Kevin Kauffman Joins EXP

Nov 27, 2018

Today with us is Kevin Kaufman. Kevin along with Fred Weaver are the leaders of the 46:10 Real Estate Network. Kevin shares his story of his journey in real estate and success in operating as an expansion team in multiple markets. He also talks about why he came to the decision to move from Keller Williams to EXP and how the EXP system has helped his business grow. He also touches on how other systems are now moving in to EXP alike systems and why they are still set back while EXP is already big. Kevin also gives advice to those who are thinking to make the move.

 

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

• Expansion Bussiness
• EXP Validation
• How EXP is a win compared to franchise systems
• EXP tools for agents
• EXP is already where other systems want to be
• Equal opportunities for everybody
• Revenue Share
• Income streams
• Kevin’s those thinking to make the move to EXP

 

Take Away

"EXP's virtual platform gives us the opportunity to explore the environment that helps us be the most conducive environment to us being productive.."

 

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 Tom to inquire or ask questions.

Contact Kevin:

Email: [e-mail]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KevinKauffman0

Facebook Group Next Level Agents https://www.facebook.com/groups/nextlevelagents/

Links: www.EXPCloud.com

 

Transcription

Kevin : I am host Kevin Cottrell joining me today is Kevin Kaufmann. He is the leader along with Fred Weaver at the group 46:10 Real Estate Network. Previously with Keller Williams. Kevin's gonna share a story today not only of his journey in real estate and success in operating as an expansion team in multiple markets but why he came to the decision after looking very carefully about moving from Keller Williams over to EXP Realty. I'm sure you want to listen to this episode Kevin's got some great insight. Whether you're a team leader for a team, a solo practitioner or in actually another expansion team I think you'll find Kevin's insight into why he ultimately decided to move to EXP very very interesting. Welcome to the show. Kevin.

Kaufmann: Hey thanks a lot I appreciate it.

Kevin : Well I've been looking forward to this conversation. I know not only when you announced and we'll get into that a little bit you changing brokerages but I see all over social media but for anyone listening to this podcast episode that doesn't know what a rock star organization you run why don't you give a little of your background and information about your network as well as your business.

Kaufmann: Yeah no problem so I'm based in Phoenix Arizona in Tempe actually as is where our office is and we.. I say "we" because I've got a business partner Fred Weaver him and I started working together in February of 2008. So I've been licensed for about six months at that time with him and I had done a few things some short sales actually because he had introduced me to them and we'd kind of teamed up on those early out of my career like literally a third transaction I ever did was a short sale listing of Fred's because he was leaving the country and going on his honeymoon. And so I sort of took over and handled a short sale is my first short sale and we ended up closing a couple you know probably good thousand or so 800 to 1000 short sales over the next few years and you know we started building our business around that and it was obviously like anything else very slow at first but in Phoenix short sales was it. So I can remember getting into the business and there being almost 60 thousand homes for sale at that time and put that in perspective here we are in late 2013 is about fifteen sixteen thousand homes on the market. So quite a bit more inventory right. Prices were dropping every day but that and we started building a team and we started taking some mentorship and learning as much as we could and built this real estate team. We ended up naming group 46:10 quite frankly because we didn't want our personal names on the team which didn't wanna have our names on the sign or our phone numbers on the signs and so we started working together and really out of just trying to help each other and it just became this thing we built this team named a group 46:10 and kind of evolved and shifted through the years and definitely have had our kind of that reincarnation where we had to shift from you know going from a short sale or distressed market to a more normal market shift in our models where we went you know kind of like a millionaire real estate agent model if you've ever read that book which I know you have and running that business model too. We actually had salaried buyers agents on our team for for about a year and a half and then to a newer model where we you know just blew it all up again and really started growing and then eventually started selling real estate more than one market more than one city and more than one state. And here we are 2018 and it's deftly been quite a ride.

Kevin : Yeah you're in the parlance of that large franchise system before you made the broker change which we'll talk about over to EXP or an expansion business in multiple markets in multiple states were you not.

