Building a Referral Pipeline with Early Connections and Client Relationships

You're listening to Expansion, the podcast for EXP agents. Expand your skill. Expand your value.

Here's your host, Glenn Sanford.

Hey everyone, Glenn Sanford here, founder of EXP Realty.

And this is the expansion podcast where we talk about personal professional development here at EXP Realty.

Talking with top agents, icon agents, about what it was that they did and what they are doing to continue to knock it out of the park in their business wherever they're at.

So today I'm really excited to talk to Jerry Allen Trent and you're a agent and I think a two time icon with exp out of out of Tennessee.

Welcome.

That's correct. Thank you for having me.

Awesome. So so Jerry and so maybe you can share just a little bit about your background, how you got into real estate and maybe even how you ended up joining exp.

I'll be happy to share previously and come from a strong lineage of blue collar workers.

When I graduated from high school, I got married immediately.

I had my first child at 20 and was a stay at home mom for many years.

I was also a foster parent to many teenage girls and stayed very active in our church and in the community.

And loft events that was out of our control with my husband's health led me back into the workforce.

And I found myself in a medical support position making minimal wages and due to just having lack of formal education and very my resume was just not very impressive.

Although I felt like I was doing what I was meant to do with that season of life and I don't regret it.

It just did not prepare me to be an income producer for our family because I had fell on my husband's shoulders.

So I might enter the workforce and worked in them them, as I said medical support for about 10 years and about five years into that, I began to realize and look around and think, you know, these people are making four and five time my wages and there's no opportunity for advancement for myself.

So I went back to school.

I was a first person in my family to have a formal education and still yet I still became the market, the employment market kind of rejected me.

And I think there was a lot of reasons for that.

The number one thing is that I was supposed to be a builder.

So after about five years, I completed that education and I went back to my workplace and I simply said, I'm done.

And I jumped into real estate feet first.

At that point in my life, I had both of my children to where they could support themselves and had their own opportunities to provide their insurance and things like that.

So I was only taking a risk for myself and my husband at that point.

The very first day that I had my real estate license back and I had hung my law license with a local brokerage.

I got a home under contract day one, day one.

Oh, wow.

Congratulations.

And from there, it just snowballed and real estate has been life changing for me and not only for me, but for my family, because it gives me as the opportunity to see outside of you work for two weeks.

You pay your bills and you start over again.

And in my history with my family, that's how we had always lived.

And so it's not that way any longer.

And I'm so grateful to be part of exp, but so grateful to be a builder and just be able to serve this region as a virus and sellers agent.

Well, awesome.

Thank you so much for sharing the sharing that story and the background and how you got into it.

You know, one of the one of the cool things obviously you're.

You're demonstrating this is that real estate is an industry that really, if you dedicate yourself to it and you figure it out, you're not.

You don't have the glass ceilings that typically happen in a, in a typical sort of company style role.

So if you're self motivated, you're willing to get out there and put yourself in uncomfortable situations, have conversations, but.

Obviously you got a deal under contract, the first day in the.

Is pretty pretty darn rare. I don't think I think that might be the.

One of the first times I've ever heard that so.

Well, it was, it was a blessing indeed, but also what, what happened was weeks before it was time for me to be an active builder.

I started working within the small sphere of influence, the media people and letting them know what I was doing.

And one of the young ladies that I worked with said to me, Jerry, and I think my sister's looking for a house and I have been friends with these people for 15 years.

And I said, this should can be just a couple of weeks. I promise that one will work harder for her than I will.

And she did. And that indeed started my real estate career.

Oh, very cool. Well, that's a, that's a great tip for those listening, you know, you have conversations before you actually get licensed, just to let people know that you're about to actually get into this business called real estate.

So, you know, what was it that ultimately, you know, you, you, you started with a, it was a small boutique in your, your market.

That's correct. And then, and what was your journey then to ultimately get to, to, to, to EXP and why did you choose EXP over other brokerages?

I always say EXP chose me, but, just because, yeah, I was with that brokerage for a period of approximately five years.

And they taught me a lot. But as I grew, I felt as if I was not being pushed forward.

And, you know, the saying is, you know, pull away from what don't push you forward.

And I knew that there was agents that were doing great volumes, not necessarily in our area, because I had already kind of achieved being one of the top producers in our area.

There were great volumes of real estate and production, but there was no more time in my day. There was nothing else to give.

So, I started approaching my, my brokerage and asking for what I felt like was simple tools to help me expand.

And they just weren't there. So, I gave them like three opportunities. I went to them about three different things.

It wasn't about a cap or a percentage. It was about just simple tools to help me grow, because you don't know what you don't know.

And they love the production I was doing as any broker, you know, broker owned wood, but the opportunity to advance and to scale was not there.

During that period of time, some of the local brokerages started approaching me to, you know, consider moving my losses.

But I was in fear. I was in fear of the success that I had would not follow me.

And, you know, as Brent Gough says, you make a choice and you either live in fear, or you take it, you know, you take the plunge and you make the change.

And I was directly called by someone that was working for a beta and exp.

And we just, even though exp spoke to me previously, some people, this particular young lady, I had a connection with from the moment we spoke.

And now that I made the change, it's, you know, we've developed a great relationship.

But I'm now connected with people such as, you know, Don yoga, Matthew Stewart, I follow Brent Gough regularly.

