Real Estate Agent Growth, Social Media Branding, and Building a 35,000-Agent Network

Ed Stulak (00:00)
Absolutely. There’s so many of them. You know, I can go into personal deals. can go into company losses. can go into Avenue. I’m happy to go into mine, which was four or four or so years ago. I had an opportunity of a lifetime. Something that really made me rethink about staying in the real estate industry because I was at a point where I was truly ready to give up.

And I got an opportunity from social media, on Instagram specifically. I had these developers reach out to me and they said, we are building something in a town called Somerville, New Jersey, hoping to get your perspective on it and maybe give the opportunity your way.

Michelle Tack (02:15)
Hi, welcome to Real Estate Pros. I am Michelle Tack. I am your podcast leader for today. I wanted to introduce Ed Stulak.

Michelle Tack (02:24)
Ed let me know that he is doing something that is pretty unique in the real estate industry. He has 35,000 agents across the United States.

as well as provinces in Canada Ed is doing it in a different methodology than has been done before. So with that, Ed, can you tell folks that may not be from the brokerage side of business and what have you, but what you’re doing and ⁓ what makes you different?

Ed Stulak (02:58)
For sure. I’m a real estate agent to say the least over here in New Jersey, USA. And five years ago when I joined this company called Real, I took it upon myself that I knew I wasn’t only going to be selling homes, just like a realtor does, but I’m going to be picking up the shovel and digging a bigger picture here and the foundation to a much bigger vision, which is this company of Real.

I joined when there was 1400 agents around a few states of America and here we are five years later. I personally have attracted over 1100 agents into my own network in a sense. And as a collective, the company has brought over 34,000 agents. So we’re a real estate firm, right? We sell real estate, but we are growing something very cool that’s not only beneficial to the realtors like myself, but also the consumers out there that are buying, selling, investing, renting, developing.

and so on and so forth. So that’s the nutshell.

Michelle Tack (04:01)
Well, let’s let’s dig into that a little bit more in terms of what is it that you are doing differently that that’s a big a lot of people right and you’re getting people attracted to what you’re doing. Can you describe sort of I love your model by the way. Maybe you start with that and then how you are doing it differently than other competitors.

Ed Stulak (05:12)
Sure. The motto is work hard, be kind. Something that I wear on my shirts, my merch and my apparel and that’s something I wear on my heart and my sleeve when it comes to working for clients, when I’m working for myself and this company and even teaching others, right? I love talking about social media marketing and branding and that’s another piece to the whole puzzle where it’s important. So anytime I talk with someone it’s work hard, be kind. And now the company that we are starting to really

Now pick up some more wind and lift here is, is yes, we are a real estate firm. We just have something so unique and different that most agencies and companies would love to have. They just might not necessarily have that either bandwidth and or capital to make it all happen. So we are a virtual brokerage. Virtual brokerage is mean that we’re not brick and mortar based. Brick and mortar as one can know, you don’t have to be a realtor to understand this part.

Brick and mortar is expensive for you to lease or buy an office and then everything inside and hold all those miscellaneous items in there is a lot of money. And then to maintain it and then to continue to grow it, it’s a lot of money. So for a company that is virtual such as us, we get to take a lot of that money and give it back to people like myself. So the attraction that I felt when I saw real as an option for me in my business was that if I work

harder, it doesn’t only mean that I’ll make more. There are ways to work smarter and make more. so smarter means I get to work ⁓ in a sense a little less. If I get to work less, more, that’s interesting, I would say. If I can sell lesser homes and make the same amount, if not more where I was, why wouldn’t I be attracted? And

Real also offered me something that really leaned into my specialty which was attracting communities and building communities. I’ve built up a following of you know well over 50,000 on Instagram and 20 or so thousand on on TikTok. I don’t even know how many at this point but these are all people that I’ve brought and attracted to me so I know how to do this naturally. So I said at the time five years ago

I said, if I get to go to a company that allows me to lean into my superpower and allows me to attract more and I get rewarded for it, that’s the company for me. And no one at that time was offering it but Real. So in about a minute or two of however long I just spoke for, I tried to illustrate that. Yes, Real is not just a real estate firm, but we are a firm that is not only helping consumers, but also realtors live a better career.

Michelle Tack (07:57)
That’s awesome. How do you keep things running smoothly when you are in a position to continue to grow exponentially ⁓ large amount of realtors? What do you do? You some of the fundamentals to keep your operational side of the business. Yes, there is a big advantage in cost because you don’t have.

facilities, but there’s still software, there’s still training, there’s still the need to keep abreast of what’s going on with the mortgage rates. Help me understand how you operate the company efficiently and smoothly, more importantly, smoothly and efficiently.

Ed Stulak (08:42)
I feel it’s like flying a plane or riding a boat. The waves will always come. You just got to go through them and navigate through them at softer, smoother times. you need to know you have to go slower, you go slower. When you need to go and pick up the pace, you pick up the pace. When you need to slow down and get some gas because you can’t go anymore, get some gas. And so I look at it the same way for my business. And I also have to be in the trenches to understand how to

go through these rough waters. It will always be rough. It’s almost never smooth. And if it’s smooth, you know, our CEO, his name is Tamir Poleg, Tamir always says, you got to go with the waves. The waves will go ahead and you’ll ride them. Ride that wave. It’s a fun time, but you’ll eventually get washed up. And then you got to go and paddle back out and restart once more. And some waves will be good, some waves won’t, but you got to ride them. Right. So now with that philosophy,

Same thing. It will almost never be smooth waters. You’ll always have to go through uncharted territories even at times too. And they’re never fun, but sometimes they can turn into a fun time once you understand how to ride them. So for you to have a smooth process, you got to just go through it. And I don’t know, I’m in this business for 10 years. I think I need another 30, but also I don’t think I need another 30 to tell you that these, it will never be smooth. It will never be.

