January 6, 2025 • 42 mins
Heather Mansy isn't just transforming real estate; she's redefining excellence. Join us as Heather, the dynamic force behind the Mansy Real Estate Group, shares her inspiring journey from Keller Williams to eXp Realty. Discover how she turned a historic 1930s bungalow in downtown Vancouver into a thriving hub of collaboration and community for her team. Heather opens up about her strategic decisions, driven by a desire for more space and flexibility, that have set her team on a path towards growth and success.
You'll gain insights into the business benefits of choosing eXp Realty over Keller Williams, as Heather candidly discusses the challenges and triumphs of this transition. Learn about her respect for industry leader Don Yoakum and the pivotal role he played in Heather's decision-making process. From battling limited office space to the lack of profit-sharing at KW, Heather's move was about creating a sustainable and rewarding environment for her team. Her story is one of loyalty, innovation, and a bold vision for the future.
Finally, Heather reveals the secrets behind building a motivated real estate team that thrives on collaboration and continuous learning. Her entrepreneurial spirit shines through as she describes leveraging partnerships with lenders and vendors to enhance team benefits and offset costs. Heather's commitment to "Service with Excellence" and her focus on nurturing talent ensure her team stands at the forefront of the real estate industry. Listen in to discover how Heather is setting a new gold standard and what the future holds for the Mansy Real Estate Group.
Follow Heather: www.instagram.com/heathermansybroker
Follow us:
www.instagram.com/allthingstwiss
www.instagram.com/askthegeneral
https://www.youtube.com/@nowpodcastforreal
Looking to expand your business? Sign up to receive more information on our FREE virtual mastermind.
Sign up here: https://forms.gle/PZ3iEQs1dEDzkyQU8
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You look great.
You look amazing and weappreciate your time, so hope
you had a good trip.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It was amazing.
I just gave chocolate to mywhole team the other day and it
was really great.
They had the opportunity toexperience the very best of
Belgian chocolate, which wasreally fun for them.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yum, let's roll.
All right.
Welcome back to anotherinspiring episode of Now Making
Moves in Real Estate.
This is episode 49.
(00:42):
I'm Michelle Roderick, aka theGeneral, and this is my awesome
co-host and bestie and businesspartner and all the things
C-Twist.
And today we have an incredibleguest joining us, someone who
embodies the very spirit ofexcellence in real estate and
beyond.
Please welcome, heather Manzi.
Team leader and owner of theManzi Real Estate Group, serving
(01:07):
Southwest Washington andNorthwest Oregon.
With a passion for helpingclients buy or sell homes, land
or investment properties,heather and her team live by
their powerful motto Servicewith Excellence.
It's her mission that goesbeyond transactions.
She's all about creatingcustomers for life, building
(01:29):
trust and ensuring satisfactionevery step of the way.
In this episode, we'll diveinto her journey, her strategies
for success and how shecontinues to set the gold
standard for real estate in herregion.
Welcome, heather.
Standard for real estate in herregion.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Welcome, heather.
Thank you, ladies.
I'm so happy to be here and Ireally appreciate the
opportunity, and I'm justenjoying seeing your smiling
faces today, because we don'toften get to hang out on.
So this is really fun and itactually reminds me that I'm
very excited, uh, for theupcoming cabo exp thing.
(02:08):
So I'm hoping that you guyswill be there, because that's
where we met and I yeah, I can'twait to experience it a second
time around, but now on boardedwith exp.
So this is this will be funwell, actually definitely be
there.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Action, yeah, like it's good it's.
It's great that you bring upthe Cabo thing, because that's
actually what led me to thinkabout having you on the podcast,
but we met in Oregon.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
You're right On a snowy day in Hood River.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yes, that is true, justin and Stephanie's event.
We met there for a bus.
Back to this time last year, wemet in Oregon.
Like a vision, that's true, andyou had no tell us what your
business looked like this timelast year.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Oh, that's an interesting question.
Yeah, so this time last year Iwas at KW.
My team was there.
I had moved them there from aregional brokerage about two
years previous to that because Iwanted space and I also wanted,
you know, that recruitingopportunity that that particular
(03:18):
KW was offering.
They were doing, you know,monthly career fairs when I
joined, and so this was veryuseful for me to find ways to,
you know, kind of broadcast ourmission as a team and then be
able to, you know, bring morepeople into our world and I was
teaching for them.
So I was regularly teachingIgnite and I was actually on the
(03:40):
ALC at the time as well, and soI was just kind of like, you
know, running all engines, Iwould say.
And then my team, you know, wassimilarly sized.
So I believe when we came overTXP we also had 18, you know
about a total of 18.
I would say we're still closeto that number.
It fluctuates, you know, sokind of regularly.
(04:02):
It's like get one more VA,eliminate a VA, have another.
You know I've had an agentwho's, you know, gone off to
have a baby.
I've had another one who'smoved to California, and yet
we've onboarded new ones.
So I feel like we're still kindof around that, but I will say
(04:25):
that there's been a lot ofreally meaningful changes and
I'm happy to discuss those withyou guys as well, if you want to
get into that at some point.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah Well, I think when we met you, I remember you
talking about the KW Center thatyou were part of.
Like the building was like,didn't you say like the number
one square footage KellerWilliams building at the time
Was that building?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Possibly.
And it's funny because I'm notsure if that, you know, is was,
you know my quote but it's a60,000 square foot building and
so you know one of the things isthat you know, for me I went
from renting a significantamount of little kind of pod
offices which did not havewindows, which did not.
(05:09):
You know, I could kind of cramand I mean sort of cram with a
shoehorn, you know, three agentsinto each one and I was
actually limited on my number ofcapping agents as to how many
offices that I could rent, eventhough I was of course paying
that leasing fee.
And this was becoming asticking point for me in January
(05:32):
, when Don Yochum and StephaniePeck approached me at that Hood
River event and it became anissue because I needed more
space for my agents and I alsowanted to bring one of my two
partner lenders in-house.
You know he was going to go offinto Advantage Mortgage, which
(05:54):
is more or less having his ownsort of wholesale lines
brokerage, and he wanted to.
You know we thought it would begreat to co-work they were
already co-working with us forone day a week, different days
for my different lenders, andthe more that I was able to, you
know, have them you know I callit like co-parent, you know the
(06:16):
kids, or co, you know, co-teachthe team is really our
co-mentor or even just co-assistwith everything they need from
us, with their clients.
Then that's really fruitful.
And so I was actually gettingpushback from that, with just
you know rules and structuresthat they had and I was in this
(06:36):
big building.
It also caused some of the, Ibelieve you know I don't have a
spreadsheet of it but it causedsome of the kind of lack of
downline distribution of income,because that building obviously
creates a massive expense.
It creates a massive energyexpense, there's all kinds of
things like that.
A 60,000 square foot buildingis significant.
(06:57):
It was a Kaiser clinic on twolevels previous, so you know,
really great piece of realestate.
But again it, you know, was,even though a good portion
wasn't rented out, that was notavailable to me to rent out more
rooms for my team.
My own office was somewhatcrammed so it kind of even just
(07:18):
space wise.
If I had stayed with KW I wasgoing to have to come up with
something else and maybe buy abuilding or rent a different
building or do something.
And so EXP came around at atime I wasn't really looking for
that, but there were some otherthings with events.
We were having some issues withsome of the spaces that we were
(07:38):
used to using and thenrecruiting.
That career fair thing had goneaway.
I don't know if they justweren't seeing an ROI from it or
whatever, but it had actuallybeen pretty fruitful for me and
that went away.
I was still very much enjoyingteaching for them and all that
and did as much of that as Icould Because, again, people
(08:00):
would then get exposure to thefact that I have a team and that
that might even be a placewhere they could find themselves
.
Yeah, so it's reallyinteresting because it is a huge
building and it was not nolonger helping me in the way it
needed to help me.
And then, yes, I think, thelargest check I ever received in
the two and a half years I wasat KW for.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Let me guess.
Let's guess Wait largest checkFor the year.
Wait, largest check for theyear.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
For the year or for the month, Two and a half years
for a leader of a team?
Yes, Fluctuated between eightto 18 total members including
back office during that timeTeam 18 for the year total, or
like were we guessing on a month.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Biggest check I ever got check, I'm gonna go 475
dollars per month.
No, I'm one month, she's sayinga profit share.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
What is your against, courtney?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
like 130 dollars, I think you're.
You're probably closer like1.89 a dollar.
I was way off Gosh.
I was thinking like man I'mwith like $75 or $50.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Okay, To say that that money, to say that profit
in that concept of profit sharewas non-existent at that market
center, you know, would be anaccurate statement.
