All right. Hello, I'm John Featherston, founder and CEO of RIS Media, and welcome to RIS Media's Industry Briefing. We are in the midst of one of the most significant periods of consolidation the real estate industry has ever seen, and there's still 6 months left of this incredible year to capitalize on this wave of change and incredible opportunity, and you'll hear a bit about that in a few minutes. These are remarkably challenging times in real estate. A quick thank you before we start to the incredible broker owners and brand executives and MLS leaders, AI technology innovators, and top leaders and association professionals from across the nation who are already registered for RIS Media's 38th annual CEO and Leadership Exchange, which is being held in Washington D.C. September 30th to October 2nd. RIS Media is the independent educational networking organization, and this is an event that's invaluable, and I'd love to have you join us in Washington during our nation's 250th anniversary. And yes, we have some fun special events awaiting for you. So, review the agenda, reserve your seat today. You won't want to miss it.
Now, today's real estate industry briefing covers the incredible blockbuster industry-shaping acquisition of RE/MAX Holdings, the firm co-founded in 1973 by the industry icon and long-time personal friends of mine, Dave and Gail Liniger. With a global network of more than 145,000 agents operating in approximately 8,500 offices, 120 different countries and territories worldwide, an incredible organization. It was acquired by the Real Brokerage, a cloud-based, technology-driven brokerage firm with more than 34,000 agents operating entirely without traditional physical office overhead that was founded in June of 2014. With approximately 180,000 agents, let's find out more about what to expect from the leaders who made this happen. We're live right now with Tamir Poleg, the chairman and CEO of Real, and Eric Carlson, the CEO of RE/MAX Holdings, to discuss this historic merger. Welcome, Tamir, and welcome, Eric.
Thank you, John. Excited to be here.
Well, I'm glad you're here, too. Right now, we're joined by our RIS Media subscribers, who, by the way, are some of the most sharp, intellectually incredible real estate professionals on the planet, representing RE/MAX and Real and virtually every other brand and business model in the industry, and they're all looking in right now to find out what your acquisition means to the future of our industry. So, let's get started. First to Tamir, what was the primary driver of the merger?
This acquisition, and actually it's more of a merger because we are joining forces with RE/MAX, and I think that works creating an amazing partnership here. So, I would say that this is a merger. This is an important step in our journey to build a technology platform that empowers real estate professionals and improve the consumer experience in the industry. And I think that the timing is interesting because Real has grown to about 34,000 agents, more than 34,000 agents, organically. And I think that what we demonstrated, especially to ourselves, is that our technology can make agents' operations more efficient. And when we're thinking about RE/MAX and the global brand and this iconic brand actually and the global footprint and the scale that they have, I think that from a timing perspective we felt confident bringing what we built, mainly the technology and obviously the amazing community of agents, to RE/MAX and say hey we think that by combining the two companies, by joining forces, we can create a more compelling story, a more compelling story for RE/MAX brokers and agents, for Real agents as well, and for the entire industry. And the timing was just right and this is why we decided to move forward. Obviously I've known Eric for a few years now and I've always admired what RE/MAX built and Eric's work and accomplishments with the team. We had a lot of respect for everything that they built and we just thought that this is the right combination for us.
Great. Eric, would you like to add something to that?
I would just say John it's never a bad time to bring together a great partnership and I think the Real RE/MAX Group will be a great partnership and iconic brand, you know, a disruptor for 53 years, partnering with the absolute best technology in the space. But most importantly, and we'll likely talk about more of this later, but you know, it's a people business and the two cultures are really aligned and we have common purposes to provide great services and experiences for all of our customers whether that be buyers or sellers, agents or brokers. And so I think it's a great time for this partnership to come together.
That's great. Now Tamir, you said earlier this year that Real chose a different path from traditional firms in how it was built, saying that the platform is our destination. With the brokerage as a starting point, however, you apply this strategy to RE/MAX, do you believe that RE/MAX agents and brokers will be on board with this philosophy coming from a legacy firm?
You know, I was sitting in a restaurant in Miami a day after we announced the deal, and I was looking around. There were maybe 200 people there, and I just told myself that it's just amazing that I'm sure that if I just got up from my chair and asked, 'Who knows the name RE/MAX?' everybody will say yes. And I think that it's amazing that Real had what RE/MAX needed, and obviously RE/MAX had what Real needed in order to continue on its path. Now, yes, we look at Real as a platform, as a platform for real estate services, platform for agents and their clients as well. And I think that one thing that people are missing: people always talk about agent count. You know, the combined company will have 180,000 agents. They're missing the main point that RE/MAX has the most amazing agents in the world with the highest productivity. Whereas everybody else is at around six transactions per year, RE/MAX is at 12. So, we're not just joining forces with an amazing community of agents, we are bringing together a lot of transactions, and those transactions can be monetized in multiple ways. So, as I'm thinking about the combined company, obviously we think about a platform, we think about how do we monetize transactions in a better way, but more important, we're thinking about how can we help agents, brokers, franchisees monetize their businesses in multiple ways. And it doesn't have to only be commissions that they earn. They can make money from mortgage, from title, from financial services, from a variety of different things, which as a platform you can offer. As a brokerage, you only think about closing the deal and getting your commission. And I think that this is something that we've been hearing across the industry. We've been hearing from our agents. We've been hearing from folks at RE/MAX. This is something that everybody's looking for. How can they maximize their business potential? And by looking at the combined company as both a legacy brand that operates independently, but also a platform that they can tap into in terms of services, we can create more revenue opportunities for everybody in the network.
