If you are in the real estate industry you have probably heard of the success of the first ever cloud-based brokerage in history eXp Realty in the past few years. It is no secret that eXp is taking the real estate world by storm and making waves like no other brokerage or company has but the question on the minds of most real estate agents is: How does eXp Realty work?
eXp is a lot different than most traditional brokerages and in order to answer the question how does eXp Realty work, we first must understand what eXp Realty is, the different components of the brokerage model, and why so many eXp agents are excited about the company.
In this article, we will explain the eXp business model and answer the question “how does eXp realty work?”.
Table of Contents
The History of eXp Realty
Before we dive into explaining how does eXp Realty work and the business model for real estate agents, let’s first take a look at the history of eXp Realty and how this brokerage was founded.
The Founder of eXp Realty
eXp Realty was founded by former top 50 Keller Williams real estate agent Glenn Sanford in 2009, right around the time of the last great real estate recession. Glenn had recently broke off from KW to open his own brokerage but as revenue was dropping due to slower real estate sales in 2008, he decided to use his corporate tech background to launch the first ever agent-owned cloud brokerage to eliminate brick and mortar offices and the overhead costs that come with them.
The Rise of eXp Realty
Since then eXp has been able to provide their agents with multiple benefits that other traditional real estate brokerages can’t because eXp does not have to pay to maintain physical offices and has used the additional revenue to give back to the agents in the form of additional resources, company stock incentives, revenue share, and collaborative tools.
This helped launch eXp into becoming the fastest growing brokerage in the history of North America and it’s success stories and positive experiences of agents building wealth, making more money, and living a better lifestyle has caught the eye of multiple real estate publications and sources such as real trends.
The Growth of eXp Realty
In 2012, eXp begun an international expansion outside of the United States launching in Canada first then the United Kingdom and Australia, and in 2023, eXp is now in over 20 countries in every continent in the world with operating agents in countries such as Mexico, India, Portugal, South Africa, France, Brazil, New Zealand, Colombia, and more!
With the continued growth and positive eXp realty reviews, more agents in the industry are now wondering what exactly makes eXp unique and just exactly how does eXp Realty work?
What Makes eXp Realty Unique?
To first understand how does eXp Realty work that makes it such a popular brokerage model for agents, a team leader, and even other brokerage owners, it’s important to understand the difference between wealth and income and how wealth is created.
The Wealth Quadrant
Most real estate agents jump into the real estate industry to create wealth and passive income not just create an income. But in order to create wealth we first must realize that there are 4 crucial components to building wealth that most real estate agents at traditional brokerages don’t have.
In order to build wealth you must have these 4 things:
- Multiple Streams of Income
- Duplication
- Equity
- Residual or Passive Income
To learn more about the 4 wealth components click here.
Where most agents at most traditional independent and major brokerages have none of the 4 wealth building components available to them, eXp agents have all 4.
eXp Helps Agents Build Wealth Not Just an Income
How does eXp Realty work that makes it a unique model? The eXp Model is a wealth creation brokerage NOT an income only brokerage.
How does eXp Realty work to help agents build wealth and not just an income? First and foremost eXp Realty is a 3 income stream brokerage, which means right off the bat agents can have access to multiple streams of income.
And as you will learn later in this article, 2 of those income streams are an equity income stream and a duplicatable residual income stream respectively giving eXp agents all 4 components of wealth building.
The 3 Income Streams at eXp Realty
eXp helps agents build wealth by giving agents 3 different income streams to leverage to create wealth and add more than one way to earn an income to their business. Here is the 3 income streams at eXp Realty:
Sales
Just like any other real estate brokerage the first and most important way a licensed real estate agent can earn an income at the brokerage is through real estate commissions from sales. eXp has an extremely competitive sales model that allows agents to keep most of their commission from real estate transactions.
eXp Realty Commission Splits
eXp has an 80/20 commission split and a $16,000 cap that resets annually. Since agents joining eXp are independent contractors, they get to choose how they want to run their real estate business with very little restriction on what type of transaction they can work.
