Personal Growth and the Expansion of EXIT Realty with CEO Tami Bonnell

Brokerage Insider

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The real estate industry has helped create some of the most successful business people in the world, but that's not the case for every agent and broker. Financial planning is important for everyone, but especially for the volatile nature of real estate professionals and the ebbs and flows of the business.

Tami Bonnell, CEO of EXIT Realty, breaks down the importance of long term planning in real estate and how thinking about tomorrow will help you make the right decisions today.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi everybody. And welcome to brokerage insider the podcast where we interview the leaders in real estate and technology. I'm your host, Eric Stegemann and I'm the CEO of TRIBUS. We're one of the largest independent prop tech companies in real estate and provider of custom brokerage technology to medium and large sized brokerages in the United States, Canada, and even around the world.

Now on this week's episode, we have Tammy Bucknell. Tammy is the CEO of EXIT Realty Corp International. Tammy started. With EXIT as a regional owner, then moved over into running things at EXIT as a VP, then president. And now she's been CEO since 2012. So Tammy, thanks for joining us today. I'm really happy to be here.

So I'm really excited to chat because there's a few topics here that I know that are important to you. That I'd love to get your take on. But I want to step back for just a second, because one of the things that I've found in, in interviewing all of our guests for the show is they always have a really good story of how they got to where they got to.

So why don't you tell me how you got to start in residential real estate and then how you went through those paths that I just mentioned, and now being the CEO of EXIT. Okay. Probably not that exciting of a story, but you know, I. Actually started my first business when I was 11 and I started cleaning houses.

And I cleaned site for builders because I could be dropped off in a subdivision and go from house to house. And you know, work ethic was a real strong thing in our family. So every Saturday and Sunday, that's what I did. And I actually was scraping windows, sitting inside a window, scraping the windows from the paint and a realtor and a builder were in the house.

With the buyers that were relocating and they were doing the final walkthrough and the wall between the kitchen and the dining room was actually supposed to be more of an open concept. And it wasn't. And so the buyers came in all upset that it was yelling and screaming. I'm sitting in the windows thing, please make me invisible.

And But when they slammed their way out of the door, the builder put his fist through the wall. And I jumped through the window and said I think you broke your hand. And he said, drive me to the hospital. I had lied about my age and I drove him to the hospital and he did break his hand and he had a cast put on.

And then when I was driving him back in, my dad was pulling back up to pick me up and I ended up grounded for driving and On the way back, he was just complaining about how realtors were never getting it right with new construction. And I was, how hard is it? You want White, you want off White, you paint a picture for somebody, you know, something pretty similar to that.

And he said, you think you can sell houses? And I said, absolutely. And he said, good start Saturday. So I got $500 a house starting at 13 years old. And I looked older than my age. So I think that's what happened, but I thought real estate was really disorganized. And so I never really thought that I would be in it for a living and I focused on finance and I went to work for a company.

In the South Merrill Lynch and it turned out to be those, both the timeframe that they were acquiring real estate companies. And I hated being locked up in a cubicle and turned out I had a knack for doing acquisitions and that's how I started. And then I was prior to coming to EXIT. I was instrumental in building three major brands.

I taught. Mergers and acquisitions. I acquired real estate companies for them and I sold franchises for them. So really the majority of my career has been in the backroom or at least 30 plus years has been in the backroom focused on doing mergers and acquisitions, selling franchises, and helping those companies to grow.

Well, that's a, I personally think that's a very interesting story of how you got started in the space, because what I find is that everybody has some sort of person personal connection. You know, we, we interviewed Joan doctor that the president of Fox & Roach realtors a few weeks back, and she had a really bad experience with the transaction and her buying her first house.

And. And we ha we've had other people that have just had these exact same sorts of situations that have, would have got them into the industry. So I always love hearing, you know, a little about where you started and what was that first first kind of moment that said that you're there, because what I find is that, you know, true leaders in the space, they're kind of all what I refer to as real estate lifers.

Right. So, so, you know, you have decades of experience in the space and now you're running EXIT. So, you know, let's talk about EXIT for just a second. Okay. What, you know, what's what is the brand or what does EXIT stand for? Well, you know, we were actually there's a very unique differentiator in our company in the fact that we have, we provide residual income.

So kind of the Sam Walton theory that he rewarded people for the percentage of the company, they helped build. That is our theory. Sam created more millionaires than anyone in the history of businesses. From doing that. And we thought Sam was right, but in real estate, we don't sell lawnmowers and coffee pots.

Right. We sell real estate. So the assets of a real estate company are their agents. And so if we treat the agents incredibly well, we'll do really well. This entire company was built on human potential, but the residual component is that unfair, competitive advantage of having the opportunity to every person that gets introduced into the company.

