How EXP Realty’s Director of Growth BUILT and SOLD 2 Real Estate Companies (22 YEARS of EXPERIENCE)

How EXP Realty’s Director of Growth BUILT and SOLD 2 Real Estate Companies. Are you a budding real estate agent navigating the lush landscapes of Hawaii, or perhaps a seasoned pro looking to reignite your client base? Join us for an insightful conversation with Troy Palmquist, Director of Growth at EXP, as we explore pathways to success in the ever-evolving real estate world. Troy shares invaluable insights from building and selling not just one but two real estate companies, offering a rare perspective on the dynamics of brokerage ownership and growth. Discover how EXP’s ethos of attraction over recruitment is reshaping the real estate landscape, empowering agents to build authentic connections and thriving communities. From cultivating your sphere of influence to crafting your own branded office space, Troy unveils a roadmap to success that transcends traditional norms and embraces the power of collaboration.

So, whether you’re dreaming of launching your own brokerage or seeking to elevate your real estate game in Hawaii, dive into this enlightening discussion and unlock the keys to sustained growth and prosperity. Like this content? Hit the LIKE and SUBSCRIBE buttons for more!

👇Subscribe to my channel for more videos like this👇
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCynU-qu-qvVBtp6K7QO_pA

✅ Curious how to expand your real estate career? Join our team. Follow this link to know more: https://www.teamrisingtide.com/

🗓 Book a meeting with Dylan for a personal consultation: https://bit.ly/meetwithdylan

💼 Learn more about our company and team- www.expandhawaii.com

#hawaii #realestatebroker #realestateagenttips #realtor #levelupagents #theagencyteamhawaii #hawaiiexprealty #realestateagent

hey what’s happening friends here with my boy Troy Palmquist he is the director of growth for exp here in California but has an amazing background and so I wanted to share a little bit about that like the 30 second version and then really focus in on if you’re a brokerage owner independent brokerage owner or franchise brokerage owner what his experience has been and some of the benefits of coming over to exp if you’re currently facing any struggles or the pain that I think we both know that most Indie Brokers face so what’s kind of like like the short story t on your on your background yeah so I’ve been in the industry going on 22 years this year um had a wide range of different stuff that I’ve done in the industry from uh asset dispositions to even being a transaction coordinator you know getting my start that way really learn the transaction and what it takes to get the home sold and open to First brokerage grew it to 90 agents five offices I acquired a brokerage in Malibu had an office in Newport and really they had a great thing going mhm um that company sold in January of 22 okay and then spun off and started a second brokerage where I wanted to be part of something bigger than what I was as an indie before so the first experience was good enough that you wanted to do it a second [Laughter] time the first experience wanted to do it the first experience was good enough that I knew that I could do it differently this time so you know for me you know my story 22 was was different for me than it was for a lot of people okay and I had a brokerage um I was overseeing the asset disposition for a pretty large Southern California flip company but Co hit and the person that was you know the the company that I’d worked for cuz I actually sold the company in 2018 the first time okay and then came on and helped grow it to what it was but I didn’t have ownership in it anymore so then it subsequently sold again in January of 22 to a big franchise the owner of the parent company got covid over in Italy and then the he ended up eventually passing away from covid so you know 2020 started with the owner of the company getting sick the hedge funds saying we’re not going to buy property anymore and had to liquidate a fund for Black Rock which was about a quarter of a million dollar fund while running a real estate company that was growing and was doing mean you know really good production I mean I think we were selling in 2020 I think we did 450 Million worth of volume like and so it wasn’t a little operation by any means and then in May of 2020 my uh son who was 2 years old fell out of the second story of our house and miraculously survived like with no long-term damage like I mean he it was one of the scariest hardest things in my life you ever see is you’re and I saw it happen and you see life flash behind like in front of you and you just want to break down and like cry which which I ended up doing eventually but you know it creates a lot of perspective that you didn’t have before it puts a lot of perspective right and then in July of 2020 so Rhett’s fine like just no long-term damage no brain damage no I mean big huge Miracle yep right July of 2020 I got diagnosed with cancer okay and stage two thyroid cancer dealt with that from essentially July until you know September 11th was I had uh surgery to remove my thyroid and the cancer and then it was a recovery Pace like time after that for a few months of like recovery y um so while running a brokerage and of of 90 agents and I learned a lot about perspective and a lot about life and the value that life brought to me and that it didn’t necessarily need to be a broker