All Forum Posts by: Chris Soignier

I don't think brand awareness is that important, as agents should be focused on building their own brands and studies show that an agent's brokerage isn't a big factor in consumers' agent selection criteria.

Why do you want to start your own brokerage?   Nowadays, there are several brokerages that enable you to recruit agents, provide leadership, support their productions, while shifting the liability and back-office operations to the brokerage.  That's a much more attractive and more profitable way to go in my experience.

Before building your value stack, think hard about who is your ideal client (agent).  Does he or she want minimal fees, flat fee commission structure, great coaching and training, equity, residual income opportunities, cutting-edge tech, great company culture, &/or something else?

What are ideal agents' goals, challenges, and dreams?  Where is their current brokerage falling short?  What solution(s) can you provide to get them to the next level and beyond?

Be specific, b/c if you try to be everything to everyone, your business model will likely be unprofitable. For whatever you want to do, how much production do you need to bring in to make the value stack work financially?

Get out in your market and build relationships.  Build rapport and add value before you expect them to join...changing brokerages is a big decision for most agents. Be consistent in your follow up - many will say no @ first, but you want to be top of mind when their broker pisses them off or when business takes a downturn and they look for external drivers to boost their business.

I've recruited about 55 agents directly and built a global org of over 2,850 agents, and this has worked well for me.

Last month was my best month ever.   This month will be my 2nd best, and both beat all prior months by a wide margin.

Shifts in the market can create a lot of challenges, but they also create opportunity.   I think that being a REALTOR will continue to be a great career choice for those who are coachable, willing to work hard, and adaptable to change.

Hi Jamie, eXp Realty is my 3rd and last brokerage to be with.  After 3 years and 3 quarters, I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. We offer over 50 hours of training weekly, a great mentoring program, and an industry-leading CRM/lead generation system.  We're also pretty unique in that we offer numerous equity opportunities (NASDAQ: EXPI) and the ability to earn a significant residual income via our revenue sharing program.   

I'm happy to offer a guest pass to our virtual cloud office if you'd like to kick the tires on our training classes and support functions, as well as invite you to a private discovery presentation on how our team and business model works if you'd like to learn more.

Ben, the first key IMO is getting the word out to your sphere of influence that you're in RE when you get licensed, and ask them who they know that may be buying or selling in the next 6 months.  Doesn't matter where they are, you can still earn a referral fee for connecting out-of-town leads w/ agents in that area.

As far as brokerages, there are many great choices with a wide variety of business models. Sept will be my 4 yr anniversary w/ eXp Realty, and I'll be there for life.  Have you read Robert Kiyosaki's Cash Flow Quadrant?   Most agents are firmly in the S quadrant, whereas eXp is the only significant (if any) broker that puts you in the B and I quadrants as well.

I have a brief interactive presentation for you if you'd like to learn more about the benefits of eXp's disruptive business model:   www.umustsee.net/JKX5XH

I use and love kvCore.  As others have said, eXp Realty offers it at no charge to its agents vs. $500+/mo. buying it yourself.   It's not just a CRM, but also a lead gen machine, as it allows for easy squeeze and landing page creation, semi-automated Craigslist posting, drip campaigns, mass emails/texts, and more.  It's also integrated w/ IDX, which is important for any agent's CRM.

Reach out if you'd like additional information on kvCore.

Hi Ben, I have a BBA and an MBA in Finance, and had a great 20+ year career in finance, the majority of it @ Dell.  No regrets, but if I knew then what I know now I would have gotten into real estate decades ago.  I made great money in corp America but didn't achieve financial and time freedom until after I left it 5 years ago.

As you know, college is expensive.  Get your license and work in RE in your spare time, but if you're staying in college, don't let chasing $$$ take too much of your focus and energy off your studies.  

Stefon, welcome to the world of real estate!  On the agent side of things, start building your database now...it can be as simple as a spreadsheet or a free one like Hubspot, but you're going to want a way to keep track of prospects, leads, and SOI (sphere of influence).  Once you're licensed (maybe even before), try to have 1o conversations about real estate a day w/ various folks.   Ask people for referrals, something like "who do you know who's going to be buying or selling RE in the next 6 months?" - it's a lot lower pressure than asking them directly for business.

Once you're licensed and join a brokerage + your local board, learn your systems as quickly as possible. You'll want to digest MLS access, tax record lookup, how to market online, etc. Be aware of federal, state, and local laws to ensure compliance.

On the investing front, it really depends on what you want to do. Wholesaling is the least capital intensive form of REI, if you can really call it investing. I think of it as more of a job. Whatever you want to do, be sure to build a team of professionals who will support your activities....title companies, lenders, inspectors, contractors, photographers, etc.

I can currently provide an insane amount of complimentary, world-class training from top producers around the country through at least the end of May through my brokerage.  Let me know if you'd like to take advantage of it!

Bikash, I'm currently invested in 27 multifamily syndications.  You wouldn't recognize the names of any of them, as most are funded via personal relationships as opposed to marketing and advertising.  Happy to chat if you'd like to learn more. 

For those of you who depend on real estate for your income, whether it be rents, commissions, flips, notes, etc., what steps are you taking to fortify your finances to reduce the risk of a liquidity crunch?   Many if not most of my multifamily investments have already suspended distributions, and I expect that my commission and revenue sharing income will take a hit as well through the duration of this pandemic and possibly beyond.

Right now, cash is king, and cash + debt is far better than little/no cash and little to no debt. I have ample available credit lines, but I'm not counting on them to remain at current levels. I just drew $25K on my HELOC and deposited it into my savings account. All discretionary purchases are on hold, and I'll be reviewing my recurring/subscription billings to cut charges that are no longer needed. Maybe I can even "hire" my homebound wife as an assistant!

Regardless of what the markets do, this is not the time to Netflix & chill.  Consumers and companies will still need to buy, sell, and invest in real estate, and they're spending a lot more time online.  This will be a great period of time for aggressive investors and agents to grow their online presence while many others retreat from normal business development activities.

For those of you whose incomes have been &/or will be impacted, what are you doing to mitigate the impact of current events on your personal and business finances?
 

The LLC is named after the address of one of the properties, it's nothing you'd recognize, especially since you need to have a prior relationship with the sponsor and a Lifestyles PIG membership to be able to invest in it.