Welcome everyone to my podcast, All Things Real Estate with Rochelle. I am your host, Rochelle Hotton. My gosh, get ready to have your minds blown because today we have with us the visionary who is revolutionizing the real estate industry. He is the co-founder and CEO of Real Broker, the fastest growing tech-powered cloud-based brokerage that is changing everything for real estate agents with innovation and an agent-first focus. He is leading a publicly traded powerhouse, a real estate technology platform that is spearheading its way to greatness. Welcome to the one, the only Tamir Poleg. Thanks for joining.
Thank you for having me. Excited to be here and thank everybody for watching.
You bet. Well, let's get started with a series of questions to find out a little bit more about Tamir and Real Broker. So, where did the name Real Broker come from to begin with?
It's funny. When we started the company, we actually named it Real Tikka because there was a huge gaming company called Playa and we didn't find a name, so we just named it Real Tikka. And then a few months later, we realized that the name is not great. And one of our investors had a group chat with a lot of other startup founders and he just floated the idea or the question, who can come up with a name for an innovative real estate technology brokerage that is non-brick and mortar? And a lot of ideas came up and somebody just said, why don't you call it Real? And it really resonated with everybody. So it's that person who's also a founder of a tech company and I see him every now and then and we owe him the respect of mentioning him.
Awesome. So what sparked your initial interest in real estate? Have you always been in real estate or what is your background and what led you to real estate?
Yeah, actually real estate was my first job I would say. Even at high school, I think I was 15 and during summer vacation, a neighbor was building like a walkway to his home and he needed help. So he gave me the job and then a year later I was building a pool in some village in Israel again on summer vacations. This is how I started and then I completed my military service and immediately went to construction. So I worked in construction for two and a half years and then got a degree in economics and joined a startup and then went back to real estate investment in Houston. So I was around real estate my entire life and I don't know where it came from. I think that you know and you probably can also attest to that once that real estate virus is in your veins it doesn't go out like it's that's it. So I'm one of those people that are just addicted to real estate.
So, Real Broker itself has been growing exponentially. What do you think? What do you attribute that success to?
It's a good question and we often ask our agents, why did you join Real? And we receive different kind of answers. The freedom, flexibility, the technology, the model, the economics. For me, there are a lot of brokerages out there and a lot of great offerings and I think that agents are fortunate to have choice. And I think that if I had to kind of put my finger on a secret sauce, it would be the culture and the community that we built because it's very difficult to explain what the culture is about, but once you step into a room filled with real agents, you just feel it. You feel the love, you feel the camaraderie, you feel the support, you feel at home. And this is something that cannot be explained in words, but I think that that's our secret sauce.
I will have to say at the Rise convention and I always want to call it the Rise concert. So forgive me if I say that because there was so much energy you know at that convention. I have to tell on myself a little bit. You were up on stage and you know talking and you came down and you literally stood like 2 feet from me and so I'm trying to be sneaky and I take this picture of you and you look over at me and you wave. I love the fact that you guys are so accessible to everyone. You were out in the middle talking to everyone, having conversations. You weren't being whisked away, you know, in a back door or anything like that. You are truly a part of the real culture.
Yeah, we're all one big family. And I think you need to understand how we and when I say we, I mean the executives or corporate or anybody working as an employee at Real, we view ourselves as working for our agents. So for me being there with our agents, it means that I'm there with the people that actually hired me to do the job, people who trusted me, people that I serve every day. So obviously it's only natural that we immerse ourselves in that community as well.
I'm really surprised that almost everything the innovations I've heard people talk about the 130 plus engineers that are working for real broker and just the technology the advantages that we get for free you know hey Leo and the Hale Leo for clients that is coming out what where did you get those ideas I mean where does that come from it's mind-blowing
So a lot of ideas are just coming from our agents. I think that what separates us is a deep understanding of our agents businesses and our agents day-to-day and also the hearts and minds of agents. So, it's not enough to just understand the tasks that agents are performing. It's also important to understand how agents feel and how they operate and when are they motivated and what makes them demotivated. So, I think that we have a really good understanding of that and at the same time we have an amazing understanding of what technology can do and the fact especially when you're talking about AI. So I think that when we're talking about specific products or features, it's usually Pesh and myself, Pesh, our amazing CTO, my partner and myself that are coming up with ideas and we try to push ourselves to the limits like come up with crazy things that nobody has done before, nobody has thought about and then we start bouncing those ideas off each other. We meet a couple of times a year just in a room somewhere. Sometimes in Europe, we go to a certain city in Europe and we sit for two, three days together with another person from our dev team, Andre, and it's just magic that happens just because we are able to disconnect from the day-to-day and think about our business and our agents in a little bit of a different perspective. I would say innovation is coming from all of this together.