like you could pass the eagle of that right I could pass it right like I’ve got the broker’s license still like you know but the risk wasn’t worth the reward anymore yeah and so I stayed on and went through all that and then when the the company sold it was what are we going to do you know now next and I knew that I didn’t want to be the broker again m i could go hire a broker and you know spend probably $1 $120,000 a year for a broker yep Y and that was just one cost and so I looked at it and I said okay there’s cloud-based brokerages out there um I could go be my own brand at still do what I want to do grow agents and do this I also realized that like the broker of record and the compliance and the transaction piece is is fun but it wasn’t the pieces that I loved like I want to be able to help take an agent from five transactions to 15 transaction or the agent that is doing 12 million but wants to do 60 million or the agent that’s doing an average sales price of 700 that wants to get to an average sales price of 1.5 yep that’s a lot of fun for me and that’s helping people by giving them the the value that I can bring and the expertise that I can bring and providing the value for them you can’t do that when you’re trying to do everything else behind the scene absolutely accounting and tech support and administration comp yeah the so that brought so that did that bring you to looking at exp so that brought me to looking at side okay um where I eventually um ended up and it was a decent experience at that point I wasn’t ready to be brokered by or powered by okay something y like because I wanted to build something still to sell again yep and I felt like building something that was um brokered by or powered by was going to be harder to to do than just being yep a private label I I want to pause there so so in your experience around the industry you’ve built and sold two companies which I think is rare cor correct me if I’m wrong you know in terms of an independent building something that was valuable enough for somebody else to buy at a profit to you I mean has that been your experience yeah you don’t see it a lot um your story is not common right it’s kind of what I’m getting to is I know a lot there’s a lot of broker friends that I know that have a brokerage that they’ve had for 25 years but if they were to go put it on the market today and try and sell it they would get almost nothing for it because there isn’t a ton of value well you look at it too what was the the economic state for brokerage Acquisitions in 2020 was was different than it is now right because then you had Compass Pacific Union all of the lots of venture capital lots of yeah that was going around with Acquisitions and franchises that were trying to grow makes sense and so you do still see brokerages get acquired yeah it’s just not all the all the time so you know it it and you also rarely see what that money actually looks like right I mean they are they making 10 million or they making 100 Grand right I mean when when a brokerage gets acquired what is that Brooker owner it all depends I mean and now it’s it’s interesting because I think teams are actually worth more than a brokerage okay because and here’s the thing for me like when I built the first one like my goal was to go and franchise it you do what the traditional model do what the agency did I was the address like it was cool like you know we had patented for sale signs with photos of the home on it like you know it was a beautiful brand but I wanted to do something that was different that was going to break the mold okay and so I didn’t ever think that when I started that company that all we had put into building would end up in a box okay and literally the the the brand and everything is in one banker’s box and that’s it that’s really hard to realize that like everything that you built went to that because it died like the brand died you know and so now I looked at it and when we were looking at building again it was like okay do I care if I’m brokered by or powered by because the likelihood of building a brokerage and selling it again is kind of small yeah like the economic model isn’t there for it right now and and and the the market changed dramatically right yeah and and I didn’t sell it and the brand died the last time so what do I care if the brand really lives on mhm like the value is in creating the agents and the value that they’re able to provide to their people yeah and I think that now building teams and team rges is bigger value in the long run than it is doing it on your own yeah and and taking just so the risk piece I mean I got named in a lawsuit by two agents that were suing another person and it cost me $38,000 to get dismissed from the lawsuit right to prove that you did nothing wrong to prove that I didn’t do anything wrong that I had no knowledge and that was pre-trial like because the was going to cover I mean that’s that’s a big deal like you know 38,00 is a lot of money to spend and to what be the broker right yeah like and I still didn’t have the community that I have now yep and that’s what’s great about being at exp so exp to me is really changed my life I think changed the way I look at real estate after 20 years of it like you know I don’t need to be isolated and independent I can go and still have my IDE identity y with less risk and be able to provide more value to the people that I work with and I think have more fun doing it totally agree