Hani Faraj and Frederick Trudeau, who founded Vancouver House Finders in 2014, have joined eXp Realty.
“I was looking to buy a brokerage in 2015; we had 15 Realtors at the time,” says Faraj. “And this guy, Phil Hahn, called me during my search for a brokerage and he was telling me about this company, eXp. At the time, I laughed my butt off! We’re friends now, but I completely dismissed him; I really didn’t think of eXp as a threat to the ‘team’ model.
“When things went well for them, you can imagine the kick in the butt I gave myself.”
Trudeau purchased his first property at 21-years-old in Montreal and his second at 26 in Vancouver. Now he acts as team leader and co-founder of both B.C. House Finders and Vancouver House Finders. Tech-savvy Faraj has a diverse background in lending experience, client-facing real estate marketing, project and development marketing, and real estate sales. Together, they have been the winners of the Top 10% Real Estate Team, the Top 2% Real Estate Team, the Top 1% Real Estate Team, and the Medallion Club Real Estate Team.
“When I first moved here from Ontario, I knew nobody,” says Faraj. “But because of technology, especially lead generation, I was able to scale from zero to No. 19 out of 2,000 real estate teams within three years. I’m really excited to be partnering with a company like eXp that has such a big emphasis on technology because it is part of the future of real estate: you can’t shy away from it.”
Trudeau says, “We were serious about owning a brokerage but there are so many drawbacks. The fixed costs are huge. There’s so much that goes into employees and liability insurance as well and what you end up doing is, much like buying a business or a franchise, becoming liable for 300+ Realtors with huge overheads.
“eXp is better because it’s all the benefits of a brokerage with none of those detriments. You own a piece of the business, so you’re rewarded for the efforts you put in if you recruit someone and help them become productive.”