You know, and yes, we'retalking 22 and 23.
I moved in December of 21.
And so those were very hardyears for real estate.
(09:30):
But yeah, just every time Iinterview someone here that is
interested in becoming an agentand we recently had one join
from another brokerage and ifthey hear about this profit
share concept through KW theythink that's cool.
But I make the clear distinction.
One is profit share, whichmeans all the expenses had to
(09:51):
get deducted before profit couldoccur, which then gets
distributed on a formula versusrevenue share, which is the
actual amount, percentage youname.
It is fully, you know, in thatcontract, because I certainly
read it through and throughbefore I signed to eXp with eXp,
and so, irrespective of whetherthe corporation is profitable
(10:14):
or not, we receive revenue, ourown, the revenue that we're
bringing in.
We receive a portion of that.
And anyone in our downline youknow well, it's downline only,
obviously but you know we're notpaying into a system that is
going to be different perbuilding or market center or
place that we're attached to.
(10:35):
That is just a one and doneconcept and I think it's
brilliant and it is a massivechange.
So and, by the way, I haven'tmade a ton of downline revenue
since I changed because Iactually deferred my entire team
.
So my existing agents, they got, you know, deferrals on their
caps equal to where they were at, so if they were nearly capped
(10:59):
or had just capped or whatever.
So I carried that through and itwas actually one of the things
that Justin Stoddard brought upin his podcast was, you know,
it's my belief very firmlyleaders eat last.
You know it's not.
You know that was kind of hisphrasing, but for me it's always
been.
I will make money when it's theright time for that to occur
(11:21):
and it will be because I havemade it possible and I have made
it occur that my agents and thepeople in my world are
successful, and that's when I'llget paid.
You know, I regularly will tellmy team my expenses are vast,
so I'm probably not going tomake a dollar until sometime in,
(11:41):
you know, june or July or someyears.
It's October.
That's when I will earn thefirst dollar for my family that
I can take home.
And part of this is, you know,also because I've been out of
production for a few years so itlooks different, although I did
go back into it a little bit todo some luxury stuff last year.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
There's like a ton of sorry.
Go ahead, no, no, no, I wasjust thinking.
Well, I was saying, ooh,because of luxury, because I
have joined the luxury divisionwith eXp and there's a lot of
awesome resources and thereferral group is really robust
and it's fun.
You have to go At eXpCon.
They had a really fun littlegala there.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That was cool for all the luxury agents, little gala
there, that was cool for all theluxury agents.
Yeah, I did not get to attendEXP Con but the luxury division
was one of the things thatimpressed me because you guys
know that I went to a familyreunion with KW the week before
I went to the EXP.
You know Brent Gove'sorganization, exp, bill Olive
(12:47):
and I can't remember the name,but yeah, but you know, I got to
compare and contrast, with onlya few days gap between what
those, you know what those twoevents were like and it was
really an interesting, I thinkjust a really fruitful contrast.
And also I was able to learnabout the luxury division they
(13:08):
had done.
They had a panel of speakers.
They presented a really goodcase for that division and for
that, you know for what is it?
2,500 bucks a year.
So I have luxury listings.
I immediately signed up to thatand I immediately marketed.
You know some of what isavailable and I had two luxury
(13:30):
listings One of them is still onmarket that we used all of
their protocols and it'sfantastic.
Every week I get an email thatshows on Mansion Global and
manorhomecom, whatever all these, you know, the Wall Street
Journal, everything that I canjust forward to my clients.
(13:50):
That shows the number of hitsand clicks that they're getting
on these.
You know glorious, you knowhighly sought after.
You know news or publications,that it's pretty impressive, I
will say.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah Well, I remember at Cabo, like the first day, we
were all hanging out.
I think it was the first day.
It was the first day and you'relike I'm not making any moves.
I'm not, it was.
If I do make a move, it won'tbe for another year, that's
right.
That's right.
And then fast forward.
By the end of the week you weremaking the move pretty much, or
(14:30):
at least mentally.
You were there, and so what doyou think?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I see you like what you heard about luxury.
Yeah, that was actually areally stressful week for me,
though I wasn't, you know, likeboogieing till dawn, although I
definitely danced a little bit,but you wouldn't have found me
with a drink in my hand duringthat trip and anyway, I just
completed a 365.
But it's you know.
When you know, you know, andI've never been afraid to make
(14:56):
firm decisions, pivot whenneeded, you know, change
something.
I'm always willing to be wrong.
I'm always willing to be wrong.
I'm always willing to be edited, corrected.
It's like wrong is not even thecorrect word for that, because
it's really just like evolve,and so I've always kept my mind
open.
This was an ethos from mymother, you know, many, many
(15:18):
decades ago, that she would sayalways, you know, explore every
opportunity, because you do notknow what's behind that.
You know that offer that doorand to this day, some of what
you know, some of the time thatmy ops manager has paid for, is
to explore and learn aboutsystems and apps, and you know
(15:41):
services that I could bebringing to bear in this work.
And so you know I came in onMonday she's already there on a
Zoom with someone typing notes,and it's because I've told her
go interview this thing.
That sent me an email and ofthe hundred emails I got that
were from different servicesthat week, I told her check out
(16:01):
these two.
You know right, and it's likeevery week it's the same.
So this has been going on foryears and this is how I function
.
I need to know what I don'tknow, and so when I went to EXP,
there was already a reallycompelling case for it.
I have a lot of respect forDawn Stephanie I had already met
, and I actually met her througha bold in KW.
Didn't get to hang out orreally know each other, but you
(16:25):
know, obviously she had a reallyclear case, cut and dry, of how
she benefited from oneorganization to the next and she
also has, you know, a reallyeffective team, I would say,
more successful in terms oftotal units over the last
whatever her time in real estate.
Yeah, I had said I probablywouldn't move.
(16:47):
One of the biggest things wasthat ALC that I was in, and then
I got to meet so many peoplewho were in, in fact, alc at the
time they moved I had, you know, I'm very commitment based, I'm
very loyal, and so if I've madea commitment to do something
I'm generally going to followthrough.
And so that actually was one ofthe things.
The other I played out certainarrangements that I had and
(17:12):
certain things that I was up tofully before.
You know, before um, changingyou know, changing over to a
different organization, becausewith a team of 18 back office
and all I'm really that's areally distinct destabilizing
thing.
I had brand new recruits.
I had talked up KW's familyreunion.
I had talked up KW's benefits,so I was a teacher for them, you
(17:34):
know.
So it was to say it was likeoptically weird, you know, for
them for me to do that is reallysaying something.
And then, certainly, but by theend of the week I was like,
well, I'm going to make thechange, because for me it was
just a no brainer with.
It wasn't so much the downline,it was a bunch of things at
once.
(17:54):
It was me recognizing that thebuilding I was at was no longer
fit for purpose for what, theflow that I wanted to create
with my team.
I wanted an in-personorganization and I continued to
want to do that and actuallymake it more robust.
January 1 of last year Iactually brought my entire team
into the office and said guys,we're doing the thing, we're
(18:16):
doing the 9 to 12 calling andwe're going to consistently do
that.
And my calling month on month,from December because I track
everything month on month,december to January, just for a
two week period of time shot upby a factor of 1800%.
So amazing, yeah, really true,and kind of pissed me off
(18:39):
because I was like, guys, youknow, I put you in office for
three hours, five days a weekand suddenly you're making 1800%
more calls, what the heck, youknow.
But it's like I told them look,we tried free will, we're not
doing that anymore.
You know, like, you're still anindependent operator, but if
you want to be part of the clubthat gets the hottest incoming
leads, you're going to be in theoffice.
(19:01):
And then, and yes, and Ibrought my, my two lenders in
office with us two days of theweek because it was easy to go,
hey, you know, here's this.
I actually have my lender righthere, you know, and so that's
obviously what I had the teamdoing.
But I knew that I needed abetter office space, not the one
I had.
And then I also saw that profitshare was completely
(19:23):
non-existent.
And then I have a tiered team,and this is important because
with the XP I saw a way tobenefit them that I'm not seeing
attrition at year two or threewith once I've taught someone
how to do real estate reallywell and instead have the
opportunity to keep them.
And that is because I hadalready, for about a year and a
(19:43):
half, had created team leadswhere agents on my team had
certain perks, like less fees.
They only pay a quarter cap,not a half cap, so I'm covering
some of these things for themless file fees, I cover their
technology fee, and so I wasalready doing this inside of KW
and their job is to be a minimentor and a traffic director
(20:07):
for those brand new agents Ichoose to bring in because we
bring in people from outside ofreal estate.