Once you hit your cap you will no longer pay a split on your closings for the remainder of the year, instead you will go on to a $250 transaction fee for every transaction you close for the rest of the year.
There are also no franchise fees or royalty fees because eXp is an independent brokerage and NOT a franchise.
eXp Realty Fees
The fee structure at eXp is very standard.
There is a one time startup fee of $149 that covers your first month at the company. After that the only ongoing fee that you will pay is a $85 monthly cloud-brokerage fee.
There are also some standard transaction fees that you will pay ONLY IF and WHEN you close a transaction that includes a $25 broker review fee and $40 risk management fee that also caps at $500 every year.
How Does eXp Realty Work for Newer Agents?
Newer agents who just received their real estate license are probably wondering how does eXp Realty work for new agents and if they are on the same fee structure as experienced agents.
New agents are on a 60/40 split for their first 3 transactions at the company because they are paying a small mentor fee to work with a local mentor to help guide them on their first few deals. New agents will get to work directly with one of the certified eXp Realty mentors so that they can succeed right away.
Other than that, new agents are on the same fee structure and cap as any other agent. eXp does not give more experienced agents higher commission splits than new agents.
Equity
The second way that eXp agents earn an income is through the stock award program provided by eXp to their agents.
How does eXp realty work that they can actually give agents ownership in the company?
eXp Realty is a subsidiary company of eXp World Holdings a publicly-traded company on the nasdaq stock exchange ( stock ticker expi ) with corporate headquarters in Washington state. As agents of eXp Realty, you will be eligible to earn shares of expi stock just by simply completing sales or recruiting agents and building a real estate team at eXp Realty.
eXp World holdings is also the holding company of other real estate and technology related companies such as showcase IDX, virbela, Success Magazine, and Success Lending.
Equity Awards Program
Agents at eXp are able to earn stock AWARDS not stock OPTIONS.
Agents can earn shares of expi stock worth $200 by closing their very first transaction of the year at eXp EVERY year they are at the company. They are also able to earn a $400 stock award every year that they sell enough real estate to hit their $16,000 cap at the company.
eXp agents are also incentivized to recruit other producing agents to eXp Realty and anytime that a new recruit sells their first house at eXp, you as their direct sponsors will receive a $400 expi stock award.
ICON Agent Award
The icon agent award is reserved for top producing agents at eXp Realty who are selling an additional 20 houses AFTER hitting their cap in a one year window OR generating at least $500,000 in GCI in a one year window.
The icon award rewards the ICON agent with a stock award equivalent to the agent’s cap of $16,000 meaning that an ICON agent earns a $16,000 stock award every year they can meet one of the metrics mentioned above.
The ICON award is great for 3 types of agents at eXp.
- The ICON Agent
- Team Leaders
- New Agents
The ICON agent themselves are benefiting by earning their entire cap back in the form of eXp stock shares. Team leaders are able to use this incentive program to attract top producing team members and RETAIN them. And lastly the new real estate agent is benefiting because all of the training at eXp is conducted by the ICON agent if they wish to receive all of their $16,000 in stock!
Agent Equity Commission Program
Agents at eXp can also CHOOSE to receive 5% of their commission on their closings as expi stock at a 10% discount allowing agents to build up a nest egg of assets through their career and earn instant 10% equity in all of the stock that they receive through the program.
You can choose to turn this on or off at any point as an eXp Agent.
Revenue Share
The third stream of income at eXp is the revenue share model. This is eXp’s way of rewarding agents for attracting or recruiting new agents to the company.
eXp Revenue share is a 7 tier growth model built off of and enhanced from the Keller Williams 7 tier profit share model. Instead of sharing profit off the bottom AFTER expenses have been taken out, eXp shares revenue BEFORE expenses are calculated back to the agents for growing the company.
Sp how does eXp Realty work when it comes to revenue share and recruiting agents to the company? An eXp agent can simply “sponsor” another non-eXp agent to join eXp. When the new agent starts to close transactions at eXp, the sponsoring agent receives a percentage of the COMPANY REVENUE from the sales generated by the agents that they have sponsored until they have capped at the company.