And do you feel like that's in kind of a constant progress that you're thinking of something different all the time trying to keep moving forward with that further innovation?
Sure. I mean the world would be a sad place if there was a limit to innovation if we kind of settled on okay this is where technology can lead us and this is where it stops. I'm super excited to see what the next 10 and 20 years will look like. I'm excited to see what we will come up with in the next 5, 10, 20 years because I think that the world is coming to a point where the pace of execution on technology is getting very rapid. You can bring up ideas very quickly figure out if they work or they don't work and also AI enables you to dream much much bigger. So, Pesh about a week ago sat down over the weekend and he played with a tool that is related to AI and within a day or a day and a half, he put something in my hands that was just mind-blowing. You know, a way to kind of interact with an AI agent that was just when you try this and you try to implement this in real life, you understand that the future is going to look very different. And I know that real estate is very slow to adopt technology and pushing back on innovation. But every time I think about innovation, I think about my kids that are now teenagers and I'm trying to imagine what kind of experience will they require when they come to buy or sell their first home. What's missing for them? What kind of processes will they enjoy and which processes they will not put up with? So I think that innovation is something that you should never say okay that's enough like we've built enough and now from now on we're just going to operate the business.
When Pesh was premiering all of that at the Rise convention you know I was just blown away by the conversation that he was having even premiering that on stage I was more surprised when I saw him later at the Hard Rock Cafe you know doing some dance moves I wasn't expecting that was awesome. I loved seeing that of him. He's by far the best dancer in the company.
He's got some moves. I will give him that.
And by the way, it's extremely rare to have an amazing CTO who's an amazing dancer. I think that he's number one in the industry in both.
I would agree. Being such an engineer and that engineering personality, the two don't usually combine, but I will say he's top-notch for both.
What do you think is the most surprising lesson that you've learned scaling this billion-dollar company?
It's a good question. I think that when we started this journey back in 2014, I thought things will move much faster. And I think that what I learned is that in this business, in our industry, change happens slowly, very slowly. And I'm not saying it's good or bad, but it's not what I expected. It's not what I kind of painted maybe to investors at the beginning, mainly to myself. I thought that within 3, 4 years, we'll get to a certain point. and it took us much longer. So I think that anyone coming into real estate with a technological idea or some sort of an innovation, they need to be prepared for the fact that things just happen very slowly in real estate.
Are you surprised? Are you finding that anybody is trying to imitate that technology now? Like I know you premiered Haleo at the Rise Convention. Are you seeing others trying to jump on that a little bit?
Well, I'll start by saying that if anyone imitates you, that should be a compliment. But to be honest, I'm not looking at anyone. I'm not spending even a minute of my day looking at what others are doing, whether they're following us or not following us, whether they're, you know, a certain position compared to us. I just don't care. I truly believe in our vision and in our own path. I think that there's a lot of room in this industry for a lot of successful companies and I wish everybody a lot of success even companies that are considered competitors I want them to succeed. I think that if they succeed it means that we succeed as well. So I'm not spending time on what others are doing. I'm just spending time on what we can control and our execution.
I have noticed you know even in the collaboration aspects meetings and you know things that classes that are being taught you know invite everybody. It's not just for real brokers. It is probably the most, not probably, it is the most collaborative company that I've ever worked for. I've been in the industry since 2003. And typically when you walk into rooms like that, there's people that are trying to, you know, hide their industry gold and I can be online with Kofi and he is telling you everything to make your luxury business the most profitable. The, you know, helping you with your marketing and all of that. I really think we're fortunate to have such a stellar team leading so much of Real Broker for us
And you know Kofi and others in this company understand that if you're confident about your value, you're not afraid of competition. You're not afraid of others imitating what you're doing or copying what you're doing. You just know what you're worth and you know that you will win. And I think that that's the mindset of a lot of people at Real.
You have been vocal about agents being underserved. What's one thing that you feel maybe other brokerages are fundamentally missing at this point? Anything?
Again, I think that there are great companies out there. I think that the mindset should shift. For many many years when we started the company and we looked at the landscape and we talked to agents and asked them what are you missing and what's your relationship with your broker or your brokerage. I think that for many many years brokerages looked at agents as a commodity. They can come, they can go. We don't care too much because agents need us just because of that regulatory requirement that agents place their license under a license of a brokerage, which by the way is something that does not exist in the majority of countries in the world. It exists in the US. So agents needed brokerages or needed a broker of record. And that cultivated some sort of a culture of dependency. And a lot of companies just took advantage and said, you know, agents they need us. They're here. They're a commodity. We don't care if they go. And I think that this is starting to change. It started to change. And I think we're now at a point where agents hold power. The reason why I said agents were underserved is because a lot of brokerages just failed at understanding what type of value they need to provide their agents. And value comes in different shapes and sizes. It's not only the technology or the support or the tools. It's a lot of other things that create an opportunity for agents to build a long-lasting and successful business on this platform that is called a brokerage. And a lot of brokerages are just missing the fact that they're essentially a platform for agents to build their businesses on.