It's kind of one of my I wouldsay I'm one of my favorite, you
know, segments is people thathave never come in and learned
bad habits, so I can just teachthem from scratch and I will
take people inside the industrytoo.
It's just that.
It for me it's actually justeasier to take someone who's
(20:31):
never had that experience, butmaybe they've had a sales
experience or they've had a lotof really good customer service
experience.
Bartenders are amazing, by theway, and the servers
fantastically good at dealingwith people of all types and
doing a really good job of it,and they're self-motivated
because they love those tips.
But so, what you know, it cameat a time it made perfect sense
(20:54):
because I was able to take gofrom renting to owning, because
I decided not just to rent spacebut to actually own it.
So the building I'm in rightnow this is my office.
I own this 1930s bungalow.
It's got an attic above mewhere I've got, I think right
now, eight agents making phonecalls because it's still before
noon and it's amazing.
(21:15):
I didn't know that the value addwould be that it would be like
a home away from home foreveryone.
So it's got like Christmasdecorations and a little mini
tree out front and everyone'sgot their little you know food
in the fridge and whatever.
It's really funny because itfeels like you're going from one
home to an actual work home andpeople take pride in it.
All of my agents haveseparately told me how much they
(21:37):
absolutely love working here.
We planted a community gardenout back as a fun thing in the
first month, but so I was ableto go from a building that made
sense.
I've turned that now into abenefit to my family.
So it wasn't free, it wasn'tcheap, it's in downtown
Vancouver, but you know thathalf a billion dollar asset now
(21:57):
belongs to the Mansey family andthat actually helps my family
move forward instead of payingfor a chunk of, you know, a
60,000 square foot buildingowned by someone else.
So this was like a really bigone for us.
It also meant that I got tohave the, you know, more light,
more open areas, the kind ofstyle of, you know,
(22:19):
collaborative rooms that arebigger, more spacious and the
agents can really listen to eachother making calls and they can
excite each other.
So they created a deskcompetition.
I think it was holiday deskdecorating.
So we, you know, we really havea real workplace here and, to
be honest, I don't have mycompetitors listening in, you
(22:41):
know, from the other door downthe hall or cracking the door to
the meeting room where we'rehaving all of our big trainings.
For some reason, every singletime we have one, you know, like
I don't have that anymore andthere was some weirdness like
that that we experienced andthen being able to know for my
tiered team structure that nowmy agents every time a new agent
(23:04):
comes on.
We have a gal, sarah.
She'll be passing her exam in acouple weeks.
I just studied with her theother day, on New Year's day.
We came in for four hours and Iworked with her on the math
portion, which is something I'veI've always done to help people
.
And you know she'll get throughthat exam in a couple of weeks
and I'll assign her under myteam lead, daisy.
Daisy will then have the, thedownline from that, you know,
(23:27):
from that agent, forever.
Now, yes, I want Daisy to stayon my team, but if she leaves
she's, you know, granted she'sstill going to get some of that
downline money, but so am Ibecause Daisy's under me.
But here's the thing Daisyknows that she benefits not just
from Sarah the recruit, but anyof the others that I choose to
(23:48):
assign under her as one of myteam leads.
If she stays, and if Sarah oneday has a second child and
decides to take a year off, ifDaisy has left my team and gone
out in EXP or another brokerageor say in EXP, she might still
have made money off of Sarah,but she's not able to capture a
new person that I bring in.
(24:09):
So I'm literally creatingpermanence for those agents who
want to be part of my team.
Sure, they might still one daywant to go off, and that's fine.
No harm, no foul.
But there's so many additionalbenefits that, by the way, I
don't have to pay for simplybecause they're doing the same
transactions, paying the samecap, basically the same 8K that
(24:32):
I had with KW here.
But now a portion of that goesto help incentivize my own team
leads, and this is reallysignificant because we recruited
a few people last year thatwere under one of my team leads.
They started cranking likeright away and one of them did
like a million, two like on herthird month and everything.
(24:53):
My team lead came to me andsaid I've earned 35,.
She earned $3,500 so far, Ithink 3,500 last year from her
little what we call podettes.
She calls them podettes becauseI call it pods and they're all
women in that group.
But anyway, yeah it's, she'searned that money.
I mean these are reallysignificant differences.
(25:13):
Another one that I love and I'llstop and you guys can interrupt
me anytime but another one thatI love is that I was not aware
I'd have to own a branchbrokerage because I have a
building and it's under my tradename and it's, you know,
separate and it's in eXp.
This was just like a side thingthat happened.
But you know, that's prettycool because our address on our
(25:39):
business cards now for our groupin eXp is the one, the building
that I own, and there's acertain amount I'm not going to
lie of like, ooh, you know,ownership pride that goes with
that.
That, I think, is so excitingand so fun.
I have another friend who didone as well.
Her team is smaller but she hasit nearby.
I mean, this is amazing, do yourealize, and you guys probably
both know, if I were to try togo own because I know you were
(26:00):
owning an individual boutiquebrokerage, but if I were to go
and try to own a KW, you know, Iwent in some of those talks and
we're talking about a verycomplex, very costly endeavor
because you're really buyinginto that franchise under all of
their rules and what I loveabout any brokerage anyway, I
(26:25):
always said I kind of wantedthem just to leave me with my
autonomy.
I've been in sales for 40 years, I've been in business for a
long time.
Leave me with my autonomy.
I'm going to get sued if one ofmy agents.
I'll get named in that lawsuitif one of them does something
wrong.
I've got this I will call youwhen I need you, and I kind of
had this arrangement with thetwo other brokerages that I had
(26:46):
my team under.
But this is, I would say, a muchbroader expansion of that
concept.
I have no one in my buildingthat is not in the Manzi Real
Estate Group and it is reallyfreeing for me because my direct
principal broker or, sorry,designated broker isn't even in
(27:07):
the same city as me.
So there's something reallyfreeing from just an
entrepreneurial, managerialownership kind of way of
thinking that I have loved, andit's something just in the back
of my mind but I love it andmaybe you guys can talk about
this too.
But those are and that's notall the reasons that I love EFE
(27:30):
over that, but those are some ofthe ones that that week,
courtney, I just was like thisis so obvious and I actually
clued into almost everything Ijust said by like Thursday of
that Cabo thing, and I was likeoh my God, and I called my
husband and I said I am sostressed, I am so stressed, I'm
(27:52):
literally sick to my stomachbecause I'm definitely going to
make this move and I think Ishould do it now.
And I have, I'm running, youknow, I'm writing down pros and
cons, lists of waiting and I andall of it is just oh, I want to
check the box and say Icompleted X, y, xyz for Keller,
but Keller wasn't even allowingme to take my lender and put him
(28:12):
in the same office as me andwasn't allowing me to buy and,
you know, even just pay for, orwe were going to do it, but it
was like nine grand out ofpocket to pay a cap for an agent
that hadn't yet capped for so Icould get permission to like,
rent another little pod.
These things weren't workingfor me and I saw a vision for my
team and we're nowhere nearwhat my pinnacle of that vision
(28:37):
is but I saw that I was dealingwith sort of corporate rules and
structures that were notallowing me uncapped growth.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Right.
Well, I'd say we've experienceda lot of the same in Monomi.
I have two.
I also have branches, right,two offices.
I think a lot of people think,with EXP being a cloud-based
brokerage, that there aren'toffices, but the reality is well
one.
We can use Regus for free orfor a discount if you want
conference rooms, and they'reall over, and Michelle and I
(29:07):
rented one in Orange County fortwo days or strategy sessions
with some of our agents and itwas awesome.
But if you do have an office,what I like about something that
you've done is your partnershipwith your lender is a great way
to help offset the cost, andthere's many vendors that people
could partner with that I thinkwould have a similar benefit,
(29:28):
like we've even consideredinsurance agents, and I just
think that's a great thing forpeople to consider, because you
do want to watch your overhead.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
I can speak on that briefly, you know, if you'd like
.
So my lender is actually on theother side of this wall.
So what eventually happened isthat he's renting a space from
me.
Advantage Mortgage sends me acheck every month and it's for
the rent of that room.
So I started this buildingalready with a tenant, so it's
(30:01):
the 800 a month or whatever itis.
So not only was I able to gofrom renting myself, but I'm
already.
I already have tenants and Idon't charge my agents a desk
fee.
There's, those are my full-timeagents that have desks, and
then I have a remote, so I havetiers of agents as well, but
(30:21):
just that ability.
So literally all time, nine tofive, monday through Friday we
have one of my two lenders onsite and that has been
dramatically beneficial for theteam.