so so what does your job today entail what is what is a director of growth for California int that’s a good question I am here to help agents with their growth okay um I look at growth in a couple different ways whether it’s um by helping them build out their organizations MH helping them grow grow individually yep I want to see the number of signs in The Yards grow I want to see the number of transactions grow I want to see the headcount grow yep because exp California’s got 12,000 agents now it’s you know it’s it’s large it’s huge yeah but it could be bigger Y and so I think the providing agents with the right tools the right support to go out and have the conversations with people to go out and have the conversations with the broker owners yep like I I’ve been there yep done that I can I understand where you’re at at 2:30 in the morning sleep or trying to sleep on the couch with a notepad writing stuff down trying to fall back asleep because you’re worried about the stuff that’s going on you know I want to emphasize what you said in your answer which I think is is is important is a lot of people you know directors of growth a lot of times in other companies or sometimes we get this reputation too is that it just means recruitment right it just means going out there and and trying to sell agents to join The Brokerage but you you talked primarily about growing the number of yard signs the number of transaction sides and that’s one of the things that I really have found I mean just enormously beneficial to us getting to where we are today as a business personally our personal team is that we’re surrounded by people who want to see you grow in every single aspect business attraction personally Fitness I mean you’re just around growth both minded people and that doesn’t exist when you’re at like an indie broker even at a franchise brokerage right because you’re essentially you’re on your own you’re on your own yeah yeah so how many ageny do you have about 130 [Laughter] damn and and I came and I came to exp as an individual agent with my brother and a couple of friends like I didn’t come here with a brokerage I didn’t come here with a large team you know so but you also didn’t go out and start talking to everybody about it no right it was the byproduct of having a relationship ship with somebody it was the byproduct of a successful transaction it was the byproduct of just being good people in the marketplace right and that’s where you know for us right now like I’m doing brand agnostic workshops every week and they’re pretty cool topics like last week’s was how to present your offer like the best MH and it wasn’t just you know how to write an offer it was how to package it into one PDF and what you should include in that one PDF and that you need to call the agent on the before you send it and to call them afterwards and then how to review multiple offers right and so it was this whole workshop and it was really cool and so we’re doing stuff like that that’s brand agnostic because I want to be able to provide the value y if agents see that we’re providing value on this type of a scale their other brokerages is aren’t right right because we actually care we want to see the agents grow I want to see them you know whether it is through attraction or this it’s like you know one of the things that people have to realize is that a traction and growth is the byproduct yes of of doing something that you love y right if I asked you why do you love exp and I asked the next person why do you love exp your stories are going to be different mhm right you might have somebody might say over here I had a horrible year last year I had saved a bunch of stock and the stock saved my ass yep somebody else might say something completely different I like the $16,000 cap somebody else might say the medical insurance has saved me $16,000 so you really have to have that story about why you love something right but it’s just like how we grow in real estate in our transactions we’re out talking about it we’re you we’re asking people you know what do they think of the market what are they doing with their home do they know anybody looking to buy or sell same thing do you know anyone looking to switch brokerages same yeah yeah it yeah and it’s not that I’m going around talking to every single person about exp but I’m getting to know them MH you know and I think that’s where you know educating agents on growth and attraction it’s like the conversation I had with Michael Valdez at Inman connect which is where I met exp really on Stage 15 minutes like I learned everything I needed to learn in a 15minute conversation because I resonated with what he was saying about how exp is an attraction-based company versus recruiting yes like nobody wants to be recruited to a real estate company n like what’s your value value proposition tell me what your value is what do you offer and how are you going to help me grow mhm that’s what I need to know that that’s a big difference I I think a perspective that’s kind of blows people’s minds about exp and I just had this conversation the other day is in a recruitment situation it implies that we’re going to have to negotiate your situation because I’m recruiting you to this and I want to make the deal good enough for you to say yes to join my brokerage we got to recruit we got to negotiate our commissions we got to negotiate other terms marketing Cap all kinds of stuff right I mean you’ve been through this