2023 Q&A Session with AJ Hazzi, REALTOR®

AJ Hazzi is a Canadian real estate entrepreneur, founder of Vantage West Realty, Vantage West Property Management, Cash Offer Canada LP, and serves as the Head of the Real Estate Investment Network Kelowna Chapter.

We sat down with AJ to learn about his background, how he grew his real estate brokerage into a multi-million dollar enterprise, and to hear his predictions for the future of the real estate industry in Canada.

What inspired you to start your own real estate firm?

As a young realtor, I started to notice a lot of agents were burning out near the peak of their careers.

In this market, you’re only as good as your last quarter of sales, which means that - every few months - you’ll restart the process of finding leads, servicing your clients, and closing deals. 

Most agents eventually burn out because they spend 80 percent of their time on low dollar per hour items. In other words, they have no way to apply leverage to their business.

Without good support systems and business services infrastructure in place, you are destined to either burn out or be the agent who runs on that hamster wheel into their 60s and 70s.

I was that agent before starting Vantage West Realty.

Every single dollar I earned relied solely upon my efforts and my charisma. I wanted to be able to win back my time and focus on what really moves the needle for my company.

What does your agency do differently?

Well for starters, almost everything. We’ve really built our firm to be the antithesis of the big box agencies we’re all so familiar with. 

Overall, I see Vantage West Realty as the real estate office of the future.  We have re-aligned incentives and re-distributed the workload to solve the real estate trilemma. The clients get a 5 star experience,  the team members enjoy balance and make a great living, and - if we can accomplish those two things - it's also a wonderful business to own and manage.

Leveraged Production

The secret sauce is leverage.  We help our agents offer a premium service, do a large volume of business, and still maintain a high quality of life.  By leveraging talent, tools and technology, our agents can spend their time doing what they do best: consulting with clients and closing deals.

Vantage West Agents get access to a massive marketing budget that’s pooled between us to support a consistent deal flow. Every lead gets routed through our licensed inside sales team who nurtures prospective clients until they are ready to buy or sell. 

While our agents are out in the field making things happen, they can lean on a world-class administrative team dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s.

And as you would expect from any business claiming to be the model of the future, Vantage employs a technology suite that removes friction, streamlines the process, and provides agents with everything they need to build a thriving practice.

Real Estate Brain Trust

Another big differentiator is that our agents work as a brain trust and share what’s working for us at the moment, what’s not, and always embrace vulnerability in service of continuous improvement.

We have a 30 person group chat where community members are quick to offer a helping hand or answer an obscure question at all hours of the day.

Unique Paths to Success

We attract a lot of young talent because we have a very well defined career path.  Any aspiring agent gets the opportunity to start with our firm as an intern, and a chance to “earn while they learn.”

We believe in developing leaders. Vantage West agents can start out on our team as a licensed intern and provide some much needed leverage to a top producer.

A few short years later, they can find themselves in a leadership position with the next top producer tucked under their wing.

Another big part of our ethos is that we need to eat our own cooking.  I encourage all agents to be their own best customer and aim to build a healthy portfolio of cash-flow properties over their career so that they can retire comfortably - or at the very least - work because they still enjoy it; not because they have to.

How did you develop your brokerage strategy?

I’ve always been a student of the game.

When I started my own company, I looked up to the players who were ahead of me in the industry and studied how they got there.

A lot of my early ideas came from real estate brokerages in the United States who are generally more innovative and willing to take risks than Canadian agencies.

Programs like our Guaranteed Sale, Instant Offer, Love it or List, Fix and List and Easy Exit Listings are all examples of programs I witnessed working well in the US. I then modified and adapted them for the Canadian real estate market.

Whenever I found an idea I liked, I would network with that person, then work to integrate the best parts of their strategies and tactics here in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Being able to provide solutions during difficult times is one of the reasons we’ve done well through past recessions - and the one we are in right now.  These solutions benefit our clients by providing certainty with a high quality of service, and it keeps me a step ahead of other agencies here in town.

When other entrepreneurs ask me for advice around growth, I start with two fundamental operating systems that help Vantage thrive.

Firstly we follow the EOS system found in the book Traction by Gino Wickman.  I have dozens of copies of this book in my desk to give away as it was shared with me in the same way.

