Pat Hays - Independent Agent to Six Figure Revenue Share Income at eXp Realty
Interview – Pat Hays
In today’s episode we have Pat Hays. Pat started out in medical sales prior to purchasing a senior home care franchise. After selling his franchise, he found himself in a boutique brokerage firm in San Antonio, Texas before discovering a life changing opportunity at eXp Realty.
In this episode, Pat shares how he was introduced to eXp Realty. We hear about his experience and how he created a revenue sharing organization of about 685 spanning 32 states and Canada in just 26 months.
Learn More about eXp Realty – Click here to watch a quick 7 Minute Intro Video.
Remember our disclaimer: The materials and content discussed within this podcast are the opinions of Kevin Cottrell and/or the guests interviewed. This information is intended as general information only for listeners of the podcast. Listeners should conduct their own due diligence and research before making any business decisions. This podcast is produced completely independently of eXp Realty and is not endorsed, funded or otherwise supported by eXp Realty directly or indirectly.
In this episode
Why Pat ultimately chose eXp over Keller Williams
Who the best prospects for eXp are
What is revenue sharing and why it is a sustainable model
How eXp is different from any other company
The perks at eXp including stock ownership, revenue sharing and free conversion
Information about resources to learn more about eXp including Lunch and Learns, weekly live webinars and prerecorded videos
Want to Learn More about eXp Realty?
If you are interested in learning more about eXp, reach out to the person who introduced you to eXp or one of the contacts below to inquire or ask questions. If you are seeking further information, eXp has Lunch and Learn opportunities, weekly live webinars and other resources such as prerecorded videos that can be sent to you.
Contact Bettina Sastoque, call or text (214) 683-6746
Contact Juan Sastoque, text (469) 231-1057
Tweetables
“I’ve been a part of a lot of Fortune 500 medical companies and owned my own business. I’ve sold my own business and truly this is something that I’ve never seen before.” – Pat Hays
“I was blown away with the the model with the revenue share and stock ownership and with the training and the lead generation tools that he provided.” – Pat Hays
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
KEVIN: Hey Pat welcome to the show.
PAT: Good morning! Thanks for having me.
KEVIN: I’m excited to have our conversation. You know I always like to dig in and find out why people have joined eXp Realty before we get into some of the specifics about that. Why don’t you for listeners who aren’t familiar with you get a little of your background in sort of what led up to your decision to decide to join the realty.
PAT: Sure yeah. So I’ve got a pretty life changing story so I’ve had my license in San Antonio from San Antonio, Texas had my license since the end of 2007 and actually got my license to do farm and ranch with a big broker based out of Hondo, Texas. I was doing farm and ranch part time I was doing medical sales full time in San Antonio. You know I did the whole traditional you know go to college and get a degree and get out of college and you know go get a good job in corporate America. So I did that for about five and a half years. And I really loved I was actually doing medical sales really love medical sales. You know a great income from it you know learning a lot and many a lot of great people and doctors all around San Antonio. You know. But I was just kind of grinding. I was making great money but you know really working hard, 60 70 80 hours a week, and you know was kind of getting burned out of the whole corporate America rat race if you will and so I was looking to find a way to exit corporate America. And I actually found a way that the.. I’d say in 2010. I was able to actually exit corporate America and by Senior Home Care franchise. My dad was the CFO of a large senior home care franchise in San Antonio and I had the opportunity to buy an underperforming office from the corporate office and turned it into a franchise owned office which I owned and I did that for an investment for about three and a half years. So I took it from a two hundred twenty five thousand dollars in annual revenue to about a 1.3 million dollars in about three and a half years and ended up selling it in wanting to move back to San Antonio and get back into real estate on the residential side and so I did so and also alongside of doing that in real estate I actually was an investor in a startup digital media company which in about six months I lost over 300,000 dollars in that investment. So I had to make real estate work and I didn’t want to join a big you know… KW office, Century 21 office, Remax office anything like that I wanted to start small and my business partner at the time with that digital media company actually introduced me to some brokers in San Antonio that were wanting to kind of start growing their boutique brokerage firm and so