Former Team Leader Brent Gove Joins eXp Realty from Keller Williams

On Today’s episode we have Brent Gove. Brent has been in real estate for about 21 years. He spent 12 years at Remax and 8 years at Keller Williams before transitioning to eXp Realty. Brent’s business is currently in 37 states, and he has over 1,489 brokers and agent associates.

In this episode you’ll hear about Brent’s experience with the market crash in California in 2005, how he found himself at eXp, his thoughts on the eXp business model and what’s taking place at eXp Realty.

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
Culture and growth at eXp
Other companies in comparison with eXp 
The transition to eXp

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 contact Brent to inquire or ask questions.
Contact Brent via text at 916-223-5555

Noteworthy
“I saw the benefits; webinars that explained how to acquire stock, how to get leads, the five to 10 Cloud classes a day to train my team and then the revenue sharing component. Those four things, I was like wow this is this is shockingly better than I thought it was going to be.”

“I am ten times more excited to be at eXp because of what it does.”

SHOW TRANSCRIPTION

KEVIN: Welcome to the show Brent.

BRENT: Thank you Kevin.

KEVIN: Well for people that maybe haven't heard of you before which probably not very many. Can you give a little bit of your background in real estate because I know you and I both were team leaders at Keller Williams but you've done a lot team wise as well.

BRENT: Sure yeah. Been in real estate since 1996 or 1997 I can't remember what year it's been about 21 years now and you know start off struggling like everybody else. Then he kind of figured out at the end of your first year in year 2 I did better three I think my fourth year I sold 48 homes. I kind of found my stride. Friend of mine talked me going to Toronto to hear Craig Proctor who at the time was the number one Remax agent in the world up in Toronto which Craig Proctor super conference loved it. Met great people like Jeff Williams and Jay Kinder and Todd Walters and all kinds of wonderful people spent years learning that system and I went from 48 sales a year which I was matched to over 400 sales a year then 169 million in annual volume. And really when you are about leverage and building a team and then of course the market crashed in summer of 05 in California. I remember June I closed on 55 homes in a single month, got paid 55 times in a month which is great. The guy netted about 288.000 net that month so I was a good month financially. But you know we bounced around you know it would go 55 45. You know it might drop five or 10 sales but the next month we closed on 19 Homes we'd never drop like 35 sales and I thought that maybe we were distracted with the Fourth of July and I took the team to Scottsdale go golf and how fine and then the next month 17 and 14. By December we closed nine homes and I had 47 buyers agents working for me and that was our total close volume by December forty nine for forty seven agents. Everybody went bankrupt. Everybody lost their homes their cars. It was brutal. And that happened this summer and fall 2005. So people said oh the market didn't crack until 08, 07 maybe around the country but in California it was 2005. And so from there things got worse. By 2009 it was just I was losing 30 40 50,000 a month for years and by 2009 Keller Williams came knocking on my door. They said hey we'll pay a base of 288 thousand plus bonuses up to half a million come believe Remax be a part of Keller Williams. You can keep running your team to normally do. But that's the only way I would come and I came and it was great experience for me of course Remax said it will be terrible you'll hate Keller Williams and you're making the biggest mistake of their life it didn't matter where I would have gone whether it was Coldwell Banker Century 21 or wherever they would have said it was a terrible idea because I was leaving their team and gone for the opponents right thing. They were wrong though Keller Williams was way better for me not saying they're better than Remax it is better for me personally. They were wrong. Keller was great. I was there for eight years. So 12 years a ReMax eight years. Keller that was my 20 years. Then about a year ago I left Keller and you know I didn't like Keller at that time I loved him. Was never ever ever going to leave Keller Willaims. What could possibly be better than Keller Williams used to run the number one franchise in America. We made more money in 2009 than Austin Texas. Our Roseville Keller Williams is markets and it was number one and profitability for the entire nation. And that was in 2009 and last year I left the company that I loved and I was of the value proposition for eXp was so powerful so amazing I had to leave when I did. Of course Keller Williams like Remax said hey it's a huge mistake you're making a giant mistake don't do it. And bottom line I was leaving their team for the opponents team and they were wrong. My last 16 months here at eXp has been nothing short of miraculous and life changing and unbelievable. So in 45 days I get to retire from real estate. I don't have to list homes anymore. I listed a bunch of homes this week. Presenting three offers now I've sold three to me personally not my team me I'm a very active agent. But in 45 days I get to retire I'll give all my listings to my listing specialist on my buyers and I'll just kind of run the team and keep an eye on it. But it was the eXp that got me to the point where I no longer had to bring in a sixty thousand dollar a month monthly income to keep the lights on you know to pay my home bills and the office bills and the overhead it was 60000 a month. Well because we don't need to govern that money anymore. It's been amazing. And now I'm at eXp and absolutely loving it.

KEVIN: You know Brett what's interesting about your comment and I would echo what you said right. I was a team leader at Keller Williams and was there and a big team in St. Louis Missouri and the most common comment is what you just said which is most of us were extremely happy. We were very happy where we were. And it's almost like we were sort of astonished at this value proposition of eXp realty that came by and went Wait a minute. I can't not look at this because I'm a business person. I think you're like decisive like I am right. Driver personalities and I know you dug right into it and you made a decision pretty quick didn't you.

BRENT: Ten days but I was fortunate enough when I saw the benefits webinars that explained how to acquire stock, how to get leads the five to 10 Cloud classes a day to train my team and then the revenue sharing component. Those four things I was like wow this is shockingly better than I thought it was going to be and wow I don't have those six ways to acquire stock Keller Williams so I don't have the ownership piece and the revenue share piece and that literally saw a way to earn over a million dollars a year outside which I will do twice that much this year. But outside of real estate sales to make a million dollars a year, I go that is significant. So the benefit I had just dumb luck was the very next week they were doing their annual convention in San Antonio Texas. They're like hey if you're crazy get yourself an airline ticket get out here next week and meet us meet the founder of the company Glenn Sanford. Meet the CEO Jason Guessing. Meet Vicki Bartolomé our president. Come out here and meet us. And I said I'm crazy and I bought three roundtrip airline tickets. Seven hundred each. Because it was last minute was 2100 dollars just for the airfare. Bought tickets to the event it was like 300 400 bucks for each person. I spent like four or five grand to come check out eXp as a Keller Williams agent. I brought my CEO chief operating officer who runs my company and I brought a local independent broker with me. I said look we won't be going to San Antonio if I wasn't excited I won't be paying for all this and do all this I am interested. I'm excited about the opportunity. So I don't want you guys to come here be excited. In fact I want you to come here and be negative. I want you to tear this thing to shreds. If there's a fly in the ointment let's find it. Either this thing passes the mustard test or it doesn't. And we must have interrogated a hundred people over that three days brokers from Colorado or New York or Florida agents that were brand new in Seattle that were brand new in Phoenix. The agents had been doing this for four or five years in different parts of the country six seven eight years and were like really did they do they pay like like they slow pay. They were bounced the commission check. Did they pay revenue share every month. Do they pa