I teach a marketing and branding class for the state of Montana, a continuing education for the state. And I went down the rabbit hole looking, you know, for what's new with marketing. And that's how I ended up finding real brokers. There is data out there that suggests within the next, you know, 5 years, as many as 80 to 90% of agents could be affiliated or partnered with a cloud brokerage. You know, people are ordering groceries on their phone. Everything is happening in the palm of your hand. And even as I have agents who are exploring joining Real Broker, one of the first things that they'll say is, 'Well, you know, I need an office to do my business in.' And interestingly enough, anytime I ever go into the office to meet with somebody, the offices are completely vacant. You know, it doesn't matter if it's an 80 agent office or a five agent office, conference rooms, beautiful conference rooms, and nobody's there. So I think I'm seeing, you know, the writing on the wall even with people who are investigating and looking at Real Broker saying, you know, it kind of makes sense. So I love that, you know, that possibility. I feel more connected with the agents in Real Broker than I ever have at a brick and mortar. I can log in, talk to you. I can log into a master's class. I can log in and learn techniques that maybe you wouldn't find in the state that you reside in. So, it's really an incredible opportunity. What is
First of all, thank you very much for everything that you're doing for the industry on the board level and the N level. My 14-year-old is in front of his computer the entire day. He comes back from school, he's on his computer and you know, every few days I'm just telling him, 'Why don't you go out? Why don't you meet your friends?' And I get the same answer every time. But, Dad, I am meeting my friends. They're here. we're playing. And I think that this is something that we older people, we don't get. We don't understand the future generation of consumers and the future generation of agents. We expect them to live a life or grow up the way we did and we think that they will need the same things that we need today. But it's wrong. And I'm pretty sure that you know in a decade or two decades or maybe less the majority of agents as you said in this country will be affiliated with companies that do not necessarily offer office space because there are other ways to connect. There are other ways to learn. There are other ways to get support. There are other ways to form relationships. And somebody at the end of the day has to pay for that office space. Somebody has to pay for that receptionist. Somebody has to pay for that person who takes this paper from this room to the other room. It's the agents that pay for it.
And at some point, agents will just cease to agree to pay for those things.
What is a day in the life of Tamir Poleg? What do you do? What does your day look like? I'm sure it starts very early and ends very late, but
I have a boring life. So, I live in Israel. I travel back and forth, US and Israel, but you know, my family is here and I live here. And that means that I'm 7 hours ahead of Eastern time zone. So I have two young kids. They're 3 and six. And I need to wake up in the morning, get them ready, take them to preschool. So I wake up typically at 6:00 a.m., which is equivalent to 11:00 p.m. Eastern and then, you know, get the kids ready, drop them off, and then I either run or bike for an hour. Before that, as I wake up in the morning, I go through all of my Slack messages, all of my emails, everything that's urgent. And then when I'm back from running or biking, I typically sit down again on my laptop. It's around 10:30, 11:00 a.m. my time, 3, 4:00 a.m. Eastern. And then my Zoom cycle starts around 3:00 p.m. which is 8:00 a.m. Eastern. And then I go till 11 p.m. which is 4:00 p.m. Eastern and then go to sleep around midnight my time.
So you mentioned you're a runner. I'm a runner. I have done half marathons. I've even completed a marathon. So
Yeah. What do you run? Do you run distances or run for fun?
I do typically something in the range of 5 to 10k. So I run three times a week and I bike about 15 miles each time, twice a week. I am looking into doing my first marathon. I just turned 50 a couple of weeks ago and a friend of mine floated the idea of there's a marathon in France where it's a natural marathon but along the way you're running through vineyards and along the way there are 21 stops and in those stops you drink wine local wine you eat steaks and then you continue the marathon and everybody is dressed up there's like a theme there are costumes so it's kind of a funny experience but at the same time you are completing a marathon and it happens in September and we might do that this year. So I might be doing my first marathon this year.
Well, I encourage it wholeheartedly. Only 1% of the world's population runs and finishes a marathon. So if you finish a marathon, your name will be in the marathon book for the rest of its existence. So you will enter the 1%.
