Ex-Purplebricks agents join eXp UK amid significant expansion plans

eXp UK is eyeing new locations throughout the country, with a particular focus on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

eXp UK says that it intends to grow further market share by partnering with independently minded, experienced, self-employed agents throughout the regions.

To kick off these ambitions eXp has announced that a divisional sales director (DSD) from Purplebricks has joined. Ross Walker is a big name in Edinburgh estate agency and was with Purplebricks for over four years, first as an LPE then as a DSD.

Walker will see some familiar faces as James Hummerstone-Pope and Scott Morland are also joining eXp UK from Purplebricks.

Hummerstone-Pope is a former DSD from Margate, Kent, while Morland worked at Purplebricks as DSD in Hayes.

A further three agents have joined in and around the Fife area, including Mark MacDonald, Angela Shanks & Brad Saxton. Stephen Sarsfield has also joined the estate agency network operating in and around the Glasgow area.

Adam Day, international expansion Leader for eXp UK, said: “Our growth across the UK since we launched a few short years ago has been pretty relentless and in order to achieve our next level of success I am keen to further expand within Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland as well as England and to demonstrate our acknowledgement that UK regions vary in their approach to selling property and so we will support local agents accordingly.

“Any ambitious, independently minded agents with at least two years’ experience in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that would like to discuss expanding their estate agency career and earnings should get in touch with me or any one of our existing 350 agents.”

 

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27 Comments

  1. Norfolk Steve

    ‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire’ springs to mind!

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    1. Robert_May

      Purplebricks had a mixed bag of  LPE’s, a lot were duffers but there were some exceptional agents; people who just wanted to sell property without all the faff of owning a full blown agency with premises and staff.

      Don’t be too quick to write off  everyone with Purplebricks on their CV, some are very well capable of taking  good listings from good agents.

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      1. Scott Gunn

        Hands up, I had a view about PB agents from the outside looking in.

        Having spoke to quite a few over the last few years and been lucky enough to work with many I have seen first-hand how hard these agents work and how-much they want to put the customer first. It’s just with the sheer volume of activity at PB it’s almost impossible.

        People joined for the right reasons and they are now leaving for the right reasons.

        Scott, James and Ross have all shown to be exceptional operators and add a ton of value to the exp proposition.

        I’m big enough to admit that I was wrong and I was.

         

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        1. Robert_May

          Going back a very long time now, I posted that  IF disruptors could get  exceptional agents onto every #local patch they would be able to disrupt agency. At the time PB had about 750 LPEs of which less than 10% had what’s required to go up against the incumbent agents who  dominate each territory.

          At the time Ewemove was more suited to those agents than  PB.

          There is now competition for those  really good agents [Yopa, EXP, Strike, Ewemove, PB] so although those agents won’t easily fit back into agencies,  it’s hard to see a dominant  single ‘disruptor’ brand achieving everything they’ve ever predicted for the sector.

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  2. Certus

    This is pure advertorial. Not news

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    1. Scott Gunn

      An advertorial of relentless growth.

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  3. Barnabus

    Definitely very interesting, these guys are perhaps now closer to self employed recruitment consultants than agents though? The new cohort mentioned in this press release are straight on LinkedIn appealing for other agents to get in touch before they have even test driven the model themselves for a week! let alone sold a house! I think a lot of people will find that a bit uncomfortable. But if everyone is financially incentivised to trumpet it, then it’s clever, and destined to grow and grow you would think, the acid test is the % of agents that stick with it this year and next in a more normal market.

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    1. Scott Gunn

      To be clear. Agents are only rewarded if the agents they attract into the business successfully sell houses and make money.

      This drives our agent attraction very much in the direction of attracting quality agents. Otherwise it is frankly a waste of everyone’s time.

      It’s a common misconception about our model.

      In first full year of income at eXp I earned around 175k. I’d like to think I gave to a good test drive before and it’s worked for me.

