How Real Estate Agents Can Build Trust With Live Content | Rex Powers

Rex Powers (00:00)
Quentin Edmonds, is that your is that that’s your your given name, right? Yeah, so and I and I’m I’m not gonna say this out loud, but I’d be willing to bet you a bunch of money right now that you don’t own a dot live extension after your name.

Quentin Edmonds (00:03)
You got it, Yather.

Rex Powers (00:14)
Now, Quentin Edmonds Live. Now you know what’s really crazy? Is that domain for the first year is only gonna cost you about three or four dollars.

So let’s go live. That’s my that’s my call to action. And it is the strongest call to action. If you look at LinkedIn, there’s an article I just published, I think I may have put it out yesterday that talks about let’s go live, the ecosystem. Let’s go live with the three most powerful words right now in the English language as a really social media.

Quentin Edmonds (02:16)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. And indeed I am excited to be here today. And indeed I have an incredible guest. I’m so glad that we get a chance to peek through this gentleman lens. Listen, he is what he considers and what he is.

He’s an architect. He, saw his career as a, as a recruiter, but this gentleman is a designer. He is a builder of communities. Not only that, he needs some coaching as well. Like this gentleman does a lot and I’m, and I’m glad that we get to sit down and just glean from his experience. So I want to introduce to some, present to some, introduce to others, Mr. Rex Powers. Mr. Rex, how you doing today, sir?

Rex Powers (03:01)
Good, Quentin, how are you doing?

Quentin Edmonds (03:03)
man, I’m doing great, sir. Glad you’re here. thank you for your time. You’re to hear me say this. Maybe, definitely one more time, maybe two more. I believe time is our most precious commodity. So I thank you for being here. I don’t take your time lightly. And so, so listen, I’m going to type Mr. Rex. I like to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little origin story.

kind of how you got to where you are. And so Mr. Rex, sir, you have the floor, my friend.

Rex Powers (03:35)
Thanks, Quentin. It’s a great, it’s a pleasure to be with you guys on this program. I I think the real estate industry is a fascinating space to be in these days. And I’m and I should make it clear, I’m not really in the real estate business. I’m in the kind of in the technic technical ⁓ marketing ecosystem architecture world. So I I look for market opportunities, industry verticals that are that are lagging relative to building communities of like-minded people, and that has a usually a pretty profound impact on the marketing strategies.

And I’ll also we we live in a time today where ⁓ content and podcasting is really evolving because we’re we’re really in an era of real-time engagement. So we can do these programs and and and have a tremendous amount of reach and basically be cataloging ⁓ our marketing for the future. So I think the the model that you guys are building ⁓ for the real estate industry, I’ve been studying the real estate industry ⁓ pretty thoroughly for the last, you know, eight or nine years. ⁓

Again, like and I appreciate the introduction. My my background is unique. ⁓ ex military or force and army. I spent a I had a really good career early in my life as a recruiter. So understanding the importance of building trust with individuals, there’s nothing more important ⁓ for most people than being able to find a successful career path. And recruiters, I believe, are ⁓ along with real estate agents, have a re responsibility to really honor

what the client wants and needs and not try to push them into something that’s not good for ⁓ So you don’t sell somebody a house that’s not the kind of house they want. You don’t ask you don’t recruit somebody into a job that’s not the right fit for So again, ecosystem architecture is what I’ve really thrived on. And ecosystems ⁓ have matured a lot as the internet has changed because we’ve moved from an era of not being live. I mean up until a few years ago, Facebook Live wasn’t live.

You had time to unring that bell. So if you were saying something and it wasn’t correct or was misleading, you could back it out quick. Today we don’t have that luxury. I mean, we’re pretty much online just like we are with live TV. And so the world of live has has gotten very interesting and I think it’s gonna start to have a huge impact on the real estate industry. ⁓ several years ago

I’ve I’ve I’ve invested a lot of time and money over the years in building digital ecosystems around domain structure. And as the internet has matured, ⁓ advertising online has changed. how the internet is is used as a tool has changed. And a lot of that is because today you’re live. You you can be instantly in engaged with people. So we’ve really worked hard. ⁓

To say where’s the where is the real estate industry going to go is a result of all this technology changing. I acquired a unique domain a few years ago, consumermortgagereviews.com and the idea there was to build an ecosystem at a starting point. You know, so when ⁓ when a homeowner was looking for a house, you know, the Consumer Mortgage Reviews might be a good place to start, you know, especially with mortgage rates fluctuating.

