Aug. 31, 2026
Christopher Lotte Returns to eXp Realty to Launch New Agent Growth and Lead Referral Initiative
Central Ohio real estate veteran combines large-scale internet lead generation with advanced lead conversion, coaching, training and collaboration with successful eXp Realty leaders
COLUMBUS, OHIO — August 31, 2026 — Central Ohio real estate professional, digital marketing specialist and new home construction expert Christopher Lotte has officially returned to eXp Realty, marking the beginning of a new chapter focused not only on serving buyers and sellers, but also on building a powerful ecosystem of lead generation, conversion, coaching and training resources for real estate agents.
For Lotte, the move represents much more than simply changing brokerages.
After previously being affiliated with eXp Realty, Lotte is returning with a very different strategy — one centered around collaboration with successful agents and coaches, combining their respective strengths, and creating systems that can help other real estate professionals build more productive and sustainable businesses.
Among the professionals Lotte is now directly aligned with at eXp are Jon Harp, Tristan Horn, Alan Kushmakov and Joshua Smith, each connected to his organization through eXp’s sponsorship structure and each bringing a different area of expertise to the relationship — from local leadership and accountability to internet lead conversion, business development and agent coaching. At the same time, eXp’s strong collaborative environment gives Lotte the opportunity to work alongside and learn from other experienced professionals throughout the company, including longtime Central Ohio real estate professional Jim Lambright, as well as former agents from Lotte’s own team who later moved to eXp and have continued to flourish, including Barnabas Boehler, Krista Johnson and Rachael Gruenbaum.
“The biggest reason I came back to eXp is the people and the opportunity to collaborate,” Lotte said. “I’m surrounding myself with people who are exceptional at different parts of this business. Instead of trying to reinvent everything myself, I can combine what I do best with systems, coaching and expertise that other successful agents and entrepreneurs have already built.”
The result, Lotte believes, can become something much larger than the resources available from any one individual.
A Different Approach to Returning to eXp Realty
Lotte has spent years developing an extensive online real estate marketing infrastructure, specializing in search engine optimization, IDX websites, new home construction marketing and internet lead generation.
Through his real estate websites and digital marketing efforts, he generates a significant and consistent volume of buyer and seller inquiries.
His primary consumer platform, Local Real Estate Online, is designed to connect buyers and sellers with property listings, local market information, new construction opportunities and real estate professionals who can help them take the next step.
Historically, however, generating the lead has only been the beginning of the challenge.
Internet consumers often begin searching for real estate months before they are ready to speak with an agent. Successfully converting those consumers requires persistent follow-up, sophisticated nurturing and the ability to recognize when someone transitions from casually browsing homes to becoming an actual real estate opportunity.
Solving that problem became one of the biggest factors behind Lotte's decision to return to eXp.
And that's where Tristan Horn enters the picture.
Tristan Horn: Building the Conversion Engine Behind the Leads
Tristan Horn is a digital marketing and lead-generation specialist who has spent much of his career developing marketing systems specifically for the real estate industry.
Horn studied finance and economics at Grand Canyon University before discovering his passion for digital marketing and lead generation. He eventually began working alongside Arizona real estate broker Alan Kushmakov, where Horn says he helped more than 100 real estate agents grow their businesses through lead-generation strategies and innovative marketing systems.
Horn and Kushmakov later co-founded Modern Day Brokerage, expanding their work with real estate agents and brokerages across the country.
For Lotte, however, one of Horn's most exciting developments is an advanced internet lead conversion system designed to address one of the industry's most persistent challenges:
Generating an internet lead is relatively easy. Consistently converting that lead into a closing is incredibly difficult.
According to performance results shared with Lotte, Horn's internet lead conversion system has achieved overall lead-to-closing conversion rates of approximately 2% to 5% in certain applications — an impressive level of performance for internet-generated real estate leads in today's market.
That immediately caught Lotte's attention.
Lead generation happens to be one of Lotte's greatest strengths.
Now, he intends to combine the two.
Lotte's digital marketing and website infrastructure can generate consumers at the top of the funnel, while Horn's conversion methodology can help nurture those consumers, identify intent and move qualified opportunities toward conversations with real estate agents.
That combination is becoming the foundation for a new initiative Lotte calls the eLead Referral Engine.
Introducing the eLead Referral Engine
Our Leads. Your Closings.
The concept behind the eLead Referral Engine is straightforward:
Generate the lead. Nurture the relationship. Identify the opportunity. Connect the consumer with an agent when they're ready.
Traditional internet lead programs frequently provide an agent with a name, email address and phone number immediately after a consumer registers on a website.
