$474M in Volume Without Zillow? Here’s How Paul Hurme Did It

If you’re a real estate team leader, broker-owner, or ambitious agent looking to build a thriving real estate business, Episode 52 of The OT Only Teams for Real Estate Podcast is essential listening.

In this episode, host Daren Phillipy sits down with Paul Hurme, the founder of TeamBuilder based in the Seattle/Kirkland, Washington market. Paul’s team closed 412 units totaling $474 million in volume in the last 12 months—a staggering achievement that caught the attention of real estate professionals nationwide.

But Paul’s success didn’t come from doing what everyone else was doing. Instead, he built a dual-division model that serves both the traditional resale market and homebuilders/developers—a combination that provides stability, scale, and opportunity.

🏗️ Dual Business Model: Builders + Resale = Long-Term Growth

Unlike most teams, Paul operates what he calls a “dual-engine real estate business.” One side focuses on resale (branded as Via Real Estate), and the other is embedded directly with builders and developers, offering on-site sales and marketing.

“We provide a captured, in-house, builder-dedicated sales team for private builders and developers. It’s like being their DR Horton or Lennar, but under our brand.” – Paul Hurme

This model allows Paul to create predictable income streams while building long-term partnerships with developers. His team acts as a one-stop-shop for builder sales, handling:

• On-site sales representation
• Pricing and product strategy
• Marketing and transaction management
• Buyer engagement and client nurturing
  

And it all operates under the client-first philosophy:

“The builder is the client—not the broker, not the consumer. The builder hires us, and we exist to serve and protect their margins.” – Paul Hurme

This model is not only scalable—it’s defensible. While most agents chase deals, TeamBuilder earns them.

📊 Organizational Structure: Systems Create Scalability

One of the biggest challenges real estate team leaders face is structure. Paul solved this with clarity and intention. His team has two layers:

• TeamBuilder (Builder Services Division): Focused exclusively on new construction and builder partnerships
• Via Real Estate (Resale Division): Co-led with his sister, Vija Williams, and affiliated with PLACE, a top-tier real estate platform for back-end systems
  

“We’re a branch office of Keller Williams Eastside, but we operate with our own structure. On the resale side, it’s me and Vija. On the builder side, I own 100%. We keep the worlds separate but collaborative.” – Paul Hurme

Each side includes dedicated operations staff, transaction managers, and agents who either specialize or float between divisions. They currently employ 5–6 full-time staff and have about 30 agents split between new construction and resale.

📈 Feeding the Team: Where the Leads Come From

Let’s face it—feeding a team of 30+ agents requires more than just hustle. Paul’s team combines lead generation systems with smart data management and long-term nurturing strategies.

Top Lead Sources:

• Referral Exchange – Trusted referral system for vetted leads
• Private Cash Offer Partner – A national buyer program that’s delivered 40–50 high-quality leads in just a few months
• Builder Leads & CRM Re-engagement – Past new construction buyers stay in their database for ongoing follow-up
• On-site Walk-ins & Contingent Buyers – With integrity and boundaries, they convert unrepresented contingent buyers into clients
• Scripted Follow-ups – Market report click-throughs and other drip campaigns trigger personalized scripts and outreach
  

“I believe the key metric is appointments. If you’re setting and going on 6–7 appointments a month, you’re in the game.” – Paul Hurme

Paul’s team doesn’t use Flex or buy Zillow leads—instead, they focus on intent-based systems that generate warm leads and empower agents to self-generate.

🧠 Recruiting: Finding & Keeping the Right People

Agent turnover is real, and Paul doesn’t pretend otherwise. In fact, he’s brutally honest about the ongoing challenge of recruiting and retention.

“We’ve tried being open to everyone. We’ve tried being restrictive. Right now, we’re ‘openly close-minded.’ That means we trust our onboarding and expect to know by 90 days whether someone’s in or out.” – Paul Hurme

He leverages Brevity Recruiter, markets through social media visibility, and makes weekly recruiting a standard part of the calendar. He’s not trying to build a 100-agent team; he’s looking for 5–6 Navy SEALs—agents who are full-time, professional, and committed.

“To have Navy SEALs, you need a Navy. You can’t expect elite performance without structure and support.” – Paul Hurme

The process is simple but rigorous:

1. Clear expectations
2. Structured onboarding
3. Accountability with grace
4. Willingness to let people go when it’s not the right fit
   

🔄 Expectation Management: A Secret Weapon

One of the biggest takeaways of the episode is Paul’s expectation-based leadership style. Instead of dictating accountability, he collaborates with each agent to build a customized plan based on their goals.

“If someone wants to make $100K, we work backwards. How many appointments does that take? What kind of activities do they need to do? Then we build a roadmap.” – Paul Hurme

But Paul’s leadership philosophy avoids micromanaging:

“I’m not chasing them down. I’m not browbeating them. I want to create an environment that’s clear, empowering, and honest. If they don’t drink from the water, they probably weren’t going to anyway.” – Paul Hurme

This balance of ownership, autonomy, and support creates a high-performance culture rooted in integrity.

🎯 Coaching Through Fear: Helping Agents Break Through

When an attendee asked Paul how he helps agents overcome fear—especially of cold calling or door knocking—his answer was both practical and insightful:

“Start with what they’re good at. Then equip them with good things to say. And then train them with repetition. That’s how confidence is built.” – Paul Hurme

He encourages new agents to start with high-impact actions like open houses, and uses scripts, onboarding bootcamps, and mass action days to desensitize fear.

A favorite script for market report leads:

“Hey [Name], I saw you clicked on the market report. Thanks for picking up—what did you think of the value? Too high, too low, or just right?”

That simple line opens conversations and builds momentum.

🧘 Leading with Love, Sobriety & Self-Work

In one of the most powerful and personal moments of the episode, Paul shares how getting sober 8 years ago shaped him as a leader.

