Gene Frederick – Why Former Keller Williams Regional Director, Regional Owner, Market Center Owner Sold everything to move to eXp Realty

Interview – Gene Frederick

In today’s episode we have Gene Frederick, a current member of eXp Realty’s Board of Directors. After getting into real estate in 1984, Gene worked for a small independent and then transitioned to RE/MAX for a number of years before purchasing his first franchise. Additionally, Gene spent over 21 years with Keller Williams as a manager, team leader and regional owner of six offices across the nation until discovery eXp Realty.

In this episode, Gene discusses how he found himself at eXp Realty, a revolutionary real estate brokerage model, why agents love this model, how eXp sustains 8,000 agents and why he compares eXp to Netflix.

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

• Gene’s background in realty and why he transitioned to eXp
• Why independent brokers are taking a closer look at eXp Realty
• Why transitioning away from brick and mortar is sustainable
• The benefits of utilizing a Cloud Office
• What is a disruptive technology and why it is important
• The future of real estate from a broker’s point of view
• Why top agents are joining EXP

Resources
To contact Gene Frederick, text 703-338-1515
Gene Frederick on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gene.frederick.750

Tweetables

“If you are constantly having to think outside the box, maybe the box needs fixing.”

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

KEVIN: Welcome to the show, Gene.

GENE: Oh Hi Kevin. How are you?

KEVIN: I’m fantastic. So you know before we dive in on eXp Realty and I’m going to ask you some questions specifically about eXp. Why don’t you give listeners that maybe don’t know your whole story your story leading up to before eXp and then we’ll talk a little bit about what made you decide to do what you did before you joined eXp.

GENE: Thanks Kevin for having me on today. I really loved telling this story because I’ve been in real estate since 1984, here in Texas. Most of my career has been in the Dallas- Fort Worth area. So when I got into real estate in 1984 I worked for a small independent and then went to Remax and I was at Remax for quite a few years and then in 1989 I bought my first franchise which was a realty executives franchise owned that for five years in DFW and I sold that in 1994 and in 1994 – Boy these years go fast let me tell you – 1994 my wife and I Susan I were two of the first ten agents to launch Keller Williams in the Dallas area and the first Dallas office. And I spent 21 years almost almost 22 years a little over 21 years with KW until I found out about eXp and that’s what I want to talk to you about today. In other words I learned about this three years ago and my story is I was basically… I was basically retired as being a manager and team leader my wife and I both are and the team leader Hall of Fame at KW. We were team leaders for quite a long time, regional directors and we also owned at that time we thought we were retiring Kevin. We owned 6 Keller Williams offices across the nation; 3 in California, two in Texas and one on the East Coast and also a region. We owned the Keller Williams region for Northern California and Hawaii and we were basically retired here. We had moved to Austin, Texas 2010 and a couple of my past agents came up to me one day and said “Could you check out this new model?” And I said sure, I don’t have anything to do with you. This will be fun. And a gentleman named Glen Sanford flew into Austin, met with me for a couple of days and it was just awesome to meet Glenn and the new model that he showed me and treat me so much. I spent five months researching it. I flew up to Boston to meet the CEO at the time still our CEO and been our CEO for right now eight years Jason Guessing. He lives in the Boston area and those two gentlemen showed me this new model. And after five months of researching it which is exciting. Not even looking I came back to Susan in the spring of 2015, not quite three years, and I told her I said Susan guess what. She goes “What?” And I said, “Well honey if you knew Netflix existed would you own a blockbuster?” She said, “Of course not.” And I said “Well honey, we owned six of them.” And she said, “Excuse me.” And I said “I just found Netflix and that was the eXp Realty.” And it was really funny at that time, it had about 400 agents and with the way Glenn’s vision laid out in a way Jason was so convicted and Glenn is such a visionary. Seeing something that could go very very big and revolutionizing the way real estate brokerage was going to be run with agents as owners, not the brokers and owners, and I said Honey I think we got to sell all the blockbusters. And she says oh OK and just see you know Kevin try that out for size after 20 years of marriage and look at that and we’re thinking we’re just about ready to retire. And I said honey this is going to work. This is really going to work. So in the spring of 2015 we sold our six offices and our region and we join the eXp Realty right around May 1, 2015 and we’ve been with the company two years and 10 months and I can’t tell you why I joined. I mean this is revolutionary to me because if you ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s books, you know Tipping Point Blank and one of his books I remember one of the headings was and one of the chapters was if you are constantly having to think outside the box, maybe the box needs fixing. And as the real estate brokerage you know I’ve owned so many franchises I’ve been through so much of the franchise world I knew that the franchise world was it didn’t just need fixing. It really needed a whole new broker box. And when Glen Sanford showed me this model and said Gene the agents, the agents are going to drive this model, not owners. Actually when I first met him, Kevin it was funny, he said and I looked at it and about a month later I called him up and I said “Glenn, I’m curious how much does Texas cost?” and he goes “Well Jean it’s not for sale.” So what do you mean it’s not for sale. He goes well we’re not selling franchises we’re going to build through the agents and that’s when I knew we had a new box and that excited me to grow through the agents with agents as owners rather than owners having to sign leases having to buy furniture having a certain territory which was to me always very very restricted from the owner’s point of view, especially on the money side. So it’s been two years and 10 months and I got to tell you it’s it’s like birthing a baby. It’s my same for the last almost three years. Let’s make real estate fun again. And I’m just having fun being attracted and what I found out Kevin which is funny. I’ve got to tell you in May of 2015 I started interviewing people in Austin, Texas. This is where I live. I had 20 interviews. Let me ask you this guess how many people of the 20 people and by the way are twenty one on one interviews 18 signed up. Guess how many of those 20 people asked me where the physical office was going to be. None of them. Not one not one. And that’s when I went. Why are we building blockbusters. You know there was a reason in the 80s in the 70s that we went to a physical office right. There was a reason before the internet that we had phone numbers attached to the sign that we all funneled into one area and had phone time where agents we went into the back room and answered phone calls from people that drove by signs. And since the invention of course the Internet and the smartphone you know we have agents putting their smartphone number or whatever number they want to have called and straight into that. And there is no longer a reason for that physical office. By the way I had to 18 for 20 the first month. Of the two that did not join, one joined a month later and the other one joined like nine months later and that’s when I came back to Susan I said Susan “This is it. This is the next real estate brokerage model that’s going to work because I’ve never been 20 for 20 ever in my real estate career”. By the way those were all all productive agents not news agencies are productive agents.

