Original subtitles

[narrator] Join us on Tomorrow's World Today

as we journey through the worlds

of inspiration, creation, innovation and production,

to find the ideas and technologies that are shaping our future.

On this episode, we visit the world of innovation

to explore the latest technological advances

that are revolutionizing how we buy and sell real estate.

And we examine how a shift in the industry

is changing the way agents plan for their futures.

From Inventionland world headquarters, here's your host George Davison.

When you're making a real estate agreement, you wanna make sure

that it's set in stone.

This is the Cadastre of Orange.

It's a stone carving from the second century.

And it's one of the earliest records of a real estate transaction.

Fast forward to the real estate industry of today,

and you have 1.3 million agents.

It's a commission-only career path

which makes planning for the future a real challenge.

That was the problem Steve Morris wanted to solve.

Back in the 1980s, he was working in the real estate industry

and he realized that there weren't enough incentives for these agents

to make them not only wanna stay at an agency,

but also help them to plan for their futures.

There needed to be a better way,

and it took 13 years of research and trial and error,

but eventually, in 1996, he invented an incentivization system

and it changed the industry.

So, I'm gonna be sending Darieth to Punta Gorda, Florida.

She's gonna meet with the innovators at EXIT Realty

to learn more about how innovations in the real estate industry

have helped agents plan for their futures.

She's also gonna meet Joe and Gina,

who are gonna see how advanced technologies, like real estate apps,

and drones,

have really innovated this industry.

[upbeat music playing]

[Darieth] If you're looking for a house in a beautiful destination like this,

it's almost overwhelming how many different options there are out there

to help you with this process.

Today we're doing to meet Gina and Joe,

who are relocating a few thousand miles

to the Gulf Coast area from Cleveland, Ohio.

Let's learn a little bit more about their story and what they're looking for.

[serene music playing]

- [Gina] Oh, Joe, this is it. - [Joe] This is really nice.

Two story waterfront? This is exactly what we've been looking for.

- [Joe] Absolutely, this is really nice. - This is great.

- [Gina] Okay. - [Joe] Let's get some information.

[Gina] All right, great. Let's see.

[Joe] Go ahead and punch it 85377.

- And type in "EXIT." - [Gina] That's it.

- Oh, look, it pops right up. - [Joe] There it is.

- [Gina] Oh, it's in our price range as well. - [Joe] It is. Awesome.

- [Gina] Let's make an appointment. - Let's do that.

- That'd be great. Yay! - Okay.

- Hi. - [Janice] Hi, you must be Joe and Gina.

- Yes. - You must be Janice.

I am. It's nice to meet you. Put a face on the voice.

- Nice to meet you. - [Janice] I hope I didn't, like,

creep you out too much with the... me calling you the minute you texted EXIT.

It's one of the things I absolutely love about our technologies, we get on it.

It's fast. So, matter of fact, you were so excited about that house,

I set up an appointment for an hour and a half from now.

-That works for us. So, fast is good. -Wow.

[Janice] Great. Great. So I know you're transferring here

- for a healthcare system. - Yes.

- But what about you, Joe? - I've been a realtor in Cleveland for about ten years.

- Wow, we have a lot to talk about. - [Joe] Yeah. Okay good.

The market here is really wonderful.

- Oh, that's great. - [Janice] You can do very well down here.

Well, why don't you guys go have a quick lunch,

and I'll meet you back over there in about an hour and a half.

- Sounds great. - Is that good?

-Sounds good. -That's great! All right, thanks.

- See you soon. Bye. - [Joe] Bye-bye.

[Gina] Thanks.

[Janice] Are you guys excited to see this?

- [Gina] Yeah, we are. - [Joe] Yes, we are.

- [Gina] Thanks. - Thank you.

[Gina] Oh, wow.

- Yeah, this is great. - [Joe] This is beautiful.

- [Gina] This is definitely what we're looking for. - [Joe] Yes.

[Janice] You wanted a two-story.

Nothing beats reality on this house.

-It's spectacular. I love this home. -[Joe] Absolutely.

Especially when you're going straight out, it's visibility right when you enter,

- all the way in through the water. - It's open.

- Yeah. - Because that is what you want.

- That's what you're buying. - Right.

[Janice] Everything else becomes secondary

because you'll spend your life out there.

I know you do this for a living up north,

so I'm gonna let you give the tour. Enjoy.

- That's great. You ready? - That sounds great.

- Yes, we are. Thank you. - Okay, great.

- [Gina] Thank you. - [Joe] You're welcome.

