How To Gain Passive Wealth Using A Better CRE Brokerage Model And What Makes It Different with Matt Stewart
“We don't like to, you know, rock the boat, if you will you hear all these sayings, right? I don't want to rock the boat. If it's not broken, don't fix it, you know, if it's working, don't change all that stuff. And what I'm realizing as I'm getting older now is that's not necessarily true. Actually, if you really want the ones that are really achievers and are making huge impacts in people's lives. They're the ones that are stretching themselves and getting uncomfortable and not, you know, not just staying comfortable.” Matthew Stewart Real Estate has excelled in the Greater Sacramento Real Estate marketplace from the early age of 19, and has the distinguished level of "Broker." Matthew Stewart is consistently a Masters Club volume level producer and in the top 5% of Realtors in the greater Sacramento marketplace. Matthew joined Realty World American River Properties in 2016, and became the #1 agent in 2018. After achieving his Brokers license in 2019, Matthew was recruited to bring his talents to eXp Realty. Nearing two decades of valuable experience and multiple hundreds of homes SOLD success, Matthew and his team focus on being the most professional and productive real estate offering in the area. Being ahead of the game with creative targeted marketing that helps his customers sell their homes faster and for more $$ than the average real estate agent in the board of realtors is one of Matthew's driving forces. He was the top recruiter for the #1 office of Keller Williams in the country. Matthew was the #1 real estate agent for Avalar - Greater Sacramento. He achieved the level of GRI - Graduate of Realty Institute - less than 12% of agents in the nation and in 2017 became accredited with National Association of Expert Advisors (NAEA). Matthew is consistently a top Realtor for sales in South Placer County.
Watch the episode here:
Listen to the podcast here:
How To Gain Passive Wealth Using A Better CRE Brokerage Model And What Makes It Different with Matt Stewart
Brett:
So in this episode, I'm excited. I've just started a brand new strategic alliance, and so excited to announce it here live on Facebook. And the last part of our vision is passive income plans achievable. So this particular episode is going to be focused on the realtor and not just the residential realtor but also the commercial realtor, okay, and those who have sold real estate and are professionals and are looking for a maybe a new model, a new way to do things I'm so excited to bring on my now new strategic partner, as our commercial real estate arm of our business has now joined the eXp. And with that, Matthew Stewart comes with 20 plus years of real estate experience. We have a background of over 10 years of playing basketball together here locally, he was the golf coach at William Jessup University, and where I had a chance to play basketball and so we have a long standing friendship. And there's just so much to share. So I'm gonna dive right in with Matt. Hey, Matt, how you doing today?
Matt:
I am blessed. I so Brett, is this the big reveal for you? Did I hear that? Right?
Brett:
I guess it is. You know, I haven't really announced that I guess officially but yeah, I would say this is kind of the official announcement for everybody.
Matt:
Wow, honored.
Brett:
I've told some friends and stuff. But yet the main focus is capital gains tax solutions, right and offered a deferred sales trust and talking about those things. But along the lines, I also do help clients, friends and family sell real estate, mainly multi family here in Sacramento. And so now with this strategic alliance, it just kind of really fits based upon the culture and the leadership and the team that we have in place here in Sacramento. I mean, we literally know one of the biggest reasons was Tom Daves one of the top realtors in Keller Williams history is a part of the bigger team and then Brent Grove and then a don Yocum. And then of course, you Matt as a part of kind of the inner circle, if you will. But before we get into all of that, how about we just start with your story, Matt, give us a little bit. There's a little bit about your story, and then your current focus.
Matt:
Man, I tell you mentioned those names. I feel like I'm walking in the tall cotton man that I mean, jeez, Tom Dave's closed over 7000 transactions, right? number one in the world, kW seven times. So it's pretty amazing. But no, I? Yeah, so a little background on me. So my parents have both been brokers for 47 years. So I grew up in the business, I'm 44 and a half. And so, you know, people say, oh, gosh, it's in the blood. It's all I've known. That's true. I mean, they were doing it before I was born. And at a high level. My mom was the number one realtor in all of Placer County in the late 80s, early 90s. So I got to see someone perform at a very high level. And the longer I'm in the business now or you know, 20 years, I'm more and more blown away at what she was able to accomplish. She you know, she was closing escrow on over two deals a week, every week. In fact, I think, I think her best year she did about 119 120 deals. And nowadays you hear that right? You hear like and nothing to take away from like the Tom Dave's team or Brent Gove team, that they're phenomenal. But they have a team, right and so all the agents deals get credited to that one agent name. Whereas my mom doing 118 120 deals It was her and a part time assistant, and my dad who would go put up signs and take them down and do some termite work needed to get a deal closed and, you know, kind of look over some of her paperwork if she got in a bind on some of these deals, because you know, they're both brokers and just the support role of keeping her You know, turn in, turn into burning, if you will, and I mean, it's just blows me away because there was no DocuSign there was no smartphones, there was no email, fax machine was like the big thing. I mean, they paid 1000s of dollars for a fax machine. And, you know, and it was, hey, press hard, there's three copies. And if you're still awake, you know, they countered your counter, I can swing over the house tonight and, you know, get her done for you. And it's just a different world today, you know? So, that's what I grew up under was this work ethic that was just amazing. I passed my diari Real Estate exam at 19. And then a month later turned 20 and got started my business with Coldwell Banker, which my parents owned a Coldwell Banker franchise. And then I realized that it was quite a large shadow that my mom cast because whenever I would go and talk to potential clients, they would say, yeah, we're thinking of selling. I said, great, you know, I'll give you a