“I got sober over 8 years ago. That was the biggest thing I ever did. Every day, I make sure I leave the house with my mind right and my heart right. That’s how I lead—with service and love.” – Paul Hurme

He emphasizes that leadership starts with how you show up—your energy, your presence, and your mindset. That’s what impacts your team more than any script or CRM.

🔥 Final Thoughts from Daren Phillipy

“This is why we do the OT Zoom Mastermind every week—to give agents and team leaders access to honest, tactical conversations like this one. Paul didn’t just share wins—he shared how he wins. That’s gold.”

📣 Join the Movement: Live Every Tuesday @ 12 PM PST

Want to connect with top-producing real estate team leaders like Paul? Join us live every Tuesday at 12 PM Pacific for The OT Zoom Mastermind. Visit OnlyForTeams.com to get the link.

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Transcript

Announcer  00:00

Welcome to the OT only teams in real estate.

Daren Phillipy  00:15

What I saw there, that’s pretty much the admin portion, yeah. Is that right? Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s the, you know,

Paul Hurme  00:27

because that’s, that’s the company, I mean, and look, we’re all friends here, but I mean, look, sales people come and go. We need Navy SEALs. But to have Navy SEALs, you need a navy

Announcer  01:27

here’s your host, Daren Phillipy, Hey

Daren Phillipy  01:30

everybody. Welcome to this week’s ot only team for real estate agents. My name is Daren Phillipy. I’m your host, and I got you back. You guys are gonna love this one. I’ve got Paul Hermey from Seattle area, his team, the team builder. This team is really unique because he’s got two portions of it. You’ve got the team builder portion of it, which runs the real estate team, and then he’s got this builder portion of it that they work really close together and check this out. Tell me. Tell me you wouldn’t hate this. 412 units and $474 million in volume. Those are not bad numbers. So you’re gonna love Paul. He’s, he’s gonna get into a couple things. He’s going to talk a little bit about what, what it’s like with, you know, his builder, and working with the builders and how the builders are are their clients. But he also spends a lot of time talking about leading and holding those, those team members, accountable to help them get what they want. And so we all know, if you join a team, that’s our number one job as as team leads, is to make sure that the people who are on our team are getting what they want. So you get what you want. So you’re going to love listen to Paul. The other thing too is he’s going to touch just a little bit on place. They have an organization where they plugged into called place, where they basically run the whole back end of the team. They have some marketing stuff, some training stuff, some accounting stuff, a whole bunch of stuff where you’re able to just kind of as a team, plug into it. We’ve had a couple of place teams on the OT and Paul is just another one of those great teams that have plugged into place. And there’s tons of value. So we’ll talk a little bit about that. So guys, I’m super excited for you guys to be able to hear this. Now I need you to be in the room. And some of some of you guys haven’t come to the room yet, so all you need to do is go to only four teams.com and click on the join the room when it’s 12 noon Pacific, and there you are. You’re in the room. You’re able to hang out with guys like Paul, and you’d be able to ask him questions and things like that. So don’t miss that. The other thing is this, I need more listeners, more viewers, so I need you to push the button that says share. I need you to push the button that says Like. I need you to make sure that if you can leave a review, as long as it’s good that, you know, I’m sensitive guy, as long as it’s good, leave a review and let people know about the only team zoom, mastermind, super valuable, super important, and that’s it. I’m done bagging. Let’s go ahead and hand you over to Paul, and I’ll see you guys after the OT. Alright? Guys, well, you made it. We are here. It is the OT time. Super excited to have Paul, yeah, don’t ruin it, because I was so excited to be able to say it. Right, we got Paul Herme from Kirkland, Washington or Seattle area, and he’s, he is an awesome producer. Over the last 12 months, the numbers that I pulled 412 units, 474 million in volume. And I am so glad that you’re hanging out with us. Dude,

Paul Hurme  05:01

hey, I appreciate being asked, and I’m happy to be here. And, yeah, hopefully I don’t drop an F bomb. That’s one of the big that’s one of the big things that’s in my mind. It’s like, take it easy there. So anyway, don’t

Daren Phillipy  05:17

make me put the explicit, on YouTube or or iTunes or something like that.

Paul Hurme  05:24

But for real, thanks for asking me. And I love doing stuff like this. I, you know, in our industry, man, everybody knows stuff. I just think everybody knows a little bit of different stuff. And there’s just different perspectives. I heard Gary Keller once at a thing down in Austin. Say, you know, one of our fundamental jobs as real estate brokers is to provide perspective to people. So anyway, if I’ve got some, there’s something good here, great. If it’s not, just leave it, ignore it. So

Daren Phillipy  05:53

there you go. Don’t tell you, so you don’t have your feelings

Paul Hurme  05:57

hurt. Don’t hurt my feelings. You’re so sensitive.

Daren Phillipy  06:01

So tell us a bit about your team and how you got to I know where you’re at. Yeah,

Paul Hurme  06:07

sure. So team build is actually a second generation company. I bought the company from my dad in 2015 haven’t lost it yet, but team builder was born out of a local regional brokerage up here in the Northwest. And I guess I could name the brokerage. Doesn’t matter. Do whatever you want, yeah. So originally we, we were born out of John L Scott real estate, which is a big, strong regional brand. And there was a corporate division in John L Scott that was called their builder services division. And a long, long story short, my dad was a corporate VP at John L Scott was like his. I think it was this third act of his real estate career, and he broke it out of corporate and reformed, rebranded it as team builder in the mid 2000s or early mid 2006 2007 and what are our primary business still is, but it’s evolved, and we’ll talk a lot about that today, is working with builders and developers, and specifically providing on site sales and marketing services for private builders and direct And developers. And our business model Well, there’s like dear Horton or Lennar saying to how they manage and shape and lead and train their in house sales team. So in essence, we provide a captured in house builder, dedicated sales team for private builders and developers. So we were with the kind of our own brand through the early, you know, to the 2012 13. And then my sister, who had joined Keller Williams, began talking about Keller Williams, and, long story short, we switched over and became sort of team builder John L Scott became team builder Tyler Williams. That was in 2013 and still kind of trucking today. So that’s the the quick evolution.