a million times but I just think wow what a terrible way to start a relationship with your broker where somebody has to feel like they lost right a negotiation very rarely ends when both parties feeling like they won and somebody’s going to have to start off feeling like they came up short in that negotiation where on the flip side of that when you’re talking about attraction with exp there’s no negotiating anything if this value proposition doesn’t make absolute sense to you then it’s okay we can still be friends but you continue to business the way you want to do business but in most cases I’ve never had to sell somebody on hey I’ll do this for you I’ll do that for you if you join it’s like hey here’s what the opportunity is if this doesn’t make absolute sense to you and that you’re going to be way better off in the long run than you are now then that’s fine but you don’t have to negotiate you don’t have to sell anybody you don’t have to convince anybody it’s a good idea because there’s just so much value there so so I ask my son and maybe he’s he’s heard it too much I don’t want to say brainwashed but but I say hey Rett what’s the difference between recruiting and attracting you say recruiting is for the military right yeah yeah yeah and and there’s some truth to it recruiting typically comes with a sign on bonus yep it’s Corporate America it’s law firms it’s you know big corporations that do it but primarily the military is out recruiting like they’re not necessarily attracting people to come yep well let me let me I have some personal experience with this so me add a caveat into that there’s only one branch of the military that doesn’t ever have a problem with Recruitment and that’s the Marine Corps and are we supposed to say hurah now uh yeah right hurah you got that so and the reason for that is is their marketing is better than everybody else’s right so if you’re a kid and you see the the cool uniforms and the co if you watch a uh a Super Bowl ad for the Marine Corps versus the Navy or the Army a lot of times the Navy and the army they sell you on the benefits right the the health insurance the educational benefits the salary the the job training they sell you on the benefits versus a Marine Corps if you watch a Marine Corps commercial it’s cool people doing cool stuff in cool uniforms looking badass and like they’re selling you on the the what you know like that like the the why of why you want to be a marine you’re going to be associated with this Elite group of War fighters versus like I’m going to be a mechanic that’s going to get job training that you know he going to get College benefits and so it’s been a fascinating thing there’s a lot of studies on it but it’s it’s always the the Marine Corp almost always hits their their recruitment goals because they just have a different marketing effort right it’s an attraction so now look at it it is back to recruiting versus attractive absolutely yeah like and that’s where like even in in a listing presentation you’re attracting the person to work with you 100% there’s not a sign on bonus there’s not a guarantee anything it so when you start thinking about it differently that way people want to come and work with you they see that you’re having fun they’re attracted to what you’re doing so so here’s the advice I just had this disc question yesterday and it really helped me put it into a a package that’s consumable for agents is a lot of Agents the tradition the traditional way they approach the business is they assume they have a bunch of clients out there you’re my client cuz we went to high school together you’re my client cuz you’re my uncle and you’re my client because we you know we worked 5 years ago together at a at a at a job and then what happens is is you go and buy real estate from the person that was holding the open house and I’m heartbroken because I thought you were my client but you actually weren’t we have no signed relationship I haven’t had a conversation with you in 5 years about real estate you were never my client but agents go through this the life believing they have clients that really aren’t their clients versus your real goal in life should be the converse you should have people out there that believe you’re their real estate agent because you put so much value into the marketplace and your marketing is so good that you don’t even know they exist and that’s been a Cornerstone that I didn’t really realize until somebody was asking about me about it the other day where on The Daily I get a call from somebody who responds to an email that I sent or some type of marketing that says hey can you write me an offer on 123 banana Street you know my name so and so and I look them up in the database and we might have had a conversation three years ago cuz they were a Zillow lead or a Facebook lead or whatever but since then we’ve provided them with so much valuable information via social media retargeting via email campaigns that they’ve always considered me for the last few years their realtor I had no idea they existed it’s because you put so much effort into what you put out out there that they feel like they know you already and it’s because you’re being authentic to who you are absolutely it’s your ethos y talked about that yesterday yeah so and I think that one of the things that a lot of Agents do wrong is they they come in and they think that I don’t have a database I don’t have a sphere of influence right yet when I sit