call and sell Yeah, no problem. We'll just call your mom's fine. They all thought we worked together. And so I realized I needed to get out from underneath her shadow. So I went down to Roseville and joined the Coldwell Banker there. And then I was there for just under five years and was recruited by Don Yoakum, who you mentioned, who was the team leader of an upstart company called Keller Williams. And that was really the first company and this was back in 2000. Really cutting edge Actually, it was a disruptor in the real estate marketplace at that time, because they were the first company that had a cap that was kind of unheard of at the time. And then they have this thing called profit sharing where you could actually have an exit strategy that actually did not pan out to really produce the numbers that they had touted. But anyway, I was in left Coldwell Banker went to Keller Williams was there 10 years and and then you kind of fast forward and left the industry for about four years built a network marketing business that took me all over the nation and then over to Africa, South Africa and, and Nigeria and built, you know, teams in Nigeria alone over 1000 individuals and then I came back to real estate in 2016 got my broker's license and, and not too long ago joined eXp, once I really sat down with my business hat on and really studied the model and kind of had my eyes opened and went, Oh, Oh, I see. That's why someone like a tom Dave's who's, you know, the top of the mountain that Keller Williams, the number one brokerage by agent count in the world would leave all that and partial ownership and offices and come over to a little upstart eXp. And yeah, so when I really put my business hat on and saw Brett, I think you kind of had a similar experience, because I had heard about it and seen it and kind of poo pooed it a little bit before. And that's when I had my aha moment and realized, wow, for me, I say this for me. I'd kind of be foolish not to make the move, even though it'd be uncomfortable. You know, moving sucks, you know, is this rated PG? I can say that right? Moving sucks on this show? Yeah. Nobody likes to move, right. So I realized I said, Look, there is no growth in your comfort zone. Everybody, human nature wants to stay comfortable. But the reality is we don't grow unless we get uncomfortable, kind of like a snake shedding its skin to be able to grow. So I said, Well, I'm gonna make the move over to eXp, and believe it's real. Now it was, it was easier for me to believe it was real, because I had some real Titans in the industry that were absolutely killing it at the eXp in passive income. I mean, killing it to, you know, five figures a month to then six figures a month and going by you don't need to question whether it's real or not.
Brett:
Right. So absolutely. What a story, one introduction. I want to dig into a little bit more about that here. And some of the models explained we're going to go through that here in a bit. But I'm curious want to back up a little bit and just kind of focus on you mentioned growing up in a real estate, family, entrepreneur, family, business family. It's kind of always been in the blood, right? It's Yeah, amazing. You said your mom 118 deals, you know, by herself by herself, right? With all of this, it's really mind blowing to think about that. It's the one opportunity. But beyond that, I believe we've all been given certain gifts, Matt, right. And I think their God given gifts. And these gifts are given to us to be a blessing to help other people write and to serve other people and to serve our family, of course. So I'm curious, what is that one gift mat that you've been given? That you believe you know, you're given and how does it help how you serve and help people today when it comes to real estate?
Matt:
That's a great question. And when you say when you serve people in real estate, I'll Break That down into two sections because I think there's the client, the real estate client, right buyers and sellers and things of that nature. But now with the eXp in my share I have also basically built a brokerage with any eXp that's spanning nationally and now internationally on attracting agents. So I look at them as my client or customer as well, right? Like you came on board in my organization. And so I want to support you, and do what I can to have you be a success and, and, you know, the faster and we can get you a success, and the bigger the success, the greater the story. And it just makes it easier to inspire others that, you know, because the story is really, really sell. You know, and I don't look at sales as a bad thing. I think life is sales. And so rather than facts, if you can create stories of success and others, along those lines of you help another enough, other people get what they want, you'll get what you want, right? So that really is something that I believe in with the eXp and fires me up on the agent attraction side of things. I think, one of my gifts I know you mentioned one, I think we've been blessed with multiple things. Sometimes we just need to kind of ferret them out and dig them out. I think I'm an evangelist, I don't know I tend to believe pretty quick. And I believe in big things. And I kind of go all in which can be a detriment at times if you don't use wisdom and discernment. But you know, as I'm older now and have skin my knees a bunch of times on different things where I've jumped all in and you know, wasn't as successful. I've gained I believe in some wisdom and discernment, be a little more tempered, in my advantage realistic endeavors, if you will, but I would say that would be one would be an evangelist, that belief and then perseverance. I'm just super perseverance relentless. This is another one and fearless. I have no problem talking to anyone. And I believe we're all made, you know, in God's image. So you know, we all put our pants on one leg at a time. In regards to buyers and sellers. Um, I love working with both, they both come with different advantages. I tend to be more if you understand the disc testing and so on, you know, disc I'm a very high D. And hi I so I love people. I think people are just amazing. We're such a mixed bag of all sorts of things. And so it's fun to just really learn about people. But I would say the aspect of serving people and being a problem solver on the buyer and seller side I love to negotiate. You know, I love to get to the bottom line and you know, time is money and so if one area that I can improve, I would say analyzing myself would be the warm fuzzies and the empathy and so on which the Lord blessed me with an amazingly empathetic wife and so I get to learn from her every day on how I can improve my small empathy muscle and but we complement each other really well.