Daren Phillipy  08:30

So awesome. So, so, yes, yeah. And now your dad, every single time you see him, he’s like, don’t screw it up.

Paul Hurme  08:38

So back in the day, when he when, when he was still running the show, and he would leave and travel, he would say, he go to me, go, you’re in charge. Make decisions. I won’t second guess you, but don’t f it up. So it really no, that’s what Gods do they do? But I will tell you, though there is, there’s a there was a big evolution and learning curve in kind of, you know, running the day to day stuff, but then all of a sudden the owner, being an owner, and owning it my own, and having that responsibility, and that took, that was, that was harrowing for me for a couple years, because it, it was that real shit. Am I gonna sorry? There you go. Am I gonna lose the company today? Right? Am I, you know, and dealing with those swings that was, you know, because I’ve got, well, there’s people that are responsible. I’m responsible for now. So that was, yeah, learn a little bit of that. Yeah, that gross. You

Daren Phillipy  09:48

didn’t screw it up. It makes me proud.

09:50

Yes, yeah. So anyway, yeah,

Daren Phillipy  09:53

tell me about your org chart. What’s that look like?

Paul Hurme  10:01

I have a I got something I can show you guys. I love that screen. Share you better believe it. Let me, let me set it. Let me set this up, though. And Daren, we were just talking about the before we came on. So team builder has a couple different functions. So we the market center that we’re a part of is called Keller Williams east side, and that’s in Kirkland, Washington. It’s literally across the lake from downtown Seattle. On a clear day. I can see Seattle from here, but we have our we’re in a remote location, and so team builder functions as a branch office of Keller Williams east side. So from a brokerage standpoint, there’s a brokerage aspect that team builder does. So there’s team builder the brokerage, and there’s team builder the team team builder the company. So probably about team builder, team builder the team so team builder is in the world of builders, developers, land acquisition and things like that. My sister and I partnered three years ago to create a resale team that exists here, and that’s called via real estate. And my sister, I don’t know if some of you might know her, via Williams, she’s been in Coronavirus for a long time, and is in place and all that so. So via and I are partners in via real estate and in the in the traditional resale world, I don’t think anyone cares a crap about Paul real estate, but via has got a good brand and so so and I just share that, just so you learn a little bit of flavor of kind of what happens in this shop. So team builders, 100% me, via real estate, is V and I as partners. And we’ve got brokers, though, and sales people that do a little bit of new construction only, a little bit of resale only, and then we’ve got a couple that float back and forth. And so it’s a fascinating thing, but from a from a team builder perspective, this is what our org chart looks like. So in our in how we work with builders, again, this is this is not right or wrong. This is just how we do it. Our org chart is horizontal from our standpoint, but the vertical aspect, the builder is who we report to, so and how we work with builders. The builder is our client. And then we’ve got an operations component, our account managers. That’s just our own vernacular. The resale translation would be kind of the listing broker, sort of, they told me, I have to give myself a title. So that’s me. But what we focus on, from that standpoint, are these kind of nine things our job is to maximize profits and protect margins higher, manage the sales teams outside broker relations, product and pricing, transaction management, meetings, reports you can see in all of that. And then this is just kind of the the areas that we just divide responsibility. So from a team builder standpoint, we’re at five, six full time employees. And then in our broke our agent count fluctuates on the resale side, I think we’re at 14 or 15 on our resale team. And on the new construction side, about the same amount, maybe a little bit more. But account management, transaction, all the things, and these are all kind of that we deal with. But from the builder developer side, our sole purpose is to serve the client. And in that place, the client is the builder. And Daren, I’ll send that org chart with you. So good. So, you know? So that’s what we do. And then on the, on the resale side, you know, it’s, it’s V and I, and then, and via, got her hands in a bunch of different worlds, and so I’ve got my hands in different worlds. So that’s kind of what made sense to partner. Then we have a director of operations, and that’s our only full time employee. On the resale side, we do have a virtual assistant. And then via real estate is partnering with place. Team builder is not so we leverage place on the resale side. So it’s a there’s a lot of I don’t know it makes sense to me. It may seem a little bit convoluted to other people, but that’s kind of how we do

Daren Phillipy  14:34

it. I think that’s super important for for teams to be able to see this is the way we’ve built our business, for for us to who’s never even thought of that, oh my gosh. Is there a way for me to partner with place, and not because place has got an amazing resource and you could just plug into and this also we have these other things. Looks like there is maybe someone on on that’s listening or watching say, oh my gosh, this is the. One thing that I’ve been missing on, and so I love that you were able to share that. And what I what I saw there, that’s pretty much the admin portion of that. Is that, right? Yeah, for

Paul Hurme  15:10

sure. I mean, that’s the, you know, because that’s, that’s the company, I mean. And look, we’re all friends here. But I mean, look, sales people come and go. Good companies stick around. And you know, by the time we have a salesperson come to me, or come to VRI or anyone and say they’re going to leave, we rarely fight it’s because at that point, number one, we’ve screwed up somewhere 100% but at that point it’s like, Okay, fair enough, you know, and so, but having a structure, because that’s, for me, that’s what they’re joined. They’re joining. They’re joining something that can offer them something they can’t get on their own. And we’re asking for some things for them to give up. I mean, it goes back to that Daren, that Daren, that conversation we just had beforehand, right? Which is, it’s, you know, team leaders recruiting, you know, brokers to their market center. It’s, we’re all doing the same things. We just call it. We’ve got little different monikers, yeah. So, yeah,

Daren Phillipy  16:18

that’s exactly right. I love it. Well, let’s, let’s, you’ve got 15 people on the resale side that. How do you feed those agents?

