Brisbane’s Felicity Harden is the first real estate agent outside of the US and Canada to reach eXp Realty’s Icon benchmark for high sales two years in a row.
She became the first woman in Australia to reach the benchmark with the cloud-based property group in her first year partnered with the company and backed that up in the following year to achieve the Double Icon award.
Only 1 per cent of eXp agents globally reach Icon status. Felicity reached Icon status in seven months and sold 52 properties in her first year with eXp and reached the benchmark in six months in her second year.
“I am really proud of achieving that Icon status and being able to do it in our first two years,” Felicity says.
Felicity and her husband Alex launched Harden Property in 2019, capitalising on her expertise in real estate sales and his background in accounting and marketing.
“We were working seven days a week and ridiculous hours,” Alex says.
“I was generating more leads and business than we could handle. We needed systems and support to reduce our costs.”
The couple partnered with eXp in May 2020 while retaining their Harden Property brand name.
“We believe agents work far too hard to have so much of their hard-earned commission taken by an office,” Felicity says.
“What eXp did for us is that we were able to work for ourselves, not by ourselves.”
The couple started Harden Property without a database or a pipeline of clients, but the tools from eXp has helped them grow their database to 20,000 people.
Felicity had worked in the traditional real estate sales office and experienced the “real estate rollercoaster”.
“There are pros and cons to both sides of the market,” Felicity says.
“When the market is hot like this it is incredibly difficult to get the listings.
“Right now if you get the listing you can sell it. When the market changes it will be easy to get the listing and hard to sell it.”
Alex says some agents have struggled and gone out of business because they can’t get listings.
“eXp is a virtual office and the advantages and cost savings apply to every kind of real estate environment,” Alex says.
“Everything is integrated. They do admin support and trust accounting. We think we are using the best CRM (customer relationship management software) in the industry to assist in nurturing those leads.”
Felicity says the systems support allows her to sell more real estate and generate more income.
“And it takes me less time,” she says.
eXp pays 75 per cent of the commission for the first $100,000 and all of the commission back to the agent after reaching that cap.
eXp Icon status is awarded for sales of 20 transactions after reaching $100,000 in commissions, or a minimum of 10 sales for $350,000 in commission after reaching the cap. These agents receive a bonus in eXp shares.
While the rewards are attractive for Alex and Felicity one of the great benefits is having the extra time to devote to other things they are passionate about.
“We share our knowledge about what is working for us with other eXp agents through the iConversations platform,” Felicity says.
The Hardens are developing a coaching program for those who want to start their own business independently, the Winning Agents Success Program, launching soon.
“We like helping other agents and people in general,” Felicity says. “eXp gave us the means to scale our business without risk, and we can help other agents have more opportunities and reach their goals too.”