it was a great fit. And so I did so joined forces with them and really found my passion and real estate help and you know what consumers are with the largest purchase of their life which is their home. So my first year in real estate I did 3.2 million dollars. You know again my passion wanted to start a team. My second year I started that team. We did 2.5 million in production, 61 transactions and you know was really wanting to take it to the next level having a lot of fun. And I got a life changing phone call by Scott Lewis my mentor and sponsor in San Antonio. One December Monday afternoon wanting to share EXP with me and at the time I wasn’t looking to make a change. I was very happy I was comfortable and very loyal and wasn’t really wanting to make a change. He called me and asked that I take a look at this business model and I did so two hours after I got the life changing phone call I needed to find another brokerage firm and I took a look at that business model and I was blown away. I was blown away with the opportunity for one. I was blown away with you know the model with the revenue share with a stock ownership and with the training and the lead generation tools that he provided. And so I actually called up Scott the next day and said hey listen you know on needing to make a change wanting to make a change. And I really like what I see. You know let’s talk and so we ended up talking. And whenever I met Scott Lewis there was actually two other gentlemen there the name of Gene Frederick and Rob Flic at that table and so I ended up you know sitting down my dad that was with me. He’s recently retired and my CFO of my real estate business and we went there and wanted to learn a little bit more about the eXp. And I was blown away by for one the eXp business model. For two what you know Gene Frederick and Rob Flic had done at a previous company. And you know why they came to eXp was just mind blowing. So I really wanted to listen and a 45 minute meeting turned into several hours and I was blown away with the numbers and with what they were wanting to do the eXp in the next several years and so I wanted to join forces with them and so I did that you know guys it got my attention. You know let’s do this and after two hours after I left that meeting I got a call from a broker in San Antonio wanting to talk to me about kind of what he can do with me and for my team. And so we ended our talk and I said hey you know what I’m looking to make a change I’m going to be making a change probably over the eXp Realty and he said “hey listen give me at least one hour tomorrow. I want to talk to you about kind of what I can do and how I can help you with you and your team” so I said OK you know what I respect that. I’m open mind, I’ll definitely listen to you I’m listening to eXp, I’ll definitely listen to what you have to say in that company was known as KW. KW is a great company and I had the opportunity to listen to that broker and to kind of make a long story short you know he was.. you know wanting to give me a lot of perks to come over to KW And so at the end of the conversation I was really leaning still towards the eXp not only for myself but for my teammates and their fans. I knew I needed to make a right decision to come over the eXp and really had my mind set on that and at the end of the conversation with that broker there at KW and I said hey listen you know can you answer these three questions. He said What do you got? I said for one can you give me revenue share. Not profit share he said “no I can’t do that. You know that’s not a business model”. I said okay can you give me stock ownership and he said “no you know we’re not publicly traded I can’t do that”. I said OK great. Can you give me conversion for free to help me generate massive amounts of buyer and seller leads from my team. He said no again you know that’s not our business model I can’t do that it’s very expensive. I said OK you know what you just have to make my decision you know I’m going to eXp. And he literally lift me he said man you’re going to go. And I said you know what it’s not about really doing good, it’s about providing and having the best brokerage firm and truly you know why I’m so blessed to be a part of eXp. And I said you know this is… I can offer this to other agents you know we’re truly the first agent own cloud based brokerage firm. You know that I can offer all these perks to you know these other agents all across the country and so fast forward to eXp, 26 months I’ve been here eXp. Super blessed super excited about the opportunity some success that I’ve had and I personally introduced eXp to 26 agents out of those 26 agents. I’ve built a revenue shore organization of about 685 spanning 32 states and Canada in the last 26 months so you know this is only the beginning. I’m super excited about this opportunity super blessed to be a part and be in business with a lot of legends in the industry like our own Gene Frederick and it’s truly a game changer and you know I’m looking forward to a growing eXp alongside of a lot of other rock stars.