That's great. Eric, you told Adam Medler on a podcast back in April of 2025 that storytelling is a sales skill that won't go away even as AI advances. And boy, is it advancing. And especially in important times like this that we're in, incredible era of change. How will you tell the chapter of RE/MAX story speaking to your agents and brokers?
Well, look, if there was one public service announcement for folks out there that have kids that are worried about their future success and AI taking over everything, you know, the one commodity that won't be commoditized is your ability to communicate and build relationships and tell a story. And so, I tell my kids and I tell kids that I meet that, you know, make sure that you know, sales is a great technique founded in listening. And so, storytelling is one of the most important skills that won't go away in the future. This has been a heck of a story, John, for 53 years of RE/MAX. I know you like to say legacy. I refer to it as a heritage. RE/MAX has done incredible things over the last 53 years. And the last two and a half years, we've really reinvigorated not only the brand by modernizing it and making sure that it shows up in a digital way and a great digital way, but also relying on the linchpin of what Tamir referred to as just productivity and professionalism. And one of the great things about these two communities coming together is they're focused on the same thing. And that is being a productive full-time real estate professional and focusing on what buyers and sellers need and making sure that they're nurturing their sphere, they're getting referrals, but they're delivering ultimately the highest quality experience for their clients. And when you bring cultures like that together, you have a high degree of success. And look, I think the story will continue to be told about how both Real and RE/MAX come together and how the Real RE/MAX Group continues to make inroads not only in innovation, but in providing great client experience.
Well, there's no doubt that real estate professionals have great stories and great stories to tell, especially those that have created a local success for themselves, their brokerage firms, their personal businesses as agents. It's an incredible industry filled with great stories. Now, Eric, you're a huge fan of Steve Jobs. And you've admired his propensity for risk-taking and also moving fast. Do you believe that Real's rapid expansion and growth is a product of risk-taking specifically related to AI and tech?
Look, I'm a huge fan of Steve. I'm a huge fan of founders. I've worked for two. And obviously Tamir sitting here with us is an unbelievable founder of a great firm. You know, I think founders have like a persistence, a grit, just an ability to see around corners, and certainly take enormous risks. I would say that, you know, from a Jobs perspective, I always loved his focus on like the purpose, right? Making sure that he was delivering a great consumer experience. And I think what you find in the Real Brokerage and what you find in RE/MAX is kind of the same dedication from a founder perspective. And so, I would imagine that, I'm not going to speak for Tamir, he can speak for himself, but he's got a little risk, but he takes purposeful risks. It's one thing I've gotten to know about Tamir, he's very calculated, and he himself can see around a few corners.
Well, there's no doubt that Tamir has built a great organization, and took advantage of opportunities, and especially on the technological front. And with that, Tamir, if you'd like to comment on what Eric just said, but also, I'd like to add something else. Do you see opportunities ahead for RE/MAX to move faster and take potentially risks that they might not have done in the past for the future, especially AI?
Well, first of all, Eric, thank you for the kind words, and I was not aware that you're a Steve Jobs fan, so one more data point for me. I think that I'm just wired differently. My wife keeps saying that, you know, people don't sleep at night when there's risk involved in their lives, and I'm the opposite. I don't sleep well when there's no risk, and it doesn't mean that I'm a risk taker. It means that I like to view or look at things with a little different perspective. If you're crazy enough to start a company, you're probably crazy enough to look at the world through a different lens, and I think that this is what I'm trying to do. And this is what enabled Real to kind of grow to where it is today. In terms of AI, there are so many cliches right now as to what AI is going to do and how involved it's going to be in our lives, and everybody's saying that you're not going to be eliminated by AI, you're going to be eliminated by an agent who uses AI. I think that we're still at the very beginning of the AI revolution that's happening. And I'm not saying that RE/MAX should or shouldn't take more risks. What I am saying is that we should acknowledge the benefits that AI could bring to our agents' lives and buyers' and sellers' lives. And as a company that wants to be at the forefront of innovation, as a company that has responsibility to the lives of 180,000 agents and to millions of clients around the world, we should make sure that we deliver what they need in order to succeed, in order to win in the marketplace, in order to have a competitive advantage over everybody else. This is what we've been trying to do on the Real side, and this is what we will continue to do. If you call it a risk, you can call it a risk. I think that this combination just allows us to invest even more in innovation and particularly in AI.