It's absolutely wonderful, andwe've actually wrapped him and
my other lender into more of ourkind of celebrations and even
more.
And then, yes, they do, both ofmy lenders offset lead expense.
(30:46):
So you know we're able to shareon a platform it used to be
sync, now it's follow up,awesome Y Lopo.
We're able to share onsomething like Zillow uh, which
I do currently source some uhleads from in.
You know, kind of a bitter, uhbitter, love, hate relationship
I have there.
Um, I mean, my reps arefantastic.
(31:06):
I just hate the fact that theleads are that expensive.
But the ROI is good at thismoment but yeah, so they help
pay into that as well.
And I agree with you you know mytitle.
We are tapping them constantlyto say, you know what can we be
learning from you?
And hey, show up here and trainmy team.
And so in the living room is abig TV flat screen and you know
(31:30):
we regularly will rearrangethose chairs and create sessions
.
I try to have at least oneguest speaker every few weeks
coming from somewhere, whetherit's like Dawn or Stephanie or
someone, or it's one of mylenders.
We have multiple home inspectors.
I've had them come in and teachclasses, even together.
They don't like to teach ontheir own, so they're not used
(31:53):
to doing that, so they'reintimidated, so they teach
together.
But yeah, exactly to your point, courtney, and I'm not just
leveraging them to, like youknow, let's share money on like
a door hanger.
Let's also learn from them andhelp be that direct dial, like
hand-raised person that at anytime my agents to look towards.
(32:15):
But they have a whole villageof people that I've structured
around them.
That know, oh, that's one ofHeather.
You know that's one of theManzi group calling.
Let me quickly take that calland help them.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
So I think that one of the things I really I'm going
to take away from this podcastis your comment around like
exploring opportunities, likeyour willingness to lean into
the event and like learn abouteXp is what I think is
impressive about you because youcould have been I'm KW to the
(32:50):
death, like I love KW and notthat you weren't that, because
you definitely were loyal, butyou were open to learning about
what was out there and on foryou and your family and your
team.
But can you talk a little bitabout, maybe, your clients?
Like what do you think yourclients are receiving over and
(33:12):
above now that you're with eXP.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
It's difficult for me to make the distinction,
because what I can tell you isthat we've always provided a
high level of service that Ihave prided myself on.
So to say that that was justlike a black and white and maybe
I'll just find it in thespeaking.
But basically we have twomottos.
So one is service withexcellence.
This came out or came aboutorganically with me as an
(33:37):
individual realtor years ago.
I treated every client how Iwould want to be treated.
I was an investor since 2008 inproperties I was constantly
buying or even helping otherpeople in other countries or
whatever buy real estate, but Iwas not a realtor.
I did not want that distinctionat the time real estate, but I
was not a realtor.
I did not want that distinctionat the time and my kids were
(33:59):
little, so that wasn't somethingthat I, you know.
I kind of knew that I didn't,wasn't ready to commit those
hours, and so it just came aboutorganically.
People would say you'reabsolutely excellent, you're
excellent, whatever.
So I started signing my emailswith that and then, eventually,
when I got a team, I said you,you're an extension of me.
When I got a team, I said you,you're an extension of me,
you're under my name and myfamily name and I need to make
sure that you guys are embodyingthis motto.
(34:22):
And so I said we're going to,like that's our team motto and
we're going to use that.
And then another one, justagain organically, that came up
through some training within ayear or two so I've had the team
almost eight years now is thatI said we keep the dream alive
until we hand you the key.
And that one is really for meto drill down on the concept
(34:42):
that my individual agents areeach coaches for and dream
keepers for those clients thatthey understand that this is
about you're literally holdingthe dream or goals or financial
future of your clients, becausethis is the biggest single
(35:03):
financial transaction mostpeople will make and they'll
only do it if you literallychange their life.
It can change their life.
And so, financially, we've seenthis for a long time, just as
investors and as individualhomeowners, you know even what
you pay down in a mortgage hasalmost no you know no
competition with what that homedoes in just valuation over time
(35:26):
.
So we understand this and sothose two mottos have been
embodied and we talk about themdaily.
I think if you want a motto towork, it has to be alive, and we
talk about them daily.
I think if you want a motto towork, it has to be alive.
So we're always looking, youknow so, at least once a week,
twice a week, in our rapsessions and whatever we're able
to.
You know, talk about these orit'll come up, and I'm never
(35:48):
going to miss a teaching momentto go, and actually what
so-and-so said is perfectly tothe point of one of our mottos,
and you know, this is actuallywhy we say this.
So I'm really constantly tyingback to it as well, to one or
the other motto in everything wedo.
But I would say one of thethings first of all, every agent
here is so excited about notjust being here and maybe
(36:13):
referring someone across the USto be in an EXP that they
themselves could maybe benefitfrom downline income, but
they're also most of the onesthat I have now are so just
hyper excited, and I've openedup the concept of being a team
lead to, or pod leader to, moreof them, and so I've got maybe,
(36:36):
instead of the four that I hadwhich one is in a different
career now and now I have three.
One of them I turned into mytransaction manager.
So that's two.
So I knew I needed to at leasthave two more, or three or four
more, because I'm in a push to20 and over full-time agents.
And so what I said was you know, hey guys, I'll open up this
(36:57):
opportunity.
So that is massive becausethey're you know they're now
hearing, because of course theygossip in the back office, which
sometimes it's very fruitful,because, you know, I tell my
team mates, if you're gonnagossip, just don't do it on a
down day.
You know, do it when you'reexcited about something.
If, down day, you know, do itwhen you're excited about
something.
If you're going to just be likeup there chatting instead of
working, like let it besomething that is going to
(37:18):
motivate your, your people, um,and so they're, they're very
excited.
I've got, I think, like I said,five or six people that are
very excited about the conceptof becoming a team lead, because
they understand the money.
And one thing I didn't say is,before I joined eXp, I would
give a $1,000 bonus to any of myagents that brought in a
(37:41):
recruit.
And because they would bring inthis recruit, I would say I'll
pay $500 on their six-month ofthe recruit and then the other
$500 at their one year, and sothat basically prevents me from
paying money for someone who isjust going to bounce in and out
of real estate and is not goingto be fit for purpose.
(38:02):
And so instead, now that wehave this downline structure
without me spending any money atall, they have the benefit that
if I decide to assign themunder that team lead, they're
going to get downline every timethat person's in their capping
period.
So it's more money for them anda significant amount more money
(38:26):
and it's sooner, it's morequicker and more reliable and it
is very much exciting thembecause it's recurring every
year.
So it is my goal and it waslast year was to go big or go
home.
So for me, I will push to 20,25 full-time agents, and I know
(38:50):
I've got the back office that wecan do that and we've got the
structure.
I've got a good what I callrecipe that I know that we can
do it.
I feel comfortable that this issomething we can do as an
organization and while we'redoing that, I need people to
want to stay, and one of thebiggest, most heartbreaking
things for me, I think, as ateacher and as a mentor, is to
(39:12):
have someone get to a pointwhere now they're just like
released into the wild.
And I've trained some incredibleagents that are out there, you
know, being agents, but I'mlosing that knowledge power as
an organization and it takesyears, as you guys know, to
create that in another human.
So the fact that they havereally, really solid reasons to
(39:33):
stay because why would abrilliant, highly trained
individual stay, if they havereally really solid reasons to
stay, because why would abrilliant, highly trained
individual stay if they havecapped growth, if they can't
feel like they can move upwardand that they're getting more
accolade and that they'regetting more responsibility, and
so literally becoming thismentor is really huge, because
(39:58):
now they get to feel the sameheartwarming thing that I feel
every time an agent comes to meand goes oh my God, heather,
that thing you told me workedand I've got the signature.
They get to feel that nowbecause they're maybe giving a
tip or doing a little role playor something and it's having a
profound effect.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Wow, yeah, that's amazing.
Here's the thing, heather.
We appreciate you joining usand we look forward to seeing
you in Colorado.
I just want to close by sayingthis If you're an agent out
there, that's on a team.
I don't want to like specify KW, but if you happen to be with
KW, the thing with Heather.
I think that you know youtalked about a lot of things to
(40:41):
just explore other opportunitieshaving that location, the less
liability, the ability forgrowth, all the things.
Also the opportunity for you tohave some ways to come over to
eXp through top deferrals.
There's all kinds of thingsthat are options.
So if you are interested, reachout to Heather or you know
(41:05):
Courtney and myself and we'dlove to see through what those
might be and come to Cabo.
We'll see you in Cabo in just afew weeks.
Oh, not we, us.
If you go to Cabo in a fewweeks, you'll be there without
us.
That's like not that far away.