Kaufmann: Yeah yeah. And we still are Phoenix like I said his home base we still operate in Denver Colorado which was our first expansion location and next expansion location was Nashville Tennessee where we still are to this day we also still sell real estate in San Luis Obispo California kind of central coast that we started there in the middle of 2017 started work in there and we still sell it in other parts and Arizona a little bit in Yuma and Tucson Arizona which is obviously outside of Phoenix and not quite the reach that we used to have. We've certainly had our growing pain lessons of opening up stuff too fast and too quick and then having to shut it down and things like that. But you know we still cover four different states and how about six or seven different markets.

Kevin : Fantastic well gives everybody a good background and obviously you know I've seen your stats right you guys are a big producing operation you're in the top 250 way way up in the list. And so when you decide to do something with your business this mission critical like change brokerages it's a big deal right it's not an inconsequential decision and for people listening right because with what's going on we'll talk about virtual brokerage or expansion operations in the industry because there's a lot of news that's come out and I want to get your take on it but for you personally and your partner you and Fred sat down you said you know what we're going to consider EXP. What drove that. In other words you certainly couldn't miss it. Right. We've been on fire for I call with two friends. My business partner for the last thirty nine months since he's been here it's like the news started accelerating last October when was it that you said you know what we need to dig into this and figure it out.

Kaufmann: Yeah. You know it's funny it's not what it's who. And that who is Curtis Johnson so I'm sure you know Curtis he's a dear friend of mine and has been for 10 plus years. And you know it's funny because you look at Curtis Carson always got a suit and tie on and I'm always in shorts and flip flops and can't even find a shirt with a collar. And so we're kind of the Odd Couple and yet at the same time you know I absolutely adore Curtis and look up to him and a lot of ways. But you know Curtis moved he came to Fred and I in December of last year so he had been strongly considering the EXP and at that point he was pretty sure he was going to make the moves. Curtis came to us because we'd had conversations in the past about trying to find a way to work together. I mean we've tossed around all sorts of ideas. We talked about merging our businesses. We talked about starting a title company together we just were always looking for a way to get into business together and couldn't quite find that thing. And so he comes to us in December he says hey I think I'm a go to EXP I want you guys to come. Truthfully we kinda laughed at him and said Man you know go for it. You know wish you well but that's not my gig. But I obviously want to root for your man. I love you. Come back and let us know what you think after you've been there for four or five months. And so he did. And thank God Curtis you know never gave up on us. And he came back and we had lunch like we do every few months. In May of this year and I'll never forget it was the first week of May and sat down for lunch with Curtis and he started telling us about his experience so far at EXP and it just literally blew my mind and I guess what's worth noting Kevin is that at that point Fred and I had been looking for a new opportunity we'd been looking to leave Callaway homes for quite a while and we'd been doing quite a bit of due diligence on a lot of other companies that actually hadn't done any on the EXP. You know Curtis he runs a massive business. You know they sell 300 plus transactions a year and have for 15 20 years now in the Phoenix area. And so it's not like him moving also. It wasn't inconsequential. We realized it was a big deal and he's someone who is close to us. We went OK what's going on over there. Like what are you seeing. And so he told us what he saw. He shared his experience with us and quite frankly it really grabbed our attention and we said we got to consider this and it wasn't even a six weeks later that we were moved and quite frankly we had a move center if we could but we couldn't. We had our number one guy the guy who runs our Colorado operations and has for four years now from day one. He happened to be out of the country for four weeks during that timeframe. And so we literally couldn't move any sooner. So we saw the opportunity we saw how great of a system it is how awesome expertise platform is that what it could do for our business and our sales business and we saw it as an opportunity to grow and something that could actually be sort of the model and system that we had been seeking out yet hadn't found anywhere yet.