Paul Hurme  16:31

That’s, that’s the thing. The lessons I learn are typically born from painful experiences and painful mistakes. I don’t know why that is. I just it might be a human nature thing, but that’s what it is. So how we really, what we really work on with our with our team, is, how do we provide good leads and lead sources, and then also continue to invest and encourage them and ultimately empower them, and mode of find their motivation so they can lead, generate on their own and and that’s just the challenge, and that’s It’s a it’s a day in, day out, deal. We don’t we’re not a Zillow flex team or anything like that. We have a couple things that come in that are lead sources. We rely referral exchange is a has been a good thing for us. We’ve partnered with a national cash offer group, private cash offer group, big money that has proven to be really successful. They are very, very new in our market in western Washington, the cash offer thing is not caught on as much in our market, but that’s proven to be, I think we’ve been with them now for four months. And I want to say we’ve got, I think we’ve had 40 or 50, let’s call it 50, actual legit leads that come in have come in we’ve made contact with. I think we’re at 80% contact. Of those contacts, we’re on 50% getting appointments. And then of those, we’re converting. And, you know, 25% so it’s a 25% conversion ratio, which has been really good. We utilize and leverage what we do on site for builders and developers. For our we sell sales team. There’s some nuances with that. We don’t recruit people that come into our new home sales centers, and we don’t, we don’t steal them from the builder, but we do for contingent buyers, if they’re not represented, we’ve got a mechanism to get contingent buyers, so that’s been a decent lead source. And then anyone who’s bought a new home through our team builder side of things, we’ve got them in our CRM and we’re constantly marketing and dripping and doing all that. And then it’s a question of, you know, encouraging the team to jump into that database and do what they need to do, and then scripting and practicing and monitoring and all the things. So, yeah,

Daren Phillipy  19:35

I love it. So this is, this is I like to go down this path you. First of all, I think all of us really like you right now, because we can tell you just straight dude. And the one thing I want to hear is this, you’re like, where do you how do you feed your team? And there was a big, long pause with a lot of like through all this pain. What have you learned from your pain,

Paul Hurme  19:58

that I am humans? And I am not perfect, and I am fallible. I will say one of the things that’s nice for the most part, I’m a I’m a good energy guy, and I’m an early morning guy, and I don’t typically need a ton of motivation to get up. I’m, you know, I’m in in all of that, what I can say, one of the things that’s nice for me is, you know, having a partner in in unfortunate that I’ve got a partner, and a partner also happens to be a sister, um, which is its own challenge on some on some levels. But it’s also to be able to go, man, like yesterday we had our Monday Morning Sales Meeting. I’m so glad that, via had stuff prepared. I just didn’t have it. I didn’t, I didn’t have it. I didn’t, I didn’t act like I had it. I didn’t have bad body language or anything like that, but I just didn’t have it. So there’s things like that, you know. I, I think for me, it’s, it’s about showing up and being consistent with them and for them, and not to mention it’s recruiting, always, always. So, you know, but we do one of the, one of the things that’s been very helpful for us is, you know, we do leverage a lot of our relationship with place, because there’s just so much training and opportunity there and and, by the way, this isn’t a commercial place by any stretch either. But, you know, it’s all the same thing. It’s all the things that before, place, leverage, a lot of the Keller Williams stuff, so, but it’s the same challenges. It’s, you know, how do we make them? How do you make a 1099, come in the office every day? I mean, I know that if they’re in the office, they’re gonna have a better shot at doing anything than being at home. And I look out in the parking lot, and there’s my car via his car and one of our brokers.

Daren Phillipy  22:10

So by the way, everybody’s shaking their head. They’re all hoping Diane tuned in specifically to say Paul’s gonna answer this question. Sounds like we’re in the same spot. Well,

Paul Hurme  22:23

it’s recruit, but it is about recruiting, and it’s, it’s just, it’s an ongoing non stop thing, and via, you know, V and I on that side, we, we’ve got no thought on how many brokers we need. What the goal, what our goal is, is to find, you know, five or six or whatever it is, just a small contingent that our full time professional real estate brokers who want to get after it. And I’m going to quote my sister, damn it, we need Navy SEALs, but they have Navy SEALs. You need a navy it makes me angry to say it and give her credit, but it is true, but it is it is it in recruiting as a commitment in and of itself? I mean, that’s and that’s a commitment. So, and we go through, we go through some peaks and valleys on the recruiting thing, and yeah. So, hey,

Daren Phillipy  23:33

perfect. We’re, we’re transitioning into the leverage portion, because I want to have this conversation, because I think this is where so many teams feel, feel the pain. Um, Jay’s had this conversation with me multiple times. It’s finding that talent and and what have you figured out? What do you do?

Paul Hurme  23:57

It’s consistency. I mean, it’s a commitment to do it, consistency

Daren Phillipy  24:00

is in what? What do you mean by that? Well,

Paul Hurme  24:05

ideally, if ideally, it’s a it’s a daily lead gen to recruit. And I don’t think it’s hours and hours every day. It could be as simple of have I reached out and talk to the brokers on the other end of transactions that our team’s been a part of. Okay, so and, and on that one I’m not good at, one of the things that we do in the CRM we’re on is brevity, and through private brevity recruiter, which is, you know, a lot like indeed, we’ve actually had pretty good success, at least getting candidates in and having people send in resumes and having conversations or interviews with them. What I find is most of the time we’re not asking them to come on. What I do find is I get better at it. And more comfortable at those conversations. So the consistency of, if it can’t be daily, I think it’s probably twice a week, some amount of time in the schedule is, you know, reaching out from a recruiting standpoint. So brevity recruiter has been huge. We have a really, really good relationship with the leadership at our market center and their equal opportunity. You know, the teams that are there, it’s Hey, they get they get introduced. But we do a good job, you know, networking with that, you know, this is year 19 in the industry for me. So there’s, there is a little bit of, you know, we’ll have opportunities come just because of that, via is pretty high profile and social media and the Keller Williams and real estate landscape. So we certainly, you know, leverage that. But I would say the, you know, our four or five that are actually getting at getting after it right now, for our team, have been through revenue recruiter, and that’s just Yeah, and new in the industry, which is its own thing, too.