Brett:
So that's awesome that I have the perseverance and the negotiation but also the gift of evangelism, the ability to inspire people and get people excited about new ideas, new opportunities, right which leads us now into what we're talking about the model explained on for the for eight for eXp. So for the realtor who's listening right you know, walk through a little bit about what eXp is and how it's different. And and just the the model start explaining a little bit about about about how how it's kind of like, you know, the new Netflix versus perhaps the old blockbuster,
Matt:
Sure, right. Or the new Uber versus taxis or Airbnb versus hotels. Yeah, I mean, I think what we've realized is there's always disruptors in the marketplace and disruptors if you can see the vision and early doesn't have to be right at the beginning actually but you know earlier on the better and embrace it people tend to do very well. I will say before I kind of start breaking down the model that if a realtor is curious they really should go to the model. the past tense explained calm the model explained calm and really watch it I tell people don't watch it during the day. Don't try to squeeze it in during the day you'll get disrupted you'll have text messages and notifications and phone calls and kids and dogs and husband wives and all this stuff. Right and you'll miss it. So I tell people to watch it. You know at the end of the evening kids are down, get a glass of wine, get a notepad or maybe early in the morning, you know, a cup of coffee or tea before your day gets going and really study the model. Don't look at it on whether you would come to eXp or Leave your current company or you love your broker or your agents. And I mean, I hear this all the time. The reality is the agent friends you have in the brokers, they don't pay your bills, they don't set you up for retirement or anything of that. So that's why I say put your business hat on, put your emotional hat aside, really study the model. That was probably the best advice that people gave me was, don't look at making a move or whatever, just really study the model and be curious about the model. So with that being said, there were a couple things that really stood out to me. I joined Keller Williams as an example, one of the main attractions was profit sharing. And that was an exit strategy. That's how it was presented to me over time, you'll close transactions with realtors, Matt, you don't have to be a recruiter. Stay a realtor. But as you're doing deals, you're going to find those realtors that you really like they're professionals, they're problem solvers. They, you know, working together with them, you kept the deal together and got the clients to the finish line. And those are the type of realtors that we'd like over at Keller Williams, this was you know, back in 2000 through 2010. And if you can just pique their interest on those that you like, and I will tell you not all realtors out there, I invited because I just didn't like doing a deal with them. But I would pique interest and then invite them to learn more from Don Yocum, who was my team leader at the time. And so I told my realtors now I said, Look, guys, don't be a recruiter. I mean, that's not your skill set. Really, you know, you're a realtor, you're really good at it. stay in your lane of real estate, closure 10 2030 4050 100 transactions, that's a lot of connections with other realtors on the other end, those that you like pique interest. And if they have some interest, then give them the model explained calmly and then set them up for a follow up call with me. Or Mr. Yocum or Mr. Dave's and so on. And let us share what we saw. So I'll share some of the things that I saw with Keller Williams my best year and I was recruiter of the year and the nut what ended up becoming the number one office in the world Brett for Keller Williams, that was the Roseville office. My best year profit sharing was $19,700. Now that was in the top 5% of realtors in the nation, believe it or not, that was not retirement money. I mean, it was nice, I take an extra 20 grand, but I'm not going to retire on that. Right? So I realized something was broken: the model, their model was a little broken. When I came across and saw eXp, and I saw the tweak that they did, they took the model of Keller Williams, and instead of doing profit sharing, which is after all the bills are paid, if there's some profit leftover, we'll share some. And that's why I talked to agents now. And some Keller Williams agents, offices are not making profit. And these agents have been there three years, maybe brought 10 agents to the company and helped the owner of the office. But I say, Well, what do you get in profit share? And they go oh, yeah, no, I don't I haven't gotten any profit share yet. I said, Really? They go? Yeah, our office isn't profitable yet. Right? I go, Wow. So keep in mind, if I would have moved my organization that I had built by closing transactions at Keller Williams that paid me just under 20 grand, and moved it over to eXp, no change, okay. They pay revenue share, which is off the top. Okay. And they can do that, because it's a cloud based model. We're not stuck with brick and mortar, you know, overhead and the copier, and the coffee contract and the electricity and all that. And so they share back 50% up to 50% of what they bring in revenue wise. So if I would have brought that model that group over, I would have made between two to 300,000 a year. Now, I can't make income claims. You know, this is just my own analysis. So you need to run your own numbers. And we can walk you through whoever's listening to this. So that was just something that in my own figures, I figured, wow, I probably would make between two and 300,000 a year passive income versus 20,000. So to me it paid from what I saw 1010 times more. So that was a big thing. I went Wow, this truly is an exit strategy.