Kevin : It's interesting because for listeners what Kevin has shared is the most common response is mostly for something that has a significant business that Hey I'm gonna watch what you're going to do I'm interested. I love you you're a great person I'm going to mastermind with you etc.. It could be anything from an informal relationship to anything like that but it's pretty incredible in other words you listen to the interview with Jay Kinder in his line is what's been seen can't be unseen and that's the message that I think Kevin you would agree with me is there is so much misinformation out there there's so much noise it's getting less because it's getting invalidated right. It used to be. Well you know there on the pink sheet there over the counter then on May 21st we went up listed on the Nasdaq sets. You know and the financials I've been out there for forever and a day so you know the franchise systems try and put that fear out there that it's not going to happen and this is just a silly operation especially with the announcement that the number one franchise system is going to do their own state wide virtual brokerage in all the states. Right. You know that is something that will jump in to in a second but I love your message which is "don't give up on me" right? You know Curtis did a great job of having that conversation and you have to share his story and you're fairly new to the system. But I want to get your take coming out of that large franchise system from expansion right. There's lots of people right now is mostly what we can talk about in a minute with the announcement about the virtual brokerage operations they've got to figure out what they're going to do right. The industry is clearly changing my prediction and what you heard Jean and I talk about is we get 5, 7 years from now in bricks and mortar are going to be either the minority or all but virtually gone for brokerages. It's going to be hard to compete when so much of the industry goes to I don't have bricks and mortar on every corner. We're all over the place. So what would your advice be based on what you've learned from Curtis and what you know about the system now that you're in it for somebody that's maybe got a expansion plan they want to a multi market or they've already started another trying to figure out hey before I go roll this out and really complicate my life you know what would Kevin's advice be if we locked you know five or 10 of these people in a room and you say hey this is where my perspective is.

Kaufmann: Yeah. You know my perspective is number one don't go that fast. And that's probably the advice that I got that I just didn't listen to quite frankly as I think like most of us out a victim of my own success right? We hit it out of the park in Denver and while Nashville at first was certainly not a glaring victory it over time it's really become a big one for us. And you start developing these systems you start to believe you can just kind of go everywhere. I'm just gonna say within the constraints of working in a Keller Williams which is a franchise system and KW is not right or wrong good or bad in my opinion. But you know what it is for sure that we can't say is the franchise system. And there is a lot of constraints for real estate because of the way real estate works the way things work with the Department of real estate advertising laws you name it. Like there are so many things that have to be factored in. What we found is we're putting these little bandaids over all these little things that we had to keep working and eventually we just got so big and we're paying so much money to be there that it just we couldn't avoid it. And the minute having the minute we looked at the EXP. We went oh my gosh this is what we've been asking for and what was we've been looking for for so long. In fact the thing I don't mind sharing with you is we were challenged early on in our search for a new home by a gentleman very good guy who was extremely intelligent. He's now the CEO of NRT. Ryan Gorman very smart guy. He said you know why I didn't know what perfect is for you. So that forced us to really think about perfect and there was two things that Fred and I were very clear on from that day forward we were never going to make a move. Number one it had to be one brokerage per state. And a lot of people don't realize how big of a benefit that is. But once you operate in more than one city and more than one MLS and more than one brokerage within the same state you quickly realize what a blessing that is. And then number two is it had to be a financial win for the folks on it in our business who are really on the ground for making things happen working with buyers and sellers. Those two things have to happen. And obviously when you know the EXP model you realize those two things are like that. It's kind of again no doubt. That's just part of it's built in right. That's baked into that because blindside too you know that's the thing I got when I talked to Glenn first time I talked to Glenn I realized oh my gosh this guy he's solving or solved all the same problems I've been trying to solve. That was my biggest takeaway within about five minutes of being on the phone with him the first time. And so when we look at EXP That's amazing. And the truth of the matter is I love Keller Williams. I'm extremely. Let me rephrase that I loved. I'm extremely grateful for what I got there and for my time there and for what I learned in the relationships and that just isn't possible inside of a franchise system.