Daren Phillipy  26:22

Perfect. Love it. Love it. So then, then, what is that? What is that missing persons report? When it comes to, I’m looking you, you have four or five great agents that are getting after it, making, my guess is, making income, making profit for the team you’re working,

26:43

yeah, yeah. So,

Daren Phillipy  26:44

so what is that missing persons report that you go out and you’re looking

Paul Hurme  26:51

for like a profile type of, I don’t know if there’s an exact, exact profile. Um,

Daren Phillipy  26:58

I’ll start it this way, full time, part time,

Paul Hurme  27:02

we’re okay with both. We’re okay with both. I think it’s a little bit of in our marketplace, especially if someone’s new and there’s not another income in their life dynamic to balance that out, like a spouse or a partner or whatever they’re going to need, they’ve got some different job, part time jobs and all of that. But we’re okay with both. We’ve become really, really good at expectation management at the very beginning and the outset. As much for us, as much for me, as it is for them, you know, expert, you know, expectations are kind of pre ordered resentments in a lot of fashion. So if those aren’t right, you know, it’s all that. But you know, from a from a standpoint of the type of person we’re looking for. I think we’re pretty open on that our team, you know, I think our youngest is 22 in the oldest is, oh, it’s not me 60. And then we’ve got a chunk of 25 to 35 year olds, which, you know, that’s a thing. That’s a thing too. So do

Daren Phillipy  28:26

you take everybody? Do you pick and choose? You throw it up against the wall. I mean, what’s your philosophy on your team?

Paul Hurme  28:36

When B and I first kind of partnered and got into that, and by the way. So we partnered in April. Our first month in business together was April of 22 right as the market just went and so that was tough. That

Daren Phillipy  28:53

ruined it for us. You guys, partnering ruined for all of us.

Paul Hurme  28:56

It was my fault. It was my fault, and potentially, nevermind I was going to at first. I think it was, come on in you raise your hand. I’m going to ask you if you want to join or join. And that’s tumultuous as well. I think right now, we’re probably a little bit more restrictive in that my, well, my tendency is to be more open and let people come in and see if they can figure it out. And if they want to stay, they stay. And if they’re going to roll, they roll. I’m not sure that’s totally effective. That can be a bit disruptive. And from an administrative side, you know, from an operation side, and I don’t necessarily think it’s always a great optic for the current team. So I would say, currently, right now, we are. Are openly close minded. That’s a brand new term. Don’t know what it means.

Daren Phillipy  30:08

Well, define it? Well,

Paul Hurme  30:11

I think it’s, I think it is, is trusting and having a, you know, trusting our our process, our interviewing process, and in all of that, I think it’s, it’s really being really clear on our onboarding process. You know, that’s like, hey, after 90 days, if we already know where this is going, pull the pin, let’s move on, or in or double down. I think it’s trusting that, you know, V and I both have unilateral go or no, goes on anyone at any time. You know, more often than not, though, you know, we’re, you know, we talk about, like, if I’m not sure, I’ll sit, you know, we have it gets screened for operations. Typically will go to me, if we get past that, then we’ll, you know, I might throw them to be able might bring them on. So, yeah. So what I’m really looking for, though, is leaning into on the interviewing process. What, what does this person want to get out of their life? What are, what’s the motivation? What’s what track record, if any, do they have? How realistic up they are? You know, we just had someone, you know, we’ve been getting a lot of hits from Redfin brokers recently, and that hasn’t been great for us. That is not that has not been great. So, yeah, okay, yeah. I’m not sure if I

Daren Phillipy  31:52

answered that very well, but you were telling us exactly what I needed to hear. So thank you so much on that. Yeah, you’ve got three things I want to hit, and then we’re going to end up probably open it up to the group in a little bit on average, how many ins come on your team and how many outs go on your team, on average, a month or every other month, or whatever that ends up being for you, I think

Paul Hurme  32:11

we average in 2024 probably one and A half, 1.75 Yeah, maybe just under one, so the ratio was better, but, yeah, and our recruiting, I don’t know why it is. Well, maybe I do, but it tends to be a bit more. It comes in bunches, like there might be a two or three months patch, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Daren Phillipy  32:41

that’s part that’s perfect. I just, I just want to know, because I think sometimes we get caught up or or whatever, there’s like an image of, oh my gosh, there’s people, someone always leaving, well, there’s also someone always coming. And that’s kind of how, like you said that the your team is built upon your your your staff and your leadership, not your agents, yeah,

Paul Hurme  33:05

but, but that’s careful too. I mean, because we, we still need to, yeah, it’s, it’s not easy. No, it’s not. It’s just not and, and I think the nature of our industry just makes it that way, because it’s, I’ve heard it said that in real estate, it’s the greatest, you know, kind of gathering of entrepreneurs in in any other industry, I would argue, though it’s the greatest gathering of people who think they’re entrepreneurs, but actually need to be managed. And so that’s that tough. It’s a tough balance, and it’s a tough balance.