Brett:
So let me jump on there. And so yeah, the business hat right. So same time and energy, right. Same business selling real estate. Yeah. Already recruiting for Keller Williams, your top 5% for their recruiting and you're looking at 19,000 a year and just applying that just shifting from Keller Williams right to eXp. Yeah. And based upon their revenue sharing, which is, you know, different from profit sharing after all the bills are paid, big difference, two to $300,000. So 10 X, at least on that amount. And then you mentioned something to that. It's recurring, right. I don't know if if you know Keller Williams I guess Miss Smith may have been recurring too, but let's just take that apart. But this is something where it's just a mathematical equation. So if I have my business hat on it, whether it's, I'm going with Wells Fargo, or B of A if B of A's, you know, paying me a half of a percent right from my savings, or I can come over here and get my say 12%, right. 10% on my savings. Hmm, it's pretty straightforward. Okay, so the math makes sense. Absolutely. What's number two?
Matt:
Um, number two would be that it's agent owned. Okay. And that was really unique because I actually had the privilege, if you will, of the opportunity to become an owner of about three Keller Williams offices, I was a very minority owner, one 2%. I had to buy into it. If I remember, right, it was about 20,000 bucks per percent. Terrible investment. Although I thought it was great at the time. But I look back now I barely got my money back after 10 years. And if you factor in inflation, I lost big, you know, I lost a lot. So it was a terrible investment, when I saw ESP and that it had been approved and is traded on NASDAQ, where they're, you know, audited every 90 to 120 days, every company on NASDAQ and just this legitimacy, I went, Wow, that's a different deal. Very different, right. In fact, I haven't looked at the stock today, I was on a zoom webinar with a Keller Williams team, believe it or not out of Texas. And Mr. Yocum was there with me. And he said we were trading around 18 $18. Now, what's significant about that is when I joined the company, just seven, eight months ago, it was trading at about $8 a share. Okay, so it's more than doubled in just seven, eight months since I've been here. And there's five different ways that you can earn as a realtor with the eXp that you can earn shares with the eXp, I'll go over that real quick. So when you join eXp, and you close your first transaction, your first sale, and that's every year after your anniversary date, you will get I think it's $200 worth of eXp stock. When you cap with the eXp, which right now the cap is 16,000. Okay, when you cap in our marketplace, average sale about 450 500,000, you're going to cap between seven eight transactions, then they'll give you I believe it's $400 worth of eXp stock. If you were to attract another agent that names you as their sponsor, and they close their first deal. They're going to get their $200 for their first deal and stock. But then also you being the person that brought them over to eXp as their sponsor, you're going to get $200 worth of stock as well. The fourth way for those that are, you know, upper end producers that are what we call icon agents, which is pretty revolutionary in the marketplace. That is you cap whatever it is in our market, it's eight transactions, let's say you do an additional 20 deals after you cap. So for us that's 28 deals somewhere like these agents in Texas, it was 250,000 average transactions, you know, they're taking a little more to cap, maybe 12 deals, right, and then another 20. So they're looking at around 32 deals. But when you reach that you become an icon. And what's really neat is changing the industry is eXp gives you back, you're $16,000 of cap money in company preferred stock. Okay, 16,000 back in preferred stock. So that's the fourth way. The fifth way is that we kind of call it a Kwazii retirement plan. You can sign up voluntarily and have them take 5% out of your commissions. And they will use that 5% of your commissions to purchase stock at a 10% discount. Kind of like a little quasi 401k plan if you will, for now, the neat thing about all this spread is it's something that you're not changing anything. As a realtor. You're going to sell homes that Coldwell Banker or better homes or you know, Southern B's whatever it is, right? You come over to the eXp you're going to sell homes because we're a real estate company, okay? And nobody, by the way, makes any revenue share if there aren't any homes sold. Because we're a real estate company. That's where the revenue comes from. But what's neat is you can earn stock and ownership and eXp and a sizable amount by the way, by simply doing what you're already doing, but doing it at eXp versus at Keller Williams or Coldwell Banker century 21 or REMAX or whatever.
Brett:
I make sure I got it right. And so there's the second part of this is the actual stock and ownership of the company. Right and how those things align. Right. Yeah. And if if it sounds like you were building Keller Williams dream and retirement right for all those years, right, yeah, by closing those deals and they had, they're making that, you know, they're getting the profits, they're investing wherever they're investing, where's the eXp, the revenue sharing, and now also the stock at a discount and all of the other tiers as you as you perform and grow your team becomes very lucrative. Is that a fair summary? Absolutely.
