Real Estate Agent Growth Strategy: Escaping the Transactional Hamster Wheel With eXp Realty

Rachel Countryman (00:00)
I’m going to go and say, don’t try to build a team. I actually think team is the wrong word in that scenario. I think collaboration is a better opportunity there. ⁓ We collaborate. We don’t build off of other people’s misery. We build together and collectively seek out others who have the same mindset as you is to grow and build and run together.

Scott Bursey (01:55)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we are strapped in and ready for some serious high octane inspiration because we’re talking to a couple leaders who have completely mastered the modern brokerage model. Rachel Countryman and Gerad Wombles of eXp Realty. They bring the kind of innovative fuel that transforms an agent’s career from a slow burn into a rocket ship.

Get ready for some clarity, confidence and killer strategies. Let’s ignite this thing. Rachel and Gerad welcome to the show.

Rachel Countryman (02:31)
Thank you. Thank you. We’re very excited and honored to be here.

Scott Bursey (02:34)
It’s just.

and we are honored to have both of you here. Thank you for joining us today. And now for our listeners who may not be familiar with your journeys, please give us a front row seat. How did your careers become ignited and where are you putting your fuel now?

Rachel Countryman (02:52)
I’ll start, I came from emergency medicine, did a few things before I made the full transition and jumped right in full force right after COVID and have been off and running ever since. I met Gerad through a terrible learning experience and he came beside me and walked me out of a ditch. I…

I learned the hard way the first time and from here on out I’ve been off and running. doing a good job. She’s doing awesome. ⁓ I started investing about 25 years ago, short version. had a bunch of money in the, to me it was a bunch of money at that time in the stock market when the dot com bubble burst. I don’t know if any of your viewers are old enough to remember that, but.

lost everything but about $4,000, took that and started buying houses if you can believe that. Bought six houses that first year and then fast forward to today we have a couple hundred doors of rental properties and owner finance situations, ⁓ doing multifamily and started buying land a couple years ago and buying that and segregating that and splitting that up and then reselling it on a creative finance basis.

So, and then we flip about a dozen homes a year. So, ⁓ yeah, it’s been a crazy ride. It’s been fun. And so yeah, I’m enjoying it.

Scott Bursey (04:18)
Wow, you two, I can sense that your unity and your team, your team efforts seem to be in place and that is truly expiring.

Scott Bursey (05:15)
Rachel and Gerad, what really caught my attention about you was the way that you’ve been able to leverage the cloud-based brokerage model of eXp Relatita to create massive scalable growth for agents across multiple states. That takes some serious vision and execution.

Rachel Countryman (05:30)
and then we’re gonna see something. yeah.

Scott Bursey (05:31)
So I really tip

my hats to you on that. And let’s dive into what we call the strategy session here, YouTube. What advantage does a cloud-based model give your agents over traditional ones?

Rachel Countryman (05:44)
Yeah. a lot. It gives us the flexibility, first of all, to work from anywhere and in any place. It allows us to collaborate with other people throughout EXP and other brokerages across the nation. Gives us ownership in the company. I came from a small boutique brokerage. Great split.

but was never going to own part of that business. Here for doing the same thing, I get to be an owner in the company. Also, the other thing that brought me to this, to the XP, to this cloud-based brokerage was the fact that I could put myself in a broker’s position without having to be a broker. To me, previously, being a broker is like running an adult daycare. So I get the benefits without the headache. So it’s, I love it.

Scott Bursey (06:34)
That collaboration on demand is a game changer for agent efficiency. Thank you for that. And let’s shift gears here now. What is the biggest distraction you see holding back agents from scaling their businesses right now?

Rachel Countryman (06:47)
I am going to dive in on this one because I hit that hard. There’s so many perks to having so many resources at your fingertips that you really need to buckle down on what works best for you and implement those items. And don’t get distracted by everything else that’s being thrown at you, but really hone in on this is what I need to do to build my business, my life, and use these and lean on your resources that provide those.

Yeah. Yeah, EXP’s got a lot of tools and training. We’ve got a program called FastCap, which is designed to get an agent off to a fast start. ⁓ We had an agent, brand new license come on 45 days ago. We checked in with her yesterday. She had her first closing. She’s got five listings and six places under contract. She’s also brought on four agents to her organization already. So if you have a little bit of a hustle and plug into the systems and the circle of people around you,

Sky’s the limit.

Scott Bursey (07:48)
And that is clearly what is keeping your company ahead of the curve. What emerging market or tech trend is most underutilized by real estate pros today?

Rachel Countryman (07:59)
I’m going to say that that’s going to be the ability to implement one transaction all in one place for smooth streamline process. Definitely a lot of agents are using multiple platforms for multiple different things and then having to pull their contracts or their pieces or their advertising together instead of utilizing one platform to streamline that whole process. Yeah. And also the fact that

that we can be licensed in one state but have influence within all 50 states. I’m doing a deal with an agent right now. She’s got her license in Florida and Missouri, but she’s with two different brokerages. And we’re going to be having a conversation about why don’t we just combine all that and take out a lot of the headache and the paperwork and all the craziness and just be with one brokerage that has a worldwide influence.

Scott Bursey (08:49)
Rachel and Gerad interested. As far as vision goes, what is EXP’s vision, let’s say 10, 15 years down the road?