The agent then assumes responsibility for everything that happens afterward.
That may mean months of phone calls, text messages, emails and follow-up with consumers who aren't yet ready to buy or sell.
The eLead Referral Engine is being designed to reverse that relationship.
Instead of immediately handing raw internet leads to agents, the system will work those consumers through an ongoing conversion process designed to nurture the relationship and identify when someone demonstrates genuine intent.
The process is designed to move consumers through a progression:
Internet Lead → Nurture & Follow-Up → Engagement → Qualified Opportunity → Agent Introduction → Closing
A buyer may request a showing.
Another may begin asking questions about financing or new construction.
A homeowner may request information about their property's value or indicate that they are considering selling.
Those are the moments the system is being built to identify.
Once that occurs, the consumer can be connected with an appropriate real estate professional.
The distinction is important.
The agent isn't simply receiving another internet lead. The agent is receiving a warmed-up referral opportunity.
“My goal isn't to hand an agent 100 internet leads and tell them to start dialing,” Lotte said. “I want our systems doing the heavy lifting on those 100 leads and identifying the people who are actually raising their hands and saying, ‘Yes, I'm ready to talk to an agent.’ That's when we make the introduction.”
Building an Alternative to Traditional Internet Lead Programs
Lotte believes the eLead Referral Engine could ultimately provide agents with an independently generated referral source capable of competing with some of the real estate industry's largest lead and referral platforms.
One model Lotte points to is Zillow Flex.
The appeal of programs such as Flex isn't simply the source of the consumer inquiry. It's the structure: agents can receive consumer connections without bearing the traditional upfront cost of purchasing large quantities of internet leads, with referral or success fees associated with closed transactions.
Lotte wants to apply a similar concept to his own lead-generation infrastructure while adding an extensive nurturing layer before opportunities reach participating agents.
His objective is for agents receiving qualified eLead Referral Engine opportunities to ultimately convert approximately 10% to 20% of those handoffs into closed transactions, although actual performance will vary based on lead source, consumer readiness, market conditions, agent follow-up, experience and numerous other factors.
That target is intentionally different from the overall 2% to 5% lead-to-closing performance Lotte says has been achieved through Horn's conversion methodology.
The first percentage measures performance across the much larger pool of raw internet leads entering the system.
The second measures conversion only after the system has identified a consumer as a qualified opportunity and connected that person with an agent.
“The part of the Zillow Flex concept that interests me is the model,” Lotte said. “Rather than spending thousands of dollars upfront and hoping those leads eventually turn into business, the agent receives opportunities farther along in the process and the economics are tied to successful closings.”
“That's what I want to create with the eLead Referral Engine — except we're building our own lead-generation and conversion infrastructure behind it.”
A National Brokerage Creates a Path Beyond Ohio
Another important reason eXp Realty fits Lotte's long-term vision is the company's national footprint.
Because eXp operates across the United States, Lotte sees an opportunity to build relationships with agents in other states and eventually extend the eLead Referral Engine beyond Ohio.
That matters because online real estate consumers are not always confined to one market.
Buyers relocate.
Sellers move across state lines.
Investors purchase in multiple markets.
Families often need an agent in one state while selling a home in another.
A national brokerage creates the ability to develop relationships with experienced local agents in those markets and build a referral network that follows the consumer wherever their real estate needs take them.
“My goal has never been to think small with this,” Lotte said. “Ohio is where I’m starting, but eXp gives me the ability to build relationships with great agents across the country.”
“As the referral engine grows, I want to be able to connect qualified buyers and sellers with strong agents in other states, not just Central Ohio. That creates more value for the consumer and more opportunity for agents within the network.”
For Lotte, that national reach turns the eLead Referral Engine from a local lead program into something that could potentially become a much broader referral platform over time.
Jon Harp: Local Leadership, Systems and a Passion for Coaching Agents
For Lotte, one of the most important pieces of returning to eXp Realty was having strong leadership close to home.
That relationship comes through Jon Harp, a Central Ohio real estate leader whose career has evolved from learning the business from the ground up to helping build systems, train agents and coach real estate professionals toward greater production.
Harp grew up in Northeast Ohio and credits his upbringing, sports background and family with instilling the work ethic and team-oriented mindset that would eventually shape his real estate career.
Rather than entering the industry through a traditional sales role, Harp initially approached real estate from an investment perspective and began reaching out to successful Central Ohio professionals looking for an opportunity to learn the business.
That ultimately connected him with Ryan Ruehle during the early stages of building what would become a highly successful Central Ohio real estate organization.
Harp initially joined the business in an administrative capacity while completing his real estate education and earning his license.