It’s important to know that eXp pays the revenue share back to the sponsoring agents out of the 20% that the company receives in splits NOT the agent closing the transaction. So this means that all agents will receive their full 80% before they have fully capped at eXp each year.
How Revenue Share Works
In order to start receiving revenue share as eXp Realty agents you must start attracting agents to the company.
When you attract an agent to eXp you become their sponsor and whenever that agent closes a transaction you will receive 3.5% of the Gross Commission that they generated from their closing.
For example:
If you sponsor an agent and they close a deal that generated $10,000 in GCI, you will receive 3.5% or $350 paid to you as a revenue share by eXp Realty. Here is how the commission would break down for everyone:
- The Agent Closing the Transaction receives 80% or $8,000
- eXp Receives 20% or $2,000
- You (the Sponsor) receives the $350 paid to you out of eXp’s $2,000
If the agent you sponsored closes another transaction the same size you will receive another $350, if they close a transaction generating $20,000 GCI then you will receive $700 as their sponsor. You will continue to receive revenue share from the agents that you have sponsored until the agent has hit their $16,000 cap for the year because when they cap they will no longer be paying a split to the company.
How Revenue Share is Duplicatable
The best part about the revenue share model at eXp is that it is a 7 tier growth model. This means that if the agents that you have personally recruited to eXp starts to recruit agents of their own, those agents will fall on your tier 2 of revenue share and you will be able to earn revenue share when they start closing deals as well!
This will continue to duplicate for 7 tiers deep, meaning if your tier 2 agents sponsors agents they will fall on your tier 3, if they sponsor agents they will go on your tier 4, so on and so forth until tier 7.
Another great aspect of revenue share is that there is no red tape. Agents can begin to recruit or attract agents to eXp the moment they join the company with no hesitation and there is no minimum years of experience required for any agent to begin recruiting other agents.
This is an extremely powerful residual income model that many agents at eXp have taken advantage of and continues to take advantage of to build an income stream that can give them both time and money freedom.
eXp Agent Healthcare
An added benefit of eXp Realty is that agents at the company have access to healthcare options and health insurance plans that other real estate brokerages do not provide.
Real estate agents and real estate professionals are all independent contractors so we are all responsible for our own health insurance plans. At eXp, agents can get to choose from a variety of plans based on your individual needs.
Some agents at eXp see it as a 4th income stream simply based on how much money they are able to save every month by switching from their current “open-market” provider to eXp Healthcare.
eXp World – How Does eXp Realty Work With No Offices?
So how does eXp Realty work with no brick and mortar locations, no physical offices, no physical location, and being a completely 100% cloud-based model?
eXp is able to provide their agents with a great support system, resources, training, income streams, and more because eXp does not carry heavy overhead expenses. eXp is completely cloud based and agents get to interact with each other, their brokers, and do everything they could at a physical office inside of eXp’s virtual world or virtual campus, eXp World.
eXp World is a 100% cloud based virtual office system that agents can use to navigate around a multi department campus and interact directly with staff members, other agents, brokers, and admin support.
Inside of eXp World, agents are represented by an “avatar” of themselves that they can freely navigate around different departments to speak to the support staff member that they need help from. There are currently over 2000 paid employees working inside of eXp World that agents have unlimited access to at any time in any time zones.
This tool is 100% proprietary to eXp in the real estate space and no other major brokerages even has a tool that can remotely compete with this technology when it comes to remote work.
Admin Support
Inside of eXp World agents can access and interact with admin support staff fro front desk employees to a full tech support team to accounting and legal specialists any time during the day and night.
Agents can simply pop into the respective department they have an issue in and get INSTANT support from a real life employee in less than 10 minutes just like they would at a local brick and mortar office or store front WITHOUT the drive time, stress, and hassle of going down to a location.
This means that agents can get support from eXp from the comfort of their own home or on the go anywhere where there is access to internet even during showings, listing appointments, or even traveling during vacations!
eXp University Training
Agents are also trained inside of eXp World. eXp University offers new and experienced agents over 80 hours of live training conducted by the ICON agents (see above) every single week inside of eXp World through our many virtual learning auditoriums.