March, march 11th.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
It's soon.
Yeah, we're booking our flightstoday, so that's….
I want to thank both of you forthe opportunity to, yeah, just
to have this forum, and I'm veryexcited to see you guys again,
and it's just so fun to watchother women in business and
other entrepreneurs who areliterally rocking and just
(41:46):
rocking their world and makingchange happen and, you know,
creating waves in this worldthat we call real estate, and I
just always, you know, for me itwas amazing to meet both of you
because I can tell that you'rejust fully upwardly mobile.
Just, you know, you're outthere moving and shaking and I
just think it's so great thatyou guys have created this and
(42:11):
that I have had the chance toknow you, and I love watching
what you guys are up to, youknow, personally and
professionally, and so this isreally fun for me.
So, thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
We appreciate it and you have a good rest of your day
.
Thanks, Ella.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Thanks guys, Bye.
You look great.
You look amazing and weappreciate your time, so hope
you had a good trip.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It was amazing.
I just gave chocolate to mywhole team the other day and it
was really great.
They had the opportunity toexperience the very best of
Belgian chocolate, which wasreally fun for them.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yum, let's roll.
All right.
Welcome back to anotherinspiring episode of Now Making
Moves in Real Estate.
This is episode 49.
(00:42):
I'm Michelle Roderick, aka theGeneral, and this is my awesome
co-host and bestie and businesspartner and all the things
C-Twist.
And today we have an incredibleguest joining us, someone who
embodies the very spirit ofexcellence in real estate and
beyond.
Please welcome, heather Manzi.
Team leader and owner of theManzi Real Estate Group, serving
(01:07):
Southwest Washington andNorthwest Oregon.
With a passion for helpingclients buy or sell homes, land
or investment properties,heather and her team live by
their powerful motto Servicewith Excellence.
It's her mission that goesbeyond transactions.
She's all about creatingcustomers for life, building
(01:29):
trust and ensuring satisfactionevery step of the way.
In this episode, we'll diveinto her journey, her strategies
for success and how shecontinues to set the gold
standard for real estate in herregion.
Welcome, heather.
Standard for real estate in herregion.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Welcome, heather.
Thank you, ladies.
I'm so happy to be here and Ireally appreciate the
opportunity, and I'm justenjoying seeing your smiling
faces today, because we don'toften get to hang out on.
So this is really fun and itactually reminds me that I'm
very excited, uh, for theupcoming cabo exp thing.
(02:08):
So I'm hoping that you guyswill be there, because that's
where we met and I yeah, I can'twait to experience it a second
time around, but now on boardedwith exp.
So this is this will be funwell, actually definitely be
there.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Action, yeah, like it's good it's.
It's great that you bring upthe Cabo thing, because that's
actually what led me to thinkabout having you on the podcast,
but we met in Oregon.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
You're right On a snowy day in Hood River.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yes, that is true, justin and Stephanie's event.
We met there for a bus.
Back to this time last year, wemet in Oregon.
Like a vision, that's true, andyou had no tell us what your
business looked like this timelast year.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Oh, that's an interesting question.
Yeah, so this time last year Iwas at KW.
My team was there.
I had moved them there from aregional brokerage about two
years previous to that because Iwanted space and I also wanted,
you know, that recruitingopportunity that that particular
(03:18):
KW was offering.
They were doing, you know,monthly career fairs when I
joined, and so this was veryuseful for me to find ways to,
you know, kind of broadcast ourmission as a team and then be
able to, you know, bring morepeople into our world and I was
teaching for them.
So I was regularly teachingIgnite and I was actually on the
(03:40):
ALC at the time as well, and soI was just kind of like, you
know, running all engines, Iwould say.
And then my team, you know, wassimilarly sized.
So I believe when we came overTXP we also had 18, you know
about a total of 18.
I would say we're still closeto that number.
It fluctuates, you know, sokind of regularly.
(04:02):
It's like get one more VA,eliminate a VA, have another.
You know I've had an agentwho's, you know, gone off to
have a baby.
I've had another one who'smoved to California, and yet
we've onboarded new ones.
So I feel like we're still kindof around that, but I will say
(04:25):
that there's been a lot ofreally meaningful changes and
I'm happy to discuss those withyou guys as well, if you want to
get into that at some point.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah Well, I think when we met you, I remember you
talking about the KW Center thatyou were part of.
Like the building was like,didn't you say like the number
one square footage KellerWilliams building at the time
Was that building?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Possibly.
And it's funny because I'm notsure if that, you know, is was,
you know my quote but it's a60,000 square foot building and
so you know one of the things isthat you know, for me I went
from renting a significantamount of little kind of pod
offices which did not havewindows, which did not.
(05:09):
You know, I could kind of cramand I mean sort of cram with a
shoehorn, you know, three agentsinto each one and I was
actually limited on my number ofcapping agents as to how many
offices that I could rent, eventhough I was of course paying
that leasing fee.
And this was becoming asticking point for me in January
(05:32):
, when Don Yochum and StephaniePeck approached me at that Hood
River event and it became anissue because I needed more
space for my agents and I alsowanted to bring one of my two
partner lenders in-house.
You know he was going to go offinto Advantage Mortgage, which
(05:54):
is more or less having his ownsort of wholesale lines
brokerage, and he wanted to.
You know we thought it would begreat to co-work they were
already co-working with us forone day a week, different days
for my different lenders, andthe more that I was able to, you
know, have them you know I callit like co-parent, you know the
(06:16):
kids, or co, you know, co-teachthe team is really our
co-mentor or even just co-assistwith everything they need from
us, with their clients.
Then that's really fruitful.
And so I was actually gettingpushback from that, with just
you know rules and structuresthat they had and I was in this
(06:36):
big building.
It also caused some of the, Ibelieve you know I don't have a
spreadsheet of it but it causedsome of the kind of lack of
downline distribution of income,because that building obviously
creates a massive expense.
It creates a massive energyexpense, there's all kinds of
things like that.
A 60,000 square foot buildingis significant.
(06:57):
It was a Kaiser clinic on twolevels previous, so you know,
really great piece of realestate.
But again it, you know, was,even though a good portion
wasn't rented out, that was notavailable to me to rent out more
rooms for my team.
My own office was somewhatcrammed so it kind of even just
(07:18):
space wise.
If I had stayed with KW I wasgoing to have to come up with
something else and maybe buy abuilding or rent a different
building or do something.
And so EXP came around at atime I wasn't really looking for
that, but there were some otherthings with events.
We were having some issues withsome of the spaces that we were
(07:38):
used to using and thenrecruiting.
That career fair thing had goneaway.
I don't know if they justweren't seeing an ROI from it or
whatever, but it had actuallybeen pretty fruitful for me and
that went away.
I was still very much enjoyingteaching for them and all that
and did as much of that as Icould Because, again, people
(08:00):
would then get exposure to thefact that I have a team and that
that might even be a placewhere they could find themselves
.
Yeah, so it's reallyinteresting because it is a huge
building and it was not nolonger helping me in the way it
needed to help me.
And then, yes, I think, thelargest check I ever received in
the two and a half years I wasat KW for.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Let me guess.
Let's guess Wait largest checkFor the year.
Wait, largest check for theyear.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
For the year or for the month, Two and a half years
for a leader of a team?
Yes, Fluctuated between eightto 18 total members including
back office during that timeTeam 18 for the year total, or
like were we guessing on a month.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Biggest check I ever got check, I'm gonna go 475
dollars per month.
No, I'm one month, she's sayinga profit share.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
What is your against, courtney?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
like 130 dollars, I think you're.
You're probably closer like1.89 a dollar.
I was way off Gosh.
I was thinking like man I'mwith like $75 or $50.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Okay, To say that that money, to say that profit
in that concept of profit sharewas non-existent at that market
center, you know, would be anaccurate statement.
You know, and yes, we'retalking 22 and 23.
I moved in December of 21.
And so those were very hardyears for real estate.
(09:30):
But yeah, just every time Iinterview someone here that is
interested in becoming an agentand we recently had one join
from another brokerage and ifthey hear about this profit
share concept through KW theythink that's cool.
But I make the clear distinction.
One is profit share, whichmeans all the expenses had to
(09:51):
get deducted before profit couldoccur, which then gets
distributed on a formula versusrevenue share, which is the
actual amount, percentage youname.
It is fully, you know, in thatcontract, because I certainly
read it through and throughbefore I signed to eXp with eXp,
and so, irrespective of whetherthe corporation is profitable
(10:14):
or not, we receive revenue, ourown, the revenue that we're
bringing in.
We receive a portion of that.