KEVIN: You know the interesting thing about that is when you look at coming out of a franchise system you know you were doing that when the company had realistically about four or five hundred agents when you started right.

GENE: Yes exactly.

KEVIN: And so people like you and Mitch Riback and others have done a lot of heavy lifting. Right. The company is only you know was founded in 2009. At this point it’s a whole different world isn’t it.

GENE: It’s so funny because I look back on it. In fact I’ve got to tell you a story even today it’s just makes so much sense to me. I texted, didn’t text I actually did a workplace message to our founder our visionary Glenn Sanford today. I said glad you remember two years ago I said I got to tell you. February 29th which was a leap year two years ago. That was 2016. We’re talking right now February 28 2018. I said Glen can you remember we were at a restaurant with Debbie and Susan and myself. We were in Austin,Texas at the Oasis Restaurant and Glen had his smartphone out, Kevin. And he was looking at it and I said “What are you looking at,Glenn”. He goes “1996 1997 1998.” I said “What’s that?” He goes It’s our agent count and I said we’re going to go over 1000 and he goes thousand thousand?. We had a toast and we went crazy. This is just two years ago. So let’s fast forward. I said Glenn that night was… To me the hardest thing is getting to 1000 agents just so you know this is 2018 in the first month of January of 2018. We added 1000 agents net every 30 days we’re adding over a thousand agents right now. So at the end of 2000 yes, to give you updated numbers, at the end of 2017 we ended up with 6505 agents. Just a little bit over 6500 agents. That was the heavy lifting and now all of a sudden we did a press release just two weeks ago in the middle of February we hit 8000 agents. Kevin that is… and by the way again not with new agents experienced agents. If I had a nickel for every time an experienced agent I talked to says “Where have you all been?” You know when we go to a new town I’ve never heard of you but where have you been. And I said I don’t know I just found them two years and ten months ago. I mean I just found them three years ago. I mean I said I’m like you. I didn’t know it existed. But once I saw it I went new model new Model. It’s going to work in the book Blink. You know Malcolm Gladwell talks about that there’s a blink basically an emotional side of our thinking process. I’m very analytical because Kevin I used to be a financial analyst before I got in real estate. So I have more spreadsheets than anybody on earth. I love thinking analytically but when I saw this model my blink my emotional output was I went this is going to work and it has. And it’s just exciting to me to have the Amazon of real estate in fact Stefan Swann Poole, the famous writer consultant that talks about real estate all throughout our industry in 2013. He did an article about us 2013. What a visionary he was. He says these guys are the Amazon of real estate and I don’t think the bricks and mortar franchise owners understood what he was talking about. Well, I’m living.