So over the last 10 years, I’ve built this ecosystem around consumermortgagereviews.com And I want to make sure it’s understood that that is clearly an undeveloped digital ecosystem. Right now, those domains are used for redirects, and later we can talk about how that works or where they go right now. But we’ve built a portfolio that supports this, which we call a Moats and Boats theory. So we’ve really moved the review platform into more of a lead generation capability.

And we’ve got domains like mortgageradar.ai So we’re anticipating how artificial intelligence is going to start to influence the buying habits. But more importantly, being able to really track the trend analytics that are going on of an industry in real time. And that has a huge impact on on everything from mortgage rates to house prices. there’s a lot of factors obviously in that. But ecosystem architecture is where we where we thrive.

And ⁓ and that’s what got me in front of you today is that y I saw a Facebook post of ⁓ your your organization and and it was intriguing, you know. And so I thought, well, let’s take a shot at this because while we we own a lot of digital assets that that infer that we are live, ⁓ this is actually one of the first podcasts I’ve ever participated in. So I again I thank you for for recognizing my ⁓

My desire to be a part of it and my ⁓ willingness to learn.

Quentin Edmonds (08:49)
Well, thank you, Mr. Rex, for being here. mean, thank you for trusting us. Thank you for the information that you just gave, kind of walking us up to what you do, where you are. ⁓ Ecosystem architecture. I love when you talk.

these pictures are being painted in my mind. And so I absolutely love it. And so, know, military man, you know, career as a recruiter, obviously you’ve been through some different transitions in your life. I’m building this out what you’re building now. So I have a saying, Mr. Rex, I often say destiny has no wasted moments.

Right? Meaning like we’re borrowing from every journey of our life, every leg of the journey. Right? And we are building up with borrowing from the success, but borrowing from the failure is just part of the journey. Right? And so I would love to know for you, Mr. Rex, what has the journey revealed to you about yourself? ⁓ has it made you more humble? Has it increased your tenacity? Has it changed your innovation? What has the journey revealed to you about you,

Rex Powers (09:49)
⁓ my journey has has been unique in that in that I I I’ve found myself ⁓ at a point in my life where I’m I’m more intrigued about what can I do that can be beneficial to help other people ⁓ in in making solid decisions. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that that we live in a in a society today where the the trust level for others is is really failing us. ⁓ we we really lack

trust. I mean you if you’re if you’re a recruiter, then you you need to have a commitment ⁓ of of saying that I I need this candidate to trust me. If I’m if I’m working with a if I’m in a re if I’m a realtor, I and I’m not a realtor by the way, but if I were a realtor, I would say to a a potential client, it’s important that I understand why you’re making these decisions so I can help you make make the right choices. I don’t want to steer you down a path that’s not right. Yeah.

I’ve gotten to the point where I’m I’m in my in my life where I’m I’m very concerned about making sure that everything I touch has of of legitimacy and trust attached to it. ⁓ you know, Consumer Mortgage Reviews is a good example. I mean, I would say that that realtors, ⁓ the real estate market is a is an industry that is going through a lot of changes right now. ⁓ so people are struggling to try to figure out, you know.

Where do I go? Who do I trust? Who can I work with? Yeah. But at this point in my life, I think ⁓ constantly being able to deliver a message that I would like to work with people that I that I can build trust relationships with. Yes, sir. So like-minded communities, and this is what real-time content gives us the ability to do is build these little micro cupsms of ecosystems. You know, we are we are tribalistic by nature. And so

Quentin Edmonds (11:33)
Yes.