KEVIN: Fantastic and then that’s a great overview and for listeners I want to come back and touch on some things and get back to talk a little bit more about it. Because you’re out there now talking about eXp you’re traveling you’re actually on the road today in Raleigh. You made a comment that you said you weren’t looking to make a change when you were approached and you were happy.I can tell you that when Gene and I talk to just about everybody, that is the default position and not that we think that it’s kind of like it’s not like a retail store when you go in and somebody says can I help you say I’m just looking. Now we get it the best prospects that ultimately end up joining eXp are the ones that say just what Pat did. I’m happy I’m not looking to make a change. And then they become intrigued. I had a broker that was a good friend of mine. I was actually because I do a management consulting. It was a client of mine and I asked him to look at eXp for the purpose of the fact that I knew he was typically acquiring brokers and he would know of candidates and I said Have you passed on that you think we should talk to he said well send me some information. I sent him a couple of videos and some other information and he called me on Monday and said this is probably going to blow you away but I think that we’re going to convert our brokerage to eXp. He was so far from a prospect right I respected the fact that we were a longtime client relationship and I wasn’t trying to necessarily do that. I wanted to get his take on it as do I should talk to and that’s fairly typical. Pat’s story is typical and then the other thing I want to touch on because you talked about revenue share and I agree with you. Gene Frederick and I come from KW We were both in leadership. We both were team leaders. You know he had involvement as a regional owner you know for those of you listening regardless of what franchise system you’re in – here’s great places to work in real estate. You have to make your personal decision where you want to be. But when Pat’s talking about how many states would you say it was 32 or 37?.
PAT: That’s right. Yes I’m actually in 32 states and Canada.
KEVIN: Ok so 32 states and Canada. So what Pat has built as a business. And I want to translate that for listeners that are in a franchise system is he’s getting paid like a regional owner would out of a franchise system. So if you’re not familiar with let’s say you’re an agent and you’re not familiar with how this works in a big franchise system the regional owners have purchased typically for millions and millions of dollars a region and the franchise royalties and or other compensation gets paid off the top and they get paid based on Agent count. In other words if there’s a thousand agents in their region they get paid off the top. And essentially if I want to give it a different term other than the regional income stream I would call a revenue share right because it’s coming off the top. It may be royalty but let’s not get stuck on what it’s called. So and I bring that up for a couple of points and I know Pat I’m just preaching to the choir with you because you get this. Don’t ever let anybody tell you that revenue sharing is not a sustainable model. If you’re sitting in a franchise system and your team leader or a managing broker is telling you that revenue share will never work. Ask them how do the regional owners get paid in my region. And they’re going to have to essentially described your revenue share. And so what Pat has created in the span of less than two years or actually a little over two years at this point right. Is a almost 700 agent region in Canada and the United States. And I would imagine your region is growing pretty quickly. How many people are you adding on a monthly basis.