KEVIN: What’s interesting about that is you talk about the momentum adding 1000 agents a month. It really I want to talk about a couple of different demographics and let you give me your opinion on why you think it’s occuring you know Mitch Ryback and Florida was one of the first larger independent brokers that converted into eXp and at this point you myself and a number of other people at eXp are having conversations every week with independent brokers. Why do you think independent brokers have suddenly woken up and go I need to look at eXp realty.

GENE: Well there’s two things to me. Number one the Bricks and Mortar models the Bricks and Mortar model is dead Kevin. And when I say that if you are running a real estate brokerage especially independents it’s hard to get over that 50 75 100 agents, right. You can’t hit a level where you just stay there. I see so many of the firms and they think they’re going to get to 500 agents or 400. They don’t want to do franchises because they understand how hard that is and also pain that franchise fee off the top doesn’t make sense to them and really 55% of our industry according to NAR I think at least 55 percent, over 50 percent is independent brokers. So they’ve struggled, they struggled they went through this last downturn you know 2006 to 2012. That was not fun. Now we’ve come out of it since 2012. But guess what? It still isn’t where they are doubling or tripling in size. You know I met Mitch a year ago in Austin. He flew to see me in Austin. We spent some time together and you know he didn’t own his company for 12 years. You know you own something for 12 years and it’s you know you don’t want to tell the agents that you’re not making very much money. But it’s a struggle. You know let’s just think about it. Leases, furniture, phone systems and you know the independents. Kevin you and I have talked about this. Now they have to compete against the big franchises right. So the franchise rollout some big tech thing and they can’t compete. They can’t rule that out for all their agents. They don’t have the money to do that. So it’s very very restricted. We already got in January we got two small independents in Texas one with 40 agents in San Antonio just join us and one with 56 agents in McAllen in south south Texas near the border. That gentleman rolled his company in with 54 agents and we instantly became number two in the market boom! And I really think they’re looking at 40 or 50 agents. Kevin you and I have talked about this. Now they can take those 40 or 50 agents and turn them into 100, 150 in their own little team through rev share, through revenue share.

KEVIN: Well and one of the things that you and I have talked about and I want to make the point for anybody listening to this is even if you’re an independent broker and you have some amount of expenses that can’t just be x. In other words it costs you 30 40 50 60 thousand, a hundred thousand dollars a month. Do the due diligence people like Mitch and all these brokers don’t necessarily make the expenses go away immediately but get with the right resources and gene you’re certainly one of them that can help you do the due diligence because it’s not a go no go. I have to make my expenses to zero to make it worth at eXp realty. There is a due diligence process and these independent brokers are figuring out that they can leave some amount of infrastructure in place and make the transition with their agents and then come out of it in 12, 18, 24 months. And like Mitch they’ve got a much bigger revenue share stream that exceeded what they were making as it had been a broker.

