I became licensed in 2012 and my primary source of income was residential homes sales from 2012 through 2022. Around 2020, I became the Broker of Record for two Keller Williams brokerages, which led me down a path towards “leadership”, which eventually led to my role as the President of Rarity Real Estate. It’s a long story - if we ever meet for coffee I’ll tell you about it :)
Anyway, during my 10 years as a sales agent, I operated as a solo agent, and then as the leader of a small sales team. I was what you would consider a “Top Producer”. My best year was 2020 - I was the #5 overall sales agent at KW Philly, at a time when KW Philly was the #1 largest real estate brokerage on the East Coast of America.
Looking back at my career, I can point to one moment, which was really the “big bang” for myself as a professional. And oddly enough, it came AFTER I was already an established “top producing agent”… AND… this lesson that I learned had nothing to do with sales or even real estate.
Follow me on this, it’s a good story.
From 2012-2018 I was an agent at Coldwell Banker Preferred. In September 2018 I made the switch to KW Philly. The reason why I switched brokerages was because I was doing so much business that I knew I needed an assistant in order for my business to continue to grow. I was working way too hard, and it was impacting my personal life and my mental health. At CB, I was surrounded by great solo agents, but no one there had a team or an admin. KW Philly was an environment where all the top solo agents were starting teams or hiring leverage. I needed to surround myself with people who were on my level.
In my first 2 weeks at KW Philly, they brought in a guest speaker to talk about “Agent Financials”. The speaker was a KW Agent from the Washington DC Metro area who owned a few brokerages and other businesses in addition to his sales team. He spoke about having a Profit and Loss Statement, reviewing it on a monthly basis, and using it as a tool to make adjustments on how your business is run. He talked about how much money you save in taxes if you are paid to an LLC, instead of receiving your commission income into your own name.
He asked, “how will you pay your assistant, if you don’t have payroll processing software? Will you write them a personal check every two weeks? Or pay them cash in a brown paper bag?”
The presentation was an all-day event from 10 am-5 pm. When it was over, I was so overwhelmed that I went home and went to sleep. I was asleep by 6 pm.
The next morning, I came to the office and took down the job posting that I had made trying to find an assistant. I knew that I wasn’t ready. The foundation of my business was wrong. I needed to fix it before I could move forward.
I spent the next several months building that foundation. I set up my LLC, I went to the bank and opened business checking accounts, and I got my LLC registered with the PA RE Commission. I completed all the paperwork with the brokerage so that I could receive my commission checks into my LLC. I switched all my expenses over so that they would be paid by my LLC. I set up payroll so that my LLC would pay me a salary. I set up Quickbooks so that I could track my income and expenses every month…and then every week.
By May 2019, “Andrew Gismondi Enterprises LLC” was functioning like a legitimate business.
By July 2019, I finally hired my assistant.
I was no longer “working a sales job. From May 2019 onward, I “owned and operated a sales company”.
With the support of my assistant, and with the ability to track every penny of income and expenses in real time, my business skyrocketed. As I mentioned previously, 2020 was my best year ever.
In the 5 years since I became a “business owner", my net worth has tripled. I own an equity stake in several small businesses. I work shorter hours. I am much healthier. I’ve lost 30 lbs. I am happy. Life is good.
The moral of the story is that there are sales people and then there are business people. Some people do both, but the majority of sales people never master the business acumen that is required to enable them to “level up”. Everyone has a different version of what “leveling up” means to them. But in order to get there, you need to have a plan. The best way to make that plan is to surround yourself with people who are already doing it.
This is what we try to do at Rarity. It’s not just about selling real estate. It’s about making a plan to get where you want to go. The sales are just a means to that end.