Matt:
Yeah, we have a gal and organization, she became an icon. Um, she's an icon every year, but I ran into her in December of last year. And she goes, Hey, you know, I got that Icon Award stock, when I con last year, got my 16,000. And do you know how much it's worth today? And I said, Man, I don't know she goes over 40,000 bucks. Now, this was in December Brett of last year, back around when it was $8 a share. It's $18 a share now. So I haven't done the math. But you know, it's more than doubled. So I think she told me was 42 in December 42,000. So she's probably pushing $90,000 worth of stock for something she was already doing. She was an icon agent, if you will, at her old company. She brings those 3040 transactions over here. She's an icon here now. And now she's growing her wealth in multiple streams, both in stock ownership. And she's obviously attracted some agents as well. Because they go, Hey, why'd you move? You know, that's what realtors don't get. They go, Hey, I don't want to recruit. I go, Hey, don't recruit. You know what'll happen. Do they organically start bringing people over? Because people go, Hey, Brett, you left, he left your previous company, like, you know, and you're a big deal. They're like, what, why'd you move? And that's an easy conversation. Right?
Brett:
Yeah, it's a business decision. Right? And you look at it. And but even beyond that, like, for my answer to answer your question, Matt, those two things were fine. Or and those things made sense business wise. But for me, I wanted the team, right. I want the leadership, I want the training and it actually was you and done Yocum. And Ty had actually met with Tom Dave's, I did a presentation for him and his team about seven months ago. And put all of that together, it was the leadership right? It was the team and it was the camaraderie and and then the training, right. I was like, I was skeptical as I was going, you know, Matt, like five years ago, I was approached and I this whole like he feels a little bit like MLM, you know, I'm just a real estate person, you know? And, and then but once I've gone away, these are top performers. These are all real estate people, right? And they're still doing what they're doing. And there's no press to like to have to recruit people, right? You don't, you just keep doing what you're doing. You never forget one person ever. Right? Yeah. But if you just think about it, and just look at the math, and you go Netflix versus the blockbuster, right, Aaron, Airbnb versus the old hotel model. And then of course, Uber and the taxis. There are better ways to do it, and to take all that profit and then be able to give it back to the people. Right? So it's kind of like Robin Hood, right? Yeah, like, it's like, you know, taking from the rich to give to the poor. Because a lot of realtors, let's face it, they want to invest in commercial real estate, they want passive income, right? They want to be able to use that. But sometimes they get stuck in just the commission rat race. And they're not necessarily focused on creating these passive income streams. That's why I'm a big proponent of investing in multifamily properties, mobile home parks, senior housing, because you don't only get the depreciation, but you get the cash flow. And you can partner with other people. And they can run a lot of that. So essentially, the way I look at the eXp model is you're partnering with eXp, and if you recruit if you train, and you're gonna get paid for that, and if you sell deals, you're gonna get stock in that. And so they're really becoming a true partner, not just someone you're working for. Is that a fair summary, Matt?
Matt:
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, what's amazing, there's things that I have gained from eXp that I never would have guessed when I was analyzing it. And first coming over, and I'll just share one of them is love sharing it with my wife this morning. I said, you know, babe, my referral business has, it's the strongest it's ever been in 20 years of real estate. Not even close. I mean, it's not even real. And the reason for that is the camaraderie and the connection, the culture, the collaboration. That was great at Keller Williams when I was there, I have nothing negative to say. I mean, it was, you know, I used to joke Oh, you drank the Kool Aid. You're over at Keller Williams. Yeah, to a degree. And now we're starting to hear that with the eXp and I go, oh, man, that's great to hear. Because that means we have a serious culture. We got serious collaboration. I mean, there are things that I have learned in real estate since joining eXp as a direct result of either eXp or the people that have come on board and their knowledge and talents. You being one of them. Right. Where Wow, I you know, Seems like weekly I'm going Geez. I mean, I've been in this industry my entire life, you know, you think I know it I'm not even close. I'm getting my mind blown all the time on stuff I go, wow. That's amazing. Whoa, we can utilize that and tweak this and that's a whole another, you know, vertical leverage, if you will within this business. It's just
Brett:
Touch on that if you don't mind if we will. Right and so you just connect me with a group up in Reno. It's a new part of your team there. And they have a client who's looking to sell actually a cryptocurrency
Matt:
Yeah Bitcoin, right?
Brett:
Yeah, Bitcoin is a huge, huge capital gains tax. And guess what the real estate wants to? Well, they want to help them and by actually multifamily properties, right. Yeah. So it's been this conundrum, like the values went way up. But if they sell they pay 30 to 50%, in capital gains tax. Yeah. And so Matt was able to introduce me to her, and we walk through it, and she's like, Oh, my gosh, this could be the exact thing we've been waiting for. Yeah, they can sell and use the deferred sales trust. And this is the cool part for her. Now, all the tax is deferred, which is really great. But then the funds can be used to buy investment, real estate, which is a new commission for her. Yeah, so it's, it's and we're talking, you know, multiple millions of dollars of cryptocurrency or otherwise, you wouldn't have that. And so that collaboration is awesome. We also just did a deal in Cupertino is a $3.1 million sale for, for high end primary homeowners, she lived right next to Apple headquarters. And she was faced with wanting to downsize, right. But she felt trapped because she only had what's called the $250,000 exclusion. Yeah, right. Well, he lived there for the last five years, if you're married, it's 500. But 250 for single. And so she has this big house, she wants to move next to the grandkids, she wants to retire. And if you study Rich Dad, Poor Dad basically says Your house is actually not an investment and liability to get an investment, you want it something that's producing cash flow, right. And that's appreciating and producing cash flow. And it's not something where it's just potentially appreciating which, which you could argue that, but I like the way he puts it. So she wants to take that non cash flowing, producing asset, pay off the debt, move it into the deferred sales trust for $400,000 of tax, and now she's living off the interest. Okay, getting cash flow. And so that's the power for the realtor that they can grab a strategy, use it to win more listings by adding more value, when otherwise it wouldn't have been there. Right. And so that's, that's the idea of the deferred sales, just in case you're wondering. So any thoughts on that map?