And anyone in our downline youknow well, it's downline only,
obviously but you know we're notpaying into a system that is
going to be different perbuilding or market center or
place that we're attached to.
(10:35):
That is just a one and doneconcept and I think it's
brilliant and it is a massivechange.
So and, by the way, I haven'tmade a ton of downline revenue
since I changed because Iactually deferred my entire team
.
So my existing agents, they got, you know, deferrals on their
caps equal to where they were at, so if they were nearly capped
(10:59):
or had just capped or whatever.
So I carried that through and itwas actually one of the things
that Justin Stoddard brought upin his podcast was, you know,
it's my belief very firmlyleaders eat last.
You know it's not.
You know that was kind of hisphrasing, but for me it's always
been.
I will make money when it's theright time for that to occur
(11:21):
and it will be because I havemade it possible and I have made
it occur that my agents and thepeople in my world are
successful, and that's when I'llget paid.
You know, I regularly will tellmy team my expenses are vast,
so I'm probably not going tomake a dollar until sometime in,
(11:41):
you know, june or July or someyears.
It's October.
That's when I will earn thefirst dollar for my family that
I can take home.
And part of this is, you know,also because I've been out of
production for a few years so itlooks different, although I did
go back into it a little bit todo some luxury stuff last year.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
There's like a ton of sorry.
Go ahead, no, no, no, I wasjust thinking.
Well, I was saying, ooh,because of luxury, because I
have joined the luxury divisionwith eXp and there's a lot of
awesome resources and thereferral group is really robust
and it's fun.
You have to go At eXpCon.
They had a really fun littlegala there.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That was cool for all the luxury agents, little gala
there, that was cool for all theluxury agents.
Yeah, I did not get to attendEXP Con but the luxury division
was one of the things thatimpressed me because you guys
know that I went to a familyreunion with KW the week before
I went to the EXP.
You know Brent Gove'sorganization, exp, bill Olive
(12:47):
and I can't remember the name,but yeah, but you know, I got to
compare and contrast, with onlya few days gap between what
those, you know what those twoevents were like and it was
really an interesting, I thinkjust a really fruitful contrast.
And also I was able to learnabout the luxury division they
(13:08):
had done.
They had a panel of speakers.
They presented a really goodcase for that division and for
that, you know for what is it?
2,500 bucks a year.
So I have luxury listings.
I immediately signed up to thatand I immediately marketed.
You know some of what isavailable and I had two luxury
(13:30):
listings One of them is still onmarket that we used all of
their protocols and it'sfantastic.
Every week I get an email thatshows on Mansion Global and
manorhomecom, whatever all these, you know, the Wall Street
Journal, everything that I canjust forward to my clients.
(13:50):
That shows the number of hitsand clicks that they're getting
on these.
You know glorious, you knowhighly sought after.
You know news or publications,that it's pretty impressive, I
will say.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah Well, I remember at Cabo, like the first day, we
were all hanging out.
I think it was the first day.
It was the first day and you'relike I'm not making any moves.
I'm not, it was.
If I do make a move, it won'tbe for another year, that's
right.
That's right.
And then fast forward.
By the end of the week you weremaking the move pretty much, or
(14:30):
at least mentally.
You were there, and so what doyou think?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I see you like what you heard about luxury.
Yeah, that was actually areally stressful week for me,
though I wasn't, you know, likeboogieing till dawn, although I
definitely danced a little bit,but you wouldn't have found me
with a drink in my hand duringthat trip and anyway, I just
completed a 365.
But it's you know.
When you know, you know, andI've never been afraid to make
(14:56):
firm decisions, pivot whenneeded, you know, change
something.
I'm always willing to be wrong.
I'm always willing to be wrong.
I'm always willing to be edited, corrected.
It's like wrong is not even thecorrect word for that, because
it's really just like evolve,and so I've always kept my mind
open.
This was an ethos from mymother, you know, many, many
(15:18):
decades ago, that she would sayalways, you know, explore every
opportunity, because you do notknow what's behind that.
You know that offer that doorand to this day, some of what
you know, some of the time thatmy ops manager has paid for, is
to explore and learn aboutsystems and apps, and you know
(15:41):
services that I could bebringing to bear in this work.
And so you know I came in onMonday she's already there on a
Zoom with someone typing notes,and it's because I've told her
go interview this thing.
That sent me an email and ofthe hundred emails I got that
were from different servicesthat week, I told her check out
(16:01):
these two.
You know right, and it's likeevery week it's the same.
So this has been going on foryears and this is how I function
.
I need to know what I don'tknow, and so when I went to EXP,
there was already a reallycompelling case for it.
I have a lot of respect forDawn Stephanie I had already met
, and I actually met her througha bold in KW.
Didn't get to hang out orreally know each other, but you
(16:25):
know, obviously she had a reallyclear case, cut and dry, of how
she benefited from oneorganization to the next and she
also has, you know, a reallyeffective team, I would say,
more successful in terms oftotal units over the last
whatever her time in real estate.
Yeah, I had said I probablywouldn't move.
(16:47):
One of the biggest things wasthat ALC that I was in, and then
I got to meet so many peoplewho were in, in fact, alc at the
time they moved I had, you know, I'm very commitment based, I'm
very loyal, and so if I've madea commitment to do something
I'm generally going to followthrough.
And so that actually was one ofthe things.
The other I played out certainarrangements that I had and
(17:12):
certain things that I was up tofully before.
You know, before um, changingyou know, changing over to a
different organization, becausewith a team of 18 back office
and all I'm really that's areally distinct destabilizing
thing.
I had brand new recruits.
I had talked up KW's familyreunion.
I had talked up KW's benefits,so I was a teacher for them, you
(17:34):
know.
So it was to say it was likeoptically weird, you know, for
them for me to do that is reallysaying something.
And then, certainly, but by theend of the week I was like,
well, I'm going to make thechange, because for me it was
just a no brainer with.
It wasn't so much the downline,it was a bunch of things at
once.
(17:54):
It was me recognizing that thebuilding I was at was no longer
fit for purpose for what, theflow that I wanted to create
with my team.
I wanted an in-personorganization and I continued to
want to do that and actuallymake it more robust.
January 1 of last year Iactually brought my entire team
into the office and said guys,we're doing the thing, we're
(18:16):
doing the 9 to 12 calling andwe're going to consistently do
that.
And my calling month on month,from December because I track
everything month on month,december to January, just for a
two week period of time shot upby a factor of 1800%.
So amazing, yeah, really true,and kind of pissed me off
(18:39):
because I was like, guys, youknow, I put you in office for
three hours, five days a weekand suddenly you're making 1800%
more calls, what the heck, youknow.
But it's like I told them look,we tried free will, we're not
doing that anymore.
You know, like, you're still anindependent operator, but if
you want to be part of the clubthat gets the hottest incoming
leads, you're going to be in theoffice.
(19:01):
And then, and yes, and Ibrought my, my two lenders in
office with us two days of theweek because it was easy to go,
hey, you know, here's this.
I actually have my lender righthere, you know, and so that's
obviously what I had the teamdoing.
But I knew that I needed abetter office space, not the one
I had.
And then I also saw that profitshare was completely
(19:23):
non-existent.
And then I have a tiered team,and this is important because
with the XP I saw a way tobenefit them that I'm not seeing
attrition at year two or threewith once I've taught someone
how to do real estate reallywell and instead have the
opportunity to keep them.
And that is because I hadalready, for about a year and a
(19:43):
half, had created team leadswhere agents on my team had
certain perks, like less fees.
They only pay a quarter cap,not a half cap, so I'm covering
some of these things for themless file fees, I cover their
technology fee, and so I wasalready doing this inside of KW
and their job is to be a minimentor and a traffic director
(20:07):
for those brand new agents Ichoose to bring in because we
bring in people from outside ofreal estate.
It's kind of one of my I wouldsay I'm one of my favorite, you
know, segments is people thathave never come in and learned
bad habits, so I can just teachthem from scratch and I will
take people inside the industrytoo.
It's just that.
It for me it's actually justeasier to take someone who's
(20:31):
never had that experience, butmaybe they've had a sales
experience or they've had a lotof really good customer service
experience.
Bartenders are amazing, by theway, and the servers
fantastically good at dealingwith people of all types and
doing a really good job of it,and they're self-motivated
because they love those tips.
But so, what you know, it cameat a time it made perfect sense
(20:54):
because I was able to take gofrom renting to owning, because
I decided not just to rent spacebut to actually own it.
So the building I'm in rightnow this is my office.
I own this 1930s bungalow.
It's got an attic above mewhere I've got, I think right
now, eight agents making phonecalls because it's still before
noon and it's amazing.