      Personally, if I was a frustrated agent right now I would be grateful, as I was back then, that someone encouraged me to look at this model.

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      1. WITMM

        I’m intrigued by the £175k in your first year.  eXp accounts don’t seem to support that figure, so do you trade under a different company name?

        You currently have two properties for sale and two properties under offer.  Assuming that you achieved the full asking price, and again assuming you got a 2% fee, your current pipeline is around £20,000.  Assuming a 90-day roll, at best you’re grossing £80,000.

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        1. Scott Gunn

          I may well leave you intrigued WITMM.

          My role no longer requires me to sell homes to make a living, although I will take the odd project on if I fancy it (nice and fortunate position to be in.

          I now earn most of my money from supporting other agents, that’s my passion and I love it.

           

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          1. WITMM

            You can leave me intrigued as you then don’t have to qualify the figures!

            It reads as though selling property is not your main source of revenue which in turn could imply that living the eXp dream, (via the selling of property) doesn’t pay the bills!

            It’s a play on that old saying, “Those that can, do.  Those that can’t promote eXp!” 🙂

            I will at some point look at every eXp agent and see what the data says.

            I guess by “supporting” you mean living the American dream of Free Enterprise and multi-level marketing.  Why do 100% when you can have 100 people do 1% for you!

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            1. Scott Gunn

              As you have never been an Estate Agent I think it’s going to take me too long to bring you up to speed on the intricacies of our model. That’s really why we only allow experienced agents to join.

              If agents I attract to eXp do not make money, neither do I. We are very much in it together.

              My income from revenue share is now fairly significant, that’s because I am good at what I do. At least I’d like to think so.

               

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              1. WITMM

                And again you’re wrong on so many levels!

                I think it was Groucho Marx who said, “I wouldn’t join any club that would have me as a member!”  It also depends on how you define experience and what experience is relevant.  It seems that owning a dog might be relevant!

                There are very few intricacies to a multi-level marketing business.  There will be numbers you need to hit.  There will be commissions divided accordingly.  There will be direct and dotted lines for revenue generation and subsequent earnings. There will be opportunities to earn for the passing of instructions and possibly the passing of applicants.  There are likely to be referral fees for the associated products and services associated with moving.

                There is only one product (property) so how overcomplicated have you made it!!??

                I will watch with interest.  Challenge where necessary and hopefully, you’ll come up with an answer supported by facts and not some abstract statement that neither supports nor explains the claims you’ve made.

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                1. Scott Gunn

                  You can’t join any club that wouldn’t have you as a member. It’s like dumping a girl before they dump you.

                  Anyway, after all this time it almost comes with a sense of nostalgia to see your name pop up again.

                  None the less let’s draw a line under as its serving no purpose to anyone, you have my number please feel free to use it

                   

                   

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                  1. WITMM

                    It’s called humour…try it sometime.

                    Agreed.  They’ll be plenty of infomercials on here or Estate Agent Today for me to comment on.

                    I don’t have your number!  We’ve never met!  We’ve never spoken!

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      2. Barnabus

        Hi Scott, completely understand that agents will only earn if those they recruit manage to sell homes. The point was that the person doing the recruiting doesn’t necessarily have to? Not saying there is anything wrong with that, but for the guys who have just set up on Monday and are talking about it being life changing by Wednesday it all feels a bit odd. But it depends how you want to earn your money I suppose.

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        1. WITMM

          There is the inherent risk that with a focus on recruitment, less will be listed and sold.  Less being sold and commission being divided by more and more agents is a viable revenue generation scheme but not necessarily good for vendors. I suspect there is a requirement for eXpers to sell a minimum number of properties or generate a certain revenue level for everyone in the pyramid to earn.  Even Betterware resellers have to deliver 200 magazines a month!

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          1. Scott Gunn

            There we go. What you suspect is incorrect.