Rex Powers (11:35)
You think about it, from the minute when you’re born into this life, you’re connected to one person, your mother. Your mother. Literally, you’re connected to your mother. So you have this tribe from the minute you’re that you’re conceived. And then your tribe grows exponentially. You know, as soon as you’re born, you meet your father, and then hopefully your grandparents and so on and so forth. And and what happens is over over the over the course of evolution in humanity, we’ve moved away from that.

Tribal culture. You know, I grew up in a neighborhood where when the lights went off at night, it meant all the kids have to come back in the house. ⁓ but if I screwed up on the street, and I have a single mom, by the way, my mother made it really clear to the dads in the neighborhood, if Rex is messing up, you deal with it. ⁓ so we don’t have that culture in America anymore. And I and I think that ⁓

What I feel is as an ecosystem architect is how do I build these communities of like-minded people. And it can be something as simple as, and this is why I get excited about understanding how you build these podcasts, because it could be as simple as let’s talk jobs. That has to be a domain that I that I sit on. Let’s talk jobs. ⁓ so you know, you think about it. If I’m talking to somebody that’s that’s thinking about buying a home, it’s not that difficult. It’s not a stretch to say, would you like to to participate in another program for let’s talk jobs?

Yeah. and vice versa. So again, ecosystems create multiplying factors. And in the real estate industry, if you take care of your client, you’re gonna get more business.

Quentin Edmonds (13:03)
Yeah. Yeah.

Rex Powers (13:06)
That’s

I’m I’m trust. It’s all about trust.

Quentin Edmonds (13:09)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Mr. Rex, thank you, man. Thank you for that well thought out reflective answer. I know earlier you mentioned that, and I’m kind of going to paraphrase it, but systems are important. I mean, you said it way more eloquently, right? But having systems in place are important. Everything thrives on systems. And so I would love to know for you, Mr. Rex, what’s like one operational thing

Let’s say you put in place like the last two years that has really helped or changed the way you do business.

Rex Powers (14:16)
I lead with one three letter word. Why?

Why? If I get a call from a company and they say, you know, we we will refer to you, we know you’re a a really good recruiter and we need some help. Why? Why do you why do you need my help? We have a position that’s open. Why is it open? Well we let wait somebody left or or is it a new position? Somebody left, why? Why did they leave? Well they they they had a problem with somebody in the company. Why? I mean the the the farther you dig, ⁓ the more information you gain.

And the and the clearer the picture usually becomes. So when you ⁓ you know, ⁓ I’m somebody calls you if you’re a real estate agent and then somebody calls and says, Hey, I’m looking for a new home. Really, why? Why are you looking for a new home? You know, yeah, I mean, does it want to move? I mean, there’s all kinds of factors. So the why question is where I lead. It’s my starting point on everything. ⁓ and then I think from that point it’s always about doing ⁓ scoping out everything, really understanding.

You know, how to fill in all those all the all the all the boxes that you check. None in it not disseminating what you’re gonna do, what you do, what you did with me. Yeah. Well that the right off the get go you say, Well, we’ve got this little check box we wanna run through and we wanna make sure that we’re in alignment. ⁓

But that’s that’s how I start everything, Quentin, is is with the question, why? Why am I talking with you? Why are we why do you need my help? Yeah. And ⁓ and if you and if you don’t make that an intrusive question, people will open up and tell you.

Even if it hurts. But they have to trust you.

Quentin Edmonds (15:45)
Yes, sir. It’s interesting that you will bring up three-letter word, why. Because Mr. Rex, I’ve said my word for 2026 is curious. I want to be curious about everything. Curious about why I eat the way I do. Curious about why I do business the way I do. Curious about why does that make me angry? Like, curious has been my word. And so I love.

you highlighting the question why. And that was so brilliant. You got a position open. Why is it open? mean, yes, sir. I think that is absolutely a brilliant operational question. Wow. And so thank you for sharing. Mr. Rex, what’s next for you, sir? What is your next real goal? What are you looking to solve or scale next?

