It’s officially been one year since I joined eXp Realty as an agent. Unlike many other agents, though, I didn’t want to jump right in and start shouting from the rooftops how great (or bad) this company is until I had experienced it fully. Now that I have about 12 months under my belt, I’m ready to share it all with you–the good, the bad, and everything in between. Here’s my honest review of eXp Realty.
What To Love About eXp Realty
eXp is a one-of-a-kind brokerage. While it’s by no means perfect, it definitely has some upsides that other brokerages just don’t have. There are some key things that really jump out to most people when they join eXp. We’ll get into those below so you can see the benefits you could glean if you decide to join as well.
Revenue Options
Commission and Cap
As you probably know by now, eXp Realty starts agents off with an 80/20 commission split. Every commission you make, 80% goes to you and 20% goes to the brokerage. This split caps at $16,000, though; once you’ve put $16,000 into the company, you get to keep 100% of your commission. In sales, that usually happens after you reach about $2.66 million in sales volume–a pretty doable number if you know your business.
Stock Awards
You earn eXp stock (NASDAQ: EXPI) in five different ways which all revolve around selling real estate. Yes, you heard right…agents get ownership for doing what agents do already: helping buyers buy and sellers sell. Here are the five ways to earn stock:
- When you become an ICON agent at eXp, the $16,000 you gave to the brokerage when you capped is converted into stock for you! That means you earn back all the money you counted as an expense in those first few sales. All you have to do is complete specific production and cultural goals with the company.
- You earn shares with your first transaction.
- When you fully cap (achieve a sales volume of $2.66 million), you earn more shares.
- After an agent you’ve chosen to sponsor makes their first sale, eXp adds bonus shares to your account.
- When you enroll in the Agent Equity Program, you earn 5% of every commission in stock at a 10% discount.
Revenue Share Program
When you become an eXp agent, you get the chance to sponsor other agents. This basically means that an agent joins and names you as the person most instrumental in their decision to join the brokerage. For every agent you sponsor, you have the opportunity to participate in the production through revenue share. An important note is that the revenue share program operates from the company side (20%), not the agent side (80%). So, eXp Realty retains 50% of that company’s side income (10%) and operates the revenue share program from the other (10%).
Revenue Streams
eXp partners with several companies around the world to earn small percentages of their transactions (AKA “Referrals” or “Affiliates”). An example is Virbela, the platform which hosts eXp World. Every time someone new joins Virbela, you’ll get 25% of monthly billed amount. If you’d like to know more, check out my post on eXp Realty Revenue Streams.
Time Saved
Real estate can be hard and sometimes confusing work. If you want to really succeed, you’re going to have some questions that need to be answered. You know how hard it is to get in touch with a broker, from waiting for callbacks to driving to meetings. That’s not to mention the hours wasted in traffic driving to and from work, brokerage appointments, and training opportunities. At eXp, all of that is online!
Agents love the technology at eXp, but I know when I first started I had no idea how to use it. If you reach out to me before joining, I’ll give you a rundown of everything you need to know so you can decide how much it’ll benefit you.
The Technology at eXp
- eXp World is an online campus/brokerage where you can connect with your broker, get training, find information, get technical help, and more!
- eXp Enterprise is a dashboard where you can keep track of your programs, sales volume, sponsored agents and their sales volumes, etc.
- Skyslope is a one-stop for all the documents and transactions you’ll use/close in your real estate career.
- eXp Workplace by Facebook is where you connect with every agent, broker, and staffer that works with eXp.
- kvCORE is possibly the BEST reason to join eXp. This platform alone saves you thousands a year by providing everything you need for online marketing: email, text marketing, landing pages, single-property websites, etc. Basically, KVCore has it all.
With all this tech, I’ve saved over $500 a month on the expenses I was paying before. I’m sure you can save at least as much!
What You Might Not Love About eXp Realty
Any company has its pitfalls. To make this an honest review of eXp Realty, I’ve got a few things here to speak about. If you’re considering eXp, pay attention to these cons. They’re pretty easy to overcome if you want to. But if you aren’t motivated to work hard and figure things out, you probably won’t fit well with this business structure.
The Stigma
A lot of agents get exceedingly excited about the referral program (Revenue Share) when first starting out with eXp. At that point, they sometimes start overwhelming other agents with invitations to join and become part of the company. Their actions have led to a stigma on eXp agents where they appear to be part of some kind of MLM program focused on attracting real estate agents rather than selling real estate.
While this is probably the motive of a few in the bunch, the truth is that eXp deals in TONS of real estate and is actually a really successful brokerage. Just be aware that if you join, there will likely be a stigma attached to you, at least for a while. Thankfully, with the huge success of the company over the last few years, this is starting to fade.
The Onboarding Process
If I’m being honest, onboarding was a little rough for me. It’s hard to go from a fully in-person brokerage to having everything online, and I didn’t have a lot of help at the time. I found out later I was missing some key programs and benefits because I was trying to wade through on my own.
Thankfully, I managed to figure it out, and I know that things are a lot easier for new agents now. One essential step is choosing a good sponsor who is eager and willing to help you figure out the ropes. That way, if you have questions and concerns pop up, all you have to do is ask. See more information about sponsorship here.
Agent Attraction
If you’re seeking to join eXp ONLY because of Agent attraction and want to make this your main revenue stream, you should understand something. It’s more difficult than you’re probably hearing from the agents trying to recruit you right now.
It’s always rough to attract agents, but being fully online makes it harder. There are certain things that you just don’t get in terms of human connection and interaction in a cloud-based realty system.
Yes, you’ll have a phenomenal product (eXp Realty) to draw agents to, but it will take some time to see meaningful results. I am not saying it’s impossible, I just want to reinforce the fact that it will not happen overnight. Don’t let agents pressuring you to join sway you by overselling the ‘simplicity’ of Agent Attraction.
The Number One Reason Agents Don’t Join eXp
I’ve talked to dozens of agents, and I’ve run across one reason most of them don’t want to join the eXp team–they’re already part of a flat-fee brokerage. Basically, they only pay the brokerage if they make a sale. At eXp, you have a monthly fee of $85 to be a part of the company, seen as an ‘overhead’ expense.
My only counter to that is this: at other real estate brokerages, you don’t have as many revenue stream options. With eXp, as we discussed above, there are many ways to earn equity and revenue with the company. In the end, I believe this more than makes up for those monthly fees. However, not everyone agrees, and that’s a decision every businessperson must make for themselves.
The Conclusion Is…
I’ve been with eXp for a year and I don’t regret it. I truly believe this company is the right one for me. However, that doesn’t mean it’s the right one for everybody. That’s why I’m offering you this honest review of eXp Realty. Take into consideration the great benefits in technology, revenue streams, and worldwide connections, then take a look at the struggles you’ll have to overcome. This brokerage is a business like any other, and it’s worth a balanced consideration.
If, after consideration, you think you’d like to jump in and join us at eXp, get in touch with me. I can give you more information on how eXp and my lead generation business could help you accomplish the business goals you’ve been dreaming of.