            I’ve sent you a connection request on LI, happy to chat directly sometime if you would like to

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            1. WITMM

              Then I’m incorrect.  Although simple maths says if I have one cake and share it with more people I end up with less cake, even if I get a small slice from somebody else.

              You’ve already said that I lack the mental compacity to understand the intricacies of what you do and now you want to connect and chat.

              As they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer!!

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        2. Scott Gunn

          I get that Barnabus, and I understand your point I really do but a quality personal trainer can offer great advice in any gym regardless of how long they’ve worked there and trust me, I’ve spent time with these guys. Scott, James and Ross are quality operators.

          Although Ross has his sights set on attracting agents in Scotland both James and Ross are active agents.

          We are lucky to have them onboard an one day hope they will be saying they are lucky to have joined eXp. That’s the plan.

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  4. WITMM

    The majority of eXp UK posts give you that hint that their business stems from across the pond.  This is probably why they read as advertorials rather than being news with some substance.

    I’ve set up company alerts for JAMES HUMMERSTONE-POPE ESTATES LTD so I can publish his first year’s revenue figures and let the people at EXP WORLD UK LIMITED know their accounts are overdue!  I’ve got an article to post about your earnings!

    James, Ross and Scott can’t do any worse than the likes of Robert Morris, Cheryl O’Hara, Matthew Gardiner Legge, Ida Mueller, Alison Letts, Lana Lawson, Herneet Khera Singh, and Jason Davis.  All “…powered by eXp…” with a grand total of ZERO listings.  Zip.  Nada.  Nothing! (Thursday 09.02.23 – 14:42)

    Now I’m not sure if I read it somewhere…or if it was a dream…but I’m sure there is a direct correlation between having properties for sale and then generating revenue…

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    1. Scott Gunn

      I’d go with year 2 figures. Be far more telling. Year 1 most agents are just getting going and un-likely to turnover much we are clear about that.

      Singling out new agents who are just starting to grow their own businesses doesn’t seem particularly reasonable or helpful to me.

      Maybe, we should applaud these people for backing themselves and trying something new.

      Happy to respond further once you remove your cloak of anonymity as I have.

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      1. WITMM

        OK.  I’d go with a year-two figure.  However, your quoted year one figure down in sunny Margate was £175,000.  So zero to £175,000 seems steep.  Not impossible but steep.

        All I’ve done is lift information from the eXp website.  Is it calling out or just a presentation of data?

        You should check though because Alison Letts is in her second year of trading…

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      2. Scott Gunn

        Just realised who this is, you looked at my linkedin profile. Nice to see you again – it’s been too long

        Sent you a connection request

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    2. John Murray

      It’s really interesting reading the comments on here and how the reality and the perception of what agents in eXp actually deliver.

      My accounts just posted at companies house are fillited accounts, showing the bare minimum required via my accountant to be filed.

      For clarity, I capped in my 2nd year, which is £80,000 GCI and my profit was £30,964.

      I have Corporation tax now to pay of £7,497 by Jun 23, as my company financial year begins 1 Sep.

      For Yr 3 (1 Sep) to date, I have exchanged on £51,000, have £22,000 pipeline and should cap at £80,000 by Month 9/10, meaning I will have 2-months of 100% commission to me (less £250 per transaction).

      However, if you look at my website, I only have a couple of homes showing Sold stc (I have sold out of stock) and have actually also listed a couple of caravans to tick over on (LOL).

      So you could be forgiven for thinking there is not much business there – have a look though at the properties sold section and you will see the ones completed upon in the past.

      I worked at 100% levels for the first 18 months – I now work at 30 – 40% and most comes now from referrals.

      Just adding some factual detail to proceedings and happy to chat as well!

      I always post my name on here for transparency, so you can find my website by using my name with a dot in between and followed by exp . uk . com

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  5. FUDGE53

    Ha ha funny.  Come on Scott spill the beans.

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    1. Scott Gunn

      You have no idea how tempting it is to reveal lol

      But I will for once, behave like a grown up

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