Jeff Lobb, a regular speaker on the topics of real estate technology and marketing at industry trade events, and his wife, Tiffany Kjellander, have launched SparkTank Media, a real estate speaking, training, social media management and consulting firm that takes its name from Lobb’s nickname, “Sparky.”
Jeff Lobb
Lobb, who joined Mississauga, Ontario-based franchisor EXIT Realty Corp. International as a technology specialist in 2002 and became vice president of technology and innovation in 2011, said his last day at the firm was May 22.
He said SparkTank Media will also sell access to over 100 tech instruction videos on a subscription basis, roll out a group-based real estate coaching service and begin offering social media management.
As a consultant, Lobb says he will conduct tech audits for firms to help them suss out where they could bring in technology, or use current technology, to be more efficient.
Lobb will be a featured speaker Wednesday at Agent Reboot Dallas, where he’ll advise agents on building their online reputation.
EXIT Realty, which was founded in 1996, features a single-level agent “sponsoring” system. It gives agents residual payments on the gross commissions of those agents they get to join the franchisor.
For each agent EXIT Realty agents bring on board, the sponsoring agents get an equivalent of 10 percent of that person’s gross commission income. When Exit Realty agents retire, they get an equivalent of 7 percent of the gross commissions of those agents they’ve sponsored. If and when they pass away, a designated recipient gets an equivalent 5 percent of the gross commission of the agents they’ve sponsored.
“We at EXIT Realty Corp. International have always appreciated Jeff’s ability to approach the technical side of the real estate industry with such clarity and understanding that he impresses and enthralls any audience,” said Tami Bonnell, CEO of EXIT Realty.
“We recognize his desire to be independent and appreciate his sense of autonomy by doing so,” Bonnell said. “Jeff is always welcome back into our regions and brokerages and we wish him the very best in the future.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated incorrectly that sponsoring agents get a percentage of the gross commission of the agents they bring on board. In fact, agents get an equivalent of a percentage of the gross commissions the agents they bring in collect. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that EXIT Realty had more than 3,600 brokerages in its network. That is how many brokerages the franchisor aims to have.