They have to be it's by invitation only. So if I introduce an agent into this organization, I received the equivalent of 10% of the gross commission up to $10,000 a year, every year, for as long as that person is with the company, as good as that is when I retire benefits like real people with real jobs, I make 7% of that income, even in retirement.

The other 3% goes to the broker because we want the broker to have a balanced and they even took it a step further and thought about my family. And when I die, my beneficiary. Half of that makes 5%. Even after I'm gone, the balance goes to the brokerage. So we've had opportunities now where people have gone into retirement for getting going on maternity leave and they've had steady, consistent income they've had.

So they've been able to stay home longer. They've had hips replaced. They've been able to be with parents while they transitioned. It's convertible. So once they were through whatever they were going through, they can come back in. Once their seventh transactions passes up to eight, they can come back into the 10%.

So it's convertible, it's portable. I relocate my significant other, gets a new job somewhere else. And I relocate with them. I go into an EXIT office there and my benefits follow me like real people with real jobs. So it gives people cash between paychecks. It gives them a vested interest in the company and that makes them feel like they have.

Ownership. You know, if you and I went to a really nice restaurant for dinner tonight, and the waiter that waited on us had a vested interest in the restaurant, how much better does that serve us for sure. Much better. Right, right. And so that's really what ends up happening in the offices is we create this culture where everybody works better together as a team.

It's now in my best interest, if I'm making $150,000 a year, it's in my best interest to teach you how to do better, because as you do better, I do better. And who learns more the teacher or the student. So I actually get better at my job by helping you. And we found that that's created an unbelievable family culture.

But it's gone a lot further than that on human potential because people growing in an environment where they feel safe, where they feel trust. And so that has made them. Really grow within the boundaries of the office. And we have all the other things that, you know, other franchises and brands have.

Number one, they want leadership. So we have boots on the ground, regional owners in each individual, state and province. And we're very selective about introducing brokerages into the company. Number two, they want education. So. We provide education from every single angle. Now I just got my license.

What do I do all the way to the consummate professional, making millions of dollars, dollars webinars tech and I's live interactive, total immersion, so they can learn the best way that they learn. They want help with technology. So we actually have a technology specialist. My statement is always from Tony Robbins information without implementation equals poverty.

Right. And that's the biggest problem in technology is user error. So. We have single entry and we have a technology specialist. She speaks English, Spanish and technology, and she teaches the brokers and the agents, not only how to utilize EXITs tools and how to monetize so that they can grow their business.

But she always remembers that it's the human behind the transaction. It's the human behind the device. So. She teaches them how to utilize it, to maximize their business. Number four, they want help with the details. And that's why we have single entry, very user-friendly so that they can get that help, that they need.

Number five, they want a marketing program they can track. So our technology is very intuitive. Number six, they want a good image. So are focused on image is that opportunity to. Really be the smartest company and having that image of everybody working in this together, right. That vested interest mentality and number seven, they want skin in the game.

We interviewed people making $250,000 a year or better from all faiths. What do you like? What don't you like and what would you like to see? And that was the top seven things they wanted. And obviously that skin in the game of having a vested interest, it's kind of like that agent has their shoulder on the rock.

Just like the broker so that they're working. It's not one in charge. They're working together as a team more than anything else. And that's worked very well for us as a. The foundation for our company. Yeah. It sure seems like it. And I think the technology person that you're referring to, I'm assuming that is that a net.

And that Anthony, I love it. I've known her now for 10 plus years, I think. And, and she's just a phenomenal resource that you guys have over there and such a good connector and, and, and helping train and educate people. And so, you know, out of, out of all of those points that you just went over, obviously I think, you know, that one of the things that really.

Is that, there's the point that I feel like EXIT has pushed for 20 years. And, and you know, I've, I've seen EXITs ads starting in a realtor magazine when I first started selling real estate 20 something years ago about these residuals. And so I guess that begs the follow up question is it as if you do the math in it, it seems like.

The total payout that EXIT might have to make on a single transaction could potentially get over a hundred percent. Am I understanding that correctly? Or am I maybe missing something? No. The agent has the ability to earn more than a hundred percent by introducing people into the company because with whatever their, their split is.

Right. If they're receiving the equivalent of 10% off the top, And they, you know, we teach them and have them focus on introducing three people a year into the company. There's some that do, you know, don't introduce anybody. They just want to listen to themselves. And there's some that introduced several people into the company.

So it gives them the ability to earn more than a hundred percent. But it comes off the top that 10%, and it doesn't come out of the agent's portion and it gets sent up to EXIT International and then we pay it back. Down to the individual that introduced that person into the company. I mean, it seems like there's some people that EXIT that their sole focus is on recruiting.

So inter do you guys ever have that problem? And I know I've heard this around exp a lot over the last two years is do you guys ever have that problem where people feel a little pushy, as far as the recruiting side of things go and you have to back them off because of how good your, your residuals are.