Rex Powers (16:31)
I’m aggressively looking to exit out of almost all the digital platforms that I’m sitting on right now. And what I wanna do, I’ll be I mean, I’m seventy five years old, so I’m not looking to build a new career from scratch, but what I am doing is starting to ⁓ do some speaking and I’m also writing a book. ⁓ but I’ll share that with you openly. It’s it’s ⁓ in in pursuit of the albino rhino is the title of it. And the albino rhino is a mythical

character, mythical creature, if you will. ⁓ in the context of I want the perfect job. Yeah. How many people do you know that have the perfect job? I’ve I’ve had over the years many, many instances where I’ve been in some very nice restaurants, for example, and I’ve made a comment to some people I might be sitting with saying everybody in here is a passive job seeker. Everybody in here is a job seeker. Everybody. Everybody. ⁓

Quentin Edmonds (17:03)
Yeah.

Rex Powers (17:23)
And they say, no, no, no, that we don’t believe that. I said, well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll bet you a hundred dollars that I can get everybody in here to raise their hand to a question about that. And I’ve had multiple times over the career where they said, Okay, we’ll take you up on that. So if I’m in a nice restaurant and I hold my glass up real loud, can I have your attention? My name is Rex Powers. I’m from, you know, wherever I’m at at that point. And ⁓ I have a theory that everybody in life

Is always looking for the next opportunity. How many of you are actively looking for new career opportunities? And let’s say you’re in a place where there’s 200 people sitting. I can tell you that 25 to 35% of those people are going to raise hands. And then I say, let me rephrase that. How many of you would consider a career opportunity if it could give you a better quality of life? Now.

Everybody raises their hand. So everybody is a passive job seeker. It doesn’t mean you’re looking for a new career. It means you’re looking for a quality of life that you haven’t achieved. So the albino rhino is really about disproving the theory that there is any such thing as the perfect job. Because the perfect job means that your life is perfect. And I don’t know anybody that has a perfect life. ⁓ And then and that was the case ten years ago. If anything

I would say that that’s become more of an exponential in the world that we live in today, chaos has become sort of a standard operating procedure for America.

So again, it goes back to this trust factor. Who do you trust? ⁓

But that’s my my goal is to is to try to ⁓ get to the point where by the time I’m maybe eighty years old I’m imparting some of this wisdom that I have failed to to take advantage of in my life. I mean I just it’s been the oldest of five kids, a single mom that raised five kids, you know, by herself as a waitress in eight hundred school foot home. It’s not a horror story, it’s a story of great love and and respect.

⁓ but today I think that ⁓ everybody is looking for a better life.

Writing ⁓ is is w is a passion that I have. I I I publish I’m aggressively and actively on LinkedIn. And I mean I publish a lot of content on LinkedIn. I’ve published three articles just in the last week that specifically talk about trust. Yeah. ⁓ and it’s it’s an important factor that’s that we just don’t think enough about right now.

Quentin Edmonds (20:30)
Again, Mr. Rex, so well said, sir. Thank you, man. Again, for that just reflective thought I’ll answer. Just listening to you talk, believe that because you are a builder of communities, and so I believe you’re probably exceptional at relationships. And so I want you to talk to us a little bit.

about the importance of building healthy business relationships, but it also may be some of the relationships that you have cultivated that has helped you be successful today. So if you don’t mind, Mr. Rexellos, talk to us a little bit about relationships,

Rex Powers (21:02)
Well, my perspective on relationships goes back to ⁓ I think probably my my early days in the recruiting world. ⁓ I had ⁓ a lot of situational I had some situational issues in my life. ⁓ almost thirty years ago I went through a divorce. You know, I had two boys, two sons, I went through a divorce and ⁓ really was yeah, you know, I I was in the Army reserves at that point. I I was Air Force active in Army Reserves.

