:19Is it truly a teamerage?
11:21Everything is running up to you?
11:23Yeah, because we're also very unique in that, as you know, brokerages usually charge caps
11:28a certain amount every year that you're obligated to.
11:32Well, you have those at Real, too.
11:33They're very small.
11:34It's $12,000 a year.
11:35Well, we actually pay that on behalf of the agent.
11:39We're unique in that we have a team cap.
11:41The most that you'll spend with us is $20,000 a year, but that $12,000 comes out of that.
11:47So we're making about $8,000 or $700 and some bucks a month per agent per month if you,
11:52you know, average it out.
11:53And you're getting a couple of thousand dollars a month in tools and resources, which makes
11:58it an amazing value proposition.
12:00Okay, great.
12:01Any new areas opening up soon?
12:04Any new states?
12:05Yeah, we're excited.
12:06We just opened up Alabama.
12:08So we're looking to expand there.
12:10Florida's on fire.
12:11Texas, California, they're all busy.
12:14You know, we're grown in every area.
12:16So nothing in particular.
12:18We're very fixated on where we have a big concentration of investments, joint venture title
12:25companies such as Texas, Florida, soon to be California, Michigan, and Virginia.
12:31So that's important to us, those states.
12:33And you're doing those through your team, the joint ventures.
12:37Yeah.
12:37Okay.
12:38Yes.
12:38Yeah.
12:39Those are all owned by Premier Realty Incorporated, which is owned by me and the agents.
12:44Okay.
12:44I know there's so many models out there now that are, it's hard to actually decide what
12:50is a team and what isn't a team anymore.
12:53How do you define it?
12:55So it's interesting because I think you're running similar to another team, well, how they
13:01used to run.
13:02And I know they've changed since then.
13:04And I'm not going to name it, but it's a different brokerage.
13:08So, so yeah, but it's really, really interesting how you're running it.
13:13And so tell me kind of what prompted you to decide to build it.
13:19Obviously you, you built some things through tech, tech companies, you know, teams that
13:25way, but what were you seeing in the real estate industry that you felt like was missing
13:30that you found a solution for?
13:33The biggest, most glaring hole I think was business intelligence.
13:36I mean, real estate, there's so many tools and technologies and not a whole lot of them
13:42interoperate together without the assistance of Zapier or make or some other technology
13:46like that.
13:48Even with all that integration, there's not a lot of them surfacing the data that's truly
13:53going to help a real estate agent act like a CEO of a business.
13:57So that's what we've been spending a lot of time.
14:00In fact, again, we take all of our profit and invest it in assets that generate additional
14:06income that we all own.
14:08And one of those is a technology company that we're heavily invested in called agentdashboards.com.
14:15And it is a 100% business intelligence platform that's getting ready to go live for real estate
14:21agents, teams, and brokerages.
14:24And it's a bring your own data model, whether you're at real using reason or sky slope or
14:30dot loop or follow up boss and lofty, whatever.
14:34We are building in the automated integrations where the data just comes in.
14:38It's centrally located where you can make quick, intelligent decisions about your business,
14:44where you were, but most importantly, how you're going to get to where you need to be.
14:48Layering in some AI capabilities.
14:50Okay.
14:50And so what has been your aha moment through building Premier?
14:54Well, I come from a background of W2 employees with very little 1099 contractors.
15:01And then to come into the real estate industry, it was an eye-opening experience realizing that
15:0699% of the people that you're going to be affiliated to are all contractors.
15:11And they come and go very easily.
15:13Fortunately, we haven't had that situation, but it does happen.
15:16Um, that's been the aha moment is that there's a different approach that one must have with
15:23independent contractors.
15:24They're not salaried individuals.
15:26They make commissions.
15:28So you need to equip them.
15:29In other words, you got to front the money for the expenses, the tech, the trainings and
15:34everything else.
15:35And then you might get a good return on it.
15:37And if they don't feel returned, they go out the door and try something new.
15:41That, that, that was an eye-opening experience for me.
15:44Yeah.
15:44Creating that stickiness to, to keep them with you for sure.
15:48Yeah.
15:48Yeah.
15:49Cause I see the agent movement all the time through some of the companies that track it
15:53and it's really interesting.
15:54The cycle it goes through, it's kind of a very similar cycle too.