Kevin : And that's great wisdom. I come out of the same system right. I was a team leader there. I was with Andy Allan and Aaron Lancaster you go pull out your original first edition of MRA book. Those guys are in the mastermind groups right. You know Glenn was there too. So if you look at it and you listen to the interview with Brian Culhane he talks about Glenn's expansion teams and Brian helped run those right so that the predecessor to EXP even being formed was essentially expansion business in multiple states. So it's kind of an interesting history. And now here we are even though you know people like Gary Keller he's a visionary. I mean I sat in meetings with him and Dave Jenks and Andy and Aaron where he's like here's how we're gonna get you to go multi market. That was in like 2003. So he was way ahead of the time you know flash forward the complexity you describe in the franchise system and I want to get your take on it right the big announcement at maybe camp was statewide brokerage operations right virtual operations as an overlay on top of franchises. Now you know for people listen to this here's what happened. I'm not gonna make any judgment to this comment. I'll let people read between the lines. A franchise system makes the franchisee review and sign and an underlying review in sign the FTD it's a federal disclosure every year. Right it's a part of being a franchise operation. Do you think that most of the LPs actually read that thing.

Kaufmann: Well listen man I was a regional director for KW for like 30 seconds. I couldn't get past the like the first four pages and a couple of hundred pages or whatever.

Kevin : So I'm not gonna make judgments of this. We were approached by some of our good friends and like you I have lots and lots of contacts and love for Keller Williams. There's great people there. Well here's what happened. I was sent as it was Gene and a number of other people the FTD and specifically a page reference well somebody read it. They were able to do what they're doing and this is why a lot of the LPs are scratching their heads. Now they're like well wait a minute I got a franchise awarded and I had a territory. Where's the bad news for you go read your FTD. They took the Territory restriction out last September in the edition they put out last year. So most people don't even know that in and maybe that for a lot of people and the listeners for this podcast this is the first time you're going to realize if you're an LP at Keller Williams you probably want to go pull out your FTD if your scratching your head has to wait a minute. How do they do this. Well that was something was put in there and they did this the first time ever they did it. So this big announcement and all the noise and you know I like Adam I've known Adam a long time and he's talking you know he did his Facebook Live I'm sure you watched it too. Our was sent to you and you watched it and the message is they're very aware that this is going to be disruptive we're already disrupting it EXP right. So now you've got the franchise system doing it and you know God bless him. It's complete validation of the EXP right. They've been saying this doesn't make sense does make sense. It's not going to work but we're the number one franchise system on you know transactions et cetera et cetera et cetera age account and then they come out and make him they go statewide virtual operations you know. So what is your take on it right. You know you described something about operating in multiple markets let's just take it within one state right. You know you go into a big market let's say you were going to expand to Dallas. You know there's multiple owners and multiple offices. Each one's going to have a different ownership group or you know potentially overlapping and you're going to have to deal with that. And like you said in an EXP world that doesn't exist right it's state by state there's a brokerage operation that covers the entire state and multiple MLS is. So what is your take on it. Based on the virtual brokerage operation let's pretend hypothetically you were still at Keller Williams and now you can join the you know you qualify right because they've certainly made it clear you have to be at an elite level you qualify and you're going to be able to expand. It's going to be a win for expansion operations it simplifies your growth. Correct?