But a friend of mine was in the recruiting business, and he and he one day he just says, Hey, would have you ever thought about doing this work for a living? And I said, No, I really haven’t. ⁓ and I I went into his office and he says, I’ve got a meeting off site that I need to go to today, and I’d like you to go with me. He took me to a company ⁓ in Indianapolis, and it was a company called Best Lock. And Best Lock was a company that

real strong Christian faith value values. ⁓ they literally own the the patents on interchangeable locking devices. A very successful small family owned company. Pretty big company actually. ⁓ and when you walked in, the Ten Commandments were on the walls in big bold letters. And then ⁓

They had a personnel manager. They didn’t have an HR department. They had a personnel manager. And this company needed an IT position filled. So Kent, they’d reached out to Kent and they said, We want to meet you with face to face. And we walked in, and I’ll never forget when the owner of the company came out and and and introduced himself and he said, I want to, I want to take the time to sit down with you guys for 10 or 15 minutes because anyone that works, anybody that comes into our company to work with my company.

I want to get a sense of who they are and what they are. And a lot of it was because he was very embedded in the in the fact that you need to be a part of my family if you’re gonna work with me. And and this was a company that had grandfathers, sons, and grandsons all working side by side. Three I mean, three generations of families multiple times I’ve met in that company. And the only way you could go to work for that company, Quentin, was to be referred by an employee who had been with the company for over a year.

So they it was my first exposure to peer-to-peer recruiting in the in the power of relationship building. And and again, think about it, we talked about tribalism. This was a company that that empowered tribalism in everything they did. Everything. I mean, they had during the day back back in those days, multiple times during the day, you’d hear a bell ring. That bell, I know this is a little crazy in today’s world, but that bell meant it’s prayer time.

Quentin Edmonds (23:30)
Yup, come on.

Rex Powers (23:31)
And people would stop working. Come on for five minutes, these little groups would get together and they pray.

Quentin Edmonds (23:37)
No!

Rex Powers (23:38)
Now here’s what’s amazing. Over the course of many, many years, they and that don’t hold me to this number because it’s not in front of me right now, but I think they may have only ever had less than 10 employees actually resigned. Most of the time, if people left that company, it was because they died. ⁓ but if you referred somebody over the course of a year, you earned, and this is

Thirty years ago, you in the course of twelve months, you were paid over fifteen hundred dollars. Basically, they were saying, You’re the person that introduces them, so you’re gonna be the person that’s gonna walk them through the process, and then you’re gonna be the mentor. So we’re gonna help figure out where in the company culture does this person need to be fit. Because because they’re building these little micro ecosystems inside that company. That meeting forged my theories about peer-to-peer relationships.

Quentin Edmonds (24:24)
Yeah.

Rex Powers (24:30)
and importance of understanding what’s important to other people and how does it relate to what’s important to me and and is there a relationship there that can be built.

Quentin Edmonds (24:40)
Yeah.

Rex Powers (24:40)
And I’m not sure if I’ve answered that what you were where you were staring before, but I mean but peer to peer relationships is the key to everything in our world right now. And and I think it’s whether you’re talking about jobs, yeah, or you’re talking about buying houses, or you’re talking about going to a car lot and buying a car. I mean my gosh, for re for the for the longest time I used to tell people recruiters are only second in reputational integrity to use car salesmen. And

And I used to say to a lot of folks, in fact, ⁓ for years I’d say, you know, ⁓ make no mistake, candidates will lie, employers will lie, and occasionally fellow recruiters will lie. You really have to understand how to build those ecosystems. But I can tell you that once you get into a company and you build the right kind of a relationship as a recruiter, ⁓ this is a statistical fact that I will challenge anybody. ⁓

Quentin Edmonds (25:19)
Yeah.

Rex Powers (25:33)
To ever replicate, but I’ve I’ve in the course of my recruiting career, I’ve placed 1,437 individuals. ⁓ 1437 at a 2.3 to <unk> interview to hire ratio, which means my why question allows me to scope out the problem. And I don’t care, I don’t I truly don’t care if you’ve got outhouses in the parking lot. But if you tell me you’ve got gold plated toilets in your offices, there better be a gold plated toilet somewhere. ⁓

But again, the the the whole the whole the whole world is evolving into and evolving quickly into the peer-to-peer trust based economy model. And the real estate industry is the industry right now that I think is most susceptible to to taking advantage of this. But I don’t think most real estate agents out here understand the power of social media. They understand the power of what they can get. I mean, buy my home direct.