GENE: Yes. And with that that was a perfect point to make. Kevin you and I’ve talked about it let’s say that I think the one and MacCallum He had three offices he reduced the three offices down to one because he still had leases he was obligated to. But he got rid of a whole bunch of expenses and then you just gradually work into making sure that the agents get used to the cloud office. They’re no longer going to come into the office they’re going to go into our cloud office which by the way is the difference maker. The cloud office, we call it our cloud campus I call it a cloud office because that’s where everybody is. That’s where our accountants are. That’s where our tech people are. That’s where our onboarding people are. That’s where our marketing people are. We have over 180 people right now in that cloud office, Kevin as avatars. And they speak to you just like I’m you know you just walk in and talk to them just like a video game. The cool part about it is when I saw that and when Glenn rolled that out to me I said Glenn I’ve always wanted to get rid of Bricks and Mortar as an owner. I mean there’s not one owner in the nation that would love to get rid of that expense. Love to get rid of all that copiers everything. You name it. I ran it. I ran a couple of the largest offices for Keller Williams ever and those expenses just it’s hard to cover those expenses and it just weighs on you even if you’re making a little bit of money. Kevin you and I talked about it even if you make it a little bit of money. You’re not making a lot of money and it just wears on you after a while.

KEVIN: Yes. The message here if you’re an independent broker is don’t just discount conversion into eXp realty because maybe you’ve tried to talk to one of the big franchise systems and you couldn’t make the numbers work. The independent brokers if they’re running through due diligence with Mitch or with Gene Frederick or anybody else in the leadership are figuring out how to do this and understanding rev share and I want to talk about rev share for a minute before we talk about why mega agents and teams are joining. Rev share is something from my opinion. I want to get your concurrence on this Gene. When you were a regional owner you mentioned you owned Northern California and Hawaii. You got paid basically based on the agents in the region. Right it came off the top and you got paid out of the royalties and a franchise system but there was a stream of income that was very predictable. You knew if you had producing agents that would stay with the company. And every year you had x number of them you could predict pretty accurately how much revenue you’d have. Right?

GENE: Correct and even in the downturn since the franchises they take money off the top we took money off the top. I was in two franchises. We knew the money off the top. We got that even in 2007 2008 2009 when we knew our owners of the offices were struggling. It was sad they weren’t making money but as a region we got our money right off the top.

KEVIN: And that for anybody out there you may have heard sort of the noise and information and sort of misdirection that revenue sharing is not sustainable from my opinion. I look at revenue share as exactly the way the franchises pay the regional owners. Do you agree?

GENE: Exactly. When I talk to agents because they’ve never been owners of franchises Kevin like you and I have a ram franchises or ran offices they’re just selling real estate. I said Let me explain to you this model would you rather have in your commissions money taken off the top and given to the owners are money coming off the top and given back to you the agents for helping us grow the company and they said was like the one where it comes back to me and I go. That’s our system. We’re just giving it to somebody different. I was really into this as somebody a couple of years ago and they said Gene you didn’t change a sister you didn’t change that part of it. You’re just giving it back to someone else. Very very sustainable. We were sustainable at five hundred agents. You know now we just did a press release in the middle of February where over eight thousand agents just imagine Kevin could you imagine if you were running an office nationally with eight thousand agents with no bricks and mortar no cost.

KEVIN: And that’s why it’s sustainable and profitable and for anybody listening to this. If you are under the misimpression that revenue sharing is sustainable there’s a precedent for this and the franchise system don’t let anybody confuse you that taking money off the top out of the revenue stream of the company dollar is not sustainable because the franchise systems take money off the top and they pay the original owners. eXp realty is doing the same thing. And so to tie down the independent broker conversation this is a big way that these independent brokers are figuring out as Gene said earlier to converting the eXp realty they can keep a lot of their systems in place. They can get all of the tools and technology of the eXp realty. They can provide a better environment from a technology standpoint for their agents and at the tail end of it you know if you listen to the interview with Mitch Riback he’s making so much more money now than he was as an independent broker. If you’re interested in the eXp. Get with the right members of the team do due diligence and understand why it is. Because as compared to things like profit share or other systems, the predictability of revenue share because it does come off of the top can be modeled. You can figure out exactly what your PNL is going to look like, what it looks like later. And as the revenue share grows it’s predictable based on the number of agents and if you listen to Mitch’s interview you’ll see him say my spreadsheet was a big understatement for what I thought it was going to be. I’m actually making more money than I even model that I would do it. And that is why if you’re scratching your head as an independent broker how would I ever do this. The piece that you’re missing and you yourself if you’re considering it to get in and dig in and understand how it works because it may not be apparent from the outside.

