Ah retirement, riding off into the sunset one day. What most of us in our working years dream about. As agents who make a living on commission vs salary, we’re constantly on the grind to create our income. As such it is unstable for many of us and we’re always working around the clock. Often putting in way more than 40 hours a week, working nights, weekends, and holidays. But we LOVE it, because we’re working for ourselves and our business. This is fine, especially when we’re in our younger years and can afford to grind to 6 even 7 figure yearly incomes for the very top producers. However, eventually father time does catch up to us, so what’s the endgame for an agent? How do agents retire?
In this blog, I’m going to address the retirement plan for agents. Well like most W-2 folks, agents can open up an IRA/401K and draw from that in retirement. So let’s dive into this. Below is a chart that shows if you saved up $1,000,000 in your savings post tax. And we want to retire at the age of 55 and let’s assume we live to be 80 years old. That means we need enough income to survive for the next 25 years. Doing that math, that means we need an annual income of $40,000 or $3,333. Hmmm… Is that enough? Depending on if your home is paid off or you’re renting and if you reduce your lifestyle. Maybe?
| SAVE YOUR WAY TO RETIREMENT STRATEGY | |
| SAVINGS IN THE BANK | $1,000,000 |
| RETIRE AT (YRS OLD) | 55 |
| LIFE EXPECTANCY (YRS OLD) | 80 |
| YEARS OF RETIREMENT | 25 |
| ANNUAL RETIREMENT INCOME | $40,000 |
| MONTHLY RETIREMENT INCOME | $3,333 |
Now let’s look at Exp Realty’s solution for retirement through their Revenue Share program. The revenue share program was designed to allow agents to build a stream of income similar to how brokers create income when they open up their own brokerage. So at Exp Realty, agents can build their own brokerage within Exp Realty’s brokerage. This means that whenever an Exp Realty agent brings an agent onto partner with them at Exp Realty, whenever the sponsored agent makes a sale, the sponsoring agent will receive a small amount of commission from Exp Realty’s 20% commission split that the sponsored agent pays to Exp Realty. Remember once an agent at Exp Realty pays out a total of $16,000 to Exp Realty, the agent has capped out on the commission split and now keeps 100% of their commission. This means after this point, the sponsoring agent no longer earns revenue share from this agent. So of course, the more agents you can bring onto partner with you the more revenue share you will receive. On top of this, the agents you bring on can also bring on their own agents to partner with them. And this is where it gets deep and can really multiply for you. So let’s take a look at the Revenue share chart below.
| RETIREMENT – EXP REALTY REV SHARE | |||
| MAX PAY/ AGENT | AGENT COUNT | PAYOUT | |
| LEVEL 1 – DIRECT LINE SPONSORED AGENTS | $2,800 | 5 | $14,000 |
| LEVEL 2 – SPONSORED AGENT’S’ AGENTS | $3,200 | 10 | $32,000 |
| LEVEL 3 – SPONSORED AGENT’S’ AGENTS | $2,000 | 0 | $0 |
| LEVEL 4 – SPONSORED AGENT’S’ AGENTS | $1,200 | 0 | $0 |
| LEVEL 5 – SPONSORED AGENT’S’ AGENTS | $800 | 0 | $0 |
| LEVEL 6 – SPONSORED AGENT’S’ AGENTS | $2,000 | 0 | $0 |
| LEVEL 7 – SPONSORED AGENT’S’ AGENTS | $4,000 | 0 | $0 |
TOTAL REV SHARE PAYOUT/YEAR | $46,000 | ||
TOTAL REV SHARE PAYOUT/MONTH | $3,833 | ||
RETIREMENT YEARS | 25 | ||
TOTAL MONEY EARNED | $1,150,000 | ||
In this example, let’s assume you’ve brought over a total of 5 agents to partner with you at Exp Realty. Max payout for each of those direct line level 1 agents is $2,800, which is a total of $14,000 in revenue share. Now let’s assume that each of those agents are able to sponsor 2 more agents of their own. This brings your total number of level 2 agents to 10, giving you a grand total of 15 agents you’re partnered with. Max payout for level 2 agents is $3,200 per agent, which is slightly more than the direct partnered agent. So 10 agents will generate a revenue share of $32,000 for you! Now your total annual revenue share payout is $46,000 or $3,833/month! And if we stop here and retire for 25 years, that would be a total income of $1,150,000! And we haven’t even unlocked levels 3 through 7 yet. Can you imagine if you were able to do that? And can you imagine, if you were able to build this revenue share all the while you were actively working as an agent? This is what makes Exp Realty unique. While you’re actively working, grinding, hustling as an agent, you can at the same time be building a future retirement plan for yourself. When you are done working as an agent at Exp Realty, you have something to show for all the years, sweat, blood, and tears you’ve spent. In addition, Exp Realty allows agents to designate a beneficiary for their revenue share that they’ve built. You can pass your legacy behind to your spouse or children to benefit from and continue to receive payment from. Do you realize how powerful that is for you today and your future generations?
My question for agents right now, especially those who are burning the candle from sun up to well beyond sun down to create a six possibly seven figure income. Ask yourself, with the amount of energy, time, and loyalty that you have given to your brokerage. When it comes time for you to hang it up. Is your brokerage going to give back anything substantial to you? Will there be a legacy for you? A way for you to build generational wealth for your family? If the answer is no, you’ve got some serious decisions to make. As you know, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today! If you have any questions about the content I’ve shared, drop them in the comments. I’ll be happy to address them.