I mean, what I all I need to sell a house again is a title company and a r and a lawyer. That’s it. I don’t need any of this other stuff. So how do how do real estate companies start adapting to what’s inevitably gonna happen? And that is an influence where technology is going to start to really have an impact on the relationship side of it. And if you don’t build a digital footprint, ⁓ yeah, I mean, you know.

Quentin Edmonds (26:34)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Rex Powers (26:55)
Quentin Edmonds, is that your is that that’s your your given name, right? Yeah, so and I and I’m I’m not gonna say this out loud, but I’d be willing to bet you a bunch of money right now that you don’t own a dot live extension after your name.

Quentin Edmonds (26:59)
You got it, Yather.

Rex Powers (27:10)
Now, Quentin Edmonds Live. Now you know what’s really crazy? Is that domain for the first year is only gonna cost you about three or four dollars.

So let’s go live. That’s my that’s my call to action. And it is the strongest call to action. If you look at LinkedIn, there’s an article I just published, I think I may have put it out yesterday that talks about let’s go live, the ecosystem. Let’s go live with the three most powerful words right now in the English language as a really social media.

Hey, I’m Rex Powers and I’m your ⁓ I’m your local real estate agent here in Muncie, Indiana. And

⁓ go live today and I’m gonna walk you through three houses. ⁓ today we have all those tools. I mean, you know, Nomo you know what Namoto devices are? You ever seen a Namoto?

Quentin Edmonds (27:58)
I’m not familiar by name, no. I may have seen it, but not know what I was looking at, yeah.

Rex Powers (28:03)
If you let me step away from the camera here just a second, I’m gonna grab something. Give me a second.

Imagine you walk into a room with this little gizmo. and you open it up, and you got this little pod. And four microphones. So I can put that pod down, give everybody microphone, put my camera on my little gimbal, and I can be streaming right then. Right then. So you think about it if if I’m if I’m a realtor and I go in

and I’m meeting with a new client, why wouldn’t I want to sit down and capture as much information organically, just like you do when you’re preparing somebody for a podcast? How many homeowners do you know that buy the address of their house?

You know, because you can buy your house and say, you know, I live at 1000 North Finlandia Court. So if I’ve got the domain 1000 North Finlandia Court 4703, I can build my own social media profile around my address, buy my home today, and I just redirect it to the listing on Zillow or wherever it’s at. I architect communities that can rebuild industries. And that’s what with consumermortgage.com.

And that’s what got my interest with you guys is that is that the real the real estate industry, I don’t think I think it’s an untapped opportunity right now. I don’t think the real estate industry Keller Williams is extraordinary. I mean, unless I’m missing the boat, they’re the they’re dog in the industry right now. ⁓ but when you look at how the home equity investment space is is changing, I just think there’s so many growth opportunities and ⁓ again it’s

Quentin, it’s all about developing trust with the consumers.

Quentin Edmonds (29:43)
Yes, Listen, Mr. Rex, has been very well-spent. You have been a wealth of nuggets, a wealth of information. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

Rex Powers (29:58)
Well I’m I’m very active on LinkedIn and ⁓ I can also be re reached at my ⁓ my own toll-free phone number, which is 8-4-4 Rex Powers.

Quentin Edmonds (30:07)
844 Rex Powers, Let me say three things to you sincerely. One, again, thank you for your time. I think it’s our most precious commodity. Secondly, thank you for your story. Thank you for your authenticity. I even would say thank you for the gift of your vulnerability. I believe to plant seeds for people. And we don’t know when that seed is going to take root and when it’s going to grow, but the seed is there. So thank you for planting seeds. And lastly, sir, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think, Mr. Rex, and bringing that mindset to this platform.

I greatly appreciate you coming on today,

Rex Powers (30:37)
My pleasure.

Quentin Edmonds (30:38)
Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Mr. Rex. His information is in the show notes. Please get in contact with him. Let him architect build you a community. Let him help you go live. Let’s go live. so again, Mr. Rex, I appreciate you coming on today, sir. And to everyone else, y’all have a fantastic day.