Agents will be able to interact with their trainers and coaches during these live training sessions and be able to see the speaker and their shared screens throughout the class or workshop just like they would be able to at a live training event or on Zoom.
Broker and Legal Support
When agents hear that eXp is a cloud brokerage they often wonder how does eXp Realty work when it comes to getting legal support and broker support.
Agents at eXp are able to get immediate support and access to their state managing broker if they have any legal, contract, state specific, or transaction questions inside of their state broker office just like they would be able to at a physical office.
At eXp, state managing brokers are salaried employees of the company, this means that it is the job of the broker to be in their office to answer any questions that agents in their state have regarding contracts, legal issues, or any changes in regulations.
You may also ask the broker to help you review your contracts at any point an be able to speak directly with a licensed broker in your state instantly without having to set appointments or go down to an office!
This is actually one of the many reasons why entire real estate brokerages are moving their business over to eXp because they are now able to 100% outsource their entire legal system to eXp instead of reviewing agent contracts themselves.
eXp Enterprise
Aside from eXp World, agents at eXp also get access to a proprietary back office business tracking system called eXp Enterprise with access to a suite of tools that can help you track your sales data and more available to the agents all included as a part of their $85 monthly fee.
Skyslope
Many agents are probably wondering how does eXp realty work when it comes to closing transactions.
Simple.
eXp uses a digital transaction management system called skyslope to process all of the agents’ transactions and processes the transaction to send any and all contracts to your respective state broker to review and sign.
All documents are simply uploaded into the skyslope system for a transaction and signed digitally through an e-signature platform for ease of use.
KVCore
Agents at eXp also get access to KVCore, a CRM, real estate website, follow-up system, and lead generation tool all wrapped into one.
KVCore is one of the leading digital platforms for online lead generation and on the open market costs around $500 a month. But at eXp it is included as a part of your $85 monthly fee.
Agents can use KVCore to not only generate their own leads through offering automatic free home valuation estimates, but can also use KVCore to automatically follow up with their entire database of leads!
It is a game changer in a lot of eXp agents’ businesses and is actually one of the common reasons why agents join eXp in the first place.
Morgan Stanley (Shareworks)
Another unique aspect of the eXp business model is that agents are able to receive stock awards from the company and actually track them through a “shareworks” portal through Morgan Stanley.
Inside you will be able to track your eXp stock awards, see how they are doing, and even decide to sell them or cash out!
eXp Marketing Center
The marketing center at eXp is an all in one central location for agents to design marketing materials that they can use for their own businesses by creating designs from templates. Inside the marketing center agents will be able to create designs for their business cards, social media, brochures, listing presentations, listing signs, and more.
Agents can also upload information directly from a MLS listing to the marketing center to create a marketing piece for a specific property instantly.
eXp Workplace
How does eXp realty work when it comes to trading referrals and connecting with other agents at the company?
eXp is partnered with a platform called Workplace which was created by Facebook as an internal use platform for large companies that is 100% work related and has no distractions such as paid ads, videos, and news.
On workplace agents can trade referrals back and forth with each other, find information and files needed for their business, and investor agents can even look for properties to make cash offers on!
Workplace is an over 87,000 agent collaboration platform that eXp agents can use to network, get new deals, and find more resources!
BONUS – Pick The RIGHT Sponsor for MORE VALUE
If you want t truly understand how does eXp Realty work and why some agents at the company are more successful than others then you need to understand that picking the right SPONSOR is the most important decision you need to make before you join the company.
Choosing a Sponsor
So how does eXp Realty work when it comes to choosing a sponsor?
eXp’s revenue share model allows agents to sponsor other agents to the company (see above), and many agents at eXp are excited about the opportunity to build a real estate team by sponsoring agents 7 tiers below them but what many agents miss is the added benefit of having 7 sponsors above them.
Your sponsors are going to be the difference maker in your success at eXp Realty. When you join eXp, you will get access to additional resources and support from the sponsor that you picked to join with.