Kaufmann: That's assuming that they can actually pull it off. So I think what's really important Kevin as we look at the fact the plan's not there yet. If you go back and listen to the CEO speech they'll have the details. The actual setting up of let's call it 50 brokerages because there's 50 states maybe they don't need 50 I don't know. But let's just call it 50 for sake of an argument setting up 50 brokerages higher shitty brokers doing all that stuff like first of all there's some logistical nightmares there that have to happen like you know EXP didn't get to thirteen thousand agents overnight it was launched in 2009. Here we are it's 2018 and it feels like they just burst on the scene over the last couple of years. But you and I both know it's been going on for you know since 2009 and it's not to say that this is going to Keller Williams nine years to get going. However there are quite a few things that have to happen. What I'm more concerned about is changing the FTD is one thing but in a franchise system you've got five and 10 year contracts for your franchise. And so changing terms and conditions on like page one hundred and thirty seven at four hundred and two in the third paragraph second sentence there can be some legal ramifications there. And so they've obviously got to be really careful in how they roll this out. My opinion is that was a statement to say hey please bear with us we're working on this we're trying to we're trying to fix it we realize it's a problem now they've known it's a problem for years it's been at least over two years since since they've been aware of this issue and it just now decided to come public with it which definitely was funny. Interesting timing but the reality is is it's going to be still really hard to execute and then when they do execute. My guess is there's probably going to be consequences from legal ramifications from the franchise owners. That's my guess and unfortunate that'll probably end up in court. And you have to choose you are Keller Williams international or any other franchise. Are you going to choose the group of agents that are running these and this expansion business or are you going to choose the people that you have a franchise agreement with.

Kevin : Absolutely. I agree with you. I mean I think that it was definitely something that when you look at it it's definitely doesn't have the detail at this point but what was interesting that came out in Adam's video was they were already fielding calls of 40 or 50 LPs at a time and having people I would expect being concerned. So my take on it is the bigger concern I have. I mean Jean and I and you and others have a passion for agents. That's the culture and foundation of EXP Realty. And I worry about creating an environment of sort of the elite expansion businesses having preferential terms and the average agent in the market center right let's say that I don't ever want to be Kevin and Fred and have a gigantic multi market business. But now I'm competing with the let's say it let's us hypothetically flash forward and I figure out some of the details and they don't end up with a mess and they're able to execute let's say even if they take a state like Arizona and they roll this out. Now there is a dichotomy in the market right there's the haves and the have nots right? If I'm an expansion business and I'm able to do this I continually cut a deal in the way that they framed it out in the preferential terms in terms of how I do this. And now I'm an agent in the market center and unless I graduate to the elite level and qualify I don't get even on the playing field and I don't like how that feels from an agent standpoint right. Because there are great agents in the KW systems with a lot of them. You and I are friends with lots and not everybody wants to be the gigantic multistate operation to qualify for that elite level and I don't want your take on it is I heard from a lot of people. "I don't like how this feels. I don't want to have that business." "That's not me. I've got a great business. I've got a small team here but I'm really concerned that I'm going to be competing on a level field".

Kaufmann: Not only that the other piece you got to look at here Kevin. And let's just say that the LPs overall are our quote unquote OK with it. So if you go look at these top expansion teams and I'm not going to name names there most of them are my friends and people are highly respect and in some cases really love So we're talking about they're gonna get to go to this extra brokerage this new brokerage this virtual brokerage and and those agents on their team will now get this you know call it a half cap if you will and special treatment. But the problem is is those teams are comprised of other capping KW agents. And so what's going to happen is. So if I am one of these you know mega team X expansion teams when I grow color wins doesn't grow like it stays the same because I'm just they're just recruiting other KW agents to their team. A lot of cases they're recruiting another Keller Williams team to their team and it's what I call their acquiring teams they're not even recruiting agents they're acquiring other teams. And I don't see how that win. So if I'm on the local market center owner and I've got no. 6 or 7 capping agents in my company. And now they've been recruited to these six or seven different mega expansion teams and now they're going to leave my brokerage. I can't go to the other brokerage. Not only are they going to pay a lot less money in company dollar but then that's going to get shared back. But I like am I going to get all of that back? and I get even if I got all of it it's still not even half of what I was getting. And so again you run into legal ramifications that I think clearly haven't been thought through and that's why it's not rolled out and why it won't be rolled out for some time because they will have problems like that.

