By Melanie Robitaille, Sr. Staff Writer & Graphic Designer
Franchisee, Luis Nogueira defines ownership as a want; a want to be ahead of the rest.
He jokes that he started out at the age of six, now 67 and 40 years into the business, but multiple EXIT offices, sponsors, and millions of dollars in residual income later, and he’s the first to admit, “I don’t work, it’s fun and I can’t live without being involved in the fight. It’s a fight every day, but it’s a healthy fight; a good fight.”
Never a follower, ownership was the pinnacle for Luis as a young professional. He had five years of experience with a local broker, then his own independent office before finding EXIT. Now a Godfather-like persona around the office, he recalls those early years building, being aggressive, and working 12-hour days, seven days a week. It was a time before beepers and cell phones, when interest rates were 13%, and progress was made through local community investment. However, being independent and up against franchise brands offering much more, quickly became tiresome.
He converted his office to EXIT Realty Lucky in 2000, joining what was a relatively new brand in his market at the time. Luis was immediately drawn to the EXIT Formula but the idea of helping to lead the way for EXIT’s growth across New Jersey was also too enticing to pass up. From the very start he says it has always felt like family, something he never takes for granted, and he never takes shortcuts.
He received EXIT’s Top Sponsor Designation in 2002, and by 2021 had earned over $2.5 million in single-level residuals on top of his commissions. From paying his bills to investing in property to help his three children, and now showering his grandchildren with gifts, Luis knows exactly how powerful EXIT’s model is.
“You have a third dimension, residuals. And nobody has that,” he says of sponsoring, a process he leverages no matter where he goes or meets people across North America. “You could interview with everybody else, but where can you get 10%? If you recruit two people per year, in five years you have 10 people. If they average $60,000 gross, you make $5-$6,000 each. And then the retirement plan, and the beneficiary plan…that’s the difference. That’s a big difference.”
So, what’s Luis’ personal formula that’s helped build his self-confessed beautiful life? It’s as simple as investing in his profession and counting down from three to one he says, explaining, “First you buy a three-family home, then a two-family home, then you buy a single-family home. The three-family and two-family will pay for the single-family that you’ll live in.”
While ownership demands a lot, some of it according to Luis not for everyone (like cleaning the toilet when you first start out), it has returned more in rewarding dividends to him through helping develop people, which is how he spends most of his time these days.
He sees what agents are going through but isn’t fazed by much having experienced all that he has these past four decades and witnessing technology as the great driver of both positive and negative industry change. His advice to anyone in the business: success is achieved through effort. He knows markets are what they are, business models all promise something, but if you’re sitting behind a social media screen waiting for business to come to you, not putting in the work out in the real world, nothing happens.
“You’ve got to go back to basics. You’ve got to go back to your community. You’ve got to work out there,” he insists.
People may say times have changed, but Luis tosses that sentiment right back, reminding everyone the artificial markets of 2020-2021 are history. Prospecting and getting in front of people never goes out of style.