15:58So, so yeah.
15:59So let's talk about kind of the current, what's going on in the industry today.
16:03We've had a lot of, um, from the lawsuits to the low inventory to interest rates are still
16:11pretty high.
16:11And then there are a lot of shifting consumer expectations now, um, with, with compensation.
16:19So what do you, you know, what is the most important trend that you're watching for your
16:23agents and how are you positioning your company to adapt to that?
16:27Man, isn't that the, that was a scary situation a couple of years ago.
16:31It really was.
16:31We didn't know where we were going to be, but I can tell you based on that business
16:35intelligence platform, agent dashboards, we've been seeing across the teams, no change
16:40and buyer commissions, none.
16:42It's been steady for that entire two year period, um, which is great because it, it, it, it,
16:48it stands to prove that agents still provide value and people are willing to pay for it.
16:53They still do a lot on behalf of the clients, even from a buyer standpoint.
16:58Even so we started a couple of years ago, really investing heavily in research to determine
17:04how our agents are going to survive this.
17:07And it's real simple.
17:09We've graduated our agents mindsets from being just real estate agents to becoming real estate
17:14professionals.
17:15That means being able to take a prospective buyer or seller of real estate and be an expert
17:21from A to Z from let's say the buyer looking to get pre-approved, pre-qualified to showing
17:27them the home to, you know, making sure the right inspectors were being used all the way
17:32to the closing table, making sure the right title company or escrow company was partnered
17:37up A to Z.
17:38And what's great is more importantly, in addition to being that real estate professional,
17:42leveraging that to compensate you as well for those services, for that additional expertise.
17:49And what we've realized is, um, that the clients appreciate it.
17:52They don't want to go to a lender to get this question, an agent to get an answer to that
17:57question or the title company about the keys or the club.
18:00They want a single point of contact with those people standing behind them.
18:05So that's been an awesome thing that we've done.
18:08And now we do, we have, what is it?
18:10It's something like 25% of our roster of agents are dual service agents.
18:16Now that means they're operating as MLOs, loan originators, as well as real estate agents.
18:22That's phenomenal.
18:23So they, this all started, we launched that program about three months, four months ago.
18:27So now they've all given themselves a wonderful raise.
18:31They're all making, you know, somewhere between 30 and $60,000 extra year doing nothing different
18:36than what they have been doing for decades sometimes, you know, and that's just scratching
18:41the surface, just getting started.
18:42So we're really excited about that.
18:44And because we own the title companies, rest for compliance, they're not allowed to be
18:48compensated for that, but they own a percentage of a company that owns the title companies.
18:54So when we start issuing profit dividends, they're allowed to receive a pro rata share
18:58of that revenue.
18:59So they're making money at every single term.
19:03Yeah, it's interesting.
19:04I mean, that's the way, you know, I, gosh, I started in this industry a long time ago.
19:08And the one-stop shopping was the buzzword for a long time.
19:13And then, you know, it was really more about adding affiliated services.
19:17But now with all of the, you know, Redfin, Rocket, Lower, you know, all of these companies
19:23merging, it's becoming even more prevalent, you know, in the industry.
19:29So what are you seeing with that trend?
19:33And what, I guess, what do you see the challenges being?
19:37The challenge is who they reach out to first upon seeing that home, right?
19:42The first place they see it, a motion grabs them.
19:45They dial the first number to the first face they see a lot of the times.
19:49But the more successful agent already has a relationship.
19:52They won't do that.
19:54The more established real estate professional already has a good relationship with that person,
19:59whether they see it on Redfin or Zillow or on a billboard, doesn't matter.
20:03They're going to call them and say, hey, I see this home.
20:05I want to go see it.
20:06Can I go see it with you first?
20:08You know, now we all know that's not most of the time, unfortunately.
20:12But the bigger, higher performing agents are doing that.
20:16It's definitely a trend that we're not going to see diminish anytime soon, that's for sure.
20:22Even AI, right?
20:23I mean, AI is out there, but it's not going to replace the agent.
20:28AI is activity, right?
20:29But it cannot replicate the relationship, at least not this moment.
20:33And maybe not in the next year or two, we never know.
20:36So it's going to take a person, you know, and trust.
20:40AI cannot replace trust, I don't think.