Michelle Tack (10:06)
Yeah.

Ed Stulak (10:07)
where you now it’s smooth my god i figured it out and then my god market shifts or something changes or ⁓ i don’t know a global event occurs overseas that you just did not predict for the oil to now rise which means this will rise which means that will rise right right you can’t predict this stuff so there’s a lot of uncontrollable variables in any sort of business but in mine it’s really the market it’s really being in the trenches understand what consumers want

how agents should be selling and really just navigating that territory because it’s always all over the place. So to answer the question as best as I possibly could, it’s never smooth, just go through it, ride the wave until you can’t ride it no more and then paddle back out and ride it again.

Michelle Tack (10:53)
Exactly,

exactly. Every business that I know and life in fact, know, operators find themselves in a position where either through growth or just in their their history of a deal that went sideways and south and then but they were able to pivot quickly and either rectify it to, you know,

whatever that is. And again, it could be anything ⁓ or did rectify it, but it was a cornerstone of their development in terms of learning, learning the hard knocks. Can you relate to any of that? Maybe in the last year, last two years or whatever that is a learning lesson that maybe you have from a deal or something that you could share with the team.

Ed Stulak (12:19)
Absolutely. There’s so many of them. You know, I can go into personal deals. can go into company losses. can go into Avenue. I’m happy to go into mine, which was four or four or so years ago. I had an opportunity of a lifetime. Something that really made me rethink about staying in the real estate industry because I was at a point where I was truly ready to give up.

And I got an opportunity from social media, on Instagram specifically. I had these developers reach out to me and they said, we are building something in a town called Somerville, New Jersey, hoping to get your perspective on it and maybe give the opportunity your way.

And at the time I said, yes, please, because I’m not saying no to anything right now. So, all story short, I took it and…

It was a life-changing opportunity. hundred and eighty unit apartment complex. All one hundred and eighty units needed to be filled with tenants. So they gave me a big task that I’ve never done before. I acted like I did it. I was very confident. And now I said, I’ll figure it out. And so I did. And then three months into figuring out those territories, those waters, which were not smooth at all, Michelle, whatsoever.

Just when I thought I might have my finger on it of, I think I have a system here. Okay. Now I know it’s just copy and paste every Monday through Friday. I understand how to make this all happen. One Friday rolls around and I get a phone call from a tenant and they say, ⁓ I’m sorry, from applicant, not a tenant yet, an applicant. they say, just want to make sure. Are we still okay? Are we still moving forward? And I say, of course, why the question? She says, because of the fire.

I said fire. I said fire. No, it’s yeah, everything is fine. We hung up. I called the supervisor at the at the building at the time. His name is Angelo and I call Angelo and Angelo picks up the phone in straight panic and hangs up on me and says, and I can’t talk right now. Bye.

Michelle Tack (14:06)
No! ⁓

Ed Stulak (14:26)
At the time as I was getting that phone call I was just shaking the hand of my brand new assistant Which I’ve never hired anyone before and I’ve never filled out paperwork before I’ve never done that I don’t know what doing I’m just following some guideline that my mentor at the time told me to follow so I’m shaking her hand and I say please hold that let me just answer this call I’ll be right with you I Now hang up in panic and I tell her stay here. I will be back

I drive an hour to go to this building and about five miles away I see black smoke in the sky and now I am terrified and I say there’s no way that that is the building. There’s no way. No way. I get there. It was definitely the building and I saw all my tenants outside every fire truck. saw my whole business. Everything went downhill. I didn’t know what

Michelle Tack (15:19)
my gosh.

Ed Stulak (15:24)
to do first. just hired someone so like I’m thinking I have to pay her now I don’t have anything to pay her with because this is the only thing I’m supposed to pay her. My whole business crashing I had every ⁓ newscasting station call me because my phone number was the only one plastered all over the world all over marketing so who else would I be calling?

My developers were calling me said we’ll be there shortly. I’m the only one on site with my superintendent anyway fast forward it was such a wake-up call to my business because I realized that as you said before everyone has a threat and even the unpredictable ones must be Calculated because you really just don’t know what no X and what can come crashing So what is in a sense your plan B? I know people say no just focus on the plan a plan a yes

until when? Until when? There’s always something that changes. It doesn’t matter if you own a business and you are the business owner or if you work for corporate and work for someone else. No job is ever solidified in concrete or guaranteed, never. So always be working for that next step. But that’s just my perspective. So yes, there’s a lot of downhills in this business and any business for that matter. So just be prepared.

Michelle Tack (17:24)
Well, you know, that’s interesting that you said that because you’re still here and you’re here very successful now, you know, with the size, with what you’re doing, the virtual piece to the business, which is the business, but with, people that care and have a community. And I just think that you’re, it’s incredible what you’re doing. So for though, you’re welcome.

For those that want to get in touch with you, could you give them your email or what have you and spell it out afterwards so that folks may want to get in work for you? They may want to invest in your company. don’t know, but ⁓ if you would do that before it I’d appreciate it.

Ed Stulak (18:09)
Any social media platform that you’re familiar with, it’s EdStulak. That is E-D-S-T-U-L-A-K. You can find me on any of them, most likely. You’re not gonna find me on Stitch or Bigo or anything like that, but don’t know. But the Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikToks of this world, there, so reach out.

Michelle Tack (18:30)
Yeah, you’ve been a wonderful guest. you very much for those that enjoyed this content and have not subscribed yet. We encourage you to do so for those that continue to subscribe and have found value in the content. We appreciate your business. Thanks Ed and I wish you the best of luck in the future.

Ed Stulak (18:49)
Thank you, you too.