And, you know, even reaching going back to the, the reason I came when we back at the reason I came to exp was to simply expand and grow.

And in my opinion, you can't grow unless you get around people that have already done that.

Unless they, you open your ears, you open your, your mind to the concepts and things that they've already put in place.

And when I go on the phone, and I go on Zoom calls with people such as Matthew and Don, I actually don't.

I was like, that's the guy. He's, he's got it, he's got it figured out.

And I just began to absorb what they were telling me and it took a year for me to make the transition because I was very fearful of losing what I had created.

And the work that I had done, but the moment that I made the change, I've never regretted it from one moment, not one time have I regretted it.

Awesome, awesome. So, so the, the phrase that we hear so often around exp, where the pros go to grow, that really resonates with you.

It 100% resonates with me. That's correct.

I feel like in any kind of industry, everyone wants you to do well. And we, we joke, we say this kind of thing, but sometimes they don't want you to do better than them.

Yeah, they want you to do good, but not better than them.

And I began to evaluate where I was in my life. And I thought, you know, I don't want to be a small, a big fish and a small pond.

I want to get out there and be around people that can help me grow to my max potential. And I couldn't do that where I was.

So in East Tennessee, we are somewhat behind a lot of things that's going on the real estate market, a lot of things in our nation period. And that's always a bad thing.

But when you think about growth with an, with an industry like real estate, it's not to be connected with forward thinking people as yourself.

So that's why I'm here.

Awesome. So now you mentioned obviously some tools and technology. Hopefully we've got some of that covered here. I'm a bit of a tech guy. So I'm pretty sure we've got a little bit of tech.

But what is it?

What is it that you do? Like, obviously you've been successful even before you came to speak.

And you were one of the top agency market. What are you doing to really kind of differentiate what you're doing? And how, how is it that you ultimately, you've got the market share that you, you did and continue to, to grow in your, your local market?

Well, I do use KV core, not to the anywhere close to the level that I should, just because I need to back up and get people in place to support me and help me get that system where it needs to be.

Before I came to EXP, I simply had an Excel spreadsheet with all of my, my sphere and my past clients on it. I had no CRM of any kind.

And so jumping from nothing to KV core in itself was somewhat overwhelming to me, but the fact that I have not developed it and used it more than what I have, that's on me because I have a lot of production.

I stay very busy with people. So that's the goal that I have right now is getting that KV core to do a lot of the back end work for me instead of me having to physically do as much as what I do.

But I definitely use KV core and big on Facebook communication, communicating through Facebook and just getting myself out there and giving people the opportunity to know me.

I think it's very easy to find a realtor, but I think it's hard to find a realtor that will truly invest their time in you and what's best for you.

And that's how I try to set myself apart. I try to be very relational with everyone.

You know, obviously you're connected with a lot of people in your local market, you sort of built that sphere. And now you're starting to think about scaling your team up that you've got a transaction coordinator on your team.

What's your goals? What's your plan? Is it to grow the team or is it maybe to focus more on the revenue share opportunities and exp? Where are you? Where's your focus today?

My focus today is to grow, but not necessarily within my team to focus more on revshare and to obviously sponsor other agents, but not necessarily grow a large team.

My reason for that is simply that I feel like the opportunity to create the long term income into the later years of my life is as if not more important at this season than it is to have a large team.

And the girls that I have that work with me, they I brought them into the team environment simply to handle basically clients that were getting put on the back burner because the limit of my time.

And I mean, there's just only 70 hours and a day. So I would have people calling to go see homes and there were no there was no availability in my schedule.

So I would hand those off to the girls that work with me, the ladies that work with me, and they've been a great job with that. But moving forward into 2025, I'm going to possibly kind of restructure that will be it and focus more on bringing agents to EXD that are that are already experienced agents and that they see the value in the revshare opportunities and the opportunity to grow beyond what the traditional brick mortar offers them.

Awesome. Well, well, before, well, basically in closing, maybe I'll just ask this one last question.

You know, if you could give one piece of advice to an agent at EXP, what would that be?

Within EXP or agents period just just agents period just whatever what what is it that you think you've learned in the business so far that you know agents would benefit from hearing from you.

I think to not let fear rule you. If I had my life to do over again and my career to over again, I would have made the move to EXP prior and sooner than what I did.

But I felt insecure and a lot of the insecurity was driven by people that was in my surroundings and then now I have the support of people that have gone before me that have paved the road for me to look beyond transaction to transaction.

So don't live in fear, you know, look at your own future and do your homework. That would be for eight for any relative, you know, don't live in fear. Don't let what other people's expectations of you limit how you feel about yourself.

Awesome. This is that's that's great advice and during and thank you so much for jumping on the podcast with me today and where can people agents reach out to you or others reach out to you if they want to.

Well, through work chat, if they're with EXP, you can find me there and obviously, you know, just through Facebook. I'm on there. I have my professional camp. You're always welcome to follow me on my personal Facebook and this pick up the phone and call me my information will be there and I'll be happy to communicate with you and tell you the struggles that I've had with EXP. You know, nothing is nothing worth having is without some kind of struggle along the way and there has been some.

But it's nothing that's not if you connect with the people, you pick up the phone, you call the broker, you get on live with through the world and you find the answers and there's always support staff there ready to help you.

Awesome. Well, good stuff. Thanks again, Jerry Ann and thanks everyone for listening to this episode of the expansion podcast. That have a great day. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.