EXIT Realty Corp. International recently announced their payout of over $1.4 million in beneficiary benefits, remaining the only brand in the industry to provide posthumous income to the loved ones of their real estate professionals.
“We are proud to be a company that puts people first by providing for the families of our associates during one of the most difficult times they and their loved ones will endure,” explained Co-Chair, Tami Bonnell. “Our business model was created to provide agents with financial stability but ultimately has become the method by which our professionals have evolved from being merely transactional agents to successful entrepreneurs, living their why’s, enjoying the wholistic lifestyles and retirements they’ve always dreamed of, and being able to care for their families after they’re gone.”
Through EXIT’s unique Formula, associates can earn supplemental bonus income, retirement benefits, and assign a beneficiary in order to provide a financial legacy and security for those they leave behind if something happens. It’s a business model many owners understand and appreciate for the inherent agent retention and what it can do in the now, but one that previous owner, Julia Snow was glad to have when something did happen.
Julia recalls having a discussion with her late husband and Broker/Owner, Richard Snow Jr. about his coming 60th birthday, the same year their office was up for renewal saying, “We both agreed another five years made sense as we were still doing well, going strong, and in the interim period between 60 and 65 that we would start to work on an exit strategy.”
With no managing broker, it was just Richard and Julia running operations and administration respectively, and they knew something was going to have to change in order for them to have a quality of life and retire. In a cruel twist of irony, a mere week after having the conversation and cutting the check, Richard received a terminal cancer diagnosis. At first his residual income helped him secure alternative treatments that weren’t covered by regular insurance, helping him enjoy a better quality of life compared to others with a similar diagnosis, but Julia is still very grateful for the monies she’s received over the five years since his death.
“You never think it will really come into play for years and years and years,” she explained of Richard adding her as his beneficiary when he sponsored his first agent into the brand. “It definitely helped after he passed. He was a real estate agent for 25 years total, and it’s not like there’s any pension plan after putting in that many years of service. I’m appreciative of it because it’s what EXIT Realty is. The Formula, especially back then, was something rather unheard of when your last deal was your last paycheck. It’s a nice reminder of what we had built together, and Richard’s legacy of EXIT Realty Expertise.”
It’s part of the corporate ethos of humanizing real estate that’s been responsible for creating the extraordinary company culture for which the EXIT brand is renowned. It’s what attracts a higher echelon of professional to the brand and to the industry at large; special individuals who understand the importance of relationships like the late Lilly Belcher, whose reputation for customer service continues to live on in her market to this day.
Her son, Timothy still runs into locals who recognize his last name and associate it with her real estate business. He opened one of the first EXIT brokerages in Tennessee alongside Lilly and built the entire operation and its success around her methods; so much so that when it came time to sell, the new owner asked her to stay on as an agent, which she did for another nine years. He recalls the day she took him aside and let him know that she chose him as her beneficiary for her residual income.
“She said, ‘I realize I can’t pay you what you’re worth.’ It was a sacrifice for my wife and I to go into the business and she said, ‘hopefully it pays off.’ And it did,” he said of the $52,000 he’s received and shared with his sister since her passing. “I think my mother was just trying to compensate me, but I know her well enough to know she’d want me to take care of my sister. We use the money to pay off debts; both mom’s and ours, though she didn’t have a whole lot. As it stands right now, we own a commercial property that we don’t owe anything on, and I attribute that all to my mother. She was a very generous person and a special lady.”
No amount of money will ever replace having a loved one back, but it can help provide so many things that ease the stresses during an already distressing time. Whether you’re thinking about a better lifestyle, your retirement from the business, or succession and legacy, let us be part of your EXIT strategy.