Oh, wow. Look at this.

- [Joe] Wow, this is nice. - [Gina] This is great.

[Joe] Look at that view.

- This is exactly what we've been looking for, huh? - It is. That view is awesome.

[Gina] That's really what it's about, isn't it? It's the view.

-Do you think this is it? Joe, this is it. -I do, I do.

-[Gina] Janice, this is it. This is the one. -[Joe] It is.

I'm so excited.

Well, let's head back to the office and make an offer.

- Sounds good. Let's go. - I'm excited. Yay!

[Darieth] Let's learn more about the innovations

happening in the real estate industry.

I'm going to talk with Tami Bonnell, CEO of EXIT Realty,

to learn more.

- Hi, Tami. - Hi, Darieth, how are you?

- I'm great. Good to meet you. - Great to meet you.

It has been so interesting learning about your company.

You've really revolutionized the real estate industry for the agent

through your innovation technology and your EXIT Formula.

Tell me more about it.

Well, you know, the EXIT Formula was actually created to be the solution

in the real estate industry to address all the problems.

The problem for brokers, recruiting and retention.

If they can recruit and retain people, they'll be profitable.

And it'll also give that agent the opportunity to really build a solid career.

But for agents, in the beginning, they need steady, consistent paychecks

while they're ramping up and starting to do transactions.

In the middle, they really wanna have a work-life balance, not that 24/7.

And towards the end, they want that opportunity to be able to retire with grace.

This is so unique. Tell me about the grand vision behind this.

[Tami] Our founder and chairman is very innovative.

And he created things like this EXIT Success card.

So, every time a transaction happens,

the person that introduced that agent into the company,

money goes straight into this card.

So that they can really and truly have

whatever it is that they want at that particular time.

And so, let's talk about your training, because it sounds to me like it's really

deep and personal development.

Literally from how you think, to how to help you increase your income,

we are fully-faceted. Come on, let me show you.

Tami, I just love that you emphasize mindset training.

You know, it's so important. We teach them the power of the subconscious mind.

We teach personality profiles.

We teach the affirmation principle.

But we also teach, literally, "Now I just got my license, what do I do,"

all the way to the consummate professional making millions of dollars.

How do you deliver your training?

Through webinars, techinars, live interactive, total immersion,

so that people can learn the way they absorb that information best.

I understand that you have proprietary technology.

Tell me about some of the platforms you're using.

Absolutely, we have a mobile business card so that nobody misses a connection.

We have smart-sign technology, so that literally, our signs work 24/7.

You can pull up to a listing,

you text 85377, punch in "E-X-I-T,"

and the listing comes straight to your phone.

- That's GPS technology. - It absolutely is.

And then we have a connect app so that everyone that's part of that transaction,

even family members, can actually see in real time.

It's a way for the consumer to have speed and transparency which they absolutely want,

and it's a way for the agent to generate even more leads for themselves.

We also have a digital marketing strategy,

we call it our Expert Marketing Suite,

so that they can advertise and reach out to as many people as humanly possible

immediately upon taking a listing.

And we have EXIT Ad Center in partnership with Facebook,

so that we can reach out even further,

touch agents, brokers and potential buyers and sellers.

From our backroom, we have stackable technology,

literally stackable, so that we can plug and play.

Somebody comes in from another company,

and they're using a different platform for their database,

all they have to do is plug it in and they can keep going. They don't skip a beat.

So, we can keep up the momentum for everybody in the organization.

Wow, there is a lot here. And you're active giving back.

We are. Let's go grab a coffee and chat about it.

You know, Darieth, we believe so strongly

in making sure that we touch everyone's life within the organization,

that money from every transaction goes into an administrative fund.

We believe the administrators are the backbone of the office

and so, that following year in January,

they receive a bonus based on the transactions that happen within that office.

That allows our brokers to really retain great talent.

That's wonderful how you're supporting the team and the organization.

What about your charitable contributions to the community?

We actually started out with a charity from the very beginning, too.

So, we call it The Spirit of EXIT,

we've paid out in excess of $6 million to that charity.

Money from every transaction goes into a charitable fund

and then the offices,

whether it's the broker or the broker and the agents combined,

they put on a fundraiser for a veritable charity.

And when they put on that fundraiser,

EXIT matches the funds so that we can touch

as many lives and as many communities as humanly possible.

And that creates a family culture within their offices.

Wow, it has just been so wonderful learning about the EXIT story.

Thank you so much.

Now I wanna switch gears and focus in on how you serve your clients.

