Glenn Sanford, CEO of eXp World holdings, addresses his critics about his agent referral program, where he is taking the company next and growth limiters for the brokerage.
Today’s REAL Trending features an interview with Glenn Sanford, CEO and founder of eXp World Holdings. In 2009, he founded eXp as a cloud-based brokerage, abandoning the physical bricks and mortar offices. Between 2016 and 2020, eXp has seen growth of 3,689% based on volume percentage growth in the REAL Trends 500. Over a five-year period, we think eXp is the fastest-growing brokerage grown organically in terms of total sides and volume ever in the ranking.
Here is a small preview of today’s interview with Glenn Sanford. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:
Tracey Velt: Your business model has been called a “multi-level marketing scheme” by critics, because eXp has been built on agents recruiting other agents and getting paid handsomely for doing so. So obviously, it’s a creative revenue-sharing model, that’s a unique twist on the Keller model. They also say that if agents all they do is spend time recruiting other agents, they don’t spend time selling real estate. Clearly, that’s not the case, but what do you say to your critics about that?
Glenn Sanford: Innovation usually is criticized by the incumbent. The concept of franchising was criticized back in the day when the first franchises showed up. It was considered unethical for companies to bring in a proven business model and sell it to somebody to compete with the local mom-and-pop businesses.
If you look at what are called direct sales or multi-level marketing systems as a business concept, it’s brought lots of products and services to market, and you still have lots of companies that are doing extremely well using that type of model. What it does is allows somebody who would like to be a business person to get the benefits of a business without what I call the brain damage of actually building the business.
REAL Trending features the brightest minds in real estate. Twice a month, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Victoria Wickham.