down with an agent and I say okay pull out your phone let’s look at the last 15 people that you’ve text messaged with the last 20 in your email the last 50 that have DMD you in Instagram go run a story on your Instagram story and say how many houses do you think I can sell this year in a story the ones that care about you are going to answer that that question yeah how can they help you that is how you build your sphere of influence I love it and now you’re building a sphere of influence that actually cares about you not going through your yearbook or the church directory and saying these are my clients like they’re not they’re not even in your sphere of influence because they didn’t get your Christmas card yeah yeah like and they don’t follow you on Instagram you don’t interact with like you got your attorney that you’re communicating with in your email for some reason or your CPA or your dentist or the PTA parents or the soccer parents like that’s your sphere yeah like you have to continually be adding that stuff to it if I if Rett goes and starts to ever play sports and I hope that he doesn’t pick one that has it on the weekends all of those parents will go into the database absolutely yeah like his class parents like I was at a birthday party this week and one of the parents was like oh we bought a house in September I’m like well bummer like but it was September and we weren’t in class together yet so I really can’t hold that against me that like I wasn’t there for the transaction yeah like but again I’ve done a really bad job with reaching out to that group because I’m just not involved in the classroom like like that but go to the birthday parties I meet the people now should they be going into my database yeah yeah because I’ve got a I’ve started a relationship with them I’m cultivating the relationship now but if I’m not continually adding to the database and trying to provide value to them they’re not going to think about me when it’s time to sell a home and they’re not going to think about me when they hear you saying hey I’m getting ready to sell the house yep and that’s your fault not their fault it is my fault absolutely you know and I I I’ve been on the board we’ve been we’ve been on that losing in all of us I mean nobody has done that perfect I’ve been on the board of directors for the boys and girls club our local Boys and Girls Club since 20 17 I think okay I’ve never sold a board member of House I don’t actually know if they know what I do right it’s not aate in that know I’m in real estate no it is like because we’re there to help each other right we’re helping we’re helping this organization this club but by helping this club we can help each other yeah but I haven’t put myself out there to say hey I in real estate if you guys know people that are looking to buy or sell a home or if you’re looking to buy or sell a home let me know and I’ll donate a portion portion of the commission back to the Boys and Girls Club I’ve never done that right I I should but I haven’t like and they’re not even in the CRM or the database like I I’ve kept it so segregated and it’s been a costly mistake in my opinion that I’ve done it will I go and fix it tomorrow probably not still but it’s been one of those mistakes the lesson learn is we can all get better there all stuff we can do better yeah hey so so to wrap this up this has been an amazing conversation um I wanted to get back to some of the programs that have come out recently because we started this conversation you know about kind of brokerage owners and the pain that’s that’s in the market and and not having enough Network and benefits to to agents and collaboration and things like that but there’s been some cool programs that have that have rolled out recently that can maybe help with the transition and some of the pain for a broker owner moving over so what are they you know if so the biggest one that a broker owner would look at is the Boost program and the Boost program is designed for a brokerage over 50 agents that has done over $100 million in transactions okay and that’s that’s an obtainable number right there um I mean any any moderately successful brokerage is doing that I mean if you do but I but not every brokerage has 100 has 50 agents right so they might not fit that so there are ways to come in and have the conversation with you know someone like you and someone like me on the growth team to help the individual brokerage identify what it is that they need and how they can offset some of the cost offset the the responsibility the liability but have some incentivization to to do that with via the Boost program or coming over as a Thrive program which is really designed for teams yep but there is different ways to look at it and and figure it out so that there is that thing because look and and simply Define boost it’s it’s it’s basically some Financial incentive to help you with the cost of transition because that’s that’s basically a big objection is I’m going to have to get new signs I’m going to have to buy my lease and I’m going have to do ACH of things and that look I mean you said buying out your lease like just because you’re at a cloud-based brokerage doesn’t mean you don’t need to have a physical location we are currently in a real estate office an exp real estate office an amazing one right and I have a physical location I have two and so but what does it do by having you have your own office and your own identity the office