PAT: You know what…? Yeah that’s a great question. It’s rolling honestly by about a 130 agents now per month. Just like anything you know I built a foundation. But you know what. It’s been a lot of fun. Yes it’s been hard work. It’s not easy but you know I do a lot of presentations all across the country just like I’m getting ready to do another lunch alone today here in Raleigh with my leader here. It’s truly made in real estate fun again. You know I was grinding for two years at that boutique brokerage firm on that hamster wheel as I call it just kind of tunnel vision just wanting to grow grow grow grow grow. And I was only as good as my last sale. And you know I didn’t have an exit strategy I didn’t even really know what an exit strategy was. Whenever Scott Lewis sat down with means that Pat you know you’re two years into this role say business you know you’re doing some good things you know you put up some good numbers for your second year in the industry you know 12 and a half million dollars in volume. What is your true exit strategy and I said you know Scott I don’t have an exit strategy. Even know what an exit strategy is in real estate. You know I just sold my business I just invested into a startup lost a lot of money. You know I’m not looking to exit real estate that I’m looking to keep on growing. You know I’m a young guy. You know I said the only thing I could think of is you know I want to get my team’s production in the next five to seven years up to 75 to 100 million dollars in production for a year so that I can afford to invest in real estate. I can afford to put money away. I can afford to slow down if I choose to. So I really wasn’t looking to exit the industry said about you know take a look at this business model. I can show you how to do that in the next two to three four years alongside of your production in alongside of acquiring stock at eXp because we are a true agent owned brokerage firm. I was just blown away. So for me I’m building a massive exit strategy alongside of selling real estate. I’ve got a team in San Antonio. We do anywhere from about 9 to 12 million dollars a year every single year. In San Antonio in our production I’m looking to grow that as well because you know we are a brokerage firm first but you know what. You know we’re a true agent owned brokerage firm that you know I can offer agents you know an exit strategy through the revenue share program the revenue share model with the agents that want to help us grow. You don’t have to attract agents to the company but why wouldn’t you want to attract agents to the company and grow this company that you’re a shareholder of. And then another beautiful thing to is… At eXp you know you can acquire stock six different ways which I’m not a big stock guy but you know what the stock’s gone from 6 to 2 cents a share Whenever I join twenty six months to go up to over 12 dollars a share it’s gone as high as seventeen dollars a share. So you know that’s truly amazing you know the agent count has gone from 800 agents whenever I joined 26 months ago to surpassing over 8000 agents just a few weeks ago here at a company and so you know the growth is there in the caliber of agents that are coming on board is just truly amazing just like the other group there in San Diego, California you know Carl Whistle and his whole entire group and then he’s attracted a few other big leaders out there in San Diego California bringing over a half a billion dollars in production. You know that tells you something right there.
KEVIN: And that’s a great point. I mean it’s one of those things where you know in my manager consulting practice and we also did coaching to brokers and large rainmakers from teams. There is a coming change in the production business where you know people have a successful business you talked about a three or four that joined the deal a half a billion in production. There’s plenty of people that do 10 million 20 million 30 million a year. And there’s the change that we see occurring and eXp realty is driving this is there is a another business model to look at other than just more production more markets more growth just in the team and people are looking at this as a business that is in addition to their production. And so you described a couple of things and I want to go back and make sure if somebody is listening to this and they want to basically dive in on eXp realty you should go back to whoever introduced you to eXp realty, ask them to plug you in with leaders. Before we wrap up today Pat’s going to give his information and Gene Frederick, myself, Mitch all of the leadership in eXp Realty is available as a resource right. Doesn’t matter how you got exposed to the eXp Realty. That’s right. We want to help you make a good decision. Get the due diligence so whoever got you exposed to eXp Realty can get you connected with leadership people that can get you the right due diligence materials. Now one of the steps that we see a lot of agents go through whether they’re a rainmaker for a team or just an agent is they go to a lunch and learn. So Pat will you describe what they’re going to typically see in other words sometimes people are a little bit apprehensive right there like well I don’t have my broker to know that I’m looking because you know that could have consequences. What is the process you walk somebody through let’s say somebody is listening to this and they do 20 million dollars a year. They’ve got a team and they want to figure out about eXp realty.
