Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Brokerage eXp Realty International Corp. announced that it is allowing its agents and brokers to become significant shareholders in the company.
“The greatest asset that any real estate brokerage possesses is the group of agents and brokers who are a part of it,” says eXp Realty President Jason Gesing. “In our view, those agents and brokers should be owners.”
The new initiative features several components. The company will issue 100 shares of stock to each agent and broker for their first transaction in 2014, retroactive to Jan. 1. It also says it will issue 1,000 shares to any agent who caps in 2014. An additional 1,000 shares will also be issued to any agent or broker who attracts another agent to the company, awarded after the closing of the new agent’s first transaction.
Besides the award programs, the company also plans to offer a program where agents and brokers can voluntarily contribute a portion of their commission or revenue-sharing dollars to buy company stock at a discount.
“Our status now as a public company really allows us to build a brokerage that is owned by its agents,” says Gesing. “[It’s] just one more way in which our agents can achieve financial independence.”
The company recently tested the stock options as leverage with one of its 19-agent firms in Atlanta. Since then, the company says that the Atlanta firm’s broker population in the area has doubled, and the company has retained 100 percent of its agents in the region.
eXp Realty currently has agents in 29 states and in Canada.