In order to join eXp you MUST choose a sponsor, so be sure to interview with different eXp agents to find out who has the best value proposition for you.
Additional Training and Resources
When you join eXp, you will instantly get access to all of the resources available to all eXp agents. You will also get access to any additional trainings and resources that your sponsors provide you ABOVE AND BEYOND the resources available at eXp that are EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE to agents sponsored under them.
This is extremely beneficial for agents because depending on the area that you want to specialize in, you will get training on topics that eXp does NOT cover in eXp University such as new agent masterminds, real estate investing training, social media training, and leadership training for team builders.
By joining OUR GROUP the Lion League at eXp Realty you will get access to 8 additional training academies EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE to the agents sponsored under us and you will get to use these tools to attract agents to your own team. These 8 private training academies include:
- Agent Recruiting Academy
- YouTube Mastery Academy
- House Flipping Academy
- New Agent Fast Start Academy
- Real Estate Investing Fundamentals Academy
- Deal Funding and Financing Academy
- Entrepreneur Operating System Academy
- Social Media Content Accelerator Academy
Weekly LIVE Coaching and Masterminds
On top of private training academies and courses, you should also be looking for LIVE interactions with your sponsors throughout the week such as weekly group coaching calls on Zoom, weekly agent masterminds, and more!
If you are ever wondering how does eXp Realty work when it comes to interacting with your sponsor and how available they are, then you need to find out how many times you will get to interact with them on a live call each week.
By joining OUR GROUP the Lion League at eXp Realty you will get access to 4 Live Weekly Coaching Calls EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE to the agents sponsored under us and you will get to use these tools to attract agents to your own team. These include:
- Monday: Agent Attraction Coaching – 10AM CST
- Tuesday: New Agent/Production Coaching – 8PM CST
- Wednesday: Investing/Sales Mastermind – 10AM CST
- Friday: Top Agent Interviews – 9AM CST
Agent Attraction and Revenue Share Plug and Play Systems
Many agents ask the question: How does eXp Realty work when it comes to learning how to attract agents and “become a sponsor” yourself?
Any agent at eXp can begin to sponsor agents to the company and build their revenue share team from DAY 1 of joining eXp Realty. But that does NOT mean you will have success day 1.
Plenty of agents try to sponsor agents and build revenue share but fail, while some are wildly successful. This is because your SPONSORS are going to be your main source of agent attraction training, coaching, and guidance because they are DIRECTLY INCENTIVIZED to help you recruit producing agents to your team!
If one of your goals at eXp is to build revenue share then you NEED to find a sponsor that can help you by providing the proper training, coaching, and most importantly SYSTEM to be able to attract agents DAY 1.
By joining OUR GROUP the Lion League at eXp Realty you will get access to a FULL agent attraction PLUG AND PLAY SYSTEM EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE to the agents sponsored under us and you will get to use these tools to attract agents to your own team. This system includes:
- LIVE eXp Explained Webinars WEEKLY
- PRIVATE Closing Calls and Recruiting Presentations
- 4 Call Agent Attraction Sequence to recruit on DAY 1
- FREE Access to All In-Person and Virtual Events Hosted by Member of Upline
Join eXp Realty Today!
So now that you have the FULL detailed answer to the question “just how does eXp Realty work?” you can make an educated decision as to whether or not you wish to take advantage of this opportunity to change your business for the better and see if exp is a good fit for you!
eXp is taking off, so don’t wait until next year to start building WEALTH in real estate with your real estate license! Join eXp today, the best place to create a lifestyle you never need a vacation from!
Learn More About eXp Realty & Our Free Partnership Team!
If you are interested in joining the best brokerage for agent growth, compensation, and opportunity in the world, be sure to partner with the best sponsorship team in the world as well! We provide additional training, tools, coaching, partners, collaboration, masterminds, and resources for your success!
We believe in massive growth and financial freedom for all real estate agents! Live your dream real estate lifestyle with us.
For more eXp Realty details, check out our comprehensive About eXp Realty – Everything You Need to Know article.