(21:15):
I didn't know that the value addwould be that it would be like
a home away from home foreveryone.
So it's got like Christmasdecorations and a little mini
tree out front and everyone'sgot their little you know food
in the fridge and whatever.
It's really funny because itfeels like you're going from one
home to an actual work home andpeople take pride in it.
All of my agents haveseparately told me how much they
(21:37):
absolutely love working here.
We planted a community gardenout back as a fun thing in the
first month, but so I was ableto go from a building that made
sense.
I've turned that now into abenefit to my family.
So it wasn't free, it wasn'tcheap, it's in downtown
Vancouver, but you know thathalf a billion dollar asset now
(21:57):
belongs to the Mansey family andthat actually helps my family
move forward instead of payingfor a chunk of, you know, a
60,000 square foot buildingowned by someone else.
So this was like a really bigone for us.
It also meant that I got tohave the, you know, more light,
more open areas, the kind ofstyle of, you know,
(22:19):
collaborative rooms that arebigger, more spacious and the
agents can really listen to eachother making calls and they can
excite each other.
So they created a deskcompetition.
I think it was holiday deskdecorating.
So we, you know, we really havea real workplace here and, to
be honest, I don't have mycompetitors listening in, you
(22:41):
know, from the other door downthe hall or cracking the door to
the meeting room where we'rehaving all of our big trainings.
For some reason, every singletime we have one, you know, like
I don't have that anymore andthere was some weirdness like
that that we experienced andthen being able to know for my
tiered team structure that nowmy agents every time a new agent
(23:04):
comes on.
We have a gal, sarah.
She'll be passing her exam in acouple weeks.
I just studied with her theother day, on New Year's day.
We came in for four hours and Iworked with her on the math
portion, which is something I'veI've always done to help people
.
And you know she'll get throughthat exam in a couple of weeks
and I'll assign her under myteam lead, daisy.
Daisy will then have the, thedownline from that, you know,
(23:27):
from that agent, forever.
Now, yes, I want Daisy to stayon my team, but if she leaves
she's, you know, granted she'sstill going to get some of that
downline money, but so am Ibecause Daisy's under me.
But here's the thing Daisyknows that she benefits not just
from Sarah the recruit, but anyof the others that I choose to
(23:48):
assign under her as one of myteam leads.
If she stays, and if Sarah oneday has a second child and
decides to take a year off, ifDaisy has left my team and gone
out in EXP or another brokerageor say in EXP, she might still
have made money off of Sarah,but she's not able to capture a
new person that I bring in.
(24:09):
So I'm literally creatingpermanence for those agents who
want to be part of my team.
Sure, they might still one daywant to go off, and that's fine.
No harm, no foul.
But there's so many additionalbenefits that, by the way, I
don't have to pay for simplybecause they're doing the same
transactions, paying the samecap, basically the same 8K that
(24:32):
I had with KW here.
But now a portion of that goesto help incentivize my own team
leads, and this is reallysignificant because we recruited
a few people last year thatwere under one of my team leads.
They started cranking likeright away and one of them did
like a million, two like on herthird month and everything.
(24:53):
My team lead came to me andsaid I've earned 35,.
She earned $3,500 so far, Ithink 3,500 last year from her
little what we call podettes.
She calls them podettes becauseI call it pods and they're all
women in that group.
But anyway, yeah it's, she'searned that money.
I mean these are reallysignificant differences.
(25:13):
Another one that I love and I'llstop and you guys can interrupt
me anytime but another one thatI love is that I was not aware
I'd have to own a branchbrokerage because I have a
building and it's under my tradename and it's, you know,
separate and it's in eXp.
This was just like a side thingthat happened.
But you know, that's prettycool because our address on our
(25:39):
business cards now for our groupin eXp is the one, the building
that I own, and there's acertain amount I'm not going to
lie of like, ooh, you know,ownership pride that goes with
that.
That, I think, is so excitingand so fun.
I have another friend who didone as well.
Her team is smaller but she hasit nearby.
I mean, this is amazing, do yourealize, and you guys probably
both know, if I were to try togo own because I know you were
(26:00):
owning an individual boutiquebrokerage, but if I were to go
and try to own a KW, you know, Iwent in some of those talks and
we're talking about a verycomplex, very costly endeavor
because you're really buyinginto that franchise under all of
their rules and what I loveabout any brokerage anyway, I
(26:25):
always said I kind of wantedthem just to leave me with my
autonomy.
I've been in sales for 40 years, I've been in business for a
long time.
Leave me with my autonomy.
I'm going to get sued if one ofmy agents.
I'll get named in that lawsuitif one of them does something
wrong.
I've got this I will call youwhen I need you, and I kind of
had this arrangement with thetwo other brokerages that I had
(26:46):
my team under.
But this is, I would say, a muchbroader expansion of that
concept.
I have no one in my buildingthat is not in the Manzi Real
Estate Group and it is reallyfreeing for me because my direct
principal broker or, sorry,designated broker isn't even in
(27:07):
the same city as me.
So there's something reallyfreeing from just an
entrepreneurial, managerialownership kind of way of
thinking that I have loved, andit's something just in the back
of my mind but I love it andmaybe you guys can talk about
this too.
But those are and that's notall the reasons that I love EFE
(27:30):
over that, but those are some ofthe ones that that week,
courtney, I just was like thisis so obvious and I actually
clued into almost everything Ijust said by like Thursday of
that Cabo thing, and I was likeoh my God, and I called my
husband and I said I am sostressed, I am so stressed, I'm
(27:52):
literally sick to my stomachbecause I'm definitely going to
make this move and I think Ishould do it now.
And I have, I'm running, youknow, I'm writing down pros and
cons, lists of waiting and I andall of it is just oh, I want to
check the box and say Icompleted X, y, xyz for Keller,
but Keller wasn't even allowingme to take my lender and put him
(28:12):
in the same office as me andwasn't allowing me to buy and,
you know, even just pay for, orwe were going to do it, but it
was like nine grand out ofpocket to pay a cap for an agent
that hadn't yet capped for so Icould get permission to like,
rent another little pod.
These things weren't workingfor me and I saw a vision for my
team and we're nowhere nearwhat my pinnacle of that vision
(28:37):
is but I saw that I was dealingwith sort of corporate rules and
structures that were notallowing me uncapped growth.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Right.
Well, I'd say we've experienceda lot of the same in Monomi.
I have two.
I also have branches, right,two offices.
I think a lot of people think,with EXP being a cloud-based
brokerage, that there aren'toffices, but the reality is well
one.
We can use Regus for free orfor a discount if you want
conference rooms, and they'reall over, and Michelle and I
(29:07):
rented one in Orange County fortwo days or strategy sessions
with some of our agents and itwas awesome.
But if you do have an office,what I like about something that
you've done is your partnershipwith your lender is a great way
to help offset the cost, andthere's many vendors that people
could partner with that I thinkwould have a similar benefit,
(29:28):
like we've even consideredinsurance agents, and I just
think that's a great thing forpeople to consider, because you
do want to watch your overhead.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
I can speak on that briefly, you know, if you'd like
.
So my lender is actually on theother side of this wall.
So what eventually happened isthat he's renting a space from
me.
Advantage Mortgage sends me acheck every month and it's for
the rent of that room.
So I started this buildingalready with a tenant, so it's
(30:01):
the 800 a month or whatever itis.
So not only was I able to gofrom renting myself, but I'm
already.
I already have tenants and Idon't charge my agents a desk
fee.
There's, those are my full-timeagents that have desks, and
then I have a remote, so I havetiers of agents as well, but
(30:21):
just that ability.
So literally all time, nine tofive, monday through Friday we
have one of my two lenders onsite and that has been
dramatically beneficial for theteam.
It's absolutely wonderful, andwe've actually wrapped him and
my other lender into more of ourkind of celebrations and even
more.
And then, yes, they do, both ofmy lenders offset lead expense.
(30:46):
So you know we're able to shareon a platform it used to be
sync, now it's follow up,awesome Y Lopo.
We're able to share onsomething like Zillow uh, which
I do currently source some uhleads from in.
You know, kind of a bitter, uhbitter, love, hate relationship
I have there.
Um, I mean, my reps arefantastic.
(31:06):
I just hate the fact that theleads are that expensive.
But the ROI is good at thismoment but yeah, so they help
pay into that as well.
And I agree with you you know mytitle.
We are tapping them constantlyto say, you know what can we be
learning from you?
And hey, show up here and trainmy team.
And so in the living room is abig TV flat screen and you know
(31:30):
we regularly will rearrangethose chairs and create sessions
.