Great.

-Hey, Tami. How are you? Nice to see you. -Great, Janice. How are you?

Awesome, awesome. I want you to meet Joe and Gina.

- Hi, nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you. - We just left an amazing waterfront home

and we're here to write up an offer.

- They're all excited. - Absolutely.

[Janice] It's gonna take me a few minutes to put that all together.

You guys, I didn't share with you before that Tami is visiting.

- She's actually the CEO of EXIT Realty. - [Gina] Oh! Great!

Yeah. And guess what?

Joe is a realtor up north. I thought if you had a few minutes

maybe you could do the run-down on EXIT while I do the paperwork?

-Sure, that'd be great. -All right. Awesome. I'll see you in a few minutes.

- Why don't you follow me? - Sounds great.

[Gina] Thanks.

- Have a seat. - Thanks.

What'd you think of the technology and the tools that you got to utilize

during this process?

[Gina] We thought it was great. Truly, instant connection.

We put up our text, we connected with Janice,

we were in the house, and now we have an offer.

It was instantaneous. It was great.

- Very exciting. - [Gina] It is.

You know, we only have a short period of time,

so I'm gonna give you some information to take with you.

Probably the smartest thing for me to share with you

in regard to being an agent with EXIT,

is our unique formula.

EXIT has something that is a key differentiator.

We provide residual income.

So, you introduce someone into the company,

as a special thank you from corporate headquarters,

you receive the equivalent of 10% of the gross commission up to $10,000 a year,

every year, for as long as they're with EXIT.

And as good as that is, you can introduce anyone anywhere in the world

- there's an EXIT office. - [Joe] Oh.

But we took it a step further than that.

Real estate is always straight commission, you only get paid for the transactions you do.

- Right. - We actually provide retirement income,

so that tens go to seven, and you receive 7%, even in retirement.

- Benefits like real people with real jobs. - Wow.

But because we always put people first, we put family first,

and so when you die, there's beneficiary income.

So, 5% comes to your beneficiary after you're gone.

- Wow. - Wow.

- [Tami] Pretty awesome. - It is very awesome. Yes.

Well, I know you're excited about finding out about the house.

- [Joe laughs] - Let's go check on the offer with Janice.

-[Joe] Okay, let's do that. Thank you. -[Gina] Thank you.

- It is definitely time to celebrate. - It is time to celebrate.

We have officially closed on our Florida house.

We're moving from the north to the south.

We are sitting in front of our beautiful home

that Janice did an amazing job negotiating for us.

- In front of our dock, whoo! - [Joe laughs]

- Absolutely time to celebrate. - [Joe] There you go.

- [Gina] To a new start in life. - [Joe] It is.

[Gina] A beautiful home.

In the sun on the water, in Florida. Congrats.

- Cheers. - [Joe] Congratulations.

For a process that we thought was gonna be stressful,

coming from the north to the south, buying a new home,

starting our lives over, starting a new career,

has been so easy.

And with EXIT Realty, I don't even know how much better it could be.

- It was just amazing. - It was unbelievable.

It was. And this weather, compared to Cleveland...

- We're coming out of the tail end of winter. - [Joe] unbelievable.

- I can't believe it. - How much better can it be?

- I have better news. - [Gina] What is that?

What we were talking about this morning, I got the position with EXIT Realty.

- Did you? - [Joe] Better yet,

Gulf Coast. And...

I start on Monday.

- Oh, Joe, that's awesome! - [Joe] It is.

- It is. - That is definitely time to celebrate.

- [Joe] Let me have a hug. - [Gina] I know. This is great.

- To a new beginning. - [Joe] To a new beginning.

[Tami] The technology that EXIT has created for the consumers and our agents,

is all technology that's focused with the human behind the device,

the human behind the transaction,

utilizing that technology just as a tool

so that they can have speed and transparency.

When we have all that information in front of us,

and we can share what it is that we're really looking for, what we want,

how we want it to happen, and someone can actually respond immediately,

and give us what we're looking for,

we really feel heard, we really feel taken care of.

And I think that's exactly what Janice did.

It's the number-one dream to own your own home,

and it is about being part of the neighborhood.

I think that no one does it better than we have,

because we've really been fully faceted in our approach.

Well, welcome to Inventionland's Command Center, Tami.

- Thank you, it's beautiful. - [George] Thank you.

Well, you know, it's been a lot of work to get here,

and we're... we're really proud that you're here today.

I know a little bit about this real estate industry,

because my mother's been in this industry her whole career.