GENE: And the two things brokers are concerned about Kevin we’ve talked about forever and I’ve been a broker of numerous franchises. You have to have a model that attracts people. First of all if they don’t sell more real estate at your place than the other place they don’t come. We’ve talked about this. Our technology is phenomenal. I mean Glen and Jason are just bonafide. We’re going to have some of the best technology tools for people to get leads to the Internet. So everybody gets conversion for free, right? Sometimes I even get to the conversion part and they said wait it’s free here because some of the small independents I talk to say well we do provide conversion for our agents but they have to pay for it. Are we you know 400 a month or 500 a month and I said what if all your agents came in got it free here and they go oh my gosh I can attract a lot more agents in my market and I go yeah we have that and also the second thing for brokers that they don’t understand is once you let the agents in the game to help attract other agents they grow. Because most independents go I don’t want my agents attracting people I want to track them make sure I do all the interviews and I go wow. Once you let the agents attract people the way they can their salespeople. Oh my gosh. And that’s what Mitch told me Mitch didn’t realize that his people could attract agents better faster quicker than he ever could because he’s letting them into the ownership game. Kevin, like you and I talk about in the royalty game you know they’re getting royalties off the top. Wait that’s never been done that’s never been done. That’s why we’re getting number one agent Louisiana. Darren James number one agent Tucson, Arizona. You know number one agent Richmond, Virginia I could name the town’s number one agent Nashville. I won’t name everybody’s names I’m sorry but it’s just like why are the top people why are they looking at us. And joining us in a week. 10 days from start to finish. Because it’s a brand new model. You and I have talked about a lot of people come to me and they go well can you compare it to this company or the company that got started in the 70s the company that got started in the 80s and I go well they’re franchise models and we just don’t compare. I can’t even compare it’s a brand new. It is Netflix right. Just like Netflix and Blockbuster. You know I love using that example because blockbuster both watching movies right. We’re both watching movies. But let me ask you a question Kevin. What was the technology that did away with Blockbuster? Streaming video. So when that technology, it’s called a disruptive technology, you hear it all the time on Shark Tank. When you hear somebody go I’ve got a disruptive technology which means it’s going to change the way we do something right. And your first to market with it the fact that you have a disruptive technology plus your first to market with it boom right. Wow! And that’s why I compare it does everybody gets confused because a they said well you guys don’t have any offices. See we do. We have offices. In fact you can go to any Regis we have a national arrangement. Kevin with Regis across the United States. So in every town there’s always a five or 10 Regis’s if you want to meet a customer in an office, meet him right there. But I think everybody gets confused with the fact that we have a game changer and when Glen Sanford saw he caught it early late 2009 is when he started the company says Gene. I just went to everybody and said no more bricks and mortar. He had three offices. He says I’m shutting everything down. I mean man, that takes a lot of gumption to do that in 2009. But he says I believe in this model that agents will go to our office. I can get to the office with my iPhone now. I can go in just straight to my iPhone. Of course I can get it on my computer and boom don’t have to get dressed, don’t have to drive to the office. It is the way real estate is going to be run from the broker’s point of view. I think the next 10 years.

KEVIN: It’s certainly as you described earlier a disruptive model and I agree with you. I think if you get to 21 22 in terms of 20 21 22 most of the bricks and mortar operations will have to go away. Same way the blockbusters went away. So let’s tie down the agents obviously productive agents are joining eXp realty. There is no take away from the standpoint of the economic model right in other words people aren’t joining hoping to do better. We talked a little bit a minute ago about tools and technology but from an economic model it’s not a take away for an agent to join eXp is it.

