Joe Weinzetl: Top Tips For Creating New Income Streams For Your Brokerage

This article provides tips for surviving the real estate downturn from Joe Weinzetl, Broker/Owner at Greater Midwest Realty (GMR) in Minnesota, Wisconsin.

Joe spoke to our founder, Dane Maxwell, as part of a roundtable event where Paperless Pipeline users shared insights on adapting to the current real estate downturn. 

This article is part of a series based on that event. To learn more, check out Secrets on How Brokers Recruit and Increase Production As Rates Rise, or scroll to the bottom of this page to see the other speakers. 

About Joe Weinzetl 

Joe has been a licensed agent since 2012. Starting as a part-time agent at GMR, he went full-time in 2016 and moved to a big box brokerage, where he started his own team. The team achieved 150 transactions in their top year.

Joe had always wanted to be a broker and loved working at GMR. When he left the company, he told the owner to contact him if they ever wanted to sell up.

In 2020, he got that call. By January 2021 he had become GMR’s broker/owner.

New Ideas for More Revenue

When Joe took over GMR, the company’s sales had been declining. Also, the pandemic was in full force.

Joe knew he needed to review the business and ensure its efficient operation. 

He devised several innovative ways to diversify the business’s revenue streams and improve its profitability. 

Let’s look at each in detail.

Agent loan originator program

Joe has signed up for an LL program with Refined Lending. This allows his agents to earn passive income by becoming licensed loan originators. The agent gets their own website selling conventional jumbo and refinance loans across 48 states. The agent gets 50 basis points for every transaction that closes up to $2,500, with little or no effort on their part. 

Joe makes the program available to any agent that closes more than 10 transactions per year. It’s a great incentive for agents and a way to attract high performers.

Converted building into shared office space

When Joe acquired GMR he actually bought the building, with the company included. But after the pandemic, the company switched to remote working and few agents were using the office’s shared workspace. 

Joe remodeled the whole building and turned it into a workspace with offices and coworking areas for hire. The new venture is called SOTA Workspaces.

Improved tech

GMR’s previous broker had built an excellent business with plenty of loyal agents. But what they hadn’t done was kept up with technology. 

Joe started researching options. Joe likes to take a macro approach to choosing software, letting his agents and staff tell him what they want to use. In the end, the company chose KvCORE as its CRM and their transaction coordinator chose Paperless Pipeline. 

Outsourced transaction coordinator and compliance officer services

Paperless Pipeline revolutionized the company’s ability to manage transactions and compliance. He realized that he could contract this service out to other agents. 

He named the service SOTA Transaction Services. The system is easy: agents and brokers simply use a form to fill in their details and upload documents and send it to the company’s transaction coordinator or compliance officer. 

To further streamline their systems, GMR’s own agents have started using the same form to upload transactions, so everything enters the system from the same place. 

Agent coaching

Joe knows that as a broker he has an amazing set of skills and experience that would be useful for newer real estate agents. 

The trouble was whenever he hosted training sessions, very few of his agents showed up. He came up with the idea of providing a coaching program.

Provided as part of SOTA Transaction Services, the service is available to any agents, including those at GMR. And because the agents on the program pay a fee they are incentivized to engage.

Agent recruitment videos 

Joe has devised an efficient agent recruitment process. He uses Broker Metrics to find agents that have made at least five transactions in the last year. He then creates a 20-second personalized video introducing himself and encouraging the agent to get in touch with him. He attaches this to an email template and sends it to the agent. 

Joe’s admin staff generate the contacts. All he needs to do is create the videos and send the emails. He does this in bulk, sending 5-10 per day, so the whole process is super-efficient. Joe also sends similar videos to agents that GMR works with on deals. 

Survive the Real Estate Downturn with Paperless Pipeline

If you found this information valuable, then check out advice from other contributors at the webinar, including:

One way to survive the real estate downturn is to make your closing process faster and more reliable with Paperless Pipeline. 

We know that switching to new software during this time feels risky. That’s why we offer a free trial—no credit card details are required.