I’m also a big proponent of the 12 week year and use that framework to implement new ideas, develop new business units, and even mentor my coaching clients. In the 12 week year, you complete an entire year of work within 12 weeks, in service of a very specific 10-year vision for your business and your life that leads to rapid progress and innovation.

Who else was involved in launching Vantage West Realty?

There’s really no way I could have built this company alone.

Vantage began as a partnership with a gentleman by the name of Joel Sherlock. He was bought out in 2012 and has gone on to become a very successful business operator in his own right. 

My brother Nick Hazzi joined me in 2011 and has been in the trenches with me ever since.  Being able to be partners with my brother is something I’m incredibly grateful for.  Having someone you know is in your corner, no matter what, is priceless.

In my early days, I severely lacked good systems. Like most visionaries, I needed a yin to my yang - someone to help make the ideas stick.  Fortunately, I met a helpful guide by the name of Michael Plowman who had already built and scaled a real estate firm in Toronto.

Having already walked the path that I was on, he had all the skills, talents, and know-how to help me reach my goal of growing my businesses from $500K in revenue to $5M in less than 7 years.

We were able to design a lead generation funnel that brought in new clients on demand with some degree of predictability and scalability. Once we had a solid flow of leads, we could easily attract other agents to join our team.

Now, my organization is an amazing group of well over 40 individuals.

What were the steps to starting your own real estate business in British Columbia?

By law, every real estate brokerage in BC must have a managing broker whose role it is to oversee daily operations, ensure compliance, and manage the licensed agents working for the brokerage. So that was our first step.

Next, we came up with our branding and web design in 30 days, signed a lease for our Downtown Kelowna office, and registered with the Real Estate Council of British Columbia.

Finally, we incorporated our business and hit the ground running.

How did you generate leads as a new brokerage in Canada?

When I launched Vantage West Realty I was 25 years old, undercapitalized, and largely unknown in Kelowna real estate.

When I met with potential clients, the number one objection I heard was that we were just too young and too inexperienced.

In response, we developed a system to handle such objections and frame our newness as a benefit. After all, we were young, hungry, and highly motivated. And we weren’t tied down with the inside-the-box thinking that plagues so many agencies.

We were able to develop a consistent flow of leads, then implemented business systems to manage the flow of leads and help our agents reach their career goals.

What’s your company culture like at Vantage West Realty today?

Vantage West Realty is a high-performance group focused on results, professional development, and extreme accountability.

We look for people who want to lead big lives and make big impacts with their clients. One of the common threads in our team is our youthful energy. Besides me, most of my team is still in the upshot of their careers.

We work as a team, meeting regularly to discuss what’s happening in the market and to discuss what’s bringing us energy, joy, and inspiration in life. This could be a new routine, journaling practice, exercise regimen, even a new hobby.

We’re not afraid to be vulnerable, which creates trust and helps us stay humble.  We believe there’s always room to grow in a positive direction and get that 1% better every day.

How would you describe your management style to somebody thinking about working with you?

I practice a “bottom up” style of management, which means I’m focused on helping each one of my team members reach their goals.

I hold 1-on-1 meetings with all of my agents to paint a vision of success for their future, then develop an individualized plan to help them get there.

Once I know everyone’s goal for the year - which includes my administrators and support staff - I sum those goals together to inform our business plan. My job is then to generate enough business to support my team, while managing the flow of volume through simple and effective business systems.

We meet regularly to stay connected, always try to elevate each other (rather than compete against each other), and we value our company culture above everything else.

What are your foundational strengths as a business leader?

I think my biggest strengths as a business leader are stress-tolerance, risk-taking, and team building.  I also don't have a hard time letting go and empowering people to do it their way.  I believe in giving people lots of autonomy so long as everyone is clear on the desired outcome.

I’m somebody who thrives on adversity and can withstand a great deal of punishment. I follow the mantra that “the impediment is the way,” because I’ve learned that new challenges energize me and often accelerate my goals.

I also enjoy playing the numbers and taking calculated risks - including ones that most people would never consider. Throughout my career I’ve been right more often than I’ve been wrong, so I’ve developed a high degree of confidence to make decisions quickly - and know when to pivot from a loss.

That being said, I consider team building to be my greatest strength - especially identifying people with a natural gift.

I’m humble enough to know that I can’t do everything by myself. 

Early on in my career, I was able to identify my own shortcomings, then build the right partnerships and alignments to fill those gaps.