Matt:
Oh, I think it's phenomenal. I mean, it's funny, we had Mr. Donyo. Come on here, right? He's been in the business for 24 years or something like that, right, from top realtor to coach coaching some of the top teams in the world. And I put him on here with you. And his mouth kind of dropped, right? He goes, ``How have I never heard of this? Because this is amazing. So yeah, it's quite an amazing system, if you will, and I would encourage all realtors to really plug in to Brett there. And you know, you, Brett, you do a very good job of really breaking it down. explaining it building trust, because it is a newer thing for people that go in I don't know, is it proven? And you do you explain, hey, it's been proven, not just a year or two years, like multiple, multiple, multiple years, it's
Brett:
Been audited, what is it 15 times full from start to finish. And it's passed every single one of them successfully with no changes, right? No, exactly. It changes to no change IRS audits, the biggest $25 million in San Diego, mountains of closes over 24 years. And the neat part is it's just an installment sale. It's a manufactured installment sale. And you can learn more about that capital gains tax solution. Yeah, we want to dive back into eXp. So we explained like one two, let's talk about training and collaboration. Because to that point, I've been a part of it now for about 90 days. And I was skeptical about this online cloud thing, the training, like what was going to be what it wasn't gonna. And I've been blown away by the systems. In fact, it's like, you're in this cloud based world where I think a lot of the universities are going to this now of course, COVID-19 is changing a lot of things as well. But just talk about the training and the culture of collaboration. Obviously, the leadership has been amazing, but walk us through that for the agent who is like, Yeah, but you know, what kind of hands on, you know, training and that I'm I gonna get you're gonna pour into actually growing my real estate business.
Matt:
Yeah, that's a great point. I'm glad you brought that up. Because, gosh, there's so many different avenues I could go in regards to the training. One would be our team training, right. So you have tapped into, you know, Don Yocum, who has taught some of the top teams in the world. He has a specific training platform that he utilizes, you know, has a weekly mentorship training aspect. And then we have Randy Byrd, who was a top Tom Ferry coach for four years and has brokered over 1000 transactions. I was a team leader for Keller Williams office, and he's got a full coaching business. And you know, he's our success team above us. And so, I mean, he answers our calls or texts or emails. I mean, he's super engaged. And the power of the system, I would say is, you have seven layers of people above you that have a vested interest in your success. Okay, and that's so huge. It's funny, I asked people at Keller Williams and I say, Look, do you know who your sponsor was like? Oh, yeah, you know, it was Brett Swarts. Okay, great. Do you know who Brett sponsor was? And they go, Well, no. no.
Brett:
Did you ever hear from?
Matt:
No, they didn't write. But I mean, you've heard from Tom, you've heard from Don Yocum, you've heard Brent Gove. And myself and on and on, right, we want to see you succeed. So there's that team aspect of accountability and training and so on, which is phenomenal. Then you take eXp corporate, and we have 40 plus hours. And I think it's way more now, but I'm being conservative 40 plus hours of live training weekly, live training weekly, in eXp, the world in the cloud. Now, you take a brick and mortar model, impossible, they're not offering you 40 hours a week of live training, they just physically can't do it. Right in that location. It's got to be cloud based in order to even remotely accomplish that Feat. And, you know, I mentioned the Icon Award, these are agents that are doing 30 plus deals a year, right. One of the brilliant things that the founder of eXp put in place was in order to get all 16,000 of your cap money back in preferred stock, is you have to give back at least an hour a week, in some form or fashion to the culture of the eXp. Okay, now think about it. These are all top performing agents across the nation. Okay. Some of these agents are doing 234 500 deals a year with their teams. Okay. So like Brent Gulf, his team's consistently done over 200 deals a year, 16 plus years, maybe 20 years now. He gives an hour, I think a week of time in the cloud and teaches a class on agent attraction. There's agents that have amazing open house systems, and they teach their systems. And what's interesting is, when I was at Keller, Williams, Roseville, Brett, we would have great training. But the agents themselves, if they did train, they wouldn't give you 100% of all their good stuff. And the reason for that is because you even though we're all buddies, buddy, we're all kW family, whatever, you're still a competitor, because we're in the same geographical area. And if we're competing on a listing in Roseville, and we're both going for it, only one's going to walk away with that listing, right? So I don't want to give you my best stuff, I got to keep a little something for me for the competitive advantage, right. But when it's a realtor in Iowa, or New York, or Florida or Arizona, we have an abundance mentality with the eXp and we have no reason to hold back anything. Because now it's not a geographic aspect. The world is the eXp we're one brokerage, one broker, all 50 states never been done before.