And John, one of the things that Tamir and I really align on, and it comes back to culture, is like we both believe that this is really a people-driven business. It's a relationship business, but fully commit to the idea that technology can help these experiences. Not only from a productivity perspective, but just providing a better experience to buyers, sellers, clients, brokerages, agents, all those folks. And so, really it comes down to focusing on people, focusing on their understanding of what wants and needs are, and then applying technology in a way that improves the overall productivity and experience of the journey.
That's well said. Tamir, you focused on reducing agent churn with some success so far. How do you grow at such a rapid pace with Real that you've achieved in a short period of time without significant turnover?
Well, this is a high churn industry. We all know that. And I don't think that we were focused on reducing churn. We were focused on delivering value out of the understanding that if you deliver value and if you create an offering and a company and a platform that is very difficult to compete against, people will come here and stay here. And I think that this is what we're seeing. We're not necessarily trying to reduce churn. We're trying to continuously improve the value proposition for our agents out of the understanding that if we do so, then no other company will be able to give them anything more compelling. And I think that, you know, this is one of the reasons why we've grown and we've grown organically to 34,000 agents. We never made any acquisition up to this merger with RE/MAX, which is still pending. But I think that the focus is on value rather than, you know, we have to reduce churn at all cost. We think about it a little bit differently.
Yeah, you do think about things differently. Matter of fact, when I've talked about your firm and RE/MAX in the last few weeks, I've been alluding to what I think the great Apple advertising campaign of the '90s, Think Differently. An incredible campaign because you are thinking differently. However, we can all learn from lessons that we have learned in our industry, such as what you've learned from other companies who grew agent count exponentially but suffered tremendously in churn when they either didn't fulfill the promise or deliver the promise. Have you learned anything from those organizations?
I think that as a rule we're trying not to look at what others are doing and we try to focus on our own vision, our own path, and just execution. If you're asking me to analyze what happened to other firms, I don't want to say anything negative about anybody else. I would say what we try to do and maybe it's working well. We were focused not only on business model innovation, we were focused on true tech innovation. Out of the understanding that using technology, you will never run out of innovation. It's not like you're introducing a new model and you get the early adopters and they come in and at some point, okay, where's the additional value? Because people need something new all the time. You need to constantly try and deliver more and more and more. And I think that that's kind of the philosophy that we have here at Real. We're never stagnant, we're never satisfied with what we're offering, we're always trying to do new things. We always have a very long-term view of the business. We're thinking about what people will need in 5 and 10 years. This is what I'm focusing on. And we're trying to constantly build. So, we never stop and maybe that gives you an answer as to other companies.
It does. So, with that, Tamir, you've invested heavily in AI. And I can tell you that there isn't a company in real estate that doesn't say that they're investing heavily in AI of some sort. If they're not, they're not going to be in this industry for long. But you've been heavily invested in AI including the Halo platform for consumers, which is still in beta. As consumers have shown their wariness around some AI, how are you building that platform in a way that benefits the agents and builds trust with the brand and hopefully their customers?
We introduced Leo, our AI assistant, almost 2 years ago. So very early days of the AI transformation. And the way we think about AI is, let's say, three main buckets. One is brokerage. How can we become a much more efficient brokerage by implementing AI? And currently Leo, last quarter Leo was engaged in about 100,000 agent communications. So Leo is answering about 50% of our support tickets. I think that if you think about a RE/MAX broker and a RE/MAX office, just think about the benefit of having Leo take over all of the back office operation and free up the broker's time to do sales training, to do agent attraction activities. It could be transformational for any business. So Leo is now reviewing contracts. Leo is answering support calls. Leo is kind of the main interface for agents when they're seeking something.
That's one bucket. The second bucket is agent-facing. When an agent needs something, they have an assistant and that assistant continuously learns their processes, how they speak, how they communicate, their marketing materials. And Leo will get to the point where it will be so intuitive in the way agents use it. Agents can talk to Leo. Agents can chat with Leo. And Leo will become that trusted partner that every agent has at Real and it's already at work. Now, the third bucket is anything consumer-facing. And you mentioned Hey Leo. Hey Leo is something that we launched. It's still in beta, but every agent at Real within a couple of weeks will have a dedicated phone number that is powered by Leo. And Leo will be able to guide buyers, for example, from the initial thinking about buying a home to understanding their needs, what's important for them, which neighborhoods they're looking at, their budgets, getting them pre-qualified for a mortgage, scheduling showings for them. Leo will do all of that. So, at the end of the day, we think that AI can make agents extremely more productive. And as Eric said, it's all about the relationships. We want our agents to focus on relationships and we can help them using AI with all of the tasks that are either repetitive or can be handled by somebody else, which is not them. And I think that at the end of the day, if RE/MAX agents right now close 12 transactions a year, we can double or triple that using the right technology that is AI-based.
So, Tamir, just review a little bit. Right now the AI component is answering about 50% of the questions coming into an agent?
50% of our support calls as a brokerage. So, when agents need support, when they need anything from their brokers, 50% of the tickets are resolved by Leo. Almost 100% is initially answered by Leo, and then Leo decides whether it can actually resolve it on its own or it needs to be directed into a human.