I’ve been able to build a team of outstanding people at Vantage West Realty who are amazing in their own way.

What do your colleagues think about you?

My clients at Vantage West Realty hold me in high regard as somebody who is confident, goes the extra mile, and gets the job done.

In the industry, some of my colleagues and competitors think that I’m a bit of a wildcard. As I understand it, they don’t always enjoy my aggressive style of doing business. Then there are some sore competitors who want to think there’s an unethical component to that style of doing business.

Overall, there is a lot of negativity and crabs in a bucket mentality in this industry, which is one of the things I like least about the real estate business.

What are your personal values in business?

In our team, finding joy in work is key. We only want to work alongside people who bring joy and find joy in what they’re doing.

We are also big on the concept of ownership and believe people should own their own outcomes at work.

I also believe in continuous improvement. We train far more than a typical real estate agency and don’t just train for proficiency; we train for mastery.

Do you have any favorite career memories?

One of my favorite career memories goes back to 2007 when the Waterscapes Tower went on sale during the peak of the bull market. There was a lot of hype for this project, it was in a great location, very modern, and there was a frenzy of pre-sales activity.

The project developer was brazen enough to limit how many condos we could sell, and distributed rubber wristbands to agents in town, which gave them permission to bring in 5 clients each.

I knew some agents in town who didn’t have 5 clients to bring and aligned myself with them so I could utilize their bands.

At 1am, I went down to the showroom with a lawn chair and 5 wristbands, then camped out all morning to be first in line when they opened at 10am.

In the morning, the lineup was so big that they decided to change the opening to 9am. The problem was, none of my clients were there yet.

By managing 2 cell phones at once, I was able to hold the line, get my clients to hurry down, and sell 21 condos to the tune of $17M before lunchtime.

As it turns out, the developer was not too happy with my tactics. Some of my clients ended up backing out, and I went down with the ship. While I lost a bit of money through this process, I still think back on this fondly from the thrill of the hunt.

What do you do in your spare time?

In the summer I like going boating, wake surfing, and love playing golf. I’ve also gotten into go karting down at Area 27 with my wife Mandi, which is a ton of fun.

In the winter I love to snowboard, especially by helicopter and snowcat. You get into some amazing terrain and unbeatable snow conditions that way.

I also love to travel, read, and network in the industry.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the real estate industry right now?

Some of the biggest challenges in the industry right now are coming in the form of rule changes. 

In 2018, the Real Estate Council of British Columbia (RECBC) was replaced by the Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate and the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, resulting in a much tighter regulatory environment. That brought the end of dual agency, or the ability for REALTORs® in BC to self-govern.

There’s also the new speculation tax, foreign buyers’ exemption, and a mortgage stress test that decreases the amount of buyers in the market.

Since 2022, interest rates have become one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Few buyers can now afford to debt service an average property, which further reduces the buyer pool.

Every curveball requires a new, creative solution. We’re now using some of the same tools we used back in 2008 like trades, vendor financing, and rent-to-own to keep deals moving.

For sellers, we’re using programs like our Guaranteed Sale and instant cash offer to give sellers immediate liquidity.

Another big challenge right now is battling the media sentiment, which is sensationalized and biased towards doom and gloom. This often ends up being a self-fulfilling prophecy as people follow the herd.

We battle that with raw data and provide market reports to show people what’s actually happening in a way that’s easy to understand.

What advice do you have to new agents entering the field of real estate?

First of all, your job is to advise and guide your clients - not direct them.

Secondly, every real estate transaction matters - no matter how big or small - but especially your most recent ones. In this industry, your reputation is only as good as your most recent month of sales, so treat all your clients like gold.

What are your predictions for the real estate industry for the next few years?

I expect 2023 to remain sluggish in terms of sales. I think that Okanagan home prices will find the bottom later this year, then trade sideways for a period of time afterwards.

I see 2023 as a challenging year for most real estate agents because there are a ton of realtors chasing after a small number of deals. On average, we will only have enough deal flow in the Okanagan for each agent to handle 1 deal per quarter.

Because of that, I think you’ll see a lot of real estate agents exit the industry over the next couple of years - especially newer agents who aren’t yet established, and older agents who are closing in on retirement. 

Overall I expect things to be grim for anyone who’s not working in an abundant environment with good systems and a steady flow of leads.

AJ Hazzi, Founder of Vantage West Realty