Golden Handoff Mastermind for Agents Buying or Selling

By Nick Krautter

Nick Krautter is a Portland-based real estate professional, market analyst, and author of The Golden Handoff: How to Buy and Sell a Real Estate Agent’s Business, which debuted number one on Amazon for mergers and acquisitions.

If you’ve ever talked with a retiring agent who said, “I want to do this, but I’m not ready yet,” partial handoffs give you a way to start that partnership today. They’re one of the newest additions to The Golden Handoff, and I think they’re a really big unlock for agents on both sides of that conversation.

The second edition has now been out for two years, and The Golden Handoff just reached its 11-year anniversary. I’m grateful to everyone who has supported the book along the way, whether you’ve read it or joined us at events, conferences, and webinars.

Partial handoffs start before full retirement. A partial handoff lets you connect with agents before they fully retire. It also works with agents who never want to retire at all but don’t want to keep growing. These agents hand off portions of their business for you to manage and run, and you pay referral fees on that work. The book lays out three ways this works.

1. A phase-out happens gradually. In a phase-out, the retiring agent slowly hands their business over to you across a stretch of time.

2. Honorary team members stay client-facing. Some agents still want to stay engaged with clients and keep showing up to events, but they’re done handling transactions, listings, and showings. As an honorary team member, they focus on lead generation and consultations. When those clients are ready to transact, the agent hands them to a teammate who specializes in either the buyer or listing side.

3. A train-out passes down expertise. The third type is a little more unique, though it happens a lot. Some retiring agents specialize in markets with real quirks, such as downtown condos, historic districts, or floating homes. Learning the nuances of those niches takes time. In a train-out, the retiring agent partners with another agent and teaches that specialty gradually, so clients who expect an expert keep getting one.

If you haven’t picked up the new edition yet, I highly recommend it. It’s on Amazon with the blue-and-white cover, and I also recorded several interviews on the subject.

Starting early protects the client relationships. For agents thinking about retiring in the next five years, partnering sooner means you won’t lose the clients you haven’t stayed connected with. Agents looking to buy can use the same approach when a retiring colleague wants to work another year or two. In that situation, you can connect now, start small, and let the relationship grow until they’re ready to hand everything over.

Two mastermind groups for buying or selling. We also just wrapped our first group mastermind for adopting agents and retiring agents. I honestly didn’t expect a group for that, but people asked, so I put two together. One is for agents who want to buy a business, and the other is for agents who want to sell.

Each group stays under eight agents. These groups are small and exclusive, which leaves plenty of one-on-one time for a real deep dive. I lead the mastermind personally, and you’ll collaborate with agents from all over the country. We run special programming to help you find businesses and get them launched. By the end, the goal is that you’ve identified and purchased a business and you’re either launching it or well on your way.

A short call confirms the fit. We’re planning to launch our fall and winter cohort in the next couple of months, and I’ll release dates once we’ve compared calendars and gathered feedback. You’ll find the mastermind details on the front page of goldenhandoff.com. Scroll down, and you’ll see a link to get on my calendar. We’ll do a 15-minute call that works as a two-way interview, so I can learn your focus and goals and we can both see whether it’s a good fit.

You can also reach me directly at 503-901-8100, email me at nkrautter@gmail.com, or visit sellpdx.com. I’m with SVN - Imbrie Realty at 7150 SW Fir Loop, Suite 100, Portland, OR 97223. I’d love to have you be part of this next cohort.