Todd Walters’ story of starting with a brief venture into the pizza franchise business and rising to become a millionaire agent is something that can be called the ultimate turnaround tale. And it is going to help professionals understand how innovation over convention creates pathways to sustainable growth.
At 19, he dropped out of college, borrowed $50,000 from his grandmother, and bought a pizza delivery franchise. Three years later, he was bankrupt and forced to sell his home in a flash sale to avoid foreclosure. That failure pushed him to earn his real estate license at 22, where he started out grinding and struggling like most new agents. Convinced he could do better, he traveled to Michigan to shadow the only U.S. agent at the time earning $1 million annually. The lessons he learned, all counter to traditional broker wisdom, helped him rise quickly, scaling to 500 home sales a year and breaking into the global top 10 at RE/MAX.
Todd eventually left RE/MAX to launch his own brokerage, building a model that delegated appointments rather than leads. The system generated $1million in NET income for every $3 Million in gross revenue without requiring him to stay in production. He sold the company in 2009, proving skeptics wrong who said such a deal couldn’t be done.
“From the beginning, I knew the industry was broken,” Todd says. Agents were overworked, underpaid, and caught in unpredictable cycles, while consumers shifted to searching online instead of calling numbers on signs. He adds, “I committed not to have a ‘job’ in real estate, but a real business.” That insight pushed him to launch Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty (YHSGR), a brand built on the promise of certainty. Through systems and models, he scaled to over 10,000 transactions and today leads nearly 100 YHSGR locations across North America. His mission is clear: help agents stop being transaction chasers and start being business owners with freedom, wealth, and impact.
A Name That Delivers Certainty
CEO Todd believes his company’s name, Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, is more than branding. It is an evident and uncompromising promise.
For clients, it cuts through the uncertainty of the housing market by assuring them their home will sell.
For agents, it sets a daily standard of excellence, reminding them that the business is built on service at the highest level. That clarity of purpose attracts both clients who want results and ambitious professionals eager to belong to something larger than a typical brokerage.
Such conviction proved why Todd is one of ‘The 10 Business Minds Defining the Next Era of Leadership, 2025.’ This recognition is a celebration of his journey from reinvention to industry leadership, and we applaud the mark he continues to set for ambitious business leaders worldwide.
The Power of Systems Over Hustle
Todd points out confidently when asked about the secret behind scaling thousands of transactions. “Systems beat talent every time,” he explains. Initially, hustle was enough to carry a deal or two each month. But when the numbers grew into the hundreds, effort alone quickly hit its limits. What made the difference was creating systems that produced reliable results, no matter who executed them.
For Todd, the real leadership lesson is to move beyond dependence on individual stars and instead design an environment where everyone can succeed. By putting proven models in place and coaching his people to follow them, he unlocked consistency at scale. That commitment to structure over hustle has been the foundation of his growth and the reason agents under his leadership learn how to build businesses that endure.
From Agents to Entrepreneurs
His role can’t be described as managing agents. As Todd demonstrates, “Traditional leaders manage agents. I coach business owners.” For him, the old model of recruiting as many people as possible and hoping a few survive was broken from the start. He lived through that environment initially in his career and saw personally how little support it offered.
At YHSGR, the focus is different. The trailblazing CEO built a culture where agents are equipped with systems, tools, and coaching to grow beyond themselves. They are taught how to earn more while working fewer hours and how to build businesses that hold value even when they step away. What he offers is not management but transformation, a pathway for professionals to stop thinking like salespeople and start prospering as entrepreneurs.
The Heart Behind “Go Serve Big”
“Business isn’t just about money — it’s about impact,” Todd remarks with the sharp certainty of a man who has turned failure into fuel. That belief sparked Go Serve Big, a mission born from the idea that when you put others first, you will never be second.
At Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, giving is woven into the fabric of the company. Every client served means a contribution to causes that matter, from children’s hospitals to active and inactive military and first responder charities. It is not a side project but a cultural foundation. For Todd, the real reward is watching his agents find purpose beyond commissions. They see that their work is not only helping families buy and sell homes but also touching lives in the communities they serve. It’s that stronger sense of “why” that turned the business from transactions into something significant.
Building a Culture of Purpose and Performance
Besides hoping for a great culture, Todd nurtures it with intention. It all starts with a simple, non-negotiable set-up. Every office, every team, is on the same page without any confusion or mixed messages. The mission is Go Serve Big. The model is Built to Sell. And the scoreboard? A comprehensible set of KPIs that keeps everyone laser-focused on progress. That structure builds consistency across the company.
Yet rules alone do not create culture. Todd knows that an authentic culture comes alive through belief. His teams don’t just work together; they celebrate wins, share powerful stories of impact, and define success as more than just a paycheck. It’s about influence and making a real difference in people’s lives.
When agents feel like they’re part of something bigger, their performance skyrockets. For Todd, that sense of belonging and shared purpose is what transforms a business into a movement.
Leading Through the Lens of a Coach
He was a leader in training long before he had a team. During his formative years, Todd was on the receiving end of powerful coaching that transformed his entire outlook. Mentors helped him see bigger possibilities, act with speed, and sidestep avoidable missteps. That experience left a mark.