- [Tami] That's amazing. - [chuckles] Yeah.

It's one of those businesses that if you have a servant heart,

it's a business to love.

Oh, she does. I mean, she's almost 80 years old.

And she just loves to be with people and help people to achieve their dreams.

- So it works out well for her. - That's great.

And the technology side is something she needs to work on a little.

You know, she struggles with that at 80, but uh... she still loves it.

So I heard Darieth came down to Florida to see you.

Yes, she did. In fact, that's the house right there.

[George] Come on, let's take a look.

So, tell me. How did things go down there?

It went incredible. We got to witness all of our tools and technology,

witness the professionalism of going through a sale.

Even one of the people that was relocating was looking at becoming an agent,

so we got to touch base on that, and the operation of an office.

It was really terrific.

Speaking of technology, I understand that, uh...

this is your international headquarters.

- Yes. - [George] And it didn't always look like that.

It started off as an idea back in the late '80s, didn't it?

Yes, it did.

Steve Morris, the founder and chairman of the company...

- [George] Mm-hmm. - Got some great ideas.

He actually pulled some of it from other industries,

but it started with him being in a real estate company

working for a major brand and realizing that there were an awful lot of problems.

And so, he just started asking himself effective questions

- so that EXIT could be the solution. - [George] Hmm.

And so, he had this idea in his head.

First, he worked in the stock market, that's how he cut his teeth.

- Okay. - And, so they get paid in one to three days,

instead of 30, 60, 90, 120, and so on.

So, that instant gratification of a paycheck would allow good salespeople

to get steady, consistent paychecks, which made a big difference.

- [George] Yeah. - And especially new people coming in

so that there wouldn't be such a big gap.

And then he looked at the opportunity with insurance.

He worked in the insurance industry after that,

and caught on to residual income.

Really good salespeople go into insurance

because they sell a policy and when it renews the following year, they get paid again.

- Mm-hm. - Residual income, one signature.

And so, he created it with real estate,

the assets of a real estate organization are its agents,

- Get good agents, you do good business. - Right.

[Tami] And so, people introducing another agent into the company,

they receive residual income

at the equivalent of 10% of the gross commission up to $10,000 a year

for every person they introduce in.

- Wow. - And it's limitless all across North America.

And then they have the opportunity to be able to retire.

Benefits, like real people with real jobs.

7% of that income stays with them, the other 3% goes to the brokerage.

Remember we're a franchise. We want them to have a balance too.

All right, so that's... I understand that you're a franchise.

Of course, without that system I don't think you could've create a franchise, right?

- No doubt. - [George] I mean,

it takes a lot of systematic working together.

So you've improved all of these challenges

that used to be in the real estate industry.

So, how is franchising going?

Incredible. We have more than 600 offices across North America.

- [George] Mm-hmm. - We are just shy of 30,000 agents.

And we're averaging at least ten new franchises a month.

- Wow. - We're also doing an incredible amount

of acquisitions with that EXIT Formula so that we're really growing in multiples.

-You're busy! Way to go, Ms. CEO. -[Tami laughing]

All right now, I got this image, though. I didn't really understand what this was.

Your team sent this up here. I don't know what it was.

[Tami] We have technology that was built by EXIT for EXIT.

-Okay. -So, this is a text... You can text for a listing.

So, you text 85377, punch in "EXIT,"

and the listing populates to the consumer's phone,

- instant gratification. - Very nice.

And then they only have to go in the homes they're really interested in,

- once they've seen that information. - Mm-hmm.

[Tami] But it also works as a mobile business card

so that you can connect with me the way you prefer to.

- [George] Yeah. - We also have a connect app so that they can actually have

that speed and transparency with any family member,

anybody that's working on the transaction, maybe a mortgage person, title person,

so that it gives them all that speed.

And then we have EXIT Ad Center,

so that they can have the speed of populating

everything that they're gonna do for the seller instantly, in multiple locations.

Wow, so everybody's winning.

You have... Your staff's winning, the end customer's winning,

the system is going so well, now the franchisees are winning as well.

That's a great system when that works out that way.

-There's no doubt. -[George] Yeah. Hey, hold on a second.

I'm sorry. But I just got beeped.

You have a plane to catch, don't you?

- Yeah, speaking of growing, I've gotta go. - [George] Yeah.

-This has been a pleasure. Thank you so much. -[George] Thank you, Tami.

[narrator] To learn more about the content in today's episode

visit us online at www.tomorrowsworldtoday.com.