GENE: Oh my gosh no. We have the same cap for every single agent in the company. I love it. Everybody’s on an 80 20 with no royalty, no royalties a biggie. So once they pay 20% and an equal sixteen thousand dollars. Kevin That’s our cap. And then they go to 100%. So it’s kind of neat. We’re getting people that do over a hundred million a year, 100 million in production with big teams and they said what’s the structure and I said well it’s one camp 16000. You can go to as many cities as you want in your state. You can go across state lines and have agents in other states and they go what you mean I don’t have to pay another cap in those cities are in that state. I go no because we don’t have franchises. We haven’t sold franchises in those cities like the other ones. So a lot of the other models we compare for the large large teams love the fact number one that they can expand their team only pay one cap for the lead agent and the other agents are a half cap. All right. And then here’s the second thing that we’re noticing Le Page and Johnson from Charlotte, North Carolina. They joined us last spring and she said Jane they brought over 16 agents with them they do over 100 million a year. And she said Gene what I realize now after being with the eXp for three or four months is I knew it would be beneficial for my team because I care about my team members but they love it more than I do. And I said What do you mean? They go. She goes oh my gosh they get all the benefits I do. So they can take for example on the stock they can take 5% of their commissions every month. The team members can as well as anybody and purchase stock every single month at a 20% discount. I mean they’re creating equity in their lives. So they’re team members are being able to create equity. They’re team members are being able to help attract. We call referrer agents as they’re doing transactions and now they’re team members are getting revenue share stock and she told me she was I’ve never had a happier team members in my life because their teams just like brokers because the big teams Kevin are like small brokers right. They’re concerned with how to attract agents to my team and how do I retain them. It’s all about retention. And they said we’re not losing anybody now because they’re aquiring stock. They’re acquiring revenue share and they’re happy again. I can’t believe I’ve got Brett Gove. I talked to a year ago year and three or four months ago I think is one of the top agents in Northern California. I talked to him on Thursday. He came and talked to Glen and Jason at our national convention. It just happened to be at that time he signed up the next Friday. Kevin I’m talking. One of the top agents in the nation joins in eight days. It’s a compelling value proposition for sure. And he came to the convention I love it because all these top people come to the convention by the way we have two conventions a year, one in April which is our stockholders meeting every year. We believe in getting together and networking. And then of course we have one in October which is our national convention. Same thing. Great networking and learning things. But what’s funny is when they came to these he brought two people with him. I love telling Brent’s story because Gene I brought two people with me and I told him OK talk me out of this. Talk to everybody and find out what’s wrong with this model. Of course he comes back and on Friday He’s about ready to leave and he talks to those two gentlemen they were standing right next to me he said what did you find out in he. Man this model is real. This is working and he goes OK I’m in.

KEVIN: What’s interesting about that is you and I were both team leaders and we recruited a lot of agents in our day and the franchise system. It’s unheard of to have teams and mega agents convert in that quick period of time and I think it’s a testament to the value proposition and the fact that between revenue share and the ability to buy stock and earn stock based on the way EXP lays it out. What are your thoughts on the noise in the market about revenue sharing. Obviously we’ve got enough experience with it now and I interviewed Mitch a number of other people and as you mentioned people that are teams it’s a huge retention item for mega agents and especially mega agents with teams because unless they’re going to set up some sort of profit share and 401 K for their team members they don’t have the ability to do anything close to this in terms of creating wealth.

GENE: Well the same with small brokers. When I say small brokers any broker that has 50 agents or 100 agents or 200 agents, as big as a broker can get there really running their team. They don’t want people to leave right. So I was talking to a broker just the other day and he says Gene the hardest thing is I train them, coach them. They stay with me for a couple of years and then they leave. Right when they’re getting ready to be really really productive. And I said well you want to solve that. And he goes what. And I said get him into our system. It will retain them when they get stock. They want to see that stock go up. They have ownership in it because you’ve never give them ownership. So the same thing with the teams the small brokers what they’re beginning to realize that I knew it would happen Kevin. I knew it three years ago. But now it’s starting to happen. Even though they’re doing OK. Right. We haven’t had another shift yet in our market really nationally. But the brokers are going. You mean I can turn 50 agents into a hundred. I said Let me show you what Mitch Ribak did. Let me show you the small you know they’re just getting it. They’re getting it. And all of a sudden they’re going Wow!!. And of course as a broker if you’re tired of running that doggone office you’re not the broker anymore. Right? That’s a big thing. Our states are all run by a broker. We have supervisory brokers because in big states like Texas where we have close to 2000 agents we have a head broker and four supervisory brokers. So we have a lot of brokers to take care of that and they go, oh you mean I don’t have to answer the broker questions. I said No I’ll go to the broker. Just bring the agents let them run and let them produce.