Kevin : I couldn't agree with you more. My personal story which we talked about before we started recording is the fact that you know even in a market center right let's forget about the statewide brokerage operation for a minute and you're highly successful right. I moved into a marketplace from out of state. I didn't know anybody and I went in less than three years from zero to 240 transactions a year. This was before the online stuff was dominated by real track common Zillow in most markets. We set up a real geek's Web site was one of the first ones we rolled out in a massive way. And I knew Jeff Manson pretty well and so I roll out this Web site. I hire a whole content team and we knock it out of the park. We're ranking for a gazillion things. We're starting to get everybody's leads right. We're doing what expansion teams do as well from the lead generation standpoint right. They start to dominate the markets right. You know the really big ones come in like you said they roll in teams and otherwise and they turn on massive Legion. So I run into a problem right. I'm brought in in the open and the team that are like you are causing so much chaos in our markets center. We've had 15 or twenty five agents complain about it that this person and that person are working with your buyer agent. This is going on and that's going on and we can't have that. And you know the bad news is the way they resolve that in a franchise is I was asked to leave and I was told I mean I have 57 active listings 30 paintings and I was brought in an hour before and a I'll see meeting and told you've got till Friday you move. I didn't right. I negotiated a more orderly transition out. But if we look at that now flash forward to statewide brokerage operations there is going to be no remedy for the agent market center because they're open to too are going to say well I don't know what to tell you. That's a state brokerage issue and we have nothing to do with them. If you're a franchise agent and you're worried about this just I can tell you from personal experience you know you've reach out to me if you want to have an offline conversation. But the net net on it was I wasn't given an option. I even talked with the regional director and his answer to me was I do not know what to tell you this is a franchise issue they can resolve things how they see fit. We have nothing to do with it. And the region can't help you. Well that's kind of going to be the dialogue with somebody complaining about a giant expansion business. It's going to be you know sorry. They're in a different brokerage and be like you complaining about a different franchise and that's my biggest concern. When I talk about the unlevel playing field is I've seen how this is resolved. And so my word of warning for people is you know Kevin's very very astute on this. It's potentially not going to be rolled out for a while but if you're looking at your business long term just realize that this is an issue you're going to have to cross and it may or may not be an issue for you but just know that you know potentially an unlevel playing field is being created and it doesn't feel good to me right. Because I know how they resolve the issues and the ability to get it resolved is going to be messy. Number one you know as far as execution but you know the good news is there is an environment in EXP where you know we've always allowed you know the rainmaker to come in on a team and they've got you know one cap nationwide and they can go build as they see fit. We don't have the complexity in the issues we've done the hard fight of opening offices you know in terms of a state brokerage operation in each state for 49 states. And that takes a while. Right. We've learned lots of lessons. You know when you see Glen message about this it's like Oh my God we've learned so much since we started in 2009 to do this and the reason we didn't open all 50 states immediately was that it would be virtually impossible to tackle all the complexities that are different in every state. So I share your view Kevin that this is not happening anytime soon. So if somebody were listening to this and obviously they're trying to get the you know two or three main drivers let's talk about a couple of different audiences. You are you know running a Facebook group and I will get all your information out here in a minute before we get done recording so people can find you on Facebook and you know some of the stuff you sharing your masterminds and some of the stuff you do. But if you were advising let's just talk about a couple of the different constituents out there right. Somebody in the franchise system there a capper and they're looking at this potential for a future unlevel playing field. What would be the two or three things you'd tell about what you know about EXP for why they would want to probably strongly at least take a good look at it.