Over the following decade, however, his responsibilities expanded significantly.
He became heavily involved in training newly recruited agents, developing processes and implementing systems designed to help the organization scale.
That experience eventually led Harp toward one of the areas he is most passionate about today: coaching real estate agents.
According to a profile of Harp's career, one of the accomplishments he values most is helping people successfully transition into real estate from entirely different careers — a transition he considers one of the most difficult challenges a new agent can undertake.
His philosophy is simple:
Every agent should have a coach — and every agent should eventually become capable of coaching someone else.
Harp provides ongoing coaching and accountability opportunities for agents within his team and eXp organization, including weekly coaching calls designed to help agents develop better habits, strengthen their businesses and maintain momentum.
For Lotte, that local mentorship fills an important role within the broader group of resources he is assembling.
“Jon brings something incredibly valuable to this equation because he has actually been in the trenches building a real estate organization in Central Ohio,” Lotte said. “He understands what agents struggle with, he has trained agents coming into this business from scratch, and he has helped put the systems and processes in place that allow a high-producing organization to grow.”
“Technology can give somebody tools and leads can give them opportunities, but agents still need leadership, accountability and somebody who understands how to turn all of that into a business. That's where Jon brings tremendous value.”
His team-oriented philosophy also aligns closely with what Lotte hopes to create at eXp.
Rather than simply assembling agents under the same brokerage umbrella, the goal is to create an environment where successful agents actively share what they know with the people coming behind them.
Alan Kushmakov: From Top Producer to Brokerage Builder
Another important relationship behind Lotte's return to eXp is Alan Kushmakov, an accomplished Arizona real estate broker, entrepreneur and coach with more than two decades of industry experience.
According to Kushmakov's published biography, he has personally helped 436 families with their real estate needs while generating approximately $148 million in sales and leading a team of 15 real estate professionals.
Then, in 2020, Kushmakov launched his own brokerage.
What began as a new independent brokerage grew into an organization of more than 300 real estate agents.
Kushmakov's experience also extends beyond traditional residential brokerage into mortgage, title services, real estate investment and short-term property management.
That breadth of experience is particularly valuable to Lotte because the objective isn't simply teaching agents how to close another transaction.
It's helping them build better businesses.
BEST Life Builders: Building More Than Production
Kushmakov is also behind BEST Life Builders, formerly known as Lead Gen Academy.
The training community is built around helping real estate professionals create what it describes as a better business, a better life and better income.
The program includes live weekly Zoom training as well as prerecorded online training and educational resources covering business development, lead generation, conversion and agent growth.
“There is a huge difference between teaching somebody how to sell another house and teaching somebody how to build a business,” Lotte said. “Alan has actually sold at a high level, led agents, built businesses and scaled a brokerage to hundreds of agents. That's the kind of experience I want around me, and it's the kind of experience I want agents I'm working with to be able to learn from.”
Joshua Smith and GSD Mode
Lotte is also aligned within eXp with Joshua Smith, the nationally recognized real estate professional, entrepreneur and creator of GSD Mode.
Smith has built one of the real estate industry's better-known coaching and media brands while simultaneously building a highly productive real estate career.
His GSD Mode Real Estate Coaching Program provides coaching, training, business systems and a private community designed to help agents increase production and build more effective real estate businesses.
The GSD Mode Real Estate Coaching community is private to GSD Mode coaching clients and eXp agent partners, creating another valuable training resource available through Smith's eXp organization.
For Lotte, having access to multiple successful coaches isn't redundant.
It's precisely the point.
“No single person has every answer,” Lotte said. “Someone might be exceptional at lead conversion. Someone else might be exceptional at building teams. Someone else might understand prospecting, accountability, technology or business development better than anybody else.”
“What excites me is being able to put all of those pieces together.”
Building an Agent Ecosystem — Not Just Another Real Estate Team
Lotte emphasizes that the long-term objective isn't simply to build another traditional real estate team.
Instead, he wants to develop an agent ecosystem in which independent real estate professionals can benefit from shared resources, expertise and opportunities while continuing to build businesses of their own.
Depending upon participation and eligibility, those resources may include:
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Warm buyer and seller referral opportunities through the eLead Referral Engine
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Advanced internet lead nurturing and conversion systems
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Weekly live coaching and accountability opportunities
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Extensive prerecorded training libraries
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Lead-generation and digital marketing strategies
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Technology and automation
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Business-building systems
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Local Central Ohio leadership and collaboration
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National referral relationships with agents in other states
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Access to experienced agents, coaches and entrepreneurs
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eXp Realty's broader technology, training and agent support resources
The idea is not to force every agent into one system.
