From Active Duty Air Force to 41 Deals His First Year: Ian Raysor's Story

Ian Raysor closed 41 transactions in his first 12 months in real estate, roughly $9.2 million in production, while still on active duty in the Air Force for the first 5 months of it. Every brokerage he interviewed before joining eXp told him to expect 3 to 5 deals his first year. He didn't just beat that number, he lapped it. The story behind how he got there is worth hearing.

The Missed Opportunity That Became His Mission

Before any of this, Ian was stationed in Guam. He wanted to buy a property using his VA loan, and was told by his own leadership, incorrectly, that he wasn't eligible, that he'd need to be a higher rank first. Nobody around him knew any better, so he let it go. The property he was looking at was $400,000 at the time. By 2021, it was worth $1.2 million.

That missed opportunity became the foundation of his entire business. Ian made it his mission to educate as many veterans and active-duty service members as possible about benefits most of them don't fully understand, the VA loan chief among them, so they never lose out on something the way he did. That's not a marketing angle he adopted later, it's the actual reason he got into real estate in the first place.

The Real Timeline: 4 Deals, Then 37

Ian got licensed in September 2021, while still active duty, working full military days as a civil engineer, pouring concrete and building runways, then studying and prospecting after hours. His first 6 months in the business, still balancing both, he closed 4 deals, and those 4 deals alone replaced his full-time military income. Once he transitioned out and went full-time, his next 6 months produced 37.

That's not a slow start. It's a great example of what building momentum in a new business looks like when done correctly, the same pattern that shows up across almost every agent worth learning from: the results don't show up on the timeline you'd like, and then they show up all at once, if you're still standing when they do.

Why He Chose eXp When Every Other Brokerage Capped Him

Ian interviewed 8 to 10 different brokerages before deciding where to build his business. The pattern was consistent: most told him to expect 3 to 5 closings his first year, and some restricted which markets he could even work in without referring business to another agent in that area. eXp gave him a different answer entirely: whatever he could produce was entirely up to him, with no geographic limits attached.

The other draw was ownership. Ian was already deep into investing on his own, stocks and real estate, and the idea of earning actual equity in the company he was building his career on genuinely factored into his decision, not an afterthought. He became an ICON agent his first year and got his cap back in company stock as a result.

What the Military Actually Gave Him

Ian is direct about which specific trait made the difference: discipline. Not motivation, discipline, the kind that doesn't ask how you feel about it. He built it during a deployment where 14 to 18 hour days pouring concrete were followed by a trip to the gym and schoolwork before doing it again the next day. His own words on what it takes: you have to want it so bad you want it more than air.

He's also honest about the tradeoff nobody warns you about: the military comes with a guaranteed paycheck every 2 weeks. Real estate doesn't. He's upfront that agents coming from military or any stable-income background need to plan for months with zero dollars coming in, not just the months where you have results to show for your efforts. When he first moved to South Carolina, he had $40 in checking and $150 in savings, and drove for DoorDash to bridge the gap before his real estate income caught up.

The Program He Co-Founded to Help Others Do the Same

Ian and I co-founded a Skillbridge program together, an actual Department of Defense program that lets active-duty service members take up to 120 days off their contract to train with an outside company before separating, paid by the military the entire time. Ian applied for it himself and was declined by his own leadership, which is part of why he wanted to build a clear pathway for others who do get approved, or who don't and need another way in.

Through the program, transitioning service members get trained directly in real estate, VA loan mechanics, and lead generation before they've even left the military, so they've already got momentum built in their real estate business by the time they separate.

The Follow-Up Habit That Built a Real Pipeline

One piece of Ian's system worth calling out on its own: when a prospect tells him they're not ready for months, he doesn't let them go. He follows up on the exact timeline they gave him, often with something as simple as "have you thought more about using your VA loan?" He's watched that single habit turn into deals other agents lost simply because they stopped following up first.

The Bottom Line

Ian didn't outperform every brokerage's expectations because he got lucky with timing or found some hidden shortcut. He built his business around a specific mission born from his own missed opportunity, applied the same discipline that got him through deployments, and refused to let a slow first 6 months talk him out of the next 6. If you want to see how we help agents build a strong pipeline of business over their next 6 to 12 months, that's what herdteam.com is for.