Brett:
It's like the New World Order order for real estate.
Matt:
I mean, it's just incredible. I could just go on and on and all these different advantages that I didn't even realize until I even got on. Got on the inside.
Brett:
Absolutely. And I say that I say that tongue in cheek here. Because truly like, what's the math right? If you're selling a deal, and it's x, and the Commission's are why, right? Where is that all going? Is it going to the brick and mortar? Is it going to training? Is it going to you? Is it going to the owner of that company, right? Where is it all going? Right? And it's either going to go to you and your family and your partners and Associates and your colleagues or it's going to go somewhere else? So we will have a finite amount of time. And our expertise in real estate. It's 100% Commission, right? So you have to make sure it's something that's going to pay off. I remember starting at Marcus and Millichap and this was back in 2006. So as a commercial real estate agent here in Roseville, and it was some of the best training Amazing, right? Yeah. And I was all in with them. And then they let my manager go. They pushed him out like he had been for 20 years and the marketplace shifted and acquired and I'm going to a guy who has put 20 years and he was my mentor. He poured into me and now he's gone. I'm going well, why do I want to stay around like right? They just, you know, that doesn't give me confidence if I'm gonna keep going for you know, and he didn't find out. He was one of the top guys right? And so I'm going with all of what he built. He doesn't get any stock, right? And he may have got some stock as part of that, but he doesn't get any recurring information he put into me. In fact, he left and I started to do more deals and in Like, and he didn't get any of that either. So it's just like, it's you got to choose where you're gonna invest with, you know, the leadership's got to be there, the culture has got to be there. And the math has to make sense. So is that if any thoughts on that, or is that? Is that what eXp is about?
Matt:
Oh, yeah, I mean, absolutely. There's, there's so much I mean, I literally could just keep gushing about it. You know, but I would say, it's kind of like trying to describe what a banana tastes like to someone. The reality is they just need to try a banana and go, Oh, I get it. Now. I see what you're excited about whatever, right? You know, there were things that I knew about just because I've been in the business 20 years. So I had a little bit of discernment and wisdom over time. what to look for. I also trusted immensely. Tom Dave's Don Yocum, Franco, these guys you know, Tom, and Don. Gosh, we used to do Bible studies together 20 years ago, you know, I mean, so we've known each other a long, long time. And we've had success throughout the years. So when they came over, that spoke volumes to me, and I almost had the fear of loss. To be honest, I went, Okay. What is my deal? Like, I need to go look at this again. Right. I think I missed something if these guys, you know, because they don't especially analyze very strategically and so, you know, that's when I put my business hat on and really looked at it. I went, ah, I got it. Yeah, no, I'm over.
Brett:
Love it. So you're ready for the lightning round, and they will tell everyone else where they can work and where they can do it again. And by the way, the model explained calm if you want to jump to that video,
Matt:
E-D explained.
Brett:
Yeah. But if you do go there, and you like it, make sure to reach out to Matt Stewart malice. Just give them that right now. Where can they find you? If they're interested in wanting like, hey, I'd be open to having a conversation with Matt about it. Were they calling you or what? Can they find you?
Matt:
Yeah, absolutely. So my phone number is about myself. Right? So 916-718-2979. I'll say it again. 916-718-2979. Call me, text me. And then my email would be MatthewStewart.realestate@gmail.com Pretty soon. Perfect.
Brett:
You're ready for the lightning round?
Matt:
Absolutely. Let's do it.
Brett:
All right, knowing what you know. Now, if you go back to your 25 year old self, what's the one Golden Nugget? You would make it? Sure you would do? Or no?
Matt:
Oh, man, I would say really focus on passive and residual income as much as you can. I would buy more investment properties. But then also I would. I was very risk tolerant before too much. So I would be a little less, a little less risk tolerant, I would be in a more solvent position. Like I am now.
Brett:
Makes sense. Thank you. What is the one book you've recommended gifted the most in the past year?
Matt:
I will always for me is the Holy Bible. I mean, that thing is so rich. And it's just like, I mean, there really, no other book compares to all the wisdom in that book. There is a book I'm reading. My wife snagged it from me, I'd have it right now. It's called Success Principles. By the guy, co author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. We actually have what we call freedom Fridays, and it's an accountability group of the leaders within our organization. It's one of those other things that you brought up, right that you go to that leadership structure. So we're all those that say, Hey, we want to be held accountable. We want to do so much each day. And we have a WhatsApp where we chime in and that we've accomplished it and then we go through a chapter a week. And this book is really good in regards to actually doing things. And so it's pretty phenomenal book success principles by not Victor Hansen. I don't think it's the other guy anyway, at last pick it
- Matt Stewart
Brett:
Up. No, we'll figure it out. Yeah, give me a digital or mobile resource you recommend for your business.