has a own look and feel it’s got its culture it’s got this that’s surrounded around what you want to build Y and so I I talk to people all the time it’s like well like an agent that’s doing you know 20 $50 million in production they like well I need an office like cool so why don’t we go into the community that you’re in and serving and go find a location next to a coffee shop next to the hair barber like next to the nail salon and be able to build your space because you’re going to save so much money on your commission cap that you can put that money into a brick and mortar location and spend a few thousand they’re decorated to your likeing you want to put the Harley in the window put the Harley in the window right but have that space be yours and watch the money grow because now you have your own physical location and not trying to compete with a bunch of other people I don’t know how many times I’ve had that conversation where you know it’s a top performing agent you know 20 $30 million producer and they’re currently giving Southern bees or cold Banker you know 80 to 100 grand in commission splits every year and they say well I get an office I’m like well here it’ll cost you 16 Grand in your cap and you know office space will cost you three or $4,000 a month so you’re going to still net save about $50,000 a year but you need the printer too like I get free black and white printing cool I mean I got a great rep at kuko Manola I can set you up we can get you a printer 250 bucks a month to hook you off right and now you’ve got your own printer yeah and it’s now it’s your office with your brand and your culture and and I mean so and you invite the people that you want absolutely and you’ve got a place to have client parties you’ve got a place that in November when you’re doing your PI drive and you want to give away pies they come to your office they’re not coming somewhere else what what I love about this office and and definitely I have this this vibe in our offices on the big island is they’re not offices for clients to walk into and for us to generate real estate business we know lots of different ways to generate real estate business their offices to build culture to build community to shoot content to benefit agents growing of their business versus renting a $155,000 space that’s ocean front that you may get one or two people to walk into nowadays because 99% of clients find their realtor online before they ever come to town so it’s it’s you’re paying for something that traditionally made sense but no longer actually has any tangible benefit you’d be way better off having a studio that you have access to where you can shoot valuable content and reach tens of thousands of people every week via social media and and email so it’s just a mindset shift I think in it is and look hey writing off the the rents on your building you know you’re not riding off you know your desk space necessarily yes yes and so and now you’ve got a space that’s yours yeah and I think that’s really important and I’ve been a big advocate for a while I mean it’s where I think I went Indie was because I wanted my own office space I wanted that look in my own feel right I mean my first office we had a four tap Kegerator in there behind the bar and that was that was the focal point of the office there was a Kensington couch here and bar and then this you know really pretty board for the listing presentations and it was a Vibe right but but I knew that with the seasonal beer that would come out we would invite the sphere of influence to come and try the new beer on tap or we had Nitro coffee on tap or two different cucha and like and so but you’re not going to do that in if it was somebody else’s office or a corporate office like it really gives the opportunity to find where you want to be be in the neighborhood that you Prospect and you work and give back to your community build your identity yeah all right man any any closing thoughts on uh if you’re a broker owner out there and and you’re feeling some pain what you should do reach out to this guy and I’ll connect you with this guy we can all have a conversation together so you just got to look at it like there’s a lot of risk there’s a lot of responsibility yeah and you know I tell people or or even maybe more importantly if you’re an aspiring broker owner don’t don’t do it if you’re yeah if you’re a top performing agent please come have a conversation with us I can tell you 5 years ago not as that smart of a guy but I recognized I looked at opening a brokerage versus this model and I was like hey this makes way more sense to me because I don’t actually have to take on any of the risk and any of the jobs that I don’t want to do I want to focus on or the employees or employees I mean you name it the compliance issues the tax issues the accounting issues all the stuff I look at simple way to look at exp is I’m out for $166,000 a year I Outsource all of the terrible parts of the real estate business that I want to do and I can just focus on serving clients and helping agents grow their business which is what I love to do and what you love to do and we don’t have to worry about any of that that pain that that I don’t know why anybody would enjoy doing any of that stuff I don’t know yeah all right Choy I appreciate your time man uh thank sir look forward to talking more but if you guys have any questions we’ll put the contact information in the comments and thanks for watching guys a