I would have thought that the percentage is lower than 1%, but
I've run several half marathons. My husband runs has run multiple marathons. He's a triathlete. He's Norwegian. He's a Viking. He can get up any hill. And one of my best lessons in life was at a marathon in Bozeman, Montana, where it's a pretty hilly course there. And I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. And it was just a half marathon that I was running. He was doing the marathon. And I sort of got emotional. It was a very hilly course. And I thought, you know, I'm not going to make it. And he said, 'Don't you know how to run a hill?' And I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'You got to pull your hat down and you look 10 feet in front of you. Never further than 10 feet in front of you because if you look at the top of the hill, it's going to overwhelm you and you're going to think that hill is too steep.' So that little lesson has changed my entire life. I think of it in life circumstances and in running. And when you cross that finish line of a marathon, nothing like it. I don't know you're just it's an overwhelming feeling that your body is capable of that kind of mileage in that distance. So I'll be cheering for you if you do it. I think that's awesome.
I think that it's more about your mind than your body.
It's the resilience or perseverance.
Yeah. And I will say, you know, if you work up to it, if you train well, it's in one way harder than you ever thought it would be and in another way easier than you thought it would be. I was very fortunate. I don't have knee injuries or anything that, you know, caused the marathon to be more difficult than just enduring 26.2 miles, but it's really a life-changing experience. I'm so glad that I did it. So, what was your childhood like? You said you grew up in Israel.
Yeah, I grew up in Israel. Israel is a tiny country in the Middle East. My dad was in the military, so he wasn't home too much. I have a sister and a brother. Really simple childhood. We were outside all day, no phones, obviously, just playing a lot of soccer, just enjoying. We were living in like a small building where we were on the ground floor and then my cousins, my uncle was living just above us. So we were living like one big family, one big happy family. So I was very close with their family and I don't know just a very simple childhood. At some point actually my dad was sent I mean the entire family was sent to Paris, France by the Israeli army because my dad was studying there. So we spent two and a half years in Paris when I was between the age of 9 and 11 or 9 and 12. And that was a magical experience, you know, living in Europe, living in Paris, which I think is the most beautiful city in the world, the most romantic city in the world. Obviously, when you're nine, you don't think about romance. Just being in that French culture and just having my dad at home every day, which was, you know, a new experience for me. But yeah, it was a great childhood. I loved every moment of it. I just came back from a trip to Sri Lanka with 30 of my childhood friends for my 50th birthday. So I'm still very connected to everybody that I grew up with. And it's also Israel is a small country.
Happy belated birthday, by the way, too.
Thank you. Unlike the US, you don't graduate high school and then go to college in a different state or, you know, a thousand miles away from home. Here, the furthest you can live from where you grew up is maybe 50 miles. And that's considered very far. So it's very easy to stay in touch with your family and with your friends.
Now in Israel, men have to do a military service. Isn't that right?
And women. So men serve three years and women serve two years. And the service starts as soon as you graduate high school. So you graduate high school within either a couple of weeks or a couple of months. You join the military.
How many languages do you speak from living in Israel, France?
Yeah. So, I speak Hebrew, English, and French, and I speak a little bit of Arabic as well.
What has been your most rewarding moment so far building Real?
There are a lot of small moments along the way. So, I never stop and, you know, tap myself on the back and say, 'Hey, you know, you've done well.' It's not who I am. I think that the rewarding moments are coming from external feedback and not external feedback of you know Real is amazing. I remember a moment in Rise 4 where a lady came to me in one of the sessions or after a session and she said I have to share a story and she just started crying and she told me about some health problems that she had and how the equity that she had in the company helped her pay and get through that. Another story again with a lady that told me how she was able to put her son through college because of what Real enabled her. So I think that those kind of stories are the rewarding moments. There's one additional rewarding moment is I brought my parents for the bell ringing on NASDAQ and just the thought of you know it's a simple couple from Israel. My dad was born in Romania. He grew up without a dad. He was a really hardworking person. My mom as well and just being there on kind of the top of the capitalistic world and ringing the bell. I think that that was a moment where I felt happy for them. I was happy that I was able to offer that kind of experience to them. But at the end of the day, you know, we wake up in the morning, we go to sleep at night with our challenges, with the things that we have to fix, with problems that we have in the business. I don't think that there are a lot of moments where you stop and feel proud about what is being built, what you built, what I mean, whatever you contributed to what's happening here. So, it's just the human moments that I feel proud about.
What was your parents reaction to being there ringing the bell?
I mean, they were ecstatic. They were happy. Obviously, my brother and sister were there as well. I don't think that in the moment I understood how they felt. I think that it was afterwards when you know over a period of few months I saw them sharing pictures with their friends and telling stories and just reminiscing is that the word