Kaufmann: The reality is EXP is an awesome company in what you look at it. You start to see that. So I'll speak for where I was like I just didn't look at it I didn't give it a fair shake and I just decided you know my brand better than your brand. Blah blah blah. And I fell in for that whole thing. Which is just dumb right. I mean when I look at like what all everything I have inside of enterprise which is the backend system everything from the marketing support to tech like Sky slope the ability to have the different Web sites through the technology agreement. There is a lot. Therefore it. Agent who quite frankly especially looking at the marketing platform you can build a bigger business for less money because of the tools that are already included. So this is not EXP talking about we're gonna have it one day. It's actually already here today it's been here for a while. Then you take a look at the fact that it's virtual which is awesome. And if you want to have a physical space you can do that. I'm a physical guy like I literally like to show up to the office every day. I bought an office building about a year ago long before I ever thought I'd be at EXP because I want to own commercial real estate and it's flexible. And so you can go to an office if you want. There's obviously the Regus agreement but there's also the opportunity to go buy your own building or go rent somewhere else and rent your own space whatever it is. The thing is is we're not all the same as real estate agents. We all want something a little bit different. We might be doing the same thing because we're told we're supposed to but we haven't really explored that and EXPs virtual platform gives us the opportunity to explore the environment that helps us be the most conducive environment to us being productive. One of the things I always loved about KW Was the ability to mastermind to share things with other agents and I just have never seen anything more collaborative than what happens here at the EXP and that is supported obviously because of things like the financial incentives to do so when you introduce somebody to the company whether that's through the stock plan or through the revenue share plan etc. This is like truly open book. Let's share let's help each other let's grow in a big way way beyond anything I've ever experienced my life and I've been in every circle there is to be an inside of the other company and it was great. Don't get me wrong but I like this a little bit better a lot better in fact and so I think no matter what your thing is whether that's the ability to create other income streams besides buying or listing another house or building another team or a bigger team or buy more leads etc. or the ability to leverage the technology that already exists that isn't just coming one day maybe. Or the ability to do business across multiple states and have the level playing field like just the simple fact that the split is the split no matter what state you're at. No matter how big of a producer whether you've sold 500 houses last year or five I think that's amazing. And I think that's great. And I think that it shows that there is an equal opportunity here for everybody. It's truly equal opportunity that everyone's here to take advantage of it the same way you look at those things and I just want you know I truly believe that this platform gives not just me but any agent who wants to be honest about it and really look at it and give it a fair shake it gives us the ability to grow a bigger business than we ever knew was possible. And it gives us the ability to create other income streams besides just selling more real estate and growing a bigger team. And it's kind of hard to not like that.

Kevin : Absolutely. You know you and I have been in a franchise environment in growing teams and when we are on point we recruit talent. Right? And so that dynamic that you talked about that i'll just touch on for a minute is guest after guest on the podcast talks about the fact that in the previous franchise system or in their office some of them were in the same market center and they're like we never collaborated on one single thing right. We were number one and number two in this market center in the Dallas area and now we collaborate. Now we mastermind how we talk and so that sharing which is not necessarily very transparent outside is something that I love hearing you say because it is nothing short of incredible and the retention strategies around building wealth for the talent that we recruit. Even if they decide to go off on their own we're in a lot of the franchise systems that's something that creates strife sometimes people leave and they unfortunately go to other brokerages. I'm not seeing this develop at all at EXP. I mean you know there's these "let me help you grow and then if you decide you don't want to be in my operation my team anymore" you know because of the other streams of income the fact that we're all shareholders it's basically encouraged and you know I haven't found anybody that doesn't just get blown away with what they see once they're in the system.

Kaufmann: It's pretty remarkable what it is when you actually look at it.

Kevin : And I agree with you. And so your advice of digging in is absolutely spot on right. In other words you can't go by what's posted in the you know thousand comment streams in the large Facebook groups right where somebody says What about this versus this and I called the brokerage bashing that goes on in the comments or you know if you cut them off after a thousand comments you know some agents some poor agent reading that would have no idea. And it's so far from accurate because what you said which is everybody's got their version of their business and it's going to mean different things to different people. So my advice always is what yours is which is you owe it to yourself to dig in and at least look at it right even if you decide to stay at your brokerage wherever it is you can be an independent. You can be a killer Williams You could be at Remax no matter where you are. I think the biggest mistake somebody would make and only get your take on it. It would be to be close minded and look up and go. I'm not even looking at it. This is not for me because I've seen people come back around. I've had people basically start out with a "I'm not interested. Not going to work for me" and we're starting to see them stop doing that. And then when they do look at it they join. I mean one of the guests I have coming up on the podcast is John Sterling you know. And he was a big deal within KW right. He supported numerous team leaders. He had relationships with hundreds and hundreds of OPs and team leaders and agents across the country. And once he dug into it he's like Oh my God I can't believe that I didn't dig into this before. And you know he recently and when I interview and you'll see and you know this you saw his post on Facebook that you know he's joined in. You know he's you know Jean and I are supporting him and he's going to come in and you know he sees the value as well so I was glad to hear you say that. Let's talk a little about your social media stuff your masterminds because I want agents to be able to get plugged in. It doesn't matter what the flag they fly. Brokerage wise. Right? You know you give back to the community you create a lot of value. You got a large Facebook group. You do masterminds you do in person stuff. So wouldn't you detail a little bit that out so that people if they want to get plugged into your world can.