Rachel Countryman (08:59)
So I would say our vision is always agent centered. And as we all know, the real estate industry is constantly changing. And we have some amazing leadership ⁓ and they are constantly looking for new opportunities and how they can best serve us as agents. So as far as 10 or 15 years, who knows what it brings, but I do know that we will always be at the center.

of that to make sure that our businesses are flourishing and that we are making the best return on our investments possible. So one of the things I love about this company is that we you know we’re a debt free company. We have the ability to move quickly. I was at a at a top 250 top 250 in the nation agent mastermind in New Orleans and without boring everybody with all the details there was a there was an issue brought up with a with a company that we were that a lot of agents work with.

but cost was an issue. So our CEO stepped out of the room for like five minutes, came back, said, hey, I just negotiated a 90 % discount because of the scale that we have. And that happened in minutes. That was truly impressive.

Scott Bursey (10:48)
That is pure high octane right there. And that’s why you’re staying ahead of the curve. Beautiful. If someone’s listening to this and they’re thinking, this is someone that I’d like to partner with or learn from, what would you like them to know about eXp?

Rachel Countryman (11:03)
Okay, so I would love for them to know that eXp has all the resources no matter what your streamline is whether you are focused on investments whether you’re focused on residential or commercial They have all of the processes already set in place to maximize your work and to maximize your return Partnering with not just other agents, but businesses and industries across the board

One of the biggest problems with the traditional brokerage as well is that you can never get off the transactional hamster wheel. So you’re only as good as your next sale. With the XP, we have ownership via the stock. have being able to put yourself in a broker’s position without having to be a broker via rev share. I can have conversation with an agent, help them come into the company, make more money, get more deals. And I get

I get paid for making that connection. rather than the XP spending thousands and millions of dollars on recruiting and commercials, they just pay the agents that are helping build the company. We build those relationships with agents we’re interacting with.

Scott Bursey (12:12)
Absolutely. And EXP is global.

What’s the biggest opportunity that you two are seeing now?

Rachel Countryman (12:20)
⁓ the biggest opportunity is just educating others about our industry and keeping the professionalism alive and helping others grow in their business and streamlining those. Yeah, biggest opportunity, I think, just continuing to provide value for agents, whatever that looks like. It’s going to be different for each agent, but just provide more value than the competition. Yeah.

Scott Bursey (12:45)
And Rachel

and Gerad, on that note, if you had to drop one key piece of advice for an agent trying to recruit or build their own team right now, what would that be?

Rachel Countryman (12:55)
⁓

I’m going to go and say, don’t try to build a team. I actually think team is the wrong word in that scenario. I think collaboration is a better opportunity there. We collaborate. We don’t build off of other people’s misery. We build together and collectively seek out others who have the same mindset as you is to grow and build and run together.

Yeah, and one of the biggest, I’m sorry, go ahead.

Scott Bursey (13:18)
It always.

Yes, great point, Rachel. And then we’ll get to your, your, ⁓ your advice on that too, Gerad, but it always comes down to those relationships. I’m glad that you hit home on that. And, in just a little bit, we’ll talk about, what your key to networking relationships is, but, please go ahead and expand on that, Gerad.

Rachel Countryman (13:41)
Well, you took my fire. I was just going to say building those relationships. You know, we I’ve always averaged about 100 transactions a year. So, you know, being in communication with with a lot of different agents over the course of a year and just establishing those relationships, people like you said earlier, people want to work with people they know, like and trust. So that’s just that’s the focus, really.

Scott Bursey (14:08)
Sure. And Rachel and Gerad, considering the current environment where market education is critical, what is one system belief or habit that you instill in all your top producing agents to ensure they consistently deliver high value advice and maintain long-term success as you talked about?

Rachel Countryman (15:09)
education can continue to grow yourself, your knowledge and surround yourself with people who are always doing better than you. And they will build you up and they will correct you when you’re wrong and set you back on the straight path to building more. Yeah, if you’re, you know, if you’re the, if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. So, so yeah, just continuing to educate yourself, have a, have a degree of

of hustle and work ethic and this isn’t rocket science. Just get in the right rooms.

Scott Bursey (15:43)
Absolutely spot

on and thank you for your transparency on that YouTube. Now you’ve given us so much good advice here today, but is there any additional golden nuggets or advice that you’d like to leave with our listeners?

Rachel Countryman (15:58)
Never be afraid to ask questions. That’s one thing I am always asking, learning, leaning into others. Don’t be afraid to reach out and have conversations all the time. Yeah, and there’s, you know, this business, one of the things I love about this business, there’s so many different ways to make money with this business, know, single family, multifamily land, building an organization inside of inside of a company like like eXp. You know, they’re just

figure out what sets you on fire and get around somebody that can help you with that. And we have all of those here. yeah, that’s the exciting part to me is, whatever excites you, you can do it.

Scott Bursey (16:38)
Rachel and Gerad, you brought the fire today. This has been pure high octane gold. And for those of our listeners who would like to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what is the best way for them to reach you too?

Rachel Countryman (16:51)
For sure. You can find me on my website at missourihomesearch.com. That’s a link directly to my page. You’ll drop automatically into my phone and we can communicate that way. You can also find me on Google. Gerad’s got his own. Yeah, Google, Facebook, Instagram, my cell phone is 816-786-4522. Text me, call me.

I’ll be happy to help anybody out there that wants help.

Scott Bursey (17:18)
Rachel and Gerad, thank you for joining us today on the Real Estate Pros Podcast.

Rachel Countryman (17:23)
Thank you, Scott. We appreciate this so much. it. Good talking with you.

Scott Bursey (17:26)
And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling up your tanks with exceptional guests, just like Rachel and Gerad, who are making huge moves in the market. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you on the next episode, everyone.