Daren Phillipy  33:55

Jay just said, Amen. I saw him. I use Amen. By

Paul Hurme  34:00

the way, I 100% need to be managed. So there you go, and, and, but, but here’s the thing, though, and that’s it, you know, on the other side of our, you know, when we’re working with builders and developers, man, that’s, that’s, that’s an easier management for us or for me, because it’s like, you know, they’re not the broker, the salesperson is not the client. The builder is in the resale world. From a team standpoint, that people on our team, they’re actually my clients. So it’s, I don’t know, it’s, yeah, there’s been a there’s been a substantial learning curve for me and and for the most part, well, not to be this terminally unique, to be unique. But, you know, I started the business as an on site sales guy working for a developer, so I’ve only been in the world of new home sales in all. That for the bulk of my career, and I would say my embracing and jumping into the traditional resale world, which most people are in, have only really been in the last five years or so, and so I’m still on that learning curve. And you know, so it’s just, yeah, it’s it’s a challenge, dude.

Daren Phillipy  35:24

I’m so glad you’re here today. All right, I’m going to give you two. You could only pick one of these topics. There’s two things I’m really curious on, but we’re going to only go after one of them. You talked about setting those expectations at the beginning. So I want to know what your expect expectations look like, and how do you set that at the beginning, and OR NOT, AND, OR, how do you hold them accountable to do their lead generation? Which one do you want to talk

Paul Hurme  35:53

about? I think it’s the expectation management. I think that supersedes trying to hold them accountable on lead gen. Um, real quick on lead gen. I think the decision is needed. Is easy to do. Hey, this is when you show up for lead gen. It’s Monday, Wednesday, or whatever the hell it is, three days, four days, two days, whatever it is it has these hours. And if they don’t show up, then you can boot them off the team. I think you might have a lonely team, though. So for me, I go back to the expectations. What do I feel like you’re answering both questions? Well, they’re both interchangeable, sort of they’re relatable.

Daren Phillipy  36:32

I should say, then you’re so good, by the way, you’re right. The

Paul Hurme  36:35

EX, for me, the expectations are go, Okay, so let’s you know, how many, how much money do you want to make? And it’s 100 anyone who’s new ish is 100 grand. I mean, I don’t know if it is in your guys’ market, but everyone wants to make 100 grand. And, I mean, look, well, I wanted to make 100 grand my first couple years. It’s like all I want to make, right? It’s funny. And the number of changes get older, but, but it is about Okay, so do you want to make 100 grand? What does that look like in our in our market, with Team splits and all of that,

37:15

that could be seven or eight deals in our market. I mean, our price points are higher,

Paul Hurme  37:24

you know, maybe a little maybe, maybe 10, whatever it is. Okay, so then it’s backing into so here’s the activities required to make those, you know, 10 sales, for example. Or let’s go one a month. Make it 12. Okay, so we’ve got to go on X, we’ve got to be on next number of open houses and all of that and back into it. So for me, it’s the expectation of, okay, whatever you want to make, what really the focal point then becomes, for me, is not the amount of sales they’re going to make or how much money they’re going to make, but is, let’s quantify how many appointments you need to set and go on in a month. Because for me, the appointment is actually the end all be all, because if you get the appointment, there’s a bunch of shit that has to happen before, and then to get the appointment, you gotta be good, and then hopefully a bunch of good stuff happens after that. So it’s like, you know, I think in our shop, I mean, you probably need to be to get someone either a listing or get a, you know, buyer broker services agreement is what we call it. You know, you probably need to be hitting to get one of those a week. I mean, you need to be probably at six or seven appointments. So to do that, then, how are you then required?

Daren Phillipy  38:43

So, yeah, you have that conversation with them and set the expectations and say, This is the expect expectations. This the activity you’re going to need to be doing. Yeah, you willing to do it or not, and I’m going to hold you accountable

Paul Hurme  38:54

to it. I don’t know if they it’s I hold them accountable if they want to be accountable to that’s where, again, I’ll say with you guys. I mean, I I’m looking to find and work with people that want to come in the office and get after it, and we’re growing as adults. I’m not, I’m just, I’m not going to chase them down and I’m not going to browbeat them. I’m just not going to do it.

39:22

That’s not that’s just not my style. I know there’s a bunch of negative I’m not about. I’m not but

Paul Hurme  39:34

I want to create an environment where it’s like, hey, let’s be really realistic about what you want to do in this industry and in in in what kind of money that you want to make do for you and your family. And let’s get on a course to do that. And it’s, you know, I want to make the path to the water really, really exciting, enjoyable and easy, but they have to drink. You. And if they don’t want to drink, I know that regardless of what I do, whether I’m on their asses or leaving them alone, if they’re not going to end up drinking from the water, so to speak. To carry the metaphor all the way through, they’re out anyway, no good. So then it goes back to how do I want to do the recruiting and all of that. So it’s a balance, and we need numbers, yeah, it’s a balance. We need numbers, yeah,

Daren Phillipy  40:25

oh, you’re awesome, dude. Alright, we got one more question, guys. So this is now the time where you’d raise your digital hand that is down below in that green section, you’re going to hit on the more. You’ll hit more, and you’ll go to, maybe it’s not under more, maybe it’s under reactions. You’ll raise your hand so go push that button when you have your questions. And we’ve got another 15 minutes with with Paul. What have you learned over the last 12 months? Paul as leading your team?