Kaufmann: You know the truth is is that I'm a big fan of people and relationships and those always trump company to me. And so while I do love EXP I did love Keller Williams didn't love either one more than I care about my relationships with people and one of those relationships is obviously my business partner Fred but also our good buddy Kody Gibson who runs a large large team over at Keller Williams and almost two years ago we just decided to start a Facebook group. We just want to start a mastermind online you know brand agnostic for people to come and share ideas best practices do webinars things like that. So we started a group it's now called the Next Level Agents about twenty 23000 maybe 24000 members in there and we just do our best to bring really good content to the real estate community regardless of brand. We try to keep it very brand agnostic and try not to get these two entities brokerage wars conversations that break out unfortunately you can't stop some people from saying my team is better than your team but that's another subject. But for the most part it's high level conversations right. We started putting together some live events like we did one in May this past Las Vegas called NLA Live. You go to NLALive.com you can kind of see the promo from last year or the highlights from last year as well as the information for next year's event where we just brought in speakers from all different companies different subjects and just said hey let's get back to the community today. And that's really what that's the essence of the brand of that group is let's get back and let's share best practices and help each other. Check us out on Facebook if you haven't already it's Next Level Agents. You can go to Facebook.com/groups/NextLevelAgents I believe it's how you can find it easy or just search it. Yeah. That's just kind of a project. You know we've got a mastermind event coming up this October in Portland which we're really excited about. We're looking to do one or two live events a year and so this will be obviously a little bit smaller than the Vegas event where we had a couple hundred people show up and next year we're expecting more like four to five hundred people in person plus the all of the live streams. So we'll just see it as an education platform and a platform to be able to communicate with the real estate community because that matters. This is a relationship business at the end of the day no matter what. And quite frankly if I'm representing a buyer or seller I could care less what brand has the listing or the other side of the transaction. I've got to make sure that a good relationship with the other party and we can get this deal done together in a win win scenario.

Kevin : Fantastic. Obviously I have every guest give their contact information so that if somebody listen to this and they want to basically get in touch with you and talk about it. This is another thing that's not very transparent from the outside of you. We're all shareholders. We all want to provide best information. So Kevin give your contact information and basically you can reach out. Does it matter who introduced you to the EXP. We're all here as a resource. This man is me Jean. Kevin does it matter who it is John Sterling we're all here to get you the best available information so you can make a good decision. Kevin. How would they reach you. What's the best way.

Kaufmann: Yeah. Best way is by email [e-mail] just comes right to me and my business partner Fred another really good way is Facebook. You know Facebook Messenger is always a great way. Easiest way to find me. I'm sure there's more than one Kevin Kaufmann on Facebook. So if you got our Next Level Agents it be pretty easy to see who the admins of that group is connect with me that way. Facebook Messenger is always a really good way too and by all means reach out. We love referrals too. So Phoenix San Luis Obispo Denver Tucson Yuma Nashville. We definitely love real estate referrals. We sell a lot of real estate. We want to sell a lot more.

Kevin : Fantastic. I appreciate you coming on the show any final thoughts before we drop off today.

Kevin : Now you know I'm just I'm so excited to meet this company and be in business with my partners like Curtis Johnson and Walker and so many of the other that we are in business with here and looking forward to a very very bright future.

All right great. Thanks for coming on the show.