20:42Yeah, that relationship is so important.
20:45And I think that it seems to be the most difficult part of an agent's business is just keeping those relationships going.
20:53I've met some who are doing like a phenomenal job at it and others that I'm just shocked, you know, like an agent I worked with personally who never contacted me again.
21:06You know, so the relationship part of it for agents who can get that right, none of this really matters, right?
21:13They're going to come to them.
21:15So what's been the best leadership advice you've ever received, whether in your previous career or now?
21:22Man, this is, I hope it's not cliche.
21:24I'm sure you've heard it a million times, but what you tolerate, you teach, you know, and whether it's if you tolerate status quo or sitting idle or, you know, not learning to do something new or finding a new way of doing something old, whatever it is, you're teaching that.
21:41Um, it goes very much hand in hand with, you know, lead by example.
21:45I work really hard.
21:46I do not sit idle.
21:48I'm always looking for ways to put more in the pockets of our agents to provide a higher level, you know, higher caliber service to our agents to then offer to their clients.
21:59We do not sit idle, none at all.
22:01So again, what you tolerate, you teach.
22:04Don't stand by and let bad behavior happen.
22:08You know, again, you're tolerating it.
22:09So therefore you're teaching it and others will, you know, conform to it as well.
22:14So many examples there.
22:15Yeah, absolutely.
22:16And you, you talked about having team leaders and, and that.
22:20So how do you, how do you, I guess, train them or help them to understand the culture so that you keep that culture as you grow?
22:32So there's a 90 day period and, you know, for a team leader prospect, they have to go through there's some training and education.
22:39And then we have weekly meetings, you know, fostering, here's what we're doing.
22:43Here's what's going on with the, within the organization.
22:45Then we have regional directors as well that overlay the team leaders and they're there to encourage and support the team leaders too.
22:53It's not a full-time job.
22:54They, these are all producing agents as well.
22:58And they get compensated a percentage of our company dollar for every agent that's assigned to them under their teams.
23:04So, again, they're not working, you know, on a full-time basis, but it's a little extra income to be available.
23:11You know, again, they're not the managers.
23:13These people are not their bosses.
23:15They do not call up and say, you haven't close enough business.
23:18You're fired.
23:18They don't do anything like that.
23:19They're there truly to be a level of support and a center of community.
23:23Okay, great.
23:25What, any podcasts or books that have helped you in your leadership career?
23:29I don't know if you know the Sharon Srivatsa guy at Sharon.com, but, you know, it was funny.
23:35Before we joined Real, I reached out to him and we stayed in contact for six months.
23:40And with no pressure, no time did he say, hurry up and sign this contract, make it happen.
23:46It was truly, it started with a friendship first and it was a true, sincere one.
23:51I've been following that guy since then.
23:53And he's got a little business school.
23:55I forget what it's called.
23:56But I love it because if it's simplicity, even in the titles alone, you can learn different
24:03things like how to convert 5K into 100K in the next 90 days or building your team with
24:09type A players only, you know, just, it's just so many different things that are just,
24:14they serve as constant reminders that this is what I need to be focused on today or this
24:17week or this month.
24:19You know what I mean?
24:19So he's somebody that's truly, you know, kind of reminded me, you know, what it is that
24:24I should be doing and I really respect that.
24:27In terms of books, this is going to be an oldie.
24:30Don't sweat the small stuff.
24:32I mean, most of us are like perfectionists and perfectionism can absolutely destroy your
24:38happiness, your gratitude, your success.
24:41And that book teaches you so well not to get caught up in that, that 80% is okay, that mostly
24:47is good.
24:48Um, and the rest of it, no one's going to realize anyways.
24:50And so many other things, don't sweat the small stuff you haven't read.
24:54It's an easy read, but it truly can change your life.
24:56More importantly, give you happiness and peace in all things that you do.
25:00Yeah, absolutely.
25:02Um, biggest mistake you see new real estate leaders make real estate, like team leaders
25:06could be brokers, could be team leaders.
25:08I would say the biggest one is thinking that the more people that they bring to their team
25:15or their group, the more money they're going to make.
25:18It's just not true.
25:19More money, more support requirements, more technology, more licenses, uh, more time.
25:25In my opinion, the greatest asset is not money.