Paul Hurme  41:02

Ultimately, for me, it’s about what I control. And you know so what I have to do some things to make sure I show up in a way that is positive with a with a the right, the right attitude of service and love for our team. But that’s for me, that’s, that’s actually the whole deal is, how do I? How do I show up? And, you know, I know, as a segue, you know, I got sober little over eight years ago, and that that’s been the biggest thing that I’ve ever done, and, and I’ve had the that coincided with, you know, actually, I’d own, I bought the team out, you know, a little bit before that. And so for me, kind of, kind of going through all this, you know, how do I show up for the team, you know? And for me, I’ve got to do things that work on my sobriety and recovery, and I do that on a daily basis and all of that, but I can translate that into my approach with the people that I work with. And what I have to constantly, consistently remind myself in is to I don’t always love the process, and I get, I just don’t, but I need to trust and continue to run myself to trust in the process. And, you know, and we’ve got road maps on on how we do that, and so, yeah, so I would say, I don’t know, just kind of a long winded answer. I make sure when I walk out of the house in the morning that that that my shit is as good as it can be tight you know, that my mind is right, that my heart right is right, and so I can show up and at least have a shot at impacting so. So, yeah, you know that being said with the team, though, and it’s still, I think one of the things for this year coming into it, I think six months ago, I would have said 2025, 100% we’re going to be fully on upswing. I think it’s a tough year this year again. I think it was going to be a little bit better than 2424 was certainly better than 23 for us. So, but we can’t control if anybody’s going to tariff the Canadians or Canadians, right? We can’t control that stuff. We can’t control what interest rates are doing, you know. So all we can control are we having enough conversations with people that want to buy and sell real estate. And for me, at the heart of it, that’s what we do. And when I focus on that and all the other things kind of melt away. So anyway, perfect,

Daren Phillipy  44:22

perfect. So and you, you’re couple, couple hours away from Canadian border, so don’t, don’t piss off the Canadians. As far as Paul’s concerned.

Paul Hurme  44:32

Have a really funny, really personal thing I could share with you about going to Canada or not going to Canada based on my choices in my life, but I won’t. We

Daren Phillipy  44:42

have don’t nobody has their questions. Nobody’s raised their hand. So let’s know.

Paul Hurme  44:50

I will say that for someone like me, the decision to get sober wasn’t necessarily 100% voluntary. At the very beginning of it, there was the progressive rebel. Asian,

Daren Phillipy  45:00

oh, okay, that’s kind of how lessons learned, honey, bro, sometimes, thank you for raising your hand. Unmute yourself and ask away. You’re good. Now, go ahead and just unmute yourself, honey.

Speaker 1  45:18

Sorry, doing two things at once. You’re fantastic, Paul, it’s it really is very good to to hear all of this. What do you do when you have someone who is fearful? How do you get them out of that box to move forward, fearful,

Paul Hurme  45:49

calling someone fearful, what? What’s the what’s the fear?

Speaker 1  45:56

Calling someone face to face, knocking doors. Yeah,

Paul Hurme  46:05

well, what we talk about is getting back to being consistent. And so really it’s, you know what lead generation thing is going to be most effective for them? And look for some people, if store knocking is gonna is not your thing, then my simple answer is, well, don’t, don’t know, but let’s find the thing that does work for you. And as far as the fear of the phone, boy, we put our onboarding process we put them through, kind of culminates into a mass action day. And the gold standard, what we try to get them for, is they make 1000 dials, and that gets them through the phone, or, you know, the fear of the phone. You know, from a psychological standpoint, I mean, basic, you know, fear, it’s one of two things, right? It’s I’m going to lose something I have. I’m not going to get something I want. And in this case, the fear of what, what are they going to lose? Well, it’s an ego or a pride thing, or they’re going to think I’m stupid, or think I’m this, or whatever. So I think getting through that. But I think a lot of that fear can be alleviated with giving them good things to say on the phone. And that’s again, now we’re back in the script practices. Here’s, here’s, for example, we get everybody on like, automatic market reports, and so when someone clicks on a market report, we get a notification, and hopefully someone’s following them up with that and and one of the great little, simple scripts that that I love and I use and encourage our team to use, is, you know, Daren, I just saw that you clicked on the Market Report. Thanks for picking up, by the way. And hey, what do you think of the value? Was it too high, too low, or is it just right? And regardless of what Daren says, I’m going to say, tell me more about that. That’s a for me. That simple script just opens up the conversation with people. So, you know, I’d say, to answer the question, though, let’s find something that they can be good at. And then number two, I think our responsibility is, are we giving them enough good things to say, and then are we helping them on the repetition and the training of all of that? And look the script practice. Script practice. It’s, it’s a bit of a kick in the head, to be honest, I think. But that’s how we get better. I mean, a long time ago, I was a good athlete, and I played soccer in college, and one of the things that was part of my game was I was very good with both right and left foot, and I could hit the ball really, really well with both feet. That didn’t happen overnight. That was hours and hours every day for a half a dozen years. And that repetition translates, and it’s the same thing with bomb people. But yeah, so I don’t know if that answers it, but a bunch of stuff to think about

Daren Phillipy  49:20

great, great question, honey, we all had agents that are in fear, and what I heard you say is, is find a talent that they’ve got and help them be confident in that talent.

Paul Hurme  49:33

Yeah, I think so. I mean, we’re not psychologists or psychiatrists in it’s in, you know, in it is. So what’s the thing that that’s they’re afraid of? And again, talking to strangers, that’s not normal for a lot of people. It’s just not that said open houses are, you know, are great way to get over talking to people I was I got my life. It’s on a Wednesday, I was on site at a development on a Saturday back in 2005 and boy, I got it took me a couple years to get comfortable with talking to strangers about a big financial decision. But you know it there is the repetition, you know,

Daren Phillipy  50:22

so good, awesome. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, honey, for asking that great question. We do have a couple more minutes if there’s time for one more question. Diane, go ahead.

