This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Nick Krautter, author of The Golden Handoff and a real estate broker based in Portland, Oregon. Nick shares his expertise on the process of selling your book of business and planning a good exit strategy if you are ready to phase out of your business. 

Nick and Tracey talk about the potential challenges and pitfalls you can expect in the transition period and the most effective way to structure a potential deal to make sure that you are getting your value’s worth out of your database. He also talks about partial handoffs, where retiring agents can gradually step back from the business while maintaining involvement, and emphasizes the importance of selecting the right adopting agent to prepare for an eventual sale.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Finding the right adopting agent is crucial for a successful golden handoff.
• Partial handoffs allow retiring agents to phase out of the business while still maintaining some involvement.
• The structure of deals in golden handoffs is typically based on referral fees.
• Retiring agents should keep their databases up to date to ensure a smooth transition and ensure they are not underestimating their value.

Here’s a small preview of today’s interview. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Tracey Velt: You’re doing a second edition, so I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the differences and were some of your lessons learned in selling your own residential business incorporated into this.

Nick Kruatter: There are a lot of people I knew personally that were trying to hit pause because we’re looking to kind of phase out or slow down. There’s a whole new section to the book and it’s all about what I call partial handoffs. I’m really excited about this because for 10 years of buying businesses, the number one objection I had was always, I’m not ready to really retire.

How do I let you work with the clients you love? Let’s say you only want to do listings in certain neighborhoods. We can do that now. Before, the golden handoff was really more focused on kind of an all or nothing moment where someone is a hundred percent letting the new adopting agent take over. Now, the partial handoff is so powerful because what I found is that for a lot of agents, a lot of their identity is tied to being a producer or being in the business or part of the community.

The RealTrending podcast features the brightest minds in real estate. Every week, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.