Next Level Agents: The Kevin & Fred Show - Interviews with the best and brightest minds in the real estate industry BUILDING A POWERFUL, ENGAGED VIRTUAL BROKERAGE. Interview: Glenn Sanford
On this episode, I’m honored to be joined by founder of eXp Realty, Glenn Sanford. As a part of eXp, we’ve seen first hand what makes this company and its leadership so outstanding. It’s a company of entrepreneurs who are building something special together, and this all started with the forward-thinking model Glenn envisioned back in 2009, when virtual brokerages hadn’t begun to take shape. What always struck us about Glenn was his deep understanding of the challenges real estate business owners face, and the opportunities that are available to us. It’s this business-minded approach, and his drive to create an engaged company culture in a virtual setting that has made eXp grow to take 2% of the US agent market, and helped it continue to grow globally.
After being involved with a number of internet start-ups in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, including a stint at AOL, Glenn started a highly successful real estate career in 2002. In 2006, his fourth full year in the business, Glenn and his team closed over $60,000,000 in real estate almost entirely from online lead generation and was ranked as one of the top 50 teams nationally with Keller Williams. After the downturn in 2008, he and his team developed the first cloud-based brokerage model that uses a 3D avatar-based online office to collaborate and communicate while abandoning the physical bricks and mortar infrastructure normally associated with real estate brokerage. In the last 9 years, since launching with 25 agents, eXp Realty has grown to over 15000 agents in all 50 states, DC and 3 Provinces in Canada and over 400 different MLS market areas. eXp Realty refers to itself as Agent-owned and the company became a public company in 2013 and in 2014 started to distribute equity to its productive agent owners. eXp Realty provides the first ESOP style Stock Ownership Program for its agents and brokers as well as a revenue sharing program all designed to enhance the agent-centric business model.
What has made eXp Realty such an attractive company for many Realtors across that
globe is that it’s a company of entrepreneurs who are building something together. It’s a culture that doesn’t just promote innovation, it also rewards entrepreneurs for it. The success of the company stems from the early vision its leaders had to lean into the virtual model, without losing engagement, commonality and the shared context of being a Realtor in today’s world.
In Today’s Episode, We Talk About;
- Glenn’s background before eXp.
- Where the idea for eXp Realty came from, and the pieces that came together for it to happen.
- The power of building into a future trend early.
- How to get a virtual brokerage right and uphold the team environment in a geographically dispersed setting.
- Why Glenn decided to make eXp a publicly traded real estate company and building a vehicle for ownership.
- Building a strong team and why hiring generalists is better than specialist.
- The goal to scale eXp.
- What Glenn sees on the horizon in real estate and why agents shouldn’t be too panicked about change.
Guest Info
Glenn is the founder eXp Realty and CEO of eXp World Holdings, Inc. eXp Realty refers to itself as Agent-owned and the company became a public company in 2013 and in 2014 started to distribute equity to its productive agent owners. eXp Realty provides the first ESOP style Stock Ownership Program for its agents and brokers as well as a revenue sharing program all designed to enhance the agent-centric business model.