So when the time came to lead others, he knew he didn’t want to be just another manager. He wanted to be a coach. Coaching to him has never been about giving orders but about asking sharper questions, creating accountability, and centering everything on growth.
This philosophy underpins his leadership style to date. Todd concentrates on setting a compelling vision, providing a system that works, and then holding people accountable not just to tasks, but to their potential.
Building Certainty in an Uncertain Market
This industry feels that most real estate brands miss the mark because they fail to answer the one question that matters most to clients: How will this brand solve my problem? He built YHSGR on the principle that people are not just buying property; they are buying confidence.
From the very beginning, Todd zeroed in on a particular “seller with a home to sell and buy another.” This group, he realized, represented proper leverage, with multiple transactions and the chance to deliver maximum value. By structuring the company’s model around their needs, he created a structure that could scale with precision.
For buyers and sellers, YHSGR’s guarantees remove hesitation and fear, offering peace of mind in one of life’s most significant financial decisions. For agents, the firm provides something equally powerful, like systems and coaching that transform their careers.
“Most brokerages sell houses,” Todd underlines. “We build futures. People move to make their lives better. At YHSGR, we exist to elevate lifestyles.”
What truly sets this firm apart, he adds, is the ability to offer brokers and agents a roadmap unlike any other. “Follow this plan, and you can net $1 million on $3 million gross — without having to sell a single home yourself.” It is a promise rooted in certainty, and certainty is what people are ultimately looking for.
A Vision Beyond the Horizon
Every transformative company begins with a leader who sees further than the rest. Just as iconic CEOs map out bold futures for their organizations, Todd has charted an ambitious path for YHSGR. His sights are set on growing the firm to 1,000 broker-owners and 20,000 agents, serving millions of clients while lifting the benchmark for how real estate businesses operate. Behind the scenes, he has already begun consolidating locations to prepare the company for an eventual IPO.
Todd’s view is not limited to his own enterprise. He predicts that the era of the lone hustling agent is drawing to a close. In its place will rise professional teams powered by systems and structure. The industry will contract in numbers, yet those who remain will embody the mindset of true business owners, leading with discipline and purpose. For Todd, the future is not just about scale, but about reengineering real estate at its core.
Trust as the Core of Personal Branding
In every industry, but especially in real estate, reputation precedes the professional. Clients rarely choose an agent based on a business card alone; they choose the person they feel they can trust.
Todd built his brand on that principle. Eventually, he leaned into what he calls ‘risk reversal’ by putting guarantees in writing and delivering on them. That consistent follow-through became his signature, and in time, trust turned into the essence of his brand.
He now urges his team to adopt the same approach. Agents are encouraged to make bold promises and then exceed them. To help them shine, YHSGR provides its people with tailored marketing assets, dynamic social media strategies, and structured guarantees. Using these tools, agents are positioned as trusted advisors who can stand the test of client expectations. For Todd, the formula is simple yet powerful. In real estate, trust is currency that truly matters.
A Legacy Beyond the Sale
Impact is what keeps this industry veteran moving forward. He’s built companies and sold homes, but when asked about the legacy he hopes to leave, his answer has little to do with business transactions. Instead, he speaks about people.
Driven by a lifelong desire to help people, that philosophy has guided his entire career. He wants to be remembered not as a real estate mogul, but as a mentor who helped agents build stronger businesses, live better lives, and give more to others.
He doesn’t define achievement narrowly by titles or milestones. It’s about a ripple effect that multiplies through others. “If my legacy is a generation of leaders who are wealthy, fulfilled, and generous,” he says, “I’ve succeeded.”
Redefining Success
When Todd started, success was simple. It meant earning money and finally leaving his father-in-law’s basement.
Now, success carries a different weight. Todd doesn’t box it into a single definition. Rather, it is found in creating freedom for others. It’s guiding an agent from burnout to balance. He finds it in helping families move into their dream homes and supporting communities through Go Serve Big.
Over time, for Todd, success shifted from “me” to “we.”
The Habits That Influenced a Professional Journey
Todd credits three mindsets that have defined how he approaches both business and life. First, he believes in thinking bigger than one’s current circumstances. He insists that where one is today does not dictate where one can go tomorrow. Second, he prioritizes systems over hustle. For Todd, a true business runs independently. If it depends entirely on one person, it is not yet a business. Finally, he lives by a simple principle of serve first. He firmly believes success naturally follows when concentration is on solving problems and adding value for others.
Passing the Torch
Leaders who have walked the path often realize that their real mark isn’t in the deals they closed or the offices they built, but in the people they nurtured. This is the philosophy that guides Todd throughout.
“Don’t just build a business. Build people,” he advises to real estate future leaders. He’s seen markets rise and fall, and businesses transform over time. But he’s also witnessed that when one invests in the team, the clients, and the community, the impact multiplies far beyond what any one person could achieve alone.
Todd is someone who, after years of shaping their businesses, deliberately steps back to give the next generation room to grow with wisdom earned the hard way.