Matt:
Oh man. kVcore. kVcore is great. I'm still a baby at that to be honest with the I got a you know, it's pretty robust, robust. I would say I'm big in social media so you know all the apps the Instagram the Facebook's and really utilizing and leveraging that is good,
Brett:
Cool, favorite leadership quote or theme you strive to live by Matt.
Matt:
Pops to mind is to help enough other people get what they want, and you'll get what you want.
Brett:
Ziggler loves that. Yeah. What are you curious about right now, Matt?
Matt:
You know, I'm in my mid 40s. I'm 44 and a half and COVID is hit. It's such an interesting time. And I'm normally well. I am a very positive upbeat, I think believing type person. But you know that 40s is interesting and you get very reflective. You're kind of like you know, God All that chasing that I did early and so on, what was it for? And anyway, so, I'm just really reflective a lot more as of late and how can I be better? And how can I be a better leader? And you know, and it's really about serving and significance versus, you know, the bottom line dollars and so on.
Brett:
Absolutely love it. And after all your success, Matt, and after your journey, your struggles in your life and all that you've learned in 44 and a half years, how do you stay centered in your values? And then how do you stay encouraged to charge forward to reach new goals?
Matt:
You know, gosh, from 30 to 40, I probably went well, I did go through the worst time of my life, it was a brutal decade, the Lord really just stripped me clean other than my health. And so one of the benefits from that was humility. I mean, when you get really stripped down, and I needed it, it was, you know, I look back now it was a good thing, even though it just sucked. But anyway. So I would say that's how I stay centered. It's just Gosh, remembering all of that anguish and heartache and just different things that I went through during that 10 years. David daily Bible reading quiet time, before my day gets going, is really, really valuable. And really just digesting the word and really understanding it and, and I have a firm belief and understanding that it really is living, they call it the living word. There's no other book that is as transformative to a human soul than the Holy Bible. So yeah, I would say that would be for me, it keeps me centered. Beautiful.
Brett:
Thank you for sharing that. And thank you for sharing your story right and transparent with your, with your work and in the ideas and leadership of eXp. And explaining the model in such a practical way from a successful ultra successful realtor. I'm gonna encourage you to keep using the gifts and talents you've been given to bless others, right sir real estate and helping create passive income streams so they can leave a financial legacy. And they can get freedom, right, more freedom, when you have passive income coming in for your time and your energy. And with that, you want to leave our listeners with one last reminder of where they can find you. And a last thought and then we'll wrap it up.
Matt:
Awesome. Well, first of all, I appreciate you, Brett, for utilizing this forum and asking me to come on. It's really an honor and I will treat my information with my cell phone 916-718-2979. And then my email, Matthew Stewart real estate calm. Matthew Stewart real estate@gmail.com sorry. And then themodelexplained.com. And the last thought that I would leave with if there are realtors, you know, looking at this is I think it's a mistake to try to look at it on the aspect of would I make a move or not? Because we really are creatures of habit and comfort, especially during this time certainly with COVID. We don't like to, you know, rock the boat, if you will you hear all these sayings, right? I don't want to rock the boat. If it's not broken, don't fix it, you know, if it's working, don't change all that stuff. And what I'm realizing as I'm getting older now is that's not necessarily true. Actually, if you really want the ones that are really achievers and are making huge impacts in people's lives. They're the ones that are stretching themselves and getting uncomfortable and not, you know, not just staying comfortable. So I would say put your business hat on with the eXp. But don't look at it in regards to making a move, because you will try to look for things that will solidify your stance of I'm staying put, right? I would say put your business hat on and really be curious. Just have this curious mind and this, you know, how does this thing work? What's the mind just really studying the model? And I think it'll all be revealed. That's what it was for Don Tom and myself.
Brett:
Well, I'm a believer, I joined the eXp with my commercial real estate and that's commercial real estate to buy, not just residential, which most of you are thinking about,
Matt:
We got a lot of commercials.
Brett:
So sold nearly $100 million of commercial real estate and some new listings coming up to and I'm so excited to see the horsepower of this of this network, you know, in the community with that and to take it more than just local brokerage, but literally across the nation and in the fastest growing real estate company in the world. So if you also want to reach out to me and hear my story about moving over to eXp, please reach out to me capital gains tax wishes calm, schedule a one on one consultation with me. And we can chat about that I love giving back to the real estate community especially for fellow realtors or commercial real estate brokers. And with that, Matt, thanks for being on the show. And thank you to our listeners for listening to another episode of the capital gains tax solutions podcast. As always, we believe most high net worth individuals and those who help them such as realtors right struggle with clarifying their clients capital gains tax deferral options not having a clear plan is the enemy and using a proven tax deferral strategy, such as the deferred sales trust is the best way for you to grow your wealth. Hey, I'm your host, Brett Swarts. And I wish you all the best and your endeavors and and your consideration of eXp. Thanks so much. Please rate review, subscribe, leave anything in the comments here. We love that here on Facebook for somebody. Thanks so much.
Matt:
Awesome. Bye.
SUBSCRIBE & RATE OUR PODCAST
⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
on your preferred podcasting app.
important links:
love the show? subscribe, rate, review, and share!
⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