You know what? We created this culture that it's people that really love helping other people, it's really a, a unique foundation. It's much more empathy oriented than ego driven. So I don't find very many of our people that are pushy. We teach them that it's about building a relationship. It's not hunting people down.

Right. It's truly about building a relationship in the ordinary course of business. We're doing a transaction together and I love the way you work. And I think that you'll do better in our company because our broker has the uncanny knack of. Helping get more and better out of you. And it's really that kind of simple introduction.

It's not hunting people down. We do have people that work solely as recruiters that work in individual real estate, state offices. But that would be the same in any company, right. That they have a manager or they have a recruiter. There are people that do that, and that helps them build on a faster pace.

But most often it's. In the ordinary course of doing a transaction that they got along really well. You know, maybe the other agent mentioned that they're not satisfied where they are, or they're not getting any education where they are or something that. Gave them an opening to have a conversation, but I always tell them, it's just a conversation you want to make sure it's people that you really want to work with because that's a representation of who you are, right.

If the people that are within your office but sure from time to time, there's a conversation that you should have with someone. If they get to that point, cause that's not really how this was built. It was built to build a relationship, just like the real estate industry as a whole, right. Is a relationship.

Driven business. And the more you get to know that person for me personally, I've broken some world records in sales, and I can tell you that it's the number one reason is because I did more homework on the person than I even did on the product. Right. And. Giving somebody what they really want. And so I always say, I'm not even going out and selling anything today.

I'm going and having a conversation. I'm going to go add value to people's lives. And if we find a common ground and our business philosophies match, then they'll end up being coming part of the company. But that doesn't happen every day. Right. It happens when those things match, but if I do enough homework, so I find out what's really important to you.

I'm probably going to be in front of the right people more often than not. Yeah, that's, that's definitely the case. And, and, you know, I've to be very clear, I've never seen anybody complain about EXIT, getting too pushy with, with presenting the opportunity to join. And I know there's some places where exp agents, I, I feel like I get intimidated because I'm listed in the real estate industry.

I still get. Probably, I don't know, in an average month, 10 or 15 people that are just randomly reaching out to me, based upon my licensing, based upon my LinkedIn profile that says I'm in real estate that say, Oh, you should come join us. And it, it can get a little overwhelming at times. And I I've told Glen their CEO that it, you know, at some point that you gotta be careful on this because it can present a negative connotation to the brand.

If somebody gets a little too pushy and I don't feel like I've ever had that. At EXIT, although I have had people at EXIT reach out and suggest that I you know, that I, that I would put my license with them. And I still don't, I don't have it still to this day, but I did for a long time up until a couple of years ago.

And, and. You know, I want to go back to something else you said that I think is so vital there, which is you're talking about. When you talk to the other agent that will, you'd be considered a recruiting you're, you're sitting there and asking them about what they're not getting at their brokerage.

And one of the things you said there, and if you notice Tammy, didn't say a lot about the necessarily the commission. She talked about support and training and everything like that. And I tried this, we did a study two or three years ago now. And we found out the number one, two, and three things that an agent left a brokerage for, none of them were commissioned.

In fact, number one was training and support. Number two is technology, which we'll get into in a second. But, but certainly training and support. So, you know, I know you're big on personal development and that's a big thing, and I'm going to, I definitely want to dive into that a little bit more with you.

So what are some ways specifically that EXIT helps their agents get the best training and support? Well, we have trainers that are specific to EXITs. We have and they're called mindset trainers for a reason. And so it's everything from mindset, literally the power of your subconscious mind controlling what you think all the way to focusing on good health during the pandemic.

We actually had people teaching accurate. Totally. You know, when we first launched accurate, totally teaching yoga ways for stress relief, but we have everything from. Truly with our trainers. I just got my license now, what do I do all the way to the content, but professional teaching them how to be more effective business people, right?

Because they're, they get to a certain level. So we have International trainers that are part of our system. We actually have a partnership with the Fenian company so that they, we have a tremendous amount of our people that have been trained by the FINI, but our specific trainers that are. EXIT mindset trainers.

A lot of them also coach and some of them coach specifically to agents and some of them coach specifically to brokers. And it really kind of depends on where their levels at. And we try and match up with where they're at, right? I've got to meet you where you are. And so that's why we have such a variety of mindset trainers that are specific to our company because we want to meet them where they are, whether that's.

You know, just get me into the right habits. I just got my license or somebody that's, we just need to make them more effective with their time and more effective with their money and more effective with their marketing, more effective with their technology so that they are growing because people.

Really loves the opportunity to grow and when they get stagnant, that's when they get that's when they get frustrated. So we put a tremendous amount of emphasis on training. We have webinars every single month for our broker owners, our agents,...