The Next Chapter

Lara — I want to talk to you about what the next five years look like. Mine and yours both.

I'm leaving eXp. You know the brand problem: they won't let me be Upchurch Real Estate in South Carolina, and the whole structure is built for agents to work for the brokerage instead of the other way around. That's the opposite of what I want to build. I want a real brokerage — not a team, not a group, not a downline. Agents building their own names under the URE banner, with us backing them up. Ninety-ten split. Free marketing. The best print system in our market. And a culture where the agent is the name on the sign, not me.

You do $12 million a year, every year. Roughly half of that — $5.7 million — is in our ZIP code, which makes you the #24 producer in 28173. You already know how to sell in this market better than most of the people we're going to recruit. What I need from you next isn't more listings — it's to help the next generation of agents become what you already are.

This is a five-year ramp that gets you out of production on your terms. You keep your agent split on everything you sell. On top of that, you become my partner on the brokerage side — 25% of the net profit generated by every other agent we bring on. Your income grows as our bench grows. And five years from now, if you want to stop producing altogether, the partner income is what replaces the grind.