PAT: Sure that’s a great question. You know we do lunch and learns you know every single week in San Antonio opening Friday at Ruth’s Chris. And you know anybody that’s listening that’s in San Antonio definitely you know can reach out to myself loved to invite you as my special guest. But you know the lunch and learns are really for like an intro to eXp if you haven’t seen the model you know come check it out. We do about a 45 minute presentation or so then we kind of open it up for Q and A. There’s a lot of guests there each week. There’s a lot of other eXp agents as well with their guest and it’s a lot of fun. You know we’ve got videos that we can send you to you know take a look at the business model you know on your own. Obviously everything’s confidential but if you want to come out and see a live presentation you’re more than welcome we’ve got lunch and learns you know going on all across the country and on get ready day one here again in Raleigh, North Carolina today. One of my team leaders actually did a big lunch and learn in Miami, Florida on Tuesday. You know we’ve got our weekly one in San Antonio every single Friday. We also have live webinars every single week as well on Tuesdays. And so you can definitely come and plug yourself in. But you know it’s a lot of fun. You know this a business model. Like I said it’s getting agents excited. It’s a lot of fun to share this model just like I got a life changing phone call by Scott Lewis 26 months ago. You know now I’m able to reciprocate and give that life changing phone call to other agents like I did here in Raleigh, North Carolina with one of my leaders about 16 months ago. Great agent came from local banker and you know what I shared with him 16 months ago out of eXp has truly changed his life, changed him families life, changed his financial future as well too so however you want to see it if you want to see it you know privately you can definitely see it privately. We’ve got a resource here where we can send you some you know pre-recorded videos like Jean-Frederic got awesome eXp explain video that he did several months ago I believe in Florida and then also we’ve got live webinars we’ve got live lunches and so how you want to see it. Now if it’s you know confidential definitely you know confidential for you guys but come on out let us know we’re here to help. We’re here to have fun and you know basically just educate yourself on this business model that’s changing and disrupting the real estate industry.
KEVIN: Fantastic. For anybody listening for rolling down the road and listening in your car or away from your computer. The show notes for the podcast will have an introductory video you can watch about seven minutes or so on eXp Realty, the video that Pat references where Gene Frederick is presenting and it was in Florida I think it was last August will be linked in the show notes as well. Pat before we wrap up this session. How would if somebody is listening to this and they want to get a hold of you. What’s the best way to reach you?
PAT: Sure. You know the best way is just my cellphone number. You know I’ve got my cell phone glued to me every single day. My cell phone number is that area code 210 693 8711 again 210 693 8711. And just give me a call. Shoot me a text whatever it is and I definitely would love to answer any questions that anybody has. In that scene. Just like what you’re saying you know this business model is so unique and so different that I help out everybody that’s interested. In the opportunity and the business model with eXp I help out a lot of agents that are not even in my drug reps organization because you know what if I help them out and they end up joining eXp that going help the company grow and how I get a benefit from it while I’m at a benefit from it from the age of ownership can the stock side of it if they’re in my revenue share organization that are benefiting from their success and revenue sharing. So I’d benefit either way. And so it’s a great business model where the agents come together and truly want to help everybody grow. You know these agents are not my competitors these agents are my colleagues they’re my shareholders. You know we’re all shareholders together and we’re all in this together so everybody wants to collaborate and help each other out. I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve been a part of a lot of Fortune 500 medical companies own my own business. I’ve sold my own business and truly this is something that I’ve never seen before. You know the leadership alone at eXp is just truly remarkable. We’ve got a ton of great leaders we’re adding more leaders to the corporate staff. You know every single month and so to be a part of this and the see eXp grow, it is just truly life changing.
KEVIN: Well and we appreciate you coming on because I want to reiterate what you’re saying which is it doesn’t matter if it’s Gene Frederick, it’s Pat it’s me or anybody else. We’re available as a resource and it doesn’t matter because we’re all shareholders in this and I think I’m glad you brought that up because from the outside and from the franchise systems that doesn’t normally occur right. You know you’re going to get referred to a managing broker or a team leader and they’re all little islands. Well what the market is starting to learn is eXp realty is all pointed in the same direction and we have one goal which is to make sure people if they are a good match for eXp realty because frankly not everybody is. That’s right. We’re certainly having a lot of people join we had close to 1000 agents in January of 2018 joined and you talked about having less than that in the entire company when you join. So again it shows you the growth.
PAT: That’s right.
KEVIN: So Pat I appreciate you coming on and we’ll talk to again soon I’m sure.
PAT: You bet. Thanks for having me Kevin.
