New eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja lays out the company’s priorities

On today’s episode of RealTrending, we talk to the newly appointed CEO of eXp Realty, Leo Pareja. He has over two decades of real estate and entrepreneurial experience, and it was just announced last month that Leo was to move from his role as Chief Strategy Officer into the role of CEO, which was previously held by Glenn Sanford. Sanford moves to Chairman of eXp Holdings.

In today’s conversation, Leo shares eXp’s plan for future growth, how they are educating agents on the terms of the NAR settlement and how technology at the company is evolving. He and Tracey also talk about the importance of proper agent support systems, the challenges happening during the transition of compensation models, and how eXp is embracing generative technology to aid in long-term growth.

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

• There is a need for agents to treat buyers and sellers as valued clients and provide full support throughout transactions.
• There is a paradigm shift in the real estate industry with compensation models and technology adoption, and the lack thereof.
• Embrace technology to stay ahead of industry trends, specifically the use of AI and generative language models to enhance processes.
• Collaboration among agents is more important than you realize, and there are real benefits of proximity to successful peers.

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

Tracey Velt: The company has grown tremendously in a very quick amount of time, which Glenn should be commended for sure. How are you going to maintain that momentum? How are you gonna keep it going and continue to grow?

Leo Pareja: One of the coolest things that I’m very focused on is showing how proximity is power. There’s an agent in Northern California who had been licensed 10+ years. He joined us, did $9 million in production, went to $30 million as a solo producer to a $100 million producer in his first year as a team leader and a $200 million in his second year.

I spend time talking to frontline agents and they say being around the most productive agents allows you to learn by osmosis and compress time. My answer to your question is that I think success attracts success. And the more top business minds we have, we can attract other ones who are looking to grow in that capacity. I’m less focused on agent count as I am by the most productive agents who are thinking outside the box.

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.