50:39

Can I raise my hand. Nope, you

Daren Phillipy  50:41

unmuted yourself. And oh, you have a question. You’re welcome to. Are you trying to hang out? I

Speaker 2  50:48

have a statement first. First of all, this is my first time. And thank you very much, Paul, I applaud your candor. I lots and lots of kW stuff, and I am guilty of comparing my insides to other people’s outsides, and sometimes their outsides aren’t really true to their insides. And so I love that. I love the fact that we’re all kind of looking to looking for solutions. And then I would just like to piggyback on what you said, the advice you gave to honey. It’s interesting if someone does something. I don’t know that anyone’s really comfortable in doing anything for the first time. But if the first time they do it successful, guess what? They are comfortable. And so whatever they try, my suggestion would be to try it, whatever the statistics say. I mean, I have a partner who the first open house he did. He did whatever, 20 years or whatever, one of my listings in Boston, and he called me from the bathroom and said, These people want to buy the listing. I don’t know how to write an offer. He said, Send in my house. There’s three blah, blah. Three blocks away, and they wrote, he wrote an offer. Well, guess what? He loves to do, open houses. You know, I knocked on a door when I was on production. And the first house I went to, they were going to sell in a few months. And I put it together. Stay in touch. Put it together. It was a long street, and had I started the other end, I wouldn’t be a good door knocker, because I would have given up halfway through. And so that, I think the point is like, help them try something and help them stick to it. And if they in the beginning, they’ll help themselves stick to it.

Paul Hurme  52:08

You know, one of the things that we as far as that goes is, is finding sometimes it might even be artificial, but using one lead gen opportunity to kind of and piggyback a couple other things. So for example, what we really encourage and work and train for is on an open house. If you if they book an open house or two early in the week. Now, we’ve got a couple of days to actually do some lead generation around that open house and and I think for me, door knocking on a neighbor’s door to say, Hi, I’m Paul with via real estate, and I’m hosting an open house this weekend down the street. I won. I just stopped by to invite you. Here’s a little invitation. So all of a sudden, I’m showing up, like in a place of service, it’s not salesy, it’s 100% salesy, but it’s not salesy, right? And and I’m just calling, I’m knocking, I’m inviting you, I’m in my open house, same thing I would be. I’ve got an open house, and I’m gonna find out how many fizz bows are going on in a big radius, and say, Hey, I’ve got an open house in your neighborhood this weekend. I see that you’ve been on the market. No, I’m not making a listing appointment. I wanted to see we get a lot of traffic at our open houses. Want to see if I could come preview, because maybe I might find a buyer. I might have a buyer that might be interested in your home. If you’re smooth and genuine about it, you might be able to get a walk through on that fizz bow. And then when you get on the walk through, then we don’t bring we don’t do a listing appointment, all that. But it’s all of a sudden, from my open house, all of a sudden, a bunch of other activities have developed, door knocking for sale by owners. There’s circle prospecting and all of that we can get in. If the debt your database is good, if people are looking like right I’m in Kirkland right now. Hey, I see a bunch of people that are have moved on a website, and they’ve been searching around Kirkland. Why don’t I call them? Hey, I’ve got an open house in Kirkland this weekend. You know, whatever it is. So it’s the prospecting around an activity, and it appeals to my sense of kind of how I look at things. If I can call and be of service to someone and provide an offer of service, versus just being overly silly and all of that, then that appeals to me. So anyone so good and knowing that everything we’re doing is 100% sales,

Daren Phillipy  54:50

so good,

54:51

yeah? So thank you, Paul for

Daren Phillipy  54:53

that awesome statement. Diane, thank you so much for sharing your your wisdom, too. Appreciate it. Great question from honey. You. Guys, we are we are about ready to wrap up. Paul. We are dying. There are people who are begging to send referrals to Kirkland in Seattle area. What’s the best way for them to be able to send business to

55:12

you? Phone, text, email.

Daren Phillipy  55:16

Okay, well, then how about you give it to us? 206-390-8179, cool. I’ll settle down. Turbo,

Speaker 1  55:26

390, and that’s the story. 23908179069088181790,

Daren Phillipy  55:38

you put it in there. Thank you for in the daily chat. And then what’s your email?

55:43

I’ll put that in the chat. Paul harmony, first and last name at team builder, kw.com,

Daren Phillipy  55:51

so good, Paul and

Paul Hurme  55:53

yeah, yeah, if there’s, if there’s any, anything that be a help of service and business. And by the way, everyone on here, if you’ve got questions or you want to pick my brain or something comes up, even in the builder developer world, just reach out anytime.

Daren Phillipy  56:13

Yeah, I know we didn’t get into any of that. I really love to and you were just rolling so genuine. We just, I needed to hear it. Oh, it’s all good. It’s all good. Thank you so much, dude, you’re so cool. And thank you. That’s pretty much it guys. Thank you for the OT. We got an OT next week. I’ll see you guys. Noon, Pacific Standard Time right here. Same channel, same bat time. There you go.

Paul Hurme  56:37

Awesome. Thanks, man. Thank you all okay, there

Daren Phillipy  56:41

you go. Are You Smarter? Doesn’t hanging out with Paul just make you feel smarter. Well, I will tell you this. You’d even be smarter than what you currently are at if you were in the room, because you’d be able to ask pointed questions Paul. So you probably missed out on that. But don’t worry. Every Tuesday at noon Pacific, you can jump in the room, go to only for teams.com and click on that join the Room button, and you are in the room for the OT. Now, guys know I don’t do this. This is a screw around. I do this because I run one of the largest real estate companies here in Vegas. Kelowna is a marketplace, and I spend most of my time coaching and helping non kW agents with a business, specifically helping them grow their teams and build their team. So if you are building a team, if you are looking for ways to get some of your life back, contact me. I want to be your guy. I’ll help you out. I don’t care if you’re in Vegas or not. Don’t sweat it, because I can help you. All you need to do is contact me at 702-706-4949. Here I am. I’ll answer the phone. We’ll chat. I’ll connect you with some some people who know models in your area too, when it comes to teams, and that’s pretty much it. So thank you tons for listening. I can’t believe you’re still listening to the very end of this, but it makes me feel good. So thanks for listening. Share it with your friends, and until next time wanna do some good.

Announcer  58:12

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