It's to give agents more systems from which to choose.
“Different agents need different things at different stages of their careers,” Lotte said. “A newer agent may need leads, scripts, accountability and someone to call when they have questions. An experienced agent might need better systems, automation or a way to create additional opportunities without spending all day prospecting.”
“I want to build an environment where both of those agents can find value.”
eXp Realty's Co-Sponsor Program Creates Even More Possibilities
Another development that made Lotte's return to eXp particularly compelling is eXp Realty's Co-Sponsor Program.
Under eXp's current program, eligible incoming agents may have the opportunity to select both a primary Sponsor and a Co-Sponsor, subject to company policies and eligibility requirements.
The program creates an unusual opportunity for agents to develop relationships with leaders from different parts of the company and potentially benefit from multiple communities, perspectives and areas of expertise.
For an agent choosing Lotte as their primary sponsor, that means the resources available through Lotte's organization don't necessarily have to represent the end of their support network.
They can potentially add another experienced leader outside of that organization as a Co-Sponsor.
One example Lotte points to is Jim Lambright.
Jim Lambright: Decades of Experience, Agent Growth and Grow Global
Lambright brings another entirely different dimension to the collection of resources Lotte hopes agents can surround themselves with.
His real estate career stretches back to 1997, and the Lambright Team's published background says the organization has helped thousands of families with their real estate needs while earning recognition for sales achievement, negotiation and customer service.
The team has also described itself as ranking within the top 1% of Central Ohio real estate professionals by production.
But while the Lambright Team's production history establishes the real estate foundation behind Jim's experience, Lotte sees particular value in another area of Lambright's career:
helping real estate professionals grow their businesses, their networks and their organizations.
Lambright is heavily involved in agent growth and attraction strategies and has developed tools and systems designed to help real estate professionals expand their businesses through relationship building, marketing and agent attraction.
He is also a moderator of Grow Global, a recurring real estate mastermind and training community built around the philosophy:
Grow Your Business. Grow Your Network. Grow Your Life.
The program includes live Zoom mastermind sessions covering topics such as real estate marketing, content creation, personal branding, social media, video, YouTube, business development and strategies for increasing an agent's visibility within their market.
Recent Grow Global sessions, for example, have focused on helping agents identify content that attracts attention, determine which platforms best fit their audiences and use posts, reels, video and YouTube content to position themselves as the go-to real estate professional in their market.
That makes Lambright's expertise highly complementary to the other professionals within Lotte's network.
Tristan Horn brings internet lead conversion.
Jon Harp brings local leadership, systems and accountability.
Alan Kushmakov brings business building and entrepreneurship.
Joshua Smith brings production-focused coaching and GSD Mode.
And Jim Lambright adds another layer focused heavily on agent growth, marketing, networking and building an organization beyond an agent's individual production.
“For me, Jim is another perfect example of why the Co-Sponsor Program is so interesting,” Lotte said. “He has decades of experience in this industry, he's been part of building a highly successful Central Ohio real estate business, and he brings an entirely different skill set around agent attraction, marketing and growing an organization.”
“If somebody joins eXp with me as their sponsor and Jim makes sense as their Co-Sponsor, that agent doesn't have to choose between what we're building and what Jim is building. They can potentially benefit from both.”
That flexibility represents one of the biggest differences Lotte sees in today's eXp model.
“Agents shouldn't have to choose between great mentors,” Lotte said. “If I can help somebody with internet leads and lead generation, Jon can help with local production and accountability, Tristan can help with conversion, Alan can help with business development, Joshua can help with coaching, and someone like Jim can help them think bigger about marketing, networking and growing an organization — that's an incredible amount of knowledge surrounding one agent.”
Why Return to eXp Realty Now?
Lotte was previously affiliated with eXp Realty and ultimately chose to leave the company.
So why return?
Because this time, he believes both the opportunity and his strategy are fundamentally different.
“The first time I was at eXp, I don't think I fully took advantage of what the model could become,” Lotte said. “Coming back this time, I have a completely different strategy.”
“I'm not returning because of one tool, one compensation program or one person. I'm returning because I can see how all of these pieces can work together.”
Those pieces include Lotte's established internet lead-generation infrastructure, Horn's conversion systems, Harp's local leadership, Kushmakov's BEST Life Builders training, Smith's GSD Mode coaching, Lambright's Grow Global resources and the broader technology, training and collaborative environment available through eXp Realty.
And increasingly, Lotte's focus isn't simply on what those resources can do for his own production.
It's about what happens when those resources are combined and made available to other agents.