I try to have at least oneguest speaker every few weeks
coming from somewhere, whetherit's like Dawn or Stephanie or
someone, or it's one of mylenders.
We have multiple home inspectors.
I've had them come in and teachclasses, even together.
They don't like to teach ontheir own, so they're not used
(31:53):
to doing that, so they'reintimidated, so they teach
together.
But yeah, exactly to your point, courtney, and I'm not just
leveraging them to, like youknow, let's share money on like
a door hanger.
Let's also learn from them andhelp be that direct dial, like
hand-raised person that at anytime my agents to look towards.
(32:15):
But they have a whole villageof people that I've structured
around them.
That know, oh, that's one ofHeather.
You know that's one of theManzi group calling.
Let me quickly take that calland help them.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
So I think that one of the things I really I'm going
to take away from this podcastis your comment around like
exploring opportunities, likeyour willingness to lean into
the event and like learn abouteXp is what I think is
impressive about you because youcould have been I'm KW to the
(32:50):
death, like I love KW and notthat you weren't that, because
you definitely were loyal, butyou were open to learning about
what was out there and on foryou and your family and your
team.
But can you talk a little bitabout, maybe, your clients?
Like what do you think yourclients are receiving over and
(33:12):
above now that you're with eXP.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
It's difficult for me to make the distinction,
because what I can tell you isthat we've always provided a
high level of service that Ihave prided myself on.
So to say that that was justlike a black and white and maybe
I'll just find it in thespeaking.
But basically we have twomottos.
So one is service withexcellence.
This came out or came aboutorganically with me as an
(33:37):
individual realtor years ago.
I treated every client how Iwould want to be treated.
I was an investor since 2008 inproperties I was constantly
buying or even helping otherpeople in other countries or
whatever buy real estate, but Iwas not a realtor.
I did not want that distinctionat the time real estate, but I
was not a realtor.
I did not want that distinctionat the time and my kids were
(33:59):
little, so that wasn't somethingthat I, you know.
I kind of knew that I didn't,wasn't ready to commit those
hours, and so it just came aboutorganically.
People would say you'reabsolutely excellent, you're
excellent, whatever.
So I started signing my emailswith that and then, eventually,
when I got a team, I said you,you're an extension of me.
When I got a team, I said you,you're an extension of me,
you're under my name and myfamily name and I need to make
sure that you guys are embodyingthis motto.
(34:22):
And so I said we're going to,like that's our team motto and
we're going to use that.
And then another one, justagain organically, that came up
through some training within ayear or two so I've had the team
almost eight years now is thatI said we keep the dream alive
until we hand you the key.
And that one is really for meto drill down on the concept
(34:42):
that my individual agents areeach coaches for and dream
keepers for those clients thatthey understand that this is
about you're literally holdingthe dream or goals or financial
future of your clients, becausethis is the biggest single
(35:03):
financial transaction mostpeople will make and they'll
only do it if you literallychange their life.
It can change their life.
And so, financially, we've seenthis for a long time, just as
investors and as individualhomeowners, you know even what
you pay down in a mortgage hasalmost no you know no
competition with what that homedoes in just valuation over time
(35:26):
.
So we understand this and sothose two mottos have been
embodied and we talk about themdaily.
I think if you want a motto towork, it has to be alive, and we
talk about them daily.
I think if you want a motto towork, it has to be alive.
So we're always looking, youknow so, at least once a week,
twice a week, in our rapsessions and whatever we're able
to.
You know, talk about these orit'll come up, and I'm never
(35:48):
going to miss a teaching momentto go, and actually what
so-and-so said is perfectly tothe point of one of our mottos,
and you know, this is actuallywhy we say this.
So I'm really constantly tyingback to it as well, to one or
the other motto in everything wedo.
But I would say one of thethings first of all, every agent
here is so excited about notjust being here and maybe
(36:13):
referring someone across the USto be in an EXP that they
themselves could maybe benefitfrom downline income, but
they're also most of the onesthat I have now are so just
hyper excited, and I've openedup the concept of being a team
lead to, or pod leader to, moreof them, and so I've got maybe,
(36:36):
instead of the four that I hadwhich one is in a different
career now and now I have three.
One of them I turned into mytransaction manager.
So that's two.
So I knew I needed to at leasthave two more, or three or four
more, because I'm in a push to20 and over full-time agents.
And so what I said was you know, hey guys, I'll open up this
(36:57):
opportunity.
So that is massive becausethey're you know they're now
hearing, because of course theygossip in the back office, which
sometimes it's very fruitful,because, you know, I tell my
team mates, if you're gonnagossip, just don't do it on a
down day.
You know, do it when you'reexcited about something.
If, down day, you know, do itwhen you're excited about
something.
If you're going to just be likeup there chatting instead of
working, like let it besomething that is going to
(37:18):
motivate your, your people, um,and so they're, they're very
excited.
I've got, I think, like I said,five or six people that are
very excited about the conceptof becoming a team lead, because
they understand the money.
And one thing I didn't say is,before I joined eXp, I would
give a $1,000 bonus to any of myagents that brought in a
(37:41):
recruit.
And because they would bring inthis recruit, I would say I'll
pay $500 on their six-month ofthe recruit and then the other
$500 at their one year, and sothat basically prevents me from
paying money for someone who isjust going to bounce in and out
of real estate and is not goingto be fit for purpose.
(38:02):
And so instead, now that wehave this downline structure
without me spending any money atall, they have the benefit that
if I decide to assign themunder that team lead, they're
going to get downline every timethat person's in their capping
period.
So it's more money for them anda significant amount more money
(38:26):
and it's sooner, it's morequicker and more reliable and it
is very much exciting thembecause it's recurring every
year.
So it is my goal and it waslast year was to go big or go
home.
So for me, I will push to 20,25 full-time agents, and I know
(38:50):
I've got the back office that wecan do that and we've got the
structure.
I've got a good what I callrecipe that I know that we can
do it.
I feel comfortable that this issomething we can do as an
organization and while we'redoing that, I need people to
want to stay, and one of thebiggest, most heartbreaking
things for me, I think, as ateacher and as a mentor, is to
(39:12):
have someone get to a pointwhere now they're just like
released into the wild.
And I've trained some incredibleagents that are out there, you
know, being agents, but I'mlosing that knowledge power as
an organization and it takesyears, as you guys know, to
create that in another human.
So the fact that they havereally, really solid reasons to
(39:33):
stay because why would abrilliant, highly trained
individual stay, if they havereally really solid reasons to
stay, because why would abrilliant, highly trained
individual stay if they havecapped growth, if they can't
feel like they can move upwardand that they're getting more
accolade and that they'regetting more responsibility, and
so literally becoming thismentor is really huge, because
(39:58):
now they get to feel the sameheartwarming thing that I feel
every time an agent comes to meand goes oh my God, heather,
that thing you told me workedand I've got the signature.
They get to feel that nowbecause they're maybe giving a
tip or doing a little role playor something and it's having a
profound effect.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Wow, yeah, that's amazing.
Here's the thing, heather.
We appreciate you joining usand we look forward to seeing
you in Colorado.
I just want to close by sayingthis If you're an agent out
there, that's on a team.
I don't want to like specify KW, but if you happen to be with
KW, the thing with Heather.
I think that you know youtalked about a lot of things to
(40:41):
just explore other opportunitieshaving that location, the less
liability, the ability forgrowth, all the things.
Also the opportunity for you tohave some ways to come over to
eXp through top deferrals.
There's all kinds of thingsthat are options.
So if you are interested, reachout to Heather or you know
(41:05):
Courtney and myself and we'dlove to see through what those
might be and come to Cabo.
We'll see you in Cabo in just afew weeks.
Oh, not we, us.
If you go to Cabo in a fewweeks, you'll be there without
us.
That's like not that far away.
March, march 11th.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
It's soon.
Yeah, we're booking our flightstoday, so that's….
I want to thank both of you forthe opportunity to, yeah, just
to have this forum, and I'm veryexcited to see you guys again,
and it's just so fun to watchother women in business and
other entrepreneurs who areliterally rocking and just
(41:46):
rocking their world and makingchange happen and, you know,
creating waves in this worldthat we call real estate, and I
just always, you know, for me itwas amazing to meet both of you
because I can tell that you'rejust fully upwardly mobile.
Just, you know, you're outthere moving and shaking and I
just think it's so great thatyou guys have created this and
(42:11):
that I have had the chance toknow you, and I love watching
what you guys are up to, youknow, personally and
professionally, and so this isreally fun for me.
So, thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
We appreciate it and you have a good rest of your day
.
Thanks, Ella.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Thanks guys, Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com