KEVIN: Absolutely. So if you’re listening to this it doesn’t matter if you’re an independent broker or a mega agent or a team in a team lead you can go to the show notes and there’s an intro video it’s like seven minutes long you can get all the sort of facts and information that Gene and I are talking about. And then you really want to dig in and get due diligence. You know whoever introduced you to eXp realty can introduce you to whomever you know whether it’s Gene or me or any of the other leaders around the country that can help you get the right information to make a good decision. Doesn’t matter if you’re a broker a mega agent or otherwise. If you’re scratching your head as to why people are joining. That’s the first step. Watch that intro video that’s in the show notes and then go back to whomever introduced you to eXp Realty and say all right I’m intrigued enough. I want to dig into it and then they’ll get you pointed in the right direction to get connected. Gene any final thoughts on that I want to get your contact info in case anybody wants to reach you.

GENE: The only final thought I would say is I want to say something to everybody out there especially where we are not. First the market is everything. When you look at all the marketing books and I’m a, you know I graduated with a business degree and all the marketing books I’ve got an old marketing book and the number one thing in marketing is being first to market. That’s why I have an iPhone. That’s why a lot of us love Pandora. This is why you know what I look at first to market with anything, Netflix, Air BnB. When I see first to market even Uber right. When I see first the market, people don’t really understand how huge that is to be first in your market to bring eXp to your area. You know we have the tools to show you how to explain the model. Kevin and I want to share them with everybody. And the fact is if are first to market I don’t want you to wait two years, three years and say I’m just going to wait to see if it’s going to work. It is working. It’s working nationally right now. So get on board. I can’t wait to work with everybody. I just don’t want people to go well you know I’ll just wait and see if they make it. Come on now. Just don’t wait.

KEVIN: Absolutely. I’ve had that same conversation with people were there like well I see a few agents in my market. I’m a mega agent and I’ve got a team I do 20 30 million dollars a year and you know I don’t see the people that I mastermind with are my peers. That’s not typical when Gene joined eXp in Texas he just mentioned there’s 2000 agents are very close to him right now. I think there were five agents in the state and a few major decision like a mega agent would if they made a mistake they wouldn’t even recognize what happened in Texas.

GENE: Yes correct. And so that’s what I always say to folks get rid of that fear. It’s not really a fear at all. We’re selling real estate just like you would anywhere else. If it doesn’t work out you can always go back to your other company right. But but I can tell you once you come into our system and see the tools and the people because we’re all made of people and the people just like you that you can mastermind with nationwide through the cloud collaborate so easily because I’m telling you right now. Kevin you know as well as I do there’s a few people in my world that I talk to two and a half years ago. They are just now joining now. I said well it was available to you two and a half years ago and they go well I’m starting now. I’m going now and I go good. But if you’re in a town where we’re not even in yet, guys we can open immediately. We do not need bricks and mortar. We just need good quality agents. We talk about it all the time in our attraction. It’s quality not quantity. We want quality agents so come join the explosion as we call it the eXp explosion. And it really is happening and I can’t wait to work with everybody.

KEVIN: Fantastic. Gene if somebody is listening to this and they want to reach you how do they get in touch with you.

GENE: The best way to reach me guys if you want to is texting. Please do not e-mail me. You can. Really pretty much find me. I’m in Austin Texas. My name is Gene Frederick but my cell number and I’ll give it to you so you can text me or private message me on Facebook you can private message me on Facebook of course just Gene Frederick is on my Facebook account but 703 3381 515 is my cell number 703 3381 515. Just text me. I really respond fast. I can’t wait to work with all of you.

KEVIN: Fantastic. Thanks for coming on the show.

GENE: Thanks Kev. Take care.