From Generating Leads to Creating Opportunities
For years, Lotte's digital real estate strategy has focused heavily on generating consumer traffic and leads.
The next evolution is much more ambitious.
Rather than simply generating more leads, the objective is to build an end-to-end real estate conversion infrastructure:
Website Visitor → Internet Lead → Automated & Personal Nurturing → Engagement → Qualified Opportunity → Agent Introduction → Closing
That changes the question from:
“How many leads can we generate?”
to:
“How many real opportunities can we create for agents?”
For Lotte, that's the opportunity that makes returning to eXp exciting.
“If we can combine a large volume of internet leads with a great conversion system, then combine that with talented agents and world-class coaching, we've created something much more valuable than a database full of names and phone numbers,” Lotte said.
“We've created an engine.”
A New Chapter Begins
Effective August 31, 2026, Christopher Lotte is officially affiliated with eXp Realty in Ohio and will continue expanding his consumer-facing real estate platform, Local Real Estate Online.
At the same time, development and expansion of the eLead Referral Engine will become a major focus as Lotte begins integrating his existing digital lead-generation infrastructure with advanced nurturing and conversion systems.
Lotte also plans to expand the network of real estate professionals receiving qualified buyer and seller opportunities as the system grows — first throughout Ohio and, over time, into additional states through eXp Realty's national network of agents.
For agents considering eXp Realty, Lotte believes the question should extend beyond simply comparing brokerage fees, commission splits or technology.
It should also include the people, systems, opportunities and relationships an agent will have around them after they join.
“Real estate agents have more brokerage choices than ever before,” Lotte said. “There are plenty of companies where you can hang your license.”
“What I'm interested in building is something different — an environment where agents can have leads to work, systems to convert them, successful people to learn from, technology that makes them more efficient and the freedom to build the kind of real estate business they actually want.”
For Lotte, returning to eXp Realty isn't simply a return to a former brokerage.
It's the beginning of what he plans to build next.
Interested in Learning More About Joining eXp Realty?
Real estate professionals who would like to learn more about why Lotte returned to eXp Realty, the coaching and training resources available within his network, the eLead Referral Engine, sponsorship and co-sponsorship opportunities, and how the overall eXp model can support an agent's business can visit:
The page will provide a deeper look at the programs, tools, training, lead opportunities and relationships available to agents who are considering making a move.
Agents can also learn more about Lotte's real estate business, digital marketing platform and consumer resources at LocalRealEstateOnline.com.
About Christopher Lotte
Christopher Lotte is a Central Ohio real estate professional specializing in digital real estate marketing, internet lead generation, search engine optimization and new home construction.
Through Local Real Estate Online, Lotte has developed an extensive online real estate platform designed to connect home buyers and sellers with property listings, local market information, new construction opportunities and qualified real estate professionals.
In 2026, Lotte returned to eXp Realty with a renewed focus on combining large-scale internet lead generation, sophisticated lead nurturing, agent coaching and referral opportunities through the development of the eLead Referral Engine.
About the eLead Referral Engine
The eLead Referral Engine is a real estate lead nurturing and referral initiative being developed by Christopher Lotte to transform internet-generated buyer and seller inquiries into qualified opportunities for participating real estate professionals.
Built around the concept “Our Leads. Your Closings.”, the system combines digital lead generation, long-term nurturing, automated follow-up and human engagement with the goal of connecting consumers with real estate professionals when they are ready to take the next step in their real estate journey.
The long-term vision is to build a referral network extending beyond Ohio by developing relationships with qualified real estate professionals in other states through eXp Realty's national brokerage network.
About eXp Realty
eXp Realty is a national and global cloud-based real estate brokerage and a core subsidiary of eXp World Holdings, Inc. The company provides real estate professionals with a virtual brokerage environment along with technology, education, training and collaborative opportunities designed to support agent growth.
Its broad geographic footprint also allows agents to develop referral and professional relationships across state lines, creating opportunities for collaboration well beyond an individual agent's local market.
Performance & Program Disclaimer
Production figures and biographical information attributed to individuals in this announcement are based on publicly available biographies or information provided by the individuals and their organizations. Lead-conversion percentages referenced in connection with specific systems reflect reported historical performance in certain applications and are not guarantees of future results. The 10%–20% qualified-referral conversion range discussed for the eLead Referral Engine represents a program objective and not guaranteed performance. Individual results will vary based on market conditions, lead source, consumer behavior, agent experience, follow-up and other factors.
Programs, training, referral opportunities, sponsorship relationships, co-sponsorship eligibility and other resources described in this announcement may be subject to separate requirements, terms and eXp Realty policies and may change over time.