25:28It's time.
25:29And I see a lot of real estate leaders.
25:31They reach out to me, you know, for just advice or just some consultation or just to
25:34shoot the breeze.
25:36And they all ask, how do you do that?
25:38I'm, I got 20 people.
25:39How are you doing this with 300 people?
25:41And it's through delegation costs money.
25:44It's through trainings by someone else costs money.
25:47It's through amazing technologies to automate the agent's business costs money.
25:52Everything costs money.
25:53So therefore the margins stay about the same or shrink.
25:56So the biggest mistake I think is this idea that if they get enough agents, they'll be able
26:01to reach their financial goals.
26:02And there's absolutely no truth to that.
26:04None at all.
26:05Profitability rules.
26:07Yeah, that's true.
26:07I have two more focusing way too much on the competition.
26:11And, um, also focusing way too much on current industry happenings rather than-
26:18Oh, butterflies.
26:19Yeah.
26:20Butterflies is the fastest way to go broke, right?
26:23Yeah.
26:24No doubt about it.
26:25You cannot chase butterflies.
26:26Find it, stick to it and go.
26:28Yeah, absolutely.
26:29The one trend that you think is overhyped in real estate right now?
26:34AI.
26:34It's not overhyped.
26:36Okay.
26:36But it's overhyped.
26:38It's yes, it's a phenomenal tool.
26:40It's like electricity right now, right?
26:43Everyone's got to plug into it at some point and learn to use it to their advantage, but
26:47it's not going to replace you.
26:49You're going to need to, you know, crack open the books, log into a few of these accounts,
26:54use it.
26:55Don't use it like Google, right?
26:57Actually try and use it as a tool to make you better, to make you more intelligent, to
27:02then offload and provide to your clients.
27:04But that's the big thing right now is there's, I've seen a lot of agents panicking right now.
27:09This industry is going, you know, going to be gone.
27:12And I agree to some extent, there's going to be a lot of agents that are gone because
27:16of it.
27:17And it's because that they didn't, you know, adapt to it.
27:20They didn't incorporate it like the other agents did.
27:23We have to close more.
27:25That's the bottom line.
27:26We have to close more and this will help you do that.
27:28Yeah, absolutely.
27:30An underrated opportunity for agents.
27:32My last question.
27:33Your last question, underrated opportunities, hands down.
27:37Well, it's kind of a play on what I already discovered or disclosed, and that would be
27:41ancillary services.
27:42If you are a real estate agent and you have not looked at becoming an MLO and taking advantage
27:48of like one real mortgage at real, I mean, you can make 50, 60 basis points on top of what
27:54you're making as a real estate agent, as a real estate agent.
27:58That's incredible.
27:58And then there's programs like Texana Bank, their REMLO program.
28:01You don't even need to become an MLO to get 50 basis points.
28:05You become an extension of an MLO, a business development person, making 50, 60 basis points
28:10also across all 50 states.
28:12If you're not looking to build up additional revenue streams, you're going to be in trouble.
28:17And then the other thing is the underrated opportunity you're talking about is leverage your success.
28:24If you're a team leader, leverage the collective success of the team and go out there and market
28:28yourself to warranty companies, to lenders, to many different other companies and get better pricing.
28:37Get income opportunities to offset some of your overhead.
28:41But make sure you're doing that because you have value, you have worth.
28:44Now, you're going to have to make sure the agents are toeing the line and using those vendors
28:48that you've partnered with, right, for everyone's collective success.
28:51But those are underrated opportunities right now.
28:54Oh, title.
28:56Title.
28:56My gosh.
28:57A high margin business right now.
28:58Again, sorry to plug real shamelessly, but they've just rolled out that agents at Real
29:06can become class B, class C shareholders in what is going to be 50 joint ventures across
29:13the United States.
29:15That means the collective success.
29:16Everybody gets a quarterly dividend based on the collective success as the organization
29:20in all 50 states.
29:22That's incredible.
29:23So, again, between mortgage, title, and being a real estate agent, that's how you do it
29:29financially.
29:30Yeah, that's great.
29:31Well, David, thanks so much for joining Real Trending.
29:34I really enjoyed learning about your business.
29:36Tracy, it was great being here.
